However, I wonder about the MD5 method. Without knowing anything
about MD5, could it work with 8.3 filenames? I buid my archives on a
DOS box, so am constrained to that format.
Hi Claire,
I'm embarassed to admit that it doesn't fall into 8.3 filename
scheme. It's probably one of my greatest faults when it comes
to things like this -- I tend to only think of my existing
configuration and have a hard time remembering that others have
different limitations. Or maybe it's just that I'm trying to
block out those painful memories of short filenames. :)
So it occurred to me that one way of implementing this would be to
create a new .db file (e.g. filename.db), which would record the
filenames used for each message ID and for each MD5 sum. That way
the chances of a duplicate occurring are *very* low: it would require
a duplicate MD5 sum *and* a duplicate or missding msg-id.
AFAICS, mhonarc.db is wiped when the archives are rebuilt ... and all
that would be needed is to ensure that filename.db is not wiped on a
rebuild, and its data reused. That way, we could retain the current
flexibility of filename format (which has other advantages, such as
being reasonably transparent) and add permanency.
This sounds more flexible. I worry about the removal of filename.db,
but I guess I could just be more careful. :)
The .db file will need to search in both directions -- it needs to
check and see if a filename has already been used and see if a
filename exists for a Message-Id:/md5sum pair.
Of course, I have no idea how hard it would be to implement this.
Guess it's time to start poking around the source again (or be
*really* nice to Earl :)
Chris
