[Mailman-Users] Archive merge and search

[Barry S. Finkel]

On 11/9/2014 8:37 PM, Hal wrote:
> Thanks. Unfortunately cleanarch'ing didn't solve my issue.
> I did some more research and found out that the MBOX format isn't
> standardized as there are 4 different variations around
> (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jonathan.deboynepollard/FGA/mail-mbox-formats.html).
> Confusing indeed. What's even stranger is that the Majordomo
> search-interface displays all of those same MBOXes without any issues.
>
> Investigating the MBOX files in a text editor I found the problematic
> ones to have headers starting with ">From " (without the quotes) which
> the working ones didn't, so I removed all those lines from a couple of
> MBOX files, imported into the Mailman archives and all looked fine!
> Obviously I can't check every single posting, so does my discovery and
> solution sound feasible?
>
>
> Hal

When I read a message that has "From " changed to ">From " (at the
beginning of a line), I have to trouble interpreting the mail.
The URL above says that the transformation "corrupts" mailboxes.
I would use the term "changes", as the e-mail body has been changed.
The term "corrupted", in my opinion, means something drastic;
adding a ">" in front of "From " does not make the message
unintelligible.

I dislike the format that uses "Content-Length:" to determine the end
of a message.  If I edit an archive file and, say delete one line that
contains a password, then I have to change the corresponding
"Content-Length:" line.

--Barry Finkel