3.7.4 Movemail Usage Summary

     movemail [option...] inbox destfile [remote-password]

The first argument, inbox, is the url (see URL (Editor's note: dangling link)) of the source mailbox. The second argument, destfile, traditionally means destination file, i.e. the UNIX mailbox to copy messages to. However, mailutils movemail extends the meaning of this parameter. You may actually specify any valid URL as destfile parameter.¹. Finally, optional third argument is a traditional way of specifying user passwords for remote (POP or IMAP) mailboxes.

Following is the summary of available command line options:

--emacs

Output information used by Emacs rmail interface

--ignore-errors

Continue moving messages after an error occurs.

-p

--preserve

--keep-messages

Preserve the source mailbox

--program-id=fmt

Set program identifier for diagnostic purposes. See program-id, for a detailed discussion of this feature.

-r

--reverse

Reverse the sorting order

--tls[=bool]

Enable (default) or disable TLS support

-u

--uidl

Use UIDLs to avoid downloading the same message twice.

-P method-list

--owner=method-list

Define list of methods for setting ownership of the destination mailbox. See mailbox-ownership-methods, for a description of method-list. This option is useful only when running movemail as root.

-v

--verbose

Increase verbosity level.