Re: [Nmh-workers] semantics of mhshow -type and -part

[Ralph Corderoy]

Hi Paul,

>  msg part  type/subtype              size description
>   27       multipart/mixed           5902
>      1     multipart/alternative     5213
>      1.1   text/enriched               33
>      1.2   text/html                 4548
>      1.3   text/plain                 145
>      2     application/x-zip-compre    57 Dummy Attachment
> 
> but what should "mhshow -type text" do, where the subtype is
> unspecified?

Show me just one text/* part of each alternative, i.e. 1.1 if nmh hasn't
developed a way to say text/plain trumps text/enriched yet.

> my feeling is that the latter behavior is correct, and that specifying
> the type should override the "alternative" property of the multipart.

No, I'm just saying I want text and not PDFs or images in this pass.
Not that I want to see the (probably very similar) text in triplicate.

Perhaps an `-allalternatives' switch would give your behaviour, for when
I want to see if all three are indeed triplicates or whether their
text/plain is just a `view it online' one-liner.

>  msg part  type/subtype              size description
> 7280       multipart/mixed           3645
>      1     multipart/alternative     3184
>      1.1   multipart/related         1867
>      1.1.1 text/html                 1629
>      1.2   text/plain                1002
>      2     text/plain                 127
> 
> in the case of this message, again, what should "mhshow -type text"
> show?  should it ignore the notion of "alternative" and show 1.1.1,
> 1.2, and 2?  or should it show just one of 1.1.1 or 1.2?

1.1.1 and 2.  Not 1.2 because 1.1.1 trumps it.

If 1.1.1 was image/png, then 1.2 instead of 1.1.1 because alternative
1.1 failed to show anything.

> likewise, what should "mhshow -part 1.1.1 -part 1.2" show?

1.1.1 and 1.2.  I think explicitly naming parts by their hierarchy means
you want exactly those and know what you're doing.

Cheers, Ralph.