Export / upload emails from Thunderbird mbox files to single eml files
mboxzilla is a free sofware designed to :
- extract emails from mbox file to single eml files
- compact a mbox file by removing all emails marked as deleted as well as malformed
- split a mbox file into smaller mbox files
- upload extracted emails to a remote directory in a safe mode
- apply the above tasks automatically for Mozilla Thunderbird
- eml files can be compressed in gzip format
- logging can be enabled
- supported platforms : Windows, Linux
- 2-Clause BSD License
mboxzilla [OPTION...] [CONFIG_FILE]
-f, --file FILE Input mbox file.
-o, --output DIR Output directory.
-p, --path PATH Base input path where mbox file is stored. When
is set then input mbox specified by 'f' option
is concatenated to output directory. If PATH is
a substring from input mbox file then it is
from string following the path argument.
-e, --extract Extract emails from mbox file to eml files
named 'YYYYmmddHHMMSS_MD5.eml' (or eml.gz) to a
local directory.
-c, --compact Compact mbox file to file whose name is
formatted in 'mboxfilename_YYYYmmddHHMMSS'.
-s, --split N Split mbox file into several mbox files of
maximum N bytes size. This smaller files are
named 'mboxfilename.#' where # is an increment
number with auto leading zero if necessary.
-a, --auto Automatic mbox files search and parse for
Mozilla Thunderbird client. The search is
performed in the current user directory.
--with-localfolders Force processing the 'Thunderbird local
folders' directory for all profiles selected.
Only used with 'auto' option.
--force-user USER Set the user name profile for Thunderbird
search. Only used with 'auto' option.
--email-domain DOMAIN Keep only corresponding accounts found in
Thunderbird. Only used with 'auto' option.
--source-exclude REGEX Exclude mbox files from Thunderbird list. This
is a insensitive regex list separated by comma.
Only used with 'auto' option.
-w, --windows-format Convert extracted eml files to windows format.
--synchronize Synchonize eml files from available emails list
and if 'auto' is set then keep only valid
Thunderbird directories.
-z, --compress Compress eml in gzip format and add extension
'.gz' to file name.
-i, --with-invalid Invalid emails are retained. This status is
defined when at least one of the 'date' or
'from' fields is missing from the header. The
date filters do not affect these emails. The
names are formatted in '00000000000000_MD5.eml'
(or eml.gz).
-x, --with-duplicated Duplicated emails are retained during
processing.
-d, --with-deleted Deleted emails are retained during processing.
This status is linked to the 'X-Mozilla-Status'
header field and therefore only available with
Mozilla Thunderbird email client.
-u, --url URL Url for the messages uploading process in eml
or gz file format. This option require option
'k' to be set to trigger the remote sending
process. It is independent of 'e' option.
-k, --key KEY Password used to secure exchanges with the
remote host.
--age-min N Select emails that have more than N days.
--age-max N Select emails that have less than N days.
--date-before DATE Select emails before the specified date. DATE
must be formatted in 'YYYY-mm-dd HH:MM:SS' or
'YYYY/mm/dd HH:MM:SS'. The parameters
'HH:MM:SS' are optional and would be set to
'00:00:00' if it is missing.
--date-after DATE Select emails after the specified date. Same
syntax as 'date-before'
--timeout N Set maximum time in seconds the remote
connection request is allowed to take. Used if
'u' option is set. WARNING: If defined to 0
then process could hang. (default: 600)
--speed-limit N Set maximum speed in bytes per second to send a
file. Used if 'u' option is set. (default: 0)
--start-wait N Delay process waiting to start in seconds.
(default: 0)
--start-random N Maximum delay before process start in seconds.
The random value is added to the 'wait'
countdown. (default: 0)
--log-file FILE Log what we're doing to the specified FILE.
--log-maxfiles N Maximum number of log files. Each log file size
does not exceed 1 MB. (default: 5)
-v, --verbose [=N(=3)] Verbose level for eml processing (N between 1
and 3, 3 is implicit). 1=ERROR, 2=WARNING,
3=INFO.
--version Display version number.
--help Display command line options.
-
Simulate an mbox file or a full automatic Thunderbird processing
mboxzilla -f inbox mboxzilla -a -
Extract all messages to local folder as eml files
mboxzilla -f inbox -o backup_dir -e -
Extract all messages younger than 30 days to local folder
mboxzilla -f inbox -o backup_dir -e --age-max=30 -
Upload all messages found in Thunderbird profiles to URL (see 'server/index.php') with :
- EML compression to gzip = active
- Emails age max = 365 days
- Email profile filter = domain.tld
- Mbox excluded = trash.,drafts.,junk.,templates.,(./)?private.
- Include Thunderbird local folders = yes
- Host URL = https://server_url/mails/
- Secure key = _password
- Synchronization = active
- Upload max speed = 32768 B/s (256 Kb/s)
- Verbose level = 2 (Errors and warnings)
- Log file = mboxzilla.log
mboxzilla -a -z --age-max=365 --email-domain "domain.tld" --source-exclude "trash.*,drafts.*,junk.*,templates.*,(.*/)?private.*" --with-localfolders -u "https://server_url/mails/" -k "_password" --synchronize --speed-limit=32768 -v 2 --log-file=mboxzilla.logOR
mboxzilla settings.confwhere configuration file contains :# mboxzilla configuration example auto=true compress=true age-max=365 email-domain=domain.tld source-exclude=trash.*,drafts.*,junk.*,templates.*,(.*/)?private.* with-localfolders=true url=https://server_url/mails/ key=_password synchronize=true speed-limit=32768 verbose=2 log-file=mboxzilla.log -
Upload all messages found in Thunderbird profiles to a folder :
mboxzilla settings.confwhere configuration file contains :# mboxzilla configuration example auto=true compress=true email-domain=domain.tld source-exclude=trash.*,drafts.*,junk.*,templates.* with-localfolders=true output=C:\Users\username\Documents\emails extract=true synchronize=true verbose=2 log-file=mboxzilla.logWeb server requires:
- a file to manage requests in https://server_url/mails/ (see index.php in "server" directory)
- a subdirectory in "mails/" to store the exported files (see $target_dir value in index.php)
- to set the key to decrypt eml files (see $key value)
-
The mbox source files are read-only access and so are never modified.
-
If 'auto' option is set then output directory for Thunderbird is 'username/profile/name@domain.tld' or 'username/profile/Local Folders'.
-
The (not default) synchronization process works on all the eml files but for directories sync it's only applied for Thunderbird.
-
Remotely exported files are transferred using AES-256-CBC encryption mode
-
Thunderbird IMAP type accounts are ignored.
-
If an error occurred while parsing a mbox then its processing is aborted and goes to next one. In this case there is no files synchronization.
-
This software uses the following external libraries :
- CXXOPTS - Copyright (c) 2014-2016 Jarryd Beck
-> source: https://github.com/jarro2783/cxxopts - EASYLOGGING++ - Copyright (c) 2016 muflihun.com
-> source: https://github.com/easylogging/easyloggingpp - JSON for Modern C++ - Copyright (c) 2013-2016 Niels Lohmann
-> source: https://github.com/nlohmann/json - SIMPLEINI - Copyright (c) 2006-2012 Brodie Thiesfield
-> source: https://github.com/brofield/simpleini
- CXXOPTS - Copyright (c) 2014-2016 Jarryd Beck
The build requirements are:
- C++ compiler that supports C++11 regular expressions. For example GCC >= 4.9 or clang with libc++.
- C++ Libraries : zlib, ssh2, ssl, curl (see installation script in 'docs' folder)
From linux do :
- linux binary:
g++ -Os -s -std=c++11 mboxzilla.cpp mbox_parser.cpp common.cpp easylogging++.cc -o bin/linux/mboxzilla -lcrypto -lcurl -lz -DELPP_NO_DEFAULT_LOG_FILE - macos binary:
export OPENSSL_PREFIX="$(brew --prefix openssl)" g++ -Os -std=c++11 mboxzilla.cpp mbox_parser.cpp common.cpp easylogging++.cc -o bin/macos/mboxzilla -lcrypto -lcurl -lz -DELPP_NO_DEFAULT_LOG_FILE -I${OPENSSL_PREFIX}/include -L${OPENSSL_PREFIX}/lib - windows 32bits executable:
i686-w64-mingw32-g++ -static -Os -s -std=c++11 mboxzilla.cpp mbox_parser.cpp common.cpp easylogging++.cc -o bin/win32/mboxzilla.exe -lcurl -lpthread -lssl -lssh2 -lcrypto -lcrypt32 -lz -lws2_32 -lwldap32 -lwinmm -lgdi32 -DCURL_STATICLIB -DELPP_NO_DEFAULT_LOG_FILE - windows 64bits executable:
x86_64-w64-mingw32-g++ -static -Os -s -std=c++11 mboxzilla.cpp mbox_parser.cpp common.cpp easylogging++.cc -o bin/win64/mboxzilla.exe -lcurl -lpthread -lssl -lssh2 -lcrypto -lcrypt32 -lbcrypt -lz -lws2_32 -lwldap32 -lwinmm -lgdi32 -DCURL_STATICLIB -DELPP_NO_DEFAULT_LOG_FILE
The Mbox_parser class can be freely used outside this project.