archivemail.xml

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN"
"file:///usr/share/xml/docbook/schema/dtd/4.2/docbookx.dtd" [

<!ENTITY lockf '<citerefentry>
<refentrytitle><emphasis role="bold">lockf</emphasis></refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>'>

<!ENTITY gzip '<citerefentry>
<refentrytitle><emphasis role="bold">gzip</emphasis></refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>'>

<!ENTITY procmail '<citerefentry>
<refentrytitle><emphasis role="bold">procmail</emphasis></refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>'>

<!ENTITY python '<citerefentry>
<refentrytitle><emphasis role="bold">python</emphasis></refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>'>

<!ENTITY crontab '<citerefentry>
<refentrytitle><emphasis role="bold">crontab</emphasis></refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>'>

<!ENTITY mbox '<citerefentry>
<refentrytitle><emphasis role="bold"><acronym>mbox</acronym></emphasis></refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>'>
]>

<refentry>

<docinfo><date>5 July 2011</date></docinfo>

<refmeta>
<refentrytitle>archivemail</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
<refmiscinfo class="manual">archivemail user manual</refmiscinfo>
<refmiscinfo class="source">archivemail 0.9.0</refmiscinfo>
</refmeta>

<refnamediv>
<refname>archivemail</refname>
<refpurpose>archive and compress your old email</refpurpose>
</refnamediv>

<refsynopsisdiv>
<cmdsynopsis>

<command>archivemail</command>
<arg><option>options</option></arg>
<arg choice="req" rep="repeat"><replaceable>MAILBOX</replaceable></arg>

</cmdsynopsis>
</refsynopsisdiv>

<refsect1>
<title>Description</title>

<para>
<command>archivemail</command> is a tool for archiving and compressing old
email in mailboxes.
By default it will read the mailbox <replaceable>MAILBOX</replaceable>, moving
messages that are older than the specified number of days (180 by default) to
a &mbox;-format mailbox in the same directory that is compressed with &gzip;.
It can also just delete old email rather than archive it.
</para>

<para>
By default, <command>archivemail</command> derives the archive filename from
the mailbox name by appending an <filename>_archive</filename> suffix to the
mailbox name.  For example, if you run <command>archivemail</command> on a
mailbox called <filename>exsouthrock</filename>, the archive will be created
with the filename <filename>exsouthrock_archive.gz</filename>.
This default behavior can be overridden with command line options, choosing
a custom suffix, a prefix, or a completely custom name for the archive.
</para>

<para>
<command>archivemail</command> supports reading  <acronym>IMAP</acronym>,
<acronym>Maildir</acronym>, <acronym>MH</acronym> and
<acronym>mbox</acronym>-format mailboxes, but always writes
<acronym>mbox</acronym>-format archives.
</para>

<para>
Messages that are flagged important are not archived or deleted unless
explicitly requested with the <option>--include-flagged</option> option.
Also, <command>archivemail</command> can be configured not to archive unread
mail, or to only archive messages larger than a specified size.
</para>

<para>
To archive an <acronym>IMAP</acronym>-format mailbox, use the format
<replaceable>imap://username:password@server/mailbox </replaceable> to specify
the mailbox.
<command>archivemail</command> will expand wildcards in
<acronym>IMAP</acronym> mailbox names according to
<citation><acronym>RFC</acronym> 3501</citation>, which says: <quote>The
character "*" is a wildcard, and matches zero or more characters at this
position.  The character "%" is similar to "*", but it does not match a
hierarchy delimiter.</quote>
You can omit the password from the <acronym>URL</acronym>; use the
<option>--pwfile</option> option to make <command>archivemail</command> read
the password from a file, or alternatively just enter it upon request.
If the <option>--pwfile</option> option is set, <command>archivemail</command>
does not look for a password in the <acronym>URL</acronym>, and the colon is
not considered a delimiter.
Substitute <replaceable>imap</replaceable> with
<replaceable>imaps</replaceable>, and <command>archivemail</command> will
establish a secure <acronym>SSL</acronym> connection.
See below for more <acronym>IMAP</acronym> peculiarities.
</para>
</refsect1>

<refsect1>
<title>Options</title>

<variablelist>

<varlistentry>
<term><option>-d <replaceable>NUM</replaceable></option></term>
<term><option>--days=<replaceable>NUM</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem><para>Archive messages older than <replaceable>NUM</replaceable>
days.  The default is 180. This option is incompatible with the
<option>--date</option> option below.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><option>-D <replaceable>DATE</replaceable></option></term>
<term><option>--date=<replaceable>DATE</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem><para>Archive messages older than <replaceable>DATE</replaceable>.
<replaceable>DATE</replaceable> can be a date string in ISO format (eg
<quote>2002-04-23</quote>), Internet format (<abbrev>eg</abbrev> <quote>23 Apr
2002</quote>) or Internet format with full month names (<abbrev>eg</abbrev>
<quote>23 April 2002</quote>). Two-digit years are not supported.
This option is incompatible with the <option>--days</option> option above.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><option>-o <replaceable>PATH</replaceable></option></term>
<term><option>--output-dir=<replaceable>PATH</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem><para>Use the directory name <replaceable>PATH</replaceable> to
store the mailbox archives. The default is the same directory as the mailbox
to be read.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><option>-P <replaceable>FILE</replaceable></option></term>
<term><option>--pwfile=<replaceable>FILE</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem><para>Read <acronym>IMAP</acronym> password from file
<replaceable>FILE</replaceable> instead of from the command line.  Note
that this will probably not work if you are archiving folders from
more than one IMAP account.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><option>-F <replaceable>STRING</replaceable></option></term>
<term><option>--filter-append=<replaceable>STRING</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem><para>Append <replaceable>STRING</replaceable> to the
<acronym>IMAP</acronym> filter string.
For <acronym>IMAP</acronym> wizards.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><option>-p <replaceable>NAME</replaceable></option></term>
<term><option>--prefix=<replaceable>NAME</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem><para>Prefix <replaceable>NAME</replaceable> to the archive name.
<replaceable>NAME</replaceable> is expanded by the &python; function
<function>time.strftime()</function>, which means that you can specify special
directives in <replaceable>NAME</replaceable> to make an archive named after
the archive cut-off date.
See the discussion of the <option>--suffix</option> option for a list of valid
<function>strftime()</function> directives.
The default is not to add a prefix.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><option>-s <replaceable>NAME</replaceable></option></term>
<term><option>--suffix=<replaceable>NAME</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem><para>
Use the suffix <replaceable>NAME</replaceable> to create the filename used for
archives.  The default is <filename>_archive</filename>, unless a prefix is
specified.
</para>
<para>
Like a prefix, the suffix <replaceable>NAME</replaceable> is expanded by the
&python; function <function>time.strftime()</function> with the archive
cut-off date.  <function>time.strftime()</function> understands the following
directives:
<variablelist id="strftime">
    <varlistentry><term><code>%a</code></term>
        <listitem><simpara>
                Locale's abbreviated weekday name.
        </simpara></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry><term><code>%A</code></term>
        <listitem><simpara>
                Locale's full weekday name.
        </simpara></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry><term><code>%b</code></term>
        <listitem><simpara>
                Locale's abbreviated month name.
        </simpara></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry><term><code>%B</code></term>
        <listitem><simpara>
                Locale's full month name.
        </simpara></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry><term><code>%c</code></term>
        <listitem><simpara>
                Locale's appropriate date and time representation.
        </simpara></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry><term><code>%d</code></term>
        <listitem><simpara>
                Day of the month as a decimal number [01,31].
        </simpara></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry><term><code>%H</code></term>
        <listitem><simpara>
                Hour (24-hour clock) as a decimal number [00,23].
        </simpara></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry><term><code>%I</code></term>
        <listitem><simpara>
                Hour (12-hour clock) as a decimal number [01,12].
        </simpara></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry><term><code>%j</code></term>
        <listitem><simpara>
                Day of the year as a decimal number [001,366].
        </simpara></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry><term><code>%m</code></term>
        <listitem><simpara>
                Month as a decimal number [01,12].
        </simpara></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry><term><code>%M</code></term>
        <listitem><simpara>
                Minute as a decimal number [00,59].
        </simpara></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry><term><code>%p</code></term>
        <listitem><simpara>
                Locale's equivalent of either AM or PM.
        </simpara></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry><term><code>%S</code></term>
        <listitem><simpara>
                Second as a decimal number [00,61]. (1)
        </simpara></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry><term><code>%U</code></term>
        <listitem><simpara>
                Week number of the year (Sunday as the first day of the week)
                as a decimal number [00,53]. All days in a new year preceding
                the first Sunday are considered to be in week 0.
        </simpara></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry><term><code>%w</code></term>
        <listitem><simpara>
                Weekday as a decimal number [0(Sunday),6].
        </simpara></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry><term><code>%W</code></term>
        <listitem><simpara>
                Week number of the year (Monday as the first day of the week)
                as a decimal number [00,53]. All days in a new year preceding
                the first Sunday are considered to be in week 0.
        </simpara></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry><term><code>%x</code></term>
        <listitem><simpara>
                Locale's appropriate date representation.
        </simpara></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry><term><code>%X</code></term>
        <listitem><simpara>
                Locale's appropriate time representation.
        </simpara></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry><term><code>%y</code></term>
        <listitem><simpara>
                Year without century as a decimal number [00,99].
        </simpara></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry><term><code>%Y</code></term>
        <listitem><simpara>
                Year with century as a decimal number.
        </simpara></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry><term><code>%Z</code></term>
        <listitem><simpara>
                Time zone name (or by no characters if no time zone exists).
        </simpara></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry><term><code>%%</code></term>
        <listitem><simpara>
                A literal <quote>%</quote> character.
        </simpara></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><option>-a <replaceable>NAME</replaceable></option></term>
<term><option>--archive-name=<replaceable>NAME</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem><para>Use <replaceable>NAME</replaceable> as the archive name,
ignoring the name of the mailbox that is archived.
Like prefixes and suffixes, <replaceable>NAME</replaceable> is expanded by
<function>time.strftime()</function> with the archive cut-off date.
Because it hard-codes the archive name, this option cannot be used when
archiving multiple mailboxes.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><option>-S <replaceable>NUM</replaceable></option></term>
<term><option>--size=<replaceable>NUM</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem><para>Only archive messages that are <replaceable>NUM</replaceable>
bytes or greater.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><option>-n</option></term>
<term><option>--dry-run</option></term>
<listitem><para>
Don't write to any files -- just show what would have been done. This is
useful for testing to see how many messages would have been archived.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><option>-u</option></term>
<term><option>--preserve-unread</option></term>
<listitem><para>
Do not archive any messages that have not yet been read.
<command>archivemail</command> determines if a message in a
<acronym>mbox</acronym>-format or <acronym>MH</acronym>-format mailbox has
been read by looking at the <literal>Status</literal> header (if it exists).
If the status header is equal to <quote><literal>RO</literal></quote> or
<quote><literal>OR</literal></quote> then <command>archivemail</command>
assumes the message has been read.
<command>archivemail</command> determines if a <acronym>maildir</acronym>
message has been read by looking at the filename.
If the filename contains an <quote><literal>S</literal></quote> after
<filename>:2,</filename> then it assumes the message has been read.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term>
    <option>--dont-mangle</option>
</term>
<listitem><para>
Do not mangle lines in message bodies beginning with
<quote><literal>From&nbsp;</literal></quote>.
When archiving a message from a mailbox not in <acronym>mbox</acronym>
format, by default <command>archivemail</command> mangles such lines by
prepending a <quote><literal>&gt;</literal></quote> to them, since mail user
agents might otherwise interpret these lines as message separators.
Messages from <acronym>mbox</acronym> folders are never mangled.  See &mbox;
for more information.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term>
    <option>--delete</option>
</term>
<listitem><para>
Delete rather than archive old mail. Use this option with caution!
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term>
    <option>--copy</option>
</term>
<listitem><para>
Copy rather than archive old mail.
Creates an archive, but the archived messages are not deleted from the
originating mailbox, which is left unchanged.
This is a complement to the <option>--delete</option> option, and mainly
useful for testing purposes.
Note that multiple passes will create duplicates, since messages are blindly
appended to an existing archive.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term>
    <option>--all</option>
</term>
<listitem><para>
Archive all messages, without distinction.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term>
    <option>--include-flagged</option>
</term>
<listitem><para>
Normally messages that are flagged important are not archived or deleted. If
you specify this option, these messages can be archived or deleted just like
any other message.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term>
    <option>--no-compress</option>
</term>
<listitem><para>
Do not compress any archives.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term>
    <option>--warn-duplicate</option>
</term>
<listitem><para>
Warn about duplicate <literal>Message-ID</literal>s that appear in the input
mailbox.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><option>-v</option></term>
<term><option>--verbose</option></term>
<listitem><para>
Reports lots of extra debugging information about what is going on.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term>
    <option>--debug-imap=<replaceable>NUM</replaceable></option>
</term>
<listitem><para>
Set <acronym>IMAP</acronym> debugging level. This makes
<command>archivemail</command> dump its conversation with the
<acronym>IMAP</acronym> server and some internal <acronym>IMAP</acronym>
processing to <literal>stdout</literal>.  Higher values for
<replaceable>NUM</replaceable> give more elaborate output.  Set
<replaceable>NUM</replaceable> to 4 to see all exchanged
<acronym>IMAP</acronym> commands.  (Actually, <replaceable>NUM</replaceable>
is just passed literally to <literal>imaplib.Debug</literal>.)
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><option>-q</option></term>
<term><option>--quiet</option></term>
<listitem><para>
Turns on quiet mode. Do not print any statistics about how many messages were
archived. This should be used if you are running
<command>archivemail</command> from cron.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><option>-V</option></term>
<term><option>--version</option></term>
<listitem><para>
Display the version of <command>archivemail</command> and exit.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><option>-h</option></term>
<term><option>--help</option></term>
<listitem><para>
Display brief summary information about how to run
<command>archivemail</command>.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>

</refsect1>

<refsect1>
<title>Notes</title>

<para>
<command>archivemail</command> requires &python; version 2.3 or later.
When reading an <acronym>mbox</acronym>-format mailbox,
<command>archivemail</command> will create a lockfile with the extension
<filename class="extension">.lock</filename> so that &procmail; will not
deliver to the mailbox while it is being processed. It will also create an
advisory lock on the mailbox using &lockf;.  The archive is locked in the same
way when it is updated.
<command>archivemail</command> will also complain and abort if a 3rd-party
modifies the mailbox while it is being read.
</para>

<para>
<command>archivemail</command> will always attempt to preserve the last-access
and last-modify times of the input mailbox.  Archive mailboxes are always
created with a mode of <literal>0600</literal>.
If <command>archivemail</command> finds a pre-existing archive mailbox it will
append rather than overwrite that archive.
<command>archivemail</command> will refuse to operate on mailboxes that are
symbolic links.
</para>

<para>
<command>archivemail</command> attempts to find the delivery date of a message
by looking for valid dates in the following headers, in order of precedence:
<literal>Delivery-date</literal>,
<literal>Received</literal>,
<literal>Resent-Date</literal> and
<literal>Date</literal>.
If it cannot find any valid date in these headers, it will use the
last-modified file timestamp on <acronym>MH</acronym> and
<acronym>Maildir</acronym> format mailboxes, or the date on the
<literal>From_</literal> line on <acronym>mbox</acronym>-format mailboxes.
</para>

<para>
When archiving mailboxes with leading dots in the name,
<command>archivemail</command> will strip the dots off the archive name, so
that the resulting archive file is not hidden.
This is not done if the <option>--prefix</option> or
<option>--archive-name</option> option is used.
Should there really be mailboxes distinguished only by leading dots in the
name, they will thus be archived to the same archive file by default.
</para>

<para>
A conversion from other formats to &mbox; will silently overwrite existing
<literal>Status</literal> and <literal>X-Status</literal> message headers.
</para>

<refsect2>
<title><acronym>IMAP</acronym></title>
<para>
When <command>archivemail</command> processes an <acronym>IMAP</acronym>
folder, all messages in that folder will have their <literal>\Recent</literal>
flag unset, and they will probably not show up as <quote>new</quote> in your
user agent later on.
There is no way around this, it's just how <acronym>IMAP</acronym> works.
This does not apply, however, if you run <command>archivemail</command> with
the options <option>--dry-run</option> or <option>--copy</option>.
</para>
<para>
<command>archivemail</command> relies on server-side searches to determine the
messages that should be archived.
When matching message dates, <acronym>IMAP</acronym> servers refer to server
internal message dates, and these may differ from both delivery time of a
message and its <literal>Date</literal> header.
Also, there exist broken servers which do not implement server side searches.
</para>
<refsect3><title><acronym>IMAP</acronym> <acronym>URL</acronym>s</title>
<para>
<command>archivemail</command>'s <acronym>IMAP</acronym>
<acronym>URL</acronym> parser was written with the <acronym>RFC</acronym> 2882
(<citetitle>Internet Message Format</citetitle>) rules for the
<token>local-part</token> of email addresses in mind.
So, rather than enforcing an <acronym>URL</acronym>-style encoding of
non-<acronym>ascii</acronym> and reserved characters, it allows you to
double-quote the username and password.
If your username or password contains the delimiter characters
<quote>@</quote> or <quote>:</quote>, just quote it like this:
<replaceable>imap://"username@bogus.com":"password"@imap.bogus.com/mailbox</replaceable>.
You can use a backslash to escape double-quotes that are part of a quoted
username or password.
Note that quoting only a substring will not work, and be aware that your shell
will probably remove unprotected quotes or backslashes.
</para>
<para>
Similarly, there is no need to percent-encode non-<acronym>ascii</acronym>
characters in <acronym>IMAP</acronym> mailbox names.
As long as your locale is configured properly, <command>archivemail</command>
should handle these without problems.
Note, however, that due to limitations of the <acronym>IMAP</acronym>
protocol, non-<acronym>ascii</acronym> characters do not mix well with
wildcards in mailbox names.
</para>
<para>
<command>archivemail</command> tries to be smart when handling mailbox paths.
In particular, it will automatically add an <acronym>IMAP</acronym>
<literal>NAMESPACE</literal> prefix to the mailbox path if necessary; and if
you are archiving a subfolder, you can use the slash as a path separator
instead of the <acronym>IMAP</acronym> server's internal representation.
</para>
</refsect3>
</refsect2>
</refsect1>

<refsect1>
<title>Examples</title>

<informalexample>
<para>
To archive all messages in the mailbox <filename>debian-user</filename> that
are older than 180 days to a compressed mailbox called
<filename>debian-user_archive.gz</filename> in the current directory:
<screen>
<prompt>bash$ </prompt><userinput>archivemail debian-user</userinput>
</screen>
</para>
</informalexample>

<informalexample>
<para>
To archive all messages in the mailbox <filename>debian-user</filename> that
are older than 180 days to a compressed mailbox called
<filename>debian-user_October_2001.gz</filename> (where the current month and
year is April, 2002) in the current directory:
<screen>
<prompt>bash$ </prompt><userinput>archivemail --suffix '_%B_%Y' debian-user</userinput>
</screen>
</para>
</informalexample>

<informalexample>
<para>
To archive all messages in the mailbox <filename>cm-melb</filename> that
are older than the first of January 2002 to a compressed mailbox called
<filename>cm-melb_archive.gz</filename> in the current directory:
<screen>
<prompt>bash$ </prompt><userinput>archivemail --date='1 Jan 2002' cm-melb</userinput>
</screen>
</para>
</informalexample>

<informalexample>
<para>
Exactly the same as the above example, using an <acronym>ISO</acronym> date
format instead:
<screen>
<prompt>bash$ </prompt><userinput>archivemail --date=2002-01-01 cm-melb</userinput>
</screen>
</para>
</informalexample>

<informalexample>
<para>
To delete all messages in the mailbox <filename>spam</filename> that
are older than 30 days:
<screen>
<prompt>bash$ </prompt><userinput>archivemail --delete --days=30 spam</userinput>
</screen>
</para>
</informalexample>

<informalexample>
<para>
To archive all read messages in the mailbox <filename>incoming</filename> that
are older than 180 days to a compressed mailbox called
<filename>incoming_archive.gz</filename> in the current directory:
<screen>
<prompt>bash$ </prompt><userinput>archivemail --preserve-unread incoming</userinput>
</screen>
</para>
</informalexample>

<informalexample>
<para>
To archive all messages in the mailbox <filename>received</filename> that
are older than 180 days to an uncompressed mailbox called
<filename>received_archive</filename> in the current directory:
<screen>
<prompt>bash$ </prompt><userinput>archivemail --no-compress received</userinput>
</screen>
</para>
</informalexample>

<informalexample>
<para>
To archive all mailboxes in the directory <filename>$HOME/Mail</filename>
that are older than 90 days to compressed mailboxes in the
<filename>$HOME/Mail/Archive</filename> directory:
<screen>
<prompt>bash$ </prompt><userinput>archivemail -d90 -o $HOME/Mail/Archive $HOME/Mail/*</userinput>
</screen>
</para>
</informalexample>

<informalexample>
<para>
To archive all mails older than 180 days from the given
<acronym>IMAP</acronym> <literal>INBOX</literal> to a compressed mailbox
<filename>INBOX_archive.gz</filename> in the
<filename>$HOME/Mail/Archive</filename> directory, quoting the password and
reading it from the environment variable <envar>PASSWORD</envar>:
</para>
<!-- i'm open to suggestions how to avoid making such a super-long line here.  -->
<screen>
<prompt>bash$ </prompt><userinput>archivemail -o $HOME/Mail/Archive imaps://user:'"'$PASSWORD'"'@example.org/INBOX</userinput>
</screen>
<para>
Note the protected quotes.
</para>
</informalexample>

<informalexample>
<para>
To archive all mails older than 180 days in subfolders of <filename
class="directory">foo</filename> on the given <acronym>IMAP</acronym>
server to corresponding archives in the current working directory, reading the
password from the file <filename>~/imap-pass.txt</filename>:
</para>
<screen>
<prompt>bash$ </prompt><userinput>archivemail --pwfile=~/imap-pass.txt imaps://user@example.org/foo/*</userinput>
</screen>
</informalexample>
</refsect1>

<refsect1>
<title>Tips</title>
<para>
Probably the best way to run <command>archivemail</command> is from your
&crontab; file, using the <option>--quiet</option> option.
Don't forget to try the <option>--dry-run</option> and perhaps the
<option>--copy</option> option for non-destructive testing.
</para>
</refsect1>

<refsect1>
<title>Exit Status</title>
<simpara>Normally the exit status is 0. Nonzero indicates an unexpected error.
</simpara>
</refsect1>

<refsect1>
<title>Bugs</title>
<simpara>
If an <acronym>IMAP</acronym> mailbox path contains slashes, the archive
filename will be derived from the basename of the mailbox.
If the server's folder separator differs from the Unix slash and is used in
the <acronym>IMAP</acronym> <acronym>URL</acronym>, however, the whole path
will be considered the basename of the mailbox.
<abbrev>E.g.</abbrev> the two <acronym>URL</acronym>s
<userinput>imap://user@example.com/folder/subfolder</userinput> and
<userinput>imap://user@example.com/folder.subfolder</userinput> will be
archived in <filename>subfolder_archive.gz</filename> and
<filename>folder.subfolder_archive.gz</filename>, respectively, although they
might refer to the same <acronym>IMAP</acronym> mailbox.
</simpara>
<simpara>
<command>archivemail</command> does not support reading
<acronym>MMDF</acronym> or <acronym>Babyl</acronym>-format mailboxes. In fact,
it will probably think it is reading an <acronym>mbox</acronym>-format mailbox
and cause all sorts of problems.
</simpara>

<simpara>
<command>archivemail</command> is still too slow, but if you are running from
&crontab; you won't care. Archiving <acronym>maildir</acronym>-format
mailboxes should be a lot quicker than <acronym>mbox</acronym>-format
mailboxes since it is less painful for the original mailbox to be
reconstructed after selective message removal.
</simpara>
</refsect1>

<refsect1>
<title>See Also</title>
<simplelist type="inline">
    <member>&mbox;</member>
    <member>&crontab;</member>
    <member>&python;</member>
    <member>&procmail;</member>
</simplelist>
</refsect1>

<refsect1>
<title><acronym>Url</acronym></title>
<simpara>The <command>archivemail</command> home page is currently hosted at
<ulink type="http" url="http://archivemail.sourceforge.net">sourceforge</ulink>
</simpara>
</refsect1>

<refsect1>
<title>Author</title>
<simpara> This manual page was written by Paul Rodger &lt;paul at paulrodger
dot com&gt;. Updated and supplemented by Nikolaus Schulz
<email>microschulz@web.de</email></simpara>
</refsect1>

</refentry>