VitexSoftware/MailBoxCleaner
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Move old IMAP messages to Thunderbird Local Folders to free server storage quota
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Vítězslav Dvořák 7d4e3b50b9 Release v0.2.0: add --verbose flag and systemd deploy docs 
Add --verbose/-VERBOSE option to print sender and subject for each
archived message; bump version to 0.2.0 across pyproject.toml, man
page, and metainfo XML; document systemd automated archiving in README;
add debian:forky to Jenkinsfile build matrix.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-05-25 23:54:05 +02:00
data Release v0.2.0: add --verbose flag and systemd deploy docs 2026-05-25 23:54:05 +02:00
debian Release v0.2.0: add --verbose flag and systemd deploy docs 2026-05-25 23:54:05 +02:00
mailbox_cleaner Release v0.2.0: add --verbose flag and systemd deploy docs 2026-05-25 23:54:05 +02:00
man Release v0.2.0: add --verbose flag and systemd deploy docs 2026-05-25 23:54:05 +02:00
.gitignore Initial MailBoxCleaner release 2026-05-25 20:34:27 +02:00
pyproject.toml Release v0.2.0: add --verbose flag and systemd deploy docs 2026-05-25 23:54:05 +02:00
README.md Release v0.2.0: add --verbose flag and systemd deploy docs 2026-05-25 23:54:05 +02:00

README.md

MailBoxCleaner

MailBoxCleaner

Move old IMAP messages to Thunderbird Local Folders (mbox archive) to free server storage quota.

Usage

mailbox-cleaner --host imap.example.com --user you@example.com --password secret \
                [--port 993] [--folder INBOX] [--older-than 365] \
                [--archive-name Archive] [--thunderbird-profile PATH] \
                [--batch-size 200] [--dry-run] \
                [--deploy [--interval CALENDAR]]

All options can also be set via environment variables:

Option Env var Default
--host IMAP_HOST (required)
--port IMAP_PORT 993
--user IMAP_USER (required)
--password IMAP_PASSWORD (required)
--folder IMAP_FOLDER INBOX
--older-than IMAP_OLDER_THAN 365
--archive-name ARCHIVE_NAME Archive
--thunderbird-profile THUNDERBIRD_PROFILE (auto-detected)
--batch-size BATCH_SIZE 200
--verbose VERBOSE (off)

Use --dry-run to preview which messages would be archived without making any changes.

Use --verbose to print the sender address and subject of each message as it is archived.

What it does

  1. Connects to IMAP over SSL
  2. Searches the specified folder for messages older than --older-than days
  3. Downloads up to --batch-size messages and appends them to an mbox file inside Thunderbird's Local Folders
  4. Marks the originals as deleted and expunges them from the IMAP server
  5. Prints a summary

Run again to process the next batch. After archiving, restart Thunderbird (or right-click the folder → Repair Folder) to rebuild the index.

Automated archiving with systemd

Use --deploy to install a systemd user service and timer that run mailbox-cleaner automatically:

mailbox-cleaner --host imap.example.com --user you@example.com --password secret \
                --deploy --interval "Mon *-*-* 02:00:00"

This writes credentials to ~/.config/mailbox-cleaner.env (mode 600) and installs:

  • ~/.config/systemd/user/mailbox-cleaner.service
  • ~/.config/systemd/user/mailbox-cleaner.timer

The timer is enabled and started immediately. Check its status with:

systemctl --user list-timers mailbox-cleaner.timer

The --interval option accepts any systemd OnCalendar expression (default: daily). Examples: weekly, hourly, "Mon *-*-* 02:00:00".

Installation

sudo dpkg -i mailbox-cleaner_*.deb

Building the Debian package

dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc -b