I'm using KMail folders/files. Pegasus was an example from years ago. Perl & php files are in the same path. I don't really need to bypass them though, as they won't contain email addresses.

And what does this mean: "For each file, if the name/email address is not found, add the name/email address to an array"

Simply to load a unique array , based on name/email address. That isn't important though, as many emails will appear more than once. I can filter out the duplicates later

The following code works to a point. It is writing name and email address out to a file. The only real problem is the msg "Complex regular subexpression recursion limit (32766) exceeded at /usr/share/perl5/Email/Address.pm line 108."

#!/usr/bin/env perl
#
use strict;
use warnings;
use File::Find;
use File::Slurp qw( read_file );
use Email::Address;

my $directory = '/home/*****/Mail/.family.directory/Browne, Bill & Ma+
+rtha';';
my $outfile = 'output.txt';

my @found_files;
find( sub { push @found_files, $File::Find::name }, $directory );

foreach(@found_files){
    my $file = "$_";
  
    if (-f $file)
    {
    print $_,"\n";
    my $intext = File::Slurp::read_file( $file );
    my @emails = Email::Address->parse( $intext );
    
    File::Slurp::write_file( $outfile, {append => 1 }, join("\n", @ema
+ils) );
    }
}
[download]

The file that the warning msg appears has a large attachment. So, somehow need to bypass any attachments in the slurp ?

Added an attachment 'stripper' module, but now there is no output ..

#!/usr/bin/env perl
#
use strict;
use warnings;
use File::Find;
use File::Slurp qw( read_file );
use Email::Address;
use Email::MIME::Attachment::Stripper;

my $directory = '/home/*****/Mail/.family.directory/Browne, Bill & Mar
+tha';';';
my $outfile = 'output.txt';

my @found_files;
find( sub { push @found_files, $File::Find::name }, $directory );

foreach(@found_files){
    my $file = "$_";
    
    if (-f $file)
    {
      print $_,"\n";
      my $intext = File::Slurp::read_file( $file );
      my $stripper = Email::MIME::Attachment::Stripper->new($intext);
      my @emails = Email::Address->parse( $stripper );
    
      File::Slurp::write_file( $outfile, {append => 1 }, join("\n", @e
+mails) );
    }
}
[download]

One thing though, it processed all the files very quickly. LOL