Entourage 2004 import Unix mbox

[Henry]

The only way I can import mbox folders is from Programs in Entourage
2004. Importing text files with the mbox selection doesn't work. Why? I
have another mail (Unix version called GyazMail), which is very
compatible importing from Apple Mail.app, but keeps the mboxes
differently than Mail. It does allow them to be exported or drag and
dropped, but the dropped files aren't recognized by Entourage 2004 in
any way.

What can I do to get messages, signatures, and attachments exported. I
will also write the author of GyazMail and ask him how this can be
done.

Henry

 

[Henry]

Believe I answered my own problem thanks to Goichio Hirakawa, the
author of GyazMail. As promised in my last post I got him to look at
the problem and give us all some advice.

Goicho reports that his test of the import from GyazMail, which uses
mbox format files to Entourage fails because Entourage want a creator
code of type "TEXT" to be able to deal with an mbox file- this is
seemingly implied by the import "wizard" but not mentioned specifically
anywhere. As this is non-standard in the mbox world ('UNIX don't
care'), he will change the export of his program (GyazMail) to export
files of Creator type "TEXT".

With Apple Mail I found that the symptom is the same but there you can
import from the program directly (into Entourage with an import
setting) to get around the problem. I hope this info helps anyone
similarly affected.

Regards,

Henry

 

[Edw]

And I just now finally got Applemail on 10.3.8 to import standard mbox
mail files(http://www.qmail.org/man/man5/mbox.html) that are created in
/var/spool/mail on a Unix True 64, Dec Alpha machine(now HP) once the
suffix .mbox is put on all the files in the directory..( I did it on
one file, and it still wouldn't 'see' any files . note that they
remain greyed out until you say choose in the higher level directory,
then if it 'likes' them, it lists them in
the working window, with check boxes next to them..) and also you may
need to create
the mailbox folder named 'Import' first too, dunno if it will create
it's own..

Now, I shall attempt to dump some folders from M$ exchange using 'Geeks
guide to sending and receiving e-mail via telnetting" by Ben (ie telnet
mail-server 110 | tee mymail
user me
pass you
list
retr 1
retr 2
retr 3
)

Ed

PS: I tried a .txt suffix first, and it didn't like it, but maybe I
didn't do all of 'em..but you gave me the idea to try .mbox. And when
you do get info in finder, it shows up with a mail box icon!

 

[Edw]

I found the trick: Put the following in front of the text of your
mbox, and it will recognize it, even the stuff from Outlook Exchange
that I retrieved using the Geek's Guide to telenetting'; it even found
the correct subject, and from and to for the first message, but of
course the rest followed continuously..

From MAILER-DAEMON Tue Mar 8 17:22:45 2005

Date: 08 Mar 2005 17:22:45 -0800
From: Mail System Internal Data <[email protected]>
Subject: DON'T DELETE THIS MESSAGE -- FOLDER INTERNAL DATA
X-IMAP: 1110331365 0000000000
Status: RO

This text is part of the internal format of your mail folder, and is
not
a real message. It is created automatically by the mail system
software.
If deleted, important folder data will be lost, and it will be
re-created
with the data reset to initial values.

From (e-mail address removed) Tue Mar 8 17:25:25 2005 -0800

....
I think if you put the line '

From (e-mail address removed) Tue Mar 8 17:25:25 2005 -0800

between each message before importing them they will all separate
out nicely...

Ed

PS: now it even recognizes the file with the .txt suffix, so it's not
in the suffix entirely.. hmm

 

[Edw]

It worked! I loaded up the file mymail in the terminal window with vi
(text editor) and did

:415,47919s/^+OK/From (e-mail address removed) Tue Mar 8 17:25:25 2005 -0800/g

and that replaced all the responses of +OK from the PoPmail server
between each retrieved message with that line in the whole file from
line 415 thru 47919; I wrote it out as mymail.txt
and the Applemail import utility recognized it as an mbox file and gave
me all the messages in the mailbox import-2 drawer (I think they call
it).


Ed

 

[Edw]

Just as an after thought, I automated the process of retrieving all the
e-mails from a Pop3 account's
inbox using the script:
#!/bin/sh
ptybandage telnet pop.mail.server 110 <<EOF >junk
user me
pass you
list
quit
EOF
count=`echo '0'`
cat junk|\
while read i
do
set - $i
if [ -n "$1" ]; then
count=`expr $count + 1`
ptybandage telnet pop.mail.server 110 <<EOF >>mymail5
user me
pass upi
retr $count
dele $count
quit
EOF
echo "/*$count - $i */"
sleep 1s
fi
done |tee junk5

This runs nicely from the terminal of a MacOSX 10.3.8 iBook. The
ptybandage had to be
downloaded and compiled using it's make (You might need to install
Xcode to get make).


Ed

 

[Henry]

It is _much_ simpler than that in the finder. Just rename the exported
mailboxes (folders) file from Mail with ".mbox" suffix and the finder
will ask you to Ok the change. Thereafter you will see the file icon
changed and it wil drag and drop into Entourage whereever you want it.
Entourage does have to be running on your system to do this.

Anyway it seems easier to me...