sadmanca / mbox-attachment-extractor

mbox Attachment Extractor

Overview

This Python script (extract.py) is designed to parse .mbox files containing email messages, extract attachments from those emails, and optionally save each email as an individual .mbox file in corresponding folders. It provides a command-line interface (CLI) to customize its behavior based on various options.

Features

• Attachment Extraction: Automatically detects and saves attachments from emails in the .mbox file.
• Individual Email Saving: Optionally saves each email as a separate .mbox file in a directory named after the email's timestamp and subject.
• Logging: Logs detailed information about the processing steps, including saved emails, skipped emails, and errors.
• Progress Monitoring: Uses tqdm to display a progress bar in the terminal, indicating the status of email processing.
• Customizable Output: Allows specifying an output folder where attachments and .mbox files are saved.

Requirements

• Python 3.x
• Required Python packages (colorama, tqdm)

Usage

Command-Line Options

The script accepts several command-line options to customize its behavior:

• Positional Arguments:

• mbox_file: Path to the .mbox file to be processed.

• Optional Arguments:

• -s, --save-mbox: Save each email as an individual .mbox file in folders. Default is False.

• -v, --verbose: Print detailed logs to the terminal in addition to saving them to a log file. Default is False.

• -l, --log-first-line: Include the first line of each email (From field) in the log file. Default is False.

• -o OUTPUT_FOLDER, --output-folder OUTPUT_FOLDER: Specify the output folder where attachments and .mbox files will be saved. Default is emails.

Examples

1. Basic Usage:

• Processes mboxfile.mbox without saving individual .mbox files, without verbose logging, and saving output in the default emails folder.

python extract.py path/to/your/mboxfile.mbox

2. Save Individual .mbox Files:

• Processes mboxfile.mbox, saves each email as an individual .mbox file in default emails folder.

python extract.py path/to/your/mboxfile.mbox -s

3. Verbose Output:

• Processes mboxfile.mbox, prints detailed logs to the terminal, and saves output in the default emails folder.

python extract.py path/to/your/mboxfile.mbox -v

4. Custom Output Folder:

• Processes mboxfile.mbox, saves attachments and .mbox files in custom_output_folder.

python extract.py path/to/your/mboxfile.mbox -o "custom_output_folder/path""

5. Verbose and Log First Line:

• Processes mboxfile.mbox, prints detailed logs to the terminal with the first line of each email included, and saves output in the default emails folder.

python extract.py path/to/your/mboxfile.mbox -v -l

Output

• Attachments: Extracted attachments from emails are saved in subfolders within the specified or default output folder.
• Log File: Detailed logs of the processing steps are saved in a timestamped log file (email_parser_<timestamp>.log).

python extract.py -h

Notes

• Ensure Python and required packages (colorama, tqdm) are installed before running the script.
• Use -h or --help for help with command-line options: