Quick Summary

The actual procedure for converting VAX mail to UNIX format is now quite simple. The following is a brief command summary of what's needed. The procedure is explained in more detail below.

On the VAX	On Nevis1
$ MAIL $ SET FORWARD SMTP%"""unixname@NEVIS1.COLUMBIA.EDU""" $ DIR/FOL $ SET FOL foldername $ EXTRACT/ALL/MAIL foldername.VXM ! ... repeat the above two lines for all ! your folders, including MAIL $ EXIT $ FTP NEVIS1 $ MPUT *.VXM $ EXIT	# /usr/local/adm/vax2unix.pl *.vxm # mkdir mail/ # mv *.vxm mail/ # # If unixname .NE. vaxname, make # # sure that /etc/aliases is set # # up (see below).

Note added 16-Mar-2009: This was the Perl script that we used: vax2unix.pl.

The VAX part of the conversion

• Go into the mail program by typing:

  MAIL
  

• Make a note of where your mail directory is located by typing:

  SHOW FILE
  

  Unless you have a really unusual setup, your mail is stored in MAIL.MAI. What you should note is the VAX directory in which MAIL.MAI is located; typically this is either your home directory or in [.MAIL]. The location of this directory is important because, when you get to the EXTRACT step below, the extracted files will be located in this same directory.

• Set any mail to your VAX account to be forwarded to your UNIX account on Nevis1. For example, if your account on Nevis1 is jsmith, then type:

  SET FORWARD SMTP%"""jsmith@NEVIS1.COLUMBIA.EDU"""
  

  Note the tripling of the double quotes. If you forget this, the fowarding address will not be interpreted properly. Test that it's done right:

  SHOW FORWARD
  Your mail is being forwarded to SMTP%"jsmith@nevis1.columbia.edu".
  

  If you didn't triple the quotes, you won't see any quotes in the computer's response.

• Get a listing of your mail folders:

  DIR/FOL
  

  Even if you don't think you have any folders, check anyway. Remember, "MAIL" and "NEWMAIL" are also folders. (Don't bother converting WASTEBASKET, unless you want to convert the mail you're about to delete.)

• Go to each folder and convert its contents to a text file. For each folder, execute the following commands:

  SET FOL foldername
  EXTRACT/ALL/MAIL foldername.VXM
  

  You don't have to name the text file "foldername.VXM"; if you want to rename your folders, now is the perfect opportunity. There's nothing special about the extension "VXM" (for "VAX Mail"); I'm only using it as a unique file extension for subsequent conversion steps.

  Don't forget to convert the MAIL folder along with the others!

• Exit the mail program. If you're not already in your mail directory (the one you found out using "SHOW FILE" above), then go there.

  EXIT
  SET DEF [.MAIL]
  

• FTP the files to your UNIX account. You'll need your UNIX account password; if you've forgotten it, see Dave Leon or Bill Seligman.

  FTP NEVIS1
  ! You'll be prompted for your UNIX name and password
  MPUT *.VXM
  EXIT
  

  Note that by using the .VXM extension for your mail files, you can FTP them all with one command.

  All the remaining steps take place on Nevis1.

The UNIX part of the conversion

• Logon to Nevis1.

• Although your .vxm files (note that UNIX uses lower case) are all text files, they are not in quite the right format for most UNIX mail programs. The following command will reformat the mail headers so UNIX programs can interpret them:

  /usr/local/adm/vax2unix.pl *.vxm
  

  This program updates each .vxm file "in place"; that is, the contents of mail.vxm (for example) are copied to mail.vxm.orig, and then the format of mail.vxm is changed.

  Do not run vax2unix.pl on the same .vxm file more than once. The UNIX file system is not like the VAX; no backup versions of old files are kept. If you wish to re-run vax2unix.pl for some reason, copy the .orig file first:

  cp mail.vxm.orig mail.vxm
  /usr/local/adm/vax2unix.pl mail.vxm
  

• Now that your mail files are converted, copy them into the directory that your mail program uses. For most users, this will be the mail/ directory.

  First, make sure that the mail/ directory exists:

  mkdir mail/
  

  If the system responds "mkdir: cannot make directory `mail': File exists" then your mail directory already existed. If you've just created your own mail directory, and you'd like your mail to be private, "lock" the directory so only you can read it:

  chmod 700 mail/
  

  Now move your converted mail files to this directory:

  mv *.vxm mail/
  

• Check that your mail program sees the converted files. If you've never used a mail program on a UNIX system before, try Alpine. Just type:

  alpine
  

  ...and follow the directions. You should see your .vxm files in your list of folders.

• Make sure any mail sent to your old VAX address will reach your new UNIX address. After the VAX migration is complete, the nodename "nevis" will point to same IP address as Nevis1. So, for example, if your old VAX mail address was SMTP%"X901JQS@NEVIS.COLUMBIA.EDU", the mail will be routed to x901jqs@nevis1.columbia.edu.

  If your account name on Nevis1 is x901jqs, then nothing more need be done. But if your account name is different, then the Nevis1 mail program sendmail has to know that it should route your mail to the new account name. You have to ask Dave Leon or Bill Seligman to edit /etc/aliases and run the newaliases command. The line to be added is (continuing the example above):

  x901jqs: jsmith
  

• That's it, you're done!

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