Re: How to use Procmail to remove messages from server after x number of days

On 3/1/2011 11:17 PM, Bart Schaefer wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 1, 2011 at 8:04 AM, Tim Rice<[email protected]>  wrote:
>>
>> I'm not sure if this is even possible, but I would like to automatically
>> remove all mail for all users after 10 days using Procmail.
>
> Generally speaking, procmail is the wrong tool for this job.  Procmail
> is designed to work on a single message provided as an input stream,
> and deliver it to a mailbox; it's not a tool for manipulating messages
> that are already contained in mailboxes.
>
> Yes, you can kluge something together by e.g. using the formail
> utility to break up the mailbox and send the messages through procmail
> one by one, but that won't accomplish updating the mailbox in place --
> you'll have to copy the mailbox, preserving only the messages that
> have not yet expired, and then swap the copy for the original, all
> while locking out new deliveries so as not to lose anything in the
> swap.
>
> You'll be better off looking for a tool that actually is able to
> manipulate mailboxes rather than individual messages.

Hi Bart,

Thanks for the quick reply,

I thought that might be the case, but I see you guy's perform real magic 
on this list so I thought I'd ask the experts before looking for 
alternatives.

Thanks again for the excellent info.

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-- 
Best Regards,

Tim Rice
Computer Stuff
Phuket Thailand 83000
Tel: +66 76 376165
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