GNU Emacs Manual - Rmail Labels

Labels

Each message can have various labels assigned to it as a means of classification. Each label has a name; different names are different labels. Any given label is either present or absent on a particular message. A few label names have standard meanings and are given to messages automatically by Rmail when appropriate; these special labels are called attributes. All other labels are assigned only by users.

a label RET

Assign the label label to the current message (rmail-add-label ).

k label RET

Remove the label label from the current message (rmail-kill-label ).

C-M-n labels RET

Move to the next message that has one of the labels labels (rmail-next-labeled-message ).

C-M-p labels RET

Move to the previous message that has one of the labels labels (rmail-previous-labeled-message ).

C-M-l labels RET

Make a summary of all messages containing any of the labels labels (rmail-summary-by-labels ).

The a (rmail-add-label ) and k (rmail-kill-label ) commands allow you to assign or remove any label on the current message. If the label argument is empty, it means to assign or remove the same label most recently assigned or removed.

Once you have given messages labels to classify them as you wish, there are two ways to use the labels: in moving and in summaries.

The command C-M-n labels RET (rmail-next-labeled-message ) moves to the next message that has one of the labels labels. The argument labels specifies one or more label names, separated by commas. C-M-p (rmail-previous-labeled-message ) is similar, but moves backwards to previous messages. A numeric argument to either command serves as a repeat count.

The command C-M-l labels RET (rmail-summary-by-labels ) displays a summary containing only the messages that have at least one of a specified set of messages. The argument labels is one or more label names, separated by commas. See Rmail Summary, for information on summaries.

If the labels argument to C-M-n, C-M-p or C-M-l is empty, it means to use the last set of labels specified for any of these commands.

Some labels such as `deleted' and `filed' have built-in meanings and are assigned to or removed from messages automatically at appropriate times; these labels are called attributes. Here is a list of Rmail attributes:

`unseen'

Means the message has never been current. Assigned to messages when they come from an inbox file, and removed when a message is made current. When you start Rmail, it initially shows the first message that has this attribute.

`deleted'

Means the message is deleted. Assigned by deletion commands and removed by undeletion commands (see Rmail Deletion).

`filed'

Means the message has been copied to some other file. Assigned by the file output commands (see Rmail Files).

`answered'

Means you have mailed an answer to the message. Assigned by the r command (rmail-reply ). See Rmail Reply.

`forwarded'

Means you have forwarded the message. Assigned by the f command (rmail-forward ). See Rmail Reply.

`edited'

Means you have edited the text of the message within Rmail. See Rmail Editing.

`resent'

Means you have resent the message. Assigned by the command M-x rmail-resend. See Rmail Reply.

All other labels are assigned or removed only by the user, and have no standard meaning.