Beginner's guide towards a linux based solution to read mail content (including attachments) from MS Outlook's .pst files

Question

I have just started with the basics of how MS Outlook stores its mails in its own format (.pst format) and I have to deliver a script (search something or write my own) which -

• parses these .pst files on a linux system (which were zipped and sent here)
• creates a single .txt file for every mail. Creates a single .zip file for every attachment. This is the basic thing to be done. I also need to assign some unique names to the text files to be created.
• Any language - PHP, Java, Python - whichever is available/applicable.

Some basic Questions
Would be nice if anyone could clarify these basic questions -

• Are both mail contents as well as attachment info stored as .pst files?

I got these so far

• Read contents of .pst file with php
• How can I dump emails from an Outlook .pst file into a MySQL database? says that

Google email uploader (open source), they do the reading part...

• In this question - Outlook PST File Parsing in Python, there is mention about libpst-python.

Any suggestions regarding which of these solutions or some others to try? Or if you could tell about any of your experiences so that I get an idea before actually trying out any solution and later realizing it is not possible that way. Any pointers would be appreciated. I basically come from a LAMP background with little knowledge in other languages. Have done a little bit of bash programming recently.

Thanks,
Sandeepan

Update
JPST works fine. There are modules exactly for these things - read all messages (you can simple write code to save in files), save the attachments and many other things.

Also I came to know that mail contents as well as attachments, all are stored in the .pst files.

Answer 1

You may also consider Aspose.Network for parsing Outlook PST files. In Linux environment, there are 2 ways to parse PST with Aspose.Network.

1. Use Aspose.Network for Java. This requires Sun's JDK and will run natively on Linux, because Aspose.Network for Java library is written in Java. Here is a sample Java program for exporting MSG files from PST.

2. Use Aspose.Network for .NET with Mono on Linux. This solution depends on Mono for running .NET code in Linux environment, because the Aspose.Network for .NET library is written purely in .NET. Here is the sample .NET program for exporting messages (MSG) from PST.

Answer 2

You could look at either http://alioth.debian.org/projects/libpst/ or http://www.genusa.com/utils/pmseu.htm