in comp.mail.imap i read:

>I was looking at the uw-imap code to make some local hacks, and I
>think I saw some references to atime. If I mount my partition with
>noatime, do you know whether that will have any adverse effect?

atime < mtime is how you detect (cheaply) if an mbox has new, unseen
messages. i wouldn't be surprised if it is used elsewhere for similar
purpose.

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