switching to mbx problems

switching to mbx problems

[urgrue]

im wanting to switch my mailboxes over from generic crappy unix format 
to mbx.
ive compiled a newer imap and pop daemon, and converted some test boxes 
over to mbx. i can successfully read from them.

but then they break. i figure that when new mail gets delivered, my 
procmail is just writing to the mailbox as if it was the same old unix 
format, which creates a hybrid starts-out-as-mbx-ends-as-unix mailbox. 
which nobody can read.

procmail doesnt seem to be mbx aware, yet ive seen claims that mbx is 
the current preferred mailbox format. 
can i get procmail to handle mbx? if not, any suggestions?

Re: switching to mbx problems

[urgrue]

and continuing on this topic, am i correct in understanding that 
maildir format works in procmail, but is only supported by courier imap?

(can't they all just get together and agree on a good, efficient 
mailbox format?? its almost embarassing that MICROSOFT EXCHANGE seems 
to have the best mailbox format. oh, the HUMILIATION!)




On 2003.06.04 16:16, urgrue wrote:
> im wanting to switch my mailboxes over from generic crappy unix format
> 
> to mbx.
> ive compiled a newer imap and pop daemon, and converted some test
> boxes
> over to mbx. i can successfully read from them.
> 
> but then they break. i figure that when new mail gets delivered, my
> procmail is just writing to the mailbox as if it was the same old unix
> 
> format, which creates a hybrid starts-out-as-mbx-ends-as-unix mailbox.
> 
> which nobody can read.
> 
> procmail doesnt seem to be mbx aware, yet ive seen claims that mbx is
> the current preferred mailbox format.
> can i get procmail to handle mbx? if not, any suggestions?
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-
> admin"
> in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
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> 

Re: switching to mbx problems

[Chuck Campbell]

Well,
I did a quick look and found nothing in the procmail docs about mbx.  I did
a google search on "procmail mbx" and found that the short answer is 
no native procmail support for mbx format because:
  1)It is not a documented format.
  2)Someone would have to reverse engineer it to write code to support it.


I do not claim to speak for the developers.  Check with the procmail mailing 
list to be sure.

-chuck


On Wed, Jun 04, 2003 at 04:16:23PM +0300, urgrue wrote:
> im wanting to switch my mailboxes over from generic crappy unix format 
> to mbx.
> ive compiled a newer imap and pop daemon, and converted some test boxes 
> over to mbx. i can successfully read from them.
> 
> but then they break. i figure that when new mail gets delivered, my 
> procmail is just writing to the mailbox as if it was the same old unix 
> format, which creates a hybrid starts-out-as-mbx-ends-as-unix mailbox. 
> which nobody can read.
> 
> procmail doesnt seem to be mbx aware, yet ive seen claims that mbx is 
> the current preferred mailbox format. 
> can i get procmail to handle mbx? if not, any suggestions?
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-admin" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html

-- 
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 2401 Fountain View |   and Integrated Interpretation   |  1(713)993-0608 fax
     Suite 900      |                                   |
 Houston, TX, 77057 |          Chuck Campbell           | campbell@accelinc.com
                    |  President & Senior Geoscientist  |

     "Integration means more than having all the maps at the same scale!"

Re: switching to mbx problems

[Chuck Campbell]

 further looking shows the page I paraphrased is a couple of years old.

I think you can find some better help here:

http://ii.best.vwh.net/internet/robots/procmail/qs/


-chuck


-- 
ACCEL Services, Inc.| Specialists in Gravity, Magnetics |  1(713)993-0671 ph.
 2401 Fountain View |   and Integrated Interpretation   |  1(713)993-0608 fax
     Suite 900      |                                   |
 Houston, TX, 77057 |          Chuck Campbell           | campbell@accelinc.com
                    |  President & Senior Geoscientist  |

     "Integration means more than having all the maps at the same scale!"

Re: switching to mbx problems

[urgrue]

ok i got it. procmail doesnt/cant support mbx, but a simple workaround is 
to use dmail, which can, and call it from procmail. like so:
:0
balh blah rules rules rules
|/bin/dmail +mailfolder

this works fine.
the only problem now is that dmail delivers new mail to the old 
/var/spool/mail/user spool file, in the old unix format, instead of into 
~/INBOX in the mbx format, as it should (according to the documentation).
but otherwise its working now.

thanks,
fred


At 09:40 4.6.2003 -0500, Chuck Campbell wrote:
>  further looking shows the page I paraphrased is a couple of years old.
>
>I think you can find some better help here:
>
>http://ii.best.vwh.net/internet/robots/procmail/qs/
>
>
>-chuck
>
>
>--
>ACCEL Services, Inc.| Specialists in Gravity, Magnetics |  1(713)993-0671 ph.
>  2401 Fountain View |   and Integrated Interpretation   |  1(713)993-0608 fax
>      Suite 900      |                                   |
>  Houston, TX, 77057 |          Chuck Campbell           | 
> campbell@accelinc.com
>                     |  President & Senior Geoscientist  |
>
>      "Integration means more than having all the maps at the same scale!"

Re: switching to mbx problems

[paul niemandt]

two words of advice ...

1. maildir 
2. qmail


On Wed, 2003-06-04 at 14:35, urgrue wrote:
> and continuing on this topic, am i correct in understanding that 
> maildir format works in procmail, but is only supported by courier imap?
> 
> (can't they all just get together and agree on a good, efficient 
> mailbox format?? its almost embarassing that MICROSOFT EXCHANGE seems 
> to have the best mailbox format. oh, the HUMILIATION!)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On 2003.06.04 16:16, urgrue wrote:
> > im wanting to switch my mailboxes over from generic crappy unix format
> > 
> > to mbx.
> > ive compiled a newer imap and pop daemon, and converted some test
> > boxes
> > over to mbx. i can successfully read from them.
> > 
> > but then they break. i figure that when new mail gets delivered, my
> > procmail is just writing to the mailbox as if it was the same old unix
> > 
> > format, which creates a hybrid starts-out-as-mbx-ends-as-unix mailbox.
> > 
> > which nobody can read.
> > 
> > procmail doesnt seem to be mbx aware, yet ive seen claims that mbx is
> > the current preferred mailbox format.
> > can i get procmail to handle mbx? if not, any suggestions?
> > -
> > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-
> > admin"
> > in
> > the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> > More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> > 
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-admin" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
-- 
paul niemandt <maudib@acesurfer.co.za>

Re: switching to mbx problems

[James Turnbull]

paul niemandt wrote:
> two words of advice ...
> 
> 1. maildir
> 2. qmail

Or...

1. Maildir
2. Postfix

Regards

James Turnbull
   

Re: switching to mbx problems

[urgrue]

sounds like the beginning of a mailer war ;)

i think its very much a subjective thing. personally i cant get a grip 
on the dj bernstein school of configuration logic. haven't tried 
postfix though. but anyway i got mbx working fine now and it seems very 
nice so far.
anyway as far as i understand maildir isnt significantly faster or 
better than mbx. at least there seem to be opinions both ways, whereas 
i dont see anyone defending traditional unix format ;)
anyway id rather stick with what i know and am mostly happy with 
(sendmail, wu-imap).


On 2003.06.05 08:25, James Turnbull wrote:
> paul niemandt wrote:
> > two words of advice ...
> >
> > 1. maildir
> > 2. qmail
> 
> Or...
> 
> 1. Maildir
> 2. Postfix
> 
> Regards
> 
> James Turnbull
> 
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-
> admin"
> in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> 
> 

Re: switching to mbx problems

[Glynn Clements]

urgrue wrote:

> anyway as far as i understand maildir isnt significantly faster or 
> better than mbx. at least there seem to be opinions both ways, whereas 
> i dont see anyone defending traditional unix format ;)

Traditional Unix mbox format is fine for mail *spools*, where all
access boils down to either:

a) append new message(s) to the end of the spool, or
b) copy the entire contents of the spool elsewhere then remove/empty
it.

It also trivially satisfies the single most important property for any
mail storage format: the ability to turn it back into Unix mbox format
in case you want to switch to a different mail program.

If you have requirements that mbox format doesn't satisfy (i.e. you
need random access), use mbox plus a binary catalogue (i.e. the
Netscape solution).

BTW, if you intend to use Maildir on a dedicated mail server, make
sure that the partition has an adequate inode-to-disk-space ratio;
using one inode per 4Kb is a recipe for running out of inodes when the
disk is only half full.

-- 
Glynn Clements <glynn.clements@virgin.net>

Re: switching to mbx problems

[James Turnbull]

urgrue wrote:
> sounds like the beginning of a mailer war ;)
>
> i think its very much a subjective thing. personally i cant get a grip
> on the dj bernstein school of configuration logic. haven't tried
> postfix though. but anyway i got mbx working fine now and it seems
> very nice so far.

:)  No desire to start a mailer war.  My entirely subjective and personal
opionion about Postfix is based on ease of install and security.  I mucked
around some with sendmail, exim, qmail and courier but found the mailer that
suited me best was Postfix.

As regards Maildir - again stating personal and subjective opinion.  I
operate a large IMAP environment and my experience of mbx versus Maildir is
that the Maildir format was faster.  But the other factors - hardware,
network, volume of mail - make choosing a mail format probably best done
after some personal benchmarking to find the best solution for you
personally.

Regards

James Turnbull