[Alpine-info] Filtering

[Lucio Chiappetti via Alpine-info]

On Tue, 4 Jun 2024, Chris M via Alpine-info wrote:


> I am curious, does Alpine offer filtering rules?

> Like if message TO is: Alpine List <alpine-info at u.washington.edu>


Are you the one which said to be new with alpine ?

Yes alpine offers filters, although I think the kind of filter you mean 
will be more efficiently implemented with procmail (whose syntax has 
however a steep learning curve). Also procmail works best as mail delivery 
agent, which implies you receive and store messages locally on your 
machine (which in turn might require fetchmail in conjunction with an IMAP 
server).

Now two things, a specific one and a general one.

a) if what you want is JUST that messages from/to a specific address
    is saved to a specific folder WHEN you save it (S command), this
    can be achieved very simply associating an Fcc folder to the
    address in your address book

    issue M to go to alpine main menu
    then  A to go to the addressbook
    and record the address with a nickname and Fcc

    You might also need to change simething iun your config .pinerc

    Issue M S C to go into the .pinerc, search for keyword
    Saved Message Name Rule             =

    and set (tick) this option
             (*)  by-fcc-of-from-then-from

b) if you instead want automatic filtering on incoming messages (which
    I think occurs at alpine startup, which for that reason might seem
    slow ... that's why I prefer procmail which runs in background)

    ... then you'd need the actual alpine filtering

    What follows is a general advice about how you could know almost
    everything you wamt about alpine:

    issue M to go to alpine main menu
    then  ? to go to the builtin manual

    ====> filtering is described in section 17

    OR

    issue M S R F
    (Menu/Setup/Rules/Filters)

    to jump directly in the filter config and experiment

    Note most keywords and screens in alpine have as builtin help (? or
    control-G)

    I'd advise each pine newbie to do the following at lest once:

    M ?       to read the builtin manual
    M S C     to access your .pinerc then go through the keywords
              and press ? to access their specific help

    Note down the features which seem to interest you, and experiment.
    You will be surprisded of how many thinds you can do with alpine

-- 
Lucio Chiappetti - INAF/IASF - via Corti 12 - I-20133 Milano (Italy)
For more info : http://www.iasf-milano.inaf.it/~lucio/personal.html
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"All that is google does not glitter
  Nor all who use alpine/procmail are lost"