Re: switching from mbox to maildir in mutt, exim, etc.: how?
Paul E Condon <pecondon@mesanetworks.net>:
> I'm looking at my system backups and notice that there is some clutter
> form mbox files being updated almost daily. I think the clutter would
> be reduced by switching to maildir (true?), but I wonder about other
> consequences of such a switch. In particular, when I google the topic
> of how to switch, I find only people asking the question, and some
> comment to the effect 'why bother?', but no answers. Is it a bad idea
> for reasons which I have not yet fathomed? Where can I find a recent
> HOWTO that adresses Debian issues, if it is not bad?
If the clutter is stuff that you want to retain but not have in your
mailbox, you need only write a cronjob:
cat ${MAILDIR}/${f} | gzip >> \
$SOME_ARCHIVE_MAIL_DIR/${YEAR}_Mail_${f}.gz
cat /dev/null > ${MAILDIR}/${f}
(suitably idiot-proofed, of course). :-) As for converting, there are
utilities out there that convert mbox to maildir format. Try
groups.google.* for that. From what I know, mbox is purported to be
more brittle or less robust than maildir, but some traditional *nix
related tools prefer mbox. I've never experienced the purported
brittleness.
--
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