Re: N00b begging quick input.

[Tassilo Horn <tassilo@member.fsf.org>]

DiagonalArg <gmane.boxy@xoxy.net> writes:

Hi!

> I am using RMAIL with <<many>> files in Babyl format.

I've never used RMAIL, so I cannot give any detailed suggestions.  But
the RMAIL version in Emacs 23+ switched to the MBOX format instead of
Babyl.

,----[ Emacs 23.1 release notes ]
| *** Rmail no longer converts the messages to Babyl format.
| Instead, it uses UNIX mbox format, both on disk and in Rmail buffers,
| and does conversion and decoding when a message is displayed.
| 
| The first time you visit an Rmail file in Babyl format, Rmail
| automatically converts it to mbox format.  This is a one-time
| conversion, but it can take a few minutes, depending on how fast is
| your machine and on the size of the file.  You should find the rest of
| Rmail usage unaltered.
`----

So if you open each of your mailboxes with a recent RMAIL version, they
should all be converted to MBOX automatically.  You should be able to
use them as-is, or you can switch over to nnml (which is probably the
most common backend for local mail) and incorporate the mail from your
mbox files.

,----[ (info "(gnus)Incorporating Old Mail") ]
| Most people have lots of old mail stored in various file formats.  If
| you have set up Gnus to read mail using one of the spiffy Gnus mail
| back ends, you'll probably wish to have that old mail incorporated into
| your mail groups.
`----

Bye,
Tassilo