711765 - Percentage based automatic Compact threshold?

Status: NEW

(MailNews Core :: Backend, enhancement)

Description

[Ulf Zibis]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:8.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/8.0
Build ID: 20111104165243

Steps to reproduce:

I have many small local folders.
In sum there is some reasonable amount of space to be compacted.


Actual results:

Automatic Compact threshold can only be set as absolute value.


Expected results:

Possibility to set Automatic Compact threshold as percentage value.

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to Ulf Zibis from comment #0)
> User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:8.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/8.0
> Build ID: 20111104165243
> 
> Steps to reproduce:
> 
> I have many small local folders.
> In sum there is some reasonable amount of space to be compacted.

are you aware compact occurs on the sum of space to be saved over many folders?  In other words, if setting is 20MB, it triggers when 20MB will be saved over N folders - it doesn't wait for 20MB in just one folder.


> Possibility to set Automatic Compact threshold as percentage value.

percentage of what?

Comment 2

[Ulf Zibis]

(In reply to Wayne Mery (:wsmwk) from comment #1)
> are you aware compact occurs on the sum of space to be saved over many
> folders?
No, thanks for your explanation.
The german translation in options:
"Compact folder, if that saves more space than x MB"
IMO is ambiguous. It's not clear, if
... that is meant as sum over all folders rather than space per folder.
... only that big folders are compacted at all.

> > Possibility to set Automatic Compact threshold as percentage value.
> 
> percentage of what?
... of the size of each folder.

Comment 3

[Ulf Zibis]

(In reply to Ulf Zibis from comment #2)
> The german translation in options:
> "Compact folder, if that saves more space than x MB"
> IMO is ambiguous. It's not clear, if
> ... that is meant as sum over all folders rather than space per folder.
> ... only that big folders are compacted at all.
Suggestion:
"Compact all folders, if that saves more space in sum than x MB"

Comment 4

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to Ulf Zibis from comment #2)
> > percentage of what?
> ... of the size of each folder.

Ulf, so what you want is ... if there is space to be saved, you don't want to compact folder X unless it frees up N% of folder X, correct?  
This might be what bienvenu is thinking of in bug 749983 comment 12

Is your goal here performance/improved efficiency?
And, would you be happy with a fixed percentage?  
10% as an example.

Comment 5

[Ulf Zibis]

Finally, after you explained, that the value in MB is meant as sum over all folders, I'm really happy how it works currently.
I only worry about the wording in the options settings pane. At least the german translation does not clearly describe the fact, that the threshold is meant as sum over all folders, because in german the plural form for 'folder' is the same than the singular form. If you would add the words 'all' and 'in sum', also the german (and maybe others too) translation would be unambiguously clear:
"Compact all folders, if that saves more space in sum than x MB"

But yes, it would be an in interesting option to alternatively/additionally determine the over-all threshold in a percentage value.
It's goal is not about performance, which is another interesting story, but covered by bug 749983. It's in the size independence: On a small mobile device or USB-pen of e.g. 32 MB size it would be reasonable to compact for a win of 3 MB, but not on a huge mailing directory of e.g 10 GB. Additionally a percentage value should never be refined when the amount of mails is growing over the time. Finally it free's the user from the knowledge, which actual size all his email folders may have. The best would be a combination of fixed + relative threshold.

Comment 6

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to Ulf Zibis from comment #5)
> Finally, after you explained, that the value in MB is meant as sum over all
> folders, I'm really happy how it works currently.
I only worry about the
> wording in the options settings pane. At least the german translation does
> not clearly describe the fact, that the threshold is meant as sum over all
> folders, because in german the plural form for 'folder' is the same than the
> singular form. If you would add the words 'all' and 'in sum', also the
> german (and maybe others too) translation would be unambiguously clear:
> "Compact all folders, if that saves more space in sum than x MB"

Please file a separate bug report for the above


> It's in the size independence: On a small mobile device or USB-pen of e.g.
> 32 MB size it would be reasonable to compact for a win of 3 MB, but not on a
> huge mailing directory of e.g 10 GB. Additionally a percentage value should
> never be refined when the amount of mails is growing over the time. Finally
> it free's the user from the knowledge, which actual size all his email
> folders may have. 

Thanks for clarifying, so your idea is % to strictly replace MB as the base value for triggering compact sweep - as per the current bug summmary

> The best would be a combination of fixed + relative threshold.

Do you mean allow someone to chose one or the other?  

It might seem obvious to provide a choice. But we tend to want to keep UI trim. So I suspect if % were badly wanted, or preferred, that the ability to specify as MB might be removed.

Comment 7

[Ulf Zibis]

(In reply to Wayne Mery (:wsmwk) from comment #6)
> Please file a separate bug report for the above

--> Bug 758803

> Thanks for clarifying, so your idea is % to strictly replace MB as the base
> value for triggering compact sweep - as per the current bug summary
> 
> > The best would be a combination of fixed + relative threshold.
> 
> Do you mean allow someone to chose one or the other?  

Better both like:
Compact all folders, if that saves more space in sum than:
xx MB   yy %   (chose 0 to disable any)

Comment 8

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

bug 759360 would indirectly do folders on a % basis.
But it's questionable whether either will ever happen