I solved the automated expunge problem this way.
1. Create user postmaster.
2. Create group mailadm. Anyone in this group can work with user's
IMAP folders.
3. Add postmaster to group mailadm.
4. Run script 1 as cron job. Script 1 shuts down mail and web
services, generates a list of mailbox lists to process, calls the
processing script, deletes the list of mailbox lists, and then restarts
all services. Script 2 expunges all messages marked for deletion from
IMAP folders and the regular /var/spool/mail inbox. It also moves
messages in the Sent folder more than N days old to the trash.
As you may expect, there is no guarantee that this will work for anyone
else. It works on my system, but it should be used on other systems at
one's own peril. It may cause data loss, mail corruption, and a plague
of locusts o'er the land. I accept no responsibility for this script
other than use on my own system.
SCRIPT 1
--
#!/bin/bash
#This script, run as a cron job, will expurge messages marked for
deletion from IMAP mailboxes.
#The Perl script below does the actual expurging.
#Version 1.0 26 Sept 03
#broadcast stop
echo 'Starting purge of folders.'
date
#stop internet services
/etc/init.d/httpd stop
/etc/init.d/sendmail stop
#generate list of IMAP mailboxes
ls /home/*/.mailboxlist /root/listofmailboxlists
#Perl purge
/root/purge_folders_perl
#start services
/etc/init.d/sendmail start
/etc/init.d/httpd start
#remove the list
rm -rf /root/listofmailboxlists
#broadcast
echo 'Purge of folders complete.'
date
SCRIPT 2
--
#!/usr/bin/perl
#get the Perl tools
use Mail::IMAPClient;
use Date::Manip;
#this is the perl script that purges the folders. Works with
purge_imap_folders
print Entering Perl section.\n;
#variables
$AGE = 60; #how many days a message may stay in Sent
#read only open this list of mailbox lists
open (LISTOFMAILBOXLISTS, listofmailboxlists);
#go through file
while(LISTOFMAILBOXLISTS){
#load next line in file
chop;
#parse out next data file
($mailboxlisttoscan) = $_;
($file_prefix,$junk) = split (/\/.mailbox/,$mailboxlisttoscan);
($trash, $user_name) = split (/ome\//,$file_prefix);
# (returns a new, authenticated Mail::IMAPClient object)
$host = localhost;
$id = $user_name*postmaster; #logging in with postmaster for
admin
$pass = XXX; #postmasters password
$imap = Mail::IMAPClient-new(
Server = $host,
User= $id,
Password= $pass,
) or die Cannot connect to $host as $id: $@;
#expunge the normal mail spool
$imap-expunge(/var/spool/mail/$user_name) or die Could not
expunge: [EMAIL PROTECTED];
#read only open this mailbox lists
open (MAILBOXLIST, $mailboxlisttoscan);
#go through this list
while(MAILBOXLIST){
#load next line in file
chop;
$mailboxtopurge = $_;
$folder_to_expunge = $file_prefix/$mailboxtopurge;
#check to see if this is Sent
$sentcheck = index($mailboxtopurge,Sent);
$truthcheck = ($sentcheck != -1); #kluge, but it works
if ($truthcheck != 1) {
#if not Sent folder, expurge normally
#determine if the file exists
if (-e $folder_to_expunge){
#if it exists, expunge it
$imap-expunge($folder_to_expunge)
} #end of exists check if
else {print $folder_to_expunge does not exist.\n;}
} #end of exists check else
else {
#if the folder is Sent, then clean it out
#determine where the trash is
#chop Sent off folder location
($trash_location,$junk) =
split(/\/Sent/,$folder_to_expunge);
$trash_location = $trash_location/Trash;
#return message ID numbers
$imap-Uid(1);
#select this folder
$imap-select($folder_to_expunge) or die cannot select
the Sent folder for $user_name: [EMAIL PROTECTED];
#calculate cutoff date
#figure out today in seconds
$right_now = time;
#subtract the age difference in seconds
$cutoff_date = $right_now - ($AGE * 24 * 3600);
#convert to RFC2060 format
$Rfc2060_date = $imap-Rfc2060_date($cutoff_date);
#fetch all messages before that time
@message_list = $imap-search(before,$Rfc2060_date) or
warn No messages found before $Rfc2060_date.\n;
#how many messages are in the list
$number_of_messages = @message_list;
#pack this list to the trash
for($counter = 0; $counter $number_of_messages;
$counter++)
{
$msg_id = @message_list[$counter];
my $yes =
