Using the thunderbird command-line, how can I open a specific email by message-id?

Question

Thunderbird 24.2.0 has a -mail command-line parameter, with which a specific mail can be opened from the command line:

$ thunderbird --help
-mail <URL>        Open the message specified by this URL.

I know that one can use this function to open a specific email by an imap:// URI, but I would like to be able to open a specific mail by its unique Message-ID, no matter which folder contains it. Is this possible, and if so, what does the URI look like?

The thunderlink add-on ( https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/thunderbird/addon/thunderlink/ ) can create message-id based links to emails and then open these with the -thunderlink parameter, but I would still like to know if this can be done with just the -mail parameter.

Answer 1

Update 2021-03-18: The bug mentioned below has been fixed with Thunderbird version 78.8.1. No adjustments are necessary to open mails from the command line using thunderbird.exe -mail <URL>.

---

Opening messages with the -mail command line parameter is still possible with a current Thunderbird version (tested on Windows 10 with version 78.6.0, 32-bit).

However, this requires a small change of the module MailNewsCommandLineHandler.jsm, because otherwise a getter-only error occurs when calling the -mail command. The error can be traced via the Thunderbird error console (see below).

Adjusting the module:

1. Copy the file c:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Thunderbird\omni.ja into a temporary directory, rename the file to omni.zip and unpack it.

2. Open MailNewsCommandLineHandler.jsm, insert

   set _messenger(value) {
       return value;
   }, 
   

   after line 22 and save the file.

3. Repack all files using the following parameters: zip.exe -0DXqr omni.ja *. Rename the original file to omni.ja.bak and copy the repacked file to c:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Thunderbird.

4. Messages can then be opened using the following command lines:

   thunderbird.exe -mail "mailbox-message://<folderLocation>#<messageKey>" (for local folders)
   thunderbird.exe -mail "imap-message://<folderLocation>#<messageKey>" (for IMAP folders)
   

Finding the right URL:

• Error console: Open TB, select a message and open the error console (Ctrl + Shift + J). Enter the line

  var hdr = gFolderDisplay.selectedMessage; alert(hdr.folder.getUriForMsg(hdr));
  

  and press enter. This will open a window with the URL for the selected message.

• SQLite database: If you plan to build your own search tool (e.g. by writing a Python plugin for the Wox desktop launcher), it is perhaps best to create the URLs dynamically.

  The Thunderbird database can be found under %APPDATA%\Thunderbird\Profiles\<profile>\global-messages-db.sqlite. The tables messagesText_content, messages and folderLocations contain all information needed to assemble the URL strings.

  A simple Python script that can be used to generate the URLs might look something like this:

  import sqlite3
  import re
  import sys
  import os
  import json
  
  # Replace db_path with your profile location
  # (Help > Troubleshooting Information > Open Folder)
  db_path = r"%APPDATA%\Thunderbird\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default"
  
  con = sqlite3.connect(os.path.join(db_path, "global-messages-db.sqlite"))
  cursor = con.cursor()
  
  query = """
      SELECT messagesText_content.*, 
             strftime('%Y-%m-%d, %H:%M', 
                      DATETIME(messages.date/1000000, 
                      "unixepoch", "localtime")),
             messages.folderID,
             messages.messageKey
      FROM messagesText_content
      JOIN messages ON messages.id=messagesText_content.docid
      WHERE messagesText_content.c3author NOT LIKE "%daemon%"
      OR messagesText_content.c3author NOT LIKE "%DAEMON%"
      ORDER BY messages.date DESC
      """
  
  def get_messages():
      messages = []
      cursor.execute(query)
      for i in cursor:
          messages.append({
              "text": i[1] if i[1] else "",
              "subject": i[2], 
              "attachments": f'attach:{i[3]}' if i[3] else "",
              "sender": i[4], 
              "receiver": i[5], 
              "date": i[6], 
              "folder_id": i[7],
              "message_key": i[8]
              })
      return messages
  
  def get_folders():
      cursor.execute("SELECT * FROM folderLocations")
      return {i[0]: i[1:] for i in cursor.fetchall()}
  
  def collect_urls(terms):
      r1 = "(mailbox|imap)(?=://)"
      r2 = "\\1-message"
      messages = get_messages()
      folders = get_folders()
      results = {}
      for msg in messages:
          msg_str = str(msg.values()).lower()
          if all(i.lower() in msg_str for i in terms):
              folder = folders.get(msg["folder_id"])[0]
              url = re.sub(r1, r2, folder)
              url = f'{url}#{msg["message_key"]}'
              msg["text"] = msg["text"][:50]
              results.update({url: msg})
      return json.dumps(
          results, 
          indent=4,
          ensure_ascii=False
          )
  
  if __name__ == "__main__":
      if len(sys.argv) > 1:
          print(collect_urls(sys.argv[1:]))
  

  Just use it like so:

   <C:\>python collect_urls.py search terms test message
  
   {
       "imap-message://a%40b.cd@imap.provider.com/INBOX#28649": {
           "text": "Test message contains search terms",
           "subject": "Test message",
           "attachments": "",
           "sender": "John Doe <e@f.gh>",
           "receiver": "i@j.kl",
           "date": "2022-10-02, 14:20",
           "folder_id": 607,
           "message_key": 28649
       }
   }
  

Answer 2

... for anyone still searching for a solution...
The following command worked for me (thunderbird 102.6.1):

thunderbird mid:<the message ID>

To make this nice and easy:

1. make sure the "thunderbird" command is in PATH (e.g. you can execute it in a terminal)
2. install copy message ID AddOn
3. in the preferences add the following prefix: thunderbird mid:
   (make sure that there are no spaces before and after!)
4. open an email and click the Copy Message ID button
5. run the copied command in a terminal to open the mail