DragonFly On-Line Manual Pages
SORTM(1) SORTM(1)
NAME
sortm - sort messages
SYNOPSIS
sortm [+folder] [msgs] [-all | -noall] [-datefield field] [-textfield
field] [-notextfield] [-limit days] [-nolimit] [-check | -nocheck]
[-verbose | -noverbose] [-version] [-help]
DESCRIPTION
Sortm sorts the specified messages in the named folder according to the
chronological order of the "Date:" field of each message.
If no messages are specified, the default is all messages in the
folder. However, if no messages are specified and the -noall switch is
enabled, then sortm reports that as an error and exits with non-zero
status. -noall is most useful in the user's profile, to avoid inadver-
tant sorting of an entire folder. The -all switch can then be used on
the command line to disable it. Of course, a message specification of
all can be used in any case.
The -verbose switch directs sortm to tell the user the general actions
that it is taking to place the folder in sorted order.
The -datefield field switch tells sortm the name of the field to use
when making the date comparison. If the user has a special field in
each message, such as "BB-Posted:" or "Delivery-Date:", then the -date-
field switch can be used to direct sortm which field to examine.
The -textfield field switch causes sortm to sort messages by the speci-
fied text field. All characters except letters and numbers are
stripped and the resulting strings are sorted datefield-major,
textfield-minor, using a case insensitive comparison. If this field is
"subject", any leading "re:" is stripped off.
With -textfield field, if -limit days is specified, messages with the
same textfields that are dated within `days' of each other appear
together. Specifying -nolimit makes the limit infinity. With -limit
0, the sort is instead simply textfield-major.
For example, to order a folder by date-major, grouping messages with
the same subject on the same date together, use:
sortm -textfield subject +folder
sortm always issues a warning for each message that is missing a
"Date:" field, has a "Date:" field that cannot be parsed, or has a for-
mat error in any header field. With the -check switch, sortm inhibits
all modifications to the folder if there are any such messages, and
exits with non-zero status. With the default of -nocheck, sortm sorts
messages with a missing or invalid "Date:" field using their file modi-
fication times.
When ordering messages based on their dates, if they have the same
dates, their original message order is preserved.
FILES
$HOME/.mh_profile The user profile
PROFILE COMPONENTS
Path: To determine the user's nmh directory
Current-Folder: To find the default current folder
SEE ALSO
folder(1)
DEFAULTS
`+folder' defaults to the current folder
`msgs"'defaultstoallwithout-noall,nodefaultwith-noall"
`-all'
`-datefield' defaults to date
`-notextfield'
`-noverbose'
`-nolimit'
`-nocheck'
CONTEXT
If a folder is given, it will become the current folder. If the cur-
rent message is moved, sortm will preserve its status as current.
HISTORY
Timezones used to be ignored when comparing dates: they aren't any
more.
Messages which were in the folder, but not specified by `msgs', used to
be moved to the end of the folder; now such messages are left
untouched.
Sortm sometimes did not preserve the message numbering in a folder
(e.g., messages 1, 3, and 5, might have been renumbered to 1, 2, 3
after sorting). This was a bug, and has been fixed. To compress the
message numbering in a folder, use "folder -pack" as always.
BUGS
When sortm complains about a message which it can't temporally order,
it complains about the message number prior to sorting. It should
indicate what the message number will be after sorting.
nmh-1.6 March 23, 2014 SORTM(1)