Provided by: archmbox_4.10.0-2ubuntu1_all bug

NAME

       archmbox - a simple email archiver

SYNOPSIS

       archmbox [ -h | --version ]
       archmbox MODE [ OPTIONS ] -d date mailbox [ mailbox ... ]
       archmbox MODE [ OPTIONS ] -o days mailbox [ mailbox ... ]

DESCRIPTION

       Archmbox  is  a  simple  email  archiver written in perl; it parses one or more mailboxes,
       select some or all messages and then perform specific actions on the selected messages.

       Four different MODES are available:

       •      list mode, which is useful to list all selected messages before  archmbox  performs
              the real operations (archiving or deleting)

       •      kill mode, if messages should be deleted from the mailbox(es) rather than archived

       •      archive mode, to archive the selected messages in a different mailbox

       •      copy mode, to copy selected messages from a source mailbox(es) without modifying it

       Messages selection is based upon a date criteria; an absolute date or a days offset can be
       specified.

       It is also possible to refine the selection using perl regular expressions on  the  header
       fields  of  the  message.  Keep  in  mind to quote the so called metacharacters, which are
       reserved for use in perl's regex notation. The metacharacters are

           {}[]()^$.|*+?\

       All archived messages are stored in a new mailbox with the same name of the original one +
       .archived  as extension (this is the default, but can be changed); the archive mailbox can
       be saved in gz or bz2 compressed format as well.

       Please note that the archive mailbox format is always mbox, regardless of original mailbox
       format. Moreover, mailboxes must be specified using the full path.

       Messages  are  appended  to the archive mailbox to allow multiple executions of the script
       against the same mailbox.

MODES

       -a, --archive
              Selected messages are archived in a different mailbox.

       -k, --kill
              Selected messages are deleted rather than archived.

       -l, --list
              List all selected messages.
              Warnings about skipped mailboxes (in use, empty ...)  are  printed  to  stderr.  So
              redirecting them to /dev/null won't clutter your list.

       -y, --copy
              Selected messages are copied from the source mailbox.

OPTIONS

       -b, --backup
              Creates a backup of the original mailbox before archmbox execution.  The mailbox is
              called mailbox.backup

       --bzip2
              Use bzip2 to compress the archive mailbox (use with -c).

       -c, --compress
              Compress the archive mailbox after script execution.

       -d, --date <date>
              Specifies the threshold date for  messages.  The  date  must  be  supplied  in  the
              following format: yyyy-mm-dd

       -D, --date-header
              Force  the  use  of  the  "Date:" header to age a message. If the header is somehow
              corrupt, the date/time informations are gathered for  the  beginning  line  of  the
              message.

       -e, --extension <extension>
              Specifies  the suffix for the archive mailbox; the default is archived.  If none is
              specified, no suffix will be used (use carefully).

       -f, --full-name
              Prepends the path of the mailbox to the name of the archive  mailbox.  This  option
              overrides -n.

       --format
              Specifies  the  format  of  the  mailboxes to parse. Legal values are mbox and mbx.
              Defaults to "mbox".

       -h, --help
              Prints help.

       -i, --ignore <regexp>
              Any mailbox/directory matching <regexp> will be skipped while archiving.

       --keep-flagged
              Flagged messages will not be archived.

       --keep-unread
              Unread messages will not be archived.

       -m, --minsize
              Specifies the minimum size of the mailbox to be archived.  Mailboxes  smaller  than
              <minsize> will not be parsed for archiving.

       -n, --archive-name
              Specifies the name of the archive file (default: mailbox name)

       --nosymlink
              Do not follow symbolic links when processing mailboxes.

       --nowarnings
              Suppress mailbox related warnings. Use only if you know what you're doing!

       --omit-prefix <prefix>
              Omit <prefix> from the name of the mailbox when full name (option -f) is required.

       -o, --offset <days>
              Specifies  the  offset  (in  days) from today for threshold date of a message. This
              option replaces -d. If you specify -1, archmbox will operate on all messages.

       -p, --archive-path, --path <directory>
              Specifies where to store the archive mailbox (default: ".").  <directory>  must  be
              specified  using full path. The --path option is now deprecated and will be dropped
              in future releases.

       -r, --reverse
              Reverse the sense of offset or date value. It usually means  older  than  but  with
              this switch, it means newer than.

       -R, --recursive
              Act  recursively  on  directories.  If one or more directories are specified on the
              command line, all  mailboxes  stored  in  those  directories  will  be  parsed  for
              archiving. Implies option -f.

       -t, --tmpdir <directory>
              Specify  a temporary working directory. This value overrides the default one, which
              will be set in descending order to  the  first  defined  one  of:  the  environment
              variables $TMPDIR and $TMP, the compiled in one and, as a fallback, '/tmp'.
              To see the default value used by archmbox, do: archmbox --help.
              <directory> must be specified using full path.

       --time <time>
              Use  <time>  in conjunction with <date> (option -d) to refine the threshold age for
              archiving. <time> must be specified in the following format: hh:mm:ss.

       --totals
              Prints an overall summary of the archiving operations.  The  summary  contains  the
              number  of  parsed  and  skipped mailboxes, the total number of messages parsed and
              saved, the total space used and saved.

       -v, --verbose
              Verbosity level. Default is 1 (line per message) in --list output. So, if set to  1
              it only lists msgid, sender and subject. With -v=2, it also prints date.

       --version
              Prints version number.

       -x, --regexp <header=regexp>
              It  is  specified  in  form  -x  field='regexp', where field can be any header. The
              header part is case sensitive. The regexp part is  case  sensitive  if  the  regexp
              contains at least one upper case letter, and case insensitive otherwise.
              If  message  satisfies  date range, but does not satisfy regexp match on  specified
              field, it won't be archived.
              The option can be specified more than once; in this case,  the  message  is  regexp
              matched against all the given rules, and if it satisfies any, it will be archived.

       -X, --Regexp <header=regexp>
              Same  as  -x,  --regexp  except that for matching the regular expressions a logical
              'and' mode is used for all regexp including the regexp given by -x, --regexp.

CONFIGURATION

       Archmbox is completely written in perl, but it uses some shell helpers to perform its  job
       (fuser, rm, gzip/gunzip etc.).

       The  correct  path  for  the  helpers  (both  required  and  optional  ones)  is probed at
       installation time. If one required helper is missing the installation will not take place.
       If  one  optional  helper  is  missing,  the  feature  provided  using that helper will be
       unavailable, but the script will be installed anyway.

       All other relevant configuration options can be specified at installation time or  at  run
       time using the command line switches.

USAGE EXAMPLES

       A complete example:

       archmbox -a -b -c -e 01 -f -d 2002-01-01 -p ~/mail-archive ~/Mail/personal-stuff

       This  will  archive  all  messages  older  than (received before...) Jan 1st 2002 from the
       personal-stuff mailbox in the Mail directory. Archive messages  are  saved  in  a  mailbox
       called  Mail-personal-stuff.01.gz in the ~/mail-archive directory. After execution, you'll
       find a mailbox called personal-stuff.backup in ~/Mail.

       Complex examples, using perl regular expressions:

       archmbox -a -o 1 --keep-flagged --keep-unread \
          -x From='(nagios|arpwatch|logcheck)@host\.net' \
          -x Subject='^(Security Events|Syslog Summary|\[SNORT\])' \
          ~/Mail/inbox

       This will archive all unflagged, read messages older than 1 day where the  sender  address
       matches  nagios@host.net,  arpwatch@host.net  or  logcheck@host.net or whose subject field
       starts with either 'Security Events' or 'Syslog Summary' or  '[SNORT]'  from  the  mailbox
       ~/Mail/inbox.  Messages  will  be  saved  in  inbox.archive in the current directory where
       archmbox was started from.

       archmbox --archive --offset 1 --keep-flagged --keep-unread \
          --Regexp From='@(host1|host2).example\.com' \
          --regexp Subject='^(Security Events|Syslog Summary|\[SNORT\])' \
          --archive-path ~/Mail/local-network.archive \
          --archive-name system-msgs \
          --extension 'none' \
          ~/Mail/inbox

       This will archive all unflagged, read messages older than 1 day where the  sender  address
       matches  @host1.example.com  or  @host2.example.com  and  whose  subject field starts with
       either 'Security Events' or 'Syslog Summary' or '[SNORT]' from the  mailbox  ~/Mail/inbox.
       Messages    will    be    archived    to   the   mbox   system-msgs   in   the   directory
       ~/Mail/local-network.archive.

       Some simpler examples:

       archmbox -a -o 15 ~/Mail/personal-stuff

       This will archive all messages older than 15 days in personal-stuff.archived (uncompressed
       mailbox).

       archmbox -a -r -o 15 ~/Mail/personal-stuff

       The same as above, but only messages newer than 15 days will be archived.

       archmbox -k -o 15 ~/Mail/personal-stuff

       This will delete all messages older than 15 days from Mail/personal-stuff

       archmbox -a -o 15 ~/Mail/* -c

       This  will  archive all messages older than 15 days in every mailbox found in ~/Mail.  All
       the archive mailboxes will be compressed.

       archmbox -l -r -c /tmp/mbox -o 20

       List all messages in /tmp/mbox which are newer than 20 days.   Option  -c  is  meaningless
       (and so ignored...).

       archmbox -l -r -c /tmp/mbox -o 20 -a --bzip2

       Same as above, but archiving is forced (-a) and bzip2 is used for compression.

       archmbox -a -x Subject='archmbox' -o 7 ~/mbox

       Select  for  archiving all messages older than 7 days whose subject field satisfies regexp
       match Subject =~ /archmbox/ (Subject is case sensitive, archmbox is is case insensitive).

       archmbox -l -x Subject='archmbox' -x From='fritz' -o 7 ~/mbox

       Select for archiving all messages older than 7 days whose subject field contains  archmbox
       or the sender is fritz (matches are case insensitive).

       archmbox -l -x Subject='archmbox' -X From='fritz' -o 7 ~/mbox

       Select  for archiving all messages older than 7 days whose subject field contains archmbox
       and the sender is fritz (matches are case insensitive).

       archmbox -a -o 5 -R /tmp/mbox ~/Mail

       archmbox will archive all messages older than five  days  in  /tmp/mbox.   It  then  start
       parsing  all  mailboxes stored in ~/Mail (recursion is active, and ~/Mail is a directory).
       If one or more directories will be found in ~/Mail, those directories will be explored  as
       well.

       archmbox -a -o -1 ~/Mail/my_mbx_mailbox --format mbx

       archmbox   archives   all   messages   stored   in   my_mbx_mailbox  and  puts  them  into
       my_mbx_mailbox.archived.  The source mailbox is a mbx mailbox (--format mbx is used).  The
       archive mailbox will be a mbox mailbox.

NOTES

       When the script has to decide if a message needs to be selected from the mailbox, it looks
       for the header From generated by the mail server (this is the first line of  the  message)
       and  doesn't  care about the date specified by the sender's mail client. This is useful to
       avoid removing messages sent from  misconfigured  mail  clients.   This  behavior  can  be
       changed by forcing the use of the "Date:" header (option -D).

       Not  all  options  are  meaningfull in all modes, ie compression is meaningless in list or
       kill mode. If you specify a useless option for a particular mode, archmbox simply  ignores
       it.

       Archmbox  uses  a working directory to store temporary mailboxes. A default value for that
       directory  is  hard   coded   in   the   script,   but   can   be   changed   during   the
       configuration/installation  process  (see INSTALL for details).  It might happen that your
       mailboxes are too big for the partition holding this temporary  directory,  or  you  might
       want  to perform archiving on too much mailboxes at the same time. In other words, you may
       run out of space.  Use the -t option to specify a suitable working directory at runtime.

       If you see some differences in the mailbox's dimension (size/free  space),  keep  in  mind
       that  your  mailbox  may  contain  a  special  message  (512  bytes in size) with internal
       information related to the mailbox.  This message is meaningless for you, though  archmbox
       recognizes  it  and lets you be aware of it. That message is left untouched in your source
       mailbox.

       A few words about locking. There  has  been  a  discussion  about  archmbox  handles  file
       locking. The answer is simple: no mailbox is ever locked.  The reason behind this behavior
       is that I want archmbox to be as least invasive as possible, so other kind of  checks  are
       performed to ensure that no data is lost (mailbox has changed/mailbox is in use by another
       program). I will surely add some locking mechanism in the future.

       You don't need to execute archmbox as root... just take care to have write permissions for
       the directories you use.

LINKS

       Archmbox can be downloaded from:

       http://adc-archmbox.sourceforge.net

       Archmbox is distributed under the terms of the GPL

AUTHOR(S)

       Copyright (C) 2001-2005

       Alessandro Dotti Contra <adotti@users.sourceforge.net>

       Parts of the code were contributed by:

       Alex  Aminoff, Brian Medley, Buck Holsinger, Davor Ocelic, Fabrice Noilhan, Jayanth Varma,
       Juergen Edner, Laurent Cheylus, Nicolas Ecarnot, Paco  Regodon,  Scott  Thompson,  Juergen
       Desher.

       The FreeBSD port is maintained by Talal Al-Dik.
       The OpenDarwin port is maintained by Markus Weissman.
       The Debian package is maintained by Alberto Furia <straluna@email.it>

BUGS

       Please report bugs to <adotti@users.sourceforge.net>

SEE ALSO

       PERLREQUICK(1), PERLRETUT(1), PERLRE(1)

                                                                                      archmbox(1)