NAME¶
mark - manipulate message sequences
SYNOPSIS¶
mark
[+folder] [msgs] [-sequence name ...] [-add
| -delete] [-list] [-public | -nopublic]
[-zero | -nozero] [-version] [-help]
DESCRIPTION¶
The
mark command manipulates message sequences by adding or deleting
message numbers from folder-specific message sequences, or by listing those
sequences and messages.
A message sequence is a keyword, just like one of the “reserved”
message names, such as “first” or “next”. Unlike the
“reserved” message names, which have a fixed semantics on a
per-folder basis, the semantics of a message sequence may be defined,
modified, and removed by the user. Message sequences are folder-specific,
e.g., the sequence name “seen” in the context of folder
“
+inbox” need not have any relation whatsoever to the
sequence of the same name in a folder of a different name.
Three action switches direct the operation of
mark. These switches are
mutually exclusive: the last occurrence of any of them overrides any previous
occurrence of the other two.
The
-add switch tells
mark to add messages to sequences or to
create a new sequence. For each sequence named via the
-sequence
name argument (which must occur at least once) the messages named via
msgs (which defaults to “cur” if no
msgs are given),
are added to the sequence. The messages to be added need not be absent from
the sequence. If the
-zero switch is specified, the sequence will be
emptied prior to adding the messages. Hence,
-add -zero means
that each sequence should be initialized to the indicated messages, while
-add -nozero means that each sequence should be appended to by
the indicated messages.
The
-delete switch tells
mark to delete messages from sequences,
and is the dual of
-add. For each of the named sequences, the named
messages are removed from the sequence. These messages need not be already
present in the sequence. If the
-zero switch is specified, then all
messages in the folder are added to the sequence (first creating the sequence,
if necessary) before removing the messages. Hence,
-delete -zero
means that each sequence should contain all messages except those indicated,
while
-delete -nozero means that only the indicated messages
should be removed from each sequence. As expected, the command
“
mark -sequence foo -delete all”
deletes the sequence “foo” from the current folder.
When creating or modifying sequences, you can specify the switches
-public or
-nopublic to force the new or modified sequences to
be “public” or “private”. The switch
-public
indicates that the sequences should be made “public”. These
sequences will then be readable by all
nmh users with permission to
read the relevant folders. In contrast, the
-nopublic switch indicates
that the sequences should be made “private”, and will only be
accessible by you. If neither of these switches is specified, then existing
sequences will maintain their current status, and new sequences will default
to “public” if you have write permission for the relevant folder.
Check the
mh-sequence(5) man page for more details about the difference
between “public” and “private” sequences.
The
-list switch tells
mark to list both the sequences defined for
the folder and the messages associated with those sequences.
Mark will
list the name of each sequence given by
-sequence name and the
messages associated with that sequence. If the sequence is private, this will
also be indicated. If no sequence is specified by the
-sequence switch,
then all sequences for this folder will be listed. The
-zero switch
does not affect the operation of
-list.
The current restrictions on sequences are:
- •
- The name used to denote a message sequence must consist of
an alphabetic character followed by zero or more alphanumeric characters,
and cannot be one of the (reserved) message names “new”,
“first”, “last”, “all”,
“next”, or “prev”.
- •
- Only a certain number of sequences may be defined for a
given folder. This number is usually limited to 27 (11 on small systems).
(The internal implementation relies on bitmasks, with some bits set aside
for internal use.)
- •
- Message ranges with user-defined sequence names are
restricted to the form “name:n”, “name:+n”, or
“name:-n”, and refer to the first or last `n' messages of the
sequence `name', respectively. Constructs of the form
“name1-name2” are forbidden for user defined sequences.
FILES¶
^$HOME/.mhprofile~^The user profile
PROFILE COMPONENTS¶
^Path:~^To determine the user's nmh directory
^Current-Folder:~^To find the default current folder
SEE ALSO¶
flist(1),
pick(1),
mh-sequence(5)
DEFAULTS¶
`+folder' defaults to the current folder
`-add' if -sequence is specified, -list otherwise
`msgs' defaults to cur (or all if -list is specified)
`-nozero'
CONTEXT¶
If a folder is given, it will become the current folder.
HELPFUL HINTS¶
Use
flist to find folders with a given sequence, and “
pick
sequence -list” to enumerate those messages in the
sequence (such as for use by a shell script).