NAME

       public-inbox-edit - destructively edit messages in a public inbox

SYNOPSIS

               public-inbox-edit -m MESSAGE-ID --all|INBOX_DIR

               public-inbox-edit -F RAW_FILE --all|INBOX_DIR [.. INBOX_DIR]

DESCRIPTION

       public-inbox-edit allows editing messages in a given inbox to remove sensitive
       information.  It is only intended as a last resort, as it will cause discontiguous git
       history and draw more attention to the sensitive data in mirrors.

OPTIONS

       --all
           Edit the message in all inboxes configured in ~/.public-inbox/config.  This is an
           alternative to specifying individual inboxes directories on the command-line.

       -m MESSAGE-ID
           Edits the message corresponding to the given "MESSAGE-ID".  If the "MESSAGE-ID" is
           ambiguous, "--force" or using the "--file" of the original will be required.

       -F FILE
           Edits the message corresponding to the Message-ID: header and content given in "FILE".
           This requires the unmodified raw message, and the contents of "FILE" will not itself
           be modified.  This is useful if a Message-ID is ambiguous due to filtering/munging
           rules or other edits.

       --force
           Forcibly perform the edit even if Message-ID is ambiguous.

       --raw
           Do not perform "From " line escaping.  By default, this generates a mboxrd variant
           file to detect unpurged messages in the new mbox.  This makes sense if your configured
           "publicinbox.mailEditor" is a regular editor and not something like "mutt -f"

CONFIGURATION

       publicinbox.mailEditor
               The command to perform the edit with.  An example of this would be "mutt -f", and
               the user would then use the facilities in mutt(1) to edit the mail.  This is
               useful for editing attachments or Base64-encoded emails which are more difficult
               to edit with a normal editor (configured via "GIT_EDITOR", "VISUAL" or "EDITOR").

               Default: none

ENVIRONMENT

       GIT_EDITOR / VISUAL / EDITOR
               public-inbox-edit will fall back to using one of these variables (in that order)
               if "publicinbox.mailEditor" is unset.

       PI_CONFIG
               The default config file, normally "~/.public-inbox/config".  See
               public-inbox-config(5)

LIMITATIONS

       Only v2 repositories are supported.

       This is safe to run while normal inbox writing tools (public-inbox-mda(1),
       public-inbox-watch(1), public-inbox-learn(1)) are active.

       Running this in parallel with public-inbox-xcpdb(1) or "public-inbox-index --reindex" can
       lead to errors or edited data remaining indexed.

       Incremental public-inbox-index(1) (without "--reindex") is fine.

       Keep in mind this is a last resort, as it will be disruptive to anyone using git(1) to
       mirror the inbox being edited.

CONTACT

       Feedback welcome via plain-text mail to <mailto:meta@public-inbox.org>

       The mail archives are hosted at <https://public-inbox.org/meta/> and
       <http://4uok3hntl7oi7b4uf4rtfwefqeexfzil2w6kgk2jn5z2f764irre7byd.onion/meta/>

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright 2019-2021 all contributors <mailto:meta@public-inbox.org>

       License: AGPL-3.0+ <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.txt>

SEE ALSO

       public-inbox-purge(1)