On Mon, 27 Jul 1998 13:38:56 +0200,
"F(_at_)N" <fan(_at_)galeno(_dot_)unicies(_dot_)cesga(_dot_)es> wrote:
* ^Subject. *damocles
This means: Find Subject, followed by one arbitrary character except
newline, followed by zero or more spaces, followed by the literal
string "damocles".
* ^Subject.... *damocles
This means Subject:, four arbitrary characters, zero or more spaces,
"damocles".
I wish to find a word in the subject field, but not at the beginning of
the phrase. It can be in any position.
So you mean you want these to match:
Subject: about damocles
Subject: many words and damocles among them
but you don't want these to match:
Subject: damocles
Subject: damocles was here
Subject: Re: damocles was here
If that's correct, how about this? Should it match or not?
Subject: damocles damocles
If I have this correctly and we decide that the last example should be
allowed to match, try this:
* ^Subject:[ ]*(Re:[ ]*)?[^ ].*\<damocles\>
This says find Subject, followed by any amount of whitespace (the
characters between the brackets are one space and one tab, in any
order; the star, as usual, means zero or more of the preceding
expression); optionally the string "Re:" followed by more whitespace,
followed by a non-whitespace character, followed by zero or more
characters, followed by a non-alphabetic character, the string
damocles, and another non-alphabetic or newline. (As you may notice,
this actually requires at least two characters before "damocles". As
long as the first one isn't a space, you get a match. So it means you
will get matches on the following, too:
Subject: : damocles
Subject: ::damocles
I would imagine that this might not be a big problem in real life.)
If you want to exclude any string starting with "damocles", try this
instead:
* ^Subject:[ ]*(Re:[ ]*)?[^ ].*\<damocles\>
* ! ^Subject:[ ]*(Re:[ ]*)?damocles\>
This will match the same as before, but specifically exclude cases
where there is a "damocles" at the beginning of the Subject: (thus
excluding "Subject: damocles damocles" etc).
Hope this helps,
/* era */
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