Please import FEniCS mbox archives into Launchpad mailing lists

It's technically possible to import mbox files, though a little more difficult to do the merge. However if the old mbox files end before the new mbox files begin, we can simply cat the new ones to the end of the old ones. I'm not positive whether MHonArc can faithfully regenerate the combined archives maintaining existing urls, but I do think that's the case.

If the merge is more complicated, we'll have to experiment to find out. The issue is assigned to the LOSAs, and I am willing to help out in the process.

On Wed, Apr 21, 2010 at 06:25:19PM -0000, Barry Warsaw wrote:
> Question #107943 on Launchpad Registry changed:
> https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/launchpad-registry/+question/107943
>
> Barry Warsaw posted a new comment:
> It's technically possible to import mbox files, though a little more
> difficult to do the merge. However if the old mbox files end before the
> new mbox files begin, we can simply cat the new ones to the end of the
> old ones. I'm not positive whether MHonArc can faithfully regenerate
> the combined archives maintaining existing urls, but I do think that's
> the case.
>
> If the merge is more complicated, we'll have to experiment to find out.
> The issue is assigned to the LOSAs, and I am willing to help out in the
> process.

We closed down the old mailing lists at the same at as we set up the
new so there shouldn't be any overlap (except for one or two test
mails).

The last message in the old archive is dated

  Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:10:17 +0100

This is also the first mail to the new lists (cross-posted):

  https://lists.launchpad.net/fenics/msg00000.html

Thanks for your efforts!
--
Anders

Hi again,

Did someone ever attempt to merge the lists? Would it still be possible to do so? It is something that would be very nice for us to have.

I do not think anyone has attempted this. We have just regenerated all the Lp mailing lists with a new tool that can help in this situation. I think the next step is to extend the regeneration script to combine the mboxes you list and regenerate the messages and indexes. This is actually a destructive process. Were any messages ever deleted from the Lp archives, because they will be restore from with the newly build mbox?

I do not think anyone has attempted this. We have just regenerated all the Lp mailing lists with a new tool that can help in this situation. I think the next step is to extend the regeneration script to combine the mboxes you list and regenerate the messages and indexes. This is actually a destructive process. Were any messages ever deleted from the Lp archives, because they will be restore from with the newly build mbox?

Sorry, those last messages were an effort to ask for more information, not a claim that the issue is resolved.

On Tue, Apr 19, 2011 at 01:08:52PM -0000, Curtis Hovey wrote:
> Question #107943 on Launchpad itself changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/launchpad/+question/107943
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> Curtis Hovey proposed the following answer:
> I do not think anyone has attempted this. We have just regenerated all
> the Lp mailing lists with a new tool that can help in this situation. I
> think the next step is to extend the regeneration script to combine the
> mboxes you list and regenerate the messages and indexes. This is
> actually a destructive process. Were any messages ever deleted from the
> Lp archives, because they will be restore from with the newly build
> mbox?

We haven't touched the Launchpad archives. What we have is the mbox
files from the time before Launchpad when we ran our own email list
on our own server. We'd just like to add these to the Launchpad
archives so we have the entire history searchable.

Thanks for the effort!
--
Anders

As Anders said, we haven't touched the Launchpad archives.

(Change status back to "Open".)

I have assigned the question to an admin. We have a utility now that can merge history mboxes with the Lp mailing list mboxes.

That sounds good. Thanks a lot for your work so far!

I have imported as per Curtis' instructions. Could you please let me know if there's any problems?

Thanks,

Haw

I do not see any of the old messages. I expect to see message https://lists.launchpad.net/fenics-viper/msg00000.html to be:
    Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2007 00:33:41 +0100
    Subject: [Viper-dev] vtk file reader

There is were about 494 messages in viper, I see only 13.

/0\ I am incompetent There is a missing switch in each command. Without the switch all we did was regenerate the existing archive...no merge.

Here is a repeat of the instructions, with step four fixed:

First
Install/copy the latest version of mmm-archive-manager included in this
directory so that other merges can be done in the future.

Second
copy this directory and its contents to /srv/lists.launchpad.net/var/mailman
so that we can make these many merges easy.

Third
mmm-archive-manager must alway be run in the mailman directory.
cd /srv/lists.launchpad.net/var/mailman

Fourth
./fenics/mmm-archive-manager -m dolfin ./fenics/dolfin-dev.mbox
./fenics/mmm-archive-manager -m fenics ./fenics/fenics-dev.mbox
./fenics/mmm-archive-manager -m ferari ./fenics/ferari-dev.mbox
./fenics/mmm-archive-manager -m ffc ./fenics/ffc-dev.mbox
./fenics/mmm-archive-manager -m fiat ./fenics/fiat-dev.mbox
./fenics/mmm-archive-manager -m instant ./fenics/instant-dev.mbox
./fenics/mmm-archive-manager -m meshbuilder ./fenics/meshbuilder-dev.mbox
./fenics/mmm-archive-manager -m syfi ./fenics/syfi-dev.mbox
./fenics/mmm-archive-manager -m fenics-ufc ./fenics/ufc-dev.mbox
./fenics/mmm-archive-manager -m ufl ./fenics/ufl-dev.mbox
./fenics/mmm-archive-manager -m fenics-viper ./fenics/viper-dev.mbox

Fifth
Remove the fenics directory.

Okay, check now.

I think is this complete. I see messages going back to 2004 is some lists.

Thanks! This looks very nice except for DOLFIN where it seems like no messages from the old mbox archive have been included in the list on Launchpad. Can you take a look?

Dophin failed to update because I provided a zero-length inbox :(

First
Download http://www.fenicsproject.org/pub/mailinglists/dolfin-dev.mbox and
copy it to /srv/lists.launchpad.net/var/mailman so that we can make these many merges easy.

Second
mmm-archive-manager must alway be run in the mailman directory.
cd /srv/lists.launchpad.net/var/mailman

Third
./fenics/mmm-archive-manager -m dolfin ./dolfin-dev.mbox

That looks better:

    Writing database ...
    23278 new messages
    23278 total messages

I believe it's all done now. Please let me know if it hasn't all been imported.

Everything seems to be in place now. Thanks a lot for your efforts!

On Wed, May 18, 2011 at 08:25:59AM -0000, Johannes Ring wrote:
> Question #107943 on Launchpad itself changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/launchpad/+question/107943
>
> Johannes Ring posted a new comment:
> Everything seems to be in place now. Thanks a lot for your efforts!

Great! Thanks!

--
Anders