The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

The New Hotness

  • Kmail: Copying Directory Structures and Some Files Therein

    As part of the Kmail blank email problem, I conjured up a new, shrunken maildir structure with just the most recent 30 days of email. However, I want to keep all the same folders, even if they have no current email messages, so my filters can sort the incoming mail properly.

    The sequence of events:

    • shut down Kmail!
    • move existing email directory out of the way
    • set up a new directory
    • copy the directory structure
    • copy the most recent 30 days of email
    • delete the existing index files

    That’s straightforward, at least after you figure it out. Took me a while to get it right, but here ya go…

    cd to the directory holding the Mail folder
mv Mail Mail.base
mkdir Mail
cd Mail.base
find . -type d -print0 | cpio --null -dmpv ../Mail
find . -type f -mtime -30 -print0 | cpio --null -apdv ../Mail
cd ../Mail
find . -type f -name ".*index" -print0 | xargs -0 rm
find . -type f -name ".*index.ids" -print0 | xargs -0 rm

    Then fire up Kmail and let it rebuild all the index files.

    You ought to try that out on a dummy version of your email, as something may have gotten clobbered in the transition from my terminal to your fingertips, OK?