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authorNikolaus Schulz <microschulz@web.de>2010-07-31 21:36:29 +0200
committerNikolaus Schulz <microschulz@web.de>2010-07-31 22:05:11 +0200
commit3a6e4072b08b008c72fc39eb18d74735a4ea824e (patch)
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parent3a9a5cd4b8af84a7fd79bcf93bc1f2d5ba9ba7a6 (diff)
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Manpage: various updates
Document the --archive-name option, and explain the basic idea of deriving the archive filename from the mailbox earlier and more prominently. Also document how archivemail tries not to create hidden archive files, and remove some obsolete notes.
-rw-r--r--archivemail.sgml66
1 files changed, 50 insertions, 16 deletions
diff --git a/archivemail.sgml b/archivemail.sgml
index bb4d87e..543cfc5 100644
--- a/archivemail.sgml
+++ b/archivemail.sgml
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@
<RefEntry>
-<DocInfo><Date>29 July 2010</Date></DocInfo>
+<DocInfo><Date>31 July 2010</Date></DocInfo>
<RefMeta>
<RefEntryTitle>archivemail</RefEntryTitle>
@@ -71,6 +71,16 @@ It can also just delete old email rather than archive it.
</Para>
<Para>
+By default, <command/archivemail/ derives the archive filename from the
+mailbox name by appending an <filename/_archive/ suffix to the mailbox
+name. For example, if you run <Command/archivemail/ on a mailbox called
+<filename>exsouthrock</filename>, the archive will be created with the
+filename <filename>exsouthrock_archive.gz</filename>.
+This default behavior can be overridden with command line options, choosing
+a custom suffix, a prefix, or a completely custom name for the archive.
+</Para>
+
+<Para>
<Command/archivemail/ supports reading <application/IMAP/,
<application/Maildir/, <application/MH/ and <application/mbox/-format
mailboxes, but always writes <application/mbox/-format archives.
@@ -157,21 +167,32 @@ For <acronym/IMAP/ wizards.
<VarListEntry>
<Term>
+ <Option>-p <Replaceable/NAME/, --prefix=<Replaceable/NAME/</Option>
+</Term>
+<ListItem><Para>Prefix <Replaceable/NAME/ to the archive name.
+<Replaceable/NAME/ is expanded by the &python; function
+<application/time.strftime()/, which means that you can specify special
+directives in <Replaceable/NAME/ to make an archive named after the archive
+cut-off date.
+See the discussion of the <Option>--suffix</Option> option for a list of valid
+<application/strftime()/ directives.
+The default is not to add a prefix.
+</Para></ListItem>
+</VarListEntry>
+
+<VarListEntry>
+<Term>
<Option>-s <Replaceable/NAME/, --suffix=<Replaceable/NAME/</Option>
</Term>
<ListItem><Para>
Use the suffix <Replaceable/NAME/ to create the filename used for archives.
-The default is <filename>_archive</filename>. For example, if you
-run <Command/archivemail/ on a mailbox called
-<filename>exsouthrock</filename>, the archive will be created
-with the filename <filename>exsouthrock_archive.gz</filename>.
+The default is <filename>_archive</filename>, unless a prefix is specified.
</Para>
<Para>
-<Replaceable/NAME/ is run through the &python; <application/time.strftime()/
-function, which means that you can specify any of the following special
-directives in <Replaceable/NAME/ to make archives named after the archive
-cut-off date:
+Like a prefix, the suffix <Replaceable/NAME/ is expanded by the &python;
+function <application/time.strftime()/ with the archive cut-off date.
+<application/time.strftime()/ understands the following directives:
<itemizedlist mark='none'>
<listitem><para><option>%a</option>
@@ -225,11 +246,14 @@ cut-off date:
<VarListEntry>
<Term>
- <Option>-p <Replaceable/NAME/, --prefix=<Replaceable/NAME/</Option>
+ <Option>-a <Replaceable/NAME/, --archive-name=<Replaceable/NAME/</Option>
</Term>
-<ListItem><Para>Prefix <Replaceable/NAME/ to the archive name.
-Like a suffix, this is run through the &python; <application/time.strftime()/
-function. The default is not to add a prefix.
+<ListItem><Para>Use <Replaceable/NAME/ as the archive name, ignoring the name
+of the mailbox that is archived.
+Like prefixes and suffixes, <Replaceable/NAME/ is expanded by
+<application/strftime()/ with the archive cut-off date.
+Because it hard-codes the archive name, this option cannot be used when
+archiving multiple mailboxes.
</Para></ListItem>
</VarListEntry>
@@ -414,13 +438,13 @@ mailbox while it is being read.
</Para>
<Para>
-<Command/archivemail/ will always attempt to preserve the mode,
-last-access and last-modify times of the input mailbox. However, archive
+<Command/archivemail/ will always attempt to preserve the
+last-access and last-modify times of the input mailbox. Archive
mailboxes are always created with a mode of <application/0600/.
If <Command/archivemail/ finds a pre-existing archive mailbox it
will append rather than overwrite that archive.
<Command/archivemail/ will refuse to operate on mailboxes that are symbolic
-links or create tempfiles or archives in world-writable directories.
+links.
</Para>
<Para>
@@ -437,6 +461,16 @@ will use the last-modified file timestamp on <application/MH/ and
</Para>
<Para>
+ When archiving mailboxes with leading dots in the name,
+ <application/archivemail/ will strip the dots off the archive name, so
+ that the resulting archive file is not hidden.
+ This is not done if the <Option>--prefix</Option> or
+ <Option>--archive-name</Option> option is used.
+ Should there really be mailboxes distinguished only by leading dots in the
+ name, they will thus be archived to the same archive file by default.
+</Para>
+
+<Para>
A conversion from other formats to &mbox; will silently overwrite existing
<application/Status/ and <application/X-Status/ message headers.
</Para>