[Imap-use] E-mails set to unread

[Mark Crispin]

On Thu, 24 Apr 2008, Rick Knight wrote:

> On my system I use procmail to filter messages and then deliver mail to mbox 

> format mailfiles based on the content, subject, sender etc. of  the message. 

> For example I have a filter that looks for "[imap-use" in the subject. If 

> found, the message is delivered to Mail/Imap. If a message is passed by all 

> filters it is delivered to Mail/mbox. Both Mail/Imap and Mail/mbox are mbox 

> format files (any file which starts with the characteristic "From "). My 

> question is, when I convert my INBOX with the command...

>

> % mailutil copy INBOX #driver.mix/INBOX

>

> Will ~/Mail/Imap be converted as well?


No.


> It looks, from your answer, like it 

> will not be converted. If not, then  what form will "mailutil" take to 

> convert Mail/Imap to mix format?

>

> % mailutil copy IMAP #driver.mix/Imap


Note that "mailutil copy" copies as opposed to converts in place.  After 
"converting INBOX" you still have the old-format INBOX as well as the 
mix-format INBOX, and you need to delete the old-format INBOX as a 
separate step.

Since, with non-INBOX mailboxes, the filesystem name is the same 
regardless of format, you can not do a simple copy.  You must do something 
like:
 	% mailutil copy Imap #driver.mix/Imap.CONVERTED
 	% rm Mail/Imap
 	% mv Mail/Imap.CONVERTED Mail/Imap
Lots of variation is possible here.

Shell scripts are your friend.  I hope that some people on this list will 
share some of the scripts that they created for this purpose

Note that for specific conversion to mix format, there is a program called 
mixcvt on the UW FTP server:
 	ftp://ftp.cac.washingotn.edu/mail/mixcvt.tar.Z
that does a somewhat better job (e.g., it preserves UIDs and splits the 
old messages into multiple files) than mailutil does.  mailutil is a very 
general purpose program and will do the job, whereas mixcvt is 
specifically designed for conversion.

Like mailutil, mixcvt copies instead of converts-in-place.  So it does not 
affect the source mailbox; you have to dispose of that separately.

With mixcvt, you don't use the "#driver.mix/" prefix; the destination is 
always mix.  Instead, you would do (give the above examples):
 	% mailutil copy INBOX #driver.mix/INBOX
 	% rm Mail/mbox
 	% mailutil copy Imap #driver.mix/Imap.CONVERTED
 	% rm Mail/Imap
 	% mv Mail/Imap.CONVERTED Mail/Imap


> I have 35 mail files in my Mail folder, including trash and sent. Does each 

> file need to be converted individually? Again, judging from your earlier, 

> yes.


Correct.  Shell scripts are your friend.

-- Mark --

http://panda.com/mrc
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