Print multiple emails to one file

[JD]

On 09/08/2010 12:51 PM, g wrote:
> On 09/08/2010 04:03 PM, Alex wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Does anyone know of a program that can manipulate mbox files? I'd like
>> to print about 50 emails to a single file so I can email them as a PDF
>> to someone.
>>
>> Thunderbird will let you highlight and print multiple emails, but they
>> all either overwrite each other or save to an individual file with all
>> the headers, not just the ones that are suitable for display.
>
> i am not aware of such a program, other that a 'digester', see below.
>
> to get all of emails in one file, create a new 'folder file', copy emails
> you want to new folder.
>
> outside of thunderbird, open 'folder file' with a text editor and look at
> headers.
>
> you will note that all headers begin "From - " followed with a date. rest
> of header, lines start with a capital character and end with ":". body of
> email starts with a line space.
>
> exceptions to this are some headers that are longer than 80 characters.
> these headers *usually* wrap and continue with a tab, 11 spaces, or a
> single space.
>
> problems that you will have is removing of:
>
> "Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="
> which are delimited with "--==============="
>
> "Content-Type:" delimiters also begin line with 14 "-" dash characters.
>
> "Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1;
>   protocol="application/pgp-signature";"
>
> 'pgp-signatures' are delimited with "--------------enig" and are enclosed
> with "-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----" and "-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----".
>
> 3 more problems that you will run into:
>
> "Content-Type: text/html"
> "Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64"
> "Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable"
>
> you can use 'grep' to remove most of this, and then hand edit. but, to
> remove all of this, you will need to use an 'awk'/'gawk' script or a
> 'digester', see below.
>
> you may be aware of this, maybe not. main of presenting this is that
> possibly someone who has a good grasp of 'awk' and 'gawk' can post
> some pointers to help you work up a script to clean up thunderbird email
> to a file for converting to a pdf file.
>
> what would be best, is someone who is aware of how tech support sites
> strip emails for sending as a 'digest'.
>
>
> hth.
>
I had forgotten about base64 encoding of non textual content.
All images and non-text attachments will be encoded base64.
So, if Alex wanted the Images to be part of the pdf file he
wants to create, then this will not give him what he wants.
So, it would seem that Thunderbird is not the right tool either.

For plain text, I found
http://bulldog.tzo.org/ascii2pdf/ascii2pdf-0.9.1.tar.gz