Self-hosted Gmail clone
in [UK Linux]
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From: Martin Gregorie on 22 Mar 2010 09:55 On Mon, 22 Mar 2010 13:12:57 +0000, Theo Markettos wrote: > Whiskers <catwheezel(a)operamail.com> wrote: >> Why do you need any sort of "app" for this? Just save the messages in >> standard mbox or MH or maildir format and point your preferred email >> reader at those files/folders. > > Because I want it to be on the web, so accessible from any browser > rather than messing about configuring SSH tunnels and IMAP clients on > every random machine I happen to walk up to? > > One big reason is search of old message archives, where it wouldn't be > feasible to throw the whole archive about each time (we're talking > 100,000 messages here). How well does search work over IMAP? Do any > servers do it better than others? Do any do more heuristicky search (in > other words, there may be 100 documents that contain the search term, > but the 95 where it's found in someone's signature aren't as interesting > as the 5 where it's in the first paragraph)? > Or you could try my Postgres-based archival system, which gives reasonable performance on an 866 MHz, 513MB box with its current content of 81,000 messages. http://www.libelle-systems.com/products/ for an overview, contact me off list for more info. It's been running here for over 2 years and will be rolled out as soon as I finish the initial manual. -- martin@ | Martin Gregorie gregorie. | Essex, UK org |
From: Whiskers on 22 Mar 2010 10:32 On 2010-03-22, Theo Markettos <theom+news(a)chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote: > Whiskers <catwheezel(a)operamail.com> wrote: >> Why do you need any sort of "app" for this? Just save the messages in >> standard mbox or MH or maildir format and point your preferred email >> reader at those files/folders. > > Because I want it to be on the web, so accessible from any browser rather > than messing about configuring SSH tunnels and IMAP clients on every random > machine I happen to walk up to? OK, that seems to be new information about your rrequirements. > One big reason is search of old message archives, where it wouldn't be > feasible to throw the whole archive about each time (we're talking 100,000 > messages here). How well does search work over IMAP? Do any servers do it > better than others? Do any do more heuristicky search (in other words, > there may be 100 documents that contain the search term, but the 95 where > it's found in someone's signature aren't as interesting as the 5 where it's > in the first paragraph)? > > Theo More new information :)) So you're intending to have these files securely accessible from the internet, and searchable in a flexible way, using whatever web browser happens to be installed on whatever machine you care to use - internet cafe, library, borrowed, etc. Rapid flexible searching sounds like something best done by something like a 'desktop search utility', eg Beagle. That leaves remote HTTP (or rather HTTPS with login?) access to the search utility. I don't know if Beagle or any of its alternatives can do that. So I suggest you research 'remote desktop search utility' as an alternative to running your own webmail system - or do you really want to run a complete private webmail service as well as having a searchable archive? -- -- ^^^^^^^^^^ -- Whiskers -- ~~~~~~~~~~
From: Theo Markettos on 23 Mar 2010 07:06 Whiskers <catwheezel(a)operamail.com> wrote: > More new information :)) I think I covered both in my first sentence: "I was wondering about setting up some kind of webmail app, more for access to old message archives than new ones." :-) > So you're intending to have these files securely accessible from the > internet, and searchable in a flexible way, using whatever web browser > happens to be installed on whatever machine you care to use - internet > cafe, library, borrowed, etc. Yes, something like that. > Rapid flexible searching sounds like something best done by something like > a 'desktop search utility', eg Beagle. Interesting... I didn't realise Beagle understood mbox files (normal search tools just say 'we found something' in the 1GB mbox file... not that helpful). I'll have a look. > That leaves remote HTTP (or rather > HTTPS with login?) access to the search utility. I don't know if Beagle > or any of its alternatives can do that. So I suggest you research 'remote > desktop search utility' as an alternative to running your own webmail > system - or do you really want to run a complete private webmail service > as well as having a searchable archive? Well, a webmail system with decent search knows about email so I can, say, reply to old emails. In theory there shouldn't be a whole lot of difference. I was hoping it would be far less bloated than Zimbra, though. Theo
From: Whiskers on 23 Mar 2010 12:13
On 2010-03-23, Theo Markettos <theom+news(a)chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote: > Whiskers <catwheezel(a)operamail.com> wrote: [...] > Well, a webmail system with decent search knows about email so I can, say, > reply to old emails. In theory there shouldn't be a whole lot of > difference. I was hoping it would be far less bloated than Zimbra, though. > > Theo There are plenty of small tools that can cope with composing and sending emails; you don't need a whole webmail system for that! Make sure that 'Mailto' is related to something suitable. A small web server providing just one page with access control, running on the network where the search and email tools and the archive are all located, would be adequate I think. There may well be web page templates 'out there' that could be modified to give interfaces to your chosen search tool etc. -- -- ^^^^^^^^^^ -- Whiskers -- ~~~~~~~~~~ |