On Fri, Jun 25, 2010 at 10:47:29AM +0100, Chris G wrote:
> I don't really want to know when new mail arrives, what I want is the
> ability to quickly go to all the mailboxes which have new incoming
> mail when I'm running mutt. I don't have any need to respond quickly
> to messages, just a need to be able to find them. Mutt usually sits
> running in a dedicated terminal on one of my workspaces with the
> 'main' inbox displayed so I just need to glance at that to see any
> non-list E-Mails.
That is also my usage pattern.
If a script like Chip Camden's, or one in Gawk, running as a coprocess to
mutt, could steer mutt's mail "Newness" decisions, then mutt's current
erroneous behaviour could be fixed, possibly using more effort than is
necessary. I would be delighted to write, debug, and maintain the
coprocess, if it were necessary to go that way.
While that would be a lot of fun, mutt itself does seem able to be cured
of its current fibbing behaviour. (Try copying this message to this mail
folder. Mutt says "New mail in this mailbox." What hokum.)
Mutt needs to check the size and/or atime of the destination folder
_before_ it writes, rather than cookily doing it _after_. Then the
erroneous and misleading immediate message would go away.
To fix the problem of mutt adding the transfer recipient folder to its
list of "New" folders on its next scan, another small bugfix is also
required. Once the recipient file has been written, mutt needs to update
its current values for file size and atime, so that the "Newness"
reference will be correct.
Would that not put an end to its fibbing ways?
Erik
--
Never worry about theory as long as the machinery does what it's
supposed to do.
-- Robert A. Heinlein
