dumping Outlook pst file to portable format

Question

Is it possible to dump the entire contents of a PST file to a portable (preferrably text) format like XML?

Answer 1

XML is unlikely – most programs use mbox, Maildir, vCard, LDIF, iCal – however, these are formats that are far more common and portable than XML for mail, calendars or contacts.

The libpst package comes with a few tools:

• readpst – messages to mbox or Maildir, contacts to vCard, calendar to vCalendar, journal entries to vJournal.
• pst2ldif – contacts to LDIF.

Unfortunately, its output is lacking some data (especially in case of journal entries), and it does not extract tasks or notes.

However, Outlook itself can export any folder in the PST as a CSV (comma-separated) file, containing every single field.