How to view Linux email folder ([email protected]) on Windows 7?

Question

When I backup email folders from my webhost (on Linux) to my Windows 7, inside the folder, there is a list of files or folders named, for example, [email protected] or [email protected]. These directories are accessible on Linux OS, but on Windows, it appears as an MS-DOS file.

Is there any way I can view it under Windows?

Solution 1

This usr/home/mail/* looks like a Mutt path, probably try using

• http://unixmail-w32.sourceforge.net/ (easy to install) or
• http://www.mutt.org/download.html with cygwin.

Solution 2

If the mailboxes are files, you can open them with any text editor, or with such mail programs as Mutt or re-Alpine. They're likely to be in mbox format, with all messages as plain text in a single file. You're seeing the MS-DOS executable icon simply because the file names end with .com, which is treated by Windows as an executable extension.

_{Inb4 "extensions are fail" comments: MS-DOS COM executables did not have any magic number, so any attempt to differentiate between them and mbox archives would be pure guessing.}

Solution 3

The easiest way is to use IMAP to download the mail into an email program on Windows.

Comments

[iglvzx]

What do you use to read your email messages on Linux? Can you describe your set up?

[rick99]

on linux shell, i can access directly to this folder usr/home/mail/* i backed up these file into win7, i am trying to find out how to view it

[Admin]

@rick99 Please follow up on the question, it would be interesting and useful to know if any of the suggestions helped you.