Re: [Evolution] defining multiple mbox accounts with evolution

[Pete Biggs <pete biggs org uk>]

> > Please, always say what version of Evolution you are using.
>
> 3.22.6, which is the latest for the current release of my distro.
> I didn't think of mentioning since I thought I was asking a basic question.

Things change. Facilities and features change. There are people out
there who are using pre-Maildir versions of Evolution. Without knowing
which version you are using we can't give pertinent information.

> > On Fri, 2017-11-17 at 11:16 -0500, andré via evolution-list wrote:
> > > I would like to define multiple mbox folders, if it is possible, but
> > > don't see how.
> >
> > Are they all in a single directory?  If so use an account of type
> > "Standard Unix mbox spool directory". It will pick up each mbox file as
> > a mail folder.
>
> No, hundreds.  See below.

OK. The mbox spool directory knows about subdirectories and will create
a tree of mbox folders to reflect the underlying unix file structure.
So if all of your directories are in one directory, then it will also
work.

Re-reading your original email, I was assuming the mbox files already
exist and you want to import them into Evolution - is that correct?

If not, and you want to just create a new folder in an already created
mbox account, then just right click on the account and select "new
folder". If you want to create a subfolder, then you can't within
Evolution, you will need to create a filesystem directory first and re-
start evolution for it to pick up the new directory.

> > > The reason I want to use mbox format is because I receive a lot of
> > > (mostly list) emails,
> > > and I don't want to add another 50000+ files to my system.
> >
> > 50k files is nothing. Why do you object to having more files? (My home
> > partition currently has 1.5M files in it and doesn't seem to suffer.)
> >
> > > I use a separate folder by category in each email account, for ease
> > > of access.
> >
> > What do you mean by an "account"? If they are entities with their own
> > email address, then you will have to configure each one separately in
> > Evolution, there's no automation at that level.
>
> No problem with automation.  Generally it is very easy to configure
> multiple accounts.

Does each of your accounts have multiple addresses associate with it? 

> The question is how to configure multiple mbox files on evolution.

Again, what do you mean by "configure"? Evolution can see multiple mbox
files on the filesystem (including subfolders) using the mbox spool
directory type account. If you want to create new (sub)folders, then
see above.

> My attempts to do so were all suddenly aborted without explanation,
> so I thought the interface wasn't clear.
> Normally each email address would have their own folder(s).

Is an external program delivering mail into the mbox folder(s) for each
address? Or is Evolution retrieving the mail (how?) into each folder?


> Otherwise what is the point of having different email addresses ?

There are use cases for everything - just because it doesn't fit in
with what you think, doesn't mean someone else doesn't see it as a
feature.


> I've looked at some documentation on the various email storage formats,
> and mbox, which I use now, seems preferable.  Although I may migrate to maildir,
> since otherwise evolution seems a good alternative to my current application.
I suspect that mbox format is largely deprecated and it won't get much
love from the developers - it will probably remain in place but won't
be touched. I would strongly advise you to move to Maildir - I don't
believe it does take up much more space on disk than mbox and my mail
handling became significantly faster when I did move over many years
ago. 

BTW, have you ever thought of keeping your mail on an IMAP server (even
one of your own making) - things like this are much easier!

P.