How to reset $MessageList when the tag is protected

[Swamp Thing]

In the "Details" section here...

https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/$MessageList.html

... it says you can reset $MessageList during a computation. I tried $MessageList = {} and Clear[$MessageList] but it says "the tag is protected".

So how can we reset $MessageList?

 

[DrClaude]

You can unprotect it first:

Unprotect[$MessageList];
$MessageList = {};
Protect[$MessageList];

 

[Swamp Thing]

Thank you!
That's very handy to know -- there can be more use cases where the "protected tag" thing gets in the way.