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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]	[-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 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 "Delivery-Date:", then the	-date-
       field switch can	be used	to direct sortm	which field to examine.

       The -textfield field switch causes sortm	to sort	messages by the	speci-
       fied 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 to-
       gether.	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 for-
       mat  error in any header	field.	With the -check	switch,	sortm inhibits
       all modifications to the	folder if there	are any	such messages, and ex-
       its with	non-zero status.  With the default of  -nocheck,  sortm	 sorts
       messages	with a missing or invalid "Date:" field	using their file modi-
       fication	times.

       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  cur-
       rent 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  un-
       touched.

       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  af-
       ter  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 in-
       dicate what the message number will be after sorting.

nmh-1.8+dev			  2014-03-23			      SORTM(1)

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