expunging all mailboxes

Michael Fox news at mefox.org
Fri Dec 30 16:03:04 UTC 2016


> doveadm expunge -u <user> mailbox '*' savedbefore 30d

That doesn't work for me either.  The command is accepted, but the messages
are not expunged.

I guess my search/fetch will just have to return the mailbox name, in
addition to other fields, and then I'll need to loop through the mailbox
names and perform multiple expunges for each user.  I understand the desire
to avoid accidents by requiring that the mailbox be specified.  But if
"mailbox ALL" or "mailbox '*' were allowed, that would still avoid the
accident and yet also avoid the inefficiency of having to perform multiple
expunges for one user.


*** Enhancement request:  provide a "mailbox all" or "mailbox '*'" option
for doveadm search_query so that expunge can be used to remove mail without
regard to which mailbox it's in.

 
> Are you sure you really want to do this? My server expunges Trash and
> Junk on a cycle, but reaching into other mailboxes seems iffy.

Yes.  I understand it's unusual.  This is an RF (radio) application for
emergency services.  We have to be efficient about channel utilization.
Users know they need to keep their mailboxes clean so that, at the start of
an emergency (or other incident), the channel is not clogged with
downloading lots of old, irrelevant mail.  If they haven't logged in for a
while, we'll keep it clear for them.

Michael




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