![[BACK]](/cvsweb/icons/back.gif){kind=icon}
Return to pick.rf CVS log ![[TXT]](/cvsweb/icons/text.gif){kind=icon}
![[DIR]](/cvsweb/icons/dir.gif){kind=icon}
Up to [CSRG BSD Unix] / 43BSDReno / contrib / mh / conf / doc|
Return to pick.rf CVS log | Up to [CSRG BSD Unix] / 43BSDReno / contrib / mh / conf / doc |
1.1 root 1: .\" @(MHWARNING)
2: .TH PICK 1 "April 22, 1986" MH [mh.6]
3: .UC 6
4: .SH NAME
5: pick \- select messages by content
6: .SH SYNOPSIS
7: .in +.5i
8: .ti -.5i
9: .ie t \{\
10: .ta .4i 1.8i
11: .nf
12: .in .5i
13: ^pick~^^\0\-cc~^ \%[+folder] \%[msgs] \%[\-help]
14: ^^^\0\-date~^ \%[\-before\ date] \%[\-after\ date] \%[\-datefield\ field]
15: ^^^\0\-from~^
16: ^^^\s+2\b'\(lt\(bv\(bv\(lk\(bv\(bv\(lb'\s0\-search~\s+2\b'\(rt\(bv\(bv\(rk\(bv\(bv\(rb'\s0^ pattern \%[\-and\ ...] \%[\-or\ ...] \%[\-not\ ...] \%[\-lbrace\ ...\ \-rbrace]
17: ^^^\0\-subject~^
18: ^^^\0\-to~^ \%[\-sequence\ name\ ...] \%[\-public] \%[\-nopublic] \%[\-zero] \%[\-nozero]
19: ^^^\0\-\|\-component~^ \%[\-list] \%[\-nolist]
20: .fi
21: .re
22: .in 1i
23: .\}
24: .el \{\
25: .ti .5i
26: pick
27: \%[+folder] \%[msgs]
28: \%[\-and\ ...] \%[\-or\ ...] \%[\-not\ ...] \%[\-lbrace\ ...\ \-rbrace]
29: \%[\-\|\-component\ pattern]
30: \%[\-after\ date] \%[\-before\ date] \%[\-datefield\ field]
31: \%[\-sequence\ name\ ...]
32: \%[\-public] \%[\-nopublic]
33: \%[\-zero] \%[\-nozero]
34: \%[\-list] \%[\-nolist]
35: \%[\-help]
36: .\}
37:
38: .ti .5i
39: typically:
40: .br
41: scan\0`pick\0\-from\0jones`
42: .br
43: pick\0\-to\0holloway\0\-sequence\0select
44: .br
45: show\0`pick\0\-before\0friday`
46: .in -.5i
47: .SH DESCRIPTION
48: \fIPick\fR searches messages within a folder for the specified
49: contents, and then identifies those messages.
50: Two types of search primitives are available:
51: pattern matching and date constraint operations.
52:
53: A modified \fIgrep\fR(1) is used to perform the matching, so the
54: full regular expression (see \fIed\fR(1)) facility is available
55: within `pattern'.
56: With `\-search', `pattern' is used directly,
57: and with the others, the grep pattern constructed is:
58:
59: .ti +.5i
60: \*(lqcomponent[ \\t]*:\&.*pattern\*(rq
61:
62: This means that the pattern specified for a `\-search' will be
63: found everywhere in the message, including the header and the body,
64: while the other pattern matching requests are limited to the single
65: specified component.
66: The expression
67:
68: .ti +.5i
69: `\-\|\-component\ pattern'
70:
71: is a shorthand for specifying
72:
73: .ti +.5i
74: `\-search \*(lqcomponent[ \\t]*:\&.*pattern\*(rq\ '
75:
76: It is used to pick a component which is not one of
77: \*(lqTo:\*(rq, \*(lqcc:\*(rq, \*(lqDate:\*(rq, \*(lqFrom:\*(rq,
78: or \*(lqSubject:\*(rq.
79: An example is `pick\0\-\|\-reply\-to\0pooh'.
80:
81: Pattern matching is performed on a per\-line basis.
82: Within the header of
83: the message, each component is treated as one long line, but in
84: the body, each line is separate.
85: Lower\-case letters in the
86: search pattern will match either lower or upper case in the
87: message, while upper case will match only upper case.
88:
89: Independent of any pattern matching operations requested,
90: the switches `\-after date' or `\-before date' may also be used
91: to introduce date/time contraints on all of the messages.
92: By default, the \*(lqDate:\*(rq field is consulted,
93: but if another date yielding field
94: (such as \*(lqBB\-Posted:\*(rq or \*(lqDelivery\-Date:\*(rq) should be used,
95: the `\-datefield\ field' switch may be used.
96: \fIPick\fR will actually parse the date fields in each of the messages
97: specified in `msgs'
98: (unlike the `\-date' switch described above which does a pattern matching
99: operation),
100: and compare them to the date/time specified by use of the `\-after'
101: and `\-before' switches.
102: If `\-after' is given,
103: then only those messages whose \*(lqDate:\*(rq field value
104: is chronologically after
105: the date specified will be considered.
106: The `\-before' switch specifies the complimentary action.
107:
108: Both the `\-after' and `\-before' switches take legal 822\-style date
109: specifications as arguments.
110: \fIPick\fR will default certain missing fields so that the entire date
111: need not be specified.
112: These fields are (in order of defaulting):
113: timezone, time and timezone, date, date and timezone.
114: All defaults are taken from the current date, time, and timezone.
115: In addition to 822\-style dates,
116: \fIpick\fR will also recognize any of the days of the week
117: (\*(lqsunday\*(rq, \*(lqmonday\*(rq, and so on),
118: and the special dates
119: \*(lqtoday\*(rq, \*(lqyesterday\*(rq, and \*(lqtomorrow\*(rq.
120: All days of the week are judged to refer to a day in the past
121: (e.g., telling \fIpick\fR \*(lqsaturday\*(rq on
122: a \*(lqtuesday\*(rq means \*(lqlast\ saturday\*(rq
123: not \*(lqthis\ saturday\*(rq).
124: Finally, in addition to these special specifications,
125: \fIpick\fR will also honor a specification of the form \*(lq\-dd\*(rq,
126: which means \*(lqdd days ago\*(rq.
127:
128: \fIPick\fR supports complex boolean operations on the searching primitives
129: with the `\-and', `\-or', `\-not', and `\-lbrace\ ...\ \-rbrace' switches.
130: For example,
131:
132: .ti +.5i
133: pick\0\-after\0yesterday\0\-and\0\-lbrace\0\-from\0freida\0\-or\0\-from\0fear\0\-rbrace
134:
135: identifies messages recently sent by \*(lqfrieda\*(rq or \*(lqfear\*(rq.
136:
137: The matching primitives take precedence over the `\-not' switch,
138: which in turn takes precedence over `\-and'
139: which in turn takes precedence over `\-or'.
140: To override the default precedence,
141: the `\-lbrace' and `\-rbrace' switches are provided,
142: which act just like opening and closing parentheses in logical expressions.
143:
144: Once the search has been performed,
145: if the `\-list' switch is given,
146: the message numbers of the selected messages are written to the standard
147: output separated by newlines.
148: This is \fIextremely\fR useful for quickly generating arguments for other
149: \fIMH\fR programs by using the \*(lqbackquoting\*(rq syntax of the shell.
150: For example,
151: the command
152:
153: .ti +.5i
154: scan\0`pick\0+todo\0\-after\0\*(lq31 Mar 83 0123 PST\*(rq`
155:
156: says to \fIscan\fR those messages in the indicated folder which meet the
157: appropriate criterion.
158: Note that since \fIpick\fR\0's context changes are written out prior to
159: \fIscan\fR\0's invocation,
160: you need not give the folder argument to \fIscan\fR as well.
161:
162: Regardless of the operation of the `\-list' switch,
163: the `\-sequence name' switch may be given once for each sequence the user
164: wishes to define.
165: For each sequence named,
166: that sequence will be defined to mean exactly those messages selected by
167: \fIpick\fR.
168: For example,
169:
170: .ti +.5i
171: pick\0\-from\0frated\0\-seq\0fred
172:
173: defines a new message sequence for the current folder called \*(lqfred\*(rq
174: which contains exactly those messages that were selected.
175:
176: Note that whenever \fIpick\fR processes a `\-sequence\ name' switch,
177: it sets `\-nolist'.
178:
179: By default, \fIpick\fR will zero the sequence before adding it.
180: This action can be disabled with the `\-nozero' switch,
181: which means that the messages selected by \fIpick\fR will be added to the
182: sequence, if it already exists, and any messages already a part of that
183: sequence will remain so.
184:
185: The `\-public' and `\-nopublic' switches are used by \fIpick\fR in the same
186: way \fImark\fR uses them.
187: .Fi
188: ^$HOME/\&.mh\(ruprofile~^The user profile
189: .Pr
190: ^Path:~^To determine the user's MH directory
191: .Ps
192: ^Current\-Folder:~^To find the default current folder
193: .Sa
194: mark(1)
195: .De
196: `+folder' defaults to the current folder
197: .Ds
198: `msgs' defaults to all
199: .Ds
200: `\-datefield date'
201: .Ds
202: `\-nopublic' if the folder is read\-only, `\-public' otherwise
203: .Ds
204: `\-zero'
205: .Ds
206: `\-list' is the default if no `\-sequence', `\-nolist' otherwise
207: .Co
208: If a folder is given, it will become the current folder.
209: .Hi
210: In previous versions of \fIMH\fR,
211: the \fIpick\fR command would \fIshow\fR, \fIscan\fR, or \fIrefile\fR the
212: selected messages.
213: This was rather \*(lqinverted logic\*(rq from the UNIX point of view,
214: so \fIpick\fR was changed to define sequences and output those sequences.
215: Hence, \fIpick\fR can be used to generate the arguments for all other
216: \fIMH\fR commands,
217: instead of giving \fIpick\fR endless switches for invoking those commands
218: itself.
219:
220: Also, previous versions of \fIpick\fR balked if you didn't specify a search
221: string or a date/time constraint.
222: The current version does not, and merely matches the messages you specify.
223: This lets you type something like:
224:
225: .ti +.5i
226: show\0`pick\0last:20\0\-seq\0fear`
227:
228: instead of typing
229:
230: .in +.5i
231: .nf
232: mark\0\-add\0\-nozero\0\-seq\0fear\0last:20
233: show\0fear
234: .fi
235: .in -.5i
236:
237: Finally,
238: timezones used to be ignored when comparing dates:
239: they aren't any more.
240: .Bu
241: The argument to the `\-after' and `\-before' switches must be interpreted
242: as a single token by the shell that invokes \fIpick\fR.
243: Therefore,
244: one must usually place the argument to this switch inside double\-quotes.
245: Furthermore,
246: any occurance of `\-datefield' must occur prior to the `\-after'
247: or `\-before' switch it applies to.
248:
249: If \fIpick\fR is used in a back\-quoted operation,
250: such as
251:
252: .ti +.5i
253: scan\0`pick\0\-from\0jones`
254:
255: and \fIpick\fR fails (e.g., no messages are from \*(lqjones\*(rq),
256: then the shell will still run the outer command (e.g., \*(lqscan\*(rq).
257: Since no messages were matched,
258: \fIpick\fR produced no output,
259: and the argument given to the outer command as a result of backquoting
260: \fIpick\fR is empty.
261: In the case of \fIMH\fR programs,
262: the outer command now acts as if the default `msg' or `msgs' should be used
263: (e.g., \*(lqall\*(rq in the case of \fIscan\fR\0).
264: To prevent this unexpected behavior,
265: if `\-list' was given,
266: and if its standard output is not a tty,
267: then \fIpick\fR outputs the illegal message number \*(lq0\*(rq when it fails.
268: This lets the outer command fail gracefully as well.
269: .En
This archive runs on limited infrastructure. Preserving old code on modern bandwidth. Automated agents are requested to crawl responsibly.