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recomposemail(1)       DragonFly General Commands Manual      recomposemail(1)

NAME
       recomposemail - recompose email message files into mailboxes

SYNOPSIS
       recomposemail [ -ahkv ] [  -m|M ] [  -y|Y ] [  base_name... ]

DESCRIPTION
       recomposemail takes a group of individual email message files as
       created by decomposemail(1), reassembles them into new mailboxes sorted
       by date/time, and groups them according to selected options.

OPTIONS
       The following options are supported:

       -a        Append messages to any existing file named the base name,
                 ignored with -m, -M, -y, or -Y.

       -h        Help, just print an informational message, and exit.

       -k        Keep the individual message files.  Normally they would be
                 removed as they are copied.

       -m        Combine message files to monthly mailboxes of type mbox.YYMM,
                 sorted by date/time.

       -M        Combine message files to monthly mailboxes of type YYMM/mbox,
                 sorted by date/time.

       -y        Combine message files to yearly mailboxes of type mbox.YYYY,
                 sorted by date/time.

       -Y        Combine message files to yearly mailboxes of type YYYY/mbox,
                 sorted by date/time.  With -m, combine to monthly mailboxes
                 of type YYYY/mbox.MM.  With -M, combine to monthly mailboxes
                 of type YYYY/MM/mbox.

       -v        Verbose, provide more feedback.

OPERANDS
       The following operands are supported:

       base_name The base name (minus the ".YYYYMMDD.hhmmss.nnnnn" suffix) of
                 the individual message files to reassemble into standard
                 Internet style mailbox files.  If no such arguments are
                 given, recomposemail searches the current directory for any
                 file names matching the message file name pattern, and acts
                 on these files.

USAGE
       recomposemail is used with decomposemail(1) - or by sortmail(1) - to
       sort standard Internet style mailbox files into new mailbox files such
       that the messages are sorted by date/time.  recomposemail takes the
       individual email message files produced by decomposemail(1), and
       reassembles them into the new mailboxes.

       In the absense of any of the -a, -m, -M, -y, or -Y options, if a file
       by the name of the base name already exists, a new file with a unique
       name will be created by appending a dot followed by a number, e.g.,
       "mbox.1".

       With -m, -M, -y, or -Y, message files are appended to files with names
       such as "mbox.9801", "9801/mbox", "mbox.1998", or "1998/mbox",
       respectively, where "9801" is the year and the month, and "1998" is the
       year.  The files and/or directories are created as needed.

       If -Y is combined with -m or -M, message files are appended to files
       with names such as "1998/mbox.01" or "1998/01/mbox", respectively,
       where "1998" is the year, and "01" is the month.

       In all cases, the individual message files are removed as they are
       copied, except when -k is specified.

EXAMPLES
       Combine the email messages in the files with base name "tcl-list" in
       the current directory into a mailbox file with that name.  If a file by
       that name already exists, a new file with a unique name such as "tcl-
       list.1" will be created:

            recomposemail tcl-list

       Combine the email messages in the current directory that match the mail
       file suffix pattern into mailbox files per each unique base name.  The
       messages will be appended to any such pre-existing files.  The
       individual message files will not be deleted.  Progress will be
       verbosely reported:

            recomposemail -akv

       Combine the email messages in the files with base names "bart" and
       "sally" into monthly mailbox files per base name, such as "bart.9801"
       and "sally.9801".  If any such files already exist, they will be
       appended:

            recomposemail -m bart sally

       Combine the email messages in the files with base name "ALERT" into
       monthly mailbox files in subdirectories, such as "9801/ALERT",
       "9802/ALERT", etc.  If any such files already exist, they will be
       appended:

            recomposemail -M ALERT

       Combine the email messages in the files with base name "yomama" into
       monthly mailbox files in yearly subdirectories, such as
       "1998/yomama.01", "1998/yomama.02", etc.  If any such files already
       exist, they will be appended:

            recomposemail -Ym yomama

FILES
       mbox.YYYYMMDD.hhmmss.nnnnn
                     Serialized individual email message files, where "mbox"
                     is the name of the mailbox, "YYYYMMDD" is the year,
                     month, and day, "hhmmss" is the hour, minute, and second,
                     and "nnnnn" is a serial number.

DIAGNOSTICS
       Returns 0 if no problems encountered.
       Returns non-zero for any errors encountered.

BUGS
       recomposemail is slow.

       Due to command line length and argument limitations (implementation
       dependent), some of the system commands used in the script might fail
       when used with extremely large numbers of message files.

       Mailbox date divisions other than monthly and yearly, such as daily,
       etc., are currently not supported.

SEE ALSO
       decomposemail(1), sh(1), sortmail(1),
       "Toolman:  Sorting and Archiving Email", ;login: magazine (USENIX
       Association), August 1998.

AUTHOR
       sortmail was written by Daniel E. Singer (a.k.a. Toolman) at the
       Department of Computer Science, Duke University.

Toolman                        12 September 1998              recomposemail(1)