aboutsummaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/archivemail.sgml
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
Diffstat (limited to 'archivemail.sgml')
-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>