ARBITRON(8)

📦
version 3.12.4 · 6 versions
, in fedora 44

💖 ARBITRON 💖

okay bestie, so this is arbitron — it lives in the Cyrus IMAP docs and it's basically the server's lil gossip column. it reports readership statistics for mailboxes on the server. like, who's actually opening the mail, who's just subscribed and lurking. 👀

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

arbitron [ -C config-file ] [ -o ] [ -u ] [ -l ] [ -p months ]
         [ -d days | -D mmddyyyy[:mmddyyyy] ] mailbox...

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so arbitron collects and reports readership statistics for mailboxes on the server. she's a double threat. and if you want, she'll also prune the mailboxes of \Seen state for dormant users — like cleaning out the ghosts of people who haven't peeked in forever. 💀

arbitron spits out one line of output per mailbox, and the format goes like this:

  • the mailbox name, then
  • a space, then
  • the number of readers (and if -u is specified, then a colon and a comma-separated list of the reader's user IDs), then
  • if -o is not specified: another space and the number of subscribers (and if -u is specified, then a colon and a comma-separated list of the subscribers' userids).
IMPORTANT: This format is subject to change in future versions. so like, don't hardcode your parser to it, bestie, it might glow up differently later. 😭

each "reader" is a distinct authorization identity which has the s right to the mailbox and which has SELECTed the mailbox within either the past -d days or the specified -D date[:range].

and here's the cute part: users are not counted as reading their own personal mail‐boxes. personal mailboxes are not reported unless there is at least one reader other than the mailbox's owner. no self-credit, periodt. 💅

arbitron reads its configuration options out of the imapd.conf(5) file unless specified otherwise by -C.

👑 OPTIONS 👑

  • -C config-file — use the specified configuration file config-file rather than the default imapd.conf(5).
  • -D mmddyyyy[:mmddyyyy], --date=mmddyyyy[:mmddyyyy] — count as a reader an authorization identity which has used the mailbox within the given date range.

the start date and optionally the end date are specified as 2-digit month of the year, 2-digit day of the month, and 4-digit year.

if the end date is not specified, the current system time will be used as the end time.

NOTE: Please note that the date notation is American [mmddyyyy] not [ddmmyyyy]. so like 04012015 is April 1st, not January 4th. do not get this wrong, i am begging you 🙈
  • -d days, --days=days — count as a reader an authorization identity which has used the mailbox within the past days days.
  • -l, --detailed — enable long reporting (comma delimited table consisting of mbox, userid, r/s, start time, end time).
  • -o, --no-subscribers — report "the old way" — not including subscribers.
  • -p months, --prune-seen=months — prune \Seen state for users who have not used the mailbox within the past months months. The default is infinity. (yes literally infinity, she is patient 🧚)
  • -u, --include-userids — include userids of mailbox readers in the report. If the report will contain mailbox subscribers (see --no-subscribers), also include userids of the subscribers.

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

arbitron -l
Long-format list.
arbitron -o
Old format (no subscribers) short list.
arbitron
Normal short list.
arbitron -d 14
Normal short list format for the past 14 days.
arbitron -D 04012015:04152015
Normal short list Within date range of 12 - 15 April, 2015.

🎀 FILES 🎀

  • /etc/imapd.conf

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

💜 AUTHOR 💜

The Cyrus Team, Nic Bernstein (Onlight), Jeroen van Meeuwen (Kolab Systems)

1993–2026, The Cyrus Team

and that's the whole vibe check, bestie 🫶 this was Cyrus IMAP version 3.12.4, dated Sep 09, 2026 — go read some mailboxes, slay, and remember: American dates only, no cap. 💅✨

📦 where this page comes from