Difference between revisions of "Mbox"
From Christoph's Personal Wiki
(Created page with "'''Mbox''' is a generic term for a family of related file formats used for holding collections of email messages. All messages in an mbox mailbox are concatenated and stored a...") |
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==Working with mbox files== | ==Working with mbox files== | ||
+ | |||
+ | * Create an example mbox file using [[Python]]: | ||
+ | <pre> | ||
+ | import mailbox | ||
+ | import email.utils | ||
+ | |||
+ | from_addr = email.utils.formataddr(('Author', 'author@example.com')) | ||
+ | to_addr = email.utils.formataddr(('Recipient', 'recipient@example.com')) | ||
+ | |||
+ | mbox = mailbox.mbox('example.mbox') | ||
+ | mbox.lock() | ||
+ | try: | ||
+ | msg = mailbox.mboxMessage() | ||
+ | msg.set_unixfrom('author Thus Feb 16 17:10:02 2017') | ||
+ | msg['From'] = from_addr | ||
+ | msg['To'] = to_addr | ||
+ | msg['Subject'] = 'Sample message 1' | ||
+ | body = "This is the body.\n" | ||
+ | body += "From (should be escaped).\n" | ||
+ | body += "There are 3 lines.\n" | ||
+ | msg.set_payload(body) | ||
+ | mbox.add(msg) | ||
+ | mbox.flush() | ||
+ | |||
+ | msg = mailbox.mboxMessage() | ||
+ | msg.set_unixfrom('author') | ||
+ | msg['From'] = from_addr | ||
+ | msg['To'] = to_addr | ||
+ | msg['Subject'] = 'Sample message 2' | ||
+ | msg.set_payload('This is the second body.\n') | ||
+ | mbox.add(msg) | ||
+ | mbox.flush() | ||
+ | finally: | ||
+ | mbox.unlock() | ||
+ | |||
+ | print open('example.mbox', 'r').read() | ||
+ | </pre> | ||
+ | |||
+ | Run the above Python script: | ||
+ | $ python mbox_create.py | ||
+ | <pre> | ||
+ | From MAILER-DAEMON Thu Feb 16 17:15:22 2017 | ||
+ | From: Author <author@example.com> | ||
+ | To: Recipient <recipient@example.com> | ||
+ | Subject: Sample message 1 | ||
+ | |||
+ | This is the body. | ||
+ | >From (should be escaped). | ||
+ | There are 3 lines. | ||
+ | |||
+ | From MAILER-DAEMON Thu Feb 16 17:15:22 2017 | ||
+ | From: Author <author@example.com> | ||
+ | To: Recipient <recipient@example.com> | ||
+ | Subject: Sample message 2 | ||
+ | |||
+ | This is the second body. | ||
+ | </pre> | ||
+ | |||
+ | * Print out all of the Subject fields: | ||
+ | <pre> | ||
+ | import mailbox | ||
+ | |||
+ | mbox = mailbox.mbox('example.mbox') | ||
+ | for message in mbox: | ||
+ | print message['subject'] | ||
+ | </pre> | ||
[[Category:Linux Command Line Tools]] | [[Category:Linux Command Line Tools]] |
Revision as of 18:30, 16 February 2017
Mbox is a generic term for a family of related file formats used for holding collections of email messages. All messages in an mbox mailbox are concatenated and stored as plain text in a single file. Each message starts with the four characters "From" followed by a space (the so named "From_ line") and the sender's email address. RFC 4155 defines that a UTC timestamp follows after another separating space character.
Working with mbox files
- Create an example mbox file using Python:
import mailbox import email.utils from_addr = email.utils.formataddr(('Author', 'author@example.com')) to_addr = email.utils.formataddr(('Recipient', 'recipient@example.com')) mbox = mailbox.mbox('example.mbox') mbox.lock() try: msg = mailbox.mboxMessage() msg.set_unixfrom('author Thus Feb 16 17:10:02 2017') msg['From'] = from_addr msg['To'] = to_addr msg['Subject'] = 'Sample message 1' body = "This is the body.\n" body += "From (should be escaped).\n" body += "There are 3 lines.\n" msg.set_payload(body) mbox.add(msg) mbox.flush() msg = mailbox.mboxMessage() msg.set_unixfrom('author') msg['From'] = from_addr msg['To'] = to_addr msg['Subject'] = 'Sample message 2' msg.set_payload('This is the second body.\n') mbox.add(msg) mbox.flush() finally: mbox.unlock() print open('example.mbox', 'r').read()
Run the above Python script:
$ python mbox_create.py
From MAILER-DAEMON Thu Feb 16 17:15:22 2017 From: Author <author@example.com> To: Recipient <recipient@example.com> Subject: Sample message 1 This is the body. >From (should be escaped). There are 3 lines. From MAILER-DAEMON Thu Feb 16 17:15:22 2017 From: Author <author@example.com> To: Recipient <recipient@example.com> Subject: Sample message 2 This is the second body.
- Print out all of the Subject fields:
import mailbox mbox = mailbox.mbox('example.mbox') for message in mbox: print message['subject']