Remove empty folders in offlineimap
###################################
:date: 2019-01-31 16:00
:tags: offlineimap


Offlineimap becomes quite slow when you have so many (empty folders), this is
how you can delete them.

The blog post is based on a (now offline) article_ by Matt Palma.

**Disclaimer:**

Besure to double and triple check every command, actions on the remote
are permanent.
If you want to read more about the dangers of deleting stuff, read the
Matt Palmers article_.

Find all empty folders
----------------------

.. code-block:: bash

  cd Mail/ # or wherever you put your Mails
  for i in INBOX.*; do find "$i" -type f | grep -q "$i" || \
    (echo "$i" ); done >/tmp/empties
  cat /tmp/empties

Review the file list

Remove empty folders locally
----------------------------
.. code-block:: bash

    cat /tmp/empties | while read i ;do
      rm -rvf "$i"
    done

The code snippet supports folders with spaces.

Remove empty folders via offlineimap remotely
---------------------------------------------
This is where we use offlineimap instead of logging into the remote server.

.. code-block:: bash

    cat /tmp/empties | while read i ;do
      offlineimap --delete-folder "$i"
    done

.. _article: https://web.archive.org/web/20160810001943/http://www.hezmatt.org/~mpalmer/blog/2007/06/03/offlineimap-and-deleting-folders.html