Q: How can I search for messages in all folders or in a selection of folders?
I addition to the quicksearch, that allows filtering out messages in folders
recursively, you can use `mairix` to do global searches in Claws Mail.
To illustrate this topic, we'll detail the necessary steps to make a global search
in a MH config (in our example, ~/Mail).
- install mairix from http://www.rpcurnow.force9.co.uk/mairix/. mairix is a program
for indexing and searching email messages stored in Maildir, MH or mbox folders.
- create a folder in Claws Mail where the search results will be stored in (in
our example: ~/Mail/Search).
- create a mairix config file (~/.mairixrc for instance):
base=~/Mail
mh=*
omit=drafts:queue:trash:Junk:Search
database=~/.mairix_db
mfolder=Search
mformat=mh
in that example, the root of all folders to search in is our MH storage location
(~/Mail), search will omit drafts, queue, trash, Junk and Search folders located
in ~/Mail, and will place results into the Search folder.
See `man mairix` for more information about the mairix configuration file.
- add an action in Claws Mail to start the mairix search:
> ~/.claws-mail/tools/mairix.sh ~/.mairixrc
make sure that you've installed mairix.sh from the Tools pages (http://www.claws-mail.org/tools/claws-mail-mairix.tar.gz)
into ~/.claws-mail/tools or wherever you want, provided that you set the correct
path in the action text.
Now call the action. You'll be asked for a text to search. Search results - symlinks
to the existing message files, will be placed into the target folder, making it like
a virtual folder. Removing messages from that folder will NOT remove the original message files.
You can create as many mairix config files as you want (be sure that you set a
different database value in each of them), then create the corresponding actions
that call mairix.sh with the config filename in parameter.