[comp.mail.misc] Handling old mail

sys0001@dircon.uucp (07/03/90)

Can anyone suggest a program which will handle the ageing of mail?

What I'm looking for is a program which looks at a user's mailbox file
(in /usr/spool/mail) and transfers all messages older than, say, a month
to a specified file in the user's own home directory. 

This is needed to overcome the problem of users getting round their
disk quotas by leaving big messages in their system mailbox, rather
than in their own directory structures.

If this program works with MMDF-style mailboxes, then so much the better.

-- 
sys0001@dircon.UUCP   or   sys0001%dircon@ukc.ac.uk

schaefer@ogicse.ogc.edu (Barton E. Schaefer) (07/05/90)

In article <1990Jul3.130104.18250@dircon.uucp> sys0001@dircon.uucp () writes:
} Can anyone suggest a program which will handle the ageing of mail?
} 
} What I'm looking for is a program which looks at a user's mailbox file
} (in /usr/spool/mail) and transfers all messages older than, say, a month
} to a specified file in the user's own home directory. 

If you have Mush, you write a script:

    # Change home directory to match spool file
    set home = "~$thisfolder:t"
    # Collect the mail and save it to AGEDMAIL file
    pick -ago -1 month | save $home/AGEDMAIL
    # Update the folder and exit
    quit

And then you invoke it thus:

    mush -n! -u username -F agedmail-script

(or verbosely:

    mush -noinit! -user username -source agedmail-script

for you Sun folks).  This must be run by root to work successfully.
-- 
Bart Schaefer						schaefer@cse.ogi.edu

john@trigraph.uucp (John Chew) (07/06/90)

In <1990Jul3.130104.18250@dircon.uucp> sys0001@dircon.uucp () writes:
>What I'm looking for is a program which looks at a user's mailbox file
>(in /usr/spool/mail) and transfers all messages older than, say, a month
>to a specified file in the user's own home directory. 

This by itself will not deter a reasonably intelligent disk hog.  All I'd
have to do is keep my multi-megabyte tar file in my mailbox and re-mail it
to myself every few weeks.  

John
-- 
john j. chew, iii   		  phone: +1 416 425 3818     AppleLink: CDA0329
trigraph, inc., toronto, canada   {uunet!utai!utcsri,utgpu,utzoo}!trigraph!john
dept. of math., u. of toronto     poslfit@{utorgpu.bitnet,gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca}