Developers of Sympa

[Aumont - Comite Reseaux des Universites <address@concealed>]

Hi

Of course, we have a strong interest on this discussion about
list configuration database storage and shared memory. Sergiy is
right, this could improve a lot performence.

However, database storage of list config is quite complexe

- data structure is complexe (some parameter can be multiple such as
  list owners, some are optional etc). A single db row per list is
  impossible for thoses parameters
- Sympa supports multiple database, not only MySQL
- almost all new version of Sympa add new list parameters.
- some features we are preparing need more complexe data scheme
  (meta-list : list which are created dynamically when receiving
   a message for it)

Database itself would not use less memory because internal cache is 
still needed. So sharing memory between processus is needed anyhow.

List configuration are not the only data that servers share when running 
Sympa services on  multiple machines : archive, templates, scenario and 
SPOOL also are needed.

> What was the technical reasoning behind keeping the configs in text 
> files rather than a DB?

There are a lot of nice reason to move from text file to database and 
also some difficulties. One of them is that Sympa users community is now 
rather large and new version need to improve code and documentation quality.
Such important change require an important investment from us.

In two weeks we will present you a road map for Sympa 4.0 and discuss 
what shoud be added to 4.0 or later and how to organize your contribs.

Serge