Is it possible to partially empty trash?

I don't use Evolution. But I guess, you can do the following:

1: Mark all the messages you'll delete
2: Click the Delete key on the keyboard (or maybe you can delete the files by clicking the right mouse button).

Hope it helps.
Peter

Wish that were true, but no, neither of those methods work.

Change to Thunderbird and it will work *lol.
Peter

haha, now please, if I could get a real answer, that would certainly be appreciated.

Ok, I'll keep my fingers crossed. But I guess, you can't get another kind of answer. Because my suggestion is the normal way - independently of the application.
Peter

No Peter, your suggestion is not the normal way. It is you being completely unhelpful in allowing me to get an actual answer, so please, don't reply to this any more. Thanks, but I'd like to move on now, rather than spend my time constantly hitting the I Still Need An Answer button.

Sorry to suggest the obvious, but the trash is really for things you want to delete, not to keep. I have had a similar discussion with my father (he uses Windows) because he likes to store his messages in the trash so they don't clutter up his inbox. The intended use of the trash is to catch things you didn't mean to delete and restore them. If you want to keep things without delete them, I suggest creating a separate folder (call it whatever makes sense to you, "keepers" is what I picked) and restore the emails you want to keep, move them to this folder instead.

This should work for any email program or any OS...

Hopefully, that is a solution you can live with?

Well, no Scott, it's not a solution at all. However, if the answer is "it can't be done", then that I can live with, because I have to live with it.

I didn't mean for this to turn into a philosophical debate about whether or not trash should be saved or not. Trash is trash, but that doesn't mean one doesn't occasionally discover that one might actually need something that one threw away. I like to keep my trash around for a while, "just in case", but I intend to eventually empty the trash. In the meantime, there are some things that I'm absolutely positive are stinky, filthy garbage, and I'd like to incinerate them, as it were.

Perhaps what is "obvious" to me and your father, is a different kind of "obvious" than what it is for you and others. But I'm not looking to debate what's right or obvious. Just looking for a simple "yes, it can be done and here's how" or "no, it cannot be done". So, I'm not looking for "solutions" that say to use a different program, or don't delete things, put them elsewhere. The only "solution" I'm looking for is how to partially empty the trash. If such a solution does not exist, then that will be the answer, whether I like it or not. But at least it will be an actual answer.

The reason I suggest not using the trash to store messages you want to keep, is because of what happened to my father. He asked me for help using his email (he is still new using computers) and I thought I was being helpful when I emptied his trash, forever losing all his "important" emails. How was I to know? I showed how to save messages in a folder instead, but I secretly think he still uses his trash because deleting a message from the inbox is easier than saving it to a folder, at least I tried... :)

As to whether it is possible to do it in Evolution, I would have to play around but I am not on my Ubuntu machine (at work on Windows).... as you suggested in your original question, perhaps this belongs on the wishlist for new features...

Looks like others have similar issues, but it seems as though Evolutions is designed so that there isn't an actual "Trash" folder, it is a virtual folder showing emails marked for deletion.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=633598
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=116465

If I can, I will test this later today when I get home (6 hours from now) and if I find a workaround, I will post it here.

I did some more research.

As I found out earlier, the emails aren't actually "moved" to trash, instead they are marked for deletion and hidden. You can see this by un-selecting View->Hide Deleted Messages and the deleted messages should reappear in their original folders.

Therefore, another possible solution (not much better than my previous suggestion, I agree) is to move the messages you really want to delete into their own folder, select that folder and expunge just that folder (or Ctrl-E), this way you can selectively delete messages without deleting everything in Trash...

Thanks Scott for some real answers. Much appreciated.

1. Create a new mail folder called Not Deleted
2. Select and copy the files in your Deleted folder that you want to keep (they may not show up in the Not Deleted folder at first).
3. Now go to the Deleted folder (with all the files you want to remove) and use Ctrl-E to expunge
4, If you get a message to the effect the Expunge cannot be done, do this:
   a. Go to Home folder - View- and tick the box marked Show Hidden Files
   b. In the hidden files (start with .) find .evolution, then mail then local.
   c. Look for the file called folders.db and rename it as something else, like Rubbish.db
   d. Close Evolution, then restart. You should now be able to use the expunge action.
   e. Delete teh rubbish.db file - Evolution will have created a new folders.db file.