Mbox

MBOX is a generic term for a family of related file formats used for holding collections of email messages. It was first implemented in Fifth Edition Unix. All messages in an MBOX (mailbox) file are concatenated and stored as plain text in a single file. Each message starts with the four characters "From" followed by a space (the so-called "From_ line") and the sender's email address. RFC 4155 defines that a UTC timestamp follows after another separating space character. A format similar to mbox is the MH Message Handling System. Other systems, such as Microsoft Exchange Server and the Cyrus IMAP server, store mailboxes in centralized databases managed by the mail system and not directly accessible by individual users. The maildir mailbox format is often cited as an alternative to the mbox format for networked email storage systems.