mu/man/mu-move.1.org

#+TITLE: MU MOVE
#+MAN_CLASS_OPTIONS: :section-id "@SECTION_ID@" :date "@MAN_DATE@"

* NAME

mu-move - move a message file or change its flags

* SYNOPSIS

*mu [common-options] move [options] <src> [--flags=<flags>] [<target>]*

* DESCRIPTION

*mu move* is the command for moving messages in a Maildir or changing their flags.

For any change, both the message file in the file system as well as its
representation in the database are updated accordingly.

The source message file and target-maildir must reside under the root-maildir
for mu's database (see *mu info store*).

* MOVE OPTIONS

** --flags=<flags>

specify the new message flags. See *FLAGS* for details.

** --change-name

change the basename of the message file when moving; this can be useful when
using some external tools such as *mbsync(1)* which otherwise get confused

** --update-dups

update the flags of duplicate messages too, where "duplicate messages" are
defined as all message that share the same message-id. Note that the
Draft/Flagged/Trashed flags are deliberately _not_ changed if you change those on
the source message.

** --dry-run,-n

print the target filename(s), but don't change anything.

Note that with the ~--change-name~, the target name is not constant, so you cannot
use a dry-run to predict the exact name when doing a `real' run.

#+include: "common-options.inc" :minlevel 1

* FLAGS

(Note: if you are not familiar with Maildirs, please refer to the *maildir(5)*
man-page, or see http://cr.yp.to/proto/maildir.html)

The message flags specify the Maildir-metadata for a message and are represented
by uppercase letters at the end of the message file name for all `non-new'
messages, i.e. messages that live in the ~cur/~ sub-directory of a Maildir.

#+ATTR_MAN: :disable-caption t
| Flag | Meaning                            |
|------+------------------------------------|
| D    | Draft message                      |
| F    | Flagged message                    |
| P    | Passed message (i.e., `forwarded') |
| R    | Replied message                    |
| S    | Seen message                       |
| T    | Trashed; to be deleted later       |

New messages (in the ~new/~ sub-directory) do not have flags encoded in their
file-name; but we *mu* uses `N' in the ~--flags~ to represent that:

#+ATTR_MAN: :disable-caption t
| Flag | Meaning |
|------+---------|
| N    | New     |

Thus, changing flags means changing the letters at the end of the message
file-name, except when setting or removing the `N' (new) flag. Setting or
un-setting the New flag causes the message is to be moved from ~cur/~ to ~new/~ or
vice-versa, respectively. When marking a message as New, it looses the other
flags.

* ABSOLUTE AND RELATIVE FLAGS

You can specify the flags with the ~--flags~ parameter, and do either with either
*absolute* or *relative* flags.

Absolute flags just specify the new flags by their letters; e.g. to specify a
/Trashed/, /Seen/, /Replied/ message, you'd use ~--flags STR~.
#+end_example

Relative flags are relative to the current flags for some message, and each of
the flags is prefixed with either ~+~ ("add this flag") or ~-~ ("remove this flag").

So to add the /Seen/ flag and remove the /Draft/ flag from whatever the message
already has, ~--flags +S-D~.

You cannot combine relative and relative flags.

* EXAMPLES

** change some flags
#+begin_example
$ mu move /home/user/Maildir/inbox/cur/1695559560.a73985881f4611ac2.hostname!2,S --flags +F
/home/user/Maildir/inbox/cur/1695559560.a73985881f4611ac2.hostname!2,FS
#+end_example

** move to a different maildir
#+begin_example
$ mu move /home/user/Maildir/project1/cur/1695559560.a73985881f4611ac2.hostname!2,S /project2
/home/user/Maildir/project2/cur/1695559560.a73985881f4611ac2.hostname!2,S
#+end_example

#+include: "prefooter.inc" :minlevel 1

* SEE ALSO

*maildir(5)*