Re: grep

On Tue, 28 Aug 2018 02:05:16 -0700,
Tomas By <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> Hi again,
> 
> […]
> 
> ...config file again

Neither involves editing a config file. You can always open any folder
in WL interactively without modifying your subscriptions using `g`
(wl-summary-goto-folder). The `V` (wl-summary-virtual) command
constructs a filter folder interactively from your query which filters
the current folder.

You also need not edit a config file to modify your subscribed
Folders, see http://wanderlust.github.io/wl-docs/wl.html#Folder

> | A folder to access messages found by an external program with some condition.
> | Format:
> | ‘[’ search condition ‘]’ [ search target [ ‘!’ search engine ] ]
> 
> 
> > If you use a single “archive” folder you may also be interested in the
> > “quicksearch” feature. With a little configuration,
> 
> (ie config file plus variable in main config)

Yes, you need to set it up, but then you can query it interactively.

> | To setup [Quick-search], configure the value of
> | wl-quicksearch-folder. This should be the name of the folder you
> | would like to search.
> 
> 
> I realise mail setups vary a lot, and using server facilities is
> much better in some situations etc etc, but it has to be quite
> common to just have a bunch of (more or less) text files on the
> disk, one per message. In that situation the obvious thing to do
> would be grep into some new buffer ("folder"?) with one keystroke
> (plus search string) from inside the program.

You can do this with quicksearch. Set:

  (setq wl-quicksearch-folder "[]~/maildir/!rgrep")

if your emails are in ~/maildir/. Then type ' (a single quote,
wl-quicksearch-goto-search-folder-wrapper) in your summary or folder
buffers, then enter your query.

> I'm struggling to come up with a situation where you know in advance
> what you want to search for so that you can put it in the config
> file. It sounds like something very technical having to do with mail
> forwarding or something like that.

I agree that it seems awkward that WL uses a single mechanism, the
“folder”, to provide access to any collection of messages, whether it
is all emails in a mailbox or some set of messages generated by a
search, and also that it provides two types of folders for search. But
it does provide a certain consistency, and both wl-summary-virtual and
quick search provide a fast way to interactively query your mail by
generating these folder names on the fly. wl-folder-goto-folder also
provides the same functionality, though more awkwardly.

> So what is the menu command "Tools"/"Search Files (grep)" supposed to
> do, as it does not grep the messages?

This is a built-in menu item from emacs. Type C-h k, then select the
menu item, to see what it does. In this case you’ll find it is the
(grep) command.

best, Erik

--
Sent from my free software system <http://fsf.org/>.