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Re: Parsing mbox files with Windows Php

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Jerry Stuckle wrote:
> On 5/24/2013 5:57 PM, Chuck Anderson wrote:
>>
>> I have been slowly building a Php/MySQL based IMAP email client.  The
>> Php IMAP functions are well documented and easy to use.  I store
>> messages in a MySQL database (attachments in the file system) for ease
>> of organization, maintenance, backup and searching.  I like it enough
>> that I want to add my existing archive of email in Thunderbird.  To do
>> so, I need to parse mbox files and extract message headers, parts, and
>> attachments.  Thankfully, the Php IMAP functions can be used to open and
>> parse an mbox file (or even a single .eml file) as well as opening a
>> stream to the server.
>>
>> Using this functionality I can write a script to run on my WAMP
>> development machine that reads the Thunderbird folder structure, parses
>> the mbox files and saves individual messages along with their
>> folder/subfolder path in the Thunderbird folder hierarchy.  It should be
>> as easy as pointing it to the top of the folder structure and letting it
>> do all the work from there.
>>
>> Unfortunately, it appears that the Windows Php binary is unable to
>> connect to an mbox file, so to make my job easy, I would have to upload
>> the entire folder structure (it is about 200MBs) to my shared host and
>> process it there.  I would much rather "toy around" with this process on
>> my Windows development machine and not on the shared host.
>>
>> There is a Php bug filed for this, but it was determined that the
>> "underlying c-client function is unable to open a file."
>> https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=39880 - closed as "not a bug."
>>
>> $mbox = imap_open('pathto/mboxfile', '', '') // works on *nix, but not
>> on Windows.
>> - Warning: imap_open(): Couldn't open stream mboxfiles/Inbox ....
>> - Notice: Unknown: Can't open mailbox mboxfiles/Inbox: no such mailbox
>> (errflg=2) in Unknown on line 0.
>>    (This second error is the one coming from the underlying c-client
>> function.)
>>
>> I believe this is a dead end but want to check if anyone has happened to
>> figure out a way to make this work in Windows - or if you know of a
>> separate mbox file parser that would be fairly simple to integrate with
>> my current Php IMAP based scripts - dependent on the output of
>> imap_fetchstructure, imap_headerinfo, imap_fetchbody(parts).
>>
>> If not, I will probably build a form that lets me select individual
>> (smaller) sections of the folder hierarchy to process individually
>> (tedious and prone to error).
>>
>
> Are you sure Thunderbird's files are in imap format?  

I don't have the spec, but I have read as much.  And the imap functions 
do parse them nicely - on *nix.

> I didn't think they were - I thought they were in some 
> Thunderbird-specific format.

Thunderbird (I am still in version 2) uses the mbox format.  (I believe 
that means that the beginning of a new email is denoted by a blank line 
followed by "From - ....").  The rest is the usual email format, headers 
until a double line feed denoting the beginning of the body.  (Body 
lines that happen to begin with "From" have to have "From" escaped in 
those files.)

When saving a single email to a .eml file, before you can not parse it 
with imap functions you must insert a dummy "From - " line (separate 
from the usual From: header, this is "From - date") to the beginning of 
the headers.  Thunderbird places those into the mbox (multiple emails) file.

>
> But also, if you're opening 'pathto/mboxfile', why is it complaining 
> about 'mboxfiles...'?

Sorry.  I was using generic terms and switched terms (sloppy).  The 
error says it can not open the folder/file I specified.  When I run the 
exact same script on my shared Linux server (after uploading a sample 
Thunderbird mail file), the imap functions produce output exactly like 
they would if reading from a stream on the imap server.

-- 
*****************************
 Chuck Anderson • Boulder, CO
  http://cycletourist.com
 Turn Off, Tune Out, Drop In
*****************************

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Parsing mbox files with Windows Php Chuck Anderson <cycletourist@invalid.invalid> - 2013-05-24 15:57 -0600
  Re: Parsing mbox files with Windows Php Christoph Becker <cmbecker69@gmx.de> - 2013-05-25 00:40 +0200
    Re: Parsing mbox files with Windows Php Chuck Anderson <cycletourist@invalid.invalid> - 2013-05-24 21:17 -0600
    Re: Parsing mbox files with Windows Php Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2013-05-25 09:30 +0200
      Re: Parsing mbox files with Windows Php Christoph Becker <cmbecker69@gmx.de> - 2013-05-25 16:19 +0200
        Re: Parsing mbox files with Windows Php Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2013-05-25 17:19 +0200
          Re: Parsing mbox files with Windows Php Christoph Becker <cmbecker69@gmx.de> - 2013-05-25 17:48 +0200
            Re: Parsing mbox files with Windows Php Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2013-05-25 20:09 +0200
  Re: Parsing mbox files with Windows Php Jerry Stuckle <jstucklex@attglobal.net> - 2013-05-24 19:16 -0400
    Re: Parsing mbox files with Windows Php Chuck Anderson <cycletourist@invalid.invalid> - 2013-05-24 17:40 -0600
    Re: Parsing mbox files with Windows Php "Peter H. Coffin" <hellsop@ninehells.com> - 2013-05-25 10:50 -0500
  Re: Parsing mbox files with Windows Php Luuk <luuk@invalid.lan> - 2013-05-25 18:08 +0200
  Re: Parsing mbox files with Windows Php "Peter H. Coffin" <hellsop@ninehells.com> - 2013-05-25 11:14 -0500
    Re: Parsing mbox files with Windows Php Chuck Anderson <cycletourist@invalid.invalid> - 2013-05-25 16:39 -0600
      Re: Parsing mbox files with Windows Php Jerry Stuckle <jstucklex@attglobal.net> - 2013-05-26 23:11 -0400
        Re: Parsing mbox files with Windows Php Christoph Becker <cmbecker69@gmx.de> - 2013-05-27 14:13 +0200
          Re: Parsing mbox files with Windows Php Jerry Stuckle <jstucklex@attglobal.net> - 2013-05-27 08:49 -0400
            Re: Parsing mbox files with Windows Php Christoph Becker <cmbecker69@gmx.de> - 2013-05-27 15:25 +0200
              Re: Parsing mbox files with Windows Php Jerry Stuckle <jstucklex@attglobal.net> - 2013-05-27 10:01 -0400
                Re: Parsing mbox files with Windows Php Christoph Becker <cmbecker69@gmx.de> - 2013-05-27 18:08 +0200
                Re: Parsing mbox files with Windows Php Jerry Stuckle <jstucklex@attglobal.net> - 2013-05-27 19:05 -0400
                Re: Parsing mbox files with Windows Php Christoph Becker <cmbecker69@gmx.de> - 2013-05-28 01:42 +0200
                Re: Parsing mbox files with Windows Php Jerry Stuckle <jstucklex@attglobal.net> - 2013-05-27 19:50 -0400
                Re: Parsing mbox files with Windows Php Christoph Becker <cmbecker69@gmx.de> - 2013-05-29 00:17 +0200
        Re: Parsing mbox files with Windows Php Chuck Anderson <cycletourist@invalid.invalid> - 2013-05-27 17:51 -0600
          Re: Parsing mbox files with Windows Php (correction - ignore previous) Chuck Anderson <cycletourist@invalid.invalid> - 2013-05-27 18:20 -0600
      Re: Parsing mbox files with Windows Php "Peter H. Coffin" <hellsop@ninehells.com> - 2013-05-27 10:22 -0500
        Re: Parsing mbox files with Windows Php Chuck Anderson <cycletourist@invalid.invalid> - 2013-05-27 21:15 -0600
          Re: Parsing mbox files with Windows Php Jerry Stuckle <jstucklex@attglobal.net> - 2013-05-28 12:23 -0400
            Re: Parsing mbox files with Windows Php Chuck Anderson <cycletourist@invalid.invalid> - 2013-05-28 17:56 -0600
              Re: Parsing mbox files with Windows Php Jerry Stuckle <jstucklex@attglobal.net> - 2013-05-28 22:27 -0400
              Re: Parsing mbox files with Windows Php Christoph Becker <cmbecker69@gmx.de> - 2013-05-29 15:23 +0200
          Re: Parsing mbox files with Windows Php Christoph Becker <cmbecker69@gmx.de> - 2013-05-29 00:08 +0200

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