MH-SEQUENCE(7mh)

💖 NAME 💖

mh-sequence — sequence specification for mh message system. (This is the mh-sequence(7mh) page, mmh-0.4 era, and it's lowkey essential, bestie. 🫶)

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

A sequence (or sequence set) is a symbolic name representing a message or collection of messages. mmh has several internally defined sequences, as well as allowing users to define their own sequences. (The way that sequences let you group messages? Iconic. 💅)

🌸 Message Specification and Pre-Defined Message Sequences 🌸

Most mmh commands accept a msg or msgs specification, where msg indicates one message and msgs indicates one or more messages. To designate a message, you may use either its number (e.g., 1, 10, 234) or one of these reserved message names:

• f — the first message in the folder
• p — the message numerically preceding c
• c — the most recently accessed message
• n — the message numerically following c
• l — the last message in the folder

In commands that take a msg argument, the default is c. (So if you're lazy, c is your bestie. 😌)

For example: In a folder containing five messages numbered 5, 10, 94, 177 and 325, f is 5 and l is 325. If c is 94, then p is 10 and n is 177. (Math? We love to see it. ✨)

The word msgs indicates that one or more messages may be specified. Such a specification consists of one message designation or of several message designations separated by spaces. A message designation consists either of a message name as defined above, or a message range.

A message range is specified as name1-name2 or name:i, where name, name1 and name2 are message names, and i is an integer.

The specification name1-name2 designates all currently existing messages from name1 to name2 inclusive. The reserved message name a (``all'') is a shorthand for the message range f-l.

• a — all messages in the folder (i.e. f-l)

The specification name:i designates up to i messages. These messages start with name if name is a message number or one of the reserved names f, c, or n. The messages end with name if name is p or l. The interpretation of i may be overridden by preceding i with a plus or minus sign; +i always means up to i messages starting with name, and -i always means up to i messages ending with name.

In commands which accept a msgs argument, the default is either c or a, depending on which makes more sense for each command (see the individual man pages for details). (Check the individual pages, bestie, iykyk. 👑)

Repeated specifications of the same message have the same effect as a single specification of the message.

There is also a special reserved message name b (``beyond'') which can be used with the mhpath command. It refers to the next (not yet used) message number after l.

• b — the next message number beyond l

🦋 User-Defined Message Sequences 🦋

In addition to the reserved (pre-defined) message names given above, mmh supports user-defined sequence names. User-defined sequences allow the mmh user a tremendous amount of power in dealing with groups of messages in the same folder by allowing the user to bind a group of messages to a meaningful symbolic name. (It's giving main character energy for your mailbox. 💖)

The name used to denote a message sequence must consist of an alphabetic character followed by zero or more alphanumeric characters, and can not be one of the reserved message names above. After defining a sequence, it can be used wherever an mmh command expects a msg or msgs argument.

Some forms of message ranges are allowed with user-defined sequences. The specification name:i may be used, and it designates up to the first i messages (or last i messages for -i) which are elements of the user-defined sequence name.

The specifications name:n and name:p may also be used, and they designate the next or previous message (relative to the current message) which is an element of the user-defined sequence name. The specifications name:f and name:l are equivalent to name:1 and name:-1, respectively. The specification name:c is not allowed (use just c instead). Note: The syntax of these message range specifications is subject to change in the future. (So don't get too attached, bestie. 🙈)

User-defined sequence names are specific to each folder. They are defined using the pick and mark commands.

🌈 Public and Private User-Defined Sequences 🌈

There are two varieties of user-defined sequences: public and private. Public sequences of a folder are accessible to any mmh user that can read that folder. They are kept in each folder in the file determined by the Mh-Sequences profile entry (default is .mh_sequences). Private sequences are accessible only to the mmh user that defined those sequences and are kept in the user's mh context file.

In general, the commands that create sequences (such as pick and mark) will create public sequences if the folder for which the sequences are being defined is writable by the mmh user. For most commands, this can be overridden by using the switches -public and -private. But if the folder is read-only, or if the Mh-Sequences profile entry is defined but empty, then private sequences will be created instead. (Read-only folders said "private only, periodt." 💅)

🎀 Sequence Negation 🎀

Mmh provides the ability to select all messages not elements of a user-defined sequence. A special string is used to preface an existing user-defined sequence name. This specification then refers to those messages not elements of the specified sequence name. The default negation prefix is the exclamation mark !, but it may be change to any string, by defining the entry Sequence-Negation in the mmh profile file. For example, if the profile entry is:

Sequence-Negation: not

then anytime an mmh command is given notfoo as a msg or msgs argument, it would substitute all messages that are not elements of the sequence foo.

Obviously, the user should beware of defining sequences with names that begin with the value of the Sequence-Negation profile entry. The default value ! was chosen due to its similar meaning in the C programming language, and because it cannot be part of a user-defined sequence. But if your shell provides history expansion, you might need to quote the exclamation mark (prefix it with a backslash).

To deactivate the negation mechanism, define Sequence-Negation in your profile to an empty value. (Empty value = bye bye negation. ✨)

💜 The Previous Sequence 💜

Mmh provides the ability to remember the msgs or msg argument last given to an mmh command. The entry Previous-Sequence should be defined in the mmh profile; its value should be a sequence name or multiple sequence names separated by spaces. If this entry is defined, when an mmh command finishes, it will define the sequence(s) named in the value of this entry to be those messages that were specified to the command. Hence, a profile entry of

Previous-Sequence: pseq

directs any mmh command that accepts a msg or msgs argument to define the sequence pseq as those messages when it finishes. (It's like a little memory keeper. 🧠)

Note: there can be a performance penalty in using the Previous-Sequence facility. If it is used, all mmh programs have to write the sequence information to the .mh_sequences file for the folder each time they run. If the Previous-Sequence profile entry is not included, only pick and mark will write to the .mh_sequences file. (So like, it's a trade-off, bestie. ⚖️)

🌟 The Unseen Sequence 🌟

Finally, the unseen sequence indicates which messages have not been previously seen by the user. The commands inc, rcvstore, show, and flist honor the sequence. Whenever new messages are placed in a folder (using inc or rcvstore), the new messages will also be added to the unseen sequence.

inc, for example, adds new messages to the unseen sequence. Unlike the behavior of the previous sequence, however, the unseen sequence will not be zeroed by inc.

Similarly, whenever show, next, or prev display a message, that message will be removed from the unseen sequence. (Seen it? Bye. 👋)

The default unseen sequence is named u. To change, define a Unseen-Sequence entry in your profile. It may also contain multiple sequence names, separated by spaces. In this case, anything that applied to a single unseen sequence, applies to multiple ones, too.

The unseen sequence mechanism is automatically activated. To deactivate it, define the Unseen-Sequence entry in your profile with an empty value.

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📁 FILES 📁

• $HOME/.mmh/profile — The user profile
• $HOME/.mmh/context — The user context
• <folder>/.mh_sequences — File for public sequences

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🛠️ PROFILE COMPONENTS 🛠️

• Mh-Sequences: — Name of file to store public sequences
• Sequence-Negation: — To designate messages not in a sequence
• Previous-Sequence: — The last message specification given
• Unseen-Sequence: — Those messages not yet seen by the user

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👀 SEE ALSO 👀

flist(1), mark(1), pick(1), mh-profile(5)

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🚫 DEFAULTS 🚫

None. (Literally none, bestie. Not a single default. 💀)

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That's the whole vibe! This was mmh-0.4, MH.6.8, dated 2019-01-06. Stay slay, bestie. 💅✨