MYMAIL

NAME

mymail - A simple command line utility for indexing and searching mbox files

SYNOPSIS

mymail [options] [<mbox dir1> [<mbox dir2> ... ]|<db file1> [<db file2> ... ]]

DESCRIPTION

mymail is a command line utility to index mbox files, search for mails based on sender, subject, etc. and generate result mbox files.

It is similar in spirit to other tools such as mu or notmuch, but is overall simpler.

OPTIONS

-h, --help

display help and exit

-v, --version

print the version number

-q, --quiet

do not write information during the search

-t, --use-leading-time

use the time stamp from the leading line of each mail and not the Date: field

-f, --do-not-discard-mails-from-the-future

keep mails with a date (more than 24h) in the future, which are discarded by default

-p <db filename pattern>, --db-pattern <db filename pattern>

set the db filename pattern for recursive search

-r <db root path>, --db-root <db root path>

set the db root path for recursive search

-l <db filename list>, --db-list <db filename list>

set the semicolon-separated list of db files for search

-m <mbox filename pattern>, --mbox-pattern <mbox filename pattern>

set the mbox filename pattern for recursive search

-s <search pattern>, --search <search pattern>

search for matching mails in the db file. Multiple search requests can be combined, and only mails fulfilling all of them will be extracted.

-d <db filename>, --db-file-output <db filename>

set the db filename for indexing

-i, --index

index mails in the mailboxes located recursively anywhere in the directories following the options on the command lines

-o <output filename>, --output <output filename>

set the result mbox filename. If it is not set, the standard output is used

-n <max number of mails>, --nb-mails-max <max number of mails>

set the maximum number of mails to extract (default is 250)

-a <search key>, --default-search <search key>

set the default search key. If a search request is not understood, it is interpreted as the regexp with this default search key

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

MYMAIL_DB_PATTERN

defaut value for the --db-pattern argument

MYMAIL_DB_ROOT

defaut value for the --db-root argument

MYMAIL_DB_LIST

defaut value for the --db-list argument

MYMAIL_DB_FILE

defaut value for the --db-file-output argument

MYMAILRC

configuration file, default is ${HOME}/.mymailrc

SEARCH CONDITIONS

A search condition is either a time-related condition ('today', 'yesterday', etc.), or a single-character key, followed by a space and a regexp, which can itself contain spaces.

If it is prefaced by the character "!", a condition is negated and has to be false for a mail to be selected.

f <regexp> (from)

selects mails whose leading line 'From', or fields From:, Sender:, Reply-To:, or Return-Path: matches the regexp.

t <regexp> (to)

selects mails whose field To:, Cc:, or Bcc: matches the regexp.

p <regexp> (participant)

selects mails that would be selected by f or t.

s <regexp> (subject)

selects mails whose field Subject: matches the regexp.

d <regexp> (date)

selects mails whose field Date: matches the regexp.

b <regexp> (body)

selects mails whose body matches the regexp. Evaluating such a condition requires to read the full mail from the original mboxes, which can be slow. To speed things up, all the header conditions are checked first.

1h, 2h, 4h, 8h, 24h, 48h, week, 2weeks, month, trimester, semester, and year

select mails received during the last 1, 2, 4, 8, 24, 48, 7 * 24 hours, 14 * 24 hours, 31 * 24 hours, 92 * 24 hours, 185 * 24 hours, and 365 * 24 hours respectively.

today

selects mails received since midnight.

yesterday

selects mails received yesterday.

monday, tuesday, ..., sunday

select mails received the most recent such day of the week.

EXAMPLES

The command

mymail --db-file-output /tmp/mymail/2010-2011/mymail.db \
       --index \
       ~/archives/mails/2010 ~/archives/mails/2011

And

mymail --db-pattern '.db$' --db-root /tmp/mymail \
       --output /tmp/mymail.mbox \
       --search 'p bob.something' \
       --search '!s spam' \
       --search 'month'

FILES

The configuration file is by default ${HOME}/.mymailrc and can also be specified through the MYMAILRC environment variable.

It allows to define aliases of search keys, such as:

alias tod=today

BUGS

The search in the mail bodies does not decode mimencoding mails, hence will not catch patterns in encoded text.

The mbox format is not clear for multipart messages, since the 'From' may not always be quoted properly, so mymail uses a strict regexp to recognize such lines.

The date format for the Date: field is not standardized, and may not be parsed properly. When that happens, the time stamp from the leading 'From' line of the mail, which has a canonical form, is used.

AUTHOR

Written by Francois Fleuret <francois@fleuret.org> and distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 3 as published by the Free Software Foundation. This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Index

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

OPTIONS

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

SEARCH CONDITIONS

EXAMPLES

FILES

BUGS

AUTHOR