MBSPLIT

Synopsis

MBSPLIT [/?] [/ADDSTAMP[+|-]] wildcards …

Description

The MBSPLIT command reads a "mboxrd" form mailbox from its standard input, and splits it into individual messages, which it adds to a mailbox in the standard directory format. The mailbox is taken to be the working directory of the program.

Message flags

MBSPLIT understands the X-Mozilla-Status:, X-Mozilla-Status2:, and X-Mozilla-Tags: message headers, that Mozilla uses to store message state in its mailbox files. It will convert some of these flags to the equivalent mail directory flags. So splitting a Mozilla mailbox file will create a mail directory suitable for the IMAP server that will have the same seen/deleted/answered/label/etc. flags on messages as in the original Mozilla mailbox.

Many of the Mozilla status flags are client-side flags, that have no IMAP equivalents. These flags are ignored. Similarly, any Mozilla tags that are not, lexically, an IMAP "atom" will have the illegal characters replaced with underscore characters.

Note: When messages are deleted from a mailbox by Mozilla, Mozilla only sets a flag in the X-Mozilla-Status: header of the message. Only "compacting" the mailbox actually deletes the message. A Mozilla mailbox passed through MBSPLIT will result in previously deleted but not yet "compacted" mail messages being created as message files with the \Deleted IMAP flag set on them. They will be displayed as deleted but not yet expunged messages if served up by the IMAP server to IMAP clients, which is equivalent to their prior status in the Mozilla mailbox.

However, some versions of Netscape/Mozilla have a subtle bug that causes them to respect the "deleted" flags in X-Mozilla-Status: and X-Mozilla-Status2: headers even when messages are stored in an IMAP mailbox (where deleted messages are marked with a \Deleted IMAP flag, not with a header in the message itself). Those versions of Netscape/Mozilla erroneously do not display such messages. This is a display bug in Netscape/Mozilla. The messages exist, and can even be undeleted by other IMAP client softwares that do not have this bug.

Command-specific options

/ADDSTAMP
If this option is enabled, as it is by default, MBSPLIT prepends a Received: header to each message that it processes, tracing its path through MBSPLIT.

The Internet Utilities are © Copyright Jonathan de Boyne Pollard. "Moral" rights are asserted.