Re: [LUG] Evolution Migration to Thunderbird

[alan <amd@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 2004.08.11 19:24 alan wrote:
> On 2004.08.11 19:06 Julian Hall wrote:
> > Julian Hall wrote:
> >
> > > I work for two of the ISPs I use.. we don't support IMAP.
> > Oops... wrong lamppost..... I've just realised.  What I'm trying to 
> > do is get mail I've already received from one mail client into 
> > another.  fetchmail/LDAP may be of use for future incoming mail but 
> > that still leaves me with over a year's worth in the old client.
>
> A bit of a sad solution, but why not forward it to yourself, and pick 
> it up with the new client ?
> Obviously set up a few rules first so it all goes into the correct 
> folders etc.
> Doesn't have to be done all at once either, unless you are constantly 
> needing access to 12 month old mail.
> Even then, you still have the old client don't you ?

Having said that, I just googled on the issue and apparently -
> >
I've been using Evolution and Thunderbird a lot and I can tell you that 
they use the same underlying mailbox structure (some UNIX standard mail 
format).

What that means is that you can manually move mailboxes between the two 
programs, as long as you have a matching folder structure.

eg. folder inbox in Evolution has a file called mbox (which is the mail 
store).

In Thunderbird, there is a similar file, this time called inbox.

The key point here is that in Evolution the file is always called mbox 
and the directory structure defines what the actual message box is, 
whereas in Thunderbird the file is always named after the message 
folder.

Simply copying one across to the other and changing the name makes its 
contents available - I know this works because I ported all my 
Evolution mail to Thunderbird. And that was between Linux Evolution and 
WINXP Thunderbird.

Now, you could be really clever and symbolically link the two files, so 
that whichever program you used was up to date. I've not tried this yet 
but I am about to.

Finally, it should be relatively easy to write a small script that 
ports the boxes between the mailers. With a bit of cleverness, it might 
even be able to generate the appropriate directory and subdirectory 
structures.

> >
source - 
http://simon.incutio.com/archive/2003/06/18/thunderbirdExtensions

Someone has written a Ruby script too ...
Worth trying anyway.

alan

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