MH(1) [mh.6] MH(1)
NAME
mh - Message Handler
SYNOPSIS
any MH command
DESCRIPTION
MH is the name of a powerful message handling system.
Rather then being a single comprehensive program, MH con-
sists of a collection of fairly simple single-purpose pro-
grams to send, receive, save, and retrieve messages. The
user should refer to the MH User's Manual and the pages
for the MH programs in the Unix Programmers Manual.
Unlike mail, the standard UNIX mail user interface pro-
gram, MH is not a closed system which must be explicitly
run, then exited when you wish to return to the shell.
You may freely intersperse MH commands with other shell
commands, allowing you to read and answer your mail while
you have (for example) a compilation running, or search
for a file or run programs as needed to find the answer to
someone's question before answering their mail.
The rest of this manual entry is a quick tutorial which
will teach you the basics of MH. You should read the man-
ual entries for the individual programs for complete docu-
mentation.
To get started using MH, put the directory
/usr/contrib/mh/bin on your $PATH. This is best done in
one of the files: .profile, .login, or .cshrc in your home
directory. (Check the manual entry for the shell you use,
in case you don't know how to do this.) Run the inc com-
mand. If you've never used MH before, it will create the
necessary default files and directories after asking you
if you wish it to do so.
inc moves mail from your system maildrop into your MH
`+inbox' folder, breaking it up into separate files and
converting it to MH format as it goes. It prints one line
for each message it processes, containing the from field,
the subject field and as much of the first line of the
message as will fit. It leaves the first message it pro-
cesses as your current message. You'll need to run inc
each time you wish to incorporate new mail into your MH
file.
scan prints a list of the messages in your current folder.
The commands: show, next, and prev are used to read spe-
cific messages from the current folder. show displays the
current message, or a specific message, which may be spec-
ified by its number, which you pass as an argument to
show. next and prev display, respectively, the message
MH April 22, 1986 1
MH(1) [mh.6] MH(1)
numerically after or before the current message. In all
cases, the message displayed becomes the current message.
If there is no current message, show may be called with an
argument, or next may be used to advance to the first mes-
sage.
rmm (remove message) deletes the current message. It may
be called with message numbers passed as arguments, to
delete specific messages.
repl is used to respond to the current message (by
default). It places you in the editor with a prototype
response form. While you're in the editor, you may peruse
the item you're responding to by reading the file @.
After completing your response, type l to review it, or s
to send it.
comp allows you to compose a message by putting you in the
editor on a prototype message form, and then lets you send
it.
All the MH commands may be run with the single argument:
`-help', which causes them to print a list of the argu-
ments they may be invoked with.
Commands which take a message number as an argument (scan,
show, repl, ...) also take one of the words: first, prev,
cur, next, or last to indicate (respectively) the first,
previous, current, next, or last message in the current
folder (assuming they are defined).
Commands which take a range of message numbers (rmm, scan,
show, ...) also take any of the abbreviations:
<num1>-<num2> - Indicates all messages in the range
<num1> to <num2>, inclusive. The range must be
nonempty.
<num>:+N
<num>:-N - Up to N messages beginning with (or ending
with) message num. Num may be any of the pre-defined
symbols: first, prev, cur, next or last.
first:N
prev:N
next:N
last:N - The first, previous, next or last N messages,
if they exist.
There are many other possibilities such as creating multi-
ple folders for different topics, and automatically refil-
ing messages according to subject, source, destination, or
content. These are beyond the scope of this manual entry.
MH April 22, 1986 2
MH(1) [mh.6] MH(1)
Following is a list of all the MH commands:
ali (1) - list mail aliases
anno (1) - annotate messages
burst (1) - explode digests into messages
comp (1) - compose a message
dist (1) - redistribute a message to additional addresses
folder (1) - set/list current folder/message
folders (1) - list all folders
forw (1) - forward messages
inc (1) - incorporate new mail
mark (1) - mark messages
mhl (1) - produce formatted listings of MH messages
mhmail (1) - send or read mail
mhook (1) - MH receive-mail hooks
mhpath (1) - print full pathnames of MH messages and folders
msgchk (1) - check for messages
msh (1) - MH shell (and BBoard reader)
next (1) - show the next message
packf (1) - compress a folder into a single file
pick (1) - select messages by content
prev (1) - show the previous message
prompter (1) - prompting editor front end
rcvstore (1) - incorporate new mail asynchronously
refile (1) - file messages in other folders
repl (1) - reply to a message
rmf (1) - remove folder
rmm (1) - remove messages
scan (1) - produce a one line per message scan listing
send (1) - send a message
show (1) - show (list) messages
sortm (1) - sort messages
vmh (1) - visual front-end to MH
whatnow (1) - prompting front-end for send
whom (1) - report to whom a message would go
mh-alias (5) - alias file for MH message system
mh-format (5) - format file for MH message system
mh-mail (5) - message format for MH message system
mh-profile (5) - user customization for MH message system
ap (8) - parse addresses 822-style
conflict (8) - search for alias/password conflicts
dp (8) - parse dates 822-style
install-mh (8) - initialize the MH environment
post (8) - deliver a message
FILES
/usr/contrib/mh/bin directory containing MH commands
/usr/contrib/mh/lib MH library
SEE ALSO
The Rand MH Message Handling System: User's Manual,
MH April 22, 1986 3
MH(1) [mh.6] MH(1)
The Rand MH Message Handling System: Tutorial,
The Rand MH Message Handling System: The UCI BBoards
Facility,
MH.5: How to process 200 messages a day and still get some
real work done
MH April 22, 1986 4