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<div class="chapter" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
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<h2 class="title"><a id="cone12filters" shape="rect" name="cone12filters"> </a>Mail Filters</h2>
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<p>This is a simple, automatic mail processing function. In
this context, “<span class="quote">mail
filtering</span>” means the ability to move,
automatically delete, or automatically flag all messages that
match a specific search criteria.</p>
<p>Where possible, it is always more efficient to have the mail
server filter messages, instead of a mail client like
<span class="application">Cone</span>. <span class="application">Cone</span> mail filters may prove to be
sufficient if the mail server does not mail filtering
abilities. In situations where the mail server is capable of
filtering, the mail server's filters will usually be faster and
more efficient.</p>
<p>Mail filters may be used with any IMAP, <a class="link" href="smap1.html" title="Appendix A. Simple Mail Access Protocol, Version 1" shape="rect">SMAP</a>, or a local mail account. Mail filters
may also be used with POP3 accounts, but they'll be slow, and
they'll have certain limitations. <span class="application">Cone</span> will have to download a copy of every
message in the POP3 mailbox, in order to check it against the
searching criteria, for every mail filter search. This is not
needed with IMAP/SMAP accounts, where the search request is
processed by the mail server.</p>
<p>Mail filters may also be used in limited ways with Usenet
newsgroups. Only limited forms of searching are available: only
Usenet message headers may be searched, and the searching
criteria may only include English characters. All other search
requests can only be met by downloading a copy of every message
from the newsgroup, which is not going to work very well, for
obvious reasons.</p>
<p>The best use for mail filters with a Usenet newsgroup is as
a simple killfile: “<span class="quote">Search From:
contains troll@example.com</span>”, followed by
“<span class="quote">Delete and
Expunge</span>”.</p>
<p>A mail filter may be installed for any folder. Each folder
has its own mail filters. The folder's mail filter is
automatically processed by <span class="application">Cone</span> whenever:</p>
<div class="itemizedlist">
<ul type="disc">
<li>
<p>The folder is opened for the first time, or reopened
after another folder was opened.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>New messages are added to the folder.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<p>All messages in the folder are processed by the mail filters
when the folder is opened. When new messages are added to the
folder, only the new messages will be processed by the mail
filters. Existing messages will be ignored.</p>
<div class="section" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h4 class="title"><a id="id530792" shape="rect" name="id530792"> </a>Mail Filter Entry Screen</h4>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<hr /><pre class="programlisting" xml:space="preserve">
<B>INBOX - FILTERS CONE </B>
Current Filters:
Search Subject: contains RFC
Move to internet-drafts
Search From: contains boss@domain.com
Mark
[ Add new filter ]
[ Save Filters ]
<B> </B>
^C Cancel DEL Delete
^D Move down ^U Move up
</pre><hr />
<p>This screen is accessed by highlighting a folder on the
Folder Listing screen, then pressing <span class="keycap"><strong>F</strong></span>. Each mail filter consists
of one or more “<span class="quote">steps</span>”. There are two kinds of steps: a
“<span class="quote">select</span>” step compiles
a list of messages that match a certain search criteria; the
selection step is followed by one or more steps that apply a
particular “<span class="quote">action</span>”
against all messages that were selected. More than one action
step may follow a selection step; messages are processed by
each action step in sequence, until another selection step,
which searches the remaining messages again, and compiles a
different list of selected messages.</p>
<p>Some actions cannot be naturally followed by any other
action, and can only be followed by another selection step.
Consider, for example, “<span class="quote">Delete And
Expunge</span>” or “<span class="quote">Move to
another folder</span>” filtering step: at the
conclusion the selected messages are obviously removed, and
nothing else can be done with them, any more.</p>
<p>This screen initially shows any existing filtering steps
defined for the folder. All filtering steps are processed in
the order shown. Highlighting an existing filtering step and
pressing <span class="keycap"><strong>CTRL</strong></span>-<span class="keycap"><strong>U</strong></span>, or <span class="keycap"><strong>CTRL</strong></span>-<span class="keycap"><strong>D</strong></span>, moves the filtering step
higher or lower, thus changing its relative order in the mail
filter. <span class="keycap"><strong>DEL</strong></span>
removes the existing filtering step. The folder's mail filter
is removed by highlighting each step and pressing
<span class="keycap"><strong>DEL</strong></span>, then
highlighting “<span class="quote">Save
Filters</span>” and pressing <span class="keycap"><strong>ENTER</strong></span>.</p>
<p>All changes made on this screen are temporary.
“<span class="quote">Save Filters</span>” must be
selected in order for any changes made on this screen to take
effect. <span class="keycap"><strong>CTRL</strong></span>-<span class="keycap"><strong>C</strong></span> closes this screen without
changing the folder's existing filter, throwing out all the
temporary changes.</p>
<p>Highlighting “<span class="quote">Add new
filter</span>” and pressing <span class="keycap"><strong>ENTER</strong></span> adds a new filtering
step to the end of the mail filter. A sub-menu is shown to
define the new filtering step:</p>
<div class="variablelist">
<dl>
<dt><span class="term"><span class="keycap"><strong>S</strong></span> - select</span></dt>
<dd>
<p>Enters a new searching criteria which will be used
to select messages for the following action steps. See
“<span class="quote">Search
criteria</span>”, below, for more
information.</p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="term"><span class="keycap"><strong>D</strong></span> - mark
deleted</span></dt>
<dd>
<p>Marks all selected messages as deleted. The messages
are not removed from the folder, but only marked as
deleted.</p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="term"><span class="keycap"><strong>U</strong></span> - unmark
deleted</span></dt>
<dd>
<p>Removes the “<span class="quote">deleted</span>” mark from the selected
messages. The selected messages are no longer marked as
deleted.</p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="term"><span class="keycap"><strong>X</strong></span> - delete and
expunge</span></dt>
<dd>
<p>The selected messages are removed from the
folder.</p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="term"><span class="keycap"><strong>R</strong></span> - mark each message as
tagged</span></dt>
<dd>
<p>Marks, or highlights the selected messages on the
folder index screen. Tagged messages are shown as
highlighted on the folder index screen, preceded by
“<span class="quote"><code class="literal">*</code></span>”. On some displays,
tagged messages are flagged by a checkmark symbol
instead of the “<span class="quote"><code class="literal">*</code></span>”.</p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="term"><span class="keycap"><strong>K</strong></span> - unmark, or untag the
messages</span></dt>
<dd>
<p>Removes the highlighting mark from the selected
messages.</p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="term"><span class="keycap"><strong>W</strong></span> - watch
thread</span></dt>
<dd>
<p>Watch the selected message's replies/subthreads
(unless the message is already a part of a watched
thread). See <a class="link" href="cone02folderindex.html#watch" title="Watching Threads" shape="rect">“<span class="quote">Watching
Threads</span>”</a> in the “<span class="quote">Folder Index</span>” chapter for more
information on thread watching.</p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="term"><span class="keycap"><strong>A</strong></span> - unwatch
thread</span></dt>
<dd>
<p>Stops watching the message, and its
replies/subthreads.</p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="term"><span class="keycap"><strong>M</strong></span> - move
messages</span></dt>
<dd>
<p>Move the selected messages to another folder.
Selecting this option reopens the folder index screen.
Highlight the folder where the messages can be moved
to, and press ENTER.</p>
<div class="note" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<h3 class="title">Note</h3>
<p>Messages can be moved only to folders in the same
mail account. Messages cannot be moved to a folder in
another mail account.</p>
<p>This means that this option is not available with
POP3 accounts, which naturally have only one
folder.</p>
</div>
</dd>
<dt><span class="term"><span class="keycap"><strong>C</strong></span> - copy
messages</span></dt>
<dd>
<p>Copies the selected messages to another folder. This
is very similar to the move command, except copies of
the selected messages remain in the original
folder.</p>
<div class="note" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<h3 class="title">Note</h3>
<p>This mail filter will be processed every time a
folder is opened. Therefore, the selected messages
will be copied to another folder every time this
folder is opened. This Copy filtering step should be
followed by another filtering step, such as Move, or
Delete/Expunge, that removes all selected messages.
Otherwise the results could be quite amusing</p>
</div>
</dd>
</dl>
</div>
<div class="section" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h5 class="title"><a id="id519086" shape="rect" name="id519086"> </a>Search criteria</h5>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="variablelist">
<dl>
<dt><span class="term"><span class="keycap"><strong>A</strong></span> - select
all</span></dt>
<dd>
<p>Press <span class="keycap"><strong>A</strong></span> to select all
available messages.</p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="term"><span class="keycap"><strong>!</strong></span> - not</span></dt>
<dd>
<p>Press <span class="keycap"><strong>!</strong></span> to logically
reverse the following search criteria. Thus, if the
entered search criteria was “<span class="quote">Search the <code class="literal">From</code>
header for <code class="literal">troll@example.com</code></span>” the
actual search will find messages where the
<code class="literal">From</code> header does
<span class="emphasis"><em>NOT</em></span> contain
this text.</p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="term"><span class="keycap"><strong>D</strong></span> - search by
date</span></dt>
<dd>
<p>A date-related search. Additional prompts follow,
described below.</p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="term"><span class="keycap"><strong>S</strong></span> - search by
status</span></dt>
<dd>
<p>A status-related search. Each message has several
status flags that define whether the message is a new
message, a deleted message, a replied message, and so
on. Selecting a status search shows three options:
“<span class="quote">Deleted</span>”,
“<span class="quote">Unread</span>”, and
“<span class="quote">Replied</span>”, to
search for all deleted, unread, or replied messages,
respectively.</p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="term"><span class="keycap"><strong>T</strong></span> - search by
text</span></dt>
<dd>
<p>A text-based search, search for messages that
contain (or don't contain) a given text string.
Additional prompts follow, that further refine what
kind of text to search for.</p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="term"><span class="keycap"><strong>Z</strong></span> - search by
size</span></dt>
<dd>
<p>Search for messages that are bigger or smaller
than a certain size. Select “<span class="quote">Larger than</span>” or
“<span class="quote">Smaller than</span>”
at the next prompt, then enter the target message
size, in bytes, and press <span class="keycap"><strong>ENTER</strong></span> to search.</p>
</dd>
</dl>
</div>
<div class="section" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h6 class="title"><a id="id518849" shape="rect" name="id518849"> </a>Date-based searches</h6>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>A date-based search brings up additional prompts that
specify the nature of the search. There are two dates
that are associated with every message: the
“<span class="quote">sent</span>” date, when
the message was sent; and the “<span class="quote">received</span>” date, when the message was
received.</p>
<p>The sent date is obtained from the message's
<code class="literal">Date:</code> header. The received
date is obtained from the mail server (or from the
timestamp on the local mailbox).</p>
<p>The first prompt enters which date is searched
for:</p>
<div class="orderedlist">
<ol type="1">
<li>
<p>Messages that were sent before the given
date.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Messages that were the sent on the given
date.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Messages that were the sent since (on, or after)
the given date.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Messages that were received before the given
date.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Messages that were the received on the given
date.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Messages that were the received since (on, or
after) the given date.</p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
<p>The actual date is entered interactively. It starts
with today's date. Press <span class="keycap"><strong>+</strong></span> or <span class="keycap"><strong>-</strong></span> to advance the shown
date to the next or the following date. Press
<span class="keycap"><strong>[</strong></span> or
<span class="keycap"><strong>]</strong></span> to advance
the shown date by a month. Press <span class="keycap"><strong><</strong></span> or <span class="keycap"><strong>></strong></span> to advance the
shown date by a month. Press the space bar to accept the
shown date, and search for messages.</p>
<div class="note" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<h3 class="title">Note</h3>
<p>Date-based searches are not currently implemented
for NetNews newsgroups.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
<div class="titlepage">
<div>
<div>
<h6 class="title"><a id="id518975" shape="rect" name="id518975"> </a>Text-based searches</h6>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>Selecting a text-based search shows a wealth of
options:</p>
<div class="variablelist">
<dl>
<dt><span class="term"><span class="keycap"><strong>S</strong></span> -
subject</span></dt>
<dd>
<p>Search the contents of the <code class="literal">Subject:</code> header.</p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="term"><span class="keycap"><strong>F</strong></span> - from</span></dt>
<dd>
<p>Search the contents of the <code class="literal">From:</code> header.</p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="term"><span class="keycap"><strong>T</strong></span> - to</span></dt>
<dd>
<p>Search the contents of the <code class="literal">To:</code> header.</p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="term"><span class="keycap"><strong>C</strong></span> - cc</span></dt>
<dd>
<p>Search the contents of the <code class="literal">Cc:</code> header.</p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="term"><span class="keycap"><strong>B</strong></span> - bcc</span></dt>
<dd>
<p>Search the contents of the <code class="literal">Bcc:</code> header.</p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="term"><span class="keycap"><strong>H</strong></span> - specific
header</span></dt>
<dd>
<p>Searches for the given text in some other
header. The next prompt asks for the header's
name.</p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="term"><span class="keycap"><strong>O</strong></span> -
contents</span></dt>
<dd>
<p>Search the contents of the message for the given
text.</p>
</dd>
<dt><span class="term"><span class="keycap"><strong>A</strong></span> -
anywhere</span></dt>
<dd>
<p>Search the given text anywhere - headers or
contents.</p>
</dd>
</dl>
</div>
<p>Enter the text to search for after selecting one of
these options, and press <span class="keycap"><strong>ENTER</strong></span> to perform the
search.</p>
<div class="note" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;">
<h3 class="title">Note</h3>
<p>Efficient searching is implemented for local mail,
and IMAP/SMAP mailboxes only. NetNews servers'
searching capabilities are very limited, and POP3
servers have no search facilities whatsoever. In all
cases, searching for message status flags is supported,
since message status flags are always cached
locally.</p>
<p>Only message headers of NetNews folders may be
searched, and only English characters can be used as a
search string. Some older NetNews servers may not have
any searching ability whatsoever. Searching of message
contents is not supported. Searching by message size,
or message's date is not supported either.</p>
<p>Searching of POP3 folders is also not very
efficient, although the search text is not limited to
English characters only. POP3 folder search is
accomplished by downloading the complete headers of
each message, and searching it manually. Downloaded
headers are not cached. The headers are also downloaded
when searching by message's date. Searching by message
size, or message's date is not supported for POP3
folders.</p>
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