an other ready-to-use store option for notmuch : CouchDB

an other ready-to-use store option for notmuch : CouchDB

[Paul R]

Hi,

couchDB is a document-oriented database. It stores documents, IOW
key-value pairs, under a unique ID. These documents are retrieved
through views and queries. A mail with some tags and some mime parts is
a perfect exemple of what couchdb call a "document".

CouchDB databases can be replicated and synced in both directions.
Conflicts are lazily handled.

People here often call for facilities to read mail with notmuch from
different places. An unidirectional imap-to-couchDB, plus a couchDB
backend for notmuch, should give enough flexibility to achieve this
goal. Put a couchDB replica somewhere accessible, push new IMAP mails on
it, then sync as many machines as you want with this central couchDB
store.


-- 
  Paul

Re: an other ready-to-use store option for notmuch : CouchDB

[martin f krafft]

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also sprach Paul R <paul.r.ml@gmail.com> [2010.03.02.1626 +0100]:
> CouchDB databases can be replicated and synced in both directions.
> Conflicts are lazily handled.

What does this mean?

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Re: an other ready-to-use store option for notmuch : CouchDB

[James Westby]

On Tue, 2 Mar 2010 16:43:10 +0100, martin f krafft <madduck@madduck.net> wrote:
> also sprach Paul R <paul.r.ml@gmail.com> [2010.03.02.1626 +0100]:
> > CouchDB databases can be replicated and synced in both directions.
> > Conflicts are lazily handled.
> 
> What does this mean?

Couch has deterministic conflict resolution between the two sides, so
all instances will get the same result without needing a master.

You can then ask for the current conflicts to do more in-depth
resolution if needed, including prompting the user.

Thanks,

James

Re: an other ready-to-use store option for notmuch : CouchDB

[Jed Brown]

On Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:26:10 +0100, Paul R <paul.r.ml@gmail.com> wrote:
> CouchDB databases can be replicated and synced in both directions.
> Conflicts are lazily handled.

I've wondered about this.  An interesting property would be lack of a
global lock, which is one of the reasons why people are either not
having notmuch-new run automatically, or are working around the errors
when the database is locked, and thus all the talk about having a
notmuch daemon or other method of handling asynchronous actions.

The advantage of the current system is that the mail store remains
current, but untouched.  Importing into something like CouchDB or
MongoDB would seem to interfere with "point at a directory and go, with
no full copy".

> People here often call for facilities to read mail with notmuch from
> different places. An unidirectional imap-to-couchDB, plus a couchDB
> backend for notmuch, should give enough flexibility to achieve this
> goal.

I thought people were asking to be able to read messages from other
places *with other tools*, such as phones or webmail.  This would
require 2-way sync with IMAP.

Jed