Re: [Nmh-workers] message rewrite/fix up

[Harald Geyer]

> Here's where I'm headed:
> 
>   mhfixmsg [+folder [msgs] | -file file] [-outfile file]
> 
> Stdin/stdout can be specified with -
> 
> msfixmsg transforms the msg/file in place and keeps a backup
> (your keeporig).  For the backup:
> 
> Attempt to backup the input file using the directory found by:
>   1) If input is a message, the folder of the message.
>   2) If input is a file, the directory of the file.
>   3) If input is standard input, the user's MH Path directory.
> 
> and using one of these for the filename, in order:
>   1) Message-ID with all / converted to periods, if file does
>      not already exist.
>   2) Message-ID with all / and \ converted to periods, if file
>      does not already exist.  (Need this for Windows.)
>   3) Concatenation of BACKUP_PREFIX (usually ",") and input
>      filename.  For stdin, that is a tmp filename of form
>      mhfixmsg-XXXXXX.
> 
> If unable to backup the message, then it will not be modified
> and failure will be reported.

I like this scheme for the ease to find the original to any given
message. The downside seems to be, that originals aren't easily
accessible from nmh tools like pick.
(I don't care es I won't keep these backups anyway, but I wonder
what people, who do, will use them for.)

> To put a transformed message into a different folder, I'd use
> -outfile - | rcvstore +folder.

That's a lot to type for what would be my most common usage, but
trivial to customize, so I think it is nice anyway.
 
> > I'm also undecided on whether "preferred form"
> > includes headers to properly mark the message as 8bit as if it was
> > actually sent that way.
> 
> I hadn't thought about keeping the old C-T-E header when
> decoding base64 or Q-P, but I suppose it could.  At this point,
> I don't see the value in that, as noted in my message earlier
> today about Valdis's observation.

My reasoning was along the line of "what would happen if I packf
a bunch of messages in preferred form and open the resulting
mbox in some external program". I don't know.

Harald