Two optimizations:

Don't load .mincspam until it is actually needed, in filter_mail.

Print the first status message (the number of messages to process)
as soon as we can, in getfiles.

diff --git a/minc b/minc
index a8eb94f..f33fddb 100755 (executable)
--- a/minc
+++ b/minc
@@ -187,14 +187,6 @@ marked unseen.
 our @FILTERS;
 require "$HOME/.mincfilter";
 
-if (-f "$HOME/.mincspam") {
-    require "$HOME/.mincspam";
-} else {
-    eval "sub spam_start_hook { return (); }";
-    eval "sub spam_stop_hook { }";
-    eval "sub spam_check { return 0; }";
-}
-
 my $mh;
 my $logfile;
 
@@ -337,6 +329,9 @@ sub getfiles {
         exit(0);
     }
 
+    STDOUT->autoflush(1);
+    print(scalar(@result), " messages...");
+
     closedir(DIR);
 
     return @result;
@@ -591,10 +586,16 @@ sub filter_mail {
     my $saved = 0;
     my %FOLDERS = ('SPAM'=>1);
 
+    if (-f "$HOME/.mincspam") {
+        require "$HOME/.mincspam";
+    } else {
+        eval "sub spam_start_hook { return (); }";
+        eval "sub spam_stop_hook { }";
+        eval "sub spam_check { return 0; }";
+    }
+
     @baton = spam_start_hook();
 
-    STDOUT->autoflush(1);
-    print("$msgcount messages...");
     foreach $msg (@msglist) {
         if (spam_check($msg, @baton)) {
             $mhfolder = 'SPAM';