I run an IMAP-based email system - it's a front-end-modded version of RoundCube. Every night I want to go into each user's mailbox and blow away a whole pile of their messages. Is it enough just to delete the actual file? I can open and scan it to figure whether it lives or dies .....
You need to provide more details. With IMAP people store their emails on the server, so they are not going to be happy if you delete them. If you want them to be deleted when they are downloaded, then you should use pop.
Trust me. In this webmail system the users have no problem with me managing the on-server messages. There are a lot of (broadcast) messages, they have short currency and the users don't always delete things. The system slows down if there are too many.
ianboag: Trust me. In this webmail system the users have no problem with me managing the on-server messages. There are a lot of (broadcast) messages, they have short currency and the users don't always delete things. The system slows down if there are too many.
The IMAP protocol covers the communication between client and server, I don't believe it dictates the backend storage of accounts or messages.
You should contact the vendor of the system and/or look at their documentation for how best to safely bulk remove messages before messing with their backend storage cowboy style.
Perhaps you should consider why email is being used for high frequency notifications instead of some other web technology better suited to it, rss/atom?
If you really want to do this it's not too hard to write program that connects to an account via IMAP and removes messages based on some critera (from, subject name) in most languages. The main issues are security based, in that you need a list of accounts and usernames/passwords that the program can use to access the email server.
What's the server environment: Linux/cron/python, Microsoft, other?
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