Re: mutt indexing (was Re: Orca & tbird issues)

I'm okay with regular expressions! It was the mutt command
syntax, something like ~(~b) that bothered me. 

FWIW here is the cheat sheet sent me years ago by Bob Proulx,
(found by keyword search using mu)

---quote----------
With mutt these types of things are very easy.  I use
'limit' and searching all of the time.  Press F1 for the
manual and look at section "3. Patterns: Searching,
Limiting".

I keep three months of mailing list history in my mailbox.  I have a
cron that deletes messages older than 90 days.  Anything older than
this and I need to resort to searching the web archive.

I press:

  # l for limit
  # ~(...) to include the entire thread around the match
  # ~b to search the body of the message
  l ~(~b skype)
  # wait a few moments while it spins through the mailbox
  # it takes a minute on my machine
  # produces a subset of the mailbox with every thread that mentions
  # skype in the body
  # count the threads
  # collapse all threads to just the single subject lines
  ESC V
  # read the number of of threads from mutt's status bar
  Mutt: =Lists/debian/user [Msgs:28/6539 New:2 Old:9 Post:54 Inc:56 39M
  # 28 threads mentioning skype out of 6539 messages in the last three months



Janina Sajka wrote:
> The syntax is worth learning because it's common across Linux
> applications and the command line. It's generally known as "regular
> expressions." So, when you learn it, you've got a tool to use in many
> circumstances.
> 
> Joel Roth writes:
> > I was put off the built-in searching by the slowness of my
> > spinning rust media at the time. Having SSD could help,
> > as well as learning the syntax ;-)
> >  
> > Janina Sajka wrote:
> > > True. But it also provides full search capibilities, including all the
> > > standard operators like and and not, and all the grouping and piping
> > > functions. And, it provides the ability to limit each such statement to
> > > a particular aspect of the mail being searched. I like that a lot, and
> > > use it all the time.
> > > 
> > > Joel Roth writes:
> > > > Most email clients have built-in search, however mutt
> > > > requires an external indexer. I've done well with mu. It
> > > > integrates by mapping search to one key (e.g. F8), you input
> > > > text and ENTER, then hit another key (e.g. F9) to view search
> > > > result. Takes one more keystroke than I'd like, but works
> > > > okay.
> > > > 
> > > > http://www.djcbsoftware.nl/code/mu/
> > > > 
> > > > Janina Sajka wrote:
> > > >  
> > > > > Mutt does have one command I absolutely love, and I wonder whether the
> > > > > gui clients have something similar. There's the usual 'r' for reply to
> > > > > the sender, and 'g' for reply to all, but I particularly appreciate
> > > > > Shift+L for "reply only to the lists, and not the individuals."
> > > > > 
> > > > > I must confess, though, that I'm impressed that people have found a
> > > > > browser interface to email fully usable. To me this suggests that
> > > > > familiarity with the particular environment is still the most important
> > > > > factor for success with whatever one chooses to use.
> > > > > 
> > > > > Janina
> > > > > 
> > > > > Tim Chase writes:
> > > > > > On November  9, 2016, Jeffery Mewtamer wrote:
> > > > > > > Personally, I've never seen the point of e-mail clients and have
> > > > > > > always used a web browser to check my e-mail. 
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > I think the big advantage is off-line usage.  If you are connected
> > > > > > all the time and have dual-mode access for redundancy (say, a home
> > > > > > internet/wifi connection, and a 4G aircard), and don't roam much,
> > > > > > then a web-based mail client solves a lot of problems.  But when
> > > > > > internet access is spotty or unreliable, it's nice to have full
> > > > > > access to your email offline.  Fortunately, there are lots of
> > > > > > options, both within the GUI with varying degrees of accessibility
> > > > > > (Thunderbird, Kmail, Claws Mail, and Evolution come to mind) and
> > > > > > within the terminal (mutt and alpine being the dominant players, but
> > > > > > "alot" and mailx/heirloom mailx also come to mind as well as several
> > > > > > available within emacs).
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > -tim
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > > > Blinux-list mailing list
> > > > > > [email protected]
> > > > > > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
> > > > > 
> > > > > -- 
> > > > > 
> > > > > Janina Sajka,	Phone:	+1.443.300.2200
> > > > > 			sip:[email protected]
> > > > > 		Email:	[email protected]
> > > > > 
> > > > > Linux Foundation Fellow
> > > > > Executive Chair, Accessibility Workgroup:	http://a11y.org
> > > > > 
> > > > > The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
> > > > > Chair, Accessible Platform Architectures	http://www.w3.org/wai/apa
> > > > > 
> > > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > > Blinux-list mailing list
> > > > > [email protected]
> > > > > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
> > > > 
> > > > -- 
> > > > Joel Roth
> > > >   
> > > > 
> > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > Blinux-list mailing list
> > > > [email protected]
> > > > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
> > > 
> > > -- 
> > > 
> > > Janina Sajka,	Phone:	+1.443.300.2200
> > > 			sip:[email protected]
> > > 		Email:	[email protected]
> > > 
> > > Linux Foundation Fellow
> > > Executive Chair, Accessibility Workgroup:	http://a11y.org
> > > 
> > > The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
> > > Chair, Accessible Platform Architectures	http://www.w3.org/wai/apa
> > > 
> > 
> > -- 
> > Joel Roth
> >   
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > Blinux-list mailing list
> > [email protected]
> > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
> 
> -- 
> 
> Janina Sajka,	Phone:	+1.443.300.2200
> 			sip:[email protected]
> 		Email:	[email protected]
> 
> Linux Foundation Fellow
> Executive Chair, Accessibility Workgroup:	http://a11y.org
> 
> The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
> Chair, Accessible Platform Architectures	http://www.w3.org/wai/apa
> 

-- 
Joel Roth