# pick(1mh) - man - phpMan [PICK(1mh)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/PICK/1mh/markdown) [PICK(1mh)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/PICK/1mh/markdown) ## NAME pick - search nmh messages ## SYNOPSIS **pick** [**-help**] [**-version**] [_+folder_] [_msgs_] [**-reverse** ...] [**-and** ...] [**-or** ...] [**-not** ...] [**-lbrace** ... **-rbrace**] [**--component** _pattern_] [**-cc** _pattern_] [**-date** _pattern_] [**-from** _pat__‐ _tern_] [**-search** _pattern_] [**-subject** _pattern_] [**-to** _pattern_] [**-after** _date_] [**-before** _date_] [**-datefield** _field_] [**-sequence** _name_ ...] [**-nosequence**] [**-public** | **-nopublic**] [**-zero** | **-nozero**] [**-list** | **-nolist**] [**-debug**] typical usage: scan `pick -from jones` pick -to holloway -sequence select show `pick -before friday` ## DESCRIPTION **pick** searches within a folder for messages with the specified contents, and then identifies those messages. Two types of search primitives are available: pattern matching and date con‐ straint operations. A modified [_grep_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/grep/1/markdown) is used to perform the matching, so the full regular expression (see [_ed_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ed/1/markdown)) facility is available within _pattern_. With **-search**, _pattern_ is used directly, and with the others, the grep pattern constructed is: `component[ \t]*:.*pattern' This means that the pattern specified for a **-search** will be found everywhere in the message, including the header and the body, while the other pattern matching requests are limited to the single specified component. The expression `--component pattern' is a shorthand for specifying `-search “component[ \t]*:.*pattern” ' It is used to pick a component which is not one of “To:”, “cc:”, “Date:”, “From:”, or “Sub‐ ject:”. An example is “**pick** **--reply-to** **pooh**”. Pattern matching is performed on a per-line basis. Within the header of the message, each component is treated as one long line, but in the body, each line is separate. Lower-case letters in the search pattern will match either lower or upper case in the message, while up‐ per case will match only upper case. Note that since the **-date** switch is a pattern matching operation (as described above), to find messages sent on a certain date the pattern string must match the text of the “Date:” field of the message. Independent of any pattern matching operations requested, the switches **-after** _date_ or **-before** _date_ may also be used to introduce date/time constraints on all of the messages. By default, the “Date:” field is consulted, but if another date-yielding field (such as “BB-Posted:” or “Delivery-Date:”) should be used, the **-datefield** _field_ switch may be used. With **-before** and **-after**, **pick** will actually parse the date fields in each of the messages specified in `msgs' and compare them to the date/time specified. If **-after** is given, then only those messages whose “Date:” field value is chronologically after the date specified will be considered. The **-before** switch specifies the complementary action. Both the **-after** and **-before** switches take legal RFC 822-style date specifications as argu‐ ments. **pick** will default certain missing fields so that the entire date need not be speci‐ fied. These fields are (in order of defaulting): timezone, time and timezone, date, date and timezone. All defaults are taken from the current date, time, and timezone. In addition to RFC 822-style dates, **pick** will also recognize any of the days of the week (“sunday”, “monday”, and so on), and the special dates “today”, “yesterday” (24 hours ago), and “tomorrow” (24 hours from now). All days of the week are judged to refer to a day in the past (e.g., telling _pick_ “saturday” on a “tuesday” means “last saturday” not “this satur‐ day”). Finally, in addition to these special specifications, **pick** will also honor a specification of the form “-dd”, which means “dd days ago”. Use the **-reverse** switch to make **pick** find matching messages in reverse order, working from the highest message number down to the lowest. This can be useful in searching for recent messages in large folders, for example, pick -reverse -from frated | xargs -n1 scan **pick** supports complex boolean operations on the searching primitives with the **-and**, **-or**, ### -not -lbrace -rbrace pick -after yesterday -and -lbrace -from freida -or -from fear -rbrace identifies messages recently sent by “frieda” or “fear”. The matching primitives take precedence over the **-not** switch, which in turn takes precedence over **-and** which in turn takes precedence over **-or**. To override the default precedence, the ### -lbrace -rbrace ses in logical expressions. If no search criteria are given, all the messages specified on the command line are selected (this defaults to “all”). Once the search has been performed, if the **-list** switch is given, the message numbers of the selected messages are written to the standard output separated by newlines. This is _ex__‐ _tremely_ useful for quickly generating arguments for other **nmh** programs by using the “back‐ quoting” syntax of the shell. For example, the command scan `pick +todo -after “31 Mar 83 0123 PST”` says to **scan** those messages in the indicated folder which meet the appropriate criterion. Note that since **pick**'s context changes are written out prior to **scan**'s invocation, you need not give the folder argument to **scan** as well. The **-sequence** _name_ switch may be given once for each sequence the user wishes to define. For each sequence named, that sequence will be defined to mean exactly those messages selected by **pick**. For example, pick -from frated -seq fred defines a new message sequence for the current folder called “fred” which contains exactly those messages that were selected. The **-nosequence** switch will disable all previously named sequences, allowing those estab‐ lished by a profile component to be overridden. By default, **pick** will zero a sequence before adding it. This action can be disabled with the ### -nozero if it already exists, and any messages already a part of that sequence will remain so. The **-public** and **-nopublic** switches are used by **pick** in the same way **mark** uses them. The **-debug** switch causes pick to output a representation of the search pattern. ### Output when no messages are matched If **pick** is used in a backquoted operation, such as scan `pick -from jones` and **pick** selects no messages (e.g., no messages are from “jones”), then the shell will still run the outer command (e.g., **scan**). Since no messages were matched, **pick** produced no output, and the argument given to the outer command as a result of backquoting **pick** is empty. In the case of **nmh** programs, the outer command now acts as if the default `msg' or `msgs' should be used (e.g., “all” in the case of **scan**). To prevent this unexpected behavior, if **-list** was given, and if its standard output is not a tty, then **pick** outputs the illegal message number “0” when it fails. This lets the outer command fail gracefully as well. ## 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 [_mark_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mark/1/markdown) ## DEFAULTS `**+folder**' defaults to the current folder `**msgs**' defaults to all `**-datefield** **date**' `**-zero**' `**-list**' is the default if no `-sequence', `-nolist' otherwise ## CONTEXT If a folder is given, it will become the current folder. ## HISTORY In previous versions of **MH**, the **pick** command would **show**, **scan**, or **refile** the selected mes‐ sages. This was rather “inverted logic” from the Unix point of view, so **pick** was changed to define sequences and output those sequences. Hence, **pick** can be used to generate the argu‐ ments for all other **MH** commands, instead of giving **pick** endless switches for invoking those commands itself. Also, previous versions of **pick** balked if you didn't specify a search string or a date/time constraint. The current version does not, and merely matches the messages you specify. This lets you type something like: show `pick last:20 -seq fear` instead of typing mark -add -nozero -seq fear last:20 show fear Finally, timezones used to be ignored when comparing dates: they aren't any more. ## HELPFUL HINTS Use “**pick** **sequence** **-list**” to enumerate the messages in a sequence (such as for use by a shell script). ## BUGS Any occurrence of **-datefield** must occur prior to the **-after** or **-before** switch it applies to. The pattern syntax “[l-r]” is not supported; each letter to be matched must be included within the square brackets. nmh-1.7.1 2016-03-12 [PICK(1mh)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/PICK/1mh/markdown)