Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!think.com!yale.edu!ox.com!math.fu-berlin.de!unido!rwthinf!physik.tu-muenchen.de!berg From: berg@physik.tu-muenchen.de (Stephen R. van den Berg) Newsgroups: comp.unix.programmer Subject: Re: mbox format? Message-ID: <4426@rwthinf.UUCP> Date: 28 Jun 91 12:49:37 GMT References: Sender: news@rwthinf.UUCP Lines: 21 The most common mailbox format (sendmail, smail or compatible environment) is defined as follows: Every occurrence of the following "Regular Expression" marks the beginning of a new mail message: \n\nFrom +[^\t\n ]+ +[^\n\t] Any mailbox file should start with a line conforming too: From +[^\t\n ]+ +[^\n\t] No, I did not find this in the manual, I just figured this out by trial and error from the /usr/ucb/mail program included with SunOS. Many programs erroneously allow *any* line starting with 'From ' to mark the start of a message (not even checking if the preceding line was empty either). -- Sincerely, berg@messua.informatik.rwth-aachen.de Stephen R. van den Berg. berg@physik.tu-muenchen.de "My name is Psmith, the P is not pronounced."