Automatic deletion of emails with cron

[iorbita]

Hello,
I have to delete emails older than 90 days with a specific email subject.

Another solution would be to target emails that were previously moved to a specific folder, in this case the idea would be to target the folder concerned.

The cron script that is proposed in this thread seems to suit me, it’s just missing the specific subject to target or, in the other case, the specific folder to target.

Do you have a script to advise me? Many thanks.

Lorenzo

 

[cPanelLauren]

Hi @iorbita

Looking at that command it does indicate the specific folder that you'd be targeting:

/home/SERVER_LOGIN_USERNAME/mail/DOMAIN_NAME/MAIL_ACCOUNT_NAME/cur

It's removing mail from cur. You can change that to any one of the folders that are present in the mail directory for the domain for example:

find /home/%user/mail/example.com/mailuser/new -type f -mtime +90 -exec rm {} \;

This would remove all mail older than 90 days in /home/$user/mail/example.com/mailuser/new

Thanks!

 

[iorbita]

... thank you very much for your reply!

 

[cPanelLauren]

Hi @iorbita

You're very welcome, I'm glad I could help!

 

[spinge]

I don't know how to do with a specific subject, but here is the solution to delete Inbox emails older than the last 90 days on a daily rotating basis, and get Cpanel to also update your mailbox size (This does not happen automatically after just deleting the emails).

Assumption:
Let's assume that your email is [email protected] and your cpanel account is CPANELACCOUNTNAME

Solution:
Go to Cpanel > Advanced > Cron Jobs > Add New Cron Job >

a. Common Settings:
Once Per Day (0 0 * * *)

b. Command:

find /home/CPANELACCOUNTNAME/mail/DOMAIN.COM/EMAILNAME/ -type d \( -name cur -o -name new \) -exec find {} -mtime +90 -type f -delete \; -o -name maildirsize -delete

c. Click on 'Add new Cron Job'.

Done!

---
Similarly, to delete Trash emails older than 7 days on a daily rotating basis for the same user:

Solution:
Go to Cpanel > Advanced > Cron Jobs > Add New Cron Job >

a. Common Settings:
Once Per Day (0 0 * * *)

b. Command:

find /home/CPANELACCOUNTNAME/mail/DOMAIN.COM/EMAILNAME/.Trash/ -type d \( -name cur -o -name new \) -exec find {} -mtime +7 -type f -delete \;

c. Click on 'Add new Cron Job'.

Done!
---

Note:
mtime +90 = 90 days
mtime +7 = 7 days

Folder names and location for your reference:
Inbox = /home/CPANELACCOUNTNAME/mail/DOMAIN.COM/EMAILNAME/
Trash = /home/CPANELACCOUNTNAME/mail/DOMAIN.COM/EMAILNAME/.Trash/
Spam = /home/CPANELACCOUNTNAME/mail/DOMAIN.COM/EMAILNAME/.spam/
Junk = /home/CPANELACCOUNTNAME/mail/DOMAIN.COM/EMAILNAME/.Junk/
Sent = /home/CPANELACCOUNTNAME/mail/DOMAIN.COM/EMAILNAME/.Sent/
Draft = /home/CPANELACCOUNTNAME/mail/DOMAIN.COM/EMAILNAME/.Draft/

 

[iorbita]

... thank you Spinge for your participation in this discussion thread