PUBLIC-INBOX-EDIT(1)       public-inbox user manual       PUBLIC-INBOX-EDIT(1)

NAME
       public-inbox-edit - destructively edit messages in a public inbox

SYNOPSIS
               public-inbox-edit -m MESSAGE-ID --all|INBOX_DIR

               public-inbox-edit -F RAW_FILE --all|INBOX_DIR [.. INBOX_DIR]

DESCRIPTION
       public-inbox-edit allows editing messages in a given inbox to remove
       sensitive information.  It is only intended as a last resort, as it
       will cause discontiguous git history and draw more attention to the
       sensitive data in mirrors.

OPTIONS
       --all
           Edit the message in all inboxes configured in
           ~/.public-inbox/config.  This is an alternative to specifying
           individual inboxes directories on the command-line.

       -m MESSAGE-ID
           Edits the message corresponding to the given "MESSAGE-ID".  If the
           "MESSAGE-ID" is ambiguous, "--force" or using the "--file" of the
           original will be required.

       -F FILE
           Edits the message corresponding to the Message-ID: header and
           content given in "FILE".  This requires the unmodified raw message,
           and the contents of "FILE" will not itself be modified.  This is
           useful if a Message-ID is ambiguous due to filtering/munging rules
           or other edits.

       --force
           Forcibly perform the edit even if Message-ID is ambiguous.

       --raw
           Do not perform "From " line escaping.  By default, this generates a
           mboxrd variant file to detect unpurged messages in the new mbox.
           This makes sense if your configured "publicinbox.mailEditor" is a
           regular editor and not something like "mutt -f"

CONFIGURATION
       publicinbox.mailEditor
               The command to perform the edit with.  An example of this would
               be "mutt -f", and the user would then use the facilities in
               mutt(1) to edit the mail.  This is useful for editing
               attachments or Base64-encoded emails which are more difficult
               to edit with a normal editor (configured via "GIT_EDITOR",
               "VISUAL" or "EDITOR").

               Default: none

ENVIRONMENT
       GIT_EDITOR / VISUAL / EDITOR
               public-inbox-edit will fall back to using one of these
               variables (in that order) if "publicinbox.mailEditor" is unset.

       PI_CONFIG
               The default config file, normally "~/.public-inbox/config".
               See public-inbox-config(5)

LIMITATIONS
       Only v2 repositories are supported.

       This is safe to run while normal inbox writing tools
       (public-inbox-mda(1), public-inbox-watch(1), public-inbox-learn(1)) are
       active.

       Running this in parallel with public-inbox-xcpdb(1) or
       "public-inbox-index --reindex" can lead to errors or edited data
       remaining indexed.

       Incremental public-inbox-index(1) (without "--reindex") is fine.

       Keep in mind this is a last resort, as it will be disruptive to anyone
       using git(1) to mirror the inbox being edited.

CONTACT
       Feedback welcome via plain-text mail to <mailto:meta@public-inbox.org>

       The mail archives are hosted at <https://public-inbox.org/meta/> and
       <http://4uok3hntl7oi7b4uf4rtfwefqeexfzil2w6kgk2jn5z2f764irre7byd.onion/meta/>

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright 2019-2021 all contributors <mailto:meta@public-inbox.org>

       License: AGPL-3.0+ <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.txt>

SEE ALSO
       public-inbox-purge(1)

public-inbox.git                  1993-10-02              PUBLIC-INBOX-EDIT(1)