Thunderbird:Backend Hacking Guide For Newbies: Difference between revisions

Thunderbird uses a folder-based hierarchical representation to organize messages. [http://wiki.mozilla.org/User:Emre/tb/architecture/diagrams/messagefolder <code>Folder</code>] (or <code>MsgFolder</code>) is the logical entity that contains message contents belong to the same hierarchical level. Message content consists of message headers and message body including attachments. These two entities are stored in different physical stores to improve the system performance. Every <code>Account</code> has a root folder, which has several subfolders (each potentially with their own subfolders, ad infinitum) which are actual folders on the hosting operating system.   

[http://wiki.mozilla.org/User:Emre/tb/architecture/diagrams/messagedatabase <code>Database</code>] entity represents the physical store of message headers per folder, which is a '''msf''' file in '''Mork''' format. Message bodies, on the other hand, are stored in a text file in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbox mbox] format, again per folder.