Re: Pine mboxes to mysql maybe?

[Jason Dixon <jason dixongroup net>]

On Dec 31, 2004, at 3:27 PM, Northrup, Wilson wrote:

> For years I've been using PINE to read mail.  It's really been fine but
> after realizing my mailbox alone has gigs of mail, perhaps it is time 
> to
> change.  It seems that having email stored in a database would allow 
> faster
> and perhaps easier searching over using grep/sed to find a particular
> message.
>
> Ultimately, I'd like to have a setup that offers some type of text mail
> interface (PINE  MUTT, maybe something else?) that I can use through 
> SSH,
> but also a web interface which includes the ability to search for 
> keywords
> throughout ones entire mail store.
>
> There are lots of options available, I'd be interested in hearing any
> experiences from others who may have done a similar conversion already.

I've never heard of anything like that, short of something like 
Exchange or Open-Xchange (or any other myriad of groupware servers).  
It sounds like you're proposing a completely new alternative to mbox or 
maildir, since it would require the MTA to deliver it to the database 
via an understood format.  I highly doubt you'll find anything like 
this, particularly since text-based clients only understand one or both 
of the standard mail formats.

Nevertheless, you've brought up a good point that I'm surprised hasn't 
been touched on elsewhere.  The proliferation of email in our daily 
lives, coupled with the availability of enterprise-capable OSS 
databases, makes me think this is a problem ripe for a solution.  I'd 
like to think that Postfix (for example) could support a drop-in SQL 
local/virtual delivery mechanism.

Long story short, I don't think you'll find what you're looking for 
right now.  An alternative might be to use some home-grown script (run 
via cron) to convert your mbox files into SQL.  But that still won't 
give you a ready-made web interface for your data.  It can all be done, 
it's just a matter of someone doing it.

--
Jason Dixon
DixonGroup Consulting
http://www.dixongroup.net