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recomposemail(1)	     General Commands Manual		recomposemail(1)

NAME
     recomposemail - recompose email message files into mailboxes

SYNOPSIS
     recomposemail [ -ahkv ] [ -m|M ] [ -y|Y ] [ base_name... ]

DESCRIPTION
     recomposemail takes a group of individual email message files as created by
     decomposemail(1),	reassembles them into new mailboxes sorted by date/time,
     and groups them according to selected options.

OPTIONS
     The following options are supported:

     -a        Append messages to any existing file named the base name, ignored
	       with -m, -M, -y, or -Y.

     -h        Help, just print an informational message, and exit.

     -k        Keep the individual message files.  Normally they  would  be  re-
	       moved as they are copied.

     -m        Combine	message  files	to  monthly mailboxes of type mbox.YYMM,
	       sorted by date/time.

     -M        Combine message files to monthly  mailboxes  of	type  YYMM/mbox,
	       sorted by date/time.

     -y        Combine	message  files	to  yearly  mailboxes of type mbox.YYYY,
	       sorted by date/time.

     -Y        Combine message files to  yearly  mailboxes  of	type  YYYY/mbox,
	       sorted  by  date/time.	With -m, combine to monthly mailboxes of
	       type YYYY/mbox.MM.  With -M, combine to monthly mailboxes of type
	       YYYY/MM/mbox.

     -v        Verbose, provide more feedback.

OPERANDS
     The following operands are supported:

     base_name
	       The base name (minus the ".YYYYMMDD.hhmmss.nnnnn" suffix) of  the
	       individual  message  files  to  reassemble into standard Internet
	       style mailbox files.  If no such arguments are given,  recompose-
	       mail  searches  the current directory for any file names matching
	       the message file name pattern, and acts on these files.

USAGE
     recomposemail is used with decomposemail(1) - or by sortmail(1) -	to  sort
     standard  Internet style mailbox files into new mailbox files such that the
     messages are sorted by date/time.	recomposemail takes the individual email
     message files produced by decomposemail(1), and reassembles them  into  the
     new mailboxes.

     In  the  absense  of any of the -a, -m, -M, -y, or -Y options, if a file by
     the name of the base name already exists, a new file  with  a  unique  name
     will be created by appending a dot followed by a number, e.g., "mbox.1".

     With -m, -M, -y, or -Y, message files are appended to files with names such
     as  "mbox.9801",  "9801/mbox",  "mbox.1998",  or "1998/mbox", respectively,
     where "9801" is the year and the month, and "1998" is the year.  The  files
     and/or directories are created as needed.

     If  -Y  is combined with -m or -M, message files are appended to files with
     names such as "1998/mbox.01" or "1998/01/mbox", respectively, where  "1998"
     is the year, and "01" is the month.

     In  all cases, the individual message files are removed as they are copied,
     except when -k is specified.

EXAMPLES
     Combine the email messages in the files with base name  "tcl-list"  in  the
     current  directory  into  a mailbox file with that name.  If a file by that
     name already exists, a new file with a unique  name  such	as  "tcl-list.1"
     will be created:

	  recomposemail tcl-list

     Combine  the  email  messages  in the current directory that match the mail
     file suffix pattern into mailbox files per each unique base name.	The mes-
     sages will be appended to any such pre-existing files.  The individual mes-
     sage files will not be deleted.  Progress will be verbosely reported:

	  recomposemail -akv

     Combine the email messages in the files with base names "bart" and  "sally"
     into  monthly  mailbox  files  per  base  name,  such  as	"bart.9801"  and
     "sally.9801".  If any such files already exist, they will be appended:

	  recomposemail -m bart sally

     Combine the email messages in the files with base name "ALERT" into monthly
     mailbox files in subdirectories, such as "9801/ALERT",  "9802/ALERT",  etc.
     If any such files already exist, they will be appended:

	  recomposemail -M ALERT

     Combine  the  email  messages  in	the  files  with base name "yomama" into
     monthly mailbox files in yearly subdirectories, such  as  "1998/yomama.01",
     "1998/yomama.02",	etc.   If any such files already exist, they will be ap-
     pended:

	  recomposemail -Ym yomama

FILES
     mbox.YYYYMMDD.hhmmss.nnnnn
		   Serialized individual email message files,  where  "mbox"  is
		   the	name  of the mailbox, "YYYYMMDD" is the year, month, and
		   day, "hhmmss" is the hour, minute, and second, and "nnnnn" is
		   a serial number.

DIAGNOSTICS
     Returns 0 if no problems encountered.
     Returns non-zero for any errors encountered.

BUGS
     recomposemail is slow.

     Due to command line length and argument limitations (implementation  depen-
     dent),  some of the system commands used in the script might fail when used
     with extremely large numbers of message files.

     Mailbox date divisions other than monthly and yearly, such as daily,  etc.,
     are currently not supported.

SEE ALSO
     decomposemail(1), sh(1), sortmail(1),
     "Toolman:	 Sorting and Archiving Email", ;login: magazine (USENIX Associa-
     tion), August 1998.

AUTHOR
     sortmail was written by Daniel E. Singer (a.k.a. Toolman) at the Department
     of Computer Science, Duke University.

Toolman 			12 September 1998		recomposemail(1)

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