scan(1) General Commands Manual scan(1)
NAME
scan - produce a one-line-per-message scan listing (only available
within the message handling system, mh)
SYNOPSIS
scan [ +folder ] [ msgs ] [ options ]
DESCRIPTION
The scan command produces a one-line-per-message listing of the mes-
sages in the current folder.
You can scan a folder other than the current folder by using the
+folder argument. You can use the msgs argument to produce a scan
listing of a number of messages or a range of messages in the specified
folder. You can also use scan in conjunction with a message sequence
defined by mark or pick. See mark(1) for more information on sequences.
Each scan line contains the message number, the date, the From: field,
the Subject: field, and, if room allows, some of the body of the mes-
sage. The current message is marked with a plus sign (+).
The scan command actually reads each of the specified messages and
parses them to extract the desired fields. If format errors are found
in any of the messages during parsing, scan produces appropriate error
messages.
Because MH has been configured with the BERK option, scan has two addi-
tional options: -reverse and -noreverse. In addition, scan updates the
MH context prior to starting the listing, so interrupting a long scan
listing preserves the new context. The default configuration file that
is supplied with MH has the BERK option enabled.
If scan encounters a message without a Date: field, the date is filled
in with the last write date of the message, and an asterisk (*) is ap-
pended. This is useful for identifying unsent message drafts. Unsent
drafts are not usually allowed to contain a Date: field, and are conse-
quently marked with an asterisk in scan listings.
FLAGS
-clear
-noclear Directs scan to clear the screen. If the -clear switch is
used and the output of scan is directed to a terminal, then
scan consults the $TERM and $TERMCAP environmental variables
to determine your terminal type in order to find out how to
clear the screen prior to exiting. If the -clear switch is
used and the output of scan is not directed to a terminal,
then scan sends a formfeed prior to exiting.
-form formatfile
Re-formats the output of scan according to the instructions
in the named file. The named formatfile must be in mh-format
style; see mh-format(4) for more details.
-format string
Re-formats the output of scan according to the instructions
in the string given. The string must be in mh-format style;
see mh-format(4) for more details. You must place the string
argument to this command in double quotes (").
-header
-noheader Produces a header line prior to the scan listing. The header
line displays the name of the folder and the date and time.
This can be suppressed using the -noheader option.
-help Prints a list of the valid options to this command.
-reverse
-noreverse
Lists the output from scan in reverse order, from the highest
message number to the lowest. The -noreverse option lists
messages in the conventional way, from lowest to highest num-
bers. The -noreverse option is the default.
-width columns
Specifies the width of your screen, in columns.
The defaults for this command are as follows:
+folder defaults to the current folder
msgs defaults to all
-noheader
-width defaults to the width of the terminal
EXAMPLES
The following example produces a listing of messages 11 through 15 in
the folder +inbox : % scan +inbox 11-15
11 18/01 ralph Project Plan Meeting Monday<<This
12 -21/01 johnson squash<<Thought i might postpone
13 21/01 smith@ultrixhost support from US during conversion
14 21/01
[email protected] new forum for discussion of mail
15+ 21/01
[email protected] Re: new forum for discussion of m In
this listing, the plus sign (+) on message 15 indicates that it is the
current message. The hyphen (-) on message 12 indicates that you have
replied to the message. It is produced by the -annotate option to
repl; see repl(1) for more information. If there is sufficient room
left on the line after the subject, scan fills the line with text from
the body, preceded by <<, and terminated by >> if the body is suffi-
ciently short.
PROFILE COMPONENTS
tab(+); lw(1.5i) l. Path:+To determine your Mail directory Alternate-
Mailboxes:+To determine your mailboxes
FILES
$HOME/.mh_profile
The user profile.
RELATED INFORMATION
inc(1), mark(1), pick(1), show(1), mh-format(4) delim off
scan(1)