alderson@portia.Stanford.EDU (Rich Alderson) (09/12/89)
I'm having a little trouble with mail files in different formats. As I under-
stand it, rmail is (should be) able to read several different mail-file formats
and convert them to babyl-style. It also claims to write out both babyl- and
mbox- (unix-mail) style files on request.
Here's how I got into my present predicament. I use Gnews 2.0 to read news,
and when I started I wasn't yet keen on using rmail for other mail, so I used
(setq gnews-save-style 'gnews-output-to-mbox-file)
in my .emacs. This made gnews save articles in "UNIX mail format"--which it
did by calling the appropriate routine in the rmail package.
Now, when I wanted to turn to rmail as my primary mail reader (having convinced
myself that it's pretty much the same as Babyl under ITS or Tops-20), I decided
to convert all those save files from "mbox" to "babyl" format. That's the
problem: Any file saved in "mbox" format, with any number of messages, comes
into rmail as a single message.
Now, I've used Columbia's version of MM for UNIX on these files, and THAT has
no problem reading them as multiple messages. If I move them to another file
with MM, rmail mumbles over the resulting file for a LONG time, then comes up
empty.
What am I doing wrong? (NB: The answer to this question is neither "Use GNUS"
nor "Use VM"--I'd like to explore rmail for a while before I go on from there.)
Rich Alderson
alderson@{jessica,portia,polya}.stanford.edu (Unices)
a.alderson@{macbeth,hamlet}.stanford.edu (Twenices)rlk@think.com (Robert Krawitz) (09/12/89)
In article <5245@portia.Stanford.EDU>, alderson@portia (Rich Alderson) writes:
]I'm having a little trouble with mail files in different formats. As I under-
]stand it, rmail is (should be) able to read several different mail-file formats
]and convert them to babyl-style. It also claims to write out both babyl- and
]mbox- (unix-mail) style files on request.
It understands Unix format, Babyl format, and MMDF format. It does not
understand Twenex MM format.
]Now, when I wanted to turn to rmail as my primary mail reader (having convinced
]myself that it's pretty much the same as Babyl under ITS or Tops-20), I decided
]to convert all those save files from "mbox" to "babyl" format. That's the
]problem: Any file saved in "mbox" format, with any number of messages, comes
]into rmail as a single message.
What version of emacs are you using? I've never had this problem.
Conceivably gnews could be doing something weird.
]What am I doing wrong? (NB: The answer to this question is neither "Use GNUS"
]nor "Use VM"--I'd like to explore rmail for a while before I go on from there.)
I'm certainly not going to tell you that; I use rmail (I was actually a
developer of it), and I beta-tested gnews and still use it. I won't be
able to do anything about this for a while, as I'm about to go on
vacation, but I'd be curious about it. Can you leave me a sample output
file where I can ftp it anonymously and send me mail about where it is?
--
ames >>>>>>>>> | Robert Krawitz <rlk@think.com> 245 First St.
bloom-beacon > |think!rlk Cambridge, MA 02142
harvard >>>>>> . Thinking Machines Corp. (617)876-1111jbw@bucsf.bu.edu (Joe Wells) (09/13/89)
In article <5245@portia.Stanford.EDU> alderson@portia.Stanford.EDU (Rich Alderson) writes:
Now, when I wanted to turn to rmail as my primary mail reader (having
convinced myself that it's pretty much the same as Babyl under ITS or
Tops-20), I decided to convert all those save files from "mbox" to
"babyl" format. That's the problem: Any file saved in "mbox" format,
with any number of messages, comes into rmail as a single message.
This is almost always the result of a unrecognized From line format. The
From line is the one that looks like this:
From jbw@ketchum Wed Jun 14 15:27:56 1989
Rmail uses a regular expression to search for these lines in a Unix format
mail file. If your mail files are even slightly nonstandard (eg., an
extra space at the end of the line), rmail will screw up.
Good luck!
--
Joe Wells <jbw@bucsf.bu.edu>
jbw%bucsf.bu.edu@bu-it.bu.edu
...!harvard!bu-cs!bucsf!jbw