Script for converting Outlook pst to Thunderbird/Evolution compatible format on Linux

Version 1.0
Author: Srijan Kishore 
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This tutorial will show how to convert Outlook PST into Thunderbird/Evolution compatible SBD format. For this  I have created a script for the conversion format.This will work in Debian/Ubuntu/CentOS too!

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I have already my Outlook.pst ready which was extracted from Outlook2010. I assume that you will be having your Sample.pst available with  you.

I have Ubuntu 12.04LTS installed in my machine which have Thunderbird as default mail client. You can also use Evolution as your email client.

Note: As per Microsoft standards any pst file above 5Gb is non-reliable, for storing the mails. So I will suggest to get your Sample.pst file less than 5GB. I have simplified the process through the script. Simply copy the script in your clipboard & paste in a text file such as script.sh & save the file.

Script is as follows:-

#!/bin/bash
###############################################################################################
###############################################################################################
###############################################################################################
######          This script will help to convert the Microsoft outlook PST file      ##########
######                    into Thunderbird/Evolution compatible format               ##########
######                         Script created by Srijan Kishore                      ##########
###############################################################################################
###############################################################################################
###############################################################################################   

#check user
if [ "$USER" = 'root' ]
    then
        echo "User check passed"
    else        gdialog --title "User Check" --msgbox "User is not Root. Please run the script as root user." 200 150
        echo "User is not Root. Please run the script as root user."
        exit 1
fi

#OS check
cat /etc/debian_version > /dev/null
if [ $? != 0 ]; then

gdialog --title "OS check" --msgbox "You are not using Debian/Ubuntu, Install readpst package from http://www.five-ten-sg.com/libpst/rn01re01.html" 200 150

else

readpst -V > /dev/null
          if [ $? != 0 ]; then

    apt-get update
    apt-get -y install readpst
    fi
fi

mkdir    ~/home/outlook

#File selection
readpst  -o  ~/home/outlook  -r  `zenity --file-selection`

find ~/home/outlook -type d | tac | grep -v '^~/home/outlook$' | xargs -d '\n' -I{} mv {} {}.sbd

find ~/home/outlook.sbd -name mbox -type f | xargs -d '\n' -I{} echo '"{}" "{}"' | sed -e 's/\.sbd\/mbox"$/"/' | xargs -L 1 mv


#Script Completion
find ~/home/outlook.sbd -empty -type d | xargs -d '\n' rmdir
gdialog --title "Pst Conversion complete" --msgbox "Your pst conversion is complete,just paste the folder ~/home/outlook.sbd in Local Folder in Thunderbird/Evolution and you can use the folders there" 200 150

Copy paste the script in the file you have created. Give the execute permission to the file y using command chmod

chmod +x script.sh

I will recommend to use the srcipt as root user.It will be done as follows:-

sudo -i                                        #### Put your system login password##########

The script will first confirm that the required package of readpst is installed in your system. Then it will ask to browse the Sample.pst file, just browse & select the file and rest will be done by the script.

After script execution it will generate the folder /home/outlook.sbd

In Home folder select ‘View and select SHOW HIDDEN FILES’ or prss ctl+h

It will open the hidden folders in the your home directory.Now browse as .thunderbird–>user.default–>Mail–>Localfolders

Copy paste the folder in the location. Now open the thunderbird from launcher icon on dektop. Right click on the the local folder and create a new folder viz. outlook(as in my case folder name is outlook.sbd).We are done .Just close Thunderbird and open the thunderbird again.

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Now you will be able to see all your pst mails in Thunderbird.