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How can I read one message at a time from /var/mail

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3

Lets say I have 5 messages in /var/mail/ and I want to read one message at a time and then do some string search in that mail before moving on to the next message. Is there a command that I can use to parse one message at a time ?

I am looking to write a bash script which will read all messages in an mbox file & then read them one at a time so that I can then extract Subject, To, From & Status of the message(bounceback code). My plan was to use grepmail to get count of emails in the file and then use this count in a for loop to get one mail at a time and them perform operation on the text. Something like:

$count = grepmail -r . /var/mail/user | awk 'print $2'
for($i=1;$i<=$count;$i++) 
 $content = *GetMessage* -number $i /var/mail/user
 ...
 Do string operation on this message & save to $DelimitedData
 ...

$Delimiteddata

I can't figure out how to pickup single message at a time to perform string operation on them. Can someone please guide me which command/program can help me do this non interactively.

postfix mutt mailx

share|improve this question

asked 10 hours ago

OjasPOjasP

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New contributor

OjasP is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  I'm guessing you mostly work with powershell?
  
  – Jesse_b
  10 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @Jesse_b Yes I mostly script in powershell. I have a script that does exactly what I want, but we are moving to a linux box for some of the emails and I want to make sure that I get the reports.
  
  – OjasP
  10 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  You can install powershell on linux, but hopefully someone can also help you with a shell solution as it will be faster.
  
  – Jesse_b
  10 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @Gilles formail answer is good, but it's also worth knowing that the "beginning of message" marker in an mbox format file is a line beginning with From ("From" and a space character). This can reliably be used to split mbox files into individual messages, with the regexp ^From as it is guaranteed NOT to be within the headers or body of the message (any body lines that would have started with "From " are changed when saved into an mbox, usually to ">From " or similar). See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbox
  
  – cas
  4 hours ago
  
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

3

Lets say I have 5 messages in /var/mail/ and I want to read one message at a time and then do some string search in that mail before moving on to the next message. Is there a command that I can use to parse one message at a time ?

I am looking to write a bash script which will read all messages in an mbox file & then read them one at a time so that I can then extract Subject, To, From & Status of the message(bounceback code). My plan was to use grepmail to get count of emails in the file and then use this count in a for loop to get one mail at a time and them perform operation on the text. Something like:

$count = grepmail -r . /var/mail/user | awk 'print $2'
for($i=1;$i<=$count;$i++) 
 $content = *GetMessage* -number $i /var/mail/user
 ...
 Do string operation on this message & save to $DelimitedData
 ...

$Delimiteddata

I can't figure out how to pickup single message at a time to perform string operation on them. Can someone please guide me which command/program can help me do this non interactively.

postfix mutt mailx

share|improve this question

asked 10 hours ago

OjasPOjasP

1611 bronze badge

New contributor

OjasP is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  I'm guessing you mostly work with powershell?
  
  – Jesse_b
  10 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @Jesse_b Yes I mostly script in powershell. I have a script that does exactly what I want, but we are moving to a linux box for some of the emails and I want to make sure that I get the reports.
  
  – OjasP
  10 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  You can install powershell on linux, but hopefully someone can also help you with a shell solution as it will be faster.
  
  – Jesse_b
  10 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @Gilles formail answer is good, but it's also worth knowing that the "beginning of message" marker in an mbox format file is a line beginning with From ("From" and a space character). This can reliably be used to split mbox files into individual messages, with the regexp ^From as it is guaranteed NOT to be within the headers or body of the message (any body lines that would have started with "From " are changed when saved into an mbox, usually to ">From " or similar). See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbox
  
  – cas
  4 hours ago
  
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

Lets say I have 5 messages in /var/mail/ and I want to read one message at a time and then do some string search in that mail before moving on to the next message. Is there a command that I can use to parse one message at a time ?

I am looking to write a bash script which will read all messages in an mbox file & then read them one at a time so that I can then extract Subject, To, From & Status of the message(bounceback code). My plan was to use grepmail to get count of emails in the file and then use this count in a for loop to get one mail at a time and them perform operation on the text. Something like:

$count = grepmail -r . /var/mail/user | awk 'print $2'
for($i=1;$i<=$count;$i++) 
 $content = *GetMessage* -number $i /var/mail/user
 ...
 Do string operation on this message & save to $DelimitedData
 ...

$Delimiteddata

I can't figure out how to pickup single message at a time to perform string operation on them. Can someone please guide me which command/program can help me do this non interactively.

postfix mutt mailx

share|improve this question

asked 10 hours ago

OjasPOjasP

1611 bronze badge

New contributor

OjasP is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

$count = grepmail -r . /var/mail/user | awk 'print $2'
for($i=1;$i<=$count;$i++) 
 $content = *GetMessage* -number $i /var/mail/user
 ...
 Do string operation on this message & save to $DelimitedData
 ...

$Delimiteddata

share|improve this question

asked 10 hours ago

OjasPOjasP

1611 bronze badge

New contributor

OjasP is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

share|improve this question

asked 10 hours ago

OjasPOjasP

1611 bronze badge

New contributor

OjasP is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

asked 10 hours ago

OjasPOjasP

1611 bronze badge

New contributor

OjasP is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

asked 10 hours ago

OjasPOjasP

1611 bronze badge

1 Answer
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7

The formail tool from procmail (available in any distribution, it's a classic) is designed precisely for this purpose.

Basic usage:

formail -s myprogram --option

runs myprogram --option on each mail in turn. The program receives each mail on its standard input.

share|improve this answer

answered 8 hours ago

GillesGilles

568k136136 gold badges11701170 silver badges16831683 bronze badges

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Not sure that formail can pick up the Nth message in an existing spool file, though Can it?
  
  – roaima
  6 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @roaima I don't think it's needed (the OP had that loop because they didn't know how to process messages in an mbox one-by-one), but formail has a +skip option, and a -total option (the "skip" in the +skip is the number of messages to skip, and the "total" in -total is the total number of msgs to output - so +5 -1 would output only the 6th message).
  
  – cas
  4 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

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7

The formail tool from procmail (available in any distribution, it's a classic) is designed precisely for this purpose.

Basic usage:

formail -s myprogram --option

runs myprogram --option on each mail in turn. The program receives each mail on its standard input.

share|improve this answer

answered 8 hours ago

GillesGilles

568k136136 gold badges11701170 silver badges16831683 bronze badges

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Not sure that formail can pick up the Nth message in an existing spool file, though Can it?
  
  – roaima
  6 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @roaima I don't think it's needed (the OP had that loop because they didn't know how to process messages in an mbox one-by-one), but formail has a +skip option, and a -total option (the "skip" in the +skip is the number of messages to skip, and the "total" in -total is the total number of msgs to output - so +5 -1 would output only the 6th message).
  
  – cas
  4 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

7

The formail tool from procmail (available in any distribution, it's a classic) is designed precisely for this purpose.

Basic usage:

formail -s myprogram --option

runs myprogram --option on each mail in turn. The program receives each mail on its standard input.

share|improve this answer

answered 8 hours ago

GillesGilles

568k136136 gold badges11701170 silver badges16831683 bronze badges

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Not sure that formail can pick up the Nth message in an existing spool file, though Can it?
  
  – roaima
  6 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @roaima I don't think it's needed (the OP had that loop because they didn't know how to process messages in an mbox one-by-one), but formail has a +skip option, and a -total option (the "skip" in the +skip is the number of messages to skip, and the "total" in -total is the total number of msgs to output - so +5 -1 would output only the 6th message).
  
  – cas
  4 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

The formail tool from procmail (available in any distribution, it's a classic) is designed precisely for this purpose.

Basic usage:

formail -s myprogram --option

runs myprogram --option on each mail in turn. The program receives each mail on its standard input.

share|improve this answer

answered 8 hours ago

GillesGilles

568k136136 gold badges11701170 silver badges16831683 bronze badges

formail -s myprogram --option

share|improve this answer

answered 8 hours ago

GillesGilles

568k136136 gold badges11701170 silver badges16831683 bronze badges

answered 8 hours ago

GillesGilles

568k136136 gold badges11701170 silver badges16831683 bronze badges

answered 8 hours ago

GillesGilles

568k136136 gold badges11701170 silver badges16831683 bronze badges