NUMBER - number messages in any drawer.

The Number Command

Syntax:

          Number [option]

Examples

          n
          num +outbound

Possible Options:

+Outbound: renumbers only the Outbound drawer.
+REJected: resets the number of Rejected messages. See "expl mail errors" for more details.
+Saved: renumbers both the Saved and the Deleted drawer.
+Unread: renumbers only the Unread drawer.
+All: can be used to try to correct your mailbox's format if MAIL8 tells you the format has been "corrupted". This is only needed in very rare cases.

Description:

Number renumbers all the messages in one or more drawers. New reference numbers are assigned to messages (if necessary), beginning at 1 in each drawer and numbering sequentially.

Options indicate which drawers you want to renumber. If you do not specify any options, Number renumbers the messages in every drawer.

The Saved and Deleted drawers share the same set of numbers. For example, if you delete message 3 from the Saved drawer, it becomes message 3 in the Deleted drawer. The deleted message remains number 3 until it expires and disappears forever. This means that if you use Number to renumber your mailbox before deleted messages expire, the numbers in your Saved drawer may not be sequential; there will be a gap corresponding to each message in your Deleted drawer. If you really want to have consecutive numbers in your Saved drawer, you must first use

          *Delete +Deleted

to delete all expired and unexpired messages in your Deleted drawer, and then

          Number +All

to renumber everything. Deleting messages from your Deleted drawer means that the messages are gone forever; you can't UnDELete them.

If you have expired messages in your Deleted drawer, using Number to renumber your mailbox may get rid of some or all of those messages.