mailutil - mail utility program

mailutil check [-debug] [-verbose] mailbox

mailutil create [-debug] [-verbose] new_mailbox

mailutil copy [-debug] [-verbose] [-rwcopy] old new

mailutil move [-debug] [-verbose] [-rwcopy] old new

mailutil append [-debug] [-verbose] [-rwcopy] src dst

mailutil appenddelete [-debug] [-verbose] [-rwcopy] src dst

mailutil transfer [-debug] [-verbose] [-merge m] [-rwcopy] src dst

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 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 copy and mailutil move creates a new mailbox and copies messages from the old mailbox to the new mailbox. In addition, mailutil move will also remove (delete and expunge) the messages from the old mailbox after copying them 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 append and mailutil appenddelete are similar to mailutil copy and mailutil move except that they do not create the destination mailbox.

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 -merge mode is specified, a merging transfer is performed. The mode argument the type of merge.

-merge 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.

-merge 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.

-merge 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.

The -debug flag prints full debugging telemetry including protocol operations.

The -verbose flag prints verbose (non-error) telemetry.

The -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 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.

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.

Mark Crispin, MRC@CAC.Washington.EDU