[gentoo-user] Kmail issues/questions

[gentoo-user] Kmail issues/questions

[Daniel D Jones]

I've been using Kmail for some time but am running into a couple of issues.  
I'm not sure if they're actually Kmail issues and if they're actually outside 
the Kmail program.

First, using spamassassin, Kmail freezes every time it checks my mail.  If I 
have only a few messages, it might freeze for a few seconds.  If I have a lot 
of messages, it might take 30 or 45 seconds before the program starts 
responding again.  If I'm in the middle of, say, typing an email, the key 
presses are stored and processed once the program starts responding again.  
If I turn off email processing through spamassassin, the issue either goes 
away or the freeze is so quick as to be unnoticeable.  I can understand it 
taking time to process incoming email but I don't understand why it can't be 
done in the background on a modern system.  Is this normal behavior or is 
there an issue with either Kmail or spamassassin?

Second, Kmail doesn't seem very adept at handling folders with lots of 
messages.  I have one folder which has about 40k messages in it.  It's the 
archives of a mailing list I run and I expect it to grow much larger 
relatively quickly.  It's in maildir format on a reiserfs volume.  Just 
clicking on the folder makes  Kmail freeze for about four of five seconds 
before it displays a list of messages in the window and becomes responsive to 
key presses and mouse clicks again.  If I try to search for messages in the 
folder, the search will run for a minute or two and Kmail will crash.  Every 
time.  This rather defeats the purpose of having an archive folder.  Is 
anyone else using Kmail with folders holding thousands of email messages?  
Have you seen these issues?  If Kmail is working well in those circumstances 
for you, are you using maildir or mbox?  What file system?

I'd also be interested in reports of anyone using Evolution with large 
folders, or recommendations  for other email clients.  I'd be particularly 
interested in one which precreates indexes to speed up searches.

Thanks,

Dan

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Re: [gentoo-user] Kmail issues/questions

[Hemmann, Volker Armin]

On Samstag, 7. Juli 2007, Daniel D Jones wrote:
> I've been using Kmail for some time but am running into a couple of issues.
> I'm not sure if they're actually Kmail issues and if they're actually
> outside the Kmail program.
>
> First, using spamassassin, Kmail freezes every time it checks my mail.  If
> I have only a few messages, it might freeze for a few seconds.  If I have a
> lot of messages, it might take 30 or 45 seconds before the program starts
> responding again.  If I'm in the middle of, say, typing an email, the key
> presses are stored and processed once the program starts responding again.
> If I turn off email processing through spamassassin, the issue either goes
> away or the freeze is so quick as to be unnoticeable.  I can understand it
> taking time to process incoming email but I don't understand why it can't
> be done in the background on a modern system.  Is this normal behavior or
> is there an issue with either Kmail or spamassassin?

it is an issue with spamassasin. Try bogofilter, maybe it will be faster. It 
is very fast for me.

>
> Second, Kmail doesn't seem very adept at handling folders with lots of
> messages. 

yes it does.

> I have one folder which has about 40k messages in it.  It's the 
> archives of a mailing list I run and I expect it to grow much larger
> relatively quickly.  It's in maildir format on a reiserfs volume.

that is your problem.

> Just 
> clicking on the folder makes  Kmail freeze for about four of five seconds
> before it displays a list of messages in the window and becomes responsive
> to key presses and mouse clicks again.  If I try to search for messages in
> the folder, the search will run for a minute or two and Kmail will crash. 
> Every time.  This rather defeats the purpose of having an archive folder. 
> Is anyone else using Kmail with folders holding thousands of email
> messages? Have you seen these issues?  If Kmail is working well in those
> circumstances for you, are you using maildir or mbox?  What file system?

I have a 70000 messages folder - and several in the 30000 messages realm.

If they become slow, it is time to defrag.

Really, this is a fs problem. I like reiserfs, and it is very good with small 
files - but fragmentation is a real problem and slows down everything 
horrendously.

Back up everything and run a mkfs.reiserfs. Restore, and kmail will be fast 
again.

>
> I'd also be interested in reports of anyone using Evolution with large
> folders, or recommendations  for other email clients.  I'd be particularly
> interested in one which precreates indexes to speed up searches.
>

evolution? that bugged to death thingy?
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Re: [gentoo-user] Kmail issues/questions

[Peter Ruskin]

On Saturday 07 July 2007, Daniel D Jones wrote:
> I've been using Kmail for some time but am running into a couple
> of issues.   I'm not sure if they're actually Kmail issues and if
> they're actually outside the Kmail program.
>
> First, using spamassassin, Kmail freezes every time it checks my
> mail.  If I have only a few messages, it might freeze for a few
> seconds.  If I have a lot of messages, it might take 30 or 45
> seconds before the program starts responding again.  If I'm in
> the middle of, say, typing an email, the key presses are stored
> and processed once the program starts responding again. If I turn
> off email processing through spamassassin, the issue either goes
> away or the freeze is so quick as to be unnoticeable.  I can
> understand it taking time to process incoming email but I don't
> understand why it can't be done in the background on a modern
> system.  Is this normal behavior or is there an issue with either
> Kmail or spamassassin?

This is a very long-standing KDE bug:
http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4151

-- 
Peter
========================================================================
Gentoo Linux: Portage 2.1.3_rc6		kernel-2.6.21-gentoo-r2
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+	gcc(GCC): 4.1.2
KDE: 3.5.7					Qt: 3.3.8
========================================================================
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Re: [gentoo-user] Kmail issues/questions

[Alex Schuster]

Peter Ruskin writes:

> This is a very long-standing KDE bug:
> http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4151

Typo? It says "Bug #4151 does not exist."

	Alex
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Re: [gentoo-user] Kmail issues/questions

[Peter Ruskin]

On Saturday 07 July 2007, Alex Schuster wrote:
> Peter Ruskin writes:
> > This is a very long-standing KDE bug:
> > http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4151
>
> Typo? It says "Bug #4151 does not exist."
>
> 	Alex

Sorry, #41514

-- 
Peter
========================================================================
Gentoo Linux: Portage 2.1.3_rc6		kernel-2.6.21-gentoo-r2
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+	gcc(GCC): 4.1.2
KDE: 3.5.7					Qt: 3.3.8
========================================================================
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Re: [gentoo-user] Kmail issues/questions

[Daniel D Jones]

On Saturday 07 July 2007 12:55, Hemmann, Volker Armin wrote:
> > Second, Kmail doesn't seem very adept at handling folders with lots of
> > messages.
>
> yes it does.
>
> > I have one folder which has about 40k messages in it.  It's the
> > archives of a mailing list I run and I expect it to grow much larger
> > relatively quickly.  It's in maildir format on a reiserfs volume.
>
> that is your problem.
>
> > Just
> > clicking on the folder makes  Kmail freeze for about four of five seconds
> > before it displays a list of messages in the window and becomes
> > responsive to key presses and mouse clicks again.  If I try to search for
> > messages in the folder, the search will run for a minute or two and Kmail
> > will crash. Every time.  This rather defeats the purpose of having an
> > archive folder. Is anyone else using Kmail with folders holding thousands
> > of email messages? Have you seen these issues?  If Kmail is working well
> > in those circumstances for you, are you using maildir or mbox?  What file
> > system?
>
> I have a 70000 messages folder - and several in the 30000 messages realm.
>
> If they become slow, it is time to defrag.
>
> Really, this is a fs problem. I like reiserfs, and it is very good with
> small files - but fragmentation is a real problem and slows down everything
> horrendously.
>
> Back up everything and run a mkfs.reiserfs. Restore, and kmail will be fast
> again.

I added a spare hard drive to the computer.  Created a new ext3 file system 
and copied /home to the new drive.  Mounted the new drive under /home and 
logged in as my normal user.  Kmail performance is marginally improved but 
it's far from snappy.  For example, clicking on the Archive folder displays 
the watch icon for about seven to eight seconds before displaying the folder.  
Doing a search for the word "gentoo" in the body of the message ran for 12 
minutes and twenty seconds and crashed with a sig11.  Twelve minutes to 
search 40k messages, and it wasn't through when it crashed.

> > I'd also be interested in reports of anyone using Evolution with large
> > folders, or recommendations  for other email clients.  I'd be
> > particularly interested in one which precreates indexes to speed up
> > searches.
>
> evolution? that bugged to death thingy?

Based solely on my experience, I could apparently say the same thing about 
Kmail.  
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Re: [gentoo-user] Kmail issues/questions

[Dan Farrell]

On Sat, 7 Jul 2007 09:28:23 -0400
Daniel D Jones <ddjones@riddlemaster.org> wrote:

> I've been using Kmail for some time but am running into a couple of
> issues. I'm not sure if they're actually Kmail issues and if they're
> actually outside the Kmail program.
> 
You do use IMAP right?  POP would download the entirety of the 40K
messages, IMAP only the headers at first.  Its a lot more efficient.
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Re: [gentoo-user] Kmail issues/questions

[Hemmann, Volker Armin]

On Sonntag, 8. Juli 2007, Daniel D Jones wrote:
> On Saturday 07 July 2007 12:55, Hemmann, Volker Armin wrote:
> > > Second, Kmail doesn't seem very adept at handling folders with lots of
> > > messages.
> >
> > yes it does.
> >
> > > I have one folder which has about 40k messages in it.  It's the
> > > archives of a mailing list I run and I expect it to grow much larger
> > > relatively quickly.  It's in maildir format on a reiserfs volume.
> >
> > that is your problem.
> >
> > > Just
> > > clicking on the folder makes  Kmail freeze for about four of five
> > > seconds before it displays a list of messages in the window and becomes
> > > responsive to key presses and mouse clicks again.  If I try to search
> > > for messages in the folder, the search will run for a minute or two and
> > > Kmail will crash. Every time.  This rather defeats the purpose of
> > > having an archive folder. Is anyone else using Kmail with folders
> > > holding thousands of email messages? Have you seen these issues?  If
> > > Kmail is working well in those circumstances for you, are you using
> > > maildir or mbox?  What file system?
> >
> > I have a 70000 messages folder - and several in the 30000 messages realm.
> >
> > If they become slow, it is time to defrag.
> >
> > Really, this is a fs problem. I like reiserfs, and it is very good with
> > small files - but fragmentation is a real problem and slows down
> > everything horrendously.
> >
> > Back up everything and run a mkfs.reiserfs. Restore, and kmail will be
> > fast again.
>
> I added a spare hard drive to the computer.  Created a new ext3 file system
> and copied /home to the new drive.  Mounted the new drive under /home and
> logged in as my normal user.  Kmail performance is marginally improved but
> it's far from snappy.

because ext3 is not really fast with small files ...

> For example, clicking on the Archive folder displays 
> the watch icon for about seven to eight seconds before displaying the
> folder. Doing a search for the word "gentoo" in the body of the message ran
> for 12 minutes and twenty seconds and crashed with a sig11.  Twelve minutes
> to search 40k messages, and it wasn't through when it crashed.


Ok, I let search run on my gentoo-archive folder which includes 3 subfolders 
and over 120 000 messages. I searched for 'gentoo' in the text.

It took ten minutes and I got ~70 000 hits.

While the search was running, kmail was slow, but usable. I read a new message 
in a different folder, switched back to the gentoo folder and read another 
message.

Sig11?

Maybe you should recheck your CFLAGS? And revdep-rebuilt?
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