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Just use Save As...
Authored by: gemsling on Jul 06, '06 08:22:39PM

MacOS Mail can create an actual mbox file (as opposed to a folder of individual message files, called *.mbox). It's just that they don't call it "Export". Just select all messages, choose Save As... from the File menu and set the Format as Raw Message Source.



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Just use Save As...
Authored by: mjt on Aug 17, '06 11:16:17AM

The resulting file may look somewhat like mbox format, but it is in fact not a valid mbox. For example, Mail does not escape lines that begin with "From ", so the message boundaries won't be correct if you import the file into another mail program.



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Just use Save As...
Authored by: djdawson on Aug 18, '06 10:30:54AM

I just now tested this and Apple's Mail *does" escape leading "From" lines, but it does it with a space rather than the traditional ">" character, and it only does it if there's text after the leading "From" that could possibly be interpreted as an address. The "elm" program on Solaris was perfectly happy with a mail folder I exported that I intentionally tried to break with leading "From" lines in the body of the messages.

So, it looks like Apple's Mail really does save as a valid mbox format, but I only tested the "From" processing. Since that works, however, I expect Apple considered other issues as well. Does anyone have any more details on why these files might not be valid .mbox files?

Dana



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