xenial (1) mairix.1.gz

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NAME

       mairix - index and search mail folders

SYNOPSIS

   Indexing
       mairix  [  -v|--verbose ] [ -p|--purge ] [ -f|--rcfile mairixrc ] [ -F|--fast-index ] [ --force-hash-key-
       new-database hash ]

   Searching
       mairix [ -v|--verbose ]  [  -f|--rcfile  mairixrc  ]  [  -r|--raw-output  ]  [  -x|--excerpt-output  ]  [
       -H|--force-hardlinks ] [ -o|--mfolder mfolder ] [ -a|--augment ] [ -t|--threads ] search-patterns

   Other
       mairix [ -h|--help ]

       mairix [ -V|--version ]

       mairix [ -d|--dump ]

DESCRIPTION

       mairix  indexes  and  searches  a  collection of email messages.  The folders containing the messages for
       indexing are defined in the configuration file.  The  indexing  stage  produces  a  database  file.   The
       database  file  provides  rapid access to details of the indexed messages during searching operations.  A
       search normally produces a folder (so-called mfolder) containing the matched messages.   However,  a  raw
       mode (-r) exists which just lists the matched messages instead.

       It can operate with the following folder types

       *      maildir

       *      MH  (compatible  with  the  MH  folder  formats used by xmh, sylpheed, claws-mail, nnml (Gnus) and
              evolution)

       *      mbox (including mboxes that have been compressed with gzip or bzip2)

       If maildir or MH source folders are used, and a search outputs its matches to an mfolder in maildir or MH
       format,  symbolic links are used to reference the original messages inside the mfolder.  However, if mbox
       folders are involved, copies of messages are made instead.

OPTIONS

       mairix decides whether indexing or searching is required by looking  for  the  presence  of  any  search-
       patterns on the command line.

   Special modes
       -h, --help
              Show usage summary and exit

       -V, --version
              Show program version and exit

       -d
              Dump the database's contents in human-readable form to stdout.

   General options
       -f mairixrc
       --rcfile mairixrc
              Specify an alternative configuration file to use.  The default configuration file is ~/.mairixrc.

       -v, --verbose
              Make the output more verbose

       -Q, --no-integrity-checks
              Normally  mairix  will  do  some  internal integrity tests on the database.  The -Q option removes
              these checks, making mairix run faster, but it will be less likely to detect internal problems  if
              any bugs creep in.

              The nochecks directive in the rc file has the same effect.

       --unlock
              mairix  locks  its  database  file  during any indexing or searching operation to prevent multiple
              indexing runs interfering with each other, or an indexing run interfering with search  runs.   The
              --unlock  option  removes the lockfile before doing the requested indexing or searching operation.
              This is a convenient way of cleaning up a stale lockfile if an earlier run crashed for some reason
              or was aborted.

   Indexing options
       -p, --purge
              Cause  stale  (dead)  messages  to be purged from the database during an indexing run.  (Normally,
              stale messages are left in the database because of the additional  cost  of  compacting  away  the
              storage that they take up.)

       -F, --fast-index
              When  processing  maildir  and  MH  folders,  mairix  normally compares the mtime and size of each
              message against the values stored in the database.  If they have  changed,  the  message  will  be
              rescanned.  This check requires each message file to be stat'ed.  For large numbers of messages in
              these folder types, this can be a sizeable overhead.

              This option tells mairix to assume that when a message currently on-disc has a name  matching  one
              already in the database, it should assume the message is unchanged.

              A later indexing run without using this option will fix up any rescans that were missed due to its
              use.

       --force-hash-key-new-database hash
              This option should only be used for debugging.
              If a new database is created, hash is used as hash key, instead of a random hash.

   Search options
       -a, --augment
              Append newly matches messages to the current mfolder instead of creating the mfolder from scratch.

       -t, --threads
              As well as returning the matched messages, also return every message in the same thread as one  of
              the real matches.

       -r, --raw-output
              Instead of creating an mfolder containing the matched messages, just show their paths on stdout.

       -x, --excerpt-output
              Instead  of  creating  an  mfolder  containing the matched messages, display an excerpt from their
              headers on stdout.  The excerpt shows To, Cc, From, Subject and Date.

       -H, --force-hardlinks
              Instead of creating symbolic links, force the use of hardlinks.  This helps mailers such as alpine
              to realize that there are new mails in the search folder.

       -o mfolder
       --mfolder mfolder
              Specify  a  temporary alternative path for the mfolder to use, overriding the mfolder directive in
              the rc file.

              mairix will refuse to output search results into any folder that appears to be amongst those  that
              are indexed.  This is to prevent accidental deletion of emails.

   Search patterns
       t:word
              Match word in the To: header.

       c:word
              Match word in the Cc: header.

       f:word
              Match word in the From: header.

       s:word
              Match word in the Subject: header.

       m:word
              Match word in the Message-ID: header.

       b:word
              Match word in the message body.

              Message  body is taken to mean any body part of type text/plain or text/html.  For text/html, text
              within meta tags is ignored.  In particular, the URLs inside <A HREF="..."> tags are not currently
              indexed.  Non-text attachments are ignored.  If there's an attachment of type message/rfc822, this
              is parsed and the match is performed on this sub-message too.  If  a  hit  occurs,  the  enclosing
              message is treated as having a hit.

       d:[start-datespec]-[end-datespec]
              Match messages with Date: headers lying in the specific range.

       z:[low-size]-[high-size]
              Match  messages  whose  size  lies in the specified range.  If the low-size argument is omitted it
              defaults to zero.  If the high-size argument is omitted it defaults to infinite size.

              For example, to match messages between 10kilobytes and 20kilobytes in size, the  following  search
              term can be used:

                   mairix z:10k-20k

              The  suffix  'k' on a number means multiply by 1024, and the suffix 'M' on a number means multiply
              by 1024*1024.

       n:word
              Match word occurring as the name of an attachment in the  message.   Since  attachment  names  are
              usually long, this option would usually be used in the substring form.  So

                   mairix n:mairix=

              would match all messages which have attachments whose names contain the substring mairix.

              The  attachment  name  is  determined from the name=xxx or filename=xxx qualifiers on the Content-
              Type: and Content-Disposition: headers respectively.

       F:flags
              Match messages with particular flag settings.  The available  flags  are  's'  meaning  seen,  'r'
              meaning  replied,  and 'f' meaning flagged.  The flags are case-insensitive.  A flag letter may be
              prefixed by a '-' to negate its sense.  Thus


                   mairix F:-s d:1w-
              would match any unread message less than a week old, and

                   mairix F:f-r d:-1m

              would match any flagged message older than a month which you haven't replied to yet.

              Note that the flag characters and their meanings agree with those used as the  suffix  letters  on
              message filenames in maildir folders.

   Searching for a match amongst more than one part of a message
       Multiple  body  parts  may  be  grouped  together,  if a match in any of them is sought.  Common examples
       follow.

       tc:word
              Match word in either the To: or Cc: headers (or both).

       bs:word
              Match word in either the Subject: header or the message body (or both).

       The a: search pattern is an abbreviation for tcf:; i.e. match the word in the To:, Cc: or From:  headers.
       ("a" stands for "address" in this case.)

   Match words
       The word argument to the search strings can take various forms.

       ~word
              Match messages not containing the word.

       word1,word2
              This matches if both the words are matched in the specified message part.

       word1/word2
              This matches if either of the words are matched in the specified message part.

       substring=
              Match any word containing substring as a substring

       substring=N
              Match  any  word containing substring, allowing up to N errors in the match.  For example, if N is
              1, a single error is allowed, where an error can be

       *      a missing letter

       *      an extra letter

       *      a different letter.

       ^substring=
              Match any word containing substring as a substring, with the requirement that substring occurs  at
              the beginning of the matched word.

   Precedence matters
       The binding order of the constructions is:

       1.     Individual command line arguments define separate conditions which are AND-ed together

       2.     Within  a  single argument, the letters before the colon define which message parts the expression
              applies to.  If there is no colon, the expression applies to all the headers  listed  earlier  and
              the body.

       3.     After the colon, commas delineate separate disjuncts, which are OR-ed together.

       4.     Each disjunct may contain separate conjuncts, which are separated by plus signs.  These conditions
              are AND-ed together.

       5.     Each conjunct may start with a tilde to negate it, and may be followed by a slash  to  indicate  a
              substring match, optionally followed by an integer to define the maximum number of errors allowed.

   Date specification
       This section describes the syntax used for specifying dates when searching using the `d:' option.

       Dates are specified as a range.  The start and end of the range can both be specified.  Alternatively, if
       the start is omitted, it is treated as being the beginning of time.  If the end is omitted, it is treated
       as the current time.

       There are 4 basic formats:

       d:start-end
              Specify both start and end explicitly

       d:start-
              Specify start, end is the current time

       d:-end Specify end, start is 'a long time ago' (i.e. early enough to include any message).

       d:period
              Specify start and end implicitly, as the start and end of the period given.

       The start and end can be specified either absolute or relative.  A relative endpoint is given as a number
       followed by a single letter defining the scaling:

       ┌────────┬─────────────┬───────────┬───────────────────────┐
       │lettershort forexamplemeaning              │
       ├────────┼─────────────┼───────────┼───────────────────────┤
       │d       │  days       │  3d       │  3 days               │
       │w       │  weeks      │  2w       │  2 weeks (14 days)    │
       │m       │  months     │  5m       │  5 months (150 days)  │
       │y       │  years      │  4y       │  4 years (4*365 days) │
       └────────┴─────────────┴───────────┴───────────────────────┘

       Months are always treated as 30 days, and years as 365 days, for this purpose.

       Absolute times can be specified in many forms.  Some forms have different meanings  when  they  define  a
       start  date  from  that when they define an end date.  Where a single expression specifies both the start
       and end (i.e. where the  argument  to  d:  doesn't  contain  a  `-'),  it  will  usually  have  different
       interpretations in the two cases.

       In  the  examples  below, suppose the current date is Sunday May 18th, 2003 (when I started to write this
       material.)

       ┌─────────────────────┬──────────────────────┬───────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────┐
       │Example              │  Start date          │  End date             │  Notes                          │
       ├─────────────────────┼──────────────────────┼───────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
       │d:20030301-20030425  │  March 1st, 2003     │  25th April, 2003     │                                 │
       │d:030301-030425      │  March 1st, 2003     │  April 25th, 2003     │  century assumed                │
       │d:mar1-apr25         │  March 1st, 2003     │  April 25th, 2003     │                                 │
       │d:Mar1-Apr25         │  March 1st, 2003     │  April 25th, 2003     │  case insensitive               │
       │d:MAR1-APR25         │  March 1st, 2003     │  April 25th, 2003     │  case insensitive               │
       │d:1mar-25apr         │  March 1st, 2003     │  April 25th, 2003     │  date and month in either order │
       │d:2002               │  January 1st, 2002   │  December 31st, 2002  │  whole year                     │
       │d:mar                │  March 1st, 2003     │  March 31st, 2003     │  most recent March              │
       │d:oct                │  October 1st, 2002   │  October 31st, 2002   │  most recent October            │
       │d:21oct-mar          │  October 21st, 2002  │  March 31st, 2003     │  start before end               │
       │d:21apr-mar          │  April 21st, 2002    │  March 31st, 2003     │  start before end               │
       │d:21apr-             │  April 21st, 2003    │  May 18th, 2003       │  end omitted                    │
       │d:-21apr             │  January 1st, 1900   │  April 21st, 2003     │  start omitted                  │
       │d:6w-2w              │  April 6th, 2003     │  May 4th, 2003        │  both dates relative            │
       │d:21apr-1w           │  April 21st, 2003    │  May 11th, 2003       │  one date relative              │
       │d:21apr-2y           │  April 21st, 2001    │  May 11th, 2001       │  start before end               │
       │d:99-11              │  January 1st, 1999   │  May 11th, 2003       │ 2 digits are a day of the month │
       │                     │                      │                       │ if possible, otherwise a year   │
       │d:99oct-1oct         │  October 1st, 1999   │  October 1st, 2002    │ end before now, single digit is │
       │                     │                      │                       │ a day of the month              │
       │d:99oct-01oct        │  October 1st, 1999   │  October 31st, 2001   │ 2  digits  starting  with  zero │
       │                     │                      │                       │ treated as a year               │
       │d:oct99-oct1         │  October 1st, 1999   │  October 1st, 2002    │ day and month in either order   │
       │d:oct99-oct01        │  October 1st, 1999   │  October 31st, 2001   │ year and month in either order  │
       └─────────────────────┴──────────────────────┴───────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────┘

       The principles in the table work as follows.

       •      When  the  expression  defines a period of more than a day (i.e. if a month or year is specified),
              the earliest day in the period is taken when the start date is defined, and the last  day  in  the
              period if the end of the range is being defined.

       •      The end date is always taken to be on or before the current date.

       •      The start date is always taken to be on or before the end date.

SETTING UP THE MATCH FOLDER

       If  the  match  folder  does  not  exist  when  running in search mode, it is automatically created.  For
       'mformat=maildir' (the default), this should be all you need to do.  If you  use  'mformat=mh',  you  may
       have to run some commands before your mailer will recognize the folder.  e.g.  for mutt, you could do

              mkdir -p /home/richard/Mail/mfolder
              touch /home/richard/Mail/mfolder/.mh_sequences

       which seems to work.  Alternatively, within mutt, you could set MBOX_TYPE to in advance.

       If  you  use  Sylpheed,  the  best  way  seems to be to create the new folder from within Sylpheed before
       letting mairix write into it.

EXAMPLES

       Suppose my email address is <richard@doesnt.exist>.

       Either of the following will match all messages newer than 3 months from me with the word 'chrony' in the
       subject line:

              mairix d:3m- f:richard+doesnt+exist s:chrony
              mairix d:3m- f:richard@doesnt.exist s:chrony

       Suppose I don't mind a few spurious matches on the address, I want a wider date range, and I suspect that
       some messages I replied to might have had the subject keyword spelt wrongly (let's allow up to 2 errors):

              mairix d:6m- f:richard s:chrony=2

NOTES

       mairix works exclusively in terms of words.  The index that's built in indexing mode contains a table  of
       which  words  occur  in  which  messages.  Hence, the search capability is based on finding messages that
       contain particular words.  mairix defines a word as any string of alphanumeric characters  +  underscore.
       Any whitespace, punctuation, hyphens etc are treated as word boundaries.

       mairix  has  special  handling  for  the To:, Cc: and From: headers.  Besides the normal word scan, these
       headers are scanned a second time, where the characters '@',  '-'  and  '.'  are  also  treated  as  word
       characters.  This allows most (if not all) email addresses to appear in the database as single words.  So
       if you have a mail from wibble@foobar.zzz, it will match on both these searches

              mairix f:foobar
              mairix f:wibble@foobar.zzz

       It should be clear by now that the searching cannot be used to find  messages  matching  general  regular
       expressions.   This  has never been much of a limitation.  Most searches are for particular keywords that
       were in the messages, or details of the recipients, or the approximate date.

       It's also worth pointing out that there is no 'locality' information stored,  so  you  can't  search  for
       messages  that  have  one words 'close' to some other word.  For every message and every word, there is a
       simple yes/no condition stored - whether the message contains the word in a particular header or  in  the
       body.   So  far  this  has  proved to be adequate.  mairix has a similar feel to using an Internet search
       engine.

FILES

       ~/.mairixrc

AUTHOR

       Copyright (C) 2002-2006 Richard P. Curnow <rc@rc0.org.uk>

SEE ALSO

       mairixrc(5)

BUGS

       We need a plugin scheme to allow more types of attachment to be scanned and indexed.

                                                  January 2006                                         MAIRIX(1)