[lug] grep as imap client?

[dan radom]

* Hugh Brown (hugh at math.byu.edu) wrote:
> 
> 
> On Fri, 4 Mar 2005, Ferdinand Schmid wrote:
> 
> > On Thursday 03 March 2005 01:14, Daniel Webb wrote:
> > <snip>
> > > How does this work?  Do they use the IMAP search features?  I have found
> > > IMAP searches to be unreasonably slow for a lot of large folders.  Or do
> > > they build a local index?  Are there any free solutions other than
> > > mairix that can search huge amounts of mail in a few seconds, and
> > > without needing a local copy of the mail?
> >
> > Many IMAP servers implement search functionality.  A smart IMAP client will
> > transmit the search request to the IMAP server and the server then performs
> > the search locally.  I believe you could view it as executing a search
> > command remotely.  This type integration works properly with Thunderbird,
> > Mozilla, kmail, mulberry, ...  The main developer of mulberry, Cyrus Daboo,
> > can actually tell you quite a bit about cyrus-imap ;)
> >
> > Ferdinand
> >
> 
> 
> The problem with the imap search functionality (based on my limited
> research) is that it is tied to an individual mailbox.  I've often wanted
> to search all of the subscribed folders (using grep foo *) or some such.
> I know evolution has the virtual folder functionality but it was pretty
> slow in the past and I've got users that want a terminal based option.
> 

this kind of action would be easily scriptable via a mutt (with imap
support) macro.

dan