I moved the entire contents of the inbox by highlighting it. Probably when I did this I deleted everything, which is what you suggested as one possibility. I looked at the file and sure enough, all the Status words were 8009. I simply used the "gres" command (grep and substitute) and replaced every one of the 1440 status words with one command. Neat! Then everything worked.
I am em,barassed to say how many hours I spent trying to find something more subtle in the file format. It never occurred to me that I might have deleted everything. Thanks again. vic Parish wrote: > victor levadi wrote: > > Parish, > > > > You were RIGHT ON!!!! > > > > Many thanks for the education, and thanks for taking the time. > > > > You are welcome. Glad to be of help, but what exactly was the problem? > > > v > > > > Parish wrote: > > > >> victor levadi wrote: > >> > The first thing that I tried was deleting the inbox.snm file. In the past, > >> > Netscape would regenerate the file. Today the program reads the inbox file, > >> > but apparently only recognizes that one message at the end. Additional > >> > messages can be added at the end of that file. Removing the new messages > >> > leaves a very large file will all the old messages in it, but Netscape > >> > doesn't recognize them. > >> > > >> > Any suggestions? My last resort is to get a definition of the file format > >> > and see if that will provide enough information to repair the file. > >> > > >> > >> Have all the messages that have disappeared re-appeared in your Trash > >> folder? > >> > >> I'm wondering if you've somehow deleted them all. When you delete a > >> message it just gets *flagged* as deleted and copied to Trash - the > >> message still exists in your Inbox. > >> > >> Open your Inbox in an editor (make a backup copy first) and look for > >> lines beginning ``X-Mozilla-Status:'' > >> > >> I don't know all the codes, but 0000 = unread, 0001 = read, 0009 = deleted. > >> > >> BTW, if you edit the file and save it make sure you delete the index file. > >> > >> As to the file format it is Unix mbox, i.e. plain text, just think of > >> the problems you'd have if it was in Outlook's proprietry binary format! > >> > >> HTH > >> > >> Regards, > >> > >> Parish > >> HTH > >> > >> > Any help will be appreciated > >> > > >> > vic > >> > > >> > victor levadi wrote: > >> > > >> >> I have a very large mail file in 4.7, which Netscape has stopped > >> >> displaying. I must have been careless in moving the file. There are more > >> >> than a thousand messages in this file, and I want to be able to keep > >> >> them in the Netscape mail file system with all of the other filed > >> >> messages. I could write a script to extract all of the messages and > >> >> header info, but that won't allow me to file the messages in the > >> >> Nestcape file system. > >> >> > >> >> I have looked at the file and I can see no obvious irregularity. The > >> >> file begins with "From - " and ends with OA OD .OA OD. Netscape appears > >> >> to read the file, but not display it in the Inbox window. One new > >> >> message was received and netscape appended it to the file. This new > >> >> message is displayed. > >> >> > >> >> Can someone enlighten me about the format for the mail file so that I > >> >> can patch the current file, even if it means losing a message at the > >> >> beginning or end, although both ends of the file look "clean", before > >> >> and after Netscape added the new message. I've tried taking one or two > >> >> individual messages from the large file, but can't get them to display. > >> >> Can someone tell me where to get the specs for the inbox file? > >> >> > >> >> I'm overlooking something, and I need help ASAP. > >> >> > >> >> Vic > >> > > >> > > >> > >> -- > >> Software is like sex, it's better when it's free -Linus Torvalds > > > > > > -- > Software is like sex, it's better when it's free -Linus Torvalds
