Scan line formatting

The name of the program that generates a listing of one line per message is held in mh-scan-prog (default: `"scan"'). Unless this variable contains an absolute pathname, it is assumed to be in the mh-progs directory. You may link another program to scan (see mh-profile(5)) to produce a different type of listing.

If you change the format of the scan lines you'll need to tell mh-e how to parse the new format. As you see, quite a lot of variables are involved to do that. The first variable has to do with pruning out garbage.

mh-valid-scan-line

This regular expression describes a valid scan line. This is used to eliminate error messages that are occasionally produced by inc or scan (default: `"^ *[0-9]"').

Next, two variables control how the message numbers are parsed.

mh-msg-number-regexp

This regular expression is used to extract the message number from a scan line. Note that the message number must be placed in quoted parentheses, (\\(...\\)), as in the default of `"^ *\\([0-9]+\\)"'.

mh-msg-search-regexp

Given a message number (which is inserted in `%d'), this regular expression will match the scan line that it represents (default: `"^[^0-9]*%d[^0-9]"').

Finally, there are a slew of variables that control how mh-e marks up the scan lines.

mh-cmd-note

Number of characters to skip over before inserting notation (default: 4). Note how it relates to the following regular expressions.

mh-deleted-msg-regexp

This regular expression describes deleted messages (default: `"^....D"'). See also mh-note-deleted.

mh-refiled-msg-regexp

This regular expression describes refiled messages (default: `"^....\\^"'). See also mh-note-refiled.

mh-cur-scan-msg-regexp

This regular expression matches the current message (default: `"^....\\+"'). See also mh-note-cur.

mh-good-msg-regexp

This regular expression describes which messages should be shown when mh-e goes to the next or previous message. Normally, deleted or refiled messages are skipped over (default: `"^....[^D^]"').

mh-note-deleted

Messages that have been deleted to are marked by this string (default: `"D"'). See also mh-deleted-msg-regexp.

mh-note-refiled

Messages that have been refiled are marked by this string (default: `"^"'). See also mh-refiled-msg-regexp.

mh-note-copied

Messages that have been copied are marked by this string (default: `"C"').

mh-note-cur

The current message (in MH, not in mh-e) is marked by this string (default: `"+"'). See also mh-cur-scan-msg-regexp.

mh-note-repl

Messages that have been replied to are marked by this string (default: `"-"').

mh-note-forw

Messages that have been forwarded are marked by this string (default: `"F"').

mh-note-dist

Messages that have been redistributed are marked by this string (default: `"R"').

mh-note-printed

Messages that have been printed are marked by this string (default: `"P"').

mh-note-seq

Messages in a sequence are marked by this string (default: `"%"').

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