a command-line utility and Python package for converting PDF emails to MBOX format
pip install pdf2mbox
# from the command line
% python -m pdf2mbox --help
usage: pdf2mbox.py [-h] [--version] [--overwrite] [--csv [CSV]]
pdf_file [mbox_file]
Generates an mbox from a PDF containing emails
positional arguments:
pdf_file PDF file provided as input
mbox_file Mbox file generated as output
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
--version, -v show program's version number and exit
--overwrite, -o overwrite MBOX file if it exists
--csv [CSV] generate CSV file output
# from within python
from pdf2mbox import pdf2mbox
pe = pdf2mbox(pdf_file, mbox_file) # pe contains dict of emails
If you encounter errors installing pdf2mbox, please check the OS-level dependencies of both the pdftotext and python-magic packages to ensure you have the required libraries installed, as pdf2mbox utilizes both these packages.
- Assumes an email ends when a new email begins
- Works best with a standard email header (i.e., From:, To:, Sent:, Subject:)
- The initial development of this package was funded in part by The Mellon Foundation’s “Email Archives: Building Capacity and Community” program.