[I posted this to comp.mail.pine but I didn't get any replies.]

I don't care much about email but I have 100s of NGs that I want to move
to *pine without having to go to manual settings. Ideally I'd like to
have the same NGs and the exact point to where I was in Thunderbird.

My system is Debian Bullseye.

In the past, I used to use this script, but it would do half the job,
that is move the NGs but not take account of the messages already read.

########### start

$ cat opt/bin/sync2.sh
#!/bin/bash

clear

cd

DIR=sync-$(date +"%m%d%Y")
mkdir $DIR
cd $DIR

echo
echo 'Copying Thunderbird newsrc files'
find ~/.thunderbird/yccty18i.default-release/News/ -type f -name
newsrc-* -mtime -7 -ctime -7|xargs tar cvf - | ( tar xfp -)

##### end

Then I had to edit the newsrc-* file names to fit onto *pine (don't
remember how I did it) but it didn't do what I meant to achieve.

For example, one the files would look like this:

###### start

$ cat
/home/oc/.thunderbird/yccty18i.default-release/News/newsrc-news.eternal-september.org
comp.editors: 1-3588
uk.radio.amateur.moderated: 1-6276
comp.unix.shell: 1-37961
eternal-september.where.are.all.the.newsgroups: 1,2
eternal-september.grouprequests: 1-651
eternal-september.config: 1-879
eternal-september.info: 1-48
eternal-september.moderated: 1-20
eternal-september.support: 1-14464
eternal-september.talk: 1-1245
uk.people.consumers.ebay: 1-25952
free.uk.amateur-radio: 1-15439
free.uk.diy.domestic-appliance-repair: 1-6
free.uk.diy.home: 1-7928
free.uk.jobs: 1-122
free.uk.talk.birmingham: 1-6
uk.d-i-y: 1-1207473
uk.local.birmingham: 1-971

#### end

Can this be done? This should be a one-off job to get rid of Thunderbird
once and for all.

Thanks.

--
Ottavio Caruso

On 10/24/2023 4:29 AM, Ottavio Caruso wrote:
> [I posted this to comp.mail.pine but I didn't get any replies.]
>
> I don't care much about email but I have 100s of NGs that I want to move to *pine without having to go to manual settings. Ideally I'd like to have the same NGs and the exact point to where I was in Thunderbird.
>
> My system is Debian Bullseye.
>
> In the past, I used to use this script, but it would do half the job, that is move the NGs but not take account of the messages already read.
>
> ########### start
>
>
> $ cat opt/bin/sync2.sh
> #!/bin/bash
>
> clear
>
> cd
>
> DIR=sync-$(date +"%m%d%Y")
> mkdir $DIR
> cd $DIR
>
>
>
> echo
> echo 'Copying Thunderbird newsrc files'
> find ~/.thunderbird/yccty18i.default-release/News/ -type f -name newsrc-* -mtime -7 -ctime -7|xargs tar cvf - | ( tar xfp -)
>
> ##### end
>
> Then I had to edit the newsrc-* file names to fit onto *pine (don't remember how I did it) but it didn't do what I meant to achieve.
>
> For example, one the files would look like this:
>
> ###### start
>
> $ cat /home/oc/.thunderbird/yccty18i.default-release/News/newsrc-news.eternal-september.org
> comp.editors: 1-3588
> uk.radio.amateur.moderated: 1-6276
> comp.unix.shell: 1-37961
> eternal-september.where.are.all.the.newsgroups: 1,2
> eternal-september.grouprequests: 1-651
> eternal-september.config: 1-879
> eternal-september.info: 1-48
> eternal-september.moderated: 1-20
> eternal-september.support: 1-14464
> eternal-september.talk: 1-1245
> uk.people.consumers.ebay: 1-25952
> free.uk.amateur-radio: 1-15439
> free.uk.diy.domestic-appliance-repair: 1-6
> free.uk.diy.home: 1-7928
> free.uk.jobs: 1-122
> free.uk.talk.birmingham: 1-6
> uk.d-i-y: 1-1207473
> uk.local.birmingham: 1-971
>
> #### end
>
>
>
>
> Can this be done? This should be a one-off job to get rid of Thunderbird once and for all.
>
> Thanks.

The NEWSRC file is a standard that's been around for forty years at least.

You have to find the correct name for the file, on Thunderbird, copy
the file, and edit the filename to please Pine. The internal format
should be fine as is.

For example, the Thunderbird file should be like this.

news.eternal-september.org.rc <=== A .newsrc file inside

alt.windows7.general: 1-201026 <=== Shows which messages read/unread.
alt.comp.os.windows-10: 1-177135
uk.d-i-y: 1-1267969

*******

Now, as the RC file stands, the "numbers" are consistent with the
headers stored in the .msf files.

Pine will not have those headers (yet). It's state is not synchronized
with the .rc file.

The .rc file needs to be edited like this, to reset the state.
Doing this, should cause Pine to download headers for each of the three
groups in the example.

alt.windows7.general: 1-1
alt.comp.os.windows-10: 1-1
uk.d-i-y: 1-1

And you may be thinking "but the DIY group has over a million messages in it".
On the server, the low-water and high-water marks, are a fraction of that.
Maybe the actual messages on the server, go from 1200000 to 1267969,
and when you do your first Pine run, only 67,969 headers will download.
Not all those messages are still on the server.

You would need a way to transfer the headers from Thunderbird
uk.d-i-y.msf file, to whatever format Pine uses, for that transfer
to occur.

But I can't even find evidence it has a memory. Or keeps headers.

It's not threaded. I used Alpine for this demo, because it's in the Ubuntu repository.

[Picture]

https://i.postimg.cc/ZqHnk2mw/alpine.gif

You'll need a client that is better than this. That's
roughly the equivalent of using Lynx as a web browser.

Paul

On 10/24/2023 9:15 AM, Paul wrote:
> On 10/24/2023 4:29 AM, Ottavio Caruso wrote:
>> [I posted this to comp.mail.pine but I didn't get any replies.]
>>
>> I don't care much about email but I have 100s of NGs that I want to move to *pine without having to go to manual settings. Ideally I'd like to have the same NGs and the exact point to where I was in Thunderbird.
>>
>> My system is Debian Bullseye.
>>
>> In the past, I used to use this script, but it would do half the job, that is move the NGs but not take account of the messages already read.
>>
>> ########### start
>>
>>
>> $ cat opt/bin/sync2.sh
>> #!/bin/bash
>>
>> clear
>>
>> cd
>>
>> DIR=sync-$(date +"%m%d%Y")
>> mkdir $DIR
>> cd $DIR
>>
>>
>>
>> echo
>> echo 'Copying Thunderbird newsrc files'
>> find ~/.thunderbird/yccty18i.default-release/News/ -type f -name newsrc-* -mtime -7 -ctime -7|xargs tar cvf - | ( tar xfp -)
>>
>> ##### end
>>
>> Then I had to edit the newsrc-* file names to fit onto *pine (don't remember how I did it) but it didn't do what I meant to achieve.
>>
>> For example, one the files would look like this:
>>
>> ###### start
>>
>> $ cat /home/oc/.thunderbird/yccty18i.default-release/News/newsrc-news.eternal-september.org
>> comp.editors: 1-3588
>> uk.radio.amateur.moderated: 1-6276
>> comp.unix.shell: 1-37961
>> eternal-september.where.are.all.the.newsgroups: 1,2
>> eternal-september.grouprequests: 1-651
>> eternal-september.config: 1-879
>> eternal-september.info: 1-48
>> eternal-september.moderated: 1-20
>> eternal-september.support: 1-14464
>> eternal-september.talk: 1-1245
>> uk.people.consumers.ebay: 1-25952
>> free.uk.amateur-radio: 1-15439
>> free.uk.diy.domestic-appliance-repair: 1-6
>> free.uk.diy.home: 1-7928
>> free.uk.jobs: 1-122
>> free.uk.talk.birmingham: 1-6
>> uk.d-i-y: 1-1207473
>> uk.local.birmingham: 1-971
>>
>> #### end
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Can this be done? This should be a one-off job to get rid of Thunderbird once and for all.
>>
>> Thanks.
>
> The NEWSRC file is a standard that's been around for forty years at least.
>
> You have to find the correct name for the file, on Thunderbird, copy
> the file, and edit the filename to please Pine. The internal format
> should be fine as is.
>
> For example, the Thunderbird file should be like this.
>
> news.eternal-september.org.rc <=== A .newsrc file inside
>
> alt.windows7.general: 1-201026 <=== Shows which messages read/unread.
> alt.comp.os.windows-10: 1-177135
> uk.d-i-y: 1-1267969
>
> *******
>
> Now, as the RC file stands, the "numbers" are consistent with the
> headers stored in the .msf files.
>
> Pine will not have those headers (yet). It's state is not synchronized
> with the .rc file.
>
> The .rc file needs to be edited like this, to reset the state.
> Doing this, should cause Pine to download headers for each of the three
> groups in the example.
>
> alt.windows7.general: 1-1
> alt.comp.os.windows-10: 1-1
> uk.d-i-y: 1-1
>
> And you may be thinking "but the DIY group has over a million messages in it".
> On the server, the low-water and high-water marks, are a fraction of that.
> Maybe the actual messages on the server, go from 1200000 to 1267969,
> and when you do your first Pine run, only 67,969 headers will download.
> Not all those messages are still on the server.
>
> You would need a way to transfer the headers from Thunderbird
> uk.d-i-y.msf file, to whatever format Pine uses, for that transfer
> to occur.
>
> But I can't even find evidence it has a memory. Or keeps headers.
>
> It's not threaded. I used Alpine for this demo, because it's in the Ubuntu repository.
>
> [Picture]
>
> https://i.postimg.cc/ZqHnk2mw/alpine.gif
>
> You'll need a client that is better than this. That's
> roughly the equivalent of using Lynx as a web browser.
>
> Paul
>

A user manual for Alpine is here.

https://alpineapp.email/alpine/alpine-info/collections/News/

Paul