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Conference gyro::internet_toolss

Title:Internet Tools
Notice:Report ALL NETSCAPE Problems directly to [email protected].rnet? Read note 448.L for beginner information.
Moderator:teco.mro.dec.com::tecotoo.mro.dec.com::mayer
Created:Fri Jun 25 1993
Last Modified:Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:4714
Total number of notes:40609

4699.0. "IMAP mail service for MH folders" by TEMPER::koba ([email protected]) Thu May 29 1997 04:49

Does anyone know IMAP(4) server software which can read/manage
local MH folders on a UNIX box? 


_koba
T.RTitleUserPersonal
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4699.1HYDRA::SMITHTom Smith ZKO1-3/H42 +1 603 881-6329Thu May 29 1997 15:154
    The University of Washington IMAP4 server handles Berkeley UNIX, MH,
    MMDF, TENEX, and other formats. See http://www.washington.edu/imap/ .
    
    -Tom
4699.2IMAP and mh foldersNNTPD::"[email protected]"Peter DerrThu May 29 1997 18:0820
The UW IMAP server will handle mh folders.  You need to specify in your client
the "#mh/" prefix for the mail folders.  Also, you need to specify the special
keywork "#MHINBOX" to be used as the inbox.

The only client I've found that allows you to specify both of these correctly
is Pine and PC-Pine (also from U. of Washington).  I've tried many other
IMAP clients and no others seem to work quite right with mh folders.
Although Pine works fine, it's user interface is poor and it doesn't handle
nested folders.

If you find a better mail client for the PC that works with the mh folders,
please let me know.  I've been hoping that the Netscape Communicator would
work better, but I just tried the latest, PR5, and it's still terrible (Can't
specify the INBOX, gets stuck on the first mail message.)

BTW, the Internet AlphaServer System Software (IASS) V3.2 product includes
the UW IMAP server.  IASS is distributed with all UNIX server systems.

Peter
[Posted by WWW Notes gateway]
4699.3WOTVAX::16.42.4.61::hattosI'm back - as a matter of factFri May 30 1997 05:121
Communicator has had that IMAP behaviour since PR2 to my knowledge.
4699.4CAMPY::ADEYPC Server...now there's an oxymoron!Fri May 30 1997 15:573
    Uhhh...what's an 'MH' folder?
    
    Ken....
4699.5MH explainedNPSS::GLASERSteve Glaser DTN 226-7212 LKG1-2/W6 (G17)Fri May 30 1997 17:1417
    MH is a mail reader for Unix boxes. It was written in the late
    70s/early 80s at Rand under govt contract and is freely available.
    It comes as an optional part of Digital Unix for instance.
    
    MH messages are stored in a collection of directories someplace under
    your home directory. Each directory is a "folder". Individual mail
    messages are stored as plain-text files in the directory. File names
    within a folder a small integers, assigned sequentially. Folders can
    contain folders. There is a "cursor" in each folder that points to the
    current message.
    
    Message reading commands are Unix commands (e.g. inc, post, comp,
    refile, rmm). There's also an X-windows reader that uses the same
    structure (known as xmh).  DEC had a decwindows version of xmh called
    dxmail (I think -- it's been a while).
    
    Steveg
4699.6HYDRA::SMITHTom Smith ZKO1-3/H42 +1 603 881-6329Fri May 30 1997 18:1312
    dxmail is based on MH and is Digital's UNIX/DECwindows mail client up
    through Digital UNIX V3.2last. As of V4.0, dtmail is added. At some
    future time dxmail is supposed to be removed.
    
    The main advantage of the MH mailbox format over the Berkeley UNIX
    mailbox format (which is used by /bin/mail, dtmail, Netscape, Eudora,
    and many others) is that Berkeley mail folders are easily corrupted.
    Each Berkeley folder is a single text file containing all the messages
    in the folder, whereas, as Steve described in .5, each MH folder is a
    directory containing one file per message.
    
    -Tom
4699.7MH is declining in Digital UNIXPARZVL::ogodhcp-124-40-168.ogo.dec.com::kennedynuncam non paratusFri May 30 1997 18:3710
>    dxmail is based on MH and is Digital's UNIX/DECwindows mail client up
>    through Digital UNIX V3.2last. As of V4.0, dtmail is added. At some
>    future time dxmail is supposed to be removed.

just for the record, dtmail does not use the MH mail folders, but
reverts (regresses IMHO) to the Berkeley mail folders. As someone
who switches between the X and command shell interfaces, I was very
disappointed in this, since the mailx command line interface is 
just a bit too obscure for my tastes - I found the mh commands much
friendlier.
4699.8make legacy files (mails) into services via IMAPTEMPER::"[email protected]"[email protected]Sun Jun 01 1997 08:3514
Re: .1,.2

I can make a service for MH folders via IMAP4 
(using WU imap-4.1.BETA.tar.Z) successfully.

Now, I learned that there is mail folder's namespace problem (.2) also.
If I find IMAP client work with namespace like this (not only remote 'INBOX'), I'll post here.


Thank you
_koba

p.s. I wrote a feedback for Netscape Messager PR5 about this.
[Posted by WWW Notes gateway]
4699.9Mulberry 1.2TEMPER::"[email protected]"[email protected]Tue Jun 03 1997 23:1211
>If you find a better mail client for the PC that works with the mh folders,
>please let me know.  

Mulberry 1.2 for MacOS and W95/WNT
( http://www.cyrusoft.com/mulberry/mulbinfo.html )
works with '#mh/foobarbaz' or '#MHINBOX' folder names. 

# 1.2's reliability seems to not so good yet on PC (good on Mac).
# It doesn't support ISO-2022-JP(and eucJP/ShiftJIS) codeset
# which is essential for me...
[Posted by WWW Notes gateway]