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mailutil.exe for XP that really works
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Howard Schwartz
May 5, 2013, 10:29:54 AM5/5/13
to
Needless to say, I am interested in converting Alpine's, modified mbx
mailbox format to plain unix or mbox format.
Mailutil.exe would be ideal for this, but the recent versions of this
tool either do not work for me or do crazy things, when I run
mailutil.exe in a dos box under windows xp.
Sample errors for a command like
mailutil copy thisfile #driver.unix/thatfile
I get error messages like:
"Cant open file, not a valid mailbox", "cant write to
#driver.unix/thatfile no such driver." Or the destination file is put in
some wierd xp directory like
c:\documents and Settings\administrator\application data\ . .
Can anyone recommend a version of this program that will actually run in
the way described in Linux or Unix man pages? Or perhaps, I should try
some version that runs under cygwin or try win95 compatibility, or find
one of the old real dos versions.
Background
As far as I can tell, mailutil was supposed to support various formats,
e.g. tenex, mmdf, mtx long ago but now only converts alpine's format to
mbox -- when I get lucky.
Mbox message headers begin with a From (no colon), and and whole
message is sandwiged between 2 blank lines.
Alpine messages begin with *mtx* at the start of each file followed by
some binary characters. Then each message header starts with a line
beginning with a real date and ending with a number in some format that
gives the exact number of byte characters in the message.
mailbox format to plain unix or mbox format.
Mailutil.exe would be ideal for this, but the recent versions of this
tool either do not work for me or do crazy things, when I run
mailutil.exe in a dos box under windows xp.
Sample errors for a command like
mailutil copy thisfile #driver.unix/thatfile
I get error messages like:
"Cant open file, not a valid mailbox", "cant write to
#driver.unix/thatfile no such driver." Or the destination file is put in
some wierd xp directory like
c:\documents and Settings\administrator\application data\ . .
Can anyone recommend a version of this program that will actually run in
the way described in Linux or Unix man pages? Or perhaps, I should try
some version that runs under cygwin or try win95 compatibility, or find
one of the old real dos versions.
Background
As far as I can tell, mailutil was supposed to support various formats,
e.g. tenex, mmdf, mtx long ago but now only converts alpine's format to
mbox -- when I get lucky.
Mbox message headers begin with a From (no colon), and and whole
message is sandwiged between 2 blank lines.
Alpine messages begin with *mtx* at the start of each file followed by
some binary characters. Then each message header starts with a line
beginning with a real date and ending with a number in some format that
gives the exact number of byte characters in the message.
Jean-Pierre Coulon
May 6, 2013, 10:46:04 AM5/6/13
to
On Sun, 5 May 2013, Howard Schwartz wrote:
> Needless to say, I am interested in converting Alpine's, modified mbx
> mailbox format to plain unix or mbox format.
Edit your mbx mailbox with a standard editor. Delete all lines from the
> Needless to say, I am interested in converting Alpine's, modified mbx
> mailbox format to plain unix or mbox format.
beginning to the last line before line that looks like:
15-Jan-2011 17:37:03 +0100,4257;000000000011-00000002
Then you will have a mailbox usable with unix Alpine.
--
Jean-Pierre Coulon (here "cacas.pam" is what others call "nospam")
Howard Schwartz
May 7, 2013, 5:03:57 AM5/7/13
to
Jean-Pierre Coulon <cou...@cacas.pam.obs-nice.fr> wrote in
news:alpine.WNT.2.10.1305061635380.124@pccoulon:
> Edit your mbx mailbox with a standard editor. Delete all lines from the
> beginning to the last line before line that looks like:
> 15-Jan-2011 17:37:03 +0100,4257;000000000011-00000002
> Then you will have a mailbox usable with unix Alpine.
>
That would be great, almost too easy. But what about
the absence if the mbox From: lines
From somebody@somewhere
the blank line supposed to be there before each of these From
,the From lines instead of the date lines starting the messages
and the escaping of From lines that begin lines but are in the text
body?
All this can be fixed with a simple editor script too, but
does it really siffice to eliminiate the initial file data?
news:alpine.WNT.2.10.1305061635380.124@pccoulon:
> Edit your mbx mailbox with a standard editor. Delete all lines from the
> beginning to the last line before line that looks like:
> 15-Jan-2011 17:37:03 +0100,4257;000000000011-00000002
> Then you will have a mailbox usable with unix Alpine.
>
the absence if the mbox From: lines
From somebody@somewhere
the blank line supposed to be there before each of these From
,the From lines instead of the date lines starting the messages
and the escaping of From lines that begin lines but are in the text
body?
All this can be fixed with a simple editor script too, but
does it really siffice to eliminiate the initial file data?
Howard Schwartz
May 10, 2013, 9:06:34 PM5/10/13
to
Howard Schwartz <howa...@gmail.com> wrote in
news:XnsA1B74C40...@178.63.61.145:
> Needless to say, I am interested in converting Alpine's, modified mbx
> mailbox format to plain unix or mbox format.
>
> Mailutil.exe would be ideal for this, but the recent versions of this
> tool either do not work for me or do crazy things, when I run
> mailutil.exe in a dos box under windows xp.
I accident I discovered how to make mailutil.exe work in windows xp, and
behave correctly like does in a Unix envirnment. All I must do is move
the mail folders in want to work in into this directory:
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator
Thought others might want to know, because this utility does lots of very
nice things - reorganizes folders and messages, prunes changes formats.
For instance, the command
mailutil copy file #driver.unix\file.mbox
Converts to the widely used unix or mbox message format that allows files
and messages to be searched and processed by other programs.
Do not know what this administrator's directory is never mentioned in
mailutil and pine documentation, nor listed as part of version or
configuration information. I believe only an administrator can normal
access this directory, but I run as administrator all the time. Perhaps
all one must do is establish a temporary NTFS link or juncture from this
administrator's directory to one's real mail directory.
Then, like magic all the commands behave normally. This directory is
never mentioned
news:XnsA1B74C40...@178.63.61.145:
> Needless to say, I am interested in converting Alpine's, modified mbx
> mailbox format to plain unix or mbox format.
>
> Mailutil.exe would be ideal for this, but the recent versions of this
> tool either do not work for me or do crazy things, when I run
> mailutil.exe in a dos box under windows xp.
behave correctly like does in a Unix envirnment. All I must do is move
the mail folders in want to work in into this directory:
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator
Thought others might want to know, because this utility does lots of very
nice things - reorganizes folders and messages, prunes changes formats.
For instance, the command
mailutil copy file #driver.unix\file.mbox
Converts to the widely used unix or mbox message format that allows files
and messages to be searched and processed by other programs.
Do not know what this administrator's directory is never mentioned in
mailutil and pine documentation, nor listed as part of version or
configuration information. I believe only an administrator can normal
access this directory, but I run as administrator all the time. Perhaps
all one must do is establish a temporary NTFS link or juncture from this
administrator's directory to one's real mail directory.
Then, like magic all the commands behave normally. This directory is
never mentioned
Howard Schwartz
May 11, 2013, 2:26:52 AM5/11/13
to
Correction to my own correction. All I had to do was create an account for
myself with administrative priviliges, and INCLUDE a password. Some it
mattered that my administrator had no password.
When I run mailutil as a password protected administrator, IT WORKS!
Next discovery or wish list item: I wish there was a pine variable to
set that would automatically create all new mailbox folders, using the mbox
rather than the mtx format. Then I would not have to do
save #driver.unix\newfile every time I had to make a new mailbox for
messages.
myself with administrative priviliges, and INCLUDE a password. Some it
mattered that my administrator had no password.
When I run mailutil as a password protected administrator, IT WORKS!
Next discovery or wish list item: I wish there was a pine variable to
set that would automatically create all new mailbox folders, using the mbox
rather than the mtx format. Then I would not have to do
save #driver.unix\newfile every time I had to make a new mailbox for
messages.
SV
May 14, 2013, 7:00:36 AM5/14/13
to
Monsanto wants to patent our fruits & veggies - Stop the corporate food takeover NOW! @sls_bmj http://www.avaaz.org/en/monsanto_vs_mother_earth_loc/?twi
Bruce Esquibel
May 15, 2013, 8:07:44 AM5/15/13
to
Howard Schwartz <howa...@gmail.com> wrote:
> mailutil copy thisfile #driver.unix/thatfile
> I get error messages like:
> "Cant open file, not a valid mailbox", "cant write to
> #driver.unix/thatfile no such driver." Or the destination file is put in
> some wierd xp directory like
Just as a comment from the peanut gallery...
> mailutil copy thisfile #driver.unix/thatfile
> I get error messages like:
> "Cant open file, not a valid mailbox", "cant write to
> #driver.unix/thatfile no such driver." Or the destination file is put in
> some wierd xp directory like
That mailutil is really picky about the pathnames, even under unix.
I'd try it again with the full path defined for the source and escape the
target with it in quotes because of that #.
Something like...
mailutil copy "/home/user/Mail/mailbox" "#driver.unix/new/path/thatfile"
but not sure what you would use with windows.
-bruce
b...@ripco.com
Howard Schwartz
May 21, 2013, 8:32:00 PM5/21/13
to
Bruce Esquibel <b...@ripco.com> wrote in
news:kmvtqg$jnk$1...@remote5bge0.ripco.com:
> Just as a comment from the peanut gallery...
> That mailutil is really picky about the pathnames, even under unix.
>
> I'd try it again with the full path defined for the source and escape
> the target with it in quotes because of that #.
>
> Something like...
>
>mailutil copy "/home/user/Mail/mailbox" \
>"#driver.unix/new/path/thatfile"
I found the same thing in windows. It does seem to work, when I supply
the full pathname of the mailbox file, as you say. There is some other
mysterious default behaviour like putting copied files in c:\documents
and settings\administrator. I would imagine if I tell some shell
variable where to find what pine calls its ``mailbox collections'' the
utility might know where to look. But no luck there.
Best I can do it to link, in the shell, the directory where the files
are to something convenient like c:\mailboxes or easier set a variable
to most of the path -- so I do not have to type a lot of long paths.
Strange, these details are not document in the many man pages. Probably
someone wrote it long ago, and no need to update since the program is
seldom used.
news:kmvtqg$jnk$1...@remote5bge0.ripco.com:
> Just as a comment from the peanut gallery...
> That mailutil is really picky about the pathnames, even under unix.
>
> I'd try it again with the full path defined for the source and escape
> the target with it in quotes because of that #.
>
> Something like...
>
>mailutil copy "/home/user/Mail/mailbox" \
>"#driver.unix/new/path/thatfile"
the full pathname of the mailbox file, as you say. There is some other
mysterious default behaviour like putting copied files in c:\documents
and settings\administrator. I would imagine if I tell some shell
variable where to find what pine calls its ``mailbox collections'' the
utility might know where to look. But no luck there.
Best I can do it to link, in the shell, the directory where the files
are to something convenient like c:\mailboxes or easier set a variable
to most of the path -- so I do not have to type a lot of long paths.
Strange, these details are not document in the many man pages. Probably
someone wrote it long ago, and no need to update since the program is
seldom used.
Philip Coates
Jul 28, 2013, 3:18:47 AM7/28/13
to
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