On Thu, 5 Jun 2025, RAGINI wrote:
Where i'm lost is - how are the mails listed from the git repo - how are the mails for a mailing list accessed as a mbox - how are the mails fed to '/var/mail/${USER}' or copied to a fileTo your questions: https://public-inbox.org/README.html Does this readme helps?
Thanks for the link, the README hints at git based workflow. I'm going to give the 'linux-modules' list a try https://lore.kernel.org/linux-modules/ that means I need to clone git clone --mirror https://lore.kernel.org/linux-modules/0 linux-modules/git/0.git this leads to Cloning into bare repository 'linux-modules/git/0.git'... remote: Enumerating objects: 26634, done. remote: Counting objects: 100% (219/219), done. remote: Compressing objects: 100% (146/146), done. remote: Total 26634 (delta 44), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 26415 Receiving objects: 100% (26634/26634), 33.47 MiB | 1.71 MiB/s, done. Resolving deltas: 100% (2694/2694), done. At this point, i have a git repo on my system. Next, I check the archlinux repo for 'public inbox' tool. https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/any/perl-publicinbox/ extra/perl-publicinbox 1.9.0-3 The perl library for public-inbox Installing this requires, :: sudo pacman -S extra/perl-publicinbox resolving dependencies... looking for conflicting packages... Packages (13) perl-dbd-sqlite-1.76-1 perl-dbi-1.647-1 perl-devel-leak-0.03-15 perl-file-sharedir-install-0.14-4 perl-inline-0.86-2 perl-inline-c-0.82-5 perl-parse-recdescent-1.967015-4 perl-pegex-0.75-6 perl-search-xapian-1.2.25.5-5 perl-yaml-libyaml-0.904.0-1 perl-yaml-pp-0.39.0-1 xapian-core-1:1.4.27-1 perl-publicinbox-1.9.0-3 This installs the PERL library for public-inbox Now, I need the public-inbox binary scripts. A visit to the public-inbox installation page https://public-inbox.org/INSTALL.html The first three lines have me stumped """ This is for folks who want to setup their own public-inbox instance. Clients should use normal git-clone/git-fetch, IMAP or NNTP clients if they want to import mail into their personal inboxes. """ git-pull git-fetch don't work, since git correctly reports 'there is no working tree'. As a user, i just want to read the emails of the linux-modules archive and at this point in time, there is no outcome! FWIW, in normal free software projects, the mailing lists have compressed monthly archives, which one can easily 'wget' and start following the discussion threads in less than 5 minutes. eg. emacs-devel archives https://lists.gnu.org/archive/mbox/emacs-devel/ eg. gcc-help compressed archives https://gcc.gnu.org/pipermail/gcc-help/ It stands to reason, either public-inbox creators had some profound "huuuuge" ideas which my small brain can't comprehend or they are charlatans of the first order. Digging further, there is a list of clients one may use. https://public-inbox.org/clients.html With a bit of internet search, it is clear at this point that 0. there is still a search todo down some blind alley to figure out a usable client 1. archives when extracted would be in maildir format 2. mbox is only possible for a specific discussion thread. Subscribing to the mailing list via script automated 'listname+subscr...@vger.kernel.org' (where the list name is fed from a file, created via AWK) and processing incoming mails using fetchmail+procmail+alpine (alpine has powerful filters) to create MBOX files works. It is simple, scriptable and scalable ! warm regards Saifi.
