Re: [Nmh-workers] switching from thunderbird to nmh

[norm]

Ken Hornstein <address@hidden> writes:
>>I'd like to switch to using nmh for email handling.  I've been using
>>thunderbird for the last few years.
>
>Great!  Glad to get a new user!  If you don't mind me asking ... how
>come you decided to switch?  We get a lot of people going the other way,
>so I am curious why you decided to go against the tide.  Not that I'm
>complaining!
>
>>I understand the nmh mail format is a little different from mbox format
>>or maildir format.  Is there any conversion utility out there?  I've
>>searched but only found utilities for people going the other way.
>
>So, it's not obvious ... but the "inc" utility does that.  It will take
>a mbox file (or, I belive, a Maildir dropbox if you have a new enough
>version) and incorporate it into a nmh folder.
>
>>Alternatively, a pointer to the documentation of what the nmh format
>>actually is would be helpful.  I haven't found a concise description
>>yet.
>
>The man page mh-mail(5) should describe that.  Basically, each message
>is in it's own file, each folder is a directory.  Messages have
>filenames that are all numbers.  Each message is pretty much straight
>RFC 2822 format, except using Unix newline conventions.  Although
>looking at the man page now, I see that it's a bit out of date; for
>example, messages nowadays are not limited to 7-bit ASCII in the body.
>
>
>>Also, I need nmh to get email by imap.  How can I configure that?  Or am
>>I supposed to use fetchmail for that?
>
>_If_ your IMAP server also supports POP, inc can incorporate messages
>from that.  Otherwise, fetchmail is probably the best solution.

For most purposes, especially to get started, you don't need to know most of
what's in mh-mail(5).

It might be added that if you are using a Unix like system, such as Linux, BSD,
Macintosh, or Cgywin, then you can operate on nmh messages just as though they
are Unix files -- which indeed they are -- and using Unix commands such mv, ls
and cp. And you can inspect and modify them using your favorite text editor.



    Norman Shapiro