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Alas! Wayne Chapeskie spake thus: > How do the rest of you handle cleaning out really big mail folders? Don't let them get that big in the first place! :P Really. My mail setup looks like this: feztaa@feztron:/home/feztaa/mail$ ls -R =2E: alfs-discuss cron lfs-dev mutt-users wftl-lug archives fetchmail-friends lfs-security netmd-dev blfs-dev inbox lfs-support spam blfs-support lfs-chat mutt-dev wftl-announce =2E/archives: 2001-11-bugtraq.bz2 2002-04-lfs-security.bz2 2001-11-inbox.bz2 2002-04-lfs-support.bz2 2001-11-marcel-gagne.bz2 2002-04-marcel-gagne.bz2 2001-11-mutt.bz2 2002-04-mutt.bz2 2001-11-rewt.bz2 2002-04-sent-mail.bz2 2001-11-sent-mail.bz2 2002-04-spam.bz2 2001-11-spam.bz2 2002-04-wftl-announce.bz2 2001-12-bugtraq.bz2 2002-04-wftl-lug.bz2 2001-12-important.bz2 2002-05-alfs-discuss.bz2 2001-12-inbox.bz2 2002-05-blfs-dev.bz2 2001-12-marcel-gagne.bz2 2002-05-blfs-support.bz2 2001-12-mplayer.bz2 2002-05-cron.bz2 2001-12-mutt.bz2 2002-05-fetchmail-friends.bz2 2001-12-sent-mail.bz2 2002-05-inbox.bz2 2001-12-spam.bz2 2002-05-lfs-chat.bz2 2002-01-blfs-support.bz2 2002-05-lfs-dev.bz2 2002-01-bugtraq.bz2 2002-05-lfs-security.bz2 2002-01-fetchmail.bz2 2002-05-lfs-support.bz2 2002-01-inbox.bz2 2002-05-mutt.bz2 2002-01-lfs-support.bz2 2002-05-mutt-users.bz2 2002-01-marcel-gagne.bz2 2002-05-sent-mail.bz2 2002-01-mutt.bz2 2002-05-spam.bz2 2002-01-sent-mail.bz2 2002-05-wftl-announce.bz2 2002-01-spam.bz2 2002-05-wftl-lug.bz2 2002-02-blfs-support.bz2 2002-06-alfs-discuss.bz2 2002-02-fetchmail.bz2 2002-06-blfs-dev.bz2 2002-02-important.bz2 2002-06-blfs-support.bz2 2002-02-inbox.bz2 2002-06-cron.bz2 2002-02-lfs-support.bz2 2002-06-fetchmail-friends.bz2 2002-02-marcel-gagne.bz2 2002-06-inbox.bz2 2002-02-mutt.bz2 2002-06-lfs-chat.bz2 2002-02-sent-mail.bz2 2002-06-lfs-dev.bz2 2002-02-spam.bz2 2002-06-lfs-security.bz2 2002-03-blfs-support.bz2 2002-06-lfs-support.bz2 2002-03-duplicates.bz2 2002-06-mutt-dev.bz2 2002-03-fetchmail.bz2 2002-06-mutt-users.bz2 2002-03-inbox.bz2 2002-06-netmd-dev.bz2 2002-03-lfs-chat.bz2 2002-06-sent-mail.bz2 2002-03-lfs-support.bz2 2002-06-spam.bz2 2002-03-marcel-gagne.bz2 2002-06-wftl-announce.bz2 2002-03-mutt.bz2 2002-06-wftl-lug.bz2 2002-03-sent-mail.bz2 2002-07-blfs-dev 2002-03-spam.bz2 2002-07-blfs-support 2002-04-alfs-discuss.bz2 2002-07-cron 2002-04-blfs-dev.bz2 2002-07-inbox 2002-04-blfs-support.bz2 2002-07-lfs-chat 2002-04-cron.bz2 2002-07-lfs-dev 2002-04-fetchmail-friends.bz2 2002-07-lfs-support 2002-04-important.bz2 2002-07-mutt-users 2002-04-inbox.bz2 2002-07-netmd-dev 2002-04-lfs-chat.bz2 2002-07-sent-mail 2002-04-lfs-dev.bz2 2002-07-spam So as you can see, I have a bunch of mailboxes, and a monthly archive of each mailbox. My system may look cumbersome and hard to work with, but really it's not because of these things: * procmail automatically detects mailing lists and sorts them into appropriate folders. I don't have a single procmail rule that is specific to any one mailing list. * mutt automatically detects mboxes and sets up the mbox-hooks accordingly.=20 * because of the wonderful mbox-hooks, every time I leave a folder, all the mails I read are moved into the appropriate archive folder. * a script that I run from cron every month automatically compresses the old mboxes that are archived. So basically all I have to do is read my email everyday (not even -- I just have to mark it as read if I don't want to read it), and my computer does the rest of the work for me ;) Each archived mbox contains a month's mail from that particular list; obviously the amount of mail in each mbox depends on list traffic for that month, but generally no mbox ever exceeds 1000 mails (though there are at least a couple that have 1500 ;) Oh yeah, and one really great part of this system: Since any read mail in an mbox is automatically moved out, and mail that exists in an mbox is by definition, unread. So when I'm looking at my index, the size of the mbox becomes the "new mail indicator": zero for no mail, nonzero for new mail. It works really well for me. YMMV. --=20 Rob 'Feztaa' Park http://members.shaw.ca/feztaa/ -- Lost: gray and white female cat. Answers to electric can opener. --YZ5djTAD1cGYuMQK Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.7 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQE9IfzgPTh2iSBKeccRAtgYAJ4sUw9skCuXW9HsuQeNt5GoexwKQgCfYhFZ MwQ75c1XDWFn692dF2i30iI= =bKIY -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --YZ5djTAD1cGYuMQK--
