Converting mbx to Maildir format

Unix, Eudora, and numerous other programs use mbx format for mail, which stores all mail in a single file. Squirrelmail uses Maildir format, which stores each separate mail in a separate file in a particular directory.

To convert between mbx and maildir on Dreamhost, you need to set up a user with diskspace (SFTP or shell account); copy the mbx file to the new user's account; and convert the file.


 * 1) Set up a full user with disk space (SFTP or shell user; pop mailbox only users (m123456) won't work
 * 2) Copy the mbx file to the new user's account (e.g., sftp/ftp or chmod file permissions & cp the file to the correct user account).
 * 3) Convert the file. You can do this with a script, such as mb2md (google mb2md-3.20.pl).
 * 4) google for the file; one current location is pkgsrc.se
 * 5) install on the user's account; be sure to make the file executable by the user or group
 * 6) run the file on the .mbx; e.g., mb2md-3.20.pl -s yourmailboxname.mbx
 * 7) It will create a maildir in /home/username/Maildir
 * 8) !!! Be careful !!! If you have a preexisting folder, it will overwrite it!

The Maildir structure looks like this:

$ tree -a /home/username /home/username


 * |-- Maildir
 * |  |-- .Foldername
 * |  |-- .Foldername2
 * |  |-- .Foldername3
 * |  |-- courierimapkeywords
 * |  |-- courierimapsubscribed
 * |  |-- courierimapuiddb
 * |  |-- courierpop3dsizelist
 * |  |-- cur
 * |  |   |-- 1181751105.000000.mbox:2,S
 * |  |   |-- many other messages
 * |  |   `-- 1181751105.006159.mbox:2,
 * |  |-- new
 * |  `-- tmp
 * |-- chill-theplanet-060612
 * `-- logs
 * `-- resources
 * |-- chiller.sa.analyzed.0
 * |-- chiller.sa.itemized.0
 * `-- sa.analysis.pl

(If there are thousands of messages, then it will be a verrry long tree.)