bug#19083: 24.3; RMAIL-summary should get message date from "From " line if there is no "Date:" header

[Dale R. Worley]

I have been putting messages in a file using the Fcc: quasi-header.
This generates a file containg messages (in the current mailbox
format) that looks like this:

    From worley Sat Nov 15 10:34:18 -0500 2014
    From: worley@alum.mit.edu (Dale R. Worley)
    To: worley
    Subject: Re: Reference

    [body]

    From worley Sun Nov 16 14:42:22 -0500 2014
    From: worley@alum.mit.edu (Dale R. Worley)
    Sender: worley@alum.mit.edu (Dale R. Worley)
    To: Duffy O'Craven <duffy@alum.mit.edu>
    Subject: Do you know of an opportunity like this?

    [body]

I can read and manipulate this file using Rmail, with one exception:
The RMAIL-summary buffer does not show dates for these messages.

(If I display the message in the RMAIL buffer, no "Date:" header is
shown, but that is something I would expect.  Using the "t" command
(rmail-toggle-header) reveals the initial "From " line, which shows
the date, so there is no loss of usability.)

While in some sense it is correct to not show a date for these
messages in the summary buffer, it would be much more useful if the
summary buffer processing would extract the date from the "From " line
if there is no "Date:" header.

The only way I know to avoid this effect is, instead of using "Fcc:",
to add "Bcc: [myself]", and then use rmail-output to move the bcc copy
(which has a "Date:" header added somewhere in mail processing) to the
file I wish to save the sent message in.

In addition, the rmail-sort-by-date function should use the date in
the "From " line if there is no "Date:" header.  Currently, messages
without a "Date:" header sort to the beginning, regardless of when
they were actually sent.




In GNU Emacs 24.3.1 (x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.8.2)
 of 2013-08-14 on buildvm-15.phx2.fedoraproject.org
Windowing system distributor `Fedora Project', version 11.0.11404000
System Description:     Fedora release 19 (Schrödinger’s Cat)

Configured using:
 `configure '--build=x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu'
 '--host=x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu' '--program-prefix='
 '--disable-dependency-tracking' '--prefix=/usr' '--exec-prefix=/usr'
 '--bindir=/usr/bin' '--sbindir=/usr/sbin' '--sysconfdir=/etc'
 '--datadir=/usr/share' '--includedir=/usr/include'
 '--libdir=/usr/lib64' '--libexecdir=/usr/libexec'
 '--localstatedir=/var' '--sharedstatedir=/var/lib'
 '--mandir=/usr/share/man' '--infodir=/usr/share/info' '--with-dbus'
 '--with-gif' '--with-jpeg' '--with-png' '--with-rsvg' '--with-tiff'
 '--with-xft' '--with-xpm' '--with-x-toolkit=gtk3' '--with-gpm=no'
 'build_alias=x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu'
 'host_alias=x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu' 'CFLAGS=-DMAIL_USE_LOCKF -O2 -g
 -pipe -Wall -Wp,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -fexceptions -fstack-protector
 --param=ssp-buffer-size=4 -grecord-gcc-switches -m64 -mtune=generic'
 'LDFLAGS=-Wl,-z,relro ''

Important settings:
  value of $LC_COLLATE: C
  value of $LANG: en_US.UTF-8
  locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix
  default enable-multibyte-characters: t

Major mode: RMAIL

Minor modes in effect:
  shell-dirtrack-mode: t
  mouse-wheel-mode: t
  menu-bar-mode: t
  file-name-shadow-mode: t
  global-font-lock-mode: t
  font-lock-mode: t
  auto-composition-mode: t
  auto-encryption-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t
  buffer-read-only: t
  line-number-mode: t

Recent input:
M-> M-< M-> M-< M-> M-< M-> M-< M-> M-< M-> M-< M-> 
M-< M-> M-< M-> M-< M-> M-< M-> M-< M-> M-< M-> M-< 
M-> M-< M-> C-x b M-| C-x I <M-backspace> R M <tab> 
<return> y M-> C-M-r ^ g <backspace> f r o m SPC C-r 
C-r C-r C-r C-r C-e C-x 2 C-x o C-s d a t e : C-a C-x 
o C-M-s C-s C-s C-s C-s C-s C-s C-a C-x C-b C-x o C-n 
C-n o > p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p <help-echo> 
t t <help-echo> C-x o C-x b a c c <tab> <return> M-< 
C-s s a v a n n a h C-a <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> 
<down-mouse-1> <mouse-1> <double-down-mouse-1> <mouse-movement> 
<double-mouse-1> <down-mouse-1> <mouse-1> <double-down-mouse-1> 
<mouse-movement> <double-mouse-1> M-< C-s d e b b u 
g C-a <help-echo> C-x b R M <tab> <return> > C-x 1 
> C-d C-d C-d C-x C-b C-x o C-n f M-< C-s m e d i a 
c t r l C-a <down-mouse-1> <mouse-1> <double-down-mouse-1> 
<double-mouse-1> <triple-down-mouse-1> <triple-mouse-1> 
<down-mouse-1> <mouse-1> <double-down-mouse-1> <double-mouse-1> 
<help-echo> C-x 0 C-d C-d <down-mouse-1> <mouse-1> 
<double-down-mouse-1> <double-mouse-1> <triple-down-mouse-1> 
<triple-mouse-1> C-d C-d C-d C-d C-d C-d C-d C-d <down-mouse-1> 
<mouse-1> <double-down-mouse-1> <double-mouse-1> <triple-down-mouse-1> 
<triple-mouse-1> C-d C-M-s f a c e b o o k <return> 
<help-echo> <help-echo> C-x o C-x b a c c <tab> <return> 
M-< C-s f a c e b o o C-a <down-mouse-1> <mouse-movement> 
<mouse-1> <double-down-mouse-1> <mouse-movement> <mouse-movement> 
<double-drag-mouse-1> <down-mouse-1> <mouse-1> <double-down-mouse-1> 
<double-mouse-1> <help-echo> C-x o . <down-mouse-1> 
<mouse-1> <double-down-mouse-1> <mouse-movement> <double-mouse-1> 
<triple-down-mouse-1> <triple-mouse-1> <help-echo> 
C-x o d M-< M-> C-p Q p n C-h c C-M-t M-x r e p o r 
t - e m a c s - b u g <return>

Recent messages:
Mark set
Mark saved where search started
Mark set
Mark saved where search started
Computing summary lines...done
Mark set
Mark saved where search started
Mark set [2 times]
No following nondeleted message
C-M-t runs the command rmail-summary-by-topic

Load-path shadows:
None found.

Features:
(shadow emacsbug vc-git rect pcmpl-linux pp wid-edit descr-text
doc-view jka-compr image-mode vc-dispatcher vc-svn pcmpl-gnu tar-mode
sgml-mode rmailkwd compare-w arc-mode archive-mode edmacro two-column
kmacro iso-transl etags tramp-cache tramp-sh tramp warnings
tramp-compat auth-source eieio byte-opt bytecomp byte-compile cconv
gnus-util password-cache tramp-loaddefs cl-macs gv advice help-fns
advice-preload rmailedit rmailout cookie1 pcmpl-unix teco perl-mode
sh-script smie executable conf-mode tabify ispell ebuff-menu electric
mule-util help-mode qp rmailsum rmailmm rmail cl cl-lib message
format-spec rfc822 mml easymenu mml-sec mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode
mail-parse rfc2231 mailabbrev gmm-utils mailheader mailalias sendmail
rfc2047 rfc2045 ietf-drums mm-util mail-prsvr mail-utils man shell
pcomplete comint ansi-color ring misearch multi-isearch dired-aux
dired time-date tooltip ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type mwheel
x-win x-dnd tool-bar dnd fontset image regexp-opt fringe
tabulated-list newcomment lisp-mode register page menu-bar rfn-eshadow
timer select scroll-bar mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax facemenu
font-core frame cham georgian utf-8-lang misc-lang vietnamese tibetan
thai tai-viet lao korean japanese hebrew greek romanian slovak czech
european ethiopic indian cyrillic chinese case-table epa-hook
jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev minibuffer loaddefs button faces
cus-face macroexp files text-properties overlay sha1 md5 base64 format
env code-pages mule custom widget hashtable-print-readable backquote
make-network-process dbusbind dynamic-setting system-font-setting
font-render-setting move-toolbar gtk x-toolkit x multi-tty emacs)