Move Mode

Configuration Section

Here is a full sample configuration for move mode:

[MailMover]
folders = INBOX Junk
rename = False
max_age = 15

# rules
INBOX = 'tag:spam':Junk 'NOT tag:inbox':Archive
Junk = 'NOT tag:spam AND tag:inbox':INBOX 'NOT tag:spam':Archive

Below we explain what each bit of this means.

Rules

First you need to specify which folders should be checked for mails that are to be moved (as a whitespace separated list). Folder names containing whitespace need to be quoted:

folders = INBOX Junk "Sent Mail"

Then you have to specify rules that define move actions of the form

<src> = ['<qry>':<dst>]+

Every mail in the <src> folder that matches a <qry> will be moved into the <dst> folder associated with that query. A message that matches multiple queries will be copied to multiple destinations.

You can bind as many rules to a maildir folder as you deem necessary. Just add them as elements of a (whitespace separated) list.

Please note, though, that you need to specify at least one rule for every folder given by the folders option and at least one folder to check in order to use the move mode.

INBOX = 'tag:spam':Junk

will bind one rule to the maildir folder INBOX that states that all mails in said folder that carry (potentially among others) the tag spam are to be moved into the folder Junk.

With <qry> being an arbitrary notmuch query, you have the power to construct arbitrarily flexible rules. You can check for the absence of tags and look out for combinations of attributes:

Junk = 'NOT tag:spam AND tag:inbox':INBOX 'NOT tag:spam':Archive

The above rules will move all mails in Junk that don’t have the spam tag but do have an inbox tag into the directory INBOX. All other mails not tagged with spam will be moved into Archive.

Max Age

You can limit the age of mails you want to move by setting the max_age option in the configuration section. By providing

max_age = 15

afew will only check mails at most 15 days old.

Rename

Set this option if you are using the mbsync IMAP syncing tool. mbsync adds a unique identifier to files’ names when it syncs them. If the rename option is not set, moving files can cause UID conflicts and prevent mbsync from syncing with error messages such as “Maildir error: duplicate UID 1234” or “UID 567 is beyond highest assigned UID 89”.

When the option is set, afew will rename files while moving them, removing the UID but preserving other mbsync information. This allows mbsync to assign a new UID to the file and avoid UID conflicts.

If you are using offlineimap, you can safely ignore this option.

rename = True

Limitations

(1) Rules don’t manipulate tags.

INBOX = 'NOT tag:inbox':Archive
Junk = 'NOT tag:spam':INBOX

The above combination of rules might prove tricky, since you might expect de-spammed mails to end up in INBOX. But since the Junk rule will not add an inbox tag, the next run in move mode might very well move the matching mails into Archive.

Then again, if you remove the spam tag and do not set an inbox tag, how would you come to expect the mail would end up in your INBOX folder after moving it? ;)

(2) There is no 1:1 mapping between folders and tags. And that’s a feature. If you tag a mail with two tags and there is a rule for each of them, both rules will apply. Your mail will be copied into two destination folders, then removed from its original location.