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SORTM(1mh)                                                                                SORTM(1mh)



NAME
       sortm - sort nmh messages

SYNOPSIS
       sortm [-help] [-version] [+folder] [msgs] [-all | -noall] [-datefield field] [-textfield
            field] [-notextfield] [-limit days] [-nolimit] [-check | -nocheck] [-verbose | -nover‐‐
            bose]

DESCRIPTION
       sortm  sorts  the specified messages in the named folder according to the chronological order
       of the “Date:” field of each message.

       If no messages are specified, the default is all messages in the folder.  However, if no mes‐
       sages are specified and the -noall switch is enabled, then sortm reports that as an error and
       exits with non-zero status.  -noall is most useful in the user's profile, to  avoid  inadver‐
       tent  sorting  of  an entire folder.  The -all switch can then be used on the command line to
       disable it.  Of course, a message specification of all can be used in any case.

       The -verbose switch directs sortm to tell the user the general actions that it is  taking  to
       place the folder in sorted order.

       The  -datefield  field  switch  tells sortm the name of the field to use when making the date
       comparison.  If the user has a special field in each message, such as “BB-Posted:” or “Deliv‐
       ery-Date:”, then the -datefield switch can be used to direct sortm which field to examine.

       The  -textfield  field switch causes sortm to sort messages by the specified text field.  All
       characters except letters and numbers are stripped and the resulting strings are sorted date‐
       field-major,  textfield-minor,  using  a case insensitive comparison.  If this field is “sub‐
       ject”, any leading "re:" is stripped off.

       With -textfield field, if -limit days is specified, messages with the  same  textfields  that
       are  dated  within `days' of each other appear together.  Specifying -nolimit makes the limit
       infinity.  With -limit 0, the sort is instead simply textfield-major.

       For example, to order a folder by date-major, grouping messages with the same subject on  the
       same date together, use:

            sortm -textfield subject +folder

       sortm always issues a warning for each message that is missing a “Date:” field, has a “Date:”
       field that cannot be parsed, or has a format error in any  header  field.   With  the  -check
       switch,  sortm  inhibits  all modifications to the folder if there are any such messages, and
       exits with non-zero status.  With the default of -nocheck, sortm sorts messages with a  miss‐
       ing or invalid “Date:” field using their file modification times.

       When ordering messages based on their dates, if they have the same dates, their original mes‐
       sage order is preserved.

FILES
       $HOME/.mh_profile          The user profile

PROFILE COMPONENTS
       Path:                To determine the user's nmh directory
       Current-Folder:      To find the default current folder

SEE ALSO
       folder(1)

DEFAULTS
       `+folder' defaults to the current folder
       `msgs"'defaultstoallwithout-noall,nodefaultwith-noall"
       `-all'
       `-datefield' defaults to date
       `-notextfield'
       `-noverbose'
       `-nolimit'
       `-nocheck'

CONTEXT
       If a folder is given, it will become the current folder.  If the current  message  is  moved,
       sortm will preserve its status as current.

HISTORY
       Timezones used to be ignored when comparing dates: they aren't any more.

       Messages  which  were in the folder, but not specified by `msgs', used to be moved to the end
       of the folder; now such messages are left untouched.

       sortm sometimes did not preserve the message numbering in a folder (e.g., messages 1, 3,  and
       5, might have been renumbered to 1, 2, 3 after sorting).  This was a bug, and has been fixed.
       To compress the message numbering in a folder, use “folder -pack” as always.

BUGS
       When sortm complains about a message which it can't temporally order, it complains about  the
       message  number  prior  to sorting.  It should indicate what the message number will be after
       sorting.



nmh-1.7.1                                    2014-03-23                                   SORTM(1mh)