Converting NAMES files and NOTEBOOKs

Converting your NAMES file

The NAMES file is your CMS addressbook. To take it with you into Eudora and/or pine, a little conversion is necessary. We provide a CMS-utility for this purpose, it is called NAM2NICK (mail-aliases are also called nicknames, so this utility converts your NAMES file to a nicknames file). As the formats (and filenames) required by Eudora for Mac, Eudora for PC, and pine are different, you need to supply a command-option to NAM2NICK. Detailed help is available on CMS, simply type HELP NAM2NICK. Below are instructions for transferring your NAMES file, even if you have already used Eudora or pine and created some nicknames there (Eudora supports multiple address books, so your existing address book is safe).

  1. Eudora for Windows (PC):

    Log on to CMS, and type NAM2NICK (WIN

    This will create a file called CMSNAMES TXT A. On your PC, shut down Eudora. Use any ftp-program to transfer the file CMSNAMES TXT A from CMS to your PC (in ASCII mode) and put it into the folder Nickname inside your mail-directory (usually this is the directory where you installed Eudora, something like C:\Program Files\NSKit\Eudora). Now restart Eudora. Open the address book (under Tools), and check it. You will see two address books: the default Eudora address book, and the one you just transferred, called CMSNAMES.

  2. Eudora for Macintosh:

    Log on to CMS, and type NAM2NICK (MAC

    This will create a file called CMSNAMES NICKNAME A. On your Mac, shut down Eudora. Fetch the file CMSNAMES NICKNAME A from CMS to your Mac, give it a file-creator type of SimpleText and put it into the Nicknames folder, which should be inside the Eudora folder, inside the System folder. If there is no Nicknames folder there, simply create it. Now restart Eudora. Open the addressbook (under Tools), and check it. You will see two address books: the default Eudora address book, and the one you just transferred, called CMSNAMES.

  3. pine (only for existing Unix-accounts on tigger or icarus):

    Log on to CMS, and type NAM2NICK (PINE

    This will create a file called ADDRESS BOOK A. On tigger/icarus, shut down pine. In your home directory, type
      ftp uicvm (log in with your CMS userID and password)
      ascii
      get address.book
      quit

     Using any text-editor, such as pico, you now merge it with the contents of your previous .addressbook file (this is the name that pine uses for its address book). Type pico .addressbook, then read in the contents of the newly transferred file via Control-R, Control-T. Move the highlight to the file address.book and type S. Now quit pico and save the file by typing Control-X. Now restart pine. Open the addressbook (from the main menu, type a), and check it. It will automatically be sorted alphabetically.
    To enable pine's capability to sort messages into different mail-folders according to the sender's nickname (just as you could do that in CMS via your NAMES file), you need to configure pine a little bit. In pine's main menu, type S for Setup, then C for Configure. This opens a long menu. Scroll down (pretty far) via the space bar until you see the topic saved-msg-name-rule and move the highlight to the option by-fcc-of-from. Hit * to select this, then set the next topic (fcc-name-rule) to by nickname. Exit (via E) and save your changes.

Converting CMS NOTEBOOKs to Eudora Mailboxes

The computer center has created a CMS command for this purpose. It is called BOOK2BOX and can be invoked as a prefix-command on any file of type NOTEBOOK. It is best applied by first invoking MAILBOOK, which displays a filelist of all NOTEBOOK files you have access to, and then executing the command BOOK2BOX / (PC DEBUG (or use the option MAC or UNIX instead of PC) on all these files (use equal-signs on all but the first instead of re-typing the command on each line). With the DEBUG option, the command creates two versions for each NOTEBOOK: one with the type MBX (MBXM, MBXU) and one with the type DEBUG. The DEBUG files can be inspected with XEDIT for completeness, before you transfer the MBX (MBXM, MBXU) files over to your PC (Mac,Unix). Afterwards they should be erased.

If you have many or large NOTEBOOK files, you might not have sufficient space on A to store all the converted mailboxes. You can request additional space for the migration period from CONSULT.

  1. Eudora for Windows (PC):

    BOOK2BOX with the (default) option (PC will take any file filename NOTEBOOK filemode and convert it to filename MBX A, which is a mailbox file in Eudora format. So, if you type BOOK2BOX UNREAD (PC, you will find a file called UNREAD MBX on your A191 minidisk (or in your A folder). If you have many mailboxes, typing this for each of them is too tedious, so we recommend that you first issue the command MAILBOOK to have all your NOTEBOOK files displayed in a filelist environment (see above).

    These files must be transferred to your PC in binary mode, NOT in ASCII mode! With Eudora turned off, create a new subdirectory (e.g. call it CMSmail.fol) in your Eudora-mail folder, and transfer all these files into that folder in binary mode. Restart Eudora, and you will find the folder containing all your CMSmail. Expand the folder's view by clicking the plus-sign next to it. Double-clicking a mailbox will open it and display the contents.

    Detailed instructions (with screenshots) on the ftp-procedure via WS-FTP are available.

  2. Eudora for Macintosh:

    BOOK2BOX with the option (MAC will take any file filename NOTEBOOK filemode and convert it to filename MBXM A, which is a mailbox file in Eudora format. So, if you type BOOK2BOX UNREAD (MAC, you will find a file called UNREAD MBXM on your A191 minidisk (or in your A folder). If you have many mailboxes, typing this for each of them is too tedious, so we recommend that you first issue the command MAILBOOK to have all your NOTEBOOK files displayed in a filelist environment (see above).

    These files must be transferred to your Mac in binary mode, NOT in ASCII mode! With Eudora turned off, create a new subdirectory (e.g. call it CMSmail folder) in your Eudora folder, and transfer all these files into that folder in binary mode. Restart Eudora, and you will find the folder containing all your CMSmail. Expand the folder's view by clicking the plus-sign next to it. Double-clicking a mailbox will open it and display the contents.

    Detailed instructions (with screenshots) on the ftp-procedure via Fetch are available.

  3. pine (only for existing Unix-accounts on tigger or icarus):

    BOOK2BOX with the option (UNIX will take any file filename NOTEBOOK filemode and convert it to filename MBXU A, which is a mailbox file in pine format. So, if you type BOOK2BOX UNREAD (UNIX, you will find a file called UNREAD MBXU on your A191 minidisk (or in your A folder). If you have many mailboxes, typing this for each of them is too tedious, so we recommend that you first issue the command MAILBOOK to have all your NOTEBOOK files displayed in a filelist environment (see above).

    These files must be transferred to your Unix account in binary mode, NOT in ASCII mode! With pine turned off, execute the following commands from your Unix home-directory:
      mkdir mail/CMSmail
      cd mail/CMSmail
      ftp uicvm     (log in with your CMS userID and password)
      binary
      mget *.mbxu     (hit enter for each file you want to transfer)
      quit

    The next time you start pine, type L to list all your mailboxes. You will find a folder called CMSmail (recognizable by the slash at the end), which contains all your CMS mailboxes.
    Note: right now, there still is a bug in this conversion utility. If some of your converted notebooks open as a single message in pine, don't despair, we're working at that.