NAME

mboxgrep - displays email messages matching a pattern

SYNOPSIS

mboxgrep [OPTIONS] PATTERN [MAILBOX]

DESCRIPTION

This manual page refers to mboxgrep version 0.7.13.

mboxgrep scans a MAILBOX and displays messages matching PATTERN.

If a mailbox name is ommited, or a single dash (-) is given instead, it reads from standard input. It can read mbox folders or output from another mboxgrep process from standard input.

mboxgrep understands POSIX regular expressions, as well as Perl compatible regular expressions (if enabled at compile time). MAILBOX can be either a:

•

mbox folder (either plain or compressed)

•

MH folder

•

Gnus nnmh or nnml folder

•

qmail-style maildir folder

OPTIONS

-h, --help

Display a help screen and exit.

-V, --version

Display version and copyright information and exit.

-r, --recursive

Descend into directories recursively.

-E, --extended-regexp

PATTERN is an extended regular expression. This is default.

-G, --basic-regexp

PATTERN is a basic regular expression.

-P, --perl-regexp

PATTERN is a Perl regular expression. Works only if enabled at compile time.

-e, --regexp=PATTERN

Use PATTERN as a regular expression.

-i, --ignore-case

Ignore case distinctions.

-v, --invert-match

Select messages which don't match PATTERN.

-H, --headers

Match PATTERN against message headers.

-B, --body

Match PATTERN against message body.

-l, --file-lock=METHOD

Select file locking METHOD. METHOD is `fcntl', `flock', or `none'.

-nl, --no-file-lock

Do not lock files. This option is meaningful only if a mbox folder (see below) is scanned.

-c, --count

Suppress normal output and print a count of matching messages.

-o, --output=MAILBOX

Suppress normal output and write messages to destination MAILBOX instead.

-p, --pipe=COMMAND

Pipe each found message to COMMAND

-d, --delete

Suppress normal output and delete selected messages instead. Use with caution.

-nd, --no-duplicates

Ignore duplicate messages.

-m, --mailbox-format=TYPE

Select input and output mailbox TYPE. TYPE can be either `mbox' (default), `zmbox' (gzip compressed mbox), `bz2mbox' (bzip2 compressed mbox), `mh', `nnml', `nnmh' or `maildir'.

-s, --no-messages

Suppress most error messages.

--debug

Print messages useful for debugging.

EXAMPLES

•

Search $MAIL for messages from Dirty Harry:

mboxgrep '^From:.*callahan@sanfranciscopolice\.org' $MAIL

•

Re-mail to George messages that mention his name:

mboxgrep --pipe="/usr/lib/sendmail george" --ignore-case george ~/Mail/*

•

Display all messages contained in folder ~/Mail/incoming, except those that appear to originate from AOL:

mboxgrep -v 'Received:.*aol\.com' ~/Mail/incoming

•

Do a case-insensitive scan of ~/Mail/incoming for messages with subject ``Weekly News'' and write them to folder ~/Mail/archive:

mboxgrep -o ~/Mail/archive -H -i '^Subject: Weekly News' ~/Mail/incoming

•

Count all messages stored in folder spam, ignoring duplicates:

mboxgrep -nd -c . spam

BUGS

Report them to address below.

SEE ALSO

grep(1), regex(7), perlre(1), mbox(5), RFC 2822, RFC 4155

DEDICATION

Mboxgrep is dedicated in loving memory of Vicky, my cat who died of tumor on Sep 12, 2002.

You haven't been long with us, but you gave us a lot of joy and all your big heart that stopped ticking too early. I will never forget you. Sleep well, little friend.

HOMEPAGE

https://www.mboxgrep.org/

GIT

https://git.datatipp.se/dspiljar/mboxgrep

https://github.com/dspiljar/mboxgrep

AUTHOR

Daniel Spiljar <dspiljar@datatipp.se>