help filtering messages

[Steffen Kaiser]

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On Fri, 23 Oct 2015, James wrote:

>> I'm attempting to use sieve-filter on a local mailbox.
>>
>> I've defined mail_location as follows:
>> % grep mail_location /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-mail.conf
>> mail_location = maildir:~/Mail
>>
>> I have a large number of mailboxes / mail in ~/Mail:
>>
>> ~ % find Mail | wc -l
>> 63158
>>
>> There are definitely a few messages in INBOX:
>>
>> ~ % find Mail/INBOX/cur | wc -l
>> 5

Actually, plain Maildir in Dovecot uses "Mail/cur" and "Mail/new". So 
either your mail_location is wrong (maybe it comes from the userdb) or 
your layout. Perhaps rename that directory "Mail/INBOX" -> "Mail/.testbox"

>> I must admit, I'm completely new to sieve and have just begun
>> experimenting with it. Based on a super helpful blog post[1], I quick
>> set up the following ~/.sieve:
>>
>> % cat ~/.sieve
>> require ["fileinto"];
>> # rule:[TEST]
>> if header :contains "Subject" "Test Email"
>> {
>>         fileinto "TEST";
>>         stop;
>> }
>>
>> As mentioned, there are numerous emails in INBOX. This email is
>> located in ~/Mail/INBOX/cur/<blah> and, for verbosity (and to ensure
>> I'm not making a foolish mistake), I've displayed it here:
>>
>> From: Test Account <test at test.com>
>> To: "Me" <me at test.com>
>> Subject: Test Email
>> Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2015 14:55:06 +0000
>>
>> This is a test email.
>>
>> Looking at the sieve filter recipe and email message, it appears that
>> I should have a match, no? sieve-filter appears to disagree:
>>
>> % sieve-filter -C ~/.sieve INBOX
>> sieve-filter(test_user): Debug: Effective uid=1000, gid=1000,
>> home=/home/test_user
>> sieve-filter(test_user): Debug: Namespace inbox: type=private,
>> prefix=, sep=, inbox=yes, hidden=no, list=yes, subscriptions=yes
>> location=maildir:~/Mail
>> sieve-filter(test_user): Debug: maildir++: root=/home/test_user/Mail,
>> index=, indexpvt=, control=, inbox=/home/test_user/Mail, alt=
>>
>> Thinking this was because sieve will only filter on new messages, I
>> moved the file from cur to new. No change.
>>
>> Any thoughts on why this may be happening?

my version of sieve-filter does not output anything, regardless of the 
settings -v and -D, if and only if it found no message.

I suspect, that mailbox "INBOX" in /home/test_user/Mail does not belong to 
/home/test_user/Mail/INBOX/{cur,new}, but to 
/home/test_user/Mail/{cur,new}.

Rename INBOX to .testbox and try with

sieve-filter -C ~/.sieve testbox

- -- 
Steffen Kaiser
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