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diff --git a/doc/wiki/Migration.MailFormat.txt b/doc/wiki/Migration.MailFormat.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5fb1921 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/wiki/Migration.MailFormat.txt @@ -0,0 +1,247 @@ +Converting between mailbox formats +================================== + +If you want a transparent migration, the biggest problem is preserving message +UIDs. See <Migration.txt> for the problems this may cause. If you do the +conversion with dsync, it preserves the UIDs. + +dsync +----- + +With dsync you can convert between any two mailbox formats that Dovecot +supports. As much of the mailbox state is preserved as possible. Typically it's +everything. See <Tools.Dsync.txt> for full documentation, here are only a +couple of examples: + + * mbox -> maildir migration. Set 'mail_location=maildir:~/Maildir' and run + 'dsync -u username mirror mbox:~/mail:INBOX=/var/mail/username' + * maildir -> mdbox migration. Set 'mail_location=mdbox:~/mdbox' and run 'dsync + -u username mirror maildir:~/Maildir' + * maildir -> sdbox migration. Set 'mail_location=sdbox:~/sdbox' and run 'dsync + -u username mirror maildir:~/Maildir' + +If you can successfully use dsync, you can skip the rest of this page. + +Converting from mbox to Maildir +------------------------------- + + * mb2md.pl with Dovecot modifications [http://dovecot.org/tools/mb2md.pl] can + convert mails, preserving UIDs and keywords. + * See also [attachment:migrateuser.sh script to drive the full migration + for a user]. + * This script requires patched 'mailutil' that supports Maildir. One + working 'mailutil' binary is RHEL4 PINE RPM + [http://dag.wieers.com/rpm/packages/pine/pine-4.64-3.el4.rf.i386.rpm] + from the DAG RPM Repository [http://dag.wieers.com/rpm/]. You could + also patch any version of pine/c-client and patch it with the Maildir + patches from + http://staff.washington.edu/chappa/pine/info/maildir.html. + * mb2md.py [http://dovecot.org/list/dovecot/2008-March/029736.html] can + convert also message UIDs. + * Yet another way to fix the UIDL migration problem. If you can generate an + uildlist ("messagenumber uidl" pairs), use my new -U uidllist option to + inject X-UILD: headers in the converted Maildir-file. The modified mb2md + script is avalable here:mb2md.xuidl.pl.gz + [http://www.chaos.dk/~sch/mb2md.xuidl/mb2md.xuidl.pl.gz]. I used this to + convert a cucipop installation to dovecot. pop3_reuse_xuidl=yes will do the + rest./-- <SoerenSchroeder.txt> 2009-02-13/ + +Check also the *User-Contributed Maildir Support* section on the qmail +community site [http://www.qmail.org/top.html#usersoft] for more choices. + +Example (user's mail in '~someuser/mail' and INBOX in '/var/mail/someuser'): + +---%<------------------------------------------------------------------------- +cd ~someuser +mb2md-3.20.pl -s mail -R +mb2md-3.20.pl -m -s /var/mail/someuser +mv mail mail.old +---%<------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Now the mail will be in '~someuser/Maildir'. Do not forget to migrate the +subscriptions as well, otherwise the new maildir will seem to have only an +inbox when viewed through a mail client that supports them. This can be as +simple as copying the old '~someuser/mail/.subscriptions' file to +'~someuser/Maildir/subscriptions' (warning: I have not tested this extensively, +my subscription list and folder hierarchy was very simplistic). + +Hierarchy separator change +-------------------------- + +The default hierarchy separator with Maildir is '.' instead of '/' which is +common with mboxes. To keep the migration transparent to users, you can keep +the '/' separator by using <namespaces> [Namespaces.txt]. In any case you need +to replace the '/' with '.' in the subscriptions file: + + * ---%<---------------------------------------------------------------------- + sed 's:/:.:g' subscriptions > subscriptions.new + mv subscriptions.new subscriptions + ---%<---------------------------------------------------------------------- + +UW-IMAP's subscriptions file is in '~/.mailboxlist'. Dovecot's mbox +subscriptions is in '<mbox root dir>/.subscriptions'. Dovecot's Maildir +subscriptions is in '<maildir root>/subscriptions'. + +Also if you're migrating from UW-IMAP, you probably had "mail/" prefixes in the +mailbox names. You can again use <namespaces> [Namespaces.txt] to let clients +use the prefix, or you can tell your users to remove the namespace prefix from +their clients and change the subscriptions file: + +---%<------------------------------------------------------------------------- +sed 's/^mail\.//' subscriptions > subscriptions.new +mv subscriptions.new subscriptions +---%<------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Note that because Maildir uses '.' as the hierarchy separator in filesystem, +it's not possible to have mailbox names containing '.' characters, even if you +changed the separator in namespaces. If you really want to have dots, the only +way to do this is by modifying the filesystem separator in 'MAILDIR_FS_SEP' and +'MAILDIR_FS_SEP_S' defines in 'src/lib-storage/index/maildir/maildir-storage.h' +file in the sources. Do not be tempted to change 'MAILDIR_FS_SEP' et al to +'/'; it won't work. + +Converting from Maildir to mbox +------------------------------- + +This is especially helpful if you want to archive your mail to a single file +for storage on a CD, a PC, etc. But it can also be helpful if you want to use +<mbox> [MailboxFormat.mbox.txt] with Dovecot. + +Use the reformail program that comes with maildrop +[http://www.courier-mta.org/maildrop/]. You can also use the formail program +that comes with procmail [http://www.procmail.org/]. Here is a simple script +showing how this works. + +To use it, adjust the script to invoke the right command according to your +system. + +Then 'cd' to the user's home directory (one level above 'Maildir') and run the +script with two arguments: the mailbox name (You can use "." for the top-level +folder), and the output mbox filename, for example: + +---%<------------------------------------------------------------------------- +cd ~hans +perl dw-maildirtombox.pl . >/tmp/hans-inbox +perl dw-maildirtombox.pl Sent >/tmp/hans-sent +---%<------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +---%<------------------------------------------------------------------------- +#!/usr/bin/env perl +# dw-maildirtombox.pl +# dw = Dovecot Wiki :-) +# NOTE! The output file must not contain single quotes (')! +# figure out which program to run +$cmd="reformail -f1"; +system("$cmd </dev/null >/dev/null 2>/dev/null") == 0 or $cmd="formail"; +system("$cmd </dev/null >/dev/null 2>/dev/null") == 0 +or die "cannot find reformail or formail on your \$PATH!\nAborting"; +$dir=$ARGV[0]; +$outputfile=$ARGV[1]; +if (($outputfile eq '') || ($dir eq '')) +{ die "Usage: ./archivemail.pl mailbox outputfile\nAborting"; } +if (!stat("Maildir/$dir/cur") || !stat("Maildir/$dir/new")) +{ die "Maildir/$dir is not a maildir.\nAborting"; } +@files = (<Maildir/$dir/cur/*>,<Maildir/$dir/new/*>); +foreach $file (@files) { + next unless -f $file; # skip non-regular files + next unless -s $file; # skip empty files + next unless -r $file; # skip unreadable files + $file =~ s/'/'"'"'/; # escape ' (single quote) + $run = "cat '$file' | $cmd >>'$outputfile'"; + system($run) == 0 or warn "cannot run \"$run\"."; +} +---%<------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Converting from MBX to Maildir +------------------------------ + +See the uw2dovecot.pl +[http://wiki.dovecot.org/Migration/UW?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=uw2dovecot.pl] +as mentioned on the <Migration.UW.txt> page. + +Converting from MBX to mbox +--------------------------- + +If you are using UW-IMAP and using the <MBX format> [MailboxFormat.mbx.txt], +you will need to convert it to <mbox> [MailboxFormat.mbox.txt] format. The +conversion process isn't pretty, but here is a script that works. You will need +to get and compile the mailutil program from the UW-IMAP web site +[http://www.washington.edu/imap/]. + +---%<------------------------------------------------------------------------- +#! /bin/sh +# Written by Marc Perkel - public domain +# overhauled by Matthias Andree, 2006 +# Usage: mbx-convert <filename> +# This code assumes there a user named "marc" with the primary group "marc". +# Change to any real user on your system. +# Yes - it look bizzare - but it gets the job done +# abort on error +set -e +user=marc +group=marc +homedir=/home/$user +if [ $# -ne 1 ] ; then + echo >&2 "Usage: $0 <filename>" + exit 1 +fi +# set up automatic cleanup +trap 'rm -f "${homedir}"/in.$$ "${homedir}"/out.$$' 0 +# First copy to users home dir and make the user the owner +cp "$1" "${homedir}/in.$$" +chown "$user":"$group" "${homedir}/in.$$" +# Run mailutil to convert as the user other than root +# mailutil requires this +su "$user" -c "mailutil copy in.$$ \#driver.unix/out.$$" +# create new file with same permissions/owner as old +cp -p "$1" "${1}.new" +# cat instead of copy leaves the original owner and permissions alone +if cat "${homedir}/out.$$" >"${1}.new" ; then + # cat succeeded, rename file into place + mv "${1}.new" "$1" +else + # cat failed, remove temp file + rm -f "${1}.new" + exit 1 +fi +---%<------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Make a copy of some folders and test it first. Once you are satisfied that it +works then: + + * Write a script to convert all your files. + * Shut down your email system so files can't be modified + * Copy all your email to a backup location in case you have to revert + * Run the script + * Turn on Dovecot and test to verify it is working + * Important - make sure that you changed your SMTP configuration to write mbox + and not MBX. + * Turn on SMTP and verify it is all working + +*User comments:* + + * Is this hassle actually necessary? I have run mailutil as root like this + (mailutil as provided by the PINE 4.61 package for SUSE Linux + 10.0):'mailutil copy /tmp/foo.mbx.orig '#driver.unix//tmp/foo.test'' and did + not encounter any problems./-- <MatthiasAndree.txt>, 2006-05-18/ + * I did the same (using 'mailutil') but it doesn't maintain UIDs or + UIDVALIDITY. So I hacked[attachment:mbx2mbox.tgz this] together to do the + migration./-- <JulianFitzell.txt>, 2008-08-02/ + * Tried to do 'mailutil -v copy /tmp/foo '#driver.unix'/tmp/foo.unix', but + mailutil argues 'Can't open mailbox /tmp/foo: no such mailbox'. (mailutil as + from the Debian package uw-mailutils in Debian 5.0 Lenny) strace shows that + it searches for /tmp/foo/cur, i.e. a Maildir format mailbox. (WTF?) No idea + yet how to get this working. And I'm really glad when I got rid of MBX. -- + <AxelBeckert.txt>, 2009-06-19 + * As Mark Crispin always says: Don't use UW-IMAP with buggy (Maildir) + patches, compile your own. + * Same problem here - just reinstalled uw-imapd, used thunderbird to create + a "normal" mailfolder and copied the old folder contents - F.Fernandez + * At least with ubuntu mailutil from uw-mailutils it starts search from + root *ALWAYS* and if you start with slash it tries to convert from + maildir format 'mailutil -v copy /tmp/foo '#driver.unix'/tmp/foo.unix' = + convert maildir formated folder /tmp/foo/cur to mbox and 'mailutil -v + copy tmp/foo '#driver.unix'/tmp/foo.unix' = convert /tmp/foo file to mbox + - Manwe, 2010-03-09 + +(This file was created from the wiki on 2019-06-19 12:42) |