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Re: formail splitting problem

1998-09-05 15:32:33

From: Christopher Lindsey <lindsey(_at_)ncsa(_dot_)uiuc(_dot_)edu>

[Someone said:]
I was merely trying to locate any source that would define or
systematically describe the layout of Berkley MBOX (Unix mailbox)
format.

The Berkley MBOX is legendary, so there must be some document
covering it.  Does anyone know where?

I found this in some pine documentation at

   http://systems.binghamton.edu/Pine/low-level.html

   Berkeley Mail Format

      This format comes to us from the ancient UNIX mail program,
      /bin/mail. (Note that this doesn't have anything to do with
      Berkeley, but we call it the Berkeley mail file format
      anyway.) This program was actually used to interactively read
      mail at one time, and is still used on many systems as the local
      delivery agent. In the Berkeley mail format, a folder is a
      simple text file. Each message (including the first) must start
      with a separator line which takes approximately the form:

            From juser(_at_)u(_dot_)example(_dot_)edu Wed Aug 11 14:32:33 1993

[Rest deleted]

I would have thought the connection to Berkeley was /usr/ucb/mail
(a.k.a. "Mail," with a capital "M"); not /usr/bin/mail (a.k.a.
"/bin/mail").  ("UCB" stands for "University of California, Berkeley.")
The two are close, though different enough that I get messed up if I try
to use /bin/mail for much.  But "ancient UNIX mail program"?  I use and
prefer /usr/ucb/mail whenever I'm in a UNIX shell.  Many others do,
too.  <Yeesh.>  (I don't like pine.  It feels too GUI.)

Okay, sorry for the digression, but you all *were* talking about the
RFCs and From_ lines.  If it's called "Berkeley Mail Format," then I'd
infer it comes from Berkeley Mail!

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