Re: [Nmh-workers] mh-format, function %(clock {date_component}), when date_component is missing

[Ken Hornstein]

>Experiments suggest that, at least as applied to scan, the function
>%(clock {date_component}), when date_component is missing, returns the file
>modification time of the message, consistent with 'sort -nocheck'. But I can't
>find that documented in the man page. I expect that the other date functions
>behave similarly.

It's actually is documented in scan(1), way down at the bottom:

       If no date header is present in the message, the function escapes which
       operate  on {date} will return values for the date of last modification
       of the message file itself.  This feature is handy for scanning a draft
       folder, as message drafts usually aren't allowed to have dates in them.

This is specific to scan, rather than mh-format(5); you have to do extra work
to make this happen.

--Ken