[vox-tech] Email

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Susan Baur (susan at cdl.edu):

> Hi Richard,
> 
> Did you see this stackoverflow article?
> 
> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4780441/how-to-import-mails-into-thunderbird-from-maildir-format

Despite the URL and title, the question posed (and I'll get to the two
answers in a moment) involve figuring out how to get mails down from a
local IMAP server (something like Dovecot).  The local IMAPd is said to
have _its_ message store in Maildir.

Answer #1 was:  Use a local mail reader to bulk-pull all mail from
the local IMAPd and save the mail from the local mail reader, e.g., to
mbox format.  Then use that mbox with Thunderbird.  (The helper was a
bit vague about how to do the latter part.)

Or, helper #1 adds, move the entire Maildir tree to the machine where
Thunderbird will be running, install Dovecot as a local IMAPd on said
machine with the Maildir tree as _its_ message store, and configure
Thunderbird to take its mail from the local IMAPd.

Answer 1a was a bit baroque, but suited the situation where the user had
a local IMAPd.  But Richard doesn't have one of those.

Answer 1b is even a bit more baroque, but in present context not only
assumes Richard has a local IMAPd but also will want to keep using one.



Answer #2 was:  Install the Import Export Tool extension for Thunderbird
(that I've mentioned before).  Rename all individual mails in the
Maildir trees to have .eml filename extensions (using utility mmv) and
then use the Import Export Tool extension's feature to 'Import all EML
files from a directory'.   This would work, if Richard has the mmv
utility.

I admire answer #2; it's ingenious.  Lots of ways to solve the problem,
and this one exhibited lateral thinking.  My own inclination would be to 
attack the problem directly and convert the Maildir tree to mbox using a
utiltiy for that purpose.