NAME

       mailutil - mail utility program

SYNTAX

       mailutil command [switches] [arguments]

       All commands accept the -d, -v, and -u switches in addition to any command-specific switches.

       mailutil check [MAILBOX]

       mailutil create MAILBOX

       mailutil delete MAILBOX

       mailutil rename SOURCE DESTINATION

       mailutil copy [-rw] [-kw] [-ig] SOURCE DESTINATION

       mailutil move [-rw] [-kw] [-ig] SOURCE DESTINATION

       mailutil append [-rw] [-kw] [-ig] SOURCE DESTINATION

       mailutil appenddelete [-rw] [-kw] [-ig] SOURCE DESTINATION

       mailutil prune MAILBOX CRITERIA

       mailutil transfer [-m mode] [-rw] [-kw] [-ig] SOURCE DESTINATION

DESCRIPTION

       mailutil replaces the old chkmail, imapcopy, imapmove, imapxfer, mbxcopy, mbxcreat, and mbxcvt programs.

       mailutil  check  determines  whether  new  mail  exists in the given mailbox (the default is INBOX).  The
       number of new messages is defined as the number of messages  that  have  "Recent"  status  set.   If  the
       mailbox contains no new messages, mailutil check will indicate that no new mail is present; otherwise, it
       will  report the number of new messages.  In either case, it will also indicate the canonical form of the
       name of the mailbox.

       mailutil create creates a new mailbox with the given name.  The mailbox name must not already  exist.   A
       mailbox can be created in a particular format by prefixing the name with #driver.  followed by the format
       name and a / character.  For example, the command
          mailutil create #driver.mbx/junkmail
       will create a new mailbox named "junkmail" in mbx format.

       mailutil delete deletes an existing mailbox with the given name.

       mailutil  rename  renames  an  existing  mailbox to a new name (which must not already exist).  This only
       works if the old and new names are in the same mail store.  A more general means to rename a  mailbox  is
       to do a mailutil copy of the old name to the new name, followed by a mailutil delete of the old name.

       mailutil  copy  creates a new mailbox and copies messages from the old mailbox to the new mailbox.  As in
       mailutil create a mailbox format can be specified with the new mailbox.  For example, the command
          mailutil copy INBOX #driver.mbx/INBOX
       will copy messages from your existing INBOX to an mbx-format INBOX.

       mailutil move is similar to mailutil copy but in addition will  also  remove  (delete  and  expunge)  the
       messages from the old mailbox after copying them to the new mailbox.

       mailutil  append  and  mailutil  appenddelete are similar to mailutil copy and mailutil move respectively
       except that they do not create the destination mailbox.

       mailutil prune prunes the mailbox of messages which match certain criteria, which  are  in  the  form  of
       IMAP2 (RFC 1176) SEARCH arguments.  For example, the command.
         mailutil prune INBOX "before 1-jan-2004"
       will delete and expunge all messages written before January 1, 2004.

       Note  that mailutil implements pruning by deleting the matching messages, and then expunging the mailbox.
       Consequently, mailutil will also expunge any messages which were deleted at the time of the pruning.

       mailutil transfer copies an entire hierarchy of mailboxes from the named source to the named destination.
       Mailboxes are created on the destination as needed.   Any  error  in  copying  messages  will  cause  the
       transfer to stop.

       Normally,  any  error in creation will cause the transfer to stop.  However, if -m MODE or -merge MODE is
       specified, a merging transfer is performed.  The MODE argument indicats the type of merge:

       -m[erge] prompt indicates that the user should be asked for an alternative name to create.   If  creating
       the new name fails, the user will be asked again.

       -m[erge] append indicates that it's alright to copy the messages into an existing mailbox with that name.
       If the mailbox does not exist, the user will be prompted for an alternative name.

       -m[erge]  suffix=XXXX  where  XXXX  is  any string, indicates that an alternative name should be built by
       appending the given suffix to the name.  It that alternative name can't be created, then the user will be
       prompted for an alternative name.

       The source hierarchy consists of all mailboxes  which  start  with  the  given  source  name.   With  the
       exception  of  a remote system specification (within "{}" braces), the source name is used as the name of
       the destination.  The destination hierarchy is a prefix applied to any  new  names  being  created.   For
       example,
          mailutil transfer foo bar
       will  copy  all  mailboxes  with names beginning with "foo" to names beginning with "bar" (hence "foobar"
       will be copied to "barfoobar").  Similarly,
          mailutil transfer "{imap.foo.com}" "{imap.bar.com}old/"
       will copy all mailboxes from the imap.foo.com IMAP server to equivalent names starting with "old/" on the
       imap.bar.com IMAP server.

FLAGS

       The -d or -debug flag prints full debugging telemetry including protocol operations.

       The -v or -verbose flag prints verbose (non-error) telemetry.

       The -u USERID or -user USERID switch attempts to become the indicated user.  This is for the  benefit  of
       system  administrators  who  want to do mailutil operations on a userid that does not normally have shell
       access.

       The -rw or -rwcopy flag causes the source mailbox to be open in readwrite mode rather than readonly mode.
       Normally, mailutil tries to use readonly mode to avoid altering any flags in the source mailbox, but some
       mailbox types, e.g.  POP3, can't be open in readonly mode.

       The -kw or -kwcopy flag causes the keywords of the source  mailbox  to  be  created  in  the  destination
       mailbox.   Normally,  mailutil does not create keywords in the destination mailbox so only those keywords
       that are already defined in the destination mailbox will be preserved.  Note that some IMAP  servers  may
       automatically create keywords, so this flag may not be necessary.

       The -ig or -ignore flag causes the keywords of the source mailbox to be ignored completely and no attempt
       is made to copy them to the destination mailbox.

       The -ig[nore] and -kw[copy] flags are mutually exclusive.

ARGUMENTS

       The  arguments  are  standard  c-client  mailbox  names.   A variety of mailbox name formats and types of
       mailboxes are supported by c-client; examples of the most common forms of names are:

       Name           Meaning

       INBOX          primary incoming mail folder on the local system

       archive/tx-project
                      mail folder  named  "tx-project"  in  "archive"  subdirectory  of  local  filesystem  home
                      directory

       {imapserver.foo.com}INBOX
                      primary incoming mail folder on IMAP server system "imapserver.foo.com"

       {imapserver.foo.com}archive/tx-project
                      mail   folder   named  "tx-project"  in  "archive"  subdirectory  on  IMAP  server  system
                      "imapserver.foo.com"

       #news.comp.mail.misc
                      newsgroup "comp.mail.misc" on local filesystem

       {newserver.foo.com/nntp}comp.mail.misc
                      newsgroup "comp.mail.misc" on NNTP server system "newserver.foo.com"

       {popserver.foo.com/pop3}
                      mail folder on POP3 server system "popserver.foo.com"

       See your system manager for more information about the types of mailboxes which  are  available  on  your
       system.

RESTRICTIONS

       You  must  surround  a  {host}mailbox  argument  with  quotation marks if you run mailutil from csh(1) or
       another shell for which braces have special meaning.

       You must surround a #driver.format/mailbox argument with quotation marks if you run mailutil from a shell
       in which "#" is the comment character.

AUTHOR

       Mark Crispin, MRC@Washington.EDU

                                                  March 3, 2008                                      mailutil(1)