Re: [Evolution] Outlook PST Equivalent

[guenther <guenther rudersport de>]

On Tue, 2005-05-31 at 07:35 -0400, Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
> On Tue, 2005-05-31 at 15:28 +1200, Gavin Young wrote:
> > Reading through previous mailing list postings it appears Evolution
> > doesn't support PSTs at all and the recommended method for viewing them
> > in Evolution is to use Mozilla Mail to import the PST and then export as
> > mbox but what about archiving mail?

One note regarding "use Mozilla": You'll need the Windows version of
Mozilla.

The reason is, Mozilla itself doesn't understand the OE files neither.
That's a proprietary format. The Windows version of Mozilla however has
access to some public MS API to access those files. Thus the ability to
import them.


> > Previously I used to archive items older than 3 months into a PST that I
> > could backup. What is the equivalent in evolution?
> >
> > Interested to hear what people recommend.

There is no equivalent to crippled PST files. ;-)

I would recommend any commonly known and stable mail storage format,
like mbox or maildir. Regarding backups, the "single file per folder"
solution mbox probably would be best. Evolution uses mbox for local
mails by default.

For manual backups, just see the structure in your
~/.evolution/mail/local/ directory -- it's like the "On This Computer"
structure, so you can find the relevant files easily. For example your
Inbox is stored in the mbox file named "Inbox". :)


> Depends what you mean by archiving. I keep old Sent mail in subfolders
> of Sent according to year, on an IMAP server. I do it manually (it's
> just a batch move once a year) but I guess it could be scripted. If you
> use local folders it would depend on what flavour they are (mbox,
> maildir, ...).

'formail' is one of the great tools that can ease automatic archiving.

...guenther


> If you want to recover your old PST backups then just use Mozilla (I
> guess Thunderbird would also work) and convert them. Alternatively, move
> them onto an IMAP server (using Outlook) and pull them back off with
> Evo. If you have the Exchange Connector for Evo that might also work.
>
> poc


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