safe to modify messages stored in filesystem

[David Mansfield]

Hi All:

Would it be "safe" to modify the message files in the /var/spool/imap 
directory, say to strip out attachments?

Could it be done "online" or would I need to shut down the imapd 
temporarily?

Or should it be done via IMAP protocol?  I'd be afraid of losing 
internaldate or uid or something and having people's mailboxes go 
squirrelly.

Assuming some indexes are out-of-sync, would "reconstruct" be helpful? 
I need to avoid blowing away seen/deleted/flagged flags etc.

I'd like to de-duplicate attachments by removing them from the stored 
email, (storing them in another location), then modifying the message to 
indicate what attachments were stripped and where to find them.

This is against about 10 years of accumulated cruft in user's mailboxes, 
not against incoming messages.

-- 
Thanks,
David Mansfield
Cobite INC.