[imp] auto purge?

[Kent Martin]

>>>is there an option in imp to have messages be deleted and purged at once
>>>when the delete button is pressed?
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>No.
>>    
>>
>
>Back in the days of IMP 2.x I had hacked mailbox.php3 to include:
>
>imap_expunge($imp->stream);
>
>  
>

I have been faced with the same problem on IMAP servers that are 
accessed through multiple clients.  The obvious solution is to write a 
simple perl script or a judicious find command to clear out deleted 
messages over a certain age (ctime) - rather than forcing an expunge for 
every delete.  This has the virtue of allowing your more technical users 
to take advantage of two phase deletions, while keeping your userbase 
clear of the issue.  I find it unlikely that someone would leave 
something that they want to keep deleted but not expunged for more than 
a month for example.  (I am sure I have the script or whatever I wrote 
still lying around in a cron job somewhere if you want it).

The same thing would be a nice thing to have implemented as a login task 
for IMP - assuming IMAP allows commands like "expunge messages older 
than 30 days" - max deleted but not expunged time could be an 
administrative option.  Expunge on logout (forced by admin, or as a user 
pref) would also be nice (this may be in there somewhere, but I haven't 
seen it).

Regards,

Kent.