MARK(%manext1%)

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 appended to the sequence prior to 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 seen -delete all' deletes the sequence “seen” from the current folder. When creating (or modifying) a sequence, the `-public' switch indicates that the sequence should be made readable for other nmh users. In contrast, the `-nopublic' switch indicates that the sequence should be private to the user's nmh environment. 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 `-sequence' isn't used, all sequences will be listed, with private sequences being so indicated. 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 26 (10 on small systems). Message ranges with user-defined sequence names are restricted to the form “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.
^$HOME/.mh_profile~^The user profile ^Path:~^To determine the user's nmh directory ^Current-Folder:~^To find the default current folder flist(1), pick(1), mh-sequence(5) `+folder' defaults to the current folder `-add' if `-sequence' is specified, `-list' otherwise `msgs' defaults to cur (or all if `-list' is specified) `-nopublic' if the folder is read-only, `-public' otherwise `-nozero' If a folder is given, it will become the current folder. Use “pick sequence -list” to enumerate the messages in a sequence (such as for use by a shell script).