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Re: "already read" bit set on processed messages

1997-04-29 11:28:00
Stan Ryckman wrote in reply to my suggestions for Ralph Sims:

| 3a. Check out "mutt".

That's more of a 2a than a 3a; mutt comes under my general suggestion of
using a different MUA.  (Or maybe I didn't say that at all, come to think
of it?  In that case, using another MUA is Stan's own #5, and he gave mutt
as an example.)

| 3b. If the environment variable MAIL is set, elm will use that as the
| default box and show the "N" flag.  This is at best awkward, because
| changing folders means exiting elm, changing the value of MAIL, and
| re-entering elm.

Ah, yes, I should have mentioned that (since I do it myself for a different
reason).

Yes, Elm shows "N" flags in whatever folder the MAIL environmental variable
points to, not necessarily your system mailbox.  You can still change folders
within Elm, but the other folders won't show "N" flags unless you exit Elm
as Stan said, redefine MAIL, and reenter Elm.

| You can, of course, hide this in a script.

Running it from a script still requires exiting Elm before running the
script.  Calling the script from a shell-out prompt within Elm will not
really do the trick.

Moreover, Elm will lock only the folder named in $MAIL.  (It assumes that
only it and the MDA modify mailboxes, and that the MDA modifies only $MAIL,
so changes to other folders don't need locks.  That's incompatible even with
Elm's own filter utility!)  If you resynchronize another folder or exit it
with messages marked for deletion, or if you save or copy messages to a
folder other than $MAIL, Elm will do no checking to see if something else is
writing to the same folder at the same time.  The common patches for Elm
don't allow for that, only for "N" flags on all index screens; the upgrades
promised for Elm 2.5 do take care of locking, however.

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