Telsa Gwynne <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote on Mon, 13 Mar 2000:
> And the N for
> "new mail" is very intermittent on the listing of folders (for which
> I too have forgotten the correct name).
>
> There are one or two folders which never seem to show up as having
> new mail in them. They're listed in mailboxes in my .muttrc just like
> the rest.
David DeSimone posted a few days ago a very good reply in another thread
which explains how Mutt detects new mail (for the usual mbox folders).
Basically, it compares the "last accessed" and "last modified" times for
a file. If "last modified" is later than "last accessed", the the
folder is marked in the Mailboxes or directory listing as containing new
mail.
If a folder is not marked as containing new mail, it means that Mutt saw
that the modified time was earlier or equal to the accessed time. Why
this happens is anyone's guess. Possible common causes:
- another new mail checking application which disturbs the "last
accessed" time when it checks a folder for new mail, for example a
shell's new mail listing or a "biff" type application
- the mbox is read over NFS, and the timestamps get mangled because of
that (at least, that's what I've heard claimed)
Also something to try is to set $save_empty, at least for your incoming
folders (with a folder-hook), which will keep the mail folder file
around even if it's empty. I remember once experiencing similar
problems which were solved with this, because the file got created with
new mail and had lass access time being equal to last modification time,
which is not enough (last modification needs to be *later*, not equal).
Hope this helps,
Mikko
--
// Mikko Hänninen, aka. Wizzu // [EMAIL PROTECTED] // http://www.iki.fi/wiz/
// The Corrs list maintainer // net.freak // DALnet IRC operator /
// Interests: roleplaying, Linux, the Net, fantasy & scifi, the Corrs /
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