Re: OT - archiving mail

[Bill Moseley <moseley@hank.org>]

On Fri, Dec 05, 2003 at 08:02:48PM +0100, Richard Lyons wrote:
>   - If I read the ~/Mail directory from mutt, I only get to see the 
>     top level folders.  If I convert it to a flat structure, there will
>     be over 100 folders to scroll through to find or file anything.

I've been thinking of reducing the number of mail boxes I use.  Instead
archive the incoming mail based on some rules.  Then I just delete
messages from my mail folders as needed.

http://www.rrbcurnow.freeuk.com/mairix/ is one program in debian that
might help.  I haven't used it, but it sound about like what I want.

I been wanting to create my own.  Split the headers on incoming and
index in a database.  That would allow making queries on a number of
columns at the same time, and use cron to clean things up over time (why
archive debian-user for more than a few days when there's other
archives?).  MySQL full text indexing would make searching easier -- or
use Swish-e and a few perl module to split the message into parts for
seaching:

    body=(kernel compile) AND from=(hank.org)

That approach sound best for me as I could really customize what gets
indexed, and I could store the emails gzipped and use file timestamps to
remove old mailing list messages.

I'd probably use a web interface so it's available to me when
travelling.  Save search results to a folder so I could pull up old
messages.


>   - I have to use mbox because when I travel (and copy all the current 
>     folders to, say, a smart media card) I cannot copy maildir files 
>     -- apparently the various non-alphanumeric characters in the 
>     filenames trip up 'cp -r'

Get an imap server on line, then add in a webmail client.


-- 
Bill Moseley
moseley@hank.org