geary2txt

A cmd tool in Python to export / backup Geary and Pantheon-mail messages as source: TXT, EML or MHT files.

https://github.com/uuencode/geary2txt

this tool does NOT change anything in the Geary database
messages removed from Geary are NOT removed from backup
previously exported messages are skipped
messages that are visible in the Geary mail list but not yet downloaded (no header+body in the database) are not processed, (info provided instead)

HOW TO INSTALL

Download and save 'geary2txt.py' and make it executable
Set 'geary_db_file' and 'dir_to_export' at the beginning of geary2txt.py where:
geary_db_file - geary database file e.g. '/home/USER/.local/share/ geary-OR-pantheon-mail /EMAIL@EMAIL.COM/geary.db'
dir_to_export - a folder to save messages e.g. '/home/USER/backup_emails' - no trailing slash
Make sure that you have permissions to read 'geary_db_file' and permissions to create files in 'dir_to_export'

HOW TO USE

Run geary2txt from terminal:

PATH-TO/geary2txt.py

Run geary2txt.py from terminal with folder IDs as arguments to export messages as source files without prompt:

PATH-TO/geary2txt.py 2 5 12

WHAT TO DO WITH THE FILES

messages can be displayed or imported from any email program that supports EML/MHT files e.g. Thunderbird
there is a Firefox extension that opens EML and MHT files: UnMHT
there is a Chrome extension to open and extract EML/MHT files: MHT Viewer
a cmd tool called mpack extracts the content of EML/MHT files with the following command: munpack file
a gtk/webkit based app on GitHub called ohwgiles/wemed claims to open & edit EML files

HISTORY

version 0.2 / 2016-09-15
fancy colors
Geary folders with no messages are not displayed
log: skipped, failed and processed messages + details
interactive options to choose folders and display log
messages are counted internally since Geary db records seem to be unreliable
messages without header & body in the database are marked as 'failed' and not processed
php version removed
version 0.1 / 2016-09-07 - initial release

KNOWN ISSUES

There seems to be no easy and reliable way to convert the email subject to utf8 from the various encoding methods that are used. Now geary2txt simply removes any non-ascii symbol to create the subject part of the filename.

uuencode / geary2txt