Each message can have flags attached to it, such as "/Seen" and
"/Deleted". No messages are actually removed from the mailbox until an
Expunge command is performed on the mailbox. When an Expunge command is
executed, all the messages that have the /Deleted flag set will be
removed.
Most IMAP e-mail clients have options that will allow you to
automatically expunge mailboxes upon closing the mail client or at some
other event, and will allow to set whether the mail client should
display or hide messages that have the /Deleted flag set. Most of them
also have an "expunge" option in one of the pull-down menus.
-Jules
On Wed, 2002-04-17 at 09:51, Anthony Brock wrote:
> I am looking for utilities to expunge old email from the mail boxes.
> Currently, we delete a mail message, and it remains in the folder as
> deleted. How do most people deal with this issue? The messages are
never
> actually removed. At this time, I am looking for a basic "cleaning"
script
> that would remove deleted messages once or twice a day...
>
> Advise is appreciated!
>
> Tony
>
> At 12:57 PM 04/15/2002 -0700, you wrote:
> >You could do this with any IMAP library in the language of your
choice.
> >I prefer Perl for quick scripts like this one, but it's by no means
the
> >only way to go.
> >
> >So a very simple approach would look like this in the IMAP commands
> >exchanged between your program and Cyrus:
> >
> >* OK mail.cpicorp.com Cyrus IMAP4 v2.1.2 server ready
> >. login cyrus {cyrus password}
> >. OK User logged in
> >. LIST * *
> >* LIST (\HasChildren) "." "user.wayner"
> >* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "." "user.wayner.Drafts"
> >* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "." "user.wayner.Sent"
> >* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "." "user.wayner.Trash"
> >* LIST (\HasChildren) "." "user.websurvey"
> >* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "." "user.websurvey.Trash"
> >* LIST (\HasChildren) "." "user.wendyc"
> >* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "." "user.wendyc.Adrian"
> >* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "." "user.wendyc.Sales Dogs"
> >* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "." "user.wendyc.Sent"
> >* LIST (\HasNoChildren) "." "user.wendyc.Trash"
> >... and so on, Cyrus returns a list of all mailboxes here, have your
> >script save them to an array of strings and then for each mailbox,
you
> >will need to give the cyrus user permissons to delete messages from
the
> >mailbox, then select the mailbox, and run a search something like
this
> >(check the IMAP syntax, I'm not 100% sure it's right - this should
> >return the message numbers of all SEEN messages received before this
> >year):
> >. SEARCH SEEN NOT SINCE 1-Jan-2002
> >
> >Then you just set the deleted flag on these messages, expunge the
> >mailbox, reset the mailbox's permissions, and move on to the next
> >mailbox.
> >
> >-Jules
>
>
******************************************************************************
> * Anthony Brock
[EMAIL PROTECTED] *
> * Director of Network Services George Fox
University *
>
******************************************************************************
>
