Re: [exim] MBX format - converting to it

On Wed, 8 Dec 2004, Chris Edwards wrote:

> | So - I need to convert about 1000 folders to MBX - what do I use
> | to do that?
>
> I hazily recall UW imap has a feature which might just help.
>
> You create an empty [1] mbx mailbox called "INBOX" in the user's home dir.

Indeed this is supported for the INBOX. Does Marc also want to
convert "old" mail folders, too?

This is possibly a bit of a digression, but I thought I'd mention it
anyway...

Back when we moved from a VAX/VMS-based mail server, I experimented
with ways to move old mail folder contents from the VAX/VMS system to
Unix by actually using their respective IMAP servers. Using PINE, I
defined folder collections on both mail servers. Access the folder -
let's say "foobar" - on the old server, select-all, apply, save - and
when prompted for the destination, navigate to the new server's folder
collection and define the target of the save to be the folder "foobar"
there. Twiddle thumbs for a while...

After it's done, all of the mails in the folder on the old server have
been marked "deleted" - and can be expunged if desired.

Note that this works regardless of what mail folder formats are used
on the old and new systems - it relies only on the respective imap
servers doing their business, mediated by an imap client (in this
case, PINE, but that's by the by).

For an individual user, this would be a viable procedure, albeit
somewhat slow. However, for a system administrator, trying to migrate
an entire mail system (possibly with active users on it, since the
procedure was likely to take too long for us to dare shutting them
out) we decided it was a non-starter. Instead, we grabbed someone
else's batch command which exported the old VAX/VMS folder contents in
a portable format, and piled them into the new system rather quickly,
during an interval where users were kept off the systems.

It's been several years since, of course; but I thought the principles
were sufficiently general to be worth a mention anyway, in case they
might be of use to someone.