Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!aplcen!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!snorkelwacker!bloom-beacon!CSE.OGI.EDU!schaefer
From: schaefer@CSE.OGI.EDU (Barton E. Schaefer)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.mush
Subject: Re: forwarding many messages
Message-ID: <9007222139.AA07408@cse.ogi.edu>
Date: 22 Jul 90 21:39:29 GMT
Sender: daemon@athena.mit.edu (Mr Background)
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 46

On Jul 22,  7:14pm, Kurt Hirchert wrote:
} Subject: forwarding many messages
}
} From time to time, I get requests to forward copies of messages I have
} received.  [...]  The problem with [piping lots of messages to mail -f]
} is that after the first few messages, the attempts to forward these messages
} fail because of insufficient memory.  [...]  Is there a way I can either
} get mush to wait for the earlier messages to quit before trying to send more
} or a way I can conveniently break the list of messages into shorter lists that
} I can manually space out?

If you use "mail -v -f" or "set verbose", mush will fork the sendmails
one at a time so that you can see the verbosity.  This should work for
most installations. However, if your MTA does not support any verbose
options, mush may have been installed with the "-v" switch disabled.  In
this case, there isn't any way to force one-sendmail-at-a-time.

To split lists of messages into shorter lists, there are options of the
"pick" command that perform head or tail operations.  First, generate the
list you want:

    pick -s "Please forward" | set forward

Next, pick out the first three (or whatever number is best) and pipe
to mail:

    $forward | pick +3 | set sent | mail -f

Now remove the sent messages from $forward:

    $forward { $sent } | set forward

Repeat the last two steps as necessary.  You can make cmd aliases to
speed this up; perhaps:

    cmd fset   'pick \!* | set forward ; echo "Forward: $forward"'
    cmd fsplit '$forward | pick +3 | set sent | mail -f ;\
		$forward { $sent } | set forward ;\
		echo "Sent: $sent -- Remaining: $forward"'

Now you can type "fset", then "fsplit", and then repeat "!!" (history
reference) until all the messages are sent.  Warning: if you use fsplit
without first setting $forward, you'll forward the current message.

-- 
Bart Schaefer						schaefer@cse.ogi.edu