Re: Using pgsql to archive e-mail

> Well, with  the next version having  toast, what about parsing  the email
> and
> storing the body as TEXT?

 Actually,  email  message  should  be  parsed  anyway,  at  least  headers
separated from the body. In most cases it's not enough and one has to store
the headers parsed into separate tuples etc etc.
 TOAST is a  splendid endeavour, but there were huge  archives before, when
we didn't have technology like that  at hand. It takes a significant burden
off developer's  shoulders, but  it can't stop  the preservation  law. This
burden is placed on your server, both hardware and software parts.
 In brief,  the strategy here  depends on  usage pattern. We  can't predict
maximal length of message body, so we have to decide beforehand, what parts
should be searchable, indexed and what can just be stored.
 As an example, the dirty hack that I call my email archive (it was written
in 40  minutes, it even  uses psql to talk  to the server),  stores message
bodies  as BLOBs  (it  shouldn't,  plain files  are  easier). Searching  on
sender's address and subject is enough for  me. What's enough for you is up
to you.


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