6
2
When mutt opens some folder, it downloads (or gets from the cache) headers of all messages from that folder. I find it very suboptimal.
It doesn't hurt too much when the folder contains just a few messages, but when I open some really large folder in mutt (for example, the folder containing messages from Linux Kernel Mailing List: I currently have almost 300 000 messages there), it takes forever to download. Even with the whole list totally cached, it seems it still refreshes some data, and it takes about 2 minutes to open that folder even when it's cached! This is just ridiculous. It's a waste of space and time.
Even more, 300 000 messages is probably too much for mutt, and when I hit q, it just hangs (I was patient enough to wait more than 5 mins).
I don't see any good reason to download all message headers. I want message headers to be loaded lazily, i.e. on demand: we just need to load a page to display, plus probably a few pages ahead, but the rest should be loaded only when the user scrolls there. Surprizingly enough, I can't find an option for that. Do I miss something, or is it impossible to setup lazy loading in mutt?
Dmitry Frank
Posted 2017-04-09T20:43:34.777
Reputation: 699
Are you already using disk cache? If not, you might be satisfied enough with not always using memory every time. (header_cache) – Angelo – 2017-05-02T14:05:49.717
Of course I am, I mentioned that in my question: "Even with the whole list totally cached, it seems it still refreshes some data, and it takes about 2 minutes to open that folder even when it's cached! This is just ridiculous. It's a waste of space and time" – Dmitry Frank – 2017-05-02T15:06:52.987
Yeah, I'll definitely let you know if I see anything. After a lot of searching I didn't see any way to limit the number of message you want to see/download. – Angelo – 2017-05-02T15:53:09.267