[mew-int 2731] Re: format used by mew for local messages

[Will Gardella]

Downloading all Gmail messages using Mew may be tedious, but will not
be complicated.  Just follow instructions to gather all IMAP folders,
or if you've already done so, simply type "s" from your Gmail inbox
and select the download option "sync" or "all."  Background
downloading will begin.  Lather, rinse, and repeat for all your Gmail
folders (Mew will see your Gmail labels as folders as well.  [You
change folders using the "g" key.]  There is no real need to split
things up into chunks; Mew should be able to handle syncing it all in
one go in the background, but it may take a while.

Integration with Hyper Estraier is very convenient.  Just hit k M to
index all mail folders periodically, search with k-/, and scroll
forward and backward through occurrences of the search term within
messages using M-n and M-p, respectively.  You can also make a cron
job for mew's Hyper Estraier indexing script, which is called mewest.

Messages are saved by Mew in RFC822 format.  You will always be able
to view your Mew messages as plain text with any viewer or editor.
I'm less certain about compatibility of the way it handles email
-folders- compared to other MUAs.

> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:08:46 +0200 (CEST)
> From: Thomas Danckaert <thomas.danckaert at example.com>
> To: mew-int at example.com
> Subject: [mew-int 2730] format used by mew for local messages
> Message-ID: <20090910.190846.58819760.thomas.danckaert at example.com>
> Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
> 
> hello again,
> 
> I would like to use Mew to download all my gmail messages (via IMAP), 
> so I can search them using Hyper Estraier.  But before I do this (I 
> think it will be quite involved (1)), I would like to know more about 
> the format which mew uses for downloaded copies of messages.  Is it 
> correct that other e-mail programs do not recognize it?  Can I make 
> Mew save the messages from an IMAP folder as mbox or maildir?
> 
> Using a format exclusive to Mew is fine to me, but maybe I will no 
> longer be able to use Mew in the future, and it would be unpractical 
> if I could no longer read my e-mail archive.
> 
> Are there any solutions?
> 
> ====
> perhaps not strictly on-topic for Mew-int:
> (1) Any hints on how to go about downloading all these messages are 
> also welcome.  I have about 2,8 Gb of messages there. I think I will 
> have to divide them into multiple folders (perhaps per month or so) 
> and download those folders one by one, so that Mew can handle them?
> ====
> 
> thank you!
> 
> Thomas
> 
> 
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> End of Mew-int Digest, Vol 41, Issue 3
> **************************************