How can I automatically delete old emails in Postfix

rcrosoer · 06-29-2009, 02:18 PM

Hi all,

I am setting up a mail server using Postfix and would like to automatically delete emails remaining in any of the mailboxes if they exceed a predetermined age, say 14 days.

Can anyone recommend an app or script that will do this?

elfoozo · 06-30-2009, 11:13 PM

Postfix doesn't have mailboxes. It's just the agent that delivers the messages to your mailboxes. You may want to include how your mailboxes are stored mbox, mysql, etc, for your set up.

rcrosoer · 07-01-2009, 02:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elfoozo

Postfix doesn't have mailboxes. It's just the agent that delivers the messages to your mailboxes. You may want to include how your mailboxes are stored mbox, mysql, etc, for your set up.

Would that be Courier IMAP/POP3?

billymayday · 07-01-2009, 03:31 AM

If they are in maildir format, use find.

something like

Code:

find /home -type f -name "*/Maildir/cur/*" -mtime +13 -exec rm {} \;

rcrosoer · 07-07-2009, 12:02 PM

Hi billymayday,

Sorry for the delay but I've been away for a few days.

Your "find" routine looks promising but I have a couple of problems.

I get an error message if I put "/path/cur" in the name pattern field
"find: warning: Unix filenames usually don't contain slashes (though pathnames do). That means that '-name `/*'' will probably evaluate to false all the time on this system. You might find the '-wholename' test more useful, or perhaps '-samefile'. Alternatively, if you are using GNU grep, you could use 'find ... -print0 | grep -FzZ `/*''."

emails are located at the following

/var/vmail/domainname/mailboxname/cur/
/var/vmail/domainname/mailboxname/new/
/var/vmail/domainname/mailboxname/tmp/
/var/vmail/domainname/mailboxname/.spam/cur/
/var/vmail/domainname/mailboxname/.spam/new/
/var/vmail/domainname/mailboxname/.spam/tmp/

I have tried the following:

Code:

find /var/vmail/*/*/cur/ -type f -name "*" -mtime +13 -exec rm {} \;

and it seems to work ok.
So if I set up a daily cron job using the six locations above hopefully that will do the job.

Thanks for your help

sleddog · 07-07-2009, 08:59 PM

You could also have a look at http://svn.houseofnate.net/unix-tool...leanup-maildir

billymayday · 07-07-2009, 10:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rcrosoer

Hi billymayday,

Sorry for the delay but I've been away for a few days.

Your "find" routine looks promising but I have a couple of problems.

I get an error message if I put "/path/cur" in the name pattern field
"find: warning: Unix filenames usually don't contain slashes (though pathnames do). That means that '-name `/*'' will probably evaluate to false all the time on this system. You might find the '-wholename' test more useful, or perhaps '-samefile'. Alternatively, if you are using GNU grep, you could use 'find ... -print0 | grep -FzZ `/*''."

emails are located at the following

/var/vmail/domainname/mailboxname/cur/
/var/vmail/domainname/mailboxname/new/
/var/vmail/domainname/mailboxname/tmp/
/var/vmail/domainname/mailboxname/.spam/cur/
/var/vmail/domainname/mailboxname/.spam/new/
/var/vmail/domainname/mailboxname/.spam/tmp/

I have tried the following:

Code:

find /var/vmail/*/*/cur/ -type f -name "*" -mtime +13 -exec rm {} \;

and it seems to work ok.
So if I set up a daily cron job using the six locations above hopefully that will do the job.

Thanks for your help

Why not just

Code:

find /var/vmail/*/* -type f -mtime +13 -exec rm {} \;

and one cronjob?

rcrosoer · 07-10-2009, 02:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by billymayday

Why not just

Code:

find /var/vmail/*/* -type f -mtime +13 -exec rm {} \;

and one cronjob?

I have webmail on board and there are a load of other housekeeping files. It seemed simpler than a long purge list.