Re: download mailing list archives

On 2024-10-20 21:10:11, Panayotis Manganaris wrote:

>
> Hello,
>
[snip]
>
> My goal is irrelevant. I'm writing only to ask if there is a good way to download a specific list's archives for indexing/reading using my local mail tools. I'm finding the web UI tedious.
>
> I'd prefer the archives either in mbox or maildir format. It seems this is not available for any mailing list at any time.
[snip]
> Panos

Hello,

I use mutt, so I use maildir format. I will describe how I proceed.

For instance hereunder step-by-step my process for the list
	freebsd-fortran

1. Create a local directory
	mkdir /home/me/fbsd_fortran

2. Go to this directory
	cd /home/me/fbsd_fortran

3. Go to the page:
	https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/

4. Search for the list "fortran-freebsd" then copy its URL
	https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-fortran/

5. Create a file containing all the gziped archives ready to be downloaded
	curl https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-fortran/ | \
	grep '\.txt\.gz' | \
	cut -d\" -f2 | \
	awk '{print "curl -4L https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-fortran/"$1" -O"}' > arch_gzip.txt

6. If all goes well, execute this file
	sh ./ arch_gzip.txt

7. Ungzip archives
	for curs in *.gz; do gunzip $curs; done

8. Create a directory which will contain the maildir structure
	mkdir fbsd_fortran_ml

9. Install the tool "mb2md"
	pkg install mb2md

10. Convert text files obtained in (7) to maildir format
	for curs in *.txt; do mb2md -s /home/me/fbsd_fortran/$curs \
	-d /home/me/fbsd_fortran/fbsd_fortran_ml/; done

		WARNING : here, paths must be absolute

11. Fire mutt and go to the maildir directory
	c
	/home/me/fbsd_fortran/fbsd_fortran_ml/

12. Enjoy


Hope it helps.
Regards,
Rand