Splitting Mbox

[jairambharath]

Hi,

I have 3 folder which are more than 2.0GB and I am unable to access
them... including my 'sent' folder. When ever I send a mail I get
error -

Error while performing operation.
Failed to append to mbox:/home/bharath/.evolution/mail/local#Sent:
Cannot get folder `Sent': Value too large for defined data type
Appending to local `Sent' folder instead.

I am not a techie... I tried formail...gplsit and other scipts to
split the Mbox... but have not been successful.

Please guide me to split Mbox in a simple way.

I am on Ubuntu 8.04 LTS - Evolution 2.22.3.1

Bharath
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[Patrick O'Callaghan]

On Thu, 2009-11-05 at 16:53 +0530, Bharath C J wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I have 3 folder which are more than 2.0GB and I am unable to access
> them... including my 'sent' folder. When ever I send a mail I get
> error -
>
> Error while performing operation.
> Failed to append to mbox:/home/bharath/.evolution/mail/local#Sent:
> Cannot get folder `Sent': Value too large for defined data type
> Appending to local `Sent' folder instead.
>
> I am not a techie... I tried formail...gplsit and other scipts to
> split the Mbox... but have not been successful.
>
> Please guide me to split Mbox in a simple way.

mbox folders are just text files with the messages concatenated one
after the other. You can split them with any text editor (vi, emacs,
nedit, kate, ...). Take a look at one of them and it will obvious how to
do it. Just edit the file, move to a point say half-way through, put the
cursor just before the next message, copy everything from the beginning
up to that point, open a new file mbox1 and paste, remove the copied
material from the original, save the remainder as mbox2.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbox

poc

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[Matthias Apitz-4]

El día Thursday, November 05, 2009 a las 08:54:30AM -0430, Patrick O'Callaghan escribió:

> mbox folders are just text files with the messages concatenated one
> after the other. You can split them with any text editor (vi, emacs,
> nedit, kate, ...). Take a look at one of them and it will obvious how to
> do it. Just edit the file, move to a point say half-way through, put the
> cursor just before the next message, copy everything from the beginning
> up to that point, open a new file mbox1 and paste, remove the copied
> material from the original, save the remainder as mbox2.
...

Would be nice if there would be a tool which also keeps the threads in
one file; I know I could do it with 'mutt' (thread sorting the Mbox,
tagging from top to down certain messages and saving them), but a cmd
line tool would be better.

I will run into the same 2GByte trouble too, because I'm keeping with a
filter any incoming message in a local folder 'backupIncoming' because our
Exchange server is emptying the trash every now and then :-(

        matthias

--
Matthias Apitz
t [phone] - f [phone] - m [phone]
e <guru@...> - w http://www.unixarea.de/
Vote NO to EU The Lisbon Treaty: http://www.no-means-no.eu
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[jreidthompson]

On Thu, 2009-11-05 at 14:36 +0100, Matthias Apitz wrote:

> El día Thursday, November 05, 2009 a las 08:54:30AM -0430, Patrick O'Callaghan escribió:
>
> > mbox folders are just text files with the messages concatenated one
> > after the other. You can split them with any text editor (vi, emacs,
> > nedit, kate, ...). Take a look at one of them and it will obvious how to
> > do it. Just edit the file, move to a point say half-way through, put the
> > cursor just before the next message, copy everything from the beginning
> > up to that point, open a new file mbox1 and paste, remove the copied
> > material from the original, save the remainder as mbox2.
> ...
>
> Would be nice if there would be a tool which also keeps the threads in
> one file; I know I could do it with 'mutt' (thread sorting the Mbox,
> tagging from top to down certain messages and saving them), but a cmd
> line tool would be better.
>
> I will run into the same 2GByte trouble too, because I'm keeping with a
> filter any incoming message in a local folder 'backupIncoming' because our
> Exchange server is emptying the trash every now and then :-(
>
> matthias
>

perhaps convert your backup folder to maildir format
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[jairambharath]

Thanks everyone for suggestions. I was able to split huge Mbox file
(close 8.5 GB) using gvim...split into 8 smaller files. I took almost
8 hours to do it because of my machine speed. I only hope I have not
lost any mails.

Perhaps it would be great if you guys make something like "Mbox
reaching limit" notification. This will help lot of users... 32 bit
machines. As soon as we see this notification, we can move mails to
different folders from within Evo.

Bharath

> Message: 4
> Date: Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:54:30 -0430
> From: Patrick O'Callaghan <poc@...>
> To: evolution-list@...
> Subject: Re: [Evolution] Splitting Mbox
> Message-ID: <1257427470.18571.4.camel@...>
> Content-Type: text/plain
>
> On Thu, 2009-11-05 at 16:53 +0530, Bharath C J wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I have 3 folder which are more than 2.0GB and I am unable to access
>> them... including my 'sent' folder. When ever I send a mail I get
>> error -
>>
>> Error while performing operation.
>> Failed to append to mbox:/home/bharath/.evolution/mail/local#Sent:
>> Cannot get folder `Sent': Value too large for defined data type
>> Appending to local `Sent' folder instead.
>>
>> I am not a techie... I tried formail...gplsit and other scipts to
>> split the Mbox... but have not been successful.
>>
>> Please guide me to split Mbox in a simple way.
>
> mbox folders are just text files with the messages concatenated one
> after the other. You can split them with any text editor (vi, emacs,
> nedit, kate, ...). Take a look at one of them and it will obvious how to
> do it. Just edit the file, move to a point say half-way through, put the
> cursor just before the next message, copy everything from the beginning
> up to that point, open a new file mbox1 and paste, remove the copied
> material from the original, save the remainder as mbox2.
>
> See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbox
>
> poc
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 5
> Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 14:36:40 +0100
> From: Matthias Apitz <guru@...>
> To: "Patrick O'Callaghan" <poc@...>
> Cc: evolution-list@...
> Subject: Re: [Evolution] Splitting Mbox
> Message-ID: <20091105133640.GA3959@...>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
>
> El d?a Thursday, November 05, 2009 a las 08:54:30AM -0430, Patrick
> O'Callaghan escribi?:
>
>> mbox folders are just text files with the messages concatenated one
>> after the other. You can split them with any text editor (vi, emacs,
>> nedit, kate, ...). Take a look at one of them and it will obvious how to
>> do it. Just edit the file, move to a point say half-way through, put the
>> cursor just before the next message, copy everything from the beginning
>> up to that point, open a new file mbox1 and paste, remove the copied
>> material from the original, save the remainder as mbox2.
> ...
>
> Would be nice if there would be a tool which also keeps the threads in
> one file; I know I could do it with 'mutt' (thread sorting the Mbox,
> tagging from top to down certain messages and saving them), but a cmd
> line tool would be better.
>
> I will run into the same 2GByte trouble too, because I'm keeping with a
> filter any incoming message in a local folder 'backupIncoming' because our
> Exchange server is emptying the trash every now and then :-(
>
> matthias
>
> --
> Matthias Apitz
> t [phone] - f [phone] - m [phone]
> e <guru@...> - w http://www.unixarea.de/
> Vote NO to EU The Lisbon Treaty: http://www.no-means-no.eu
> Message: 7
> Date: Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:22:33 -0500
> From: Reid Thompson <reid.thompson@...>
> To: Matthias Apitz <guru@...>
> Cc: evolution-list@...
> Subject: Re: [Evolution] Splitting Mbox
> Message-ID: <1257430953.32722.22.camel@...>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
>
> On Thu, 2009-11-05 at 14:36 +0100, Matthias Apitz wrote:
>> El d?a Thursday, November 05, 2009 a las 08:54:30AM -0430, Patrick
>> O'Callaghan escribi?:
>>
>> > mbox folders are just text files with the messages concatenated one
>> > after the other. You can split them with any text editor (vi, emacs,
>> > nedit, kate, ...). Take a look at one of them and it will obvious how to
>> > do it. Just edit the file, move to a point say half-way through, put the
>> > cursor just before the next message, copy everything from the beginning
>> > up to that point, open a new file mbox1 and paste, remove the copied
>> > material from the original, save the remainder as mbox2.
>> ...
>>
>> Would be nice if there would be a tool which also keeps the threads in
>> one file; I know I could do it with 'mutt' (thread sorting the Mbox,
>> tagging from top to down certain messages and saving them), but a cmd
>> line tool would be better.
>>
>> I will run into the same 2GByte trouble too, because I'm keeping with a
>> filter any incoming message in a local folder 'backupIncoming' because our
>> Exchange server is emptying the trash every now and then :-(
>>
>> matthias
>>
>
> perhaps convert your backup folder to maildir format

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[Patrick O'Callaghan]

[Please don't top-post on this list]

On Sun, 2009-11-08 at 12:09 +0530, Bharath C J wrote:
> Thanks everyone for suggestions. I was able to split huge Mbox file
> (close 8.5 GB) using gvim...split into 8 smaller files. I took almost
> 8 hours to do it because of my machine speed. I only hope I have not
> lost any mails.

Glad it worked out for you. It was slow because gvim had to read the
entire file into virtual memory in order to work on it. An inline filter
would have been much faster (sed, awk, perl, ...).

> Perhaps it would be great if you guys make something like "Mbox
> reaching limit" notification. This will help lot of users... 32 bit
> machines. As soon as we see this notification, we can move mails to
> different folders from within Evo.

Not only with 32-bit machines. AFAIK the 2GB limitation also applies
even with 64-bit versions of Evo.

poc

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[jreidthompson]

On Sun, 2009-11-08 at 12:09 +0530, Bharath C J wrote:
> Thanks everyone for suggestions. I was able to split huge Mbox file
> (close 8.5 GB) using gvim...split into 8 smaller files. I took almost
> 8 hours to do it because of my machine speed. I only hope I have not
> lost any mails.

google'ing for splitting mbox files offers various solutions for this.
some using mutt, some using scripting languages with email handling
libraries,.
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