combine .eml files in a conversation view

Question

I have an export of .eml files which has your standard information like to, from, cc, as well as additional metadata fields like messageid, in-reply-to, references, etc. Based on how i understand the eml starndard, i believe I can make use of message-id, in-reply-to and references to create a converation view

For example, you have the initial message to Bob

MSG-1
message-id: 1
to: Bob
text: hello

Then Bob replies to Anthony, updating the metadata as follows

MSG-2
message-id: 2
in-reply-to: 1
references: 1
to: Anthoy
text: howdy

Then Anthony replies back to bob, updating the metadata as follows

MSG-3
message-id: 4
in-reply-to: 2
references: 1,2
to: Bob
text: Let's do this!

Is this how it works?

Answer 1

Yep, that is correct. The only error is that you would not use a ',' between references in the References: header.

If you are looking for an explanation of the algorithm used to "thread" these messages into a conversation-like view, you can read about it at https://www.jwz.org/doc/threading.html