Importing email archive in Maildir format into OS X mail program

IMO, you'll need to convert your mdir files in mbox before importing them into mail. I found the following script on osxhints and just tested it with some mdir files I copied from our server.

#!/bin/bash
for file in `find /Users/drfu/{current.mdir,new.mbox}/ -type f`
do
cat $file | formail >> mbox
done

--------------------
I'm not the world's greatest script writer, but I copied the mdir files that I wanted to import to a folder named current.mdir and placed it in the root of my home folder. Then I created the following script and placed it on my desktop:

#!/bin/bash
for file in `find ~/{current.mdir,new.mbox}/ -type f`
do
cat $file | formail >> mbox
done

When it ran it created a file named mbox which I renamed to oldfiles.mbox. Then I opened mail.app, File, Import Mailboxes, Other, and selected oldfiles.mbox. Mail.app imported all messages and attachments into a folder named oldfiles.

If you are not familiar with shell scripts, all you have to do is paste the text of the script into TextEdit then save the file with a .sh extension, (i.e. importmdir.sh).

Next you need to make the file executable. To do this open Terminal, cd to the desktop where the script is stored and type:

chmod 777 importmdir.sh

Then run the script, in Terminal, by typing "./importmdir.sh" (without the ")

- Wayne



PowerMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.8)