Corrupt MBOX

[Svein Halvor Halvorsen]

Gerard Seibert wrote:
>> It may be corrupted by spam.  This happens when SPAM has bad headers.  This 
>> effects all POP clients/servers.
>>
>>          -Derek
> 
> OK, is there any easy repair process that I can use to remedy the
> situation? Second, why isn't the mail corrupted on the mail server that
> I am getting this mail from? If it corrupts my mbox, then why not theirs?


I've gotten a fair share of SPAM through the years, but never has it
corrupted my mailbox. Maybe my mail delivery agent (qmail) is doing
something clever. I wouldn't know. However, I have had troubles with
locking, and different processes (eg, qmail, pine, home brewed filters,
etc) trying to write to the same file at the same time.

In what way are your mailbox corrupt? Could you pass it through formail,
and split in individual messages? Your MUA og POP3 server should care
less in you flip bits in in the message bodies, or even headers, as long
as there's no control char or other stuff like that in there. Maybe the
From-lines are broken?

I think I'd try to split the file at lines starting with "From " (notice
the space and lack of colon : after From). All the resulting files
should be valid mailboxes.


	Svein Halvor