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 DESTINATION

       mailutil move [-rw] [-kw] [-ig] SOURCE DESTINATION

       mailutil append [-rw] [-kw] [-ig] SOURCE DESTINATION

       mailutil appenddelete [-rw] [-kw] [-ig] SOURCE DESTINATION

       mailutil prune MAILBOX CRITERIA

       mailutil transfer [-m mode] [-rw] [-kw] [-ig] SOURCE DESTINATION

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.

       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
       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.

       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.

AUTHOR

       Mark Crispin, MRC@Washington.EDU

                                          March 3, 2008                               mailutil(1)