After several years using the mbox format on my personal email server, I decided that it was more than time to move to a better format: Maildir.

The move was triggered when I started to have real problems consulting the boxes remotely over IMAP (I use dovecot). The folders started to get messed up and the system was slow.

I always knew that maildir have clear advantages for my scenario, but I thought that I would have a hard time migrating my services and scripts. I was surprised how easy it was when I really got my hands dirty!

First, used a great Perl script mb2md to convert my existing mailboxes. Then changed some lines on my Postfix configuration. Since I do my mail processing with the Perl module Email::Filter, it was just a mater of changing the paths, and it worked magically!

Never thought it was so easy…. Oh, and dovecot now behaves correctly :-)

Goodbye mbox, you served me well…