Mail command usage

asadmahmand · 10-31-2007, 11:10 AM

how can i delete New (with status N) root emails through command.
i think this should work but its not deleting them.
mail -u root
& d N

A response will be highly appreciated.

KenJackson · 10-31-2007, 01:41 PM

Be sure you are logged in as root (or use the 'su' or 'sudo' commands). Otherwise you won't have permission to delete them. Use the 'q' command to quit mail when done, not 'x'.

Note that if the email is coming from cron, you tell cron to send the mail to a different address. In file /etc/crontab or the crontab listing, put this (use your real username):

MAILTO=asadmahmand

asadmahmand · 11-01-2007, 06:01 AM

thanks for the reply.
acctually my concern is that the command has the following santax.
& d [message numbers]
like

mail -u XX
& d 1 2 3
this will delete the following messages 1 2 and 3.
but i need to delete emails of a very big file of /var/spool/mail/XX
and i have to delete all new (N) or unread mails (U).

i have searched a lot but did not find any answer.

colucix · 11-01-2007, 06:42 AM

The classic mail command does not accept flags in "message list" so you can only specify number or ranges of numbers. However on my system I have mailx and it accepts expressions like

Code:

? d :n   # to delete all new messages
? d :u   # to delete all unread messages

and so on. An excerpt from the manual page:

Quote:

The following special message names exist:

:n All new messages.
: o All old messages (any not in state read or new).
:u All unread messages.
:d All deleted messages (for the undelete command).
:r All read messages.
:f All `flagged' messages.
:a All answered messages (cf. the markanswered variable).
:t All messages marked as draft.
:k All `killed' messages.
:j All messages classified as junk.

I hope this helps.

asadmahmand · 11-01-2007, 10:51 AM

thanks colucix.
your reply solved the problem.