undbx(1)

📦 version 0.21, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💌 undbx — the Outlook Express rescue mission 💌

okay bestie, listen up. this is the undbx manual page — section 1 of the manual, so it's a user command, and it's about pulling your precious emails out of Outlook Express .dbx files. yes, those .dbx files. the crusty ones. we're getting your mail back. 🦋

✨ NAME ✨

undbx — a tool to extract e-mails from Outlook Express .dbx files. that's it, that's the vibe. 💅

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

undbx [options]<DBX-DIRECTORY|DBX-FILE>[<OUTPUT-DIRECTORY>]

yeah she's a little squished together, no spaces, that's just how she is. iconic honestly.

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so undbx is your bestie for extracting, recovering and undelete-ing e-mail messages out of Outlook Express .dbx files. no cap. 💖

the emails come out as individual .eml files, one per message. cute, tidy, portable. we love that for us. ✨

when you give her a target directory, undbx will extract e-mails from the dbx files found in that directory. and instead of giving her a target directory, the user can just hand her a target dbx file directly. either way, she eats. 🍓

when no output directory is specified, undbx will drop the extracted emails into a subdirectory of the current directory. surprise location, but a valid one. 🙈

now here's the part you actually need to know, bestie, because this is the thing. 👑

in normal mode (aka not recovery mode), a message gets extracted only if there's no corresponding .eml file already sitting in the destination directory. if it's already there, she leaves it alone. lowkey respectful of her.

but — and this is the plot twist 😭 — if a .eml file does exist in the destination directory and there's no corresponding mail found in the .dbx file, then that mail is considered deleted, and undbx will delete that .eml file. yes, she deletes. that's the deal. so this means undbx can be used as a synchronization backup tool for .dbx files. it's giving two jobs, one tool. 💀

also the file names of the .eml files are composed from the From, To and Subject header fields — so they're named after the actual mail content. and the modification time of each file is set to match the date specified in the Date field of the mail header. timestamps stay accurate, main character energy. ⭐

💅 OPTIONS 💅

  • --help — provides a short help message. a little "hey here's what I do" moment. 🫶
  • --recover — undbx attempts to recover e-mail messages from a corrupted .dbx file. 🧚

in this mode, fragments of messages are collected into .eml files. heads up though: this may take a long time and some messages may be corrupted. it's giving chaotic rescue mission, but we try. 🔥

also, in this mode all messages are extracted, not only the new ones. everything. the whole archive. periodt. ✨

  • --version — shows the version string. simple, effective, we stan. 💜

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

pffinfo(1) pffexport(1) munpack(1)

go read those too, bestie, they're the extended universe. iykyk. 📚

👑 AUTHOR 👑

this manual page was written by Christophe Monniez <christophe.monniez@fccu.be> for the Debian system (but may be used by others). 💖

permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU General Public License, Version 3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.

on Debian systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public License can be found in /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL.

💌 cute sign-off: this page is from February 23, 2011, and it belongs to the undbx manual. go forth and undelete, bestie. you got this. 🌸✨🎀
📦 where this page comes from