[pmmail-list] Back-Ups

[Simon Bowring]

On Mon, 11 Nov 2002 06:43:25 -0500, dc wrote:

>I'm rather new to PMMail 2000.  Can anyone explain the best way to backup or 
archive my email?  I've looked through the help section but didn't see it.
>Thanks for your help.

Ok here's a couple of ways... 

Firstly, PMMail (very kindly) stores email messages as individual files, one 
per message in directories/folders corresponding to the mail folders you 
set-up within pmmail, so you can use "standard" or your favourite archiving
tools to backup these files/dirs like WinZip).

In your pmmail program directory (mine is "E:\Pkg\PMMail\PMMail"), you 
willhave one directory/folder per account, with further directories/folders
(with .FLD extensions) for each mail folder you have. The account
and folder names are "munged/shortened" versions of the account and
folder names within pmmail, 

Account directories hav a ".ACT". extension, mine is: 
"E:\Pkg\PMMail\PMMail\SBOWRI1.ACT"

And some of my folders are...

 E:\Pkg\PMMail\PMMail\SBOWRI1.ACT\BACKUPS
 E:\Pkg\PMMail\PMMail\SBOWRI1.ACT\CREPLIES
 E:\Pkg\PMMail\PMMail\SBOWRI1.ACT\DRAFTS.FLD
 E:\Pkg\PMMail\PMMail\SBOWRI1.ACT\DROPBOX
 E:\Pkg\PMMail\PMMail\SBOWRI1.ACT\HEADERS
 E:\Pkg\PMMail\PMMail\SBOWRI1.ACT\INBOX.FLD
 E:\Pkg\PMMail\PMMail\SBOWRI1.ACT\INBOX.FLD\Archiv0.FLD
 E:\Pkg\PMMail\PMMail\SBOWRI1.ACT\OUTBOX.FLD
 E:\Pkg\PMMail\PMMail\SBOWRI1.ACT\Projec0.FLD
 E:\Pkg\PMMail\PMMail\SBOWRI1.ACT\Projec0.FLD\CILSOG0.FLD
   .
   .
 E:\Pkg\PMMail\PMMail\SBOWRI1.ACT\SENT.FLD
 E:\Pkg\PMMail\PMMail\SENT.FLD\SBOWRI1.ACT\Archiv0.FLD
 E:\Pkg\PMMail\PMMail\SBOWRI1.ACT\SIGS
 E:\Pkg\PMMail\PMMail\SBOWRI1.ACT\TRASH.FLD

So provided PMMail is not running (or fetching/sending mail), you
can archive/backup the files in these directories using your
favourite tools (WinZip).  

Simplest is to zip up your entire account directory.  To restore the 
files, you simply unarchive (all or some of the messages) into the 
correct place in the directory tree, and then run up pmmail and 
re-index any affected mail folders.


A second (easier?) way is to set-up a new manual filter and call it 
"Backup". Set it to run a "User hook (background)" program which 
will backup a single message.

e.g. if you are familiar with the freeware infozip ZIP.EXE program,
you can make a simple backup batch file (simplebu.bat) containing 
the lines like:

--cut-here-simplebu.bat--start--
@echo off
rem  Simple PMMail backup script, adds mail file to the file:
rem  u:\BackUp\Mailfiles\pmmail.zip file
rem  (Assumes zip.exe is on your path!)
zip -u u:\BackUp\Mailfiles\pmmail %1
--cut-here-simplebu.bat--end---

Set up the filter such that it searches "<Header>" for "." (ie. this
is bound to match every message as ALL email headers have at least one 
"." in them somewhere)

Now you can select one or more messages within pmmail, RMB on them,
and select "Apply Manual Filters -> Backup"

With the above example, pmmail/zip will then add any selected new/changed 
messages to the pmmail.zip backup file.

Simon

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