===== UnDBX

UnDBX_ - Tool to extract, recover and undelete e-mail messages from Outlook Express .dbx files.

.. _UnDBX: http://undbx.sourceforge.net/

DOWNLOAD

Windows binary and source code archives are available at <https://sourceforge.net/projects/undbx/files/>_ together with corresponding sha1sum digests, which you can use to verify each archive's integrity.

INSTALLATION

There's no installer or setup program. Simply extract the distribution .zip file to some folder.

You should end up with several files/icons in that folder:

the UnDBX executable undbx.exe
the UnDBX HTML application undbx.hta, which serves as its graphical user interface
this README in HTML format
the GPL v3 license (COPYING)

USAGE

Just double-click either of the undbx icons that you've extracted from the distribution .zip file. A simple dialog box should appear.

If you hit the Extract! button in the dialog box, UnDBX will extract e-mail messages (as individual .eml files), from all of the .dbx files in the Outlook Express storage folder, to corresponding sub-folders on the Desktop.

The same dialog box also lets you browse and select other input and output folders, and optionally enable recovery mode for corrupted .dbx files.

OPERATION

When run for the first time, UnDBX extracts all the messages as individual .eml files.

In subsequent runs UnDBX synchronizes the output folder with the contents of the .dbx file:

new messages in the .dbx file, that do not correspond to existing .eml files, will be extracted
existing .eml files, that do not correspond to messages in the .dbx file, will be treated as deleted messages and will be deleted

This way UnDBX can facilitate fast incremental backup of .dbx files.

The file names of extracted .eml files are composed from the contents of the From:, To: and Subject: message headers. The modification time of each file is set to match the date specified by the Date: header.

In recovery mode, UnDBX can open corrupted .dbx files (including files larger than 2GB) and recover their contents and undelete deleted messages.

ADVANCED USAGE

NORMAL OPERATION


Run the following command in a command-line window, to extract e-mail
messages from all the ``.dbx`` files in ``<DBX-FOLDER>`` to
corresponding sub-folders in ``<OUTPUT-FOLDER>``:

::

    undbx <DBX-FOLDER> <OUTPUT-FOLDER>

You may also specify a single ``.dbx`` file to extract, instead of a
folder.

If the destination folder is omitted, the ``.dbx`` files will be
extracted to sub-folders in the current working folder.

RECOVERY MODE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In recovery mode, **UnDBX** attempts to recover e-mail messages from
corrupted ``.dbx`` files:

::

    undbx --recover <DBX-FOLDER> <OUTPUT-FOLDER>

Again, you may omit the output folder, and you may specify a single
``.dbx`` file, instead of an input folder.

During the recovery process **UnDBX** scans the ``.dbx`` file for
e-mail message fragments, and collects them into ``.eml``
files. Recovery can take a long while to complete, so please be
patient.

In recovery mode **UnDBX** always extracts all the messages it can
find, instead of extracting only those messages that have not been
extracted yet.

Keep in mind that recovered messages may be corrupted.

DELETED MESSAGES

Deleted messages are normally stored by Outlook Express in a special folder (e.g. "Deleted Items"), and can thus be restored by extracting them from the corresponding .dbx file.

Most of the contents of deleted messages still exists in the original .dbx file, as long it has not been compacted or otherwise modified.

In recovery mode, UnDBX attempts to undelete any deleted message fragment it can find.

NOTE: Outlook Express overwrites the first 4 bytes of every 512-byte chunk of each deleted message. In other words, some data is permanently lost when a message is deleted and there's no general way to fully recover deleted messages.

SOURCE CODE

SNAPSHOT


**UnDBX** current source code snapshot is available at
`<https://sourceforge.net/projects/undbx/files/>`_

REPOSITORY

UnDBX development source code may be cloned from its public Git repository at <https://sourceforge.net/p/undbx/code/>_ or at <http://github.com/ZungBang/undbx>_

COMPILING


**UnDBX** uses GNU Autoconf/Automake:

::

    tar -xvzf undbx-0.21.tar.gz
    cd undbx-0.21
    ./configure
    make
    make install

On Windows, this means that you need to install either `Cygwin`_ or
`MinGW`_.

If you got the source code from the source repository, you'll need to
generate the ``configure`` script before building **UnDBX**, by
running

::

    autoreconf -vfi


.. _Cygwin: http://www.cygwin.com
.. _MinGW: http://www.mingw.org

BUGS
----

Please report problems via the **UnDBX** issue tracking system:
`<https://sourceforge.net/p/undbx/tickets/>`_

CERTIFICATION
-------------

Well, it works on my machine :-) `[1]`_ `[2]`_

.. _[1]: http://jcooney.net/post/2007/02/01/New-Application-Certification-Program-It-Works-on-My-Machine.aspx
.. _[2]: http://blog.codinghorror.com/the-works-on-my-machine-certification-program/

CREDITS
-------

The **UnDBX** .dbx file format parsing code is based on `DbxConv`_ - a
DBX to MBOX Converter, Copyright (C) 2008, 2009 Ulrich Krebs
<ukrebs@freenet.de>

**UnDBX** contains `RFC-2822`_, and `RFC-2047`_ parsing code that was
adapted from `GNU Mailutils`_ - a suite of utilities for electronic
mail, Copyright (C) 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010 Free
Software Foundation, Inc.

.. _DbxConv: http://www.ukrebs-software.de/english/dbxconv/dbxconv.html
.. _RFC-2822: http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2822
.. _RFC-2047: http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2047
.. _GNU Mailutils: http://www.gnu.org/software/mailutils/

LICENSE
-------

**UnDBX** is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your
option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program. If not, see
`<http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>`_.

Undbx

Install / Use

README