[Kde-pim] Kmail2: Akonadi memory requirements

[Stephan Mueller]

Hi all,

I recently switched to Kontact2 beta1 for my daily work. I would like to 
report some experiences that I made so far. I am using Ubuntu Maverick and the 
Kontact2 out of the Ubuntu experimental tree.

I know that the following email looks like bashing, but that is not my 
intention. I like kontact very much and I would like to keep it that way - 
thanks to all for the effort to develop kontact!

There are the following main problems that I identified so far, which relate 
to the memory requirements of Akonadi:

- storage space of the akonadi database

- memory (i.e. RAM) space of the akonadi mysql database

- use of two databases


Storage space of akonadi
========================

I probably have 3000+ emails in my spool where some of them are sizeable 10+ 
MB. I was a bit irritated when I looked at the size of the mysql database 
files: more than 800 MB!

I started to dig into the database by using the akonadiconsole tool. I saw 
that the ENTIRE mail bodies are stored there! I am really unsure why there is 
a need to really duplicate the email storage: once in the maildir folders and 
once in mysql.

I think a lot of people will be deterred by that.

Moreover, I do not see any way to configure akonadi to only store the 
header/envelope information because that is what would need when I do 
searches. Note: when I would search for entire emails, I am fine when I would 
wait a minute instead of 10 seconds, if I do not need to carry a database of 
800+ MB around.

Another issue is that it seems this database only grows and never shrinks. 
I.e. when I delete an email (i.e. remove it from trash or delete it without 
moving it to trash), the database does not get smaller.


Memory space of akonadi
=======================

Due to the massive mysql database, the mysql process also sucks in massive 
memory. I have a T61 with 2GB of RAM. When I receive an email that is 1 MB or 
larger and there is no other program running (except the KDE environment), my 
system starts swapping!! And it becomes unresponsive for quite a while due to 
swapping.

Looking at ps, the problem is the mysql database process which is just 
massive.

Also, I thought that using akonadi makes opening folders fast. But when I open 
a folder with 100+ emails for the first time (i.e. after starting kmail), it 
takes 10 seconds or more with constant disk access (ps shows me that the mysql 
process is the problem). With the old kmail, such folders opened in an 
instant.


Use of 2 databases
==================

For running kontact2, you need two databases that are online: virtuoso and 
mysql. Both of them again require runtime memory. Are there plans to merge 
them?


Thanks
Stephan

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