COLLECTMAIL(1) — Silicon Graphics
NAME
collectmail − convert mail from unix to rmail format
SYNOPSIS
collectmail [ message-directory ] [ mailbox ... ]
DESCRIPTION
This program was developed for use by the Emacs command rmail to convert a mail folder (or folders) in Unix format (a file containing many messages) to a "snapshot" folder in Rmail format (a directory containing separate message files). Two familiar examples of a Unix folder are the files ~/mbox and your mail spool file that is read with the mail(1) command.
Collectmail reads a list of mailboxes (by default, your mail spool file), splits the mail found in each one into separate files, and places them in the message-directory (default: ~/Messages/Folder-XXXXXXXX, where XXXXXXXX is a unique hexadecimal number). It creates a file called "Directory" which is also placed in the message-directory . The first line of this file is the name of the mailbox from which the message-directory was created (in the case of a list of mailboxes, it is the first one on the list). "Directory" is a listing of information about each message in the form:
<flags> <message-filename> <sender> <subject>
The first column contains some flags: ’>’ indicates the current message, ’B’ indicates that the message is a blindcopy (ie. A copy of a message that you sent to someone else), ’A’ indicates that you’ve answered the message, ’N’ indicates that the message is new and unread, and ’n’ indicates that the message is new and read.
The second column contains a filename that is the internal name of that message.
The third column contains the sender of the message, unless it is a blindcopy, in which case it contains the destination (indicated by "=>").
The fourth column contains the subject of the message.
After the contents of mailbox have been placed in the message-directory , the mailbox file is truncated.
For information on the Emacs database facility, see the following documents:
Emacs Reference Manual
FILES
~/mbox
~/Messages/<foldername>/Directory
SEE ALSO
mergemail(1)merges an Emacs mail folder with an Unix mail folder.
BUGS
For now, it does no locking on the mail box, unless you have the exclusive-access mod to the Unix kernel.
Version 2.5r1 — December 06, 1986