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2MAILTOOL(1) Cone: COnsole Newsreader And E MAILTOOL(1)
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8 mailtool - Process mailboxes
9
11 mailtool [options...]
12
14 mailtool is a diagnostic utility for handling various operations on
15 mailboxes. mailtool's main uses include: display the list of folders
16 in a mailbox; displaying list of messages in a mailbox; and copying
17 mailboxes.
18 The following mailboxes can be accessed by mailtool:
20 imap://userid@server[/options]
22 An IMAP account. mailtool will prompt for the login password.
23 imaps://userid@server[/options]
25 An IMAP account accessed via an encrypted SSL connection.
26 pop3://userid@server[/options]
28 A POP3 account. mailtool will prompt for the login password.
29 pop3s://userid@server[/options]
31 A POP3 account accessed via an encrypted SSL connection.
32 maildir:path
34 A local maildir mailbox. path specifies the maildir's location
35 relative to the home directory (NOT the current directory).
36 mbox:path
38 Local mbox mail folders. path specifies the path to an mbox folder
39 file, or a directory containing mbox folders, relative to the home
40 directory (NOT the current directory).
41 inbox:path
43 Local mbox mail folders, like “mbox:path”; additionally, the system
44 spool mailbox is automatically copied to $HOME/Inbox, which is
45 accessible as folder INBOX.
46 The name of a remote IMAP or POP3 server may be followed by one or more
48 options that control various settings of the IMAP or POP3 connection:
49 /cram
51 Do not open the account unless the server supports secure password
52 authentication. Secure password authentication verifies the
53 account's password using a challenge/response authentication
54 mechanism (where the label "cram" comes from). The actual password
55 is never actually transmitted to the server, and therefore cannot
56 be intercepted while in transit over an untrusted network.
57 Secure password authentication is not supported by all servers.
59 This option may not work with some servers. This option does not
60 enable secure password authentication, it only mandates its use. If
61 the server supports secure password authentication, it will be used
62 even without the /cram option. Traditional userid/password
63 authentication will be used only if the server does not implement
64 secure password authentication. The /cram option makes secure
65 password authentication mandatory.
66 The /cram option is marginally useful even with encrypted server
68 connections. The secure password authentication never sends the
69 explicit password to the server. Encryption makes it theoretically
70 impossible to recover the password from an encrypted data
71 connection; but with secure authentication the password is never
72 sent over the connection in the first place (the password's
73 validity is certified by exchanging certain mathematical
74 calculations between the server and the client). If the server is
75 compromised, the compromised server will not receive the account
76 password (unless the password is recovered from the server in other
77 ways).
78 /imap
80 Do not use the SMAP if the server claims the availability of this
81 experimental mail access protocol, and fall back to IMAP
82 compatibility mode (this option is meaningful only with “imap://”
83 and “imaps://” URLs).
84 /notls
86 Do not upgrade a plain connection to an encrypted one. This option
87 is primarily used for testing and debugging purposes. Sometimes
88 this option might be useful with servers that claim to offer
89 encryption, but are unable to do so when taken up on their offer.
90 /novalidate-cert
92 Do not validate the server's SSL certificate when using an
93 encrypted connection. Normally the mail server's SSL certificate
94 must be validate when using an encrypted connection. The
95 certificate's name must match the server's name, and the
96 certificate must be signed by a trusted certificate authority.
97 The encrypted connection normally fails if the certificate cannot
99 be validate. Validation requires that a list of trusted certificate
100 authorities must be known and configured. It's simply impossible to
101 know which certificate authorities are valid without an explicit
102 list of valid, known, trusted, certificate authorities. If a
103 trusted authority list is not configured, no certificate can be
104 validated. If the server's certificate is a self-signed certificate
105 (this is often used for testing purposes), or if it's not signed by
106 a known authority, the encrypted connection fails.
107 This /novalidate-cert option disables certificate validation. The
109 encrypted connection will be established even if the server's
110 certificate would otherwise be rejected.
111 Note
113 This option is applicable even when an encrypted IMAP or POP3
114 connection is not explicitly requested. Many mail servers are
115 capable of automatically upgrading unencrypted connections to a
116 fully-encrypted connection. If a mail server claims to be able
117 to use encryption, then there's no reason not to use it. The
118 result is that all encryption certification requirements still
119 apply even when encryption is not explicitly requested.
120 Displaying mailbox contents
122 mailtool -tree | -list account
123 -tree shows a hierarchical representation of mail folders in account.
125 -list generates a simple folder listing, one folder name per line.
126 -tree shows folder names, while -list shows the actual mail folder path
127 in account.
128 mailtool -tree imap://jsmith@mail.example.com/novalidate-cert/cram
130 Creating folders
132 mailtool -create | -createdir folder name account
133 -create creates a new subfolder of folder in account. The new
135 subfolder's name is name. -createdir creates a new folder directory (a
136 folder that contains other folders).
137 mailtool -create INBOX.lists announcements maildir:Maildir
139 This command creates a new folder “announcements” as a subfolders of
141 “INBOX.lists” in the local maildir.
142 Deleting folders
144 mailtool -delete | -deletedir folder account
145 -delete deletes an existing folder in account.
147 -deletedir deletes a folder directory.
149 mailtool -delete INBOX.lists.announcements maildir:Maildir
151 Renaming folders
153 mailtool -rename oldfolder folder name account
154 -renames renames an existing oldfolder. The folder is renamed as name,
156 as a subfolder of folder. folder may be an empty string if the folder
157 should be moved to the top level of account's folder hierarchy.
158 mailtool -rename INBOX.lists.announcements INBOX.lists Announcements maildir:Maildir
160 The folder “INBOX.lists.announcements” is renamed to
162 “INBOX.lists.Announcements”. This slightly unusual way to rename folder
163 allows folders to be relocated in the mail account's folder hierarchy.
164 Reading folder's index
166 mailtool -index folder account
167 -index downloads and prints a summary of all messages in folder, in
169 account. The summary shows the sender's and recipients' address, the
170 message's subject, and size.
171 mailtool -index INBOX imap://john@mail.example.com/novalidate-cert
173 Removing a message from a folder
175 mailtool -remove folder n account
176 -remove removes message #n (ranging from 1 to the number of messages in
178 the folder) in folder, in account. The message numbers may be obtained
179 by using -index.
180 n may be a comma-separated list of message numbers, in strictly
182 numerically increasing order. -remove confirms the list of messages to
183 remove and issues a “Ready:” prompt. Press ENTER to remove the
184 messages.
185 mailtool -remove INBOX 28,31 imap://john@mail.example.com/novalidate-cert
187 Filtering messages
189 mailtool -filter folder account
190 -filter is a combination of -index and -remove. folder's index is
192 downloaded, and the summary of each message is shown, one message at a
193 time. Each message's summary is followed by a prompt: “Delete, Skip, or
194 Exit”. Pressing D removes the message, S leaves the message unchanged,
195 and E leaves the remaining messages unchanged.
196 mailtool -filter INBOX pop3://john@mail.example.com/novalidate-cert
198 Note
200 -filter is not meant to be used with large folders. Unless messages
201 are removed quickly, the connection to the server may be
202 disconnected for inactivity.
203 Copying folders
205 mailtool [-recurse] -tofolder tofolder -copyto toaccount -fromfolder
206 fromfolder fromaccount
207 This command copies an entire folder, fromfolder in fromaccount to a
209 new folder, tofolder (which will be created, if necessary) in
210 toaccount. Optionally, -recurse specifies that all subfolders of
211 fromfolder should also be copied.
212 mailtool -tofolder INBOX -copyto maildir:Maildir \
215 -fromfolder "INBOX" imap://mbox100@mail.example.com/novalidate-cert
216 mailtool -recurse -tofolder INBOX.converted_mail \
218 -copyto maildir:Maildir -fromfolder "mail" \
219 imap://mbox100@mail.example.com/novalidate-cert
220 This example first copies the INBOX on the IMAP server to
222 $HOME/Maildir, then copies subfolders of “mail” on the IMAP server to
223 the “converted_mail” subfolder in the maildir.
224 mailtool -tofolder INBOX -copyto maildir:Maildir \
226 -fromfolder "INBOX" inbox:mail
227 mailtool -recurse -tofolder INBOX.converted_mail \
229 -copyto maildir:Maildir -fromfolder "" mbox:mail
230 This example first copies $HOME/Inbox (accessed as the INBOX folder in
233 inbox:mail) to $HOME/Maildir, then copies mbox folders from $HOME/mail
234 to the “converted_mail” subfolder in the maildir.
235 Note
237 Mail accounts that contain hybrid folders (folders that contain
238 both messages and subfolders) can only be copied to account types
239 that also support hybrid folders: either local maildirs, or to
240 remote servers that support hybrid folders.
241
243 cone(1).
244
246 Sam Varshavchik
247Cone© 08/25/2016 MAILTOOL(1)