Re: [bug-mailutils] New storage?

[Kurt Hackenberg]

On 2/23/19 5:04 AM, Sergey Poznyakoff wrote:

> > I have in mind an equivalent to mbox format -- multiple messages in a
> > single file -- but a completely different design, without mbox's
> > well-known problems.
>
> Sounds interesting. Can you give some more detail, please?

The idea is to mark the end of each message in the file the same way 
SMTP does, by following the message with a line containing only ".". As 
in SMTP, message lines that start with '.' would be dot-stuffed.

The intent is to make it easier for people to stop using mbox, by 
supplying a direct equivalent that works, is documented, and is easy to 
implement.

Mbox is often replaced by maildir, and maildir works fine, but it's 
substantially different -- it's more complex, does more, and only really 
works on Unix. It's too different to be a direct replacement for mbox in 
all cases.

This new thing would be well suited for import/export, file transfer, 
and archives, all uses where maildir is overkill. And, of course, it 
could be used anywhere else mbox is used.

Attached are a specification and a pair of little C programs that 
demonstrate it.

Dotmail
Description: Text document

files_to_dotmail.c
Description: Text Data

dotmail_to_files.c
Description: Text Data