8. Summaries

A summary is a buffer Rmail creates and displays to give you an overview of the mail in an Rmail file. It contains one line per message; each line shows the message number, the sender, the labels, and the subject. When you select the summary buffer, you can use a number of commands to select messages by moving in the summary buffer, or to delete or undelete messages.

A summary buffer applies to a single Rmail file only; if you are editing multiple Rmail files, they have separate summary buffers. The summary buffer name is generated by appending `-summary' to the Rmail buffer's name. Only one summary buffer is displayed at a time unless you make several windows and select the summary buffers by hand.

8.1 Making Summaries

Here are the commands to create a summary for the current Rmail file. Summaries do not update automatically; to make an updated summary, you must use one of the commands again.

h

C-M-h

Summarize all messages (rmail-summary).

l labels RET

C-M-l labels RET

Summarize message that have one or more of the specified labels (rmail-summary-by-labels).

C-M-r rcpts RET

Summarize messages that have one or more of the specified recipients (rmail-summary-by-recipients).

The h or C-M-h (rmail-summary) command fills the summary buffer for the current Rmail file with a summary of all the messages in the file. It then displays and selects the summary buffer in another window.

The l or C-M-l labels RET (rmail-summary-by-labels) makes a partial summary mentioning only the messages that have one or more of the labels labels. labels should contain label names separated by commas.

C-M-r rcpts RET (rmail-summary-by-recipients) makes a partial summary mentioning only the messages that have one or more of the recipients rcpts. rcpts should contain mailing addresses separated by commas.

Note that there is only one summary buffer for any Rmail file; making one kind of summary discards any previously made summary.

8.2 Editing in Summaries

Summary buffers are given the major mode Rmail Summary mode, which provides the following special commands:

j

Select the message described by the line that point is on (rmail-summary-goto-msg).

C-n

Move to next line and select its message in Rmail (rmail-summary-next-all).

C-p

Move to previous line and select its message (rmail-summary-
previous-all).

n

Move to next line, skipping lines saying `deleted', and select its message (rmail-summary-next-msg).

p

Move to previous line, skipping lines saying `deleted', and select its message (rmail-summary-previous-msg).

d

Delete the current line's message, then do like n (rmail-summary-delete-forward).

u

Undelete and select this message or the previous deleted message in the summary (rmail-summary-undelete).

SPC

Scroll the other window (presumably Rmail) forward (rmail-summary-scroll-msg-up).

DEL

Scroll the other window backward (rmail-summary-scroll-msg-down).

x

Kill the summary window (rmail-summary-exit).

q

Exit Rmail (rmail-summary-quit).

The keys C-n(rmail-summary-next-all) and C-p (rmail-summary-previous-all) are modified in Rmail Summary mode. In addition to moving point in the summary buffer, they also cause the line's message to become current in the associated Rmail buffer. That buffer is also made visible in another window if it is not currently visible.

n and p are similar to C-n and C-p, but skip lines that say `message deleted'. They are like the n and p keys of Rmail itself. Note, however, that in a partial summary these commands move only among the message listed in the summary.

The other Emacs cursor motion commands are not changed in Rmail Summary mode, so it is easy to get the point on a line whose message is not selected in Rmail. This can also happen if you switch to the Rmail window and switch messages there. To get the Rmail buffer back in sync with the summary, use the j (rmail-summary-goto-msg) command, which selects the message of the current summary line in Rmail.

Deletion and undeletion can also be done from the summary buffer. They always work based on where point is located in the summary buffer, ignoring which message is selected in Rmail. d (rmail-summary-delete-forward) deletes the current line's message, then moves to the next line whose message is not deleted and selects that message. The inverse is u (rmail-summary-undelete), which moves back (if necessary) to a line whose message is deleted, undeletes that message, and selects it in Rmail.

When moving through messages with the summary buffer, it is convenient to be able to scroll the message while remaining in the summary window. The commands SPC (rmail-summary-scroll-msg-up) and DEL (rmail-summary-scroll-msg-down) do this. They scroll the message just as they do when the Rmail buffer is selected.

When you are finished using the summary, type x (rmail-summary-exit) to kill the summary buffer's window.

You can also exit Rmail while in the summary. q (rmail-summary-quit) kills the summary window, then saves the Rmail file and switches to another buffer.

This document was generated by XEmacs shared group account on December, 19 2009 using texi2html 1.65.