MAIL

Purging obsolete shared mail messages
Each message in a shared mail database contains object links to the mail files of all recipients of the message. The number of mail files that a message links to represents the reference or share count for that message. When a user deletes a message from a personal mail file, IBM® Lotus® Domino™ immediately removes the object link to that mail file from the shared mail database.

When all recipients have deleted a message from their mail files, the reference count for the message reaches zero, and the message becomes obsolete. Domino automatically purges the shared portion of obsolete messages from the shared mail databases immediately after all users have deleted it from their mail files.

In earlier releases of Domino, links to user mail files and obsolete messages were not immediately deleted after users deleted messages from their mail file. Deletions occurred only after the Object Collect task was run, an expensive process that examines each link in the referencing databases to determine whether the referring note still exists.

In Domino, the Object Collect task is used to resynchronize mail files with a shared mail database and to generate shared mail statistics. Synchronization between a shared mail database and the mail files that use it can become disrupted if a shared mail database is restored from a backup that doesn't include the most recently received messages. As a result, these messages are incomplete and cannot be read: the message headers appear in users' mail files, but no message body exists in the object store. Running the Object Collect task resynchronizes a mail file with the object store by purging incomplete messages. The task checks each mail file that uses the object store and removes those messages that have no message body in the object store.

If a mail file has replicas on other servers, messages removed during resynchronization can be restored to the shared mail database when replicated to the mail file on the shared mail server.

Running the Object Collect task to purge messages automatically generates shared mail statistics. For information about using the Object Collect task to generate shared mail statistics without purging messages, see the topic Generating and viewing shared mail statistics.

To preview which messages will be purged

Before purging obsolete messages, enter this command at the console to determine which documents will be deleted and how much space will become available:


To purge messages from the shared mail database

Enter one of these commands at the console:


where SHARED.NSF is the name of the shared mail directory or a specific shared mail database. Use the -Force option after you delete a user's mail file to reclaim the disk space used by shared messages that reference the deleted mail file only.

Caution If you do not indicate a specific database, the Object Collect task purges obsolete messages from all shared mail databases. Also, before you use the -Force option, ensure that all of the mail files that store messages in the shared mail database are available. If Domino cannot write to mail file referenced by the shared mail database -- for example, if the mail file has been moved or cannot currently accept new mail -- the Object Collect task behaves as though the mail file had been deleted. As a result, the task deletes messages that should be retained.

To purge messages from a user's mail file

Enter this command at the console:


where USERMAIL.NSF is the name of the user's mail file.

See also