1MARK(1) General Commands Manual MARK(1)
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6 mark - manipulate nmh message sequences
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9 mark [-help] [-version] [+folder] [msgs] [-sequence name ...] [-add |
10 -delete | -list] [-public | -nopublic] [-zero | -nozero] [-empty |
11 -noempty] [-range | -norange]
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14 The mark command manipulates message sequences by adding or deleting
15 message numbers from folder-specific message sequences, or by listing
16 those sequences and messages.
17 A message sequence is a keyword, just like one of the “reserved” mes‐
19 sage names, such as “first” or “next”. Unlike the “reserved” message
20 names, which have a fixed semantics on a per-folder basis, the seman‐
21 tics of a message sequence may be defined, modified, and removed by the
22 user. Message sequences are folder-specific, e.g., the sequence name
23 “seen” in the context of folder “+inbox” need not have any relation
24 whatsoever to the sequence of the same name in a folder of a different
25 name.
26 Three action switches direct the operation of mark. These switches are
28 mutually exclusive: the last occurrence of any of them overrides any
29 previous occurrence of the other two.
30 The -add switch tells mark to add messages to sequences or to create a
32 new sequence. For each sequence named via the -sequence name argument
33 (which must occur at least once) the messages named via msgs (which de‐
34 faults to “cur” if no msgs are given), are added to the sequence. The
35 messages to be added need not be absent from the sequence. If the
36 -zero switch is specified, the sequence will be emptied prior to adding
37 the messages. Hence, -add -zero means that each sequence should be
38 initialized to the indicated messages, while -add -nozero means that
39 each sequence should be appended to by the indicated messages. The
40 -empty switch does not affect the operation of -add.
41 The -delete switch tells mark to delete messages from sequences, and is
43 the dual of -add. For each of the named sequences, the named messages
44 are removed from the sequence. These messages need not be already
45 present in the sequence. If the -zero switch is specified, then all
46 messages in the folder are added to the sequence (first creating the
47 sequence, if necessary) before removing the messages. Hence, -delete
48 -zero means that each sequence should contain all messages except those
49 indicated, while -delete -nozero means that only the indicated messages
50 should be removed from each sequence. As expected, the command “mark
51 -sequence foo -delete all” empties the sequence “foo”, and therefore
52 removes that sequence from the current folder's list of sequences. Se‐
53 quence foo must exist or a “no such sequence” error results. This can
54 be avoided by adding -zero: “mark -sequence foo -delete -zero all” en‐
55 sures sequence foo no longer exists. The -empty switch does not affect
56 the operation of -delete.
57 When creating or modifying sequences, you can specify the switches
59 -public or -nopublic to force the new or modified sequences to be “pub‐
60 lic” or “private”. The switch -public indicates that the sequences
61 should be made “public”. These sequences will then be readable by all
62 nmh users with permission to read the relevant folders. In contrast,
63 the -nopublic switch indicates that the sequences should be made “pri‐
64 vate”, and will only be accessible by you. If neither of these
65 switches is specified, then existing sequences will maintain their cur‐
66 rent status, and new sequences will default to “public” if you have
67 write permission for the relevant folder. Check mh-sequence(5) for
68 more details about the difference between “public” and “private” se‐
69 quences.
70 The -list switch tells mark to list all sequences, and the messages as‐
72 sociated with them. The output can be limited to just certain se‐
73 quences (with -sequence switches) and/or messages (with msgs argu‐
74 ments). Normally, -list will show all sequences associated with the
75 folder, or all sequences given with -sequence. Using -noempty will
76 suppress any which would show as empty, whether because they actually
77 are empty, or because they don't include any of the given msgs, or be‐
78 cause they've been specified with -sequence but don't exist. (-empty
79 is the default.) With the default -range switch, mark will compress
80 consecutive runs of message numbers to save space. That is, "3 4 5 6"
81 will be shown as the range "3-6". With -norange, lists will be fully
82 enumerated. The -zero switch does not affect the operation of -list.
83 The restrictions on sequences are:
85 • The name used to denote a message sequence must consist of an alpha‐
87 betic character followed by zero or more alphanumeric characters, and
88 cannot be one of the (reserved) message names “new”, “first”, “last”,
89 “all”, “next”, or “prev”.
90 • Message ranges with user-defined sequence names are restricted to the
92 form “name:n”, “name:+n”, or “name:-n”, and refer to the first or
93 last `n' messages of the sequence `name'. If `=' is substituted for
94 `:', these forms will instead refer to single messages positioned `n'
95 away from one end or the other of the sequence. Constructs of the
96 form “name1-name2” are forbidden for user defined sequences.
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99 $HOME/.mh_profile The user's profile.
100
102 Path: To determine the user's nmh directory.
103 Current-Folder: To find the default current folder.
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106 flist(1), pick(1), mh-sequence(5)
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109 +folder The current folder.
110 -add If -sequence is specified, -list otherwise.
111 msgs The current message, or all if -list is specified.
112 -nozero
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115 If a folder is given, it will become the current folder.
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118 Use flist to find folders with a given sequence, and “pick sequence
119 -list” to enumerate those messages in the sequence (such as for use by
120 a shell script).
121nmh-1.8 2021-05-01 MARK(1)