Re: [tlug] Disabling "Expire Messages" Function in KMail

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

CL writes:

 > No.  And even Kubuntu Forums has discussed that ad nauseam. 
 > Unfortunately, all I can find for advice is how to copy KMail's hidden 
 > directories, but not to export.

Well, how bad do you want it?  I'm not cheap, but to compensate for
that I'm slow and can offer either a guarantee of minimum quality, or
a gamble on something usable. :-)  Or you could whack yourself hard on
the head, which might convince you that hiring a KMail developer would
be a better idea.  (I'm pretty sure this is *not* hard, just
relatively unusual ... although I got at least one useful-looking hit
with google "Kmail stored mail format" ... but I am not willing to
actually install several GB of software to get my hands on a test
instance of Kmail.)

 > Neither Thunderbird nor Claws recognize the stored files nor can I
 > find any sort of converter.

No, and I wouldn't expect them to.  According to
http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Comp/comp.windows.x.kde/2005-12/msg00004.html
the default format appears to be Maildir, and

    If you wish to migrate your mail, e.g. to Thunderbird (strongly
    recommended), have KMail store your messages in MBOX format, which
    is a collection of E-mail messages appended. You can then move
    such MBOX files from ~/Mail, which will in turn be recognised (or
    importable by other mail clients).

    Look under Configure -> Folders -> By default, message folders on
    disk are: Flat files ("mbox" format)

Now, to get the mail into that format, you'd need to create new
folders, and move mail into them.

 > Thanks.  I am wasting valuable time RTFM'ing but pretending it is 
 > progress.

Well, hiring somebody might be the fastest way forward.  It shouldn't
be too expensive (depending on whether the contractor can have access
to the mail folders or not, if they have to teach you how to do it it
will undoubtedly take more time and therefore be more expensive).