Peter: Created page with "The easiest way to migrate from unix maiboxes (as used for example by Squirrelmail) is to do the following steps: # Share the directories containing the mailbox files via NFS (t..."

2011-08-02T11:22:18Z

Created page with "The easiest way to migrate from unix maiboxes (as used for example by Squirrelmail) is to do the following steps: # Share the directories containing the mailbox files via NFS (t..."

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The easiest way to migrate from unix maiboxes (as used for example by Squirrelmail) is to do the following steps:

# Share the directories containing the mailbox files via NFS (typically, /var/mail and /home)
# Mount the NFS shares on the Zarafa server
# Use ''formail'' to convert the mailboxes

The first two steps are only recommended if Zarafa is installed on a new machine which is not the current mail server. You could also copy the mailbox files to the Zarafa server using FTP/scp if needed. The goal is to have the unix mail files on the same server where you run ''zarafa-dagent''.

To convert a unix mail file, run

formail -s zarafa-dagent username < /path/to/mailfile

If you have mail in BSD-style mail files and you want to import them into subfolders of a user, run

formail -s zarafa-dagent -C -F "Folder Name" username < /path/to/mailfile

For example, if you have the following mail files: /var/mail/carlo, /home/carlo/Sent Mail, /home/carlo/project1 /home/carlo/project2, and you want to import them for the user carlo, issue:

formail -s zarafa-dagent carlo < /var/mail/carlo
formail -s zarafa-dagent -C -F "Sent Mail" carlo < "/home/carlo/Sent Mail" <-- notice the quotes!
formail -s zarafa-dagent -C -F Projects\project1 carlo < /home/carlo/project1
formail -s zarafa-dagent -C -F Projects\project2 carlo < /home/carlo/project2

See the manual pages on ''formail'' and ''zarafa-dagent'' for further information, especially if you want to change the ''zarafa-dagent'' path delimiter (the backslash) to something else.

Last, request your users to delete the message that an empty mail file mostly include:

From: Mail System Internal Data <MAILER-DAEMON@machine.domain>
Subject: DON'T DELETE THIS MESSAGE -- FOLDER INTERNAL DATA

This text is part of the internal format of your mail folder, and is not
a real message. It is created automatically by the mail system software.
If deleted, important folder data will be lost, and it will be re-created
with the data reset to initial values.

Unix Mailboxes to Zarafa migration - Revision history

Peter: Created page with "The easiest way to migrate from unix maiboxes (as used for example by Squirrelmail) is to do the following steps: # Share the directories containing the mailbox files via NFS (t..."