Delete mails via cli based on date

It then uses zmmailbox to search for emails meeting the criteria that you put in the variables, uses sed to trim and create a temp file containing the messageID of the messages to delete, then uses zmmailbox again to parse the temp file, and delete the messageIDs.

I've found that even though I've set the search -l to 100000, it only deletes approx 2500 at a time. I'm not sure why. That's why it prompts for a loop in the end.

Remember to su to zimbra.

Feel free to rip me apart for my week skills. I'm sure there is plenty of room for improvement, and I'd like to hear it.

Here it is:

#!/bin/bash
#version .1
#

ZIMBRA_BIN=/opt/zimbra/bin
echo "Enter the username.:"
read THEACCOUNT

echo "Enter the time that you would like to delete messages up to, in mm/dd/yy format. Example 04/10/09:"
read THEDATE

echo "What folder would you like to delete these messages from?:"
read THEFOLDER

echo "You will now be deleting Messages from the $THEFOLDER folder up to $THEDATE for $THEACCOUNT."
echo "Do you want to continue? (y/N): "
read ADD

themagic ()
{
touch /tmp/deleteOldMessagesList.txt
for i in `$ZIMBRA_BIN/zmmailbox -z -m $THEACCOUNT search -l 100000 "in:/$THEFOLDER (before:$THEDATE)" | grep conv | sed -e "s/^\s\s*//" | sed -e "s/\s\s*/ /g" | cut -d" " -f2`
do
if [[ $i =~ [-]{1} ]]
then
MESSAGEID=${i#-}
echo "deleteMessage $MESSAGEID" >> /tmp/deleteOldMessagesList.txt
else
echo "deleteConversation $i" >> /tmp/deleteOldMessagesList.txt
fi
done

$ZIMBRA_BIN/zmmailbox -z -m $THEACCOUNT < /tmp/deleteOldMessagesList.txt >> /tmp/process.log
rm -f /tmp/deleteOldMessagesList.txt
echo "Completed. Run again for same user?"
read ADD
}


while expr "$ADD" : ' *[Yy].*'
do themagic
done