mirror of https://github.com/tLDP/LDP
237 lines
8.4 KiB
Plaintext
237 lines
8.4 KiB
Plaintext
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<!doctype linuxdoc system>
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<article>
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<title>MS Outlook to Unix Mailbox Conversion mini HOWTO
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<author>Greg Lindahl, <tt/lindahl@pbm.com/
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<date>1.0, 2001-01-25
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<abstract>
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This MiniHowto covers conversion of old email in Microsoft
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Outlook (not Outlook Express!) to typical Unix file formats.
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</abstract>
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<!-- Table of contents -->
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<toc>
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<!-- Begin the document -->
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<sect>Introduction
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<p>
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While programs exist to convert some formats such as Microsoft Outlook
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Express to Unix formats, Outlook users are in a bit of a bind. The
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database format that Outlook uses for .PST files, called Jet, is
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documented at:
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<url url="http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/techart/olexcoutlk.htm"
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name="http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/techart/olexcoutlk.htm">
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but there doesn't seem to be any enterprising programmer who's written
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a conversion program yet.
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<p>
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Fortunately, Outlook is capable of talking to IMAP mail servers, and
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you can store old mail on the IMAP server. So, one easy way to convert
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your mail to a normal format is to install the IMAP server on a Linux
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box and transfer all your email to it.
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<sect1>Copyright
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<p>
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Copyright (c) 2001 by Greg Lindahl
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<p>
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Please freely copy and distribute (sell or give away) this document in
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any format. It's requested that corrections and/or comments be forwarded
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to the document maintainer. You may create a derivative work and distribute
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it provided that you:
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<itemize>
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<item>
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Send your derivative work (in the most suitable format such as
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sgml) to the LDP (Linux Documentation Project) or the like for posting
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on the Internet. If not the LDP, then let the LDP know where it is
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available.
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<item>
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License the derivative work with this same license or use GPL.
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Include a copyright notice and at least a pointer to the license used.
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<item>
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Give due credit to previous authors and major contributors.
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</itemize>
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<P>
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If you're considering making a derived work other than a translation,
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it's requested that you discuss your plans with the current maintainer.
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<sect1>Disclaimer
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<p>
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Use the information in this document at your own risk. I disavow any
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potential liability for the contents of this document. Use of the
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concepts, examples, and/or other content of this document is entirely
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at your own risk.
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All copyrights are owned by their owners, unless specifically noted
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otherwise. Use of a term in this document should not be regarded as
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affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark.
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Naming of particular products or brands should not be seen as endorsements.
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You are strongly recommended to take a backup of your system before
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major installation and backups at regular intervals.
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Do not place your cat in a running microwave oven.
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<sect1>Related Information
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<p>
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A list of conversion utilities, many commercial, may be found at:
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<url url="http://www.emailman.com/conversion/index.html"
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name="http://www.emailman.com/conversion/index.html">
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<sect>The Procedure
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<sect1>Step 1: Installing an IMAP server (temporarily!) on your Linux box
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<p>
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Installing things varies from Linux distribution to distribution, so I
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will use RedHat 7.0 as an example. First you need to install the
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correct package, which generally is named "imap".
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<tscreen><verb>
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cd /home/redhat-7.0-cd/RedHat/RPMS
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rpm -i imap*
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</verb></tscreen>
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Actually, since I had a "workstation" install, I also had to install
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the xinetd package; rpm gave me an error which told me to do
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this. And, of course, it was on the second CD of RedHat 7.0. Debian
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users using "apt-get" don't have to worry about such issues.
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<p>
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Next, we need to enable the imap server. This is usually controlled by
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a line in the file <tt>/etc/inetd.conf</tt>:
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<tscreen><verb>
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#imap stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd /usr/sbin/imapd
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</verb></tscreen>
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The above line is commented out; remove the leading # sign. On RedHat
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7.0 systems and later with xinetd, instead edit <tt>/etc/xinetd.d/imap</tt>
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and change "disable=yes" to "disable=no".
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<p>
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Then restart inetd or xinetd by doing:
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<tscreen><verb>
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/etc/rc.d/init.d/inetd restartor /etc/rc.d/init.d/xinetd restart
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</verb></tscreen>
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or
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<tscreen><verb>
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/etc/rc.d/init.d/xinetd restart
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</verb></tscreen>
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If all else fails, reboot.
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<p>
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You don't actually want to leave the IMAP server enabled for that
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long. This server runs as root and has had security bugs in the
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past. For this reason, you shouldn't leave it enabled unless you wish
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to use it permanently. We will disable this server in step 4.
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<p>
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In order to connect Outlook to this IMAP server, you will need to know
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the name or IP address of the Linux box.
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<sect1>Step 2: Connecting your Outlook client to the server
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<p>
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In order to copy over all our email to the server, we need to tell
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your Outlook client about this new server. Select "Accounts..." from
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the "Tools" menu, and then "Add" a new account "Mail...". The
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important items are that the server uses IMAP to download email, that
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the incoming mail server is the name or IP address of your Linux box
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from step 1, and the username and password should be your username and
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password on the Linux box. (As usual, it's a bad idea to use the root
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account on Linux for this purpose.)
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<p>
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Once you've hit "Finish", set this new account to be the default by
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highlighting it and clicking on "Set as Default". Outlook should
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connect to your IMAP server, and the name of your IMAP server should
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appear at the bottom of your folder list. Click on it; you should see
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an Inbox folder. (Note that if /var/mail/yourusername doesn't exist on
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your Linux box, you won't be able to drag-and-drop any messages into
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your INBOX... and the error message will be confusing. However, that's
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not what we're going to do.)
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<sect1>Step 3: Copying over all your email
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<p>
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At this point you can drag and drop entire folders of email from
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Outlook onto the IMAP server name. This will copy the email, including
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all attachments, to the Linux box. Unfortunately it also immediately
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deletes it from Outlook. In order to copy items without deleting them,
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right-click on the folder name and select the "Copy" option. For the
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destination, pick your Linux server at the bottom of the list.
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<p>
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However, life isn't quite that simple. Outlook supports folders
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containing folders which also contain messages. The Linux IMAP server
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does not support that; a folder is either a regular file containing
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messages, or a directory containing subdirectories and files. So if
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you have folders in Outlook with both messages and subfolders, you
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can't copy the entire tree over to the Linux IMAP server. Another
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incompatibility of the Linux IMAP server is that you have to tell it
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in advance if a new folder will contain subfolders or messages. You do
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this by appending a slash (<tt>/</tt>) to the folder name when you create
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it. This slash will disappear when the folder is created.
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<p>
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So, in order to copy a tree of folders to the Linux IMAP server, first
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you need to create a replica of the structure of your existing folders
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on the Linux IMAP server. While you're doing this, note which of the
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existing folders contain both subfolders and messages. You will need
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to move these messages elsewhere. Once you have the overall tree
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created, then you can copy or move groups of folders to the Linux IMAP
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server.
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<p>
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One final incompatibility to note is that the Linux IMAP server
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doesn't allow folders with slashes (/) in their name. You'll need to
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rename such folders before copying or moving them.
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<p>
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On the Linux box, folders appear as files and directories in your home
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directory. The format of these files is the usual Unix mail format,
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which most Unix/Linux mail tools either use directly or can convert
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to/from. Files with attachments will have MIME attachments; there is
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also one extra message per folder which is a (useless) header.
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<p>
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(One piece of data which doesn't get preserved is the original "From "
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line, which contains the envelope address of the email. Fortunately
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you don't actually need that information.)
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<sect1>Step 4: Deinstalling IMAP from your Linux box
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<p>
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Once you've transferred all of your email, you will want to deinstall
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the IMAP server from your Linux box, for the security reasons
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mentioned earlier. This involves the same 2 steps you took to install
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the server:
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<enum>
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<item> Remove the RPMs:
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<tscreen><verb>
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rpm -e imap
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</verb></tscreen>
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</item>
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<item> Remove the line in <tt>/etc/inetd.conf</tt> or <tt>/etc/xinetd.d/imap</tt></item>
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<item> Restart inetd or xinetd, or reboot.</item>
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</enum>
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<p>
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Voila! You have taken another step towards a Microsoft-free lifestyle.
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</article>
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