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10.18.1 Unseen Headers Message Spec

The unseen Headers buffer by default only shows unseen headers which is adequate for one folder, simple mail handling. Some people use their New Mail Folder only for incoming mail, refiling or otherwise dispatching a message immediately. Under this mode it is easy to conceive of the user not having time to respond to a message, but he would like to leave it in this folder to remind him to take care of it. Using the Unseen Headers Message Spec variable, the user can cause all the messages the New Mail Folder to be inserted into the unseen Headers buffer whenever just unseen headers would be. This way he sees all the messages that require immediate attention.

To achieve the above effect, Unseen Headers Message Spec should be set to the string "all". This variable can be set to any general MH message specification (see section mhcommands of this chapter), so the user can include headers of messages other than those that have not been seen without having to insert all of them. For example, the user could set the variable to "flagged" and use the Mark Message command to add messages he’s concerned about to the "flagged" sequence. Then the user would see new mail and interesting mail in his unseen Headers buffer, but he doesn’t have to see everything in his New Mail Folder.