mblaze/man/mmsg.7

.Dd July 22, 2016
.Dt MMSG 7
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm mmsg
.Nd mblaze message argument syntax
.Sh DESCRIPTION
This document outlines the message syntax used by many
of the tools in the
.Xr mblaze 7
message system.
.Pp
In general, you can always specify a filename as a message,
if it contains a
.Sq Li \&/
character.
(Use
.Sq Li \&./
to prefix messages in the current directory.)
You can also specify a Maildir folder, which will be expanded
to all messages in the
.Pa cur/
directory.
.Pp
Sequences have the format
.Sq Ar start Ns Cm \&: Ns Ar stop ,
where
.Ar start
and
.Ar stop
are one-based indexes into the sequence.
Negative numbers count from the end.
If
.Ar start
is the empty string,
.Li 1
will be used instead.
If
.Ar stop
is the empty string,
.Li \&-1
will be used instead.
Thus,
.Sq Cm \&:
represents the whole sequence.
If the sequence does not contain a
.Sq Cm \&: ,
it is considered to be a single message, equivalent to the range
.Sq Ar start Ns Cm \&: Ns Ar start
of size one.
The special notation
.Sq Ar start Ns Cm \&:+ Ns Ar n ,
selects
.Ar start
and the next
.Ar n
messages.
.Pp
If the sequence is threaded, the following
syntax may be used:
.Sq Ar msg Ns Cm \&=
refers to the whole thread that contains
.Ar msg .
.Sq Ar msg Ns Cm \&^
refers to the parent of the message
.Ar msg
and may be repeated to refer to grandparents.
.Sq Ar msg Ns Cm \&_
refers to the subthread headed by
.Ar msg
(i.e. all messages below, with more indentation).
.Pp
The following special shortcuts may be used:
.Bl -tag -width 3n
.It Sq Li \&.
refers to the current message.
Additionally, the syntax
.Sq Li \&.+ Ns Ar N
and
.Sq Li \&.- Ns Ar N
can be used to refer to messages relative to the current message.
.It Sq Li \&+
refers to the next message (like
.Sq Li \&.+1 ) .
.It Sq Li \&-
refers to the previous message (like
.Sq Li \&.-1 ) .
.It Sq Li \&$
refers to the last message (like
.Sq Li -1 ) .
.It Sq Li \&^
refers to the current parent message (like
.Sq Li \&.^ ) .
.It Sq Li \&=
refers to the current thread (like
.Sq Li \&.= ) .
.It Sq Li \&_
refers to the current subthread (like
.Sq Li \&._ ) .
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr mblaze 7
.Sh AUTHORS
.An Leah Neukirchen Aq Mt leah@vuxu.org