> > So this is why I need to have an explanation of the file structure and > file types: when I look in > /home/eric/.local/share/evolution/mail/local/ > I see a strange mixture of the "old" mbox type files and, > under /home/eric/.local/share/evolution/mail/local/cur, a zillion > entries that look like > '1339022703.13737_7755.localhost.localdomain:2,ST'. > > This is all very confusing. I want to know what's happening and how I > should go about moving the missing mail from my old backups to the new > situation. What are these > '1339022703.13737_7755.localhost.localdomain:2,ST' > files?
They are maildir message files > How do they relate to the mbox-type files? mbox has all the messages from a single folder in a monolithic file. Maildir has all the messages from a single folder in a directory, one message per file. The folder name is the name of the directory with subfolder component names separated by a '.' > Do I just copy the > missing mbox files to the new location and just let Evo do the > conversion? No. They are different file formats - it's like copying a zip file containing lots of word documents into your ~/Documents folder and expecting LibreOffice to be able to read them. > Do I need to copy all six of the old .evolution files for > each of the mailbox folders (that is, the sample set I listed in my > initial email in this thread)? > > As I asked there: > > "So assuming I can find those old emails in ~/.evolution on one of my > old backups, what's the procedure for moving them to the new format? Do > I just copy everything from the old to the new? E.g. > .evolution/mail/local/xLynnOld > .evolution/mail/local/xLynnOld.cmeta > .evolution/mail/local/xLynnOld.ibex.index > .evolution/mail/local/xLynnOld.ev-summary > .evolution/mail/local/xLynnOld.ev-summary-meta > .evolution/mail/local/xLynnOld.ibex.index.data > to > .local/share/evolution/mail/local/.xLynnOld > ?" No. I understand what you say about trying to fix problems, but if you don't know what you are doing, then you should definitely not play around with the files in Evolution's (or anything else's) hidden private folders. At best it will not work, at worst you will loose more stuff. > > It's all well and good to say, "There isn't in the user docs because > it's nothing that a user should need to care about. It should be all > automatically." But the user does need to care about it since he has to > fix the problem. And he has to understand what's happening. If you look in the FAQs or in the Help documentation it DOES tell you where Evolution holds all its data. It may not give chapter and verse about the old and new locations because it's not something that 99.999% of the time people need to know (or care) about - it's also a futile task because the locations, and the data stored in them, change continually with each release as the application is improved. Such is the nature of an evolving Evolution. Personally I do not want the developers to be hampered in their goals by having to keep the backend store consistent from one release to the next - so long as there are efficient, working, upgrade mechanisms, then I don't care. So, anyway, to sort out your problem. If you have an mbox file full of mail you want to get access to within Evo, then 1. Make a back up copy of the file. 2. Create a new "account" Edit -> Preferences -> Mail Accounts -> Add 3. Fill in some real or dummy info for the email address 4. Select Server Type of "Standard Unix mbox spool file" 5. Point the File: dialogue to the mbox file 6. close etc. filling in things as necessary You will now have another account in the folder list, the "Inbox" of that account will contain all the mail messages in that mbox file. Do not be tempted to just leave that account and use the mbox file as a normal mail folder. In Evolution, copy the messages out of the mbox folder to your local mail folders (or wherever you want them to be). After all the files have been copied, go back in to Edit->Preferences and delete the account you created. Repeat for all the mbox files containing things missing in your current setup. So, you see, no need to fiddle with internal Evolution files, no knowledge needed of how Evo stores things. Just an application of the standard facilities provided by Evolution. P. _______________________________________________ evolution-list mailing list evolution-list@gnome.org To change your list options or unsubscribe, visit ... https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/evolution-list
