[Gllug] Mail formats

[Pete Ryland]

On Sat, Jan 25, 2003 at 02:42:15PM +0000, Andrew Black wrote:
> I have some mail sitting on a RiscPC that I would like to import onto a
> Linux (Mandrake 9) machine.  In the first instance I am proposing to
> read using Evolution, but would like the possibility of using other
> clients in the future (eg a non graphic mail program so I can use via
> ssh/telnet.

Note that although Evolution does a very good job of interacting with other
clients, I've noticed that mail that I've read in Evolution does not get
marked as read for the other clients.  Also, it will add in a header to
every mail it encounters, so accessing a large mailbox for the first time
from Evo can take some time.

> THis seems to give the option of "Standard Unix mbox spools" and
> "Maildir format mail directories".  WHich of these is preferable. 

I've been told that Maildir is very good, but never bothered looking into
it ("if it ain't broke..").  mbox is older and simpler and just about
everything understands it (including grep and less and mutt -f :).  If it's
already in mbox format, I don't see any reason to convert it to anything
else.

> If I export folders in mbox format, where in my home directory should i
> place the mail? 

Whereever you like.  ~/.mail/ is where I usually put mail, or in this case
maybe in a subdirectory off whatever is your normal mail directory.  Or, if
you want it integrated with your other mail cat it onto the end of your
normal mailbox (you should actually lock the mailbox to do this too - see
the manual pages for mbox, mutt_dotlock and lockfile for details).

Pete
-- 
Pete Ryland
http://pdr.cx/

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