Fix email maildir timestamps

fix-email-maildir-timestamps.sh

#!/bin/bash
# Fix emails with bad timestamps in a maildir
# This script reads the date from the email header and set its UNIX timestamp and renames it with the proper date
# e.g. this:
# dec.  05  2017 1512499812.M908995P21566.ip-111-11-11-11,S=16331,W=16746:2,S
# becomes that (the email Date header is "Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2013 10:07:21 +0100"):
# oct.  22  2013 1382432841.M908995P21566.ip-111-11-11-11,S=16331,W=16746:2,S

cd "/var/mail/[email protected]/MyMailDir/cur";

for i in `ls`
do
  # We extract the date from the email headers
  DATE=$(grep '^Date:' $i | head -1 | cut -d' ' -f1 --complement)

  # We compute a touch-compatible timestamp as well as the real timestamp
  TOUCHSTAMP=$(date --date="$DATE" +%Y%m%d%H%M)
  TIMESTAMP=$(date --date="$DATE" +%s)

  # We set the file timestamp
  touch -t $TOUCHSTAMP $i

  # We rename the file with preprending timestamp
  newfilename="$TIMESTAMP.${i#*.}"
  mv "$i" "$newfilename"
done

Fix emails with bad timestamps in a maildir
This script reads the date from the email header and set its UNIX timestamp and renames it with the proper date
e.g. this:
dec. 05 2017 1512499812.M908995P21566.ip-111-11-11-11,S=16331,W=16746:2,S
becomes that (the email Date header is "Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2013 10:07:21 +0100"):
oct. 22 2013 1382432841.M908995P21566.ip-111-11-11-11,S=16331,W=16746:2,S

Great! Helped me a lot!

The only thing i added was $(cat /dev/urandom | tr -dc 'a-zA-Z0-9' | fold -w 5 | head -n 1) at the end of the filename to append a random string. Just for the unlikely event of two mails with the same timestamp.

Credits for the Snippet go to: https://gist.github.com/earthgecko/3089509

The only thing i added was $(cat /dev/urandom | tr -dc 'a-zA-Z0-9' | fold -w 5 | head -n 1) at the end of the filename to append a random string. Just for the unlikely event of two mails with the same timestamp.

Hmm, that shouldn't be necessary - Maildir spec should provide uniqueness apart from the first part of the filename, which if that was the only part you would be correct..

See https://cr.yp.to/proto/maildir.html under Modern delivery identifiers