---
name: "mscan"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "mblaze"
version: "1.1-1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/mscan"
---

# mscan(1)

generate one-line message summaries

## NAME

**mscan** – generate one-line message summaries

## SYNOPSIS

**mscan** \[**-I**\] \[**-n**\] \[**-v**\] \[**-f** *format*\] *msgs ...*

## DESCRIPTION

**mscan** prints a one line summary for each message.( See [mmsg(7)](/mmsg/7.md) for the message argument syntax.)

If no *msgs* are specified, **mscan** reads filenames from the standard input, or scans the mails in the current sequence if used interactively.

By default, **mscan** will spawn a pager on its output when used interactively. See ENVIRONMENT for details on how to control this behaviour.

The default *format* is

```
%c%u%r %-3n %10d %17f %t %2i%s
```

that is, for each message, **mscan** prints relevant flags, the sequence number (if applicable), the date, the originator, and the subject of the message (possibly indented). A default **mscan** format may be specified in the user's [mblaze-profile(5)](/mblaze-profile/5.md).

The options are as follows:

- **-I**

  Force ISO date output, even for ‘**%d**’.

- **-n**

  Only print message numbers (or filenames, if the message is not in the current sequence).

- **-v**

  Print how many messages were scanned to standard error.

- **-f** *format*

  Format according to the string *format*, inspired by [printf(3)](/printf/3.md).

  The following formatting codes may be used( *wd* overrides the default width):

  - **\\n**

    Newline.

  - **\\t**

    Tab.

  - **%%**

    A plain ‘%’.

  - **%**\[*wd*\]**b**

    Human-readable size of the message (in kilobytes).

  - **%c**

    A ‘\>’ on the current message, otherwise a blank.

  - **%**\[*wd*\]**d**

    Adaptive date of the message. When *wd* is greater or equal to 19, the timestamp is shown in dottime format (**https://dotti.me/**).

  - **%**\[*wd*\]**D**

    ISO date of the message (year, month, day). When *wd* is greater or equal to 16, the hour-minute timestamp will also be shown. When *wd* is greater or equal to 19, seconds will also be shown.

  - **%**\[*wd*\]**f**

    The ‘From:’( or ‘To:’, if the message is from us).

  - **%**\[*wd*\]**F**

    The maildir folder the message resides in.

  - **%**\[*wd*\]**i**

    *wd* (default: 1) spaces per indentation depth in the thread tree.

  - **%**\[*wd*\]**I**

    The ‘Message-ID:’ of the message.

  - **%M**

    The raw maildir flags of the message.

  - **%**\[*wd*\]**n**

    The number of the message in the current sequence.

  - **%r**

    A ‘-’ on a replied-to message, or a ‘:’ on a forwarded message, or a blank.

  - **%**\[*wd*\]**R**

    The filename of the message.

  - **%**\[*wd*\]**s**

    The subject of the message (defaults to remaining width).

  - **%**\[*wd*\]**S**

    The subject of the message (defaults to remaining width), with leading ‘Re:’, ‘Fwd:’ etc. stripped.

  - **%t**

    A ‘\>’ if you are in ‘To:’, a ‘+’ if you are in ‘Cc:’, a ‘:’ if you are in ‘Resent-To:’, or a blank.

  - **%u**

    An ‘\*’ on a flagged message, a ‘.’ on an unseen message, an ‘x’ on a trashed message, or a blank.

## MESSAGE FLAGS

- \>

  The current message

- .

  An unseen message

- x

  A trashed message

- \*

  A flagged message

- \-

  A replied-to message

## SUBJECT FLAGS

- \>

  You are in ‘To:’

- \+

  You are in ‘Cc:’

- :

  You are in ‘Resent-To:’

## ENVIRONMENT

- MBLAZE\_PAGER

  Any non-empty value of the environment variable MBLAZE\_PAGER is used instead of the standard pagination program, specified in PAGER. When empty, or set to ‘**cat**’, no pager is spawned.

## EXIT STATUS

The **mscan** utility exits 0 on success, and \>0 if an error occurs.

## SEE ALSO

[mblaze-profile(5)](/mblaze-profile/5.md), [mmsg(7)](/mmsg/7.md)

## AUTHORS

Leah Neukirchen ⟨*leah@vuxu.org*⟩

## LICENSE

**mscan** is in the public domain.

To the extent possible under law, the creator of this work has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this work.

**http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/**