Subject: Re: IMAP x NFS in Unix

From: [email-masked] (Leslie Mikesell)
Date: 14 Nov 1994 10:23:12 -0600

In article <[email-masked]>,
Mark Crispin  <[email-masked]> wrote:

>1) IMAP is almost always better over low-speed links, such as SLIP, because
>   of its fetch-on-demand nature.  I'll go out on a limb here, and say that
>   based on my experience NFS is not viable unless you have a high-speed
>   interconnect.
>
>2) NFS is probably better for users whose model of mail is to read all 
>   of it and delete it from the server; *provided* that the client has
>   adequate memory to hold the data and avoid repeated NFS retrievals of
>   the same data.

So, is there any hope of being able to take advantage of whichever
situation you are in?  Could an IMAP server that had a high-speed
connection to your $HOME directory (perhaps on the same machine)
manipulate the transfer directly between your inbox and other
folders under your $HOME when you are connected remotely via a low
speed link (i.e don't traverse the user's link for this)?  Then
you could access them directly when you are connected locally or
via NFS over a high speed link.  What about the same concept for
manipulating a user's .newsrc in a single location for people who
bounce between connections/machines reading sometimes via nntp and
sometimes logged into the news host?

Les Mikesell
  [email-masked]