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SORTM(1)		     General Commands Manual			SORTM(1)

NAME
     sortm - sort nmh messages

SYNOPSIS
     sortm [-help] [-version] [+folder] [msgs] [-all | -noall] [-datefield
	  field] [-textfield field] [-notextfield] [-limit days] [-nolimit]
	  [-check | -nocheck] [-empty | -noempty] [-verbose | -noverbose]

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  messages  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 inadvertent  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  mes-
     sage,  such as "BB-Posted:" or "Delivery-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 datefield-major, textfield-minor, using a case
     insensitive  comparison.	If this field is "subject", 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  sta-
     tus.   With the default of -nocheck, sortm sorts messages with a missing or
     invalid "Date:" field using their file modification times.

     When asked to sort an empty sequence, sortm reports an error by default and
     exits with nonzero status. With the -empty switch, no error is reported  in
     this  case  and the exit status is 0.  The default behavior may also be re-
     quested explicitly using the -noempty switch.

     When ordering messages based on their dates, if they have the  same  dates,
     their original message 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' defaults to all without -noall, has no default with -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-1.8+dev			   2014-03-23				SORTM(1)

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