Expiration Rules Guidelines (Sun Java System Messaging Server 6.3 Administration Guide)

Sun Java System Messaging Server 6.3 Administration Guide

Expiration Rules Guidelines

This section sets the guidelines for the store.expirerule file rules.

Note –

In earlier Messaging Server releases, expiration rules could be set with configutil parameters store.expirerule.attribute (see configutil Parameters in Sun Java System Messaging Server 6.3 Administration Reference.) This is still true, but expire rules using header constraints (example: expiring a message with a specific subject line) are not supported. Also, regular expressions in the expire rules created with configutil need to be POSIX compliant rules. If you want to use UNIX compliant regular expressions you will have to use the store.expire file. In addition, using both configutil options and the global store.expirerule configuration file is not supported. If the configuration file is present, configutil options are not used. In any case, it is best to use store.expirerule to specify all expiration rules.

Rules are specified in a file called store.expirerule.
Multiple expiration criteria can be specified with the same rule. (Example above.)
Rules can apply to the entire message store (global rules), a partition, a user, or a folder.
- The global rules are stored in msg-svr-base/config/store.expirerule
  
  Note –
  Each global rule will be checked against every mailbox, which can cause some processing overhead depending on the number of global rules you specify. For this reason, you should not specify partition, mailbox or user rules in the global rules file. In general, you should try not to put any more expiration rules than necessary in this file.
- Partition rules are stored in store_root/partition/partition_name/store.expirerule.
- User rules are specified in store_root/partition/partition_name/userid/store.expirerule or by specifying the folderpattern rule to be user/userid/.*
- Folder rules are specified in store_root/partition/partition_name/userid/folder/store.expirerule or by specifying the folderpattern rule to be user/userid/folder
- Note that multiple non-global rules (user, folder, partition) using rule_name was only implemented in the Messaging Server 6.2p4 release and later.
Multiple expire rules can be applied to a mailbox at the same time. An expire policy for a mailbox consists of global rules and local rules. Local rules apply to the mailbox under the same directory and all of its sub-folders.
imexpire unifies all of the expiration rules applying to a mailbox, unless there is an exclusive rule specified for this mailbox (see Table 20–8). The resulting rule set represents the most restrictive expiration policy based on all applicable rules. For example, if rule X expires messages such that the maximum message life is 10 days, and rule Y specifies 5 days, the union will be 5 days.

Table 20–8 imexpire Attributes


Attribute	Description (Attribute Value)
`action`	Specifies an action to perform on the messages caught by the expire rules. The possible values are: `discard` discards the message. This is the default. `report` action prints the mailbox name, uid-validity and uid to stdout. `archive` archives the message with Sun Compliance and Content Management System and then discards the message. `fileinto:` `folder` action folders the message into the specific folder. The shared folder prefix can be used to folder messages to folders owned by another user.
`exclusive`	Specifies whether or not this is an exclusive rule. If specified as `exclusive`, only this rule applies to the specified mailbox(s) and all other rules are ignored. If more than one exclusive rule exists, the last exclusive rule loaded will be used. For example, if a global and a local exclusive rule are specified, the local rule will be used. If there is more than one global exclusive rule, the last global rule listed by `configutil` is used. (`1`/`0`)
`folderpattern`	Specifies the folders affected by this rule. The format must start with a `user/`, which represents the directory `store_root/partition/*/` See Table 20–9. (POSIX regular expression)
`messagecount`	Maximum number of messages in a folder. Oldest messages are expunged as additional messages are delivered. (integer)
`foldersize`	Maximum size of folder before the oldest messages are expunged when additional messages are delivered. (integer in bytes)
`messagedays`	Number of days in the message store before being expunged. (integer)
`messagesize`	Maximum size of message in bytes before it is marked to be expunged. (integer)
`messagesizedays`	Grace period. Days an over-sized message should remain in a folder. (integer)
`messageheader.header`	Specifies a header field and string that marks a message for removal. Values are not case-sensitive and regular expressions are not recognized.Example: `Rule1.messageheader.Subject: Get Rich Now!` For the header Expires and Expiry-Date, `imexpire` will remove the message if the date value specified with these header fields is older than the `messagedays` attribute. If multiple expiration header fields are specified, the earliest expiration date will be used. (string).
`regexp`	Enable UNIX regular expressions in rules creation. (1 or 0). If not specified, IMAP expressions will be used.
`savedays`	Number of days the messages are saved in a folder until they are expunged.
`seen`	`seen` is a message status flag set by the system when the user opens a message. If the attribute `seen` is set to `and`, then the message must be seen and other criteria must be met before the rule is fulfilled. If the attribute `seen` is set to `or`, then the message only needs to be seen or another criteria be met before the rule is fulfilled. (`and/or`).
`sieve`	A Sieve rule specifying message selection criteria. Example: `Rule17.sieve: header :contains “Subject” “Vigara”`
`deleted`	`deleted` is a message status flag set by the system when the user deletes a message. If the attribute `deleted` is set to `and`, then the message must be deleted and another criteria must be met before the rule is fulfilled. If the attribute `deleted` is set to `or`, then the message only needs to be seen or another criteria be met before the rule is fulfilled. (and/or)