[Dovecot] how to cat / grep from dbox files

[Sarder Kamal]

Dear List members

I am new to dovecot and am looking for a solution. I have googled as 
much as I could, but most likely my search criteria was wrong, and hence 
asking here.

I am familiar with maildir format, and could easily do cat / grep / sed 
on those files to extract data. The server I am looking at now uses dbox 
format, which seems to store data in a different way. just to give you 
an example, when I do cat Drafts/dbox-Mails/u.11
I get the following output
2 M1e C4daa51f6
N 000000000000030A
�Tmo�6��_q�0`�B�r�D�� ��tF�5Xܵ�HI'��D��T��=*^�u��M�A�x/�=ω׋E
���4�d�鰮M_4�Z�.�ިmt��e��U�=�=1۠s�B�^�0�_�_& 
�"��H��eehuCA�1�I]a����p�������)\�-��H 
��ɋt4��E,���I�P�G����+���Iյ�K+˖�u;9Z-���)ri�����վ��un
��֡�W�@�m�l�P�'��.̃�|���6�͊���)�S�C�T���>��n����U�r��݃�]X9R���u�=�T��S_�:6��]�4hak��JWpkMe%���P_���~O~MW�jOU�F}�b� 
3�]�~�/��8�_"��}L�����覯|L�}6hE'�7 
��^ڐq�-Y�I��Ѯ.f��҉_<����o6�~_�\z��=�gXˆ4y~1�|/~�J�7O�����O&���& 
lt;�������j�t��z�[圱��x9�zwn���T�b�k���)�p��4` 
��a|�HR��*7��d)�'���?FQ�[�gp8�O&�L2O[�t̃�`��

Z20479
R47f4b88e
V20ba2
G1207220366.P10687Q2.server
X1358 130815 B72 
7f/7d/7f7dc5d880fa44444e57c6cbe2e4fd477dab1086-4db17526fa51aa4deb5e0000453e4b91


if I do less Drafts/dbox-Mails/u.11

below is the output

00000000 32 20 4d 31 65 20 43 34 64 61 61 35 31 66 36 0a |2 M1e C4daa51f6.|
00000010 01 02 4e 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 30 30 30 |..N 000|
00000020 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 33 30 41 0a 1f 8b |000000000030A...|
00000030 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 9d 54 6d 6f db 36 10 fe |.........Tmo.6..|
00000040 ce 5f 71 d3 30 60 c3 42 89 72 ec 44 95 ed 20 a9 |._q.0`.B.r.D.. .|
00000050 ed 74 46 e3 35 58 dc b5 fb 48 49 27 99 a9 44 1a |.tF.5X...HI'..D.|
00000060 a4 e4 54 fd f5 3d 2a 5e d2 75 d8 d0 4d b6 41 f3 |..T..=*^.u..M.A.|
00000070 78 2f cf 3d cf 89 d7 8b 45 0a aa 91 fb 34 8a 64 |x/.=....E....4.d|
00000080 dd e9 b0 ae 4d 5f 34 c6 5a e5 2e dd de a8 1a 6d |....M_4.Z......m|
00000090 74 87 ba 65 ef f9 ba a0 55 b5 3d 7f 8d 3d 05 15 |t..e....U.=..=..|
000000a0 31 db a0 73 b2 42 be 5e a6 30 1b 9f 5f 8f 5f 26 |1..s.B.^.0.._._&|
000000b0 c9 22 1c 8b 89 48 c4 e9 65 65 0e 68 75 43 41 f8 |."...H..ee.huCA.|
000000c0 31 df 49 5d 61 98 9b b0 fb 70 c1 96 b2 c5 14 b6 |1.I]a....p......|
000000d0 bb ee 04 c4 29 5c ed 2d 8c 84 48 20 8e d3 c9 8b |....)\.-..H ....|
000000e0 74 34 86 9f 45 2c 04 bb b6 a6 49 e1 8a 50 c1 8d |t4..E,....I..P..|
000000f0 47 05 9b 01 16 cc fe 06 f4 9f 2b bd e7 1b f3 49 |G.........+....I|
00000100 d5 b5 e4 4b 2b cb 96 af 75 69 08 3b 39 5a 2d eb |...K+...ui.;9Z-.|


As it is quite evident, the output is in binary format, but I need it in 
text (even if that means I use some other command and pipe the output to 
cat / grep / sed) -- can this be done?

This server was configured and maintained by someone else, and I am very 
new to dovecot or this dbox format (I used to use courier-imap). would 
appreciate if anyone could please suggest what could/should be done to 
get to my objectives. All pointers/suggestions appreciated.

Thanks and regards
Sarder
______________________________________________________________________

Centre for Parliamentary Studies

This email and its attachments are intended only for disclosure to the
recipients to whom they are addressed. Should you have received it in
error, we regret any inconvenience and would request that you notify
postmaster at parlicentre.org. Any opinions presented are solely those of
its author and do not necessarily represent those of the company.
Recipients are advised to check for the presence of malware as the
company accepts no liability for the accidental transmission thereof.

Centre for Parliamentary Studies is a trading name of CPS Framework Ltd.
Registered Office: Unit N0002, Westminster Business Square, 1-45 Durham
  Street, London, SE11 5JH
Registered in England & Wales, No. 6926090