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

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.

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.