Filter Actions

	The Action field shows up in two places. 


1) The Main Mailbox Window

2) The Filter Editor


	Think of actions as a script to minimize doing the same things
over and over again; especially when you have defined and attached a
filter or two, and the resulting collection of messages is almost
always handled in the same way.

	The action you enter into a filter editing form defines the
default actions to be applied to that particular filter, and is saved
along with the filter definition. Every filter you create may have its
own unique set of actions associated with it. The Action field from
the Main Mailbox windows displays for you what the default action is 
for the current mailbox or filtered view, and it also allows you to
dynamically change this action script without affecting the default.

	Actions are carried out by either clicking the
Action button, or pressing [return] from within the Action text 
area.

	An action is a series of commands which you would normally
carry out using the keyboard or mouse. You may chain several
operations together and perform them all with a single click.


First some caveats (warnings):

	Not all actions or combinations of actions make sense. Take
some time to plan them out. For instance, if you perform an action
which selects everything and copies the selections to a mailbox, if
the messages aren't at some point removed from the view, they will be
copied again the next time you invoke the action. If your action is
	UNSELECT ; PRINT
nothing will be printed, because nothing will be selected. Also note 
that an EXPUNGE (equivalent to the "Destroy" button in the Main
Window), is irreversible, and removes all messages in the currently
selected mailbox which have the DELETED flag set. It is not limited to
the messages in a particular filtered view.


	In the following descriptions, "[]" indicates a required
parameter, and "{}" indicates an optional parameter.


----------------       Action Reference Guide  -------------------


SELECT

	Select (highlight) ALL messages in the current window..

NEW

	Select (highlight) all NEW  messages.

UNSEEN

	Select (highlight) all UNSEEN messages. (This include NEW
messages, which are defined as "UNSEEN and "RECENT".

UNSELECT

	Unselect (un-highlight) ALL previously selected messages.

DELETE

	Set the DELETED flag on all selected messages. This does not
destroy the messages until an EXPUNGE command is issued (or in some
cases when the mailbox is closed; depending on your server policy).

EXPUNGE

	Permanently remove all deleted messages from the current
mailbox. This is the same as the "Destroy" button on the Main Window
button bar.

READ

	Open a Message Read window containing all selected messages.


FLAG

	Set the FLAGGED system flag on all selected messages.

SET  [flag]

	Set a system flag or keyword on all selected messages. System
flags are DELETED, SEEN, FLAGGED, ANSWERED, and on some systems,
DRAFT. Only the DELETED flag is actually used on newsgroup messages.

UNSET [flag]

	Clear a system flag or keyword on all selected messages. See
above description of SET for valid flags.

COPY [mailbox]

	Copy selected messages to "mailbox" which is located on the
server identified by your Default Configuration. The mailbox must
have previously been created. 
	You may copy (or move) messages to other servers by prefixing
the mailbox name with a configuration name and a colon. The
target configuration must be either an IMAP or local mail type.
(This is how you would copy messages from a news server to a regular
mailbox).

Example:
	COPY default:INBOX

	(Copies the selected messages to the mailbox named "INBOX"
using the server or service defined by the configuration named
"default").

MOVE [mailbox]

	Same as copy, but messages are automatically marked deleted
after the copy.

SAVE {header} [file]

	Save selected messages to "file", which should be either an
absolute pathname (starting with "/"), or one relative to your home
directory.  Shell style home directory expansion such as "~/something"
is not currently supported. Header values are described later in this
document.


PRINT {header}

	Print the selected messages. Header values are described
later in this document.

SHELL {header} [command]

	Execute a command given the selected messages as
input. The command to be executed must not contain a semi-colon.
If the command contains spaces, the entire command should be
surrounded with double quotes. Normally, the command will receive the
message through its "standard input" channel. If you wish to pass the
message as a file, put the two characters %s in the command to act as
a place holder for the filename. When the command is invoked, the %s
will be replaced with the name of a temporary file; which will be
removed when the command completes.

A new process is invoked for each highlighted message. On most
systems, the "system shell" will be used to execute the command. This
is normally "/bin/sh" and may not work exactly the same as your normal
login shell.


Headers

	For actions which accept a header option, you may choose between:

NOHEADER

PARTHEADER

FULLHEADER

	These options should be self-explanatory. The PARTHEADER
contains only the header fields defined in your personal preferences;
usually just the Date, Sender, To, and Subject fields.  If you do not
specify a header option, the commands which accept it will default to
PARTHEADER.


Chaining actions

	You may chain any number of actions together. A semicolon is
used to separate each action. The final action does not require a
semicolon. As described earlier, some combinations of actions are 
unrealistic, such as:

unselect; print

	...Since there are no messages selected, there will be nothing
to print.


Examples

	1. Highlight all messages in this view, delete them, and then
remove them from the mailbox

	select; delete; expunge


	2. Assuming several messages are already highlighted, save
them to an "urgent" mailbox; move the rest to a "junk" mailbox, then remove
all of them from this mailbox.

	move urgent.mail; expunge; select; move junk.mail; expunge


	3. Flag all currently selected messages as "interesting".

	flag


	4. Print the highlighted messages, without a header, and
mark them for deletion. Unhighlight them when you're done.

	print noheader; delete; unselect


	5. Highlight all new messages, queue them for reading, and
then unhighlight them.

	new; read; unselect