A simple utility based on https://github.com/jstedfast/gmime to
extract attachments from RFC822 files, AKA "Maildir files", and to
optionally replace the main part of such files with only the
plain text body. See --wreak-havok.
https://github.com/jstedfast/gmime 3.2.8 or newer.
If you are using Linux and your version of gmime is too old, you can do the following to use a locally built libgmime.
git clone https://github.com/jstedfast/gmime
cd gmime
./autoconf.sh
make
cd ..
git clone https://github.com/plujon/minmail
cd minmail
make GMIME_SRC=../gmime
One way to get a local Maildir is to use offlineimap.
Before:
$ du -sh Read
869M
After:
$ du -sh Read
31M
$ ls pieces/*.pdf | wc -l
24
To copy the parts of a single message into pieces/ :
minmail message.eml
To do surgery on message.eml, ripping out its guts and leaving only the text/plain part:
minmail --wreak-havok message.eml
Using --wreak-havok might very well DESTROY YOUR EMAIL.
So, don't use it unless you make backups and can verify it doesn't destroy mail you care about.