mailutil(1)
mailutil(1) USER COMMANDS mailutil(1)
NAME
mailutil - mail utility program
SYNTAX
mailutil command [switches] [arguments]
All commands accept the -d, -v, and -u switches in addition
to any command-specific switches.
mailutil check [MAILBOX]
mailutil create MAILBOX
mailutil delete MAILBOX
mailutil rename SOURCE DESTINATION
mailutil copy [-rw] [-kw] [-ig] SOURCE
mailutil move [-rw] [-kw] [-ig] SOURCE
mailutil append [-rw] [-kw] [-ig] SOURCE
mailutil appenddelete [-rw] [-kw] [-ig] SOURCE
mailutil prune MAILBOX CRITERIA
mailutil transfer [-m mode] [-rw] [-kw]
DESCRIPTION
mailutil replaces the old chkmail, imapcopy, imapmove,
imapxfer, mbxcopy, mbxcreat, and mbxcvt programs.
mailutil check determines whether new mail exists in the
given mailbox (the default is INBOX). The number of new
messages is defined as the number of messages that have
"Recent" status set. If the mailbox contains no new
messages, mailutil check will 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 create creates a new mailbox with the given name.
The mailbox name must not already exist. A mailbox can 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 delete deletes an existing mailbox with the given
name.
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mailutil(1) USER COMMANDS mailutil(1)
mailutil rename renames 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. A more general
means to rename a mailbox is to do a mailutil copy of the
old name to the new name, followed by a mailutil delete of
the old name.
mailutil copy creates a new mailbox and copies messages from
the old mailbox to the new mailbox. As in mailutil create a
mailbox format can be specified with the new mailbox. For
example, the command
mailutil copy INBOX #driver.mbx/INBOX
will copy messages from your existing INBOX to an mbx-format
INBOX.
mailutil move is similar to mailutil copy but in addition
will also remove (delete and expunge) the messages from the
old mailbox after copying them to the new mailbox.
mailutil append and mailutil appenddelete are similar to
mailutil copy and mailutil move respectively except that
they do not create the destination mailbox.
mailutil prune prunes the mailbox of messages which match
certain criteria, which are in the form of IMAP2 (RFC 1176)
SEARCH arguments. For example, the command.
mailutil prune INBOX "before 1-jan-2004"
will delete and expunge all messages written before January
1, 2004.
Note that mailutil implements pruning by deleting the
matching messages, and then expunging the mailbox.
Consequently, mailutil will also expunge any messages which
were deleted at the time of the pruning.
mailutil transfer copies an entire hierarchy of mailboxes
from the named source to the named destination. Mailboxes
are created on the destination as needed. 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. The MODE argument indicats
the type of merge:
-m[erge] prompt indicates 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] append indicates that it's alright to copy the
messages into an existing mailbox with that name. If the
mailbox does not exist, the user will be prompted for an
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mailutil(1) USER COMMANDS mailutil(1)
alternative name.
-m[erge] suffix=XXXX where XXXX is any string, indicates
that an alternative name should be built by appending the
given suffix to the name. It that alternative name can't be
created, then the user will be prompted for an alternative
name.
The source hierarchy consists of all mailboxes which start
with the given source name. With the exception of a remote
system specification (within "{}" braces), the source name
is used as the name of the destination. The destination
hierarchy is a prefix applied to any new names being
created. For example,
mailutil transfer foo bar
will copy all mailboxes with names beginning with "foo" to
names beginning 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 to
equivalent names starting with "old/" on the imap.bar.com
IMAP server.
FLAGS
The -d or -debug flag prints full debugging telemetry
including protocol operations.
The -v or -verbose flag prints verbose (non-error)
telemetry.
The -u USERID or -user USERID switch attempts to become the
indicated user. This is for the benefit of system
administrators who want to do mailutil operations on a
userid that does not normally have shell access.
The -rw or -rwcopy flag causes the source mailbox to be open
in readwrite mode rather than readonly mode. Normally,
mailutil tries to use readonly mode to avoid altering any
flags in the source mailbox, but some mailbox types, e.g.
POP3, can't be open in readonly mode.
The -kw or -kwcopy flag causes the keywords of the source
mailbox to be created in the destination mailbox. Normally,
mailutil does not create keywords in the destination mailbox
so only those keywords that are already defined in the
destination mailbox will be preserved. Note that some IMAP
servers may automatically create keywords, so this flag may
not be necessary.
The -ig or -ignore flag causes the keywords of the source
mailbox to be ignored completely and no attempt is made to
copy them to the destination mailbox.
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mailutil(1) USER COMMANDS mailutil(1)
The -ig[nore] and -kw[copy] flags are mutually exclusive.
ARGUMENTS
The arguments are standard c-client mailbox names. A
variety of mailbox name formats and types of mailboxes are
supported by 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 local filesystem 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 IMAP server 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
of mailboxes which are available on your system.
RESTRICTIONS
You must surround a {host}mailbox argument with quotation
marks if you run mailutil from csh(1) or another shell for
which braces have special meaning.
You must surround a #driver.format/mailbox argument with
quotation marks if you run mailutil from a shell in which
"#" is the comment character.
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mailutil(1) USER COMMANDS mailutil(1)
AUTHOR
Mark Crispin, MRC@Washington.EDU
Last change: March 3, 2008 5
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