GNU Mailutils Manual (split by node):   Section:   Chapter:FastBack: Programs   Up: mailutils dbm   FastForward: Libraries   Contents: Table of ContentsIndex: Function Index

3.20.12.3 Delete Records

To delete records, use the delete subcommand. It reads a list of keys to delete to be specified as arguments in the command line:

mailutils dbm delete file.db foo bar

The command above will delete from file.db records with keys ‘foo’ and ‘bar’.

It is not an error to attempt to delete a key that does not exist in the database, although such use will produce a warning message.

By default, keys are matched literally. It is also possible to use various pattern matching techniques, depending on the option specified.

The --glob (-G) option instructs the tool to use UNIX globbing pattern matching. For example, the command below will delete all keys starting with ‘foo’ and ending with a decimal digit:

mailutils dbm delete file.db 'foo*[0-9]'

(note the quoting necessary to prevent shell from interpreting the metacharacters itself).

Another option, --regex (-R) instructs mailutils to treat supplied keys as extended regular expressions:

mailutils dbm delete --regex file.db 'foo.*[0-9]{1,3}'

Both options are affected by the --ignore-case (-i) option, which turns on case-insensitive matching.

Using pattern matching to delete records can be a risky operation as selecting a wrong pattern will lead to removing wrong records. It is recommended to first use the list mode described below to verify that the patterns match the right keys.

GNU Mailutils Manual (split by node):   Section:   Chapter:FastBack: Programs   Up: mailutils dbm   FastForward: Libraries   Contents: Table of ContentsIndex: Function Index