MMSG(7)

💌 MMSG(7) — mblaze message argument syntax 💌

okay bestie, so this is the mmsg page from the mblaze(7) message system manual fam — and listen, it's giving "how do I even point at a message" energy, because this doc literally outlines the message syntax used by many of the utilities in the mblaze(7) message system. no cap, this is the glow-up guide to saying "that one" in mblaze-speak. 🦋

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

okay so first thing first: this document outlines the message syntax used by many of the utilities in the mblaze(7) message system. like, it's the shared language, iykyk. 💅

🎀 filenames, folders, the basics 🎀

in general, you can always specify a filename as a message, if it contains a / character. yes, always — the slash is the vibe check that says "this is a file, bestie." (and use ./ to prefix messages in the current directory, because duh, we gotta be explicit sometimes.)

you can also specify a maildir folder, which will be expanded to all messages in the cur/ directory. iconic behavior honestly. 🌸

🌈 ranges — the start:stop situation 🌈

ranges have the format start:stop, where start and stop are one-based indexes into the sequence. one-based, not zero-based, don't come at me. 🫶

• negative numbers count from the end. slay.
• if start is the empty string, 1 will be used instead.
• if stop is the empty string, -1 will be used instead.
• thus, : represents the whole sequence. the whole entire thing. no notes. ✨
• if the range does not contain a :, it is considered to be a single message, equivalent to the range start:start of size one.
• the special notation start:+n selects start and the next n messages.

🧚 threading syntax — yes there's more 🧚

if the sequence is threaded, the following syntax may be used:

• msg= — refers to the whole thread that contains msg. the whole group chat basically. 👑
• msg^ — refers to the parent of the message msg, and may be repeated to refer to grandparents. (so msg^^ is grandparent energy, you get it.)
• msg_ — refers to the subthread headed by msg (i.e. all messages below msg, with more indentation).

💀 the special shortcuts 💀

the following special shortcuts may be used — memorize these, they're lowkey the whole point:

• - — refers to the message content read directly from the standard input.
• . — refers to the current message. additionally, the syntax .+N and .-N can be used to refer to messages relative to the current message.
• + — refers to the next message (like .+1)
• .- — refers to the previous message (like .-1)
• $ — refers to the last message (like -1)
• ^ — refers to the current parent message (like .^)
• = — refers to the current thread (like .=)
• _ — refers to the current subthread (like ._)

ok bestie real talk: these shortcuts are the main character energy of mblaze. - pulls straight from stdin, . is "where am I rn", and the rest are just relative-vibe navigation. go off. 🔥

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🌟 SEE ALSO 🌟

mblaze(7) — go read that one too, it's the parent manual and it eats. 💖

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👑 AUTHORS 👑

Leah Neukirchen <leah@vuxu.org> — an absolute icon, fr fr. 🎀

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anyway that's the whole page, bestie — mmsg syntax mastered, periodt. 🦋✨

🍓 cute little sign-off: this one's from the Debian packaging of the mblaze manual, dated July 3, 2020 — so yeah, vintage but still slaying. mwah 💋