MAN page from Scientific Linux 5 alpine-0.99-1.i386.rpm

mailutil

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: December 6, 2006
Index

NAME

mailutil - mail utility program

SYNTAX

mailutil check [-d] [-v][mailbox]

mailutil create [-d] [-v] mailbox

mailutil delete [-d] [-v] mailbox

mailutil rename [-d] [-v] src dst

mailutil copy [-d] [-v] [-rw] [-kw] src dst

mailutil move [-d] [-v] [-rw] [-kw] src dst

mailutil append [-d] [-v] [-rw] [-kw] src dst

mailutil appenddelete [-d] [-v] [-rw] [-kw] src dst

mailutil prune [-d] [-v]mailbox criteria

mailutil transfer [-d] [-v] [-m mode] [-rw] [-kw] src dst

DESCRIPTION

mailutilreplaces the old chkmail, imapcopy, imapmove, imapxfer, mbxcopy,mbxcreat, and mbxcvt programs.

mailutil checkdetermines whether new mail exists in the given mailbox (the defaultis INBOX). The number of new messages is defined as the number ofmessages that have "Recent" status set. If the mailbox contains nonew messages, mailutil checkwill indicate that no new mail is present;otherwise, it will report the number of new messages. In either case,it will also indicate the canonical form of the name of the mailbox.

mailutil createcreates a newmailboxwith the given name. The mailbox name must not already exist. A mailboxcan be created in a particular format by prefixing the name with #driver.followed by the format name and a/character. For example, the command

mailutil create #driver.mbx/junkmail
will create a new mailbox named "junkmail" in mbx format.

mailutil deletedeletes an existingmailboxwith the given name.

mailutil renamerenames an existing mailbox to a new name (which must not already exist).This only works if the old and new names are in the same mail store. Amore general means to rename a mailbox is to do amailutil copyof the old name to the new name, followed by amailutil deleteof the old name.

mailutil copycreates a new mailbox and copies messages from the old mailbox to thenew mailbox. As inmailutil createa mailbox format can be specified with the new mailbox. For example, thecommand

mailutil copy INBOX #driver.mbx/INBOX
will copy messages from your existing INBOX to an mbx-format INBOX.

mailutil moveis similar tomailutil copybut in addition will also remove (delete and expunge) the messages from theold mailbox after copying them to the new mailbox.

mailutil appendandmailutil appenddeleteare similar tomailutil copyandmailutil moverespectively except that they do not create the destination mailbox.

mailutil pruneprunes the mailbox of messages which match certain criteria, which arein the form of IMAP2 (RFC 1176) SEARCH arguments. For example, thecommand.

mailutil prune INBOX "before 1-jan-2004"
will delete and expunge all messages written before January 1, 2004.

mailutil transfercopies an entire hierarchy of mailboxes from the named source to thenamed destination. Mailboxes are created on the destination asneeded. Any error in copying messages will cause the transfer to stop.

Normally, any error in creation will cause the transfer to stop.However, if-m mode or-merge mode is specified, a merging transfer is performed. Themodeargument the type of merge.

-m[erge] promptindicates that the user should be asked for an alternative name to create.If creating the new name fails, the user will be asked again.

-m[erge] appendindicates that it's alright to copy the messages into an existing mailboxwith that name. If the mailbox does not exist, the user will be promptedfor an alternative name.

-m[erge] suffix=XXXXwhere XXXX is any string, indicates that an alternative name should bebuilt by appending the given suffix to the name. It that alternative namecan't be created, then the user will be prompted for an alternative name.

The source hierarchy consists of all mailboxes which startwith the given source name. With the exception of a remote systemspecification (within "{}" braces), the source name is used as thename of the destination. The destination hierarchy is a prefixapplied to any new names being created. For example,

mailutil transfer foo bar
will copy all mailboxes with names beginning with "foo" to namesbeginning with "bar" (hence "foobar" will be copied to "barfoobar").Similarly,

mailutil transfer "{imap.foo.com}" "{imap.bar.com}old/"
will copy all mailboxes from the imap.foo.com IMAP server toequivalent names starting with "old/" on the imap.bar.com IMAP server.

FLAGS

The-dor-debugflag prints full debugging telemetry including protocol operations.

The-vor-verboseflag prints verbose (non-error) telemetry.

The-rwor-rwcopyflag causes the source mailbox to be open in readwrite mode rather thanreadonly mode. Normally, mailutil tries to use readonly mode to avoidaltering any flags in the source mailbox, but some mailbox types, e.g.POP3, can't be open in readonly mode.

The-kwor-kwcopyflag causes the keywords of the source mailbox to be created in thedestination mailbox. Normally, mailutil does not create keywords inthe destination mailbox so only those keywords that are already definedin the destination mailbox will be preserved. Note that some IMAP serversmay automatically create keywords, so this flag may not be necessary.

ARGUMENTS

The arguments are standard c-client mailbox names. Avariety of mailbox name formats and types of mailboxes are supportedby c-client; examples of the most common forms of names are:

Name: Meaning
INBOX: primary incoming mail folder on the local system
archive/tx-project: mail folder named "tx-project" in "archive" subdirectory of localfilesystem home directory
{imapserver.foo.com}INBOX: primary incoming mail folder on IMAP server system"imapserver.foo.com"
{imapserver.foo.com}archive/tx-project: mail folder named "tx-project" in "archive" subdirectory on IMAPserver system "imapserver.foo.com"
#news.comp.mail.misc: newsgroup "comp.mail.misc" on local filesystem
{newserver.foo.com/nntp}comp.mail.misc: newsgroup "comp.mail.misc" on NNTP server system "newserver.foo.com"
{popserver.foo.com/pop3}: mail folder on POP3 server system "popserver.foo.com"

See your system manager for more information about the types ofmailboxes which are available on your system.

RESTRICTIONS

You must surround a{host}mailboxargument with quotation marks if you runmailutilfromcsh(1)or another shell for which braces have special meaning.

You must surround a#driver.format/mailboxargument with quotation marks if you runmailutilfrom a shell in which "#" is the comment character.

AUTHOR

Mark Crispin, MRCAATTCAC.Washington.EDU

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