[pmmail-list] problem with deleting messages from server

[Tim Roberts]

On Fri, 26 Jul 2002 13:28:26 -0400, Andrew Webber wrote:
>
>On Fri, 26 Jul 2002 09:45:20 -0700, Tim Roberts wrote:
>
>>I disagree.  Let's say the power fails on my computer while I'm 
>>fetching mail.  If I'm using a POP-conforming server, I will not 
>>lose anything.  The messages will still be there when I reboot 
>>and refetch.  With QPOP, I will permanently lose whatever 
>>messages had already been downloaded and marked for deletion.  
>>That's a big difference.
>
>I'm confused, lost how?  Surely each email is stored on my HD as
>it's downloaded?

Not necessarily.  None of today's operating systems write data immediately to 
disk.  It gets buffered in memory, and the physical write is scheduled for a 
bit later when things aren't so busy.  That's exactly why I chose a power 
failure as my example.

In addition, many mail clients (Outlook being the worst example) store an 
entire mailbox in a single, huge file.  In such a case, the app might buffer 
up a whole set of messages before going to update the master mailbox.

>I know that in the past, when a connection has
>been lost, when I dial up again I got all the already-downloaded
>messages a second time, so if it had been a power failure instead
>of connection failure, wouldn't the same be true?

Nope, the two failures are quite different.  In the "connection lost" case, 
your PC is still in control can clean up the mess.  In the "power lost" case, 
who knows what might have been pending.  The POP server can't tell the 
difference between the two.  QPOP is assuming that the client has not lost 
consciousness, an assumption that is not always valid.

--
- Tim Roberts, timr@probo.com
  Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

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