txt files to mbox?

[Andrew H]

I have a bunch of email threads that were sent to my institution in TXT format. I know that you can convert MBOX files to TXT, but is it possible to convert the other way? Also, I was under the impression that Aid4Mail was free but their website says it costs money. Is there a similar program that is free?

[Michael Kjörling]

On 7 Mar 2016 07:30 -0800, from achi...@shaw.ca (Andrew H):

> I have a bunch of email threads that were sent to my institution in TXT
> format. I know that you can convert MBOX files to TXT, but is it possible
> to convert the other way?

Unix-style "mbox" files are simply emails in text form, almost always
RFC 822 format, concatenated together with a "From " line between each
message. The "From " (also sometimes referred to as "From_") line
gives the date and time of the message and the envelope sender. If you
received the emails as text files, you probably don't have the
envelope sender, but you can substitute the email address from the
"From:" header. (Note the difference between From_ and From: lines.
They are not interchangable.)

Wikipedia has an example at <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbox#Family>.

In other words, add From_ lines _if not already present_; concatenate
the files; and you'll have a valid mbox format file. Concatenation is
usually done in message received order, but this is not strictly
necessary.

--
Michael Kjörling • https://michael.kjorling.se • mic...@kjorling.se
“People who think they know everything really annoy
those of us who know we don’t.” (Bjarne Stroustrup)

[L Snider]

Hi Andrew,

The regular program is free for 50 emails (or similar) at one time, but if you want to do more you need to pay. As well the MBOX creator is free, but I have never used it as I always used the main program:

http://www.aid4mail.com/free-mbox-converter

I have not seen a converter that does txt to mbox.

Cheers

Lisa

On Mon, Mar 7, 2016 at 9:30 AM, Andrew H <achi...@shaw.ca> wrote:

I have a bunch of email threads that were sent to my institution in TXT format. I know that you can convert MBOX files to TXT, but is it possible to convert the other way? Also, I was under the impression that Aid4Mail was free but their website says it costs money. Is there a similar program that is free?

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