[Alpine-info] two Alpine config questions?

[Lucio Chiappetti]

On Tue, 1 Nov 2022, Matt Ackeret wrote:


>> On a different note, is there a way to combine folders in alpine?


IF they are LOCAL folders (not IMAP) and are in the plain Unix format,
one can just concatenate the folder files (eventually getting rid of the 
"dummy first message" which Alpine may prepend) from the shell.


> the "workaround" for this is just to go into the folder you want to get 

> rid of, select all (which may mean you have to turn on aggregate 

> commands) and save all of the messages into the OTHER folder..


Yes,. aggregate commands are VERY useful for any more or less clever 
manipulation of groups of messages. Even with manual selection, or 
selection by date or number range. For instance in my inbox I keep only 
"pending messages" to be dealt with, and every so and often I reorder them 
by hand grouping them "by category" (I use dummy empty messages with a 
specific subject as placeholder-separators, with a specific colour 
coding). Or once a year, I move MOST of the message from a topic folder 
xxxx to an archive folder Old-yyyy/xxxx-yyyy, and keep only the most 
iportant and still applicable in xxxx.


> and this will end up with the moved folder's messages all 'after' the 

> original folder's messages.. so if you want to have them all in arrival 

> order, sort the folder by arrival order, select all and I think you can 

> then save them all to the same folder (which will duplicate them,


Or just select them manually or by range. I do this when I move a 
dealt-with message fromm inbox to a topic folder, and it gets there "our 
of chronological order".


> then expunge, which will delete the 'extra' copy of each message.


What tou say assumes, I presume, that saving a message marks it for 
deletion. In my configuration this is NOT the default (by purpose).

My sequence when I do a re-ordering is:

  - select the messages to be moved at the end
  - do A S to aggregate-save them (even to the same folder)
  - do A D to aggregate-delete the original selection
    (in my colour coding the messages turn blue)
  - press return or down-arrow to update the index listing on the
    screen (this is MY "paranoid verification", I see both the
    blue deleted and coral moved messages)
  - then X to expunge

Alpine is very flexible and allows you to do almost verything you want !