Re: Problem incorporating old mail file

[Aaron Hsu]

reader@newsguy.com writes:

> Aaron Hsu <spam@sacrificumdeo.net> writes:
>
>>> Procmail can split in literally any way you can dream up.  It is very
>>> versatile.
>>
>> I might be interested in taking this route if it is going to be the
>> fastest and the cleanest. Mainly, here was what I was thinking. Most of
>> my important mail can be determined by who sent it (some people use
>> multiple email addresses). With procmail, would it be possible to grab
>> all the mail, first remove all the empty newsgroup entries, and then put
>> all the mail into individual mboxes or what have you corresponding to
>> the email addresses (actually the full contents of the from header would
>> be best) of the sender?
>
> Yes.
> I'm not sure it is the quickest or cleanest.  And it will take some
> experimentation to get the results you want.  It may take a fair bit
> of experimentation so be warned it could take some time and effort to
> get the results you want.  

It's older mail, so as long as I know I can get there within some amount
of reasonable time, I'm okay. :-)

> However the big file itself will not be altered in any way so you can
> always rerun the process until you get the desired result.

That's always a good thing.

> Procmail can rewrite/remote headers in just about any way you
> like. (by using other tools like sed or whatever) but that is
> transparent to the processing.  

I'm not really sure that I want to rewrite headers or anything. Really,
I just want to be able to do most of my processing by what is in the headers.

> Please post at least 2 full messages so we can see the format.
>
> Try `head -200 largefile >first200' to get the first 200 lines.
> That won't alter the big file in any way.
>
> ... might be more than 2 messages but just post enough so we can see
> the format of at least 2 messages.  How they start and end.  What
> separates them.

What I have added below is a sample of some of the first messages in the
file. You'll notice a DOS format with CRLF line enders. Other than this,
these are all examples of messages I want to get rid of. You'll notice
that they are posts to a newsgroup. I want to get rid of the newsgroup
posts that are not from me, as well as anything sent to a mailing
list. All the other mail I want to sort based on sender.

Essentially, I'm trying to get rid of mailing lists and newsgroups, and
then sort by sender, that's it.

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>From invalid@comcast.net Tue Mar 08 02:19:59 2005
X-Opera-Status: 
040000000000002301422d0bcf000001a508400081000001a50000008400000001000001910000000000000172000000000000000000000000
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0400000000000017e8422d0bcf000007e808100000000000c4000000e7000000080000011000000000000000f0000000960000000000000000
X-Opera-Location: <zJydnQxqe9tMlrDfRVn-sQ@comcast.com> news.giganews.com 
microsoft.public.win32:2
Subject: usb communications to uC
From: Eric <invalid@comcast.net>
Date: Mon, 07 Mar 2005 21:19:59 -0500
Message-ID: <zJydnQxqe9tMlrDfRVn-sQ@comcast.com>
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.win32




>From jayant.m@gmail.com Tue Mar 01 09:20:45 2005
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040000000000002302422433ed000001f208400081000001f20000008400000001000001bf0000000000000193000000000000000000000000
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X-Opera-Location: <1109668845.144187.187280@l41g2000cwc.googlegroups.com> 
news.giganews.com microsoft.public.win32.programmer:2691
Subject: Paint probelm..backgnd getting erased
From: Jayant <jayant.m@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 01 Mar 2005 04:20:45 -0500
Message-ID: <1109668845.144187.187280@l41g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.win32.programmer




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-- 
Aaron Hsu <spam@sacrificumdeo.net> Jabber: arcfide@xmpp.us
<http://www.sacrificumdeo.net> "Extend beyond the Mortal . . . ."
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin