The mailing list for listmasters using Sympa

[IKEDA Soji <address@concealed>]

Hi Steve,

On 2023/02/25 4:54, Steve Sobol - NTF wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I'm moving mailing lists from a couple other mailing list managers to our
> Sympa server.
>
> Some of them are on SourceForge, which allows you to export mail archives in
> mbox format.
>
> A handful are hosted on a server running mlmmj, with archives generated by
> MHonArc.
>
> Is there a relatively easy way to import those archives into Sympa?

Sympa cannot import archives that have already been converted to HTML; 
only eml files (plain text, one file per message format: See [1]) can be 
imported into Sympa archives.

Archives in mbox format can be imported into Sympa archives by 
converting them to eml format. The mbox seems to have several dialects 
(See [2]), so you need to choose the appropriate conversion method.

Place the eml files as below:

  $ARCDIR/
   |
   +- LIST1@DOMAIN/
   |   |
   |   +- 2022-12/
   |   |   |
   |   |   +- arctxt/
   |   |       |
   |   |       +- 1
   |   |       +- 2
   |   |       +- 3
   |   |       ...
   |   |
   |   +- 2023-01/
   |       |
   |       +- arctxt/
   |           |
   |           +- 1
   |           +- 2
   |           +- 3
   |           ...
   |
   +- LIST2@DOMAIN/
      ...

You ahve to check $ARCDIR in your Sympa installation (See [3]). 
LIST@DOMAIN is the address of the list (Note that it must be lowercased).

Store each eml file under the monthly arctxt directory with a numeric 
file name. The numbers should hold the temporal sequence of the messages 
and do not necessarily have to be consecutive.

The above directories and files must be owned by the Sympa user and must 
be readable and writable by it.

Once the eml files are in place, execute the following command by each list:

# sympa --rebuildarc=LIST@DOMAIN

Alternatively, if you are using Sympa 6.2.72 (soon to be released) or 
later, run:

# sympa rebuildarc LIST@DOMAIN

After a while, the messages will be converted to HTML and accessible 
from the web.  You can see when the conversion finisehd by checking 
system log.


[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.eml

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/mbox

[3] https://www.sympa.community/manual/layout.html#arcdir

> Also, management wants me to create the new lists now. Can I create those
> lists, then import the archives later, without breaking anything?

Archives that are updated while the list is running are only for the 
current month, so it is possible to import archives from the past after 
the list has been created.


Regards,
-- Soji
> Thanks
> --Steve

--
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ITソリューション部 システムソリューション1グループ 池田荘児
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