Xref: utzoo comp.mail.misc:848 comp.mail.headers:274 sci.research:341
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!tektronix!tekcrl!scott
From: scott@tekcrl.TEK.COM (Scott Huddleston)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc,comp.mail.headers,sci.research
Subject: Re: "data base" mail system idea
Message-ID: <2338@tekcrl.TEK.COM>
Date: 22 Feb 88 06:41:53 GMT
References: <11120@shemp.UCLA.EDU> <1922@ttidca.TTI.COM>
Reply-To: scott@tekcrl.UUCP (Scott Huddleston)
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton, OR.
Lines: 14

>In retrospect, it shouldn't be that difficult to augment the MH system
>to support "cross-filing" between folders, and use hard-links ...

"refile -link ..." already does this.

The Unix file system is hardly a candidate for serious database 
capabilities, however.  It's limitations include:
a). keywords are limited to Unix filenames.
b). MH folders give records (mail msgs) per keyword, but not keywords
    per record.  (i.e., associations are only one-way).
c). hard-links can't be made to other file-system partitions (ruling out
    netnews from this "database" mechanism)
d). the space and performance costs of using one inode per relation are
    substantial.