how to move email to new system

[Default User]

On Mon, 2007-06-18 at 09:25 -0500, Scott Lockwood wrote:
> Not only that, but is it really hard to do this (I.E. move email to a new
> system)? I have backed up my evolution data store and restored it to a
> different machine LOTS of times, never with any difficulty. In fact, the one
> time I lost a massive amount of data was when I made the mistake of pushing
> my mailstore up to an IMAP server that then crashed. Fortunately, I had
> backups on DVD-R of my stuff, mostly, and only ended up losing a few days.
> 
> Here's how I back up my evolution:
> 
> # rsync -avzP .evolution remote_machine:
> 
> Here's how I restore evolution if necessary:
> 
> # rsync -avzP remote_machine:~/.evolution .
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ubuntu-users-bounces at lists.ubuntu.com
> [mailto:ubuntu-users-bounces at lists.ubuntu.com] On Behalf Of Derek Broughton
> Sent: Monday, June 18, 2007 8:57 AM
> To: ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
> Subject: Re: how to move email to new system
> 
> Default User wrote:
> 
> > Extra credit question: why do email programs not store email messages as
> > normal text files? 
> 
> I'll go for the extra credit, since I don't know anything about Evolution.  
> 
> Almost all mail programs DO store email in normal text files.  There are two
> standard formats: mbox, where all messages are stored in a single file; and
> maildir, where each message is in its own file within a subdirectory (.cur
> or .new) of a folder.
> 
> If Evolution doesn't use one of these formats by default, I'd be really
> surprised if it couldn't.
> -- 
> derek
> 
> 
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> 

Thanks to all who replied with info on this topic. Unfortunately I have
not yet been able to try it out, due to problem with Installing Ubuntu
7.04 on an older computer with a bios brom 1999.  Debian did not have a
problem with it, but Ubuntu does.  So I am debating whether to work
further on that or reinstall Debian on that machine.  

In regard to the question of email being stored as plain text, how about
this idea: email messages would be stored as plain text files, each
message as a separate file. Email would be stored in one directory, with
a subdirectory for incoming messages, one for saved, another for sent,
etc.  It would be left to the email client to "index" the messages (or
not) if it wants to, but must not alter any of the message text files in
any way. So, backup and restore? Just copy directories!  Add and delete?
Just like any other text file.  Easy and intuitive and smart, huh?