PACKF(1mh)

💖 PACKF 💖

okay bestie, gather round, because this one is literally the friend who helps you move 🫶 — packf takes copies of messages from an nmh folder and squishes them all into one single file. no cap. it's giving "cleanup era."

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

packf [-help] [-version] [+folder] [msgs] [-file name] [-mbox] [-mmdf]

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

So here's the vibe: packf will pack copies of messages from a folder, into a single file. copies, bestie — your originals stay exactly where they are, we're not touching them 💅

Now, the delimiter situation. that's the little line that separates messages in the file, and you get to pick the flavor:

• if you pass -mbox (which is the default, so it's already on if you say nothing), the messages get separated using mbox (uucp) style delimiters. this is the format most mail clients use (elm, mailx, etc.) — so it's the crowd-pleaser, the main character of formats 👑
• if you pass -mmdf instead, the messages get separated by mmdf style delimiters. and what does that look like? each message in the file is separated by four CTRL-A's and a newline. yes, four. that's not a typo, that's just mmdf's whole thing 🫠

You can tell it where to dump everything with the -file name switch. and if you don't name a file? it defaults to msgbox. cute, right?

Here's the part that's lowkey important, so pay attention bestie:

• if the file name you gave points to an existing file, then the specified messages will be appended to the end of the file — no overwriting, we're not monsters.
• otherwise the file will be created and the messages appended.

and now, the ✨delimiter lore✨. packf makes an mbox-style delimiter by examining the first line of the message:

1. if the first line is a Return-Path field, its address and the current date and time are used.
2. otherwise, if the first line has an X-Envelope-From field, its contents (which should already be in the correct format) are used.
3. otherwise, a dummy address and the current date and time are used. fallback queen 🙈

and the best part?? messages that are packed by packf can be unpacked using inc. reversible behavior, we love to see it 💖

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🎀 FILES 🎀

• $HOME/.mh_profile — The user profile

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🦋 PROFILE COMPONENTS 🦋

• Path: — To determine the user's nmh directory
• Current-Folder: — To find the default current folder
• Msg-Protect: — To set mode when creating a new file

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• inc(1)

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⭐ DEFAULTS ⭐

• +folder defaults to the current folder
• msgs defaults to all
• -mbox
• -file ./msgbox

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👑 CONTEXT 👑

If a folder is given, it will become the current folder. and the first message packed will become the current message. so yeah, it moves the spotlight, not just the mail 💅✨

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okay that's the whole page bestie, you're officially packf-pilled 🫶 this was brought to you by nmh-1.8, dated 1999-05-13 — yeah she's been iconic since the 90s and she's still serving 💖 periodt.