GEEK: How to configure Pine IMAP

[archerships]

I had a mailbox full of 128,000+ automated error messages from a test machine I was running. I couldn't even delete them because Thunderbird would time out before it finished opening the mailbox. So I tried to set up Pine to read and delete the messages.


This page proved useful for general configuration:

http://www.decf.berkeley.edu/help/mail/pine-imapssl.html

However, I still had a devil of a time getting Pine to display all of the subdirectories in my INBOX folder. Finally, I found this page, which had an example that worked for me:

user-domain=foofoo.org
smtp-server=192.168.1.25
inbox-path={192.168.1.25/user=foofoo}INBOX
folder-collections="INBOX Folders" {192.168.1.25/user=foofoo}inbox/[],
"Mailbox Folders" {192.168.1.25/user=foofoo}[]
default-fcc="{192.168.1.25/user=foofoo}Sent Items"
postponed-folder={192.168.1.25/user=foofoo}Drafts
customized-hdrs=From: Foo Foo <foofoo@foofoo.org>
ldap-servers=192.168.1.100 "/base=/impl=1/rhs=0/ref=0/nosub=0/type=
/srch=contains/time=/size=/cust=/nick=/matr=/catr=/satr=/gatr="
rsh-open-timeout=0

* Turn on the Aggregate command set.

* From the Main menu, type S (setup) then C (config).
* Scroll down the list to the section entitled Advanced Command Preferences.
* Select enable-aggregate-command set and press Enter to "check" the option.
* Type E (exit setup), then Y (yes to save/commit changes).


* Select the messages you want to delete.

* Open the folder that contains the messages to be archived.
* Type ; (semi-colon). The SELECT Criteria prompt displays at the bottom of the screen.
* Choose the selection criteria you want (options include all, by message number, status, date or text).
* Follow the instructions displayed at the bottom of the screen for the selection criteria you selected.

Type "D" (no quotes) to [D]elete.

If there are a lot of messages, it may take a while to select them.

http://www.cmu.edu/computing/documentation/pine/pine.html

Comments

[ehintz.livejournal.com]

Given that scenario, I'd prolly just use mail to nuke 'em:

mail -u [Unknown site tag]
d 1-127500
f *

Works plenty quick, just did it yesterday with a 8gig mail spool, same deal as you had, lots of cron msgs which nobody had been checking. With all the different copies of the mail spool it was using up about 200gig of diskspace on our backup box.

[crasch.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip! I'll have to try that next time.