I'm okay with regular expressions! It was the mutt command syntax, something like ~(~b) that bothered me. FWIW here is the cheat sheet sent me years ago by Bob Proulx, (found by keyword search using mu) ---quote---------- With mutt these types of things are very easy. I use 'limit' and searching all of the time. Press F1 for the manual and look at section "3. Patterns: Searching, Limiting". I keep three months of mailing list history in my mailbox. I have a cron that deletes messages older than 90 days. Anything older than this and I need to resort to searching the web archive. I press: # l for limit # ~(...) to include the entire thread around the match # ~b to search the body of the message l ~(~b skype) # wait a few moments while it spins through the mailbox # it takes a minute on my machine # produces a subset of the mailbox with every thread that mentions # skype in the body # count the threads # collapse all threads to just the single subject lines ESC V # read the number of of threads from mutt's status bar Mutt: =Lists/debian/user [Msgs:28/6539 New:2 Old:9 Post:54 Inc:56 39M # 28 threads mentioning skype out of 6539 messages in the last three months Janina Sajka wrote: > The syntax is worth learning because it's common across Linux > applications and the command line. It's generally known as "regular > expressions." So, when you learn it, you've got a tool to use in many > circumstances. > > Joel Roth writes: > > I was put off the built-in searching by the slowness of my > > spinning rust media at the time. Having SSD could help, > > as well as learning the syntax ;-) > > > > Janina Sajka wrote: > > > True. But it also provides full search capibilities, including all the > > > standard operators like and and not, and all the grouping and piping > > > functions. And, it provides the ability to limit each such statement to > > > a particular aspect of the mail being searched. I like that a lot, and > > > use it all the time. > > > > > > Joel Roth writes: > > > > Most email clients have built-in search, however mutt > > > > requires an external indexer. I've done well with mu. It > > > > integrates by mapping search to one key (e.g. F8), you input > > > > text and ENTER, then hit another key (e.g. F9) to view search > > > > result. Takes one more keystroke than I'd like, but works > > > > okay. > > > > > > > > http://www.djcbsoftware.nl/code/mu/ > > > > > > > > Janina Sajka wrote: > > > > > > > > > Mutt does have one command I absolutely love, and I wonder whether the > > > > > gui clients have something similar. There's the usual 'r' for reply to > > > > > the sender, and 'g' for reply to all, but I particularly appreciate > > > > > Shift+L for "reply only to the lists, and not the individuals." > > > > > > > > > > I must confess, though, that I'm impressed that people have found a > > > > > browser interface to email fully usable. To me this suggests that > > > > > familiarity with the particular environment is still the most important > > > > > factor for success with whatever one chooses to use. > > > > > > > > > > Janina > > > > > > > > > > Tim Chase writes: > > > > > > On November 9, 2016, Jeffery Mewtamer wrote: > > > > > > > Personally, I've never seen the point of e-mail clients and have > > > > > > > always used a web browser to check my e-mail. > > > > > > > > > > > > I think the big advantage is off-line usage. If you are connected > > > > > > all the time and have dual-mode access for redundancy (say, a home > > > > > > internet/wifi connection, and a 4G aircard), and don't roam much, > > > > > > then a web-based mail client solves a lot of problems. But when > > > > > > internet access is spotty or unreliable, it's nice to have full > > > > > > access to your email offline. Fortunately, there are lots of > > > > > > options, both within the GUI with varying degrees of accessibility > > > > > > (Thunderbird, Kmail, Claws Mail, and Evolution come to mind) and > > > > > > within the terminal (mutt and alpine being the dominant players, but > > > > > > "alot" and mailx/heirloom mailx also come to mind as well as several > > > > > > available within emacs). > > > > > > > > > > > > -tim > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > > > Blinux-list mailing list > > > > > > Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx > > > > > > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > > > > > > > > Janina Sajka, Phone: +1.443.300.2200 > > > > > sip:janina@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > > > > > Email: janina@xxxxxxxxxxx > > > > > > > > > > Linux Foundation Fellow > > > > > Executive Chair, Accessibility Workgroup: http://a11y.org > > > > > > > > > > The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) > > > > > Chair, Accessible Platform Architectures http://www.w3.org/wai/apa > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > > Blinux-list mailing list > > > > > Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx > > > > > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list > > > > > > > > -- > > > > Joel Roth > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > Blinux-list mailing list > > > > Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx > > > > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list > > > > > > -- > > > > > > Janina Sajka, Phone: +1.443.300.2200 > > > sip:janina@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > > > Email: janina@xxxxxxxxxxx > > > > > > Linux Foundation Fellow > > > Executive Chair, Accessibility Workgroup: http://a11y.org > > > > > > The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) > > > Chair, Accessible Platform Architectures http://www.w3.org/wai/apa > > > > > > > -- > > Joel Roth > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Blinux-list mailing list > > Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx > > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list > > -- > > Janina Sajka, Phone: +1.443.300.2200 > sip:janina@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > Email: janina@xxxxxxxxxxx > > Linux Foundation Fellow > Executive Chair, Accessibility Workgroup: http://a11y.org > > The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) > Chair, Accessible Platform Architectures http://www.w3.org/wai/apa > -- Joel Roth _______________________________________________ Blinux-list mailing list Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list