The Windows muppets are moving to a new Exchange server here at work, which means that they're migrating users' data stores across to the new machine. My datastore is huge, because I never delete email, because I use it for documentation and tracking history in ways that are totally necessary (but which said Windows muppets don't seem to grasp, which directly impacts their ability to document and understand systems, but that's a different rant). So, anyway, my datastore is massive, and there's some moronic 2 GB limit in the software they're using for migration. I knew this in advance, and had said that I'd just suck down and delete all this mail, but I haven't found a good way yet[1], and I've had more pressing stuff to deal with. But now they're down to moving my datastore. So I had to explain to the Grand-muckety Windows muppet that no, those variety of Windows-workstation-specific solutions were really just not going to work for me.
Here's the funny (sanitized of identifying information, of course):
From: "Joe Windowsadmin"
Subject: Mailbox.
Date: Wed, 2 Jun 2004 16:06:11 -0400
To:
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.2){kind=small}
grumpy_sysadmin Hi
grumpy_sysadmin,Let me know when would be a good time to move your mailbox. It would probably
take around 15 minutes and it would probably work better if you didn't access
it during that time.
Thanks,
Joe
Joseph Windowsadmin
Windows/Exchange Administrator
[REDACTED]
[REDACTED]@[REDACTED].com
From:
grumpy_sysadminSubject: Re: Mailbox.
Date: Wed, 2 Jun 2004 16:57:42 -0400
To: Joe Windowsadmin
On Wed, Jun 02, 2004 at 04:06:11PM -0400, Joe Windowsadmin wrote:
> Let me know when would be a good time to move your mailbox. It would probably
> take around 15 minutes and it would probably work better if you didn't access
> it during that time.
Go ahead now, if you're still here. I'll log off Exchange since I'm
doing a fairly long thing on a bunch of systems and wouldn't be
reading email anyway.
Sorry I didn't get a chance to trim its size down for you yet.
--
grumpy_sysadmin[REDACTED] Unix & Linux sysadmin
[REDACTED]@[REDACTED].com
From: "Joe Windowsadmin"
Subject: RE: Mailbox.
Date: Wed, 2 Jun 2004 17:29:44 -0400
To:
grumpy_sysadminActually, I'll move it from home tonight, say around 10:00 PM.
-----Original Message-----
[full text of above message]
From:
grumpy_sysadminSubject: Re: Mailbox.
Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2004 07:18:55 -0400
To: Joe Windowsadmin
On Wed, Jun 02, 2004 at 05:29:44PM -0400, Joe Windowsadmin wrote:
> Actually, I'll move it from home tonight, say around 10:00 PM.
... not moved yet?
(newexchange wouldn't let me login via IMAP, presenting a
redirection to exchange for authentication, and I've still got mail
on exchange.)
--
grumpy_sysadmin[REDACTED] Unix & Linux sysadmin
[REDACTED]@[REDACTED].com
From: "Joe Windowsadmin"
Subject: RE: Mailbox.
Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2004 08:46:13 -0400
To:
grumpy_sysadminI tried to move it last night but it failed. It's probably due to the
size of the mailbox. What I have been doing when this happens is have
the person archive their old stuff or I would export their mailbox to a
pst file, empty their mailbox, move it, then import everything back.
Let me know what path you want to take. If we do the pst thing it will
probably take an hour or two for me to export and import everything.
Thanks,
Joe
-----Original Message-----
[full text of above message]
From:
grumpy_sysadminSubject: Re: Mailbox.
Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2004 09:31:19 -0400
To: Joe Windowsadmin
On Thu, Jun 03, 2004 at 08:46:13AM -0400, Joe Windowsadmin wrote:
> I tried to move it last night but it failed. It's probably due to the
> size of the mailbox. What I have been doing when this happens is have
> the person archive their old stuff or I would export their mailbox to a
> pst file, empty their mailbox, move it, then import everything back.
> Let me know what path you want to take. If we do the pst thing it will
> probably take an hour or two for me to export and import everything.
I'd rather export it to Unix-style Maildir mailboxes, which I can do
by horfing it all down with IMAP. The trick is in getting a piece of
software that will *remove* messages on the server, rather than try
to keep the local copy and the server copy synchronized.
Let me go back to that this morning, shouldn't be too difficult.
I'll drop you a line around noon.
--
grumpy_sysadmin[REDACTED] Unix & Linux sysadmin
[REDACTED]@[REDACTED].com
From: "Joe Windowsadmin"
Subject: RE: Mailbox.
Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2004 09:33:29 -0400
To:
grumpy_sysadminI'll have to check if we can import the mail back into your mailbox
doing it that way. I want to make sure we have something valid if we
are going to delete everything in your mailbox. I know for sure that we
can use a .pst file for the export and import.
-----Original Message-----
[full text of above message]
From:
grumpy_sysadminSubject: Re: Mailbox.
Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2004 09:54:41 -0400
To: Joe Windowsadmin
On Thu, Jun 03, 2004 at 09:33:29AM -0400, Joe Windowsadmin wrote:
> I'll have to check if we can import the mail back into your mailbox
> doing it that way.
But that's just the point, I don't *want* it imported back in. I'd
much rather periodically suck down the long-term storage stuff and
remove it from the Exchange server entirely. Saves on disk space,
and it's much easier for me to search through it if it's a local
file.
> I want to make sure we have something valid if we
> are going to delete everything in your mailbox. I know for sure that we
> can use a .pst file for the export and import.
But I can't do anything useful with a .pst file in my preferred
user interface. :^>
--
grumpy_sysadmin [REDACTED] Unix & Linux sysadmin
[REDACTED]@[REDACTED].com
From: "Joe Windowsadmin"
Subject: FW: Mailbox.
Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2004 10:24:02 -0400
To:
grumpy_sysadminIn that case, we can set up an Archive and save the file to your C:
drive. The Archive folder will show up in your Outlook folder list but
will actually be pulling the archived messages from your C: drive or
anywhere else you specify. I attached the instructions, let me know if
that is something that you are looking for.
Thanks,
Joe
From:
grumpy_sysadminSubject: Re: FW: Mailbox.
Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2004 10:54:14 -0400
To: Joe Windowsadmin
On Thu, Jun 03, 2004 at 10:24:02AM -0400, Joe Windowsadmin wrote:
> In that case, we can set up an Archive and save the file to your C:
> drive. The Archive folder will show up in your Outlook folder list but
> will actually be pulling the archived messages from your C: drive or
> anywhere else you specify. I attached the instructions, let me know if
> that is something that you are looking for.
Joe, I NEVER use my Windows PC unless absolutely necessary. I want
the archived messages on my Unix workstation. Please just let me do
this, I'll let you know when it's done.
--
grumpy_sysadmin[REDACTED] Unix & Linux sysadmin
[REDACTED]@[REDACTED].com
[1] All the pre-existing IMAP-clienty stuff I found wants to synchronize mailboxes. That is, very actively avoid removing things from the server. But that's not what I want: I want a snapshot of a bunch of mailboxes saved locally and then all the messages that were snapshotted removed from the server. I'm writing such a utility right now (using some subset of Net::IMAP, Mail::IMAPClient, and Mail::Box), but if anybody knows of an existing one, by all means, let me know.
June 3 2004, 08:58:07 UTC 7 years ago
I've done this before, but for a different reason
Take Mozilla mail client. Connect it to IMAP server. Let it synchronize all your folders. In your Mozilla IMAP cache directory inside your profile, for each mailbox, there will be a BSD mail spool file and a metadata file (.msf, I think). Take the mail spool files and put them somewhere Mozilla can't fuck with them. Abandon the metadata files. Verify that the spool files have what you expect, then delete stuff from the folders on the server.June 3 2004, 10:32:11 UTC 7 years ago
June 3 2004, 09:07:50 UTC 7 years ago
June 3 2004, 10:31:42 UTC 7 years ago
June 3 2004, 17:46:14 UTC 7 years ago
I did allow for the possibility that what I was suggesting didn't make sense because I didn't have all the information, after all. :-)
June 3 2004, 18:06:51 UTC 7 years ago
In any case, if mutt were more scriptable than it is, it'd be great. But it'd take me as long to sculpt a mutt macro to do this job as dealing with Mail::Box::IMAP4 is taking.
June 3 2004, 18:48:55 UTC 7 years ago
Well enough, apparently. But I imagine it would be a fair bitch to properly snag the names of the folders. As I said, Ugly Hack. And the expect script would not be nearly as robust and would probably take much longer to code, anyway.
June 3 2004, 18:59:10 UTC 7 years ago
June 3 2004, 09:34:47 UTC 7 years ago
Fetchmail?
Fetchmail is perfectly happy downloading mail from IMAP folders, handing it off to procmail (or whatver LDA you use) and then deleting it from the IMAP server.June 3 2004, 10:31:05 UTC 7 years ago
June 3 2004, 10:43:58 UTC 7 years ago
June 3 2004, 10:42:52 UTC 7 years ago
June 3 2004, 11:24:42 UTC 7 years ago
OTOH, that might be a feature for you, personally. Definitely a problem for their admins.
June 3 2004, 11:41:35 UTC 7 years ago