What is a MBOX File? Everything You Should Know
What is an MBOX File? In this write-up, you will get the complete information and details about the MBOX file format.
What is MBOX?
MBOX is a format that is most commonly used for storing email messages on memory storage. MBOX holds a large collection of files of email messages. There are many email clients which use MBOX format to store their files. Also, the email clients like Apple Mail, Microsoft entourage, Mozilla Thunderbird, and Qualcomm Eudora use MBOX to store and manage their data files. Also, it allows you to hold a list of emails related to your business and others. The MBOX stores the mailbox messages in their original internet message format. Also, it stores all the messages in a single database every new message is appended to the end of the file. Also, each line of the message is prefaced by a separation line and terminated by an empty line.
Structure of an MBOX File:
The MBOX file uses a predefined format to store the messages. A message encoded in MBOX format begins with a from_line, continues with a series of non-from_lines, and ends with a blank line. A from_line means any line that begins with the characters F, r,o,m space. The format is
From <sender name> <date> <moreinfo>
<Sender name> It is the name of the sender in one word without spaces or tabs.
<Date> It is the delivery date of the message.
<More info> It is the information in the message.
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SAMPLE MESSAGE:
FROM: Jane Wed Oct 5 01:06:54 2000
From: jane@example.com
To: Receipt receipt@example.com
Subject: <message description>
<Body of the message>
>From
Types of MBOX Files
A lot of emailing application uses MBOX as the format to save the data but some the saved with MBOX as a file extension but some save it without any MBOX file extension. So, it is quite possible that your MBOX file may not have any file extension and it will appear as a simple .txt file.
Also Read: How to Locate MBOX Files into Mac OSX Mail?
MBOX VARIANTS:
XBOX:
MBOX format starts scanning for From lines that are found before the email message headers. If a “from” string occurs at the beginning of a line either the header or the body of a message the email message must be modified before storing the message in the MBOX or the line will be taken as the start of a new message. The MBOXO mails prepend> symbol to any line of the message either in the header or body.
Example: >From
The MBOXRD Version
MBOXRD was designed to solve the message corruption problem found in MBOX format. Also, it employs reversible quoting because it allows for differentiating between “>From” found in the original message and”>From” found in a transformed MBOXO file. Also, this acts as a separator between email messages. The transformation is always reversible.
Example: From to >From and >From to >>From
MBOXCL & MBOXCL2:
MBOXCL & MBOXCL2 uses irreversible quoting where it prepends after that, sign before the “From” string whenever it occurs at the beginning of a line either in the header or body of the message. Also, It does not scan “From” to determine the separator points. MBOXCL-here CL stands for content length. It contains a header that determines the length of the messages. The header is added to the message when it is added to the mailbox it is used to locate the start of each message.
Though the MBOX file is used to store and manage the mails MBOX stores the entire folder in one file hence the size of the MBOX file can be large.