Emails split by thunderbird by "From" word in text
Hello, I'm new to thunderbird, imported existing mail folders from alpine. Things work more or less fine, except that any email in which the word "From" appears as the first word of a new paragraph is interpreted by TB as a new email (ie as the email header "From:" field). Example:
From: xyz Date: *** To: *** Subject: ***
Text starts here
From and more text here
more text here
From word on the first line, and more text
The above results in three different "emails" appearing in the inbox, two of which are just the bits of text as shown.
Thanks for any advice! D Aczel
All Replies (3)
imported how? Given there is more than one mbox format, I am guessing the one used by alpine and the one used by Thunderbird (the RD variant) are not the same.
I'm sorry, my question was not specific enough. The alpine mbox folders are simple UTF-8 textfiles. I have about 400 such folders to import from the current alpine folder collection, plus another 1200 in the folder archive. Importing such folders one by one using Add-on ImportExportToolsNG seems onerous and should be avoided if possible.
Hence I tested directly placing the original alpine UTF-8 files in the Local Folders directory of thunderbird plus the requisite support files and directory (.sbd, .msf) using a bash script, which had the additional advantage of putting each mbox in an appropriate subdirectory immediately. The results seemed fine, except for such special cases as the abovementioned "From" misidentification.
I have now tried using the option ImportExportTools > Import mbox file > Select a directory where searching the mbox files to import (also in subdirectories) and achieved some results. This would at least allow me to get through all the folders with about 1600 clicks :-)
Any better way? Thanks again D Aczel
It might be onerous, but if the tool imports from the mbox variant that the file is stored in, then tedious is preferable to corrupt.
Your question was quite specific, Thunderbird does not import from Alpine. The MBOX format used by Alpine is apparently not the same as that used by Thunderbird. You might find someone in a arch Linux group that would be offering advice on bash scripts. But it is not something you will see in mainstream usage or support.
A better way would be to find a script that converts whatever mbox variant Apline uses/creates to that which Thunderbird uses. primarily to correctly escape the >froms: in message bodies. Your mbox file is not just a utf-8 text file. It is laid out according to one of the defined mbox standards
I am guessing based in the basic simplicity of Alpine that is used the MBOXO sub format.