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mergemail(1)

COLLECTMAIL(1)  —  NEWS-OS Programmer’s Manual

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 kernel. 

NEWS-OSRelease 4.2.1R

Typewritten Software • bear@typewritten.org • Edmonds, WA 98026