Email in Linux - one mailbox, many programs

Mailbox formats and servers

Evolution Server Type:
POP/IMAP/mbox/Maildir/MH/Local delivery/none

Many programs, such as Ximian Evolution, ask the user to specify server or mailbox type. One could argue that this question should be handled only once in a system, and not by the MUA (mail user agent, mail reading program) at all. However, some program must know this.

POP

Post Office Protocol POP is a protocol for copying all mail from server to local host.

IMAP

IMAP is a protocol for using messages stored in a server from multiple clients. Most php webmail programs, such as teromail or imp, use IMAP to access mailboxes. IMAP should allways use SSL to encrypt traffic between client and server.

mbox

mbox format is the typical format for storing mail in users home directory in *nix. Incoming mail is in one long file. On a slow, old computer, you can notice mbox loading faster than Maildir.

Maildir

Maildir stores each message in a separate text file.

MH

Spearate text file for each message, filenames are running numbers.

Local delivery

Dunno

Tested with redhat 9.0 Shrike.