Re: [bug-mailutils] reads from Maildir, writes to mbox

[Sergey Poznyakoff]

> $ mail
> read a message, then
> ? q
> Saved 1 message in /home/jidanni/mbox
> Held 5 messages in /home/jidanni/Maildir/
> 
> Proof that the above is bad:
> The next time the user does
> $ mail
> he will only see four messages.
> 
> What other mail program ever made the user's read messages "disappear"
> somewhere else

Any POSIX-compatible mailx implementation will do the same. According to
POSIX:

  "Messages that are in the system mailbox and in state 'read' when mailx
  quits shall be saved in the mbox, unless the internal variable 'hold' was
  set. Messages that are in the mbox or in a secondary mailbox and in
  state read when mailx quits shall be retained in their current
  location."

> so when he restarts the program he can't find them anymore?

He can switch to the mbox anytime by issuing the

  file &

command. Quoting POSIX:

   "Several unquoted special characters shall be recognized when used as
   file names, with the following substitutions:

   %       The system mailbox for the invoking user.
   %user   The system mailbox for user.
   #       The previous file.
   &       The current mbox.
   +file   The named file in the folder directory. (See the
           folder variable.)"

> Why can't read messages be saved in the same place they came from, like
> mutt?

Use "set hold", as described above.

Regards,
Sergey