Another tutorial goes Docbook.
Add the standard header and footer graphics/links to HTML generated from Docbook.
This commit is contained in:
John Fieber
parent
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commit
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Notes:
svn2git
2020-12-08 03:00:23 +00:00
svn path=/head/; revision=1068
11 changed files with 2129 additions and 594 deletions
en/tutorials
en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/mh
en_US.ISO_8859-1
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@ -2,7 +2,6 @@
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<a href="../../"><img src="../../gifs/home.gif" alt="FreeBSD Home Page"
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<a href="../../"><img src="../../gifs/home.gif" alt="FreeBSD Home Page"
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border="0" align="right"></a>
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border="0" align="right"></a>
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<address>
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<address>
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<a href="../../mailto.html">www@freebsd.org</a><br>
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<a href="../../mailto.html">www@freebsd.org</a>
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@@UPDATE@@
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</address>
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</address>
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@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN" [
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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN" [
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<!ENTITY base CDATA "..">
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<!ENTITY base CDATA "..">
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<!ENTITY date "$Date: 1997-01-19 15:29:57 $">
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<!ENTITY date "$Date: 1997-01-19 21:30:13 $">
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<!ENTITY title "FreeBSD Tutorials">
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<!ENTITY title "FreeBSD Tutorials">
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<!ENTITY % includes SYSTEM "../includes.sgml"> %includes;
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<!ENTITY % includes SYSTEM "../includes.sgml"> %includes;
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]>
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]>
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@ -15,9 +15,8 @@
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<ul>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="newuser/newuser.html">For People New to Both FreeBSD
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<li><a href="newuser/newuser.html">For People New to Both FreeBSD
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<em>and</em> Unix</a></li>
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<em>and</em> Unix</a></li>
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<li><a href="mh/mh.html">An introduction to the MH mail software</a>
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(<a href="mh/mh.ps">postscript</a>,
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<li><a href="mh/mh.html">An introduction to the MH mail software</a></li>
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<a href="mh/mh-html.tar.gz">gzipd tar file</a>)</li>
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<li><a href="devel/devel.html">A User's Guide to FreeBSD Programming
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<li><a href="devel/devel.html">A User's Guide to FreeBSD Programming
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Tools</a></li>
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Tools</a></li>
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@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
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DOC= mh
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DOCS= mh.docb
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SRCS= mh.sgml
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INDEXLINK= mh.html
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.include <bsd.sgml.mk>
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.include "../../web.mk"
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704
en/tutorials/mh/mh.docb
Normal file
704
en/tutorials/mh/mh.docb
Normal file
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@ -0,0 +1,704 @@
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<!-- $FreeBSD$ -->
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<!-- FreeBSD Documentation Project -->
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<!DOCTYPE BOOK PUBLIC "-//Davenport//DTD DocBook V3.0//EN">
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<book>
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<bookinfo>
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<bookbiblio>
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<title>An MH Primer</title>
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<authorgroup>
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<author>
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<firstname>Matt</firstname>
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<surname>Midboe</surname>
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<affiliation>
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<address>
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<email>matt@garply.com</email>
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</address>
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</affiliation>
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</author></authorgroup>
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<pubdate>v1.0, 16 January 1996</pubdate>
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<abstract><para>This document contains an introduction to using MH on
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FreeBSD</para></abstract>
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</bookbiblio>
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</bookinfo>
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<chapter id="mhintro">
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<title>Introduction</title>
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<para>MH started back in 1977 at the RAND Corporation, where the
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initial philosophies behind MH were developed. MH isn't so much a
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monolithic email program but a philosophy about how best to develop
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tools for reading email. The MH developers have done a great job
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adhering to the <acronym>KISS</> principle: Keep It Simple Stupid.
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Rather than have one large program for reading, sending and handling
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email they have written specialized programs for each part of your
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email life. One might liken MH to the specialization that one finds
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in insects and nature. Each tool in MH does one thing, and does it
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very well.</para>
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<para>Beyond just the various tools that one uses to handle their
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email MH has done an excellent job keeping the configuration of each
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of these tools consistent and uniform. In fact, if you are not quite
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sure how something is supposed to work or what the arguments for some
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command are supposed to be then you can generally guess and be right.
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Each MH command is consistent about how it handles reading the
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configuration files and how it takes arguments on the command line.
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One useful thing to remember is that you can always add a
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<option>-help</option> to the command to have it display the options
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for that command.</para>
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<para>The first thing that you need to do is to make sure that you have
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installed the MH package on your FreeBSD machine. If you installed
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from CDROM you should be able to execute the following to load mh:
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<informalexample>
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<screen># <userinput>pkg_add /cdrom/packages/mh-6.8.3.tgz</></screen>
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</informalexample>
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You will notice that it created a <filename>/usr/local/lib/mh</>
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directory for you as well as adding several binaries to the
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<filename>/usr/local/bin</> directory. If you would prefer to compile
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it yourself then you can anonymous ftp it from <ulink
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URL="ftp://ftp.ics.uci.edu/">ftp.ics.uci.edu</ulink> or <ulink
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URL="ftp://louie.udel.edu/">louie.udel.edu</ulink>.</para>
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<para>This primer is not a full comprehensive explanation of how MH
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works. This is just intended to get you started on the road to
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happier, faster mail reading. You should read the man pages for the
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various commands. Also you might want to read the <ulink
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URL="news:comp.mail.mh">comp.mail.mh</ulink> newsgroup. Also you can
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read the <ulink
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URL="http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/mh-faq/part1/faq.html">FAQ
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for MH</ulink>. The best resource for MH is the O'Reilly and Associates book
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written by Jerry Peek.</para>
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</chapter>
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<chapter>
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<title>Reading Mail</title>
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<para>This section covers how to use <command>inc</>,
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<command>show</>, <command>scan</>, <command>next</>,
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<command>prev</>, <command>rmm</>, <command>rmf</>, and
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<command>msgchk</>. One of the best things about MH is the
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consistent interface between programs. A few things to keep in mind
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when using these commands is how to specify message lists. In the
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case of <command>inc</> this doesn't really make any sense but with
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commands like <command>show</> it is useful to know. </para>
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<para>A message list can consist of something like <parameter>23 20
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16</> which will act on messages 23, 20 and 16. This is fairly simple
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but you can do more useful things like <parameter>23-30</> which will
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act on all the messages between 23 and 30. You can also specify
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something like <parameter>cur:10</> which will act on the current
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message and the next 9 messages. The <parameter>cur</>,
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<parameter>last</>, and <parameter>first</> messages are special
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messages that refer to the current, last or first message in the
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folder.</para>
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<sect1 id="inc">
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<title><command>inc</>, <command>msgchk</>—read in your new email or check it</title>
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<para>If you just type in <userinput>inc</> and hit <keycap>return</>
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you will be well on your way to getting started with MH. The first
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time you run <command>inc</> it will setup your account to use all
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the MH defaults and ask you about creating a Mail directory. If you
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have mail waiting to be downloaded you will see something that looks
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like:
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<informalexample>
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<screen> 29 01/15 Doug White Re: Another Failed to boot problem<<On Mon, 15 J
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30 01/16 "Jordan K. Hubbar Re: FBSD 2.1<<> Do you want a library instead of
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31 01/16 Bruce Evans Re: location of bad144 table<<>> >It would appea
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32 01/16 "Jordan K. Hubbar Re: video is up<<> Anyway, mrouted won't run, ev
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33 01/16 Michael Smith Re: FBSD 2.1<<Nate Williams stands accused of sa</screen>
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</informalexample>
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This is the same thing you will see from a <command>scan</> (see
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<xref linkend="scan">). If you just run <command>inc</> with no
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arguments it will look on your computer for email that is supposed to
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be coming to you.</para>
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<para>A lot of people like to use POP for grabbing their email. MH can do
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POP to grab your email. You will need to give <command>inc</> a few command
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line arguments.
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<informalexample>
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<screen>tempest% <userinput>inc -host mail.pop.org -user <replaceable>username</> -norpop</></screen>
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</informalexample>
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That tells <command>inc</> to go to <parameter>mail.pop.org</> to
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download your email, and that your username on their system is
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<replaceable>username</>. The <option>-norpop</option> option tells
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<command>inc</> to use plain POP3 for downloading your email. MH has
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support for a few different dialects of POP. More than likely you
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will never ever need to use them though. While you can do more
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complex things with inc such as audit files and scan format files
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this will get you going.</para>
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<para>The <command>msgchk</> command is used to get information on
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whether or not you have new email. <command>msgchk</> takes the same
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<option>-host</option> and <option>-user</option> options that
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<command>inc</> takes.</para>
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</sect1>
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<sect1 id="show">
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<title><command>show</>, <command>next</> and <command>prev</>—displaying and moving through email</title>
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<para><command>show</> is to show a letter in your current folder.
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Like <command>inc</>, <command>show</> is a fairly straightforward
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command. If you just type <userinput>show</> and hit <keycap>return</>
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then it displays the current message. You can also give specific
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message numbers to show:
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<informalexample>
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<screen>tempest% <userinput>show 32 45 56</></screen>
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</informalexample>
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This would display message numbers 32, 45 and 56 right after each
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other. Unless you change the default behavior <command>show</>
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basically just does a <command>more</> on the email message.</para>
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<para><command>next</> is used to move onto the next message and
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<command>prev</> will go to the previous message. Both commands have
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an implied <command>show</> command so that when you go to the next
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message it automatically displays it.</para>
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</sect1>
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<sect1 id="scan">
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<title><command>scan</>—shows you a scan of your messages</title>
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<para><command>scan</> will display a brief listing of the messages
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in your current folder. This is an example of what the
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<command>scan</> command will give you.
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<informalexample>
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<screen> 30+ 01/16 "Jordan K. Hubbar Re: FBSD 2.1<<> Do you want a library instead of
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31 01/16 Bruce Evans Re: location of bad144 table<<>> >It would appea
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32 01/16 "Jordan K. Hubbar Re: video is up<<> Anyway, mrouted won't run, ev
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33 01/16 Michael Smith Re: FBSD 2.1<<Nate Williams stands accused of sa</screen>
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</informalexample>
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Like just about everything in MH this display is very configurable.
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This is the typical default display. It gives you the message number,
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the date on the email, the sender, the subject line, and a sentence
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fragment from the very beginning of the email if it can fit it. The
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<literal>+</> means that message is the current message, so if you do
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a <command>show</> it will display that message.</para>
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<para>One useful option for scan is the <option>-reverse</option>
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option. This will list your messages with the highest message number
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first and lowest message number last. Another useful option with
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<command>scan</> is to have it read from a file. If you want to scan
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your incoming mailbox on FreeBSD without having to <command>inc</> it
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you can do <command>scan -file
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/var/mail/<replaceable>username</></command>. This can be used with
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any file that is in the <database>mbox</> format.</para>
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</sect1>
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<sect1 id="rmm">
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<title><command>rmm</> and <command>rmf</>—remove the current message or folder</title>
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<para><command>rmm</> is used to remove a mail message. The default
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is typically to not actually remove the message but to rename the
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file to one that is ignored by the MH commands. You will need to
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through periodically and physically delete the <quote>removed</>
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messages.</para>
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<para>The <command>rmf</> command is used to remove folders. This
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doesn't just rename the files but actually removes the from the hard
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drive so you should be careful when you use this command.</para>
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</sect1>
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<sect1 id="samplereading">
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<title>A typical session of reading with MH</title>
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<para>The first thing that you will want to do is <command>inc</>
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your new mail. So at a shell prompt just type in <command>inc</> and
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hit <keycap>return</>.
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<informalexample>
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<screen>tempest% <userinput>inc</>
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Incorporating new mail into inbox...
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36+ 01/19 "Stephen L. Lange Request...<<Please remove me as contact for pind
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37 01/19 Matt Thomas Re: kern/950: Two PCI bridge chips fail (multipl
|
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38 01/19 "Amancio Hasty Jr Re: FreeBSD and VAT<<>>> Bill Fenner said: > In
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tempest%</screen>
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</informalexample>
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This shows you the new email that has been added to your mailbox. So
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the next thing to do is <command>show</> the email and move around.
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<informalexample>
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<screen>tempest% <userinput>show</>
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Received: by sashimi.wwa.com (Smail3.1.29.1 #2)
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id m0tdMZ2-001W2UC; Fri, 19 Jan 96 13:33 CST
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Date: Fri, 19 Jan 1996 13:33:31 -0600 (CST)
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From: "Stephen L. Lange" <stvlange@wwa.com>
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To: matt@garply.com
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Subject: Request...
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Message-Id: <Pine.BSD.3.91.960119133211.824A-100000@sashimi.wwa.com>
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Mime-Version: 1.0
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Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
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Please remove me as contact for pindat.com
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tempest% <userinput>rmm</>
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tempest% <userinput>next</>
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Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by whydos.lkg.dec.com (8.6.11/8
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.6.9) with SMTP id RAA24416; Fri, 19 Jan 1996 17:56:48 GMT
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Message-Id: <199601191756.RAA24416@whydos.lkg.dec.com>
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X-Authentication-Warning: whydos.lkg.dec.com: Host localhost didn't use HELO pro
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tocol
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To: hsu@clinet.fi
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Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.org
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Subject: Re: kern/950: Two PCI bridge chips fail (multiple multiport ethernet
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boards)
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In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 19 Jan 1996 00:18:36 +0100."
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<199601182318.AA11772@Sysiphos>
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X-Mailer: exmh version 1.5omega 10/6/94
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Date: Fri, 19 Jan 1996 17:56:40 +0000
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From: Matt Thomas <matt@lkg.dec.com>
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Sender: owner-hackers@FreeBSD.org
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Precedence: bulk
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This is due to a typo in pcireg.h (to
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which I am probably the guilty party).</screen>
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</informalexample></para>
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<para>The <command>rmm</> removed the current message and the
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<command>next</> command moved me on to the next message.
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Now if I wanted to look at ten most recent messages so I could read
|
||||||
|
one of them here is what I would do:
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<informalexample>
|
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<screen>tempest% <userinput>scan last:10</>
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|
26 01/16 maddy Re: Testing some stuff<<yeah, well, Trinity has
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|
27 01/17 Automatic digest NET-HAPPENINGS Digest - 16 Jan 1996 to 17 Jan 19
|
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|
28 01/17 Evans A Criswell Re: Hey dude<<>From matt@tempest.garply.com Tue
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|
29 01/16 Karl Heuer need configure/make volunteers<<The FSF is looki
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|
30 01/18 Paul Stephanouk Re: [alt.religion.scientology] Raw Meat (humor)<
|
||||||
|
31 01/18 Bill Lenherr Re: Linux NIS Solaris<<--- On Thu, 18 Jan 1996 1
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|
34 01/19 John Fieber Re: Stuff for the email section?<<On Fri, 19 Jan
|
||||||
|
35 01/19 support@foo.garpl [garply.com #1138] parlor<<Hello. This is the Ne
|
||||||
|
37+ 01/19 Matt Thomas Re: kern/950: Two PCI bridge chips fail (multipl
|
||||||
|
38 01/19 "Amancio Hasty Jr Re: FreeBSD and VAT<<>>> Bill Fenner said: > In
|
||||||
|
tempest%</screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample>
|
||||||
|
Then if I wanted to read message number 27 I would do a
|
||||||
|
<userinput>show 27</> and it would be displayed. As you can probably
|
||||||
|
tell from this sample session MH is pretty easy to use and looking
|
||||||
|
through emails and displaying them is fairly intuitive and easy.
|
||||||
|
</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
</sect1>
|
||||||
|
</chapter>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<chapter>
|
||||||
|
<title>Folders and Mail Searching</title>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>Anybody who gets lots of email definitely wants to be able to
|
||||||
|
prioritize, stamp, brief, de-brief, and number their emails in a
|
||||||
|
variety of different ways. MH can do this better than just about
|
||||||
|
anything. One thing that we haven't really talked about is the
|
||||||
|
concept of folders. You have undoubtedly come across the folders
|
||||||
|
concept using other email programs. MH has folders too. MH can even
|
||||||
|
do sub-folders of a folder. One thing you should keep in mind with MH
|
||||||
|
is that when you ran <command>inc</> for the first time and it asked
|
||||||
|
you if it could create a <filename>Mail</> directory it began storing
|
||||||
|
everything in that directory. If you look at that directory you will
|
||||||
|
find a directory named <filename>inbox</>. The <filename>inbox</>
|
||||||
|
directory houses all of your incoming mail that hasn't been thrown
|
||||||
|
anywhere else.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>Whenever you create a new folder a new directory is going to be
|
||||||
|
created underneath your MH <filename>Mail</> directory, and messages
|
||||||
|
in that folder are going to be stored in that directory. When new
|
||||||
|
email comes in that new email is thrown into your <filename>inbox</>
|
||||||
|
directory with a file name that is equivalent to the message number.
|
||||||
|
So even if you didn't have any of the MH tools to read your email you
|
||||||
|
could still use standard UNIX commands to munge around in those
|
||||||
|
directories and just more your files. It's this simplicity that
|
||||||
|
really gives you a lot of power with what you can do with your
|
||||||
|
email.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>Just as you can use message lists like <parameter>23 16 42</>
|
||||||
|
with most MH commands there is a folder option you can specify with
|
||||||
|
just about every MH command. If you do a <command>scan +freebsd</> it
|
||||||
|
will scan your <filename>freebsd</> folder, and your current folder
|
||||||
|
will be changed to <filename>freebsd</>. If you do a <command>show
|
||||||
|
+freebsd 23 16 42</>, <command>show</> is going to switch to your
|
||||||
|
<filename>freebsd</> folder and display messages 23, 16 and 42. So
|
||||||
|
remember that <option>+<replaceable>folder</></> syntax. You will
|
||||||
|
need to make sure you use it to make commands process different
|
||||||
|
folders. Remember you default folder for mail is <filename>inbox</>
|
||||||
|
so doing a <command>folder +inbox</> should always get you back to
|
||||||
|
your mail. Of course, in MH's infinite flexibility this can be
|
||||||
|
changed but most places have probably left it as
|
||||||
|
<command>inbox</>.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<sect1>
|
||||||
|
<title><command>pick</>—search email that matches certain criteria</title>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para><command>pick</> is one of the more complex commands in the MH
|
||||||
|
system. So you might want to read the
|
||||||
|
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>pick</><manvolnum>1</></> man page for a
|
||||||
|
more thorough understanding. At its simplest level you can do
|
||||||
|
something like
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>tempest% <userinput>pick -search pci</>
|
||||||
|
15
|
||||||
|
42
|
||||||
|
55
|
||||||
|
56
|
||||||
|
57</screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
This will tell <command>pick</> to look through every single line in
|
||||||
|
every message in your current folder and tell you which message
|
||||||
|
numbers it found the word <literal>pci</> in. You can then
|
||||||
|
<command>show</> those messages and read them if you wish or
|
||||||
|
<command>rmm</> them. You would have to specify something like
|
||||||
|
<command>show 15 42 55-57</> to display them though. A slightly more
|
||||||
|
useful thing to do is this:
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>tempest% <userinput>pick -search pci -seq pick</>
|
||||||
|
5 hits
|
||||||
|
tempest% <userinput>show pick</></screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample>
|
||||||
|
This will show you the same messages you just didn't have to work as
|
||||||
|
hard to do it. The <option>-seq</option> option is really an
|
||||||
|
abbreviation of <option>-sequence</option> and <command>pick</> is
|
||||||
|
just a sequence which contains the message numbers that matched. You
|
||||||
|
can use sequences with just about any MH command. So you could have
|
||||||
|
done an <command>rmm pick</> and all those messages would be removed
|
||||||
|
instead. You sequence can be named anything. If you run pick again it
|
||||||
|
will overwrite the old sequence if you use the same name.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>Doing a <command>pick -search</command> can be a bit more time
|
||||||
|
consuming than just searching for message from someone, or to
|
||||||
|
someone. So <command>pick</> allows you to use the following
|
||||||
|
predefined search criteria:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<variablelist>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<varlistentry>
|
||||||
|
<term><option>-to</option></term>
|
||||||
|
<listitem>
|
||||||
|
<para>search based upon who the message is to</para>
|
||||||
|
</listitem>
|
||||||
|
</varlistentry>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<varlistentry>
|
||||||
|
<term><option>-cc</option></term>
|
||||||
|
<listitem>
|
||||||
|
<para>search based on who is in the cc list</para>
|
||||||
|
</listitem>
|
||||||
|
</varlistentry>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<varlistentry>
|
||||||
|
<term><option>-from</option></term>
|
||||||
|
<listitem>
|
||||||
|
<para>search for who sent the message</para>
|
||||||
|
</listitem>
|
||||||
|
</varlistentry>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<varlistentry>
|
||||||
|
<term><option>-subject</option></term>
|
||||||
|
<listitem>
|
||||||
|
<para>search for emails with this subject</para>
|
||||||
|
</listitem>
|
||||||
|
</varlistentry>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<varlistentry>
|
||||||
|
<term><option>-date</option></term>
|
||||||
|
<listitem>
|
||||||
|
<para>find emails with a matching dat</para>
|
||||||
|
</listitem>
|
||||||
|
</varlistentry>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<varlistentry>
|
||||||
|
<term><option>--<replaceable>component</replaceable></option></term>
|
||||||
|
<listitem>
|
||||||
|
<para>search for any other component in the header. (i.e.
|
||||||
|
<option>--reply-to</> to find all emails with a certain reply-to in
|
||||||
|
the header)</para>
|
||||||
|
</listitem>
|
||||||
|
</varlistentry>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
</variablelist></para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>This allows you to do things like
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>tempest% <userinput>pick -to freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org -seq hackers</></screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample>
|
||||||
|
to get a list of all the email send to the FreeBSD hackers mailing
|
||||||
|
list. <command>pick</> also allows you to group these criteria in
|
||||||
|
different ways using the following options:
|
||||||
|
<itemizedlist>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<listitem>
|
||||||
|
<para>… <option>-and</option> …</para>
|
||||||
|
</listitem>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<listitem>
|
||||||
|
<para>… <option>-or</option> &hellip</para>
|
||||||
|
</listitem>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<listitem>
|
||||||
|
<para><option>-not</option> …</para>
|
||||||
|
</listitem>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<listitem>
|
||||||
|
<para><option>-lbrace</option> … <option>-rbrace</option></para>
|
||||||
|
</listitem>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
</itemizedlist>
|
||||||
|
These commands allow you to do things like
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>tempest% <userinput>pick -to freebsd-hackers -and -cc freebsd-hackers</></screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample>
|
||||||
|
That will grab all the email in your inbox that was sent to
|
||||||
|
freebsd-hackers or cc'd to that list. The brace options allow you to
|
||||||
|
group search criteria together. This is sometimes very necessary as
|
||||||
|
in the following example
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>tempest% <userinput>pick -lbrace -to freebsd-hackers -and
|
||||||
|
-not -cc freebsd-questions -rbrace -and -subject pci</></screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample></para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>Basically this says <quote>pick (to freebsd-hackers and not cc'd on
|
||||||
|
freebsd-questions) and the subject is pci</quote>. It should look through your
|
||||||
|
folder and find all messages sent to the freebsd-hackers list that
|
||||||
|
aren't cc'd to the freebsd-questions list that contain something on
|
||||||
|
pci in the subject line. Ordinarily you might have to worry about
|
||||||
|
something called operator precedence. Remember in math how you
|
||||||
|
evaluate from left to right and you do multiplication and division
|
||||||
|
first and addition and subtraction second? MH has the same type of
|
||||||
|
rules for <command>pick</>. It's fairly complex so you might want to study
|
||||||
|
the man page. This document is just to help you get acquainted with
|
||||||
|
MH.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
</sect1>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<sect1>
|
||||||
|
<title><command>folder</>, <command>folders</>, <command>refile</>—three useful programs for folder maintenance</title>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>There are three programs which are primarily just for
|
||||||
|
manipulating your folders. The <command>folder</> program is used to
|
||||||
|
switch between folders, pack them, and list them. At its simplest
|
||||||
|
level you can do a <command>folder +<replaceable>newfolder</></> and
|
||||||
|
you will be switched into <replaceable>newfolder</>. From there on
|
||||||
|
out all your MH commands like <command>comp</>, <command>repl</>,
|
||||||
|
<command>scan</>, and <command>show</> will act on that
|
||||||
|
<command>newfolder</> folder.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>Sometimes when you are reading and deleting messages you will
|
||||||
|
develop <quote>holes</> in your folders. If you do a <command>scan</>
|
||||||
|
you might just see messages 34, 35, 36, 43, 55, 56, 57, 80. If you do
|
||||||
|
a <command>folder -pack</command> this will renumber all your
|
||||||
|
messages so that there are no holes. It doesn't actually delete any
|
||||||
|
messages though. So you may need to periodically go through and
|
||||||
|
physically delete <command>rmm</>'d messages.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>If you need statistics on your folders you can do a
|
||||||
|
<command>folders</> or <command>folder -all</command> to list all
|
||||||
|
your folders, how many messages they have, what the current message
|
||||||
|
is in each one and so on. This line of stats it displays for all your
|
||||||
|
folders is the same one you get when you change to a folder with
|
||||||
|
<command>folder +foldername</>. A <command>folders</> command looks
|
||||||
|
like this:
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen> Folder # of messages ( range ); cur msg (other files)
|
||||||
|
announce has 1 message ( 1- 1).
|
||||||
|
drafts has no messages.
|
||||||
|
f-hackers has 43 messages ( 1- 43).
|
||||||
|
f-questions has 16 messages ( 1- 16).
|
||||||
|
inbox+ has 35 messages ( 1- 38); cur= 37.
|
||||||
|
lists has 8 messages ( 1- 8).
|
||||||
|
netfuture has 1 message ( 1- 1).
|
||||||
|
out has 31 messages ( 1- 31).
|
||||||
|
personal has 6 messages ( 1- 6).
|
||||||
|
todo has 58 messages ( 1- 58); cur= 1.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
TOTAL= 199 messages in 13 folders.
|
||||||
|
</screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample></para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>The <command>refile</> command is what you use to move messages
|
||||||
|
between folders. When you do something like <command>refile 23
|
||||||
|
+netfuture</> message number 23 is moved into the
|
||||||
|
<filename>netfuture</> folder. You could also do something like
|
||||||
|
<command>refile 23 +netfuture/latest</> which would put message
|
||||||
|
number 23 in a subfolder called <filename>latest</> under the
|
||||||
|
<filename>netfuture</> folder. If you want to keep a message in the
|
||||||
|
current folder and link it you can do a <command>refile -link 23
|
||||||
|
+netfuture</command> which would keep 23 in your current
|
||||||
|
<filename>inbox</> but also list in your <filename>netfuture</>
|
||||||
|
folder. You are probably beginning to realize some of the really
|
||||||
|
powerful things you can do with MH.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
</sect1>
|
||||||
|
</chapter>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<chapter>
|
||||||
|
<title>Sending Mail</title>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>Email is a two way street for most people so you want to be
|
||||||
|
able to send something back. The way MH handles sending mail can be a
|
||||||
|
bit difficult to follow at first, but it allows for incredible
|
||||||
|
flexibility. The first thing MH does is to copy a components file
|
||||||
|
into your outgoing email. A components file is basically a skeleton
|
||||||
|
email letter with stuff like the To: and Subject: headers already in
|
||||||
|
it. You are then sent into your editor where you fill in the header
|
||||||
|
information and then type the body of your message below the dashed
|
||||||
|
lines in the message. Then to the <command>whatnow</> program. When
|
||||||
|
you are at the <prompt>What now?</prompt> prompt you can tell it to
|
||||||
|
<command>send</>, <command>list</>, <command>edit</>,
|
||||||
|
<command>edit</>, <command>push</>, and <command>quit</>. Most of
|
||||||
|
these commands are self-explanatory. So the message sending process
|
||||||
|
involves copying a component file, editing your email, and then
|
||||||
|
telling the <command>whatnow</> program what to do with your
|
||||||
|
email.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<sect1>
|
||||||
|
<title><command>comp</>, <command>forw</>, <command>reply</>—compose, forward or reply to a message to someone</title>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>The <command>comp</> program has a few useful command line
|
||||||
|
options. The most important one to know right now is the
|
||||||
|
<option>-editor</option> option. When MH is installed the default
|
||||||
|
editor is usually a program called <command>prompter</> which comes
|
||||||
|
with MH. It's not a very exciting editor and basically just gets the
|
||||||
|
job done. So when you go to compose a message to someone you might
|
||||||
|
want to use <command>comp -editor /usr/bin/vi/</> or <command>comp
|
||||||
|
-editor /usr/local/bin/pico/</> instead. Once you have run
|
||||||
|
<emphasis>comp</emphasis> you are in your editor and you see
|
||||||
|
something that looks like this:
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>To:
|
||||||
|
cc:
|
||||||
|
Subject:
|
||||||
|
--------
|
||||||
|
</screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample></para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>You need to put the person you are sending the mail to after the
|
||||||
|
<literal>To:</> line. It works the same way for the other headers
|
||||||
|
also, so you would need to put your subject after the
|
||||||
|
<literal>Subject:</> line. Then you would just put the body of your
|
||||||
|
message after the dashed lines. It may seem a bit simplistic since a
|
||||||
|
lot of email programs have special requesters that ask you for this
|
||||||
|
information but there really isn't any point to that. Plus this
|
||||||
|
really gives you excellent flexibility.
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>To:<userinput>freebsd-rave@freebsd.org</>
|
||||||
|
cc:
|
||||||
|
Subject:<userinput>And on the 8th day God created the FreeBSD core team</>
|
||||||
|
--------
|
||||||
|
<userinput>Wow this is an amazing operating system. Thanks!</></screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample>
|
||||||
|
You can now save this message and exit your editor. You will see the
|
||||||
|
<prompt>What now?</> prompt and you can type in
|
||||||
|
<userinput>send</> or <userinput>s</> and hit
|
||||||
|
<keycap>return</>. Then the freebsd core team will receive their just
|
||||||
|
rewards. As I mentioned earlier you can also use other commands, for
|
||||||
|
example <command>quit</> if you don't want to send the
|
||||||
|
message.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>The <command>forw</> command is stunningly similar. The big
|
||||||
|
difference being that the message you are forwarding is automatically
|
||||||
|
included in the outgoing message. When you run <command>forw</> it
|
||||||
|
will forward your current message. You can always tell it to forward
|
||||||
|
something else by doing something like <command>forw 23</> and then
|
||||||
|
message number 23 will be put in your outgoing message instead of the
|
||||||
|
current message. Beyond those small differences <command>forw</>
|
||||||
|
functions exactly the same as <command>comp</>. You go through the
|
||||||
|
exact same message sending process.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>The <command>repl</> command will reply to whatever your
|
||||||
|
current message is, unless you give it a different message to reply
|
||||||
|
to. <command>repl</> will do its best to go ahead and fill in some of
|
||||||
|
the email headers already. So you will notice that the
|
||||||
|
<literal>To:</> header already has the address of the recipient in
|
||||||
|
there. Also the <literal>Subject:</> line will already be filled in.
|
||||||
|
You then go about the normal message composition process and you are
|
||||||
|
done. One useful command line option to know here is the
|
||||||
|
<option>-cc</option> option. You can use <parameter>all</>,
|
||||||
|
<parameter>to</>, <parameter>cc</>, <parameter>me</> after the
|
||||||
|
<option>-cc</option> option to have <command>repl</> automatically
|
||||||
|
add the various addresses to the cc list in the message. You have
|
||||||
|
probably noticed that the original message isn't included. This is
|
||||||
|
because most MH setups are configured to do this from the
|
||||||
|
start.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
</sect1>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<sect1>
|
||||||
|
<title><filename>components</>, and <filename>replcomps</>—components files for <command>comp</> and <command>repl</></title>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>The <filename>components</> file is usually in
|
||||||
|
<filename>/usr/local/lib/mh</filename>. You can copy that file into
|
||||||
|
your MH Mail directory and edit to contain what you want it to
|
||||||
|
contain. It is a fairly basic file. You have various email headers at
|
||||||
|
the top, a dashed line and then nothing. The
|
||||||
|
<command>comp</command> command just copies this
|
||||||
|
<filename>components</> file and then edits it. You can add any
|
||||||
|
kind of valid RFC822 header you want. For instance you could have
|
||||||
|
something like this in your <filename>components</> file:
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>To:
|
||||||
|
Fcc: out
|
||||||
|
Subject:
|
||||||
|
X-Mailer: MH 6.8.3
|
||||||
|
X-Home-Page: http://www.freebsd.org/
|
||||||
|
-------</screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
MH would then copy this components file and throw you into your
|
||||||
|
editor. The <filename>components</> file is fairly simple. If you
|
||||||
|
wanted to have a signature on those messages you would just put your
|
||||||
|
signature in that <filename>components</> file.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>The <filename>replcomps</> file is a bit more complex. The default
|
||||||
|
<filename>replcomps</> looks like this:
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>%(lit)%(formataddr %<{reply-to}%?{from}%?{sender}%?{return-path}%>)\
|
||||||
|
%<(nonnull)%(void(width))%(putaddr To: )\n%>\
|
||||||
|
%(lit)%(formataddr{to})%(formataddr{cc})%(formataddr(me))\
|
||||||
|
%<(nonnull)%(void(width))%(putaddr cc: )\n%>\
|
||||||
|
%<{fcc}Fcc: %{fcc}\n%>\
|
||||||
|
%<{subject}Subject: Re: %{subject}\n%>\
|
||||||
|
%<{date}In-reply-to: Your message of "\
|
||||||
|
%<(nodate{date})%{date}%|%(pretty{date})%>."%<{message-id}
|
||||||
|
%{message-id}%>\n%>\
|
||||||
|
--------
|
||||||
|
</screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample></para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>It's in the same basic format as the <filename>components</> file but
|
||||||
|
it contains quite a few extra formatting codes. The
|
||||||
|
<literal>%(lit)</> command makes room for the address. The
|
||||||
|
<literal>%(formataddr</> is a function that returns a proper email
|
||||||
|
address. The next part is <literal>%<</literal> which means if and
|
||||||
|
the <literal>{reply-to}</> means the reply-to field in the original
|
||||||
|
message. So that might be translated this way:
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>%<<emphasis remap=bf>if</emphasis> {reply-to} <emphasis remap=bf>the original message has a reply-to</emphasis>
|
||||||
|
then give that to formataddr, %? <emphasis remap=bf>else</emphasis> {from} <emphasis remap=bf>take the
|
||||||
|
from address</emphasis>, %? <emphasis remap=bf>else</emphasis> {sender} <emphasis remap=bf>take the sender address</emphasis>, %?
|
||||||
|
<emphasis remap=bf>else</emphasis> {return-path} <emphasis remap=bf>take the return-path from the original
|
||||||
|
message</emphasis>, %> <emphasis remap=bf>endif</emphasis>.</screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample></para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>As you can tell MH formatting can get rather involved. You can
|
||||||
|
probably decipher what most of the other functions and variables
|
||||||
|
mean. All of the information on writing these format strings is in the
|
||||||
|
MH-Format man page. The really nice thing is that once you have built
|
||||||
|
your customized <filename>replcomps</> file you won't need to touch it
|
||||||
|
again. No other email program really gives you the power and
|
||||||
|
flexibility that MH gives you.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
</sect1>
|
||||||
|
</chapter>
|
||||||
|
</book>
|
||||||
|
|
@ -1,573 +0,0 @@
|
||||||
<!-- $Id: mh.sgml,v 1.3 1996-12-28 23:36:53 mpp Exp $ -->
|
|
||||||
<!--
|
|
||||||
From matt@garply.com Wed May 22 08:25:18 1996
|
|
||||||
Date: Tue, 23 Jan 1996 11:02:50 -0600
|
|
||||||
From: Matt Midboe <matt@garply.com>
|
|
||||||
To: jfieber@freebsd.org
|
|
||||||
Subject: Introduction to MH for FreeBSD Handbook
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
Okay I've diverged from my original plan on the handbook and condensed it a
|
|
||||||
bit. If I find some time I am going to start working on something about how
|
|
||||||
to use sendmail, since I imagine that would be a bit more useful. Here is my
|
|
||||||
guide to using mh on freebsd. Let me know what changes it might need or
|
|
||||||
things that need to be clearer or shorter.
|
|
||||||
-->
|
|
||||||
<!DOCTYPE linuxdoc PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//DTD linuxdoc//EN">
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
<!-- This document explains some about the MUA MH -->
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
<article>
|
|
||||||
<title>An MH Primer
|
|
||||||
<author>Matt Midboe, <url url="mailto:matt@garply.com"
|
|
||||||
name="matt@garply.com">
|
|
||||||
<date>v1.0, 16 January 1996
|
|
||||||
<abstract>This document contains an introduction to using MH on
|
|
||||||
FreeBSD</abstract>
|
|
||||||
<toc>
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
<sect>Introduction<label id="mhintro">
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
<p>
|
|
||||||
<!-- This section is here to explain the philosophy behind MH Also
|
|
||||||
make sure that the user has installed the mh package -->
|
|
||||||
MH started back in 1977 at the RAND Corporation, where the initial
|
|
||||||
philosophies behind MH were developed. MH isn't so much a monolithic
|
|
||||||
email program but a philosophy about how best to develop tools for
|
|
||||||
reading email. The MH developers have done a great job adhering to the
|
|
||||||
KISS principle: Keep It Simple Stupid. Rather than have one large
|
|
||||||
program for reading, sending and handling email they have written
|
|
||||||
specialized programs for each part of your email life. One might liken
|
|
||||||
MH to the specialization that one finds in insects and nature. Each
|
|
||||||
tool in MH does one thing, and does it very well.
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
Beyond just the various tools that one uses to handle their email MH
|
|
||||||
has done an excellent job keeping the configuration of each of these
|
|
||||||
tools consistent and uniform. In fact, if you are not quite sure how
|
|
||||||
something is supposed to work or what the arguments for some command
|
|
||||||
are supposed to be then you can generally guess and be right. Each MH
|
|
||||||
command is consistent about how it handles reading the configuration
|
|
||||||
files and how it takes arguments on the command line. One useful thing
|
|
||||||
to remember is that you can always add a <tt/-help/ to the command to
|
|
||||||
have it display the options for that command.
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
The first thing that you need to do is to make sure that you have
|
|
||||||
installed the MH package on your FreeBSD machine. If you installed
|
|
||||||
from CDROM you should be able to execute the following to load mh:
|
|
||||||
<tscreen><verb>
|
|
||||||
pkg_add /cdrom/packages/mh-6.8.3.tgz
|
|
||||||
</verb></tscreen>
|
|
||||||
You will notice that it created a /usr/local/lib/mh directory for you
|
|
||||||
as well as adding several binaries to the /usr/local/bin directory. If
|
|
||||||
you would prefer to compile it yourself then you can anonymous ftp it
|
|
||||||
from <url url="ftp://ftp.ics.uci.edu/" name="ftp.ics.uci.edu"> or <url
|
|
||||||
url="ftp://louie.udel.edu/" name="louie.udel.edu">.
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
This primer is not a full comprehensive explanation of how MH
|
|
||||||
works. This is just intended to get you started on the road to
|
|
||||||
happier, faster mail reading. You should read the man pages for the
|
|
||||||
various commands. Also you might want to read the <url
|
|
||||||
url="news:comp.mail.mh" name="comp.mail.mh"> newsgroup. Also you can
|
|
||||||
read the <url
|
|
||||||
url="http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/mh-faq/part1/faq.html"
|
|
||||||
name="FAQ"> for MH. The best resource for MH is the O'Reilly and
|
|
||||||
Associates book written by Jerry Peek.
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
<sect>Reading Mail
|
|
||||||
<p>
|
|
||||||
<!-- This section covers how to use inc, msgchk, next, prev, rmm, and rmf -->
|
|
||||||
This section covers how to use <tt/inc/, <tt/show/, <tt/scan/,
|
|
||||||
<tt/next/, <tt/prev/, <tt/rmm/, <tt/rmf/, and <tt/msgchk/.
|
|
||||||
One of the best things about MH is the consistent interface between
|
|
||||||
programs. A few things to keep in mind when using these commands is
|
|
||||||
how to specify message lists. In the case of <em/inc/ this doesn't
|
|
||||||
really make any sense but with commands like <em/show/ it is useful to
|
|
||||||
know.
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
A message list can consist of something like <tt/23 20 16/ which will
|
|
||||||
act on messages 23, 20 and 16. This is fairly simple but you can do
|
|
||||||
more useful things like <tt/23-30/ which will act on all the messages
|
|
||||||
between 23 and 30. You can also specify something like <tt/cur:10/
|
|
||||||
which will act on the current message and the next 9 messages. The
|
|
||||||
<tt/cur/, <tt/last/, and <tt/first/ messages are special messages that
|
|
||||||
refer to the current, last or first message in the folder.
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
<sect1><heading>inc, msgchk - read in your new email or check it<label id="inc"></>
|
|
||||||
<p>
|
|
||||||
If you just type in <em>inc</em> and hit return you will be well on your
|
|
||||||
way to getting started with MH. The first time you run <em>inc</em> it
|
|
||||||
will setup your account to use all the MH defaults and ask you about
|
|
||||||
creating a Mail directory. If you have mail waiting to be downloaded
|
|
||||||
you will see something that looks like:
|
|
||||||
<tscreen><verb>
|
|
||||||
29 01/15 Doug White Re: Another Failed to boot problem<<On Mon, 15 J
|
|
||||||
30 01/16 "Jordan K. Hubbar Re: FBSD 2.1<<> Do you want a library instead of
|
|
||||||
31 01/16 Bruce Evans Re: location of bad144 table<<>> >It would appea
|
|
||||||
32 01/16 "Jordan K. Hubbar Re: video is up<<> Anyway, mrouted won't run, ev
|
|
||||||
33 01/16 Michael Smith Re: FBSD 2.1<<Nate Williams stands accused of sa
|
|
||||||
</verb></tscreen>
|
|
||||||
This is the same thing you will see from a ``<ref id="scan">''. If you
|
|
||||||
just run <em>inc</em> with no arguments it will look on your computer for email
|
|
||||||
that is supposed to be coming to you.
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
A lot of people like to use POP for grabbing their email. MH can do
|
|
||||||
POP to grab your email. You will need to give <em>inc</em> a few command
|
|
||||||
line arguments.
|
|
||||||
<tscreen><verb>
|
|
||||||
inc -host mail.pop.org -user username -norpop
|
|
||||||
</verb></tscreen>
|
|
||||||
That tells <em>inc</> to go to <bf/mail.pop.org/ to download your
|
|
||||||
email, and that your username on their system is <bf/username/. The
|
|
||||||
<tt>-norpop</tt> option tells <em>inc</em> to use plain POP3 for
|
|
||||||
downloading your email. MH has support for a few different dialects of
|
|
||||||
POP. More than likely you will never ever need to use them
|
|
||||||
though. While you can do more complex things with inc such as audit
|
|
||||||
files and scan format files this will get you going.
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
The <em/msgchk/ command is used to get information on whether or not
|
|
||||||
you have new email. <em/msgchk/ takes the same <tt/-host/ and
|
|
||||||
<tt/-user/ options that <em/inc/ takes.
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
<sect1><heading>show, next and prev - displaying and moving through emails
|
|
||||||
<label id="show"></>
|
|
||||||
<p>
|
|
||||||
<em/show/ is to show a letter in your current folder. Like inc,
|
|
||||||
<em/show/ is a fairly straightforward command. If you just type
|
|
||||||
<em/show/ and hit return then it displays the current message. You can
|
|
||||||
also give specific message numbers to show:
|
|
||||||
<tscreen><verb>
|
|
||||||
show 32 45 56
|
|
||||||
</verb></tscreen>
|
|
||||||
This would display message numbers 32, 45 and 56 right after each
|
|
||||||
other. Unless you change the default behavior <em/show/ basically just
|
|
||||||
does a more on the email message.
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
<em/next/ is used to move onto the next message and <em/prev/ will go
|
|
||||||
to the previous message. Both commands have an implied <em/show/
|
|
||||||
command so that when you go to the next message it automatically
|
|
||||||
displays it.
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
<sect1><heading>scan - shows you a scan of your messages<label id="scan"></>
|
|
||||||
<p>
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
<em/scan/ will display a brief listing of the messages in your current
|
|
||||||
folder. This is an example of what the <em/scan/ command will give you.
|
|
||||||
<tscreen><verb>
|
|
||||||
30+ 01/16 "Jordan K. Hubbar Re: FBSD 2.1<<> Do you want a library instead of
|
|
||||||
31 01/16 Bruce Evans Re: location of bad144 table<<>> >It would appea
|
|
||||||
32 01/16 "Jordan K. Hubbar Re: video is up<<> Anyway, mrouted won't run, ev
|
|
||||||
33 01/16 Michael Smith Re: FBSD 2.1<<Nate Williams stands accused of sa
|
|
||||||
</verb></tscreen>
|
|
||||||
Like just about everything in MH this display is very
|
|
||||||
configurable. This is the typical default display. It gives you the
|
|
||||||
message number, the date on the email, the sender, the subject line,
|
|
||||||
and a sentence fragment from the very beginning of the email if it can
|
|
||||||
fit it. The + means that message is the current message, so if you do
|
|
||||||
a <em/show/ it will display that message.
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
One useful option for scan is the <tt/-reverse/ option. This will list
|
|
||||||
your messages with the highest message number first and lowest message
|
|
||||||
number last. Another useful option with <em/scan/ is to have it
|
|
||||||
read from a file. If you want to scan your incoming mailbox on FreeBSD
|
|
||||||
without having to <em/inc/ it you can do <tt>scan -file
|
|
||||||
/var/mail/username</tt>. This can be used with any file that is in the
|
|
||||||
<bf/mbox/ format.
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
<sect1><heading>rmm and rmf - remove the current message or folder
|
|
||||||
<label id="rmm"></>
|
|
||||||
<p>
|
|
||||||
<em/rmm/ is used to remove a mail message. The default is typically to
|
|
||||||
not actually remove the message but to rename the file to one that is
|
|
||||||
ignored by the MH commands. You will need to through periodically and
|
|
||||||
physically delete the "removed" messages.
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
The <em/rmf/ command is used to remove folders. This doesn't just
|
|
||||||
rename the files but actually removes the from the hard drive so you
|
|
||||||
should be careful when you use this command.
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
<sect1><heading>A typical session of reading with MH<label id="samplereading"></>
|
|
||||||
<p>
|
|
||||||
The first thing that you will want to do is <em/inc/ your new mail. So
|
|
||||||
at a shell prompt just type in <em/inc/ and hit return.
|
|
||||||
<tscreen><verb>
|
|
||||||
tempest% inc
|
|
||||||
Incorporating new mail into inbox...
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
36+ 01/19 "Stephen L. Lange Request...<<Please remove me as contact for pind
|
|
||||||
37 01/19 Matt Thomas Re: kern/950: Two PCI bridge chips fail (multipl
|
|
||||||
38 01/19 "Amancio Hasty Jr Re: FreeBSD and VAT<<>>> Bill Fenner said: > In
|
|
||||||
tempest%
|
|
||||||
</verb></tscreen>
|
|
||||||
This shows you the new email that has been added to your mailbox. So
|
|
||||||
the next thing to do is <em/show/ the email and move around.
|
|
||||||
<tscreen><verb>
|
|
||||||
tempest% show
|
|
||||||
Received: by sashimi.wwa.com (Smail3.1.29.1 #2)
|
|
||||||
id m0tdMZ2-001W2UC; Fri, 19 Jan 96 13:33 CST
|
|
||||||
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 1996 13:33:31 -0600 (CST)
|
|
||||||
From: "Stephen L. Lange" <stvlange@wwa.com>
|
|
||||||
To: matt@garply.com
|
|
||||||
Subject: Request...
|
|
||||||
Message-Id: <Pine.BSD.3.91.960119133211.824A-100000@sashimi.wwa.com>
|
|
||||||
Mime-Version: 1.0
|
|
||||||
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
Please remove me as contact for pindat.com
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
tempest% rmm
|
|
||||||
tempest% next
|
|
||||||
Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by whydos.lkg.dec.com (8.6.11/8
|
|
||||||
.6.9) with SMTP id RAA24416; Fri, 19 Jan 1996 17:56:48 GMT
|
|
||||||
Message-Id: <199601191756.RAA24416@whydos.lkg.dec.com>
|
|
||||||
X-Authentication-Warning: whydos.lkg.dec.com: Host localhost didn't use HELO pro
|
|
||||||
tocol
|
|
||||||
To: hsu@clinet.fi
|
|
||||||
Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.org
|
|
||||||
Subject: Re: kern/950: Two PCI bridge chips fail (multiple multiport ethernet
|
|
||||||
boards)
|
|
||||||
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 19 Jan 1996 00:18:36 +0100."
|
|
||||||
<199601182318.AA11772@Sysiphos>
|
|
||||||
X-Mailer: exmh version 1.5omega 10/6/94
|
|
||||||
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 1996 17:56:40 +0000
|
|
||||||
From: Matt Thomas <matt@lkg.dec.com>
|
|
||||||
Sender: owner-hackers@FreeBSD.org
|
|
||||||
Precedence: bulk
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
This is due to a typo in pcireg.h (to
|
|
||||||
which I am probably the guilty party).
|
|
||||||
</verb></tscreen>
|
|
||||||
The <em/rmm/ removed the current message and the <em/next/ command
|
|
||||||
moved me on to the next message. Now if I wanted to look at ten most
|
|
||||||
recent messages so I could read one of them here is what I would do:
|
|
||||||
<tscreen><verb>
|
|
||||||
tempest% scan last:10
|
|
||||||
26 01/16 maddy Re: Testing some stuff<<yeah, well, Trinity has
|
|
||||||
27 01/17 Automatic digest NET-HAPPENINGS Digest - 16 Jan 1996 to 17 Jan 19
|
|
||||||
28 01/17 Evans A Criswell Re: Hey dude<<>From matt@tempest.garply.com Tue
|
|
||||||
29 01/16 Karl Heuer need configure/make volunteers<<The FSF is looki
|
|
||||||
30 01/18 Paul Stephanouk Re: [alt.religion.scientology] Raw Meat (humor)<
|
|
||||||
31 01/18 Bill Lenherr Re: Linux NIS Solaris<<--- On Thu, 18 Jan 1996 1
|
|
||||||
34 01/19 John Fieber Re: Stuff for the email section?<<On Fri, 19 Jan
|
|
||||||
35 01/19 support@foo.garpl [garply.com #1138] parlor<<Hello. This is the Ne
|
|
||||||
37+ 01/19 Matt Thomas Re: kern/950: Two PCI bridge chips fail (multipl
|
|
||||||
38 01/19 "Amancio Hasty Jr Re: FreeBSD and VAT<<>>> Bill Fenner said: > In
|
|
||||||
tempest%
|
|
||||||
</verb></tscreen>
|
|
||||||
Then if I wanted to read message number 27 I would do a <tt/show 27/
|
|
||||||
and it would be displayed. As you can probably tell from this sample
|
|
||||||
session MH is pretty easy to use and looking through emails and
|
|
||||||
displaying them is fairly intuitive and easy.
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
<sect>Folders and Mail Searching
|
|
||||||
<p>
|
|
||||||
Anybody who gets lots of email definitely wants to be able to
|
|
||||||
prioritize, stamp, brief, de-brief, and number their emails in a
|
|
||||||
variety of different ways. MH can do this better than just about
|
|
||||||
anything. One thing that we haven't really talked about is the concept
|
|
||||||
of folders. You have undoubtedly come across the folders concept using
|
|
||||||
other email programs. MH has folders too. MH can even do sub-folders
|
|
||||||
of a folder. One thing you should keep in mind with MH is that when
|
|
||||||
you ran <em/inc/ for the first time and it asked you if it could
|
|
||||||
create a Mail directory it began storing everything in that
|
|
||||||
directory. If you look at that directory you will find a directory
|
|
||||||
named <bf/inbox/. The <bf/inbox/ directory houses all of your incoming
|
|
||||||
mail that hasn't been thrown anywhere else.
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
Whenever you create a new folder a new directory is going to be
|
|
||||||
created underneath your MH Mail directory, and messages in that folder
|
|
||||||
are going to be stored in that directory. When new email comes in that
|
|
||||||
new email is thrown into your inbox directory with a file name that is
|
|
||||||
equivalent to the message number. So even if you didn't have any of
|
|
||||||
the MH tools to read your email you could still use standard UNIX
|
|
||||||
commands to munge around in those directories and just more your
|
|
||||||
files. It's this simplicity that really gives you a lot of power with
|
|
||||||
what you can do with your email.
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
Just as you can use message lists like <tt/23 16 42/ with most MH
|
|
||||||
commands there is a folder option you can specify with just about
|
|
||||||
every MH command. If you do a <tt/scan +freebsd/ it will scan your
|
|
||||||
freebsd folder, and your current folder will be changed to freebsd. If
|
|
||||||
you do a <tt/show +freebsd 23 16 42/ <em/show/ is going to switch to
|
|
||||||
your freebsd folder and display messages 23, 16 and 42. So remember
|
|
||||||
that +folder syntax. You will need to make sure you use it to make
|
|
||||||
commands process different folders. Remember you default folder for
|
|
||||||
mail is inbox so doing a <tt/folder +inbox/ should always get you back
|
|
||||||
to your mail. Of course, in MH's infinite flexibility this can be
|
|
||||||
changed but most places have probably left it as inbox.
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
<!-- This section covers how to use pick, folder{s}, and slocal
|
|
||||||
This needs to cover the general +folder format and an overview on the
|
|
||||||
directory structure here. -->
|
|
||||||
<sect1>pick - search email that matches certain criteria
|
|
||||||
<p>
|
|
||||||
<em/pick/ is one of the more complex commands in the MH system. So you
|
|
||||||
might want to read the pick man page for a more thorough
|
|
||||||
understanding. At its simplest level you can do something like
|
|
||||||
<tscreen><verb>
|
|
||||||
tempest% pick -search pci
|
|
||||||
15
|
|
||||||
42
|
|
||||||
55
|
|
||||||
56
|
|
||||||
57
|
|
||||||
</verb></tscreen>
|
|
||||||
This will tell <em/pick/ to look through every single line in every
|
|
||||||
message in your current folder and tell you which message numbers it
|
|
||||||
found the word pci in. You can then <em/show/ those messages and read
|
|
||||||
them if you wish or <em/rmm/ them. You would have to specify something
|
|
||||||
like <tt/show 15 42 55-57/ to display them though. A slightly more
|
|
||||||
useful thing to do is this:
|
|
||||||
<tscreen><verb>
|
|
||||||
tempest% pick -search pci -seq pick
|
|
||||||
5 hits
|
|
||||||
tempest% show pick
|
|
||||||
</verb></tscreen>
|
|
||||||
This will show you the same messages you just didn't have to work as
|
|
||||||
hard to do it. The <tt/-seq/ option is really an abbreviation of
|
|
||||||
<tt/-sequence/ and <bf/pick/ is just a sequence which contains the
|
|
||||||
message numbers that matched. You can use sequences with just about
|
|
||||||
any MH command. So you could have done an <tt/rmm pick/ and all those
|
|
||||||
messages would be removed instead. You sequence can be named
|
|
||||||
anything. If you run pick again it will overwrite the old sequence if
|
|
||||||
you use the same name.
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
Doing a <tt/pick -search/ can be a bit more time consuming than just
|
|
||||||
searching for message from someone, or to someone. So <em/pick/ allows
|
|
||||||
you to use the following predefined search criteria:
|
|
||||||
<itemize>
|
|
||||||
<item><tt/-to/ search based upon who the message is to
|
|
||||||
<item><tt/-cc/ search based on who is in the cc list
|
|
||||||
<item><tt/-from/ search for who sent the message
|
|
||||||
<item><tt/-subject/ search for emails with this subject
|
|
||||||
<item><tt/-date/ find emails with a matching dat
|
|
||||||
<item><tt>--<em>component</em></tt> search for any other component in
|
|
||||||
the header. (i.e. --reply-to to find all emails with a certain
|
|
||||||
reply-to in the header)
|
|
||||||
</itemize>
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
This allows you to do things like
|
|
||||||
<tscreen><verb>
|
|
||||||
pick -to freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org -seq hackers
|
|
||||||
</verb></tscreen>
|
|
||||||
to get a list of all the email send to the FreeBSD hackers mailing
|
|
||||||
list. <em/pick/ also allows you to group these criteria in different
|
|
||||||
ways using the following options:
|
|
||||||
<itemize>
|
|
||||||
<item>... <tt/-and/ ...
|
|
||||||
<item>... <tt/-or/ ...
|
|
||||||
<item><tt/-not/ ...
|
|
||||||
<item><tt/-lbrace/ ... <tt/-rbrace/
|
|
||||||
</itemize>
|
|
||||||
These commands allow you to do things like
|
|
||||||
<tscreen><verb>
|
|
||||||
pick -to freebsd-hackers -and -cc freebsd-hackers
|
|
||||||
</verb></tscreen>
|
|
||||||
That will grab all the email in your inbox that was sent to
|
|
||||||
freebsd-hackers or cc'd to that list. The brace options allow you to
|
|
||||||
group search criteria together. This is sometimes very necessary as
|
|
||||||
in the following example
|
|
||||||
<tscreen><verb>
|
|
||||||
pick -lbrace -to freebsd-hackers -and -not -cc freebsd-questions -rbrace
|
|
||||||
-and -subject pci
|
|
||||||
</verb></tscreen>
|
|
||||||
Basically this says pick (to freebsd-hackers and not cc'd on
|
|
||||||
freebsd-questions) and the subject is pci. It should look through your
|
|
||||||
folder and find all messages send to the freebsd-hackers list that
|
|
||||||
aren't cc'd to the freebsd-questions list that contain something on
|
|
||||||
pci in the subject line. Ordinarily you might have to worry about
|
|
||||||
something called operator precedence. Remember in math how you
|
|
||||||
evaluate from left to right and you do multiplication and division
|
|
||||||
first and addition and subtraction second? MH has the same type of
|
|
||||||
rules for <em/pick/. It's fairly complex so you might want to study
|
|
||||||
the man page. This document is just to help you get acquainted with
|
|
||||||
MH.
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
<sect1>folder, folders, refile - three useful programs for folder maintenance
|
|
||||||
<p>
|
|
||||||
There are three programs which are primarily just for manipulating
|
|
||||||
your folders. The <em/folder/ program is used to switch between
|
|
||||||
folders, pack them, and list them. At its simplest level you can do a
|
|
||||||
<tt/folder +newfolder/ and you will be switched into
|
|
||||||
<bf/newfolder/. From there on out all your MH commands like <em/comp/,
|
|
||||||
<em/repl/, <em/scan/, and <em/show/ will act on that <bf/newfolder/
|
|
||||||
folder. Sometimes when you are reading and deleting messages you will
|
|
||||||
develop ``holes'' in your folders.
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
If you do a <em/scan/ you might just see messages
|
|
||||||
34, 35, 36, 43, 55, 56, 57, 80. If you do a <tt/folder -pack/ this
|
|
||||||
will renumber all your messages so that there are no holes. It doesn't
|
|
||||||
actually delete any messages though. So you may need to periodically
|
|
||||||
go through and physically delete <em/rmm/'d messages.
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
If you need statistics on your folders you can do a <em/folders/ or
|
|
||||||
<tt/folder -all/ to list all your folders, how many messages they
|
|
||||||
have, what the current message is in each one and so on. This line of
|
|
||||||
stats it displays for all your folders is the same one you get when
|
|
||||||
you change to a folder with <tt/folder +foldername/. A <em/folders/
|
|
||||||
command looks like this:
|
|
||||||
<tscreen><verb>
|
|
||||||
Folder # of messages ( range ); cur msg (other files)
|
|
||||||
announce has 1 message ( 1- 1).
|
|
||||||
drafts has no messages.
|
|
||||||
f-hackers has 43 messages ( 1- 43).
|
|
||||||
f-questions has 16 messages ( 1- 16).
|
|
||||||
inbox+ has 35 messages ( 1- 38); cur= 37.
|
|
||||||
lists has 8 messages ( 1- 8).
|
|
||||||
netfuture has 1 message ( 1- 1).
|
|
||||||
out has 31 messages ( 1- 31).
|
|
||||||
personal has 6 messages ( 1- 6).
|
|
||||||
todo has 58 messages ( 1- 58); cur= 1.
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
TOTAL= 199 messages in 13 folders.
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
</verb></tscreen>
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
The <em/refile/ command is what you use to move messages between
|
|
||||||
folders. When you do something like <tt/refile 23 +netfuture/ message
|
|
||||||
number 23 is moved into the netfuture folder. You could also do
|
|
||||||
something like <tt/refile 23 +netfuture/latest/ which would put
|
|
||||||
message number 23 in a subfolder called latest under the netfuture
|
|
||||||
folder. If you want to keep a message in the current folder and link
|
|
||||||
it you can do a <tt/refile -link 23 +netfuture/ which would keep 23 in
|
|
||||||
your current inbox but also list in your netfuture folder. You are
|
|
||||||
probably beginning to realize some of the really powerful things you
|
|
||||||
can do with MH.
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
<sect>Sending Mail
|
|
||||||
<p>
|
|
||||||
<!-- This section covers how to use comp, repl and forw -->
|
|
||||||
Email is a two way street for most people so you want to be able to
|
|
||||||
send something back. The way MH handles sending mail can be a bit
|
|
||||||
difficult to follow at first, but it allows for incredible
|
|
||||||
flexibility. The first thing MH does is to copy a components file into
|
|
||||||
your outgoing email. A components file is basically a skeleton email
|
|
||||||
letter with stuff like the To: and Subject: headers already in it.
|
|
||||||
You are then sent into your editor where you fill in the header
|
|
||||||
information and then type the body of your message below the dashed
|
|
||||||
lines in the message. Then to the <em/whatnow/ program. When you are at the
|
|
||||||
``What now?'' prompt you can tell it to <bf/send/, <bf/list/,
|
|
||||||
<bf/edit/, <bf/edit/, <bf/push/, and <bf/quit/. Most of these commands
|
|
||||||
are self-explanatory. So the message sending process involves copying
|
|
||||||
a component file, editing your email, and then telling the
|
|
||||||
<em/whatnow/ program what to do with your email.
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
<sect1><heading>comp, forw, reply - compose, forward or reply to a message to someone</>
|
|
||||||
<p>
|
|
||||||
The <em/comp/ program has a few useful command line options. The most
|
|
||||||
important one to know right now is the <tt/-editor/ option. When MH is
|
|
||||||
installed the default editor is usually a program called <em/prompter/
|
|
||||||
which comes with MH. It's not a very exciting editor and basically
|
|
||||||
just gets the job done. So when you go to compose a message to someone
|
|
||||||
you might want to use <tt/comp -editor /usr/bin/vi/ or <tt/comp
|
|
||||||
-editor /usr/local/bin/pico/ instead. Once you have run <em/comp/ you
|
|
||||||
are in your editor and you see something that looks like this:
|
|
||||||
<tscreen><verb>
|
|
||||||
To:
|
|
||||||
cc:
|
|
||||||
Subject:
|
|
||||||
--------
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
</verb></tscreen>
|
|
||||||
You need to put the person you are sending the mail to after the To:
|
|
||||||
line. It works the same way for the other headers also, so you would
|
|
||||||
need to put your subject after the Subject: line. Then you would just
|
|
||||||
put the body of your message after the dashed lines. It may seem a bit
|
|
||||||
simplistic since a lot of email programs have special requesters that
|
|
||||||
ask you for this information but there really isn't any point to
|
|
||||||
that. Plus this really gives you excellent flexibility.
|
|
||||||
<tscreen><verb>
|
|
||||||
To:freebsd-rave@freebsd.org
|
|
||||||
cc:
|
|
||||||
Subject:And on the 8th day God created the FreeBSD core team
|
|
||||||
--------
|
|
||||||
Wow this is an amazing operating system. Thanks!
|
|
||||||
</verb></tscreen>
|
|
||||||
You can now save this message and exit your editor. You will see the
|
|
||||||
<tt/What now?/ prompt and you can type in <tt/send/ or <tt/s/ and hit
|
|
||||||
return. Then the freebsd core team will receive their just rewards. As
|
|
||||||
I mentioned earlier you can also send other commands, for example
|
|
||||||
<tt/quit/ if you don't want to send the message.
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
The <em/forw/ command is stunningly similar. The big difference
|
|
||||||
being that the message you are forwarding is automatically included in
|
|
||||||
the outgoing message. When you run <em/forw/ it will forward your
|
|
||||||
current message. You can always tell it to forward something else by
|
|
||||||
doing something like <tt/forw 23/ and then message number 23 will be
|
|
||||||
put in your outgoing message instead of the current message. Beyond
|
|
||||||
those small differences <em/forw/ functions exactly the same as
|
|
||||||
<em/comp/. You go through the exact same message sending process.
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
The <em/repl/ command will reply to whatever your current message is,
|
|
||||||
unless you give it a different message to reply to. <em/repl/ will do
|
|
||||||
its best to go ahead and fill in some of the email headers already. So
|
|
||||||
you will notice that the To: header already has the address of the
|
|
||||||
recipient in there. Also the Subject: line will already be filled
|
|
||||||
in. You then go about the normal message composition process and you
|
|
||||||
are done. One useful command line option to know here is the <tt/-cc/
|
|
||||||
option. You can use <bf/all/, <bf/to/, <bf/cc/, <bf/me/ after the
|
|
||||||
<tt/-cc/ option to have <em/repl/ automatically add the various
|
|
||||||
addresses to the cc list in the message. You have probably noticed
|
|
||||||
that the original message isn't included. This is because most MH
|
|
||||||
setups are configured to do this from the start.
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
<sect1> components, and replcomps - components files for comp and repl
|
|
||||||
<p>
|
|
||||||
The <em/components/ file is usually in <tt>/usr/local/lib/mh</tt>. You
|
|
||||||
can copy that file into your MH Mail directory and edit to contain
|
|
||||||
what you want it to contain. It is a fairly basic file. You have
|
|
||||||
various email headers at the top, a dashed line and then nothing. The
|
|
||||||
<em/comp/ command just copies this <em/components/ file and then edits
|
|
||||||
it. You can any kind of valid RFC822 header you want. For instance you
|
|
||||||
could have something like this in your <em/components/ file:
|
|
||||||
<tscreen><verb>
|
|
||||||
To:
|
|
||||||
Fcc: out
|
|
||||||
Subject:
|
|
||||||
X-Mailer: MH 6.8.3
|
|
||||||
X-Home-Page: http://www.freebsd.org/
|
|
||||||
-------
|
|
||||||
</verb></tscreen>
|
|
||||||
MH would then copy this components file and throw you into your
|
|
||||||
editor. The <em/components/ file is fairly simple. If you wanted to
|
|
||||||
have a signature on those messages you would just put your signature
|
|
||||||
in that <em/components/ file.
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
The <em/replcomps/ file is a bit more complex. The default
|
|
||||||
<em/replcomps/ looks like this:
|
|
||||||
<tscreen><verb>
|
|
||||||
%(lit)%(formataddr %<{reply-to}%?{from}%?{sender}%?{return-path}%>)\
|
|
||||||
%<(nonnull)%(void(width))%(putaddr To: )\n%>\
|
|
||||||
%(lit)%(formataddr{to})%(formataddr{cc})%(formataddr(me))\
|
|
||||||
%<(nonnull)%(void(width))%(putaddr cc: )\n%>\
|
|
||||||
%<{fcc}Fcc: %{fcc}\n%>\
|
|
||||||
%<{subject}Subject: Re: %{subject}\n%>\
|
|
||||||
%<{date}In-reply-to: Your message of "\
|
|
||||||
%<(nodate{date})%{date}%|%(pretty{date})%>."%<{message-id}
|
|
||||||
%{message-id}%>\n%>\
|
|
||||||
--------
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
</verb></tscreen>
|
|
||||||
It's in the same basic format as the <em/components/ file but it
|
|
||||||
contains quite a few extra formatting codes. The %(lit) command makes
|
|
||||||
room for the address. The %(formataddr is a function that returns a
|
|
||||||
proper email address. The next part is %< which means if and the
|
|
||||||
{reply-to} means the reply-to field in the original message. So that
|
|
||||||
might be translated this way:
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
<tscreen>
|
|
||||||
%<<bf/if/ {reply-to} <bf/the original message has a reply-to/
|
|
||||||
then give that to formataddr, %? <bf/else/ {from} <bf/take the
|
|
||||||
from address/, %? <bf/else/ {sender} <bf/take the sender address/, %?
|
|
||||||
<bf/else/ {return-path} <bf/take the return-path from the original
|
|
||||||
message/, %> <bf/endif/.
|
|
||||||
</tscreen>
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
As you can tell MH formatting can get rather involved. You can
|
|
||||||
probably decipher what most of the other functions and variables
|
|
||||||
mean. All of the information on writing these format strings is in the
|
|
||||||
MH-Format man page. The really nice thing is that once you have built
|
|
||||||
your customized <em/replcomps/ file you won't need to touch it
|
|
||||||
again. No other email program really gives you the power and
|
|
||||||
flexibility that MH gives you.
|
|
||||||
</article>
|
|
||||||
|
|
@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
|
||||||
DOC= mh
|
DOCS= mh.docb
|
||||||
SRCS= mh.sgml
|
INDEXLINK= mh.html
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
.include <bsd.sgml.mk>
|
.include "../../web.mk"
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
|
||||||
704
en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/mh/article.sgml
Normal file
704
en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/mh/article.sgml
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,704 @@
|
||||||
|
<!-- $FreeBSD$ -->
|
||||||
|
<!-- FreeBSD Documentation Project -->
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<!DOCTYPE BOOK PUBLIC "-//Davenport//DTD DocBook V3.0//EN">
|
||||||
|
<book>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<bookinfo>
|
||||||
|
<bookbiblio>
|
||||||
|
<title>An MH Primer</title>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<authorgroup>
|
||||||
|
<author>
|
||||||
|
<firstname>Matt</firstname>
|
||||||
|
<surname>Midboe</surname>
|
||||||
|
<affiliation>
|
||||||
|
<address>
|
||||||
|
<email>matt@garply.com</email>
|
||||||
|
</address>
|
||||||
|
</affiliation>
|
||||||
|
</author></authorgroup>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<pubdate>v1.0, 16 January 1996</pubdate>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<abstract><para>This document contains an introduction to using MH on
|
||||||
|
FreeBSD</para></abstract>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
</bookbiblio>
|
||||||
|
</bookinfo>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<chapter id="mhintro">
|
||||||
|
<title>Introduction</title>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>MH started back in 1977 at the RAND Corporation, where the
|
||||||
|
initial philosophies behind MH were developed. MH isn't so much a
|
||||||
|
monolithic email program but a philosophy about how best to develop
|
||||||
|
tools for reading email. The MH developers have done a great job
|
||||||
|
adhering to the <acronym>KISS</> principle: Keep It Simple Stupid.
|
||||||
|
Rather than have one large program for reading, sending and handling
|
||||||
|
email they have written specialized programs for each part of your
|
||||||
|
email life. One might liken MH to the specialization that one finds
|
||||||
|
in insects and nature. Each tool in MH does one thing, and does it
|
||||||
|
very well.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>Beyond just the various tools that one uses to handle their
|
||||||
|
email MH has done an excellent job keeping the configuration of each
|
||||||
|
of these tools consistent and uniform. In fact, if you are not quite
|
||||||
|
sure how something is supposed to work or what the arguments for some
|
||||||
|
command are supposed to be then you can generally guess and be right.
|
||||||
|
Each MH command is consistent about how it handles reading the
|
||||||
|
configuration files and how it takes arguments on the command line.
|
||||||
|
One useful thing to remember is that you can always add a
|
||||||
|
<option>-help</option> to the command to have it display the options
|
||||||
|
for that command.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>The first thing that you need to do is to make sure that you have
|
||||||
|
installed the MH package on your FreeBSD machine. If you installed
|
||||||
|
from CDROM you should be able to execute the following to load mh:
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen># <userinput>pkg_add /cdrom/packages/mh-6.8.3.tgz</></screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample>
|
||||||
|
You will notice that it created a <filename>/usr/local/lib/mh</>
|
||||||
|
directory for you as well as adding several binaries to the
|
||||||
|
<filename>/usr/local/bin</> directory. If you would prefer to compile
|
||||||
|
it yourself then you can anonymous ftp it from <ulink
|
||||||
|
URL="ftp://ftp.ics.uci.edu/">ftp.ics.uci.edu</ulink> or <ulink
|
||||||
|
URL="ftp://louie.udel.edu/">louie.udel.edu</ulink>.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>This primer is not a full comprehensive explanation of how MH
|
||||||
|
works. This is just intended to get you started on the road to
|
||||||
|
happier, faster mail reading. You should read the man pages for the
|
||||||
|
various commands. Also you might want to read the <ulink
|
||||||
|
URL="news:comp.mail.mh">comp.mail.mh</ulink> newsgroup. Also you can
|
||||||
|
read the <ulink
|
||||||
|
URL="http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/mh-faq/part1/faq.html">FAQ
|
||||||
|
for MH</ulink>. The best resource for MH is the O'Reilly and Associates book
|
||||||
|
written by Jerry Peek.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
</chapter>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<chapter>
|
||||||
|
<title>Reading Mail</title>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>This section covers how to use <command>inc</>,
|
||||||
|
<command>show</>, <command>scan</>, <command>next</>,
|
||||||
|
<command>prev</>, <command>rmm</>, <command>rmf</>, and
|
||||||
|
<command>msgchk</>. One of the best things about MH is the
|
||||||
|
consistent interface between programs. A few things to keep in mind
|
||||||
|
when using these commands is how to specify message lists. In the
|
||||||
|
case of <command>inc</> this doesn't really make any sense but with
|
||||||
|
commands like <command>show</> it is useful to know. </para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>A message list can consist of something like <parameter>23 20
|
||||||
|
16</> which will act on messages 23, 20 and 16. This is fairly simple
|
||||||
|
but you can do more useful things like <parameter>23-30</> which will
|
||||||
|
act on all the messages between 23 and 30. You can also specify
|
||||||
|
something like <parameter>cur:10</> which will act on the current
|
||||||
|
message and the next 9 messages. The <parameter>cur</>,
|
||||||
|
<parameter>last</>, and <parameter>first</> messages are special
|
||||||
|
messages that refer to the current, last or first message in the
|
||||||
|
folder.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<sect1 id="inc">
|
||||||
|
<title><command>inc</>, <command>msgchk</>—read in your new email or check it</title>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>If you just type in <userinput>inc</> and hit <keycap>return</>
|
||||||
|
you will be well on your way to getting started with MH. The first
|
||||||
|
time you run <command>inc</> it will setup your account to use all
|
||||||
|
the MH defaults and ask you about creating a Mail directory. If you
|
||||||
|
have mail waiting to be downloaded you will see something that looks
|
||||||
|
like:
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen> 29 01/15 Doug White Re: Another Failed to boot problem<<On Mon, 15 J
|
||||||
|
30 01/16 "Jordan K. Hubbar Re: FBSD 2.1<<> Do you want a library instead of
|
||||||
|
31 01/16 Bruce Evans Re: location of bad144 table<<>> >It would appea
|
||||||
|
32 01/16 "Jordan K. Hubbar Re: video is up<<> Anyway, mrouted won't run, ev
|
||||||
|
33 01/16 Michael Smith Re: FBSD 2.1<<Nate Williams stands accused of sa</screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample>
|
||||||
|
This is the same thing you will see from a <command>scan</> (see
|
||||||
|
<xref linkend="scan">). If you just run <command>inc</> with no
|
||||||
|
arguments it will look on your computer for email that is supposed to
|
||||||
|
be coming to you.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>A lot of people like to use POP for grabbing their email. MH can do
|
||||||
|
POP to grab your email. You will need to give <command>inc</> a few command
|
||||||
|
line arguments.
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>tempest% <userinput>inc -host mail.pop.org -user <replaceable>username</> -norpop</></screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample>
|
||||||
|
That tells <command>inc</> to go to <parameter>mail.pop.org</> to
|
||||||
|
download your email, and that your username on their system is
|
||||||
|
<replaceable>username</>. The <option>-norpop</option> option tells
|
||||||
|
<command>inc</> to use plain POP3 for downloading your email. MH has
|
||||||
|
support for a few different dialects of POP. More than likely you
|
||||||
|
will never ever need to use them though. While you can do more
|
||||||
|
complex things with inc such as audit files and scan format files
|
||||||
|
this will get you going.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>The <command>msgchk</> command is used to get information on
|
||||||
|
whether or not you have new email. <command>msgchk</> takes the same
|
||||||
|
<option>-host</option> and <option>-user</option> options that
|
||||||
|
<command>inc</> takes.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
</sect1>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<sect1 id="show">
|
||||||
|
<title><command>show</>, <command>next</> and <command>prev</>—displaying and moving through email</title>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para><command>show</> is to show a letter in your current folder.
|
||||||
|
Like <command>inc</>, <command>show</> is a fairly straightforward
|
||||||
|
command. If you just type <userinput>show</> and hit <keycap>return</>
|
||||||
|
then it displays the current message. You can also give specific
|
||||||
|
message numbers to show:
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>tempest% <userinput>show 32 45 56</></screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample>
|
||||||
|
This would display message numbers 32, 45 and 56 right after each
|
||||||
|
other. Unless you change the default behavior <command>show</>
|
||||||
|
basically just does a <command>more</> on the email message.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para><command>next</> is used to move onto the next message and
|
||||||
|
<command>prev</> will go to the previous message. Both commands have
|
||||||
|
an implied <command>show</> command so that when you go to the next
|
||||||
|
message it automatically displays it.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
</sect1>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<sect1 id="scan">
|
||||||
|
<title><command>scan</>—shows you a scan of your messages</title>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para><command>scan</> will display a brief listing of the messages
|
||||||
|
in your current folder. This is an example of what the
|
||||||
|
<command>scan</> command will give you.
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen> 30+ 01/16 "Jordan K. Hubbar Re: FBSD 2.1<<> Do you want a library instead of
|
||||||
|
31 01/16 Bruce Evans Re: location of bad144 table<<>> >It would appea
|
||||||
|
32 01/16 "Jordan K. Hubbar Re: video is up<<> Anyway, mrouted won't run, ev
|
||||||
|
33 01/16 Michael Smith Re: FBSD 2.1<<Nate Williams stands accused of sa</screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample>
|
||||||
|
Like just about everything in MH this display is very configurable.
|
||||||
|
This is the typical default display. It gives you the message number,
|
||||||
|
the date on the email, the sender, the subject line, and a sentence
|
||||||
|
fragment from the very beginning of the email if it can fit it. The
|
||||||
|
<literal>+</> means that message is the current message, so if you do
|
||||||
|
a <command>show</> it will display that message.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>One useful option for scan is the <option>-reverse</option>
|
||||||
|
option. This will list your messages with the highest message number
|
||||||
|
first and lowest message number last. Another useful option with
|
||||||
|
<command>scan</> is to have it read from a file. If you want to scan
|
||||||
|
your incoming mailbox on FreeBSD without having to <command>inc</> it
|
||||||
|
you can do <command>scan -file
|
||||||
|
/var/mail/<replaceable>username</></command>. This can be used with
|
||||||
|
any file that is in the <database>mbox</> format.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
</sect1>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<sect1 id="rmm">
|
||||||
|
<title><command>rmm</> and <command>rmf</>—remove the current message or folder</title>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para><command>rmm</> is used to remove a mail message. The default
|
||||||
|
is typically to not actually remove the message but to rename the
|
||||||
|
file to one that is ignored by the MH commands. You will need to
|
||||||
|
through periodically and physically delete the <quote>removed</>
|
||||||
|
messages.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>The <command>rmf</> command is used to remove folders. This
|
||||||
|
doesn't just rename the files but actually removes the from the hard
|
||||||
|
drive so you should be careful when you use this command.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
</sect1>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<sect1 id="samplereading">
|
||||||
|
<title>A typical session of reading with MH</title>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>The first thing that you will want to do is <command>inc</>
|
||||||
|
your new mail. So at a shell prompt just type in <command>inc</> and
|
||||||
|
hit <keycap>return</>.
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>tempest% <userinput>inc</>
|
||||||
|
Incorporating new mail into inbox...
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
36+ 01/19 "Stephen L. Lange Request...<<Please remove me as contact for pind
|
||||||
|
37 01/19 Matt Thomas Re: kern/950: Two PCI bridge chips fail (multipl
|
||||||
|
38 01/19 "Amancio Hasty Jr Re: FreeBSD and VAT<<>>> Bill Fenner said: > In
|
||||||
|
tempest%</screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample>
|
||||||
|
This shows you the new email that has been added to your mailbox. So
|
||||||
|
the next thing to do is <command>show</> the email and move around.
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>tempest% <userinput>show</>
|
||||||
|
Received: by sashimi.wwa.com (Smail3.1.29.1 #2)
|
||||||
|
id m0tdMZ2-001W2UC; Fri, 19 Jan 96 13:33 CST
|
||||||
|
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 1996 13:33:31 -0600 (CST)
|
||||||
|
From: "Stephen L. Lange" <stvlange@wwa.com>
|
||||||
|
To: matt@garply.com
|
||||||
|
Subject: Request...
|
||||||
|
Message-Id: <Pine.BSD.3.91.960119133211.824A-100000@sashimi.wwa.com>
|
||||||
|
Mime-Version: 1.0
|
||||||
|
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Please remove me as contact for pindat.com
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
tempest% <userinput>rmm</>
|
||||||
|
tempest% <userinput>next</>
|
||||||
|
Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by whydos.lkg.dec.com (8.6.11/8
|
||||||
|
.6.9) with SMTP id RAA24416; Fri, 19 Jan 1996 17:56:48 GMT
|
||||||
|
Message-Id: <199601191756.RAA24416@whydos.lkg.dec.com>
|
||||||
|
X-Authentication-Warning: whydos.lkg.dec.com: Host localhost didn't use HELO pro
|
||||||
|
tocol
|
||||||
|
To: hsu@clinet.fi
|
||||||
|
Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.org
|
||||||
|
Subject: Re: kern/950: Two PCI bridge chips fail (multiple multiport ethernet
|
||||||
|
boards)
|
||||||
|
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 19 Jan 1996 00:18:36 +0100."
|
||||||
|
<199601182318.AA11772@Sysiphos>
|
||||||
|
X-Mailer: exmh version 1.5omega 10/6/94
|
||||||
|
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 1996 17:56:40 +0000
|
||||||
|
From: Matt Thomas <matt@lkg.dec.com>
|
||||||
|
Sender: owner-hackers@FreeBSD.org
|
||||||
|
Precedence: bulk
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
This is due to a typo in pcireg.h (to
|
||||||
|
which I am probably the guilty party).</screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample></para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>The <command>rmm</> removed the current message and the
|
||||||
|
<command>next</> command moved me on to the next message.
|
||||||
|
Now if I wanted to look at ten most recent messages so I could read
|
||||||
|
one of them here is what I would do:
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>tempest% <userinput>scan last:10</>
|
||||||
|
26 01/16 maddy Re: Testing some stuff<<yeah, well, Trinity has
|
||||||
|
27 01/17 Automatic digest NET-HAPPENINGS Digest - 16 Jan 1996 to 17 Jan 19
|
||||||
|
28 01/17 Evans A Criswell Re: Hey dude<<>From matt@tempest.garply.com Tue
|
||||||
|
29 01/16 Karl Heuer need configure/make volunteers<<The FSF is looki
|
||||||
|
30 01/18 Paul Stephanouk Re: [alt.religion.scientology] Raw Meat (humor)<
|
||||||
|
31 01/18 Bill Lenherr Re: Linux NIS Solaris<<--- On Thu, 18 Jan 1996 1
|
||||||
|
34 01/19 John Fieber Re: Stuff for the email section?<<On Fri, 19 Jan
|
||||||
|
35 01/19 support@foo.garpl [garply.com #1138] parlor<<Hello. This is the Ne
|
||||||
|
37+ 01/19 Matt Thomas Re: kern/950: Two PCI bridge chips fail (multipl
|
||||||
|
38 01/19 "Amancio Hasty Jr Re: FreeBSD and VAT<<>>> Bill Fenner said: > In
|
||||||
|
tempest%</screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample>
|
||||||
|
Then if I wanted to read message number 27 I would do a
|
||||||
|
<userinput>show 27</> and it would be displayed. As you can probably
|
||||||
|
tell from this sample session MH is pretty easy to use and looking
|
||||||
|
through emails and displaying them is fairly intuitive and easy.
|
||||||
|
</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
</sect1>
|
||||||
|
</chapter>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<chapter>
|
||||||
|
<title>Folders and Mail Searching</title>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>Anybody who gets lots of email definitely wants to be able to
|
||||||
|
prioritize, stamp, brief, de-brief, and number their emails in a
|
||||||
|
variety of different ways. MH can do this better than just about
|
||||||
|
anything. One thing that we haven't really talked about is the
|
||||||
|
concept of folders. You have undoubtedly come across the folders
|
||||||
|
concept using other email programs. MH has folders too. MH can even
|
||||||
|
do sub-folders of a folder. One thing you should keep in mind with MH
|
||||||
|
is that when you ran <command>inc</> for the first time and it asked
|
||||||
|
you if it could create a <filename>Mail</> directory it began storing
|
||||||
|
everything in that directory. If you look at that directory you will
|
||||||
|
find a directory named <filename>inbox</>. The <filename>inbox</>
|
||||||
|
directory houses all of your incoming mail that hasn't been thrown
|
||||||
|
anywhere else.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>Whenever you create a new folder a new directory is going to be
|
||||||
|
created underneath your MH <filename>Mail</> directory, and messages
|
||||||
|
in that folder are going to be stored in that directory. When new
|
||||||
|
email comes in that new email is thrown into your <filename>inbox</>
|
||||||
|
directory with a file name that is equivalent to the message number.
|
||||||
|
So even if you didn't have any of the MH tools to read your email you
|
||||||
|
could still use standard UNIX commands to munge around in those
|
||||||
|
directories and just more your files. It's this simplicity that
|
||||||
|
really gives you a lot of power with what you can do with your
|
||||||
|
email.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>Just as you can use message lists like <parameter>23 16 42</>
|
||||||
|
with most MH commands there is a folder option you can specify with
|
||||||
|
just about every MH command. If you do a <command>scan +freebsd</> it
|
||||||
|
will scan your <filename>freebsd</> folder, and your current folder
|
||||||
|
will be changed to <filename>freebsd</>. If you do a <command>show
|
||||||
|
+freebsd 23 16 42</>, <command>show</> is going to switch to your
|
||||||
|
<filename>freebsd</> folder and display messages 23, 16 and 42. So
|
||||||
|
remember that <option>+<replaceable>folder</></> syntax. You will
|
||||||
|
need to make sure you use it to make commands process different
|
||||||
|
folders. Remember you default folder for mail is <filename>inbox</>
|
||||||
|
so doing a <command>folder +inbox</> should always get you back to
|
||||||
|
your mail. Of course, in MH's infinite flexibility this can be
|
||||||
|
changed but most places have probably left it as
|
||||||
|
<command>inbox</>.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<sect1>
|
||||||
|
<title><command>pick</>—search email that matches certain criteria</title>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para><command>pick</> is one of the more complex commands in the MH
|
||||||
|
system. So you might want to read the
|
||||||
|
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>pick</><manvolnum>1</></> man page for a
|
||||||
|
more thorough understanding. At its simplest level you can do
|
||||||
|
something like
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>tempest% <userinput>pick -search pci</>
|
||||||
|
15
|
||||||
|
42
|
||||||
|
55
|
||||||
|
56
|
||||||
|
57</screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
This will tell <command>pick</> to look through every single line in
|
||||||
|
every message in your current folder and tell you which message
|
||||||
|
numbers it found the word <literal>pci</> in. You can then
|
||||||
|
<command>show</> those messages and read them if you wish or
|
||||||
|
<command>rmm</> them. You would have to specify something like
|
||||||
|
<command>show 15 42 55-57</> to display them though. A slightly more
|
||||||
|
useful thing to do is this:
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>tempest% <userinput>pick -search pci -seq pick</>
|
||||||
|
5 hits
|
||||||
|
tempest% <userinput>show pick</></screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample>
|
||||||
|
This will show you the same messages you just didn't have to work as
|
||||||
|
hard to do it. The <option>-seq</option> option is really an
|
||||||
|
abbreviation of <option>-sequence</option> and <command>pick</> is
|
||||||
|
just a sequence which contains the message numbers that matched. You
|
||||||
|
can use sequences with just about any MH command. So you could have
|
||||||
|
done an <command>rmm pick</> and all those messages would be removed
|
||||||
|
instead. You sequence can be named anything. If you run pick again it
|
||||||
|
will overwrite the old sequence if you use the same name.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>Doing a <command>pick -search</command> can be a bit more time
|
||||||
|
consuming than just searching for message from someone, or to
|
||||||
|
someone. So <command>pick</> allows you to use the following
|
||||||
|
predefined search criteria:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<variablelist>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<varlistentry>
|
||||||
|
<term><option>-to</option></term>
|
||||||
|
<listitem>
|
||||||
|
<para>search based upon who the message is to</para>
|
||||||
|
</listitem>
|
||||||
|
</varlistentry>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<varlistentry>
|
||||||
|
<term><option>-cc</option></term>
|
||||||
|
<listitem>
|
||||||
|
<para>search based on who is in the cc list</para>
|
||||||
|
</listitem>
|
||||||
|
</varlistentry>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<varlistentry>
|
||||||
|
<term><option>-from</option></term>
|
||||||
|
<listitem>
|
||||||
|
<para>search for who sent the message</para>
|
||||||
|
</listitem>
|
||||||
|
</varlistentry>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<varlistentry>
|
||||||
|
<term><option>-subject</option></term>
|
||||||
|
<listitem>
|
||||||
|
<para>search for emails with this subject</para>
|
||||||
|
</listitem>
|
||||||
|
</varlistentry>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<varlistentry>
|
||||||
|
<term><option>-date</option></term>
|
||||||
|
<listitem>
|
||||||
|
<para>find emails with a matching dat</para>
|
||||||
|
</listitem>
|
||||||
|
</varlistentry>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<varlistentry>
|
||||||
|
<term><option>--<replaceable>component</replaceable></option></term>
|
||||||
|
<listitem>
|
||||||
|
<para>search for any other component in the header. (i.e.
|
||||||
|
<option>--reply-to</> to find all emails with a certain reply-to in
|
||||||
|
the header)</para>
|
||||||
|
</listitem>
|
||||||
|
</varlistentry>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
</variablelist></para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>This allows you to do things like
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>tempest% <userinput>pick -to freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org -seq hackers</></screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample>
|
||||||
|
to get a list of all the email send to the FreeBSD hackers mailing
|
||||||
|
list. <command>pick</> also allows you to group these criteria in
|
||||||
|
different ways using the following options:
|
||||||
|
<itemizedlist>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<listitem>
|
||||||
|
<para>… <option>-and</option> …</para>
|
||||||
|
</listitem>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<listitem>
|
||||||
|
<para>… <option>-or</option> &hellip</para>
|
||||||
|
</listitem>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<listitem>
|
||||||
|
<para><option>-not</option> …</para>
|
||||||
|
</listitem>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<listitem>
|
||||||
|
<para><option>-lbrace</option> … <option>-rbrace</option></para>
|
||||||
|
</listitem>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
</itemizedlist>
|
||||||
|
These commands allow you to do things like
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>tempest% <userinput>pick -to freebsd-hackers -and -cc freebsd-hackers</></screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample>
|
||||||
|
That will grab all the email in your inbox that was sent to
|
||||||
|
freebsd-hackers or cc'd to that list. The brace options allow you to
|
||||||
|
group search criteria together. This is sometimes very necessary as
|
||||||
|
in the following example
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>tempest% <userinput>pick -lbrace -to freebsd-hackers -and
|
||||||
|
-not -cc freebsd-questions -rbrace -and -subject pci</></screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample></para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>Basically this says <quote>pick (to freebsd-hackers and not cc'd on
|
||||||
|
freebsd-questions) and the subject is pci</quote>. It should look through your
|
||||||
|
folder and find all messages sent to the freebsd-hackers list that
|
||||||
|
aren't cc'd to the freebsd-questions list that contain something on
|
||||||
|
pci in the subject line. Ordinarily you might have to worry about
|
||||||
|
something called operator precedence. Remember in math how you
|
||||||
|
evaluate from left to right and you do multiplication and division
|
||||||
|
first and addition and subtraction second? MH has the same type of
|
||||||
|
rules for <command>pick</>. It's fairly complex so you might want to study
|
||||||
|
the man page. This document is just to help you get acquainted with
|
||||||
|
MH.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
</sect1>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<sect1>
|
||||||
|
<title><command>folder</>, <command>folders</>, <command>refile</>—three useful programs for folder maintenance</title>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>There are three programs which are primarily just for
|
||||||
|
manipulating your folders. The <command>folder</> program is used to
|
||||||
|
switch between folders, pack them, and list them. At its simplest
|
||||||
|
level you can do a <command>folder +<replaceable>newfolder</></> and
|
||||||
|
you will be switched into <replaceable>newfolder</>. From there on
|
||||||
|
out all your MH commands like <command>comp</>, <command>repl</>,
|
||||||
|
<command>scan</>, and <command>show</> will act on that
|
||||||
|
<command>newfolder</> folder.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>Sometimes when you are reading and deleting messages you will
|
||||||
|
develop <quote>holes</> in your folders. If you do a <command>scan</>
|
||||||
|
you might just see messages 34, 35, 36, 43, 55, 56, 57, 80. If you do
|
||||||
|
a <command>folder -pack</command> this will renumber all your
|
||||||
|
messages so that there are no holes. It doesn't actually delete any
|
||||||
|
messages though. So you may need to periodically go through and
|
||||||
|
physically delete <command>rmm</>'d messages.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>If you need statistics on your folders you can do a
|
||||||
|
<command>folders</> or <command>folder -all</command> to list all
|
||||||
|
your folders, how many messages they have, what the current message
|
||||||
|
is in each one and so on. This line of stats it displays for all your
|
||||||
|
folders is the same one you get when you change to a folder with
|
||||||
|
<command>folder +foldername</>. A <command>folders</> command looks
|
||||||
|
like this:
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen> Folder # of messages ( range ); cur msg (other files)
|
||||||
|
announce has 1 message ( 1- 1).
|
||||||
|
drafts has no messages.
|
||||||
|
f-hackers has 43 messages ( 1- 43).
|
||||||
|
f-questions has 16 messages ( 1- 16).
|
||||||
|
inbox+ has 35 messages ( 1- 38); cur= 37.
|
||||||
|
lists has 8 messages ( 1- 8).
|
||||||
|
netfuture has 1 message ( 1- 1).
|
||||||
|
out has 31 messages ( 1- 31).
|
||||||
|
personal has 6 messages ( 1- 6).
|
||||||
|
todo has 58 messages ( 1- 58); cur= 1.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
TOTAL= 199 messages in 13 folders.
|
||||||
|
</screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample></para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>The <command>refile</> command is what you use to move messages
|
||||||
|
between folders. When you do something like <command>refile 23
|
||||||
|
+netfuture</> message number 23 is moved into the
|
||||||
|
<filename>netfuture</> folder. You could also do something like
|
||||||
|
<command>refile 23 +netfuture/latest</> which would put message
|
||||||
|
number 23 in a subfolder called <filename>latest</> under the
|
||||||
|
<filename>netfuture</> folder. If you want to keep a message in the
|
||||||
|
current folder and link it you can do a <command>refile -link 23
|
||||||
|
+netfuture</command> which would keep 23 in your current
|
||||||
|
<filename>inbox</> but also list in your <filename>netfuture</>
|
||||||
|
folder. You are probably beginning to realize some of the really
|
||||||
|
powerful things you can do with MH.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
</sect1>
|
||||||
|
</chapter>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<chapter>
|
||||||
|
<title>Sending Mail</title>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>Email is a two way street for most people so you want to be
|
||||||
|
able to send something back. The way MH handles sending mail can be a
|
||||||
|
bit difficult to follow at first, but it allows for incredible
|
||||||
|
flexibility. The first thing MH does is to copy a components file
|
||||||
|
into your outgoing email. A components file is basically a skeleton
|
||||||
|
email letter with stuff like the To: and Subject: headers already in
|
||||||
|
it. You are then sent into your editor where you fill in the header
|
||||||
|
information and then type the body of your message below the dashed
|
||||||
|
lines in the message. Then to the <command>whatnow</> program. When
|
||||||
|
you are at the <prompt>What now?</prompt> prompt you can tell it to
|
||||||
|
<command>send</>, <command>list</>, <command>edit</>,
|
||||||
|
<command>edit</>, <command>push</>, and <command>quit</>. Most of
|
||||||
|
these commands are self-explanatory. So the message sending process
|
||||||
|
involves copying a component file, editing your email, and then
|
||||||
|
telling the <command>whatnow</> program what to do with your
|
||||||
|
email.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<sect1>
|
||||||
|
<title><command>comp</>, <command>forw</>, <command>reply</>—compose, forward or reply to a message to someone</title>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>The <command>comp</> program has a few useful command line
|
||||||
|
options. The most important one to know right now is the
|
||||||
|
<option>-editor</option> option. When MH is installed the default
|
||||||
|
editor is usually a program called <command>prompter</> which comes
|
||||||
|
with MH. It's not a very exciting editor and basically just gets the
|
||||||
|
job done. So when you go to compose a message to someone you might
|
||||||
|
want to use <command>comp -editor /usr/bin/vi/</> or <command>comp
|
||||||
|
-editor /usr/local/bin/pico/</> instead. Once you have run
|
||||||
|
<emphasis>comp</emphasis> you are in your editor and you see
|
||||||
|
something that looks like this:
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>To:
|
||||||
|
cc:
|
||||||
|
Subject:
|
||||||
|
--------
|
||||||
|
</screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample></para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>You need to put the person you are sending the mail to after the
|
||||||
|
<literal>To:</> line. It works the same way for the other headers
|
||||||
|
also, so you would need to put your subject after the
|
||||||
|
<literal>Subject:</> line. Then you would just put the body of your
|
||||||
|
message after the dashed lines. It may seem a bit simplistic since a
|
||||||
|
lot of email programs have special requesters that ask you for this
|
||||||
|
information but there really isn't any point to that. Plus this
|
||||||
|
really gives you excellent flexibility.
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>To:<userinput>freebsd-rave@freebsd.org</>
|
||||||
|
cc:
|
||||||
|
Subject:<userinput>And on the 8th day God created the FreeBSD core team</>
|
||||||
|
--------
|
||||||
|
<userinput>Wow this is an amazing operating system. Thanks!</></screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample>
|
||||||
|
You can now save this message and exit your editor. You will see the
|
||||||
|
<prompt>What now?</> prompt and you can type in
|
||||||
|
<userinput>send</> or <userinput>s</> and hit
|
||||||
|
<keycap>return</>. Then the freebsd core team will receive their just
|
||||||
|
rewards. As I mentioned earlier you can also use other commands, for
|
||||||
|
example <command>quit</> if you don't want to send the
|
||||||
|
message.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>The <command>forw</> command is stunningly similar. The big
|
||||||
|
difference being that the message you are forwarding is automatically
|
||||||
|
included in the outgoing message. When you run <command>forw</> it
|
||||||
|
will forward your current message. You can always tell it to forward
|
||||||
|
something else by doing something like <command>forw 23</> and then
|
||||||
|
message number 23 will be put in your outgoing message instead of the
|
||||||
|
current message. Beyond those small differences <command>forw</>
|
||||||
|
functions exactly the same as <command>comp</>. You go through the
|
||||||
|
exact same message sending process.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>The <command>repl</> command will reply to whatever your
|
||||||
|
current message is, unless you give it a different message to reply
|
||||||
|
to. <command>repl</> will do its best to go ahead and fill in some of
|
||||||
|
the email headers already. So you will notice that the
|
||||||
|
<literal>To:</> header already has the address of the recipient in
|
||||||
|
there. Also the <literal>Subject:</> line will already be filled in.
|
||||||
|
You then go about the normal message composition process and you are
|
||||||
|
done. One useful command line option to know here is the
|
||||||
|
<option>-cc</option> option. You can use <parameter>all</>,
|
||||||
|
<parameter>to</>, <parameter>cc</>, <parameter>me</> after the
|
||||||
|
<option>-cc</option> option to have <command>repl</> automatically
|
||||||
|
add the various addresses to the cc list in the message. You have
|
||||||
|
probably noticed that the original message isn't included. This is
|
||||||
|
because most MH setups are configured to do this from the
|
||||||
|
start.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
</sect1>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<sect1>
|
||||||
|
<title><filename>components</>, and <filename>replcomps</>—components files for <command>comp</> and <command>repl</></title>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>The <filename>components</> file is usually in
|
||||||
|
<filename>/usr/local/lib/mh</filename>. You can copy that file into
|
||||||
|
your MH Mail directory and edit to contain what you want it to
|
||||||
|
contain. It is a fairly basic file. You have various email headers at
|
||||||
|
the top, a dashed line and then nothing. The
|
||||||
|
<command>comp</command> command just copies this
|
||||||
|
<filename>components</> file and then edits it. You can add any
|
||||||
|
kind of valid RFC822 header you want. For instance you could have
|
||||||
|
something like this in your <filename>components</> file:
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>To:
|
||||||
|
Fcc: out
|
||||||
|
Subject:
|
||||||
|
X-Mailer: MH 6.8.3
|
||||||
|
X-Home-Page: http://www.freebsd.org/
|
||||||
|
-------</screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
MH would then copy this components file and throw you into your
|
||||||
|
editor. The <filename>components</> file is fairly simple. If you
|
||||||
|
wanted to have a signature on those messages you would just put your
|
||||||
|
signature in that <filename>components</> file.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>The <filename>replcomps</> file is a bit more complex. The default
|
||||||
|
<filename>replcomps</> looks like this:
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>%(lit)%(formataddr %<{reply-to}%?{from}%?{sender}%?{return-path}%>)\
|
||||||
|
%<(nonnull)%(void(width))%(putaddr To: )\n%>\
|
||||||
|
%(lit)%(formataddr{to})%(formataddr{cc})%(formataddr(me))\
|
||||||
|
%<(nonnull)%(void(width))%(putaddr cc: )\n%>\
|
||||||
|
%<{fcc}Fcc: %{fcc}\n%>\
|
||||||
|
%<{subject}Subject: Re: %{subject}\n%>\
|
||||||
|
%<{date}In-reply-to: Your message of "\
|
||||||
|
%<(nodate{date})%{date}%|%(pretty{date})%>."%<{message-id}
|
||||||
|
%{message-id}%>\n%>\
|
||||||
|
--------
|
||||||
|
</screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample></para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>It's in the same basic format as the <filename>components</> file but
|
||||||
|
it contains quite a few extra formatting codes. The
|
||||||
|
<literal>%(lit)</> command makes room for the address. The
|
||||||
|
<literal>%(formataddr</> is a function that returns a proper email
|
||||||
|
address. The next part is <literal>%<</literal> which means if and
|
||||||
|
the <literal>{reply-to}</> means the reply-to field in the original
|
||||||
|
message. So that might be translated this way:
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>%<<emphasis remap=bf>if</emphasis> {reply-to} <emphasis remap=bf>the original message has a reply-to</emphasis>
|
||||||
|
then give that to formataddr, %? <emphasis remap=bf>else</emphasis> {from} <emphasis remap=bf>take the
|
||||||
|
from address</emphasis>, %? <emphasis remap=bf>else</emphasis> {sender} <emphasis remap=bf>take the sender address</emphasis>, %?
|
||||||
|
<emphasis remap=bf>else</emphasis> {return-path} <emphasis remap=bf>take the return-path from the original
|
||||||
|
message</emphasis>, %> <emphasis remap=bf>endif</emphasis>.</screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample></para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>As you can tell MH formatting can get rather involved. You can
|
||||||
|
probably decipher what most of the other functions and variables
|
||||||
|
mean. All of the information on writing these format strings is in the
|
||||||
|
MH-Format man page. The really nice thing is that once you have built
|
||||||
|
your customized <filename>replcomps</> file you won't need to touch it
|
||||||
|
again. No other email program really gives you the power and
|
||||||
|
flexibility that MH gives you.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
</sect1>
|
||||||
|
</chapter>
|
||||||
|
</book>
|
||||||
|
|
@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
|
||||||
DOC= mh
|
DOCS= mh.docb
|
||||||
SRCS= mh.sgml
|
INDEXLINK= mh.html
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
.include <bsd.sgml.mk>
|
.include "../../web.mk"
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
|
||||||
704
en_US.ISO_8859-1/articles/mh/article.sgml
Normal file
704
en_US.ISO_8859-1/articles/mh/article.sgml
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,704 @@
|
||||||
|
<!-- $FreeBSD$ -->
|
||||||
|
<!-- FreeBSD Documentation Project -->
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<!DOCTYPE BOOK PUBLIC "-//Davenport//DTD DocBook V3.0//EN">
|
||||||
|
<book>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<bookinfo>
|
||||||
|
<bookbiblio>
|
||||||
|
<title>An MH Primer</title>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<authorgroup>
|
||||||
|
<author>
|
||||||
|
<firstname>Matt</firstname>
|
||||||
|
<surname>Midboe</surname>
|
||||||
|
<affiliation>
|
||||||
|
<address>
|
||||||
|
<email>matt@garply.com</email>
|
||||||
|
</address>
|
||||||
|
</affiliation>
|
||||||
|
</author></authorgroup>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<pubdate>v1.0, 16 January 1996</pubdate>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<abstract><para>This document contains an introduction to using MH on
|
||||||
|
FreeBSD</para></abstract>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
</bookbiblio>
|
||||||
|
</bookinfo>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<chapter id="mhintro">
|
||||||
|
<title>Introduction</title>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>MH started back in 1977 at the RAND Corporation, where the
|
||||||
|
initial philosophies behind MH were developed. MH isn't so much a
|
||||||
|
monolithic email program but a philosophy about how best to develop
|
||||||
|
tools for reading email. The MH developers have done a great job
|
||||||
|
adhering to the <acronym>KISS</> principle: Keep It Simple Stupid.
|
||||||
|
Rather than have one large program for reading, sending and handling
|
||||||
|
email they have written specialized programs for each part of your
|
||||||
|
email life. One might liken MH to the specialization that one finds
|
||||||
|
in insects and nature. Each tool in MH does one thing, and does it
|
||||||
|
very well.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>Beyond just the various tools that one uses to handle their
|
||||||
|
email MH has done an excellent job keeping the configuration of each
|
||||||
|
of these tools consistent and uniform. In fact, if you are not quite
|
||||||
|
sure how something is supposed to work or what the arguments for some
|
||||||
|
command are supposed to be then you can generally guess and be right.
|
||||||
|
Each MH command is consistent about how it handles reading the
|
||||||
|
configuration files and how it takes arguments on the command line.
|
||||||
|
One useful thing to remember is that you can always add a
|
||||||
|
<option>-help</option> to the command to have it display the options
|
||||||
|
for that command.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>The first thing that you need to do is to make sure that you have
|
||||||
|
installed the MH package on your FreeBSD machine. If you installed
|
||||||
|
from CDROM you should be able to execute the following to load mh:
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen># <userinput>pkg_add /cdrom/packages/mh-6.8.3.tgz</></screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample>
|
||||||
|
You will notice that it created a <filename>/usr/local/lib/mh</>
|
||||||
|
directory for you as well as adding several binaries to the
|
||||||
|
<filename>/usr/local/bin</> directory. If you would prefer to compile
|
||||||
|
it yourself then you can anonymous ftp it from <ulink
|
||||||
|
URL="ftp://ftp.ics.uci.edu/">ftp.ics.uci.edu</ulink> or <ulink
|
||||||
|
URL="ftp://louie.udel.edu/">louie.udel.edu</ulink>.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>This primer is not a full comprehensive explanation of how MH
|
||||||
|
works. This is just intended to get you started on the road to
|
||||||
|
happier, faster mail reading. You should read the man pages for the
|
||||||
|
various commands. Also you might want to read the <ulink
|
||||||
|
URL="news:comp.mail.mh">comp.mail.mh</ulink> newsgroup. Also you can
|
||||||
|
read the <ulink
|
||||||
|
URL="http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/mh-faq/part1/faq.html">FAQ
|
||||||
|
for MH</ulink>. The best resource for MH is the O'Reilly and Associates book
|
||||||
|
written by Jerry Peek.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
</chapter>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<chapter>
|
||||||
|
<title>Reading Mail</title>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>This section covers how to use <command>inc</>,
|
||||||
|
<command>show</>, <command>scan</>, <command>next</>,
|
||||||
|
<command>prev</>, <command>rmm</>, <command>rmf</>, and
|
||||||
|
<command>msgchk</>. One of the best things about MH is the
|
||||||
|
consistent interface between programs. A few things to keep in mind
|
||||||
|
when using these commands is how to specify message lists. In the
|
||||||
|
case of <command>inc</> this doesn't really make any sense but with
|
||||||
|
commands like <command>show</> it is useful to know. </para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>A message list can consist of something like <parameter>23 20
|
||||||
|
16</> which will act on messages 23, 20 and 16. This is fairly simple
|
||||||
|
but you can do more useful things like <parameter>23-30</> which will
|
||||||
|
act on all the messages between 23 and 30. You can also specify
|
||||||
|
something like <parameter>cur:10</> which will act on the current
|
||||||
|
message and the next 9 messages. The <parameter>cur</>,
|
||||||
|
<parameter>last</>, and <parameter>first</> messages are special
|
||||||
|
messages that refer to the current, last or first message in the
|
||||||
|
folder.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<sect1 id="inc">
|
||||||
|
<title><command>inc</>, <command>msgchk</>—read in your new email or check it</title>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>If you just type in <userinput>inc</> and hit <keycap>return</>
|
||||||
|
you will be well on your way to getting started with MH. The first
|
||||||
|
time you run <command>inc</> it will setup your account to use all
|
||||||
|
the MH defaults and ask you about creating a Mail directory. If you
|
||||||
|
have mail waiting to be downloaded you will see something that looks
|
||||||
|
like:
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen> 29 01/15 Doug White Re: Another Failed to boot problem<<On Mon, 15 J
|
||||||
|
30 01/16 "Jordan K. Hubbar Re: FBSD 2.1<<> Do you want a library instead of
|
||||||
|
31 01/16 Bruce Evans Re: location of bad144 table<<>> >It would appea
|
||||||
|
32 01/16 "Jordan K. Hubbar Re: video is up<<> Anyway, mrouted won't run, ev
|
||||||
|
33 01/16 Michael Smith Re: FBSD 2.1<<Nate Williams stands accused of sa</screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample>
|
||||||
|
This is the same thing you will see from a <command>scan</> (see
|
||||||
|
<xref linkend="scan">). If you just run <command>inc</> with no
|
||||||
|
arguments it will look on your computer for email that is supposed to
|
||||||
|
be coming to you.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>A lot of people like to use POP for grabbing their email. MH can do
|
||||||
|
POP to grab your email. You will need to give <command>inc</> a few command
|
||||||
|
line arguments.
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>tempest% <userinput>inc -host mail.pop.org -user <replaceable>username</> -norpop</></screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample>
|
||||||
|
That tells <command>inc</> to go to <parameter>mail.pop.org</> to
|
||||||
|
download your email, and that your username on their system is
|
||||||
|
<replaceable>username</>. The <option>-norpop</option> option tells
|
||||||
|
<command>inc</> to use plain POP3 for downloading your email. MH has
|
||||||
|
support for a few different dialects of POP. More than likely you
|
||||||
|
will never ever need to use them though. While you can do more
|
||||||
|
complex things with inc such as audit files and scan format files
|
||||||
|
this will get you going.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>The <command>msgchk</> command is used to get information on
|
||||||
|
whether or not you have new email. <command>msgchk</> takes the same
|
||||||
|
<option>-host</option> and <option>-user</option> options that
|
||||||
|
<command>inc</> takes.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
</sect1>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<sect1 id="show">
|
||||||
|
<title><command>show</>, <command>next</> and <command>prev</>—displaying and moving through email</title>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para><command>show</> is to show a letter in your current folder.
|
||||||
|
Like <command>inc</>, <command>show</> is a fairly straightforward
|
||||||
|
command. If you just type <userinput>show</> and hit <keycap>return</>
|
||||||
|
then it displays the current message. You can also give specific
|
||||||
|
message numbers to show:
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>tempest% <userinput>show 32 45 56</></screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample>
|
||||||
|
This would display message numbers 32, 45 and 56 right after each
|
||||||
|
other. Unless you change the default behavior <command>show</>
|
||||||
|
basically just does a <command>more</> on the email message.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para><command>next</> is used to move onto the next message and
|
||||||
|
<command>prev</> will go to the previous message. Both commands have
|
||||||
|
an implied <command>show</> command so that when you go to the next
|
||||||
|
message it automatically displays it.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
</sect1>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<sect1 id="scan">
|
||||||
|
<title><command>scan</>—shows you a scan of your messages</title>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para><command>scan</> will display a brief listing of the messages
|
||||||
|
in your current folder. This is an example of what the
|
||||||
|
<command>scan</> command will give you.
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen> 30+ 01/16 "Jordan K. Hubbar Re: FBSD 2.1<<> Do you want a library instead of
|
||||||
|
31 01/16 Bruce Evans Re: location of bad144 table<<>> >It would appea
|
||||||
|
32 01/16 "Jordan K. Hubbar Re: video is up<<> Anyway, mrouted won't run, ev
|
||||||
|
33 01/16 Michael Smith Re: FBSD 2.1<<Nate Williams stands accused of sa</screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample>
|
||||||
|
Like just about everything in MH this display is very configurable.
|
||||||
|
This is the typical default display. It gives you the message number,
|
||||||
|
the date on the email, the sender, the subject line, and a sentence
|
||||||
|
fragment from the very beginning of the email if it can fit it. The
|
||||||
|
<literal>+</> means that message is the current message, so if you do
|
||||||
|
a <command>show</> it will display that message.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>One useful option for scan is the <option>-reverse</option>
|
||||||
|
option. This will list your messages with the highest message number
|
||||||
|
first and lowest message number last. Another useful option with
|
||||||
|
<command>scan</> is to have it read from a file. If you want to scan
|
||||||
|
your incoming mailbox on FreeBSD without having to <command>inc</> it
|
||||||
|
you can do <command>scan -file
|
||||||
|
/var/mail/<replaceable>username</></command>. This can be used with
|
||||||
|
any file that is in the <database>mbox</> format.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
</sect1>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<sect1 id="rmm">
|
||||||
|
<title><command>rmm</> and <command>rmf</>—remove the current message or folder</title>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para><command>rmm</> is used to remove a mail message. The default
|
||||||
|
is typically to not actually remove the message but to rename the
|
||||||
|
file to one that is ignored by the MH commands. You will need to
|
||||||
|
through periodically and physically delete the <quote>removed</>
|
||||||
|
messages.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>The <command>rmf</> command is used to remove folders. This
|
||||||
|
doesn't just rename the files but actually removes the from the hard
|
||||||
|
drive so you should be careful when you use this command.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
</sect1>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<sect1 id="samplereading">
|
||||||
|
<title>A typical session of reading with MH</title>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>The first thing that you will want to do is <command>inc</>
|
||||||
|
your new mail. So at a shell prompt just type in <command>inc</> and
|
||||||
|
hit <keycap>return</>.
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>tempest% <userinput>inc</>
|
||||||
|
Incorporating new mail into inbox...
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
36+ 01/19 "Stephen L. Lange Request...<<Please remove me as contact for pind
|
||||||
|
37 01/19 Matt Thomas Re: kern/950: Two PCI bridge chips fail (multipl
|
||||||
|
38 01/19 "Amancio Hasty Jr Re: FreeBSD and VAT<<>>> Bill Fenner said: > In
|
||||||
|
tempest%</screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample>
|
||||||
|
This shows you the new email that has been added to your mailbox. So
|
||||||
|
the next thing to do is <command>show</> the email and move around.
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>tempest% <userinput>show</>
|
||||||
|
Received: by sashimi.wwa.com (Smail3.1.29.1 #2)
|
||||||
|
id m0tdMZ2-001W2UC; Fri, 19 Jan 96 13:33 CST
|
||||||
|
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 1996 13:33:31 -0600 (CST)
|
||||||
|
From: "Stephen L. Lange" <stvlange@wwa.com>
|
||||||
|
To: matt@garply.com
|
||||||
|
Subject: Request...
|
||||||
|
Message-Id: <Pine.BSD.3.91.960119133211.824A-100000@sashimi.wwa.com>
|
||||||
|
Mime-Version: 1.0
|
||||||
|
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Please remove me as contact for pindat.com
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
tempest% <userinput>rmm</>
|
||||||
|
tempest% <userinput>next</>
|
||||||
|
Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by whydos.lkg.dec.com (8.6.11/8
|
||||||
|
.6.9) with SMTP id RAA24416; Fri, 19 Jan 1996 17:56:48 GMT
|
||||||
|
Message-Id: <199601191756.RAA24416@whydos.lkg.dec.com>
|
||||||
|
X-Authentication-Warning: whydos.lkg.dec.com: Host localhost didn't use HELO pro
|
||||||
|
tocol
|
||||||
|
To: hsu@clinet.fi
|
||||||
|
Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.org
|
||||||
|
Subject: Re: kern/950: Two PCI bridge chips fail (multiple multiport ethernet
|
||||||
|
boards)
|
||||||
|
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 19 Jan 1996 00:18:36 +0100."
|
||||||
|
<199601182318.AA11772@Sysiphos>
|
||||||
|
X-Mailer: exmh version 1.5omega 10/6/94
|
||||||
|
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 1996 17:56:40 +0000
|
||||||
|
From: Matt Thomas <matt@lkg.dec.com>
|
||||||
|
Sender: owner-hackers@FreeBSD.org
|
||||||
|
Precedence: bulk
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
This is due to a typo in pcireg.h (to
|
||||||
|
which I am probably the guilty party).</screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample></para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>The <command>rmm</> removed the current message and the
|
||||||
|
<command>next</> command moved me on to the next message.
|
||||||
|
Now if I wanted to look at ten most recent messages so I could read
|
||||||
|
one of them here is what I would do:
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>tempest% <userinput>scan last:10</>
|
||||||
|
26 01/16 maddy Re: Testing some stuff<<yeah, well, Trinity has
|
||||||
|
27 01/17 Automatic digest NET-HAPPENINGS Digest - 16 Jan 1996 to 17 Jan 19
|
||||||
|
28 01/17 Evans A Criswell Re: Hey dude<<>From matt@tempest.garply.com Tue
|
||||||
|
29 01/16 Karl Heuer need configure/make volunteers<<The FSF is looki
|
||||||
|
30 01/18 Paul Stephanouk Re: [alt.religion.scientology] Raw Meat (humor)<
|
||||||
|
31 01/18 Bill Lenherr Re: Linux NIS Solaris<<--- On Thu, 18 Jan 1996 1
|
||||||
|
34 01/19 John Fieber Re: Stuff for the email section?<<On Fri, 19 Jan
|
||||||
|
35 01/19 support@foo.garpl [garply.com #1138] parlor<<Hello. This is the Ne
|
||||||
|
37+ 01/19 Matt Thomas Re: kern/950: Two PCI bridge chips fail (multipl
|
||||||
|
38 01/19 "Amancio Hasty Jr Re: FreeBSD and VAT<<>>> Bill Fenner said: > In
|
||||||
|
tempest%</screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample>
|
||||||
|
Then if I wanted to read message number 27 I would do a
|
||||||
|
<userinput>show 27</> and it would be displayed. As you can probably
|
||||||
|
tell from this sample session MH is pretty easy to use and looking
|
||||||
|
through emails and displaying them is fairly intuitive and easy.
|
||||||
|
</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
</sect1>
|
||||||
|
</chapter>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<chapter>
|
||||||
|
<title>Folders and Mail Searching</title>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>Anybody who gets lots of email definitely wants to be able to
|
||||||
|
prioritize, stamp, brief, de-brief, and number their emails in a
|
||||||
|
variety of different ways. MH can do this better than just about
|
||||||
|
anything. One thing that we haven't really talked about is the
|
||||||
|
concept of folders. You have undoubtedly come across the folders
|
||||||
|
concept using other email programs. MH has folders too. MH can even
|
||||||
|
do sub-folders of a folder. One thing you should keep in mind with MH
|
||||||
|
is that when you ran <command>inc</> for the first time and it asked
|
||||||
|
you if it could create a <filename>Mail</> directory it began storing
|
||||||
|
everything in that directory. If you look at that directory you will
|
||||||
|
find a directory named <filename>inbox</>. The <filename>inbox</>
|
||||||
|
directory houses all of your incoming mail that hasn't been thrown
|
||||||
|
anywhere else.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>Whenever you create a new folder a new directory is going to be
|
||||||
|
created underneath your MH <filename>Mail</> directory, and messages
|
||||||
|
in that folder are going to be stored in that directory. When new
|
||||||
|
email comes in that new email is thrown into your <filename>inbox</>
|
||||||
|
directory with a file name that is equivalent to the message number.
|
||||||
|
So even if you didn't have any of the MH tools to read your email you
|
||||||
|
could still use standard UNIX commands to munge around in those
|
||||||
|
directories and just more your files. It's this simplicity that
|
||||||
|
really gives you a lot of power with what you can do with your
|
||||||
|
email.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>Just as you can use message lists like <parameter>23 16 42</>
|
||||||
|
with most MH commands there is a folder option you can specify with
|
||||||
|
just about every MH command. If you do a <command>scan +freebsd</> it
|
||||||
|
will scan your <filename>freebsd</> folder, and your current folder
|
||||||
|
will be changed to <filename>freebsd</>. If you do a <command>show
|
||||||
|
+freebsd 23 16 42</>, <command>show</> is going to switch to your
|
||||||
|
<filename>freebsd</> folder and display messages 23, 16 and 42. So
|
||||||
|
remember that <option>+<replaceable>folder</></> syntax. You will
|
||||||
|
need to make sure you use it to make commands process different
|
||||||
|
folders. Remember you default folder for mail is <filename>inbox</>
|
||||||
|
so doing a <command>folder +inbox</> should always get you back to
|
||||||
|
your mail. Of course, in MH's infinite flexibility this can be
|
||||||
|
changed but most places have probably left it as
|
||||||
|
<command>inbox</>.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<sect1>
|
||||||
|
<title><command>pick</>—search email that matches certain criteria</title>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para><command>pick</> is one of the more complex commands in the MH
|
||||||
|
system. So you might want to read the
|
||||||
|
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>pick</><manvolnum>1</></> man page for a
|
||||||
|
more thorough understanding. At its simplest level you can do
|
||||||
|
something like
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>tempest% <userinput>pick -search pci</>
|
||||||
|
15
|
||||||
|
42
|
||||||
|
55
|
||||||
|
56
|
||||||
|
57</screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
This will tell <command>pick</> to look through every single line in
|
||||||
|
every message in your current folder and tell you which message
|
||||||
|
numbers it found the word <literal>pci</> in. You can then
|
||||||
|
<command>show</> those messages and read them if you wish or
|
||||||
|
<command>rmm</> them. You would have to specify something like
|
||||||
|
<command>show 15 42 55-57</> to display them though. A slightly more
|
||||||
|
useful thing to do is this:
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>tempest% <userinput>pick -search pci -seq pick</>
|
||||||
|
5 hits
|
||||||
|
tempest% <userinput>show pick</></screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample>
|
||||||
|
This will show you the same messages you just didn't have to work as
|
||||||
|
hard to do it. The <option>-seq</option> option is really an
|
||||||
|
abbreviation of <option>-sequence</option> and <command>pick</> is
|
||||||
|
just a sequence which contains the message numbers that matched. You
|
||||||
|
can use sequences with just about any MH command. So you could have
|
||||||
|
done an <command>rmm pick</> and all those messages would be removed
|
||||||
|
instead. You sequence can be named anything. If you run pick again it
|
||||||
|
will overwrite the old sequence if you use the same name.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>Doing a <command>pick -search</command> can be a bit more time
|
||||||
|
consuming than just searching for message from someone, or to
|
||||||
|
someone. So <command>pick</> allows you to use the following
|
||||||
|
predefined search criteria:
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<variablelist>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<varlistentry>
|
||||||
|
<term><option>-to</option></term>
|
||||||
|
<listitem>
|
||||||
|
<para>search based upon who the message is to</para>
|
||||||
|
</listitem>
|
||||||
|
</varlistentry>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<varlistentry>
|
||||||
|
<term><option>-cc</option></term>
|
||||||
|
<listitem>
|
||||||
|
<para>search based on who is in the cc list</para>
|
||||||
|
</listitem>
|
||||||
|
</varlistentry>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<varlistentry>
|
||||||
|
<term><option>-from</option></term>
|
||||||
|
<listitem>
|
||||||
|
<para>search for who sent the message</para>
|
||||||
|
</listitem>
|
||||||
|
</varlistentry>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<varlistentry>
|
||||||
|
<term><option>-subject</option></term>
|
||||||
|
<listitem>
|
||||||
|
<para>search for emails with this subject</para>
|
||||||
|
</listitem>
|
||||||
|
</varlistentry>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<varlistentry>
|
||||||
|
<term><option>-date</option></term>
|
||||||
|
<listitem>
|
||||||
|
<para>find emails with a matching dat</para>
|
||||||
|
</listitem>
|
||||||
|
</varlistentry>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<varlistentry>
|
||||||
|
<term><option>--<replaceable>component</replaceable></option></term>
|
||||||
|
<listitem>
|
||||||
|
<para>search for any other component in the header. (i.e.
|
||||||
|
<option>--reply-to</> to find all emails with a certain reply-to in
|
||||||
|
the header)</para>
|
||||||
|
</listitem>
|
||||||
|
</varlistentry>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
</variablelist></para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>This allows you to do things like
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>tempest% <userinput>pick -to freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org -seq hackers</></screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample>
|
||||||
|
to get a list of all the email send to the FreeBSD hackers mailing
|
||||||
|
list. <command>pick</> also allows you to group these criteria in
|
||||||
|
different ways using the following options:
|
||||||
|
<itemizedlist>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<listitem>
|
||||||
|
<para>… <option>-and</option> …</para>
|
||||||
|
</listitem>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<listitem>
|
||||||
|
<para>… <option>-or</option> &hellip</para>
|
||||||
|
</listitem>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<listitem>
|
||||||
|
<para><option>-not</option> …</para>
|
||||||
|
</listitem>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<listitem>
|
||||||
|
<para><option>-lbrace</option> … <option>-rbrace</option></para>
|
||||||
|
</listitem>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
</itemizedlist>
|
||||||
|
These commands allow you to do things like
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>tempest% <userinput>pick -to freebsd-hackers -and -cc freebsd-hackers</></screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample>
|
||||||
|
That will grab all the email in your inbox that was sent to
|
||||||
|
freebsd-hackers or cc'd to that list. The brace options allow you to
|
||||||
|
group search criteria together. This is sometimes very necessary as
|
||||||
|
in the following example
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>tempest% <userinput>pick -lbrace -to freebsd-hackers -and
|
||||||
|
-not -cc freebsd-questions -rbrace -and -subject pci</></screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample></para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>Basically this says <quote>pick (to freebsd-hackers and not cc'd on
|
||||||
|
freebsd-questions) and the subject is pci</quote>. It should look through your
|
||||||
|
folder and find all messages sent to the freebsd-hackers list that
|
||||||
|
aren't cc'd to the freebsd-questions list that contain something on
|
||||||
|
pci in the subject line. Ordinarily you might have to worry about
|
||||||
|
something called operator precedence. Remember in math how you
|
||||||
|
evaluate from left to right and you do multiplication and division
|
||||||
|
first and addition and subtraction second? MH has the same type of
|
||||||
|
rules for <command>pick</>. It's fairly complex so you might want to study
|
||||||
|
the man page. This document is just to help you get acquainted with
|
||||||
|
MH.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
</sect1>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<sect1>
|
||||||
|
<title><command>folder</>, <command>folders</>, <command>refile</>—three useful programs for folder maintenance</title>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>There are three programs which are primarily just for
|
||||||
|
manipulating your folders. The <command>folder</> program is used to
|
||||||
|
switch between folders, pack them, and list them. At its simplest
|
||||||
|
level you can do a <command>folder +<replaceable>newfolder</></> and
|
||||||
|
you will be switched into <replaceable>newfolder</>. From there on
|
||||||
|
out all your MH commands like <command>comp</>, <command>repl</>,
|
||||||
|
<command>scan</>, and <command>show</> will act on that
|
||||||
|
<command>newfolder</> folder.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>Sometimes when you are reading and deleting messages you will
|
||||||
|
develop <quote>holes</> in your folders. If you do a <command>scan</>
|
||||||
|
you might just see messages 34, 35, 36, 43, 55, 56, 57, 80. If you do
|
||||||
|
a <command>folder -pack</command> this will renumber all your
|
||||||
|
messages so that there are no holes. It doesn't actually delete any
|
||||||
|
messages though. So you may need to periodically go through and
|
||||||
|
physically delete <command>rmm</>'d messages.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>If you need statistics on your folders you can do a
|
||||||
|
<command>folders</> or <command>folder -all</command> to list all
|
||||||
|
your folders, how many messages they have, what the current message
|
||||||
|
is in each one and so on. This line of stats it displays for all your
|
||||||
|
folders is the same one you get when you change to a folder with
|
||||||
|
<command>folder +foldername</>. A <command>folders</> command looks
|
||||||
|
like this:
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen> Folder # of messages ( range ); cur msg (other files)
|
||||||
|
announce has 1 message ( 1- 1).
|
||||||
|
drafts has no messages.
|
||||||
|
f-hackers has 43 messages ( 1- 43).
|
||||||
|
f-questions has 16 messages ( 1- 16).
|
||||||
|
inbox+ has 35 messages ( 1- 38); cur= 37.
|
||||||
|
lists has 8 messages ( 1- 8).
|
||||||
|
netfuture has 1 message ( 1- 1).
|
||||||
|
out has 31 messages ( 1- 31).
|
||||||
|
personal has 6 messages ( 1- 6).
|
||||||
|
todo has 58 messages ( 1- 58); cur= 1.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
TOTAL= 199 messages in 13 folders.
|
||||||
|
</screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample></para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>The <command>refile</> command is what you use to move messages
|
||||||
|
between folders. When you do something like <command>refile 23
|
||||||
|
+netfuture</> message number 23 is moved into the
|
||||||
|
<filename>netfuture</> folder. You could also do something like
|
||||||
|
<command>refile 23 +netfuture/latest</> which would put message
|
||||||
|
number 23 in a subfolder called <filename>latest</> under the
|
||||||
|
<filename>netfuture</> folder. If you want to keep a message in the
|
||||||
|
current folder and link it you can do a <command>refile -link 23
|
||||||
|
+netfuture</command> which would keep 23 in your current
|
||||||
|
<filename>inbox</> but also list in your <filename>netfuture</>
|
||||||
|
folder. You are probably beginning to realize some of the really
|
||||||
|
powerful things you can do with MH.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
</sect1>
|
||||||
|
</chapter>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<chapter>
|
||||||
|
<title>Sending Mail</title>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>Email is a two way street for most people so you want to be
|
||||||
|
able to send something back. The way MH handles sending mail can be a
|
||||||
|
bit difficult to follow at first, but it allows for incredible
|
||||||
|
flexibility. The first thing MH does is to copy a components file
|
||||||
|
into your outgoing email. A components file is basically a skeleton
|
||||||
|
email letter with stuff like the To: and Subject: headers already in
|
||||||
|
it. You are then sent into your editor where you fill in the header
|
||||||
|
information and then type the body of your message below the dashed
|
||||||
|
lines in the message. Then to the <command>whatnow</> program. When
|
||||||
|
you are at the <prompt>What now?</prompt> prompt you can tell it to
|
||||||
|
<command>send</>, <command>list</>, <command>edit</>,
|
||||||
|
<command>edit</>, <command>push</>, and <command>quit</>. Most of
|
||||||
|
these commands are self-explanatory. So the message sending process
|
||||||
|
involves copying a component file, editing your email, and then
|
||||||
|
telling the <command>whatnow</> program what to do with your
|
||||||
|
email.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<sect1>
|
||||||
|
<title><command>comp</>, <command>forw</>, <command>reply</>—compose, forward or reply to a message to someone</title>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>The <command>comp</> program has a few useful command line
|
||||||
|
options. The most important one to know right now is the
|
||||||
|
<option>-editor</option> option. When MH is installed the default
|
||||||
|
editor is usually a program called <command>prompter</> which comes
|
||||||
|
with MH. It's not a very exciting editor and basically just gets the
|
||||||
|
job done. So when you go to compose a message to someone you might
|
||||||
|
want to use <command>comp -editor /usr/bin/vi/</> or <command>comp
|
||||||
|
-editor /usr/local/bin/pico/</> instead. Once you have run
|
||||||
|
<emphasis>comp</emphasis> you are in your editor and you see
|
||||||
|
something that looks like this:
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>To:
|
||||||
|
cc:
|
||||||
|
Subject:
|
||||||
|
--------
|
||||||
|
</screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample></para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>You need to put the person you are sending the mail to after the
|
||||||
|
<literal>To:</> line. It works the same way for the other headers
|
||||||
|
also, so you would need to put your subject after the
|
||||||
|
<literal>Subject:</> line. Then you would just put the body of your
|
||||||
|
message after the dashed lines. It may seem a bit simplistic since a
|
||||||
|
lot of email programs have special requesters that ask you for this
|
||||||
|
information but there really isn't any point to that. Plus this
|
||||||
|
really gives you excellent flexibility.
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>To:<userinput>freebsd-rave@freebsd.org</>
|
||||||
|
cc:
|
||||||
|
Subject:<userinput>And on the 8th day God created the FreeBSD core team</>
|
||||||
|
--------
|
||||||
|
<userinput>Wow this is an amazing operating system. Thanks!</></screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample>
|
||||||
|
You can now save this message and exit your editor. You will see the
|
||||||
|
<prompt>What now?</> prompt and you can type in
|
||||||
|
<userinput>send</> or <userinput>s</> and hit
|
||||||
|
<keycap>return</>. Then the freebsd core team will receive their just
|
||||||
|
rewards. As I mentioned earlier you can also use other commands, for
|
||||||
|
example <command>quit</> if you don't want to send the
|
||||||
|
message.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>The <command>forw</> command is stunningly similar. The big
|
||||||
|
difference being that the message you are forwarding is automatically
|
||||||
|
included in the outgoing message. When you run <command>forw</> it
|
||||||
|
will forward your current message. You can always tell it to forward
|
||||||
|
something else by doing something like <command>forw 23</> and then
|
||||||
|
message number 23 will be put in your outgoing message instead of the
|
||||||
|
current message. Beyond those small differences <command>forw</>
|
||||||
|
functions exactly the same as <command>comp</>. You go through the
|
||||||
|
exact same message sending process.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>The <command>repl</> command will reply to whatever your
|
||||||
|
current message is, unless you give it a different message to reply
|
||||||
|
to. <command>repl</> will do its best to go ahead and fill in some of
|
||||||
|
the email headers already. So you will notice that the
|
||||||
|
<literal>To:</> header already has the address of the recipient in
|
||||||
|
there. Also the <literal>Subject:</> line will already be filled in.
|
||||||
|
You then go about the normal message composition process and you are
|
||||||
|
done. One useful command line option to know here is the
|
||||||
|
<option>-cc</option> option. You can use <parameter>all</>,
|
||||||
|
<parameter>to</>, <parameter>cc</>, <parameter>me</> after the
|
||||||
|
<option>-cc</option> option to have <command>repl</> automatically
|
||||||
|
add the various addresses to the cc list in the message. You have
|
||||||
|
probably noticed that the original message isn't included. This is
|
||||||
|
because most MH setups are configured to do this from the
|
||||||
|
start.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
</sect1>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<sect1>
|
||||||
|
<title><filename>components</>, and <filename>replcomps</>—components files for <command>comp</> and <command>repl</></title>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>The <filename>components</> file is usually in
|
||||||
|
<filename>/usr/local/lib/mh</filename>. You can copy that file into
|
||||||
|
your MH Mail directory and edit to contain what you want it to
|
||||||
|
contain. It is a fairly basic file. You have various email headers at
|
||||||
|
the top, a dashed line and then nothing. The
|
||||||
|
<command>comp</command> command just copies this
|
||||||
|
<filename>components</> file and then edits it. You can add any
|
||||||
|
kind of valid RFC822 header you want. For instance you could have
|
||||||
|
something like this in your <filename>components</> file:
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>To:
|
||||||
|
Fcc: out
|
||||||
|
Subject:
|
||||||
|
X-Mailer: MH 6.8.3
|
||||||
|
X-Home-Page: http://www.freebsd.org/
|
||||||
|
-------</screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
MH would then copy this components file and throw you into your
|
||||||
|
editor. The <filename>components</> file is fairly simple. If you
|
||||||
|
wanted to have a signature on those messages you would just put your
|
||||||
|
signature in that <filename>components</> file.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>The <filename>replcomps</> file is a bit more complex. The default
|
||||||
|
<filename>replcomps</> looks like this:
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>%(lit)%(formataddr %<{reply-to}%?{from}%?{sender}%?{return-path}%>)\
|
||||||
|
%<(nonnull)%(void(width))%(putaddr To: )\n%>\
|
||||||
|
%(lit)%(formataddr{to})%(formataddr{cc})%(formataddr(me))\
|
||||||
|
%<(nonnull)%(void(width))%(putaddr cc: )\n%>\
|
||||||
|
%<{fcc}Fcc: %{fcc}\n%>\
|
||||||
|
%<{subject}Subject: Re: %{subject}\n%>\
|
||||||
|
%<{date}In-reply-to: Your message of "\
|
||||||
|
%<(nodate{date})%{date}%|%(pretty{date})%>."%<{message-id}
|
||||||
|
%{message-id}%>\n%>\
|
||||||
|
--------
|
||||||
|
</screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample></para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>It's in the same basic format as the <filename>components</> file but
|
||||||
|
it contains quite a few extra formatting codes. The
|
||||||
|
<literal>%(lit)</> command makes room for the address. The
|
||||||
|
<literal>%(formataddr</> is a function that returns a proper email
|
||||||
|
address. The next part is <literal>%<</literal> which means if and
|
||||||
|
the <literal>{reply-to}</> means the reply-to field in the original
|
||||||
|
message. So that might be translated this way:
|
||||||
|
<informalexample>
|
||||||
|
<screen>%<<emphasis remap=bf>if</emphasis> {reply-to} <emphasis remap=bf>the original message has a reply-to</emphasis>
|
||||||
|
then give that to formataddr, %? <emphasis remap=bf>else</emphasis> {from} <emphasis remap=bf>take the
|
||||||
|
from address</emphasis>, %? <emphasis remap=bf>else</emphasis> {sender} <emphasis remap=bf>take the sender address</emphasis>, %?
|
||||||
|
<emphasis remap=bf>else</emphasis> {return-path} <emphasis remap=bf>take the return-path from the original
|
||||||
|
message</emphasis>, %> <emphasis remap=bf>endif</emphasis>.</screen>
|
||||||
|
</informalexample></para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
<para>As you can tell MH formatting can get rather involved. You can
|
||||||
|
probably decipher what most of the other functions and variables
|
||||||
|
mean. All of the information on writing these format strings is in the
|
||||||
|
MH-Format man page. The really nice thing is that once you have built
|
||||||
|
your customized <filename>replcomps</> file you won't need to touch it
|
||||||
|
again. No other email program really gives you the power and
|
||||||
|
flexibility that MH gives you.</para>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
</sect1>
|
||||||
|
</chapter>
|
||||||
|
</book>
|
||||||
|
|
@ -2,7 +2,6 @@
|
||||||
<a href="../../"><img src="../../gifs/home.gif" alt="FreeBSD Home Page"
|
<a href="../../"><img src="../../gifs/home.gif" alt="FreeBSD Home Page"
|
||||||
border="0" align="right"></a>
|
border="0" align="right"></a>
|
||||||
<address>
|
<address>
|
||||||
<a href="../../mailto.html">www@freebsd.org</a><br>
|
<a href="../../mailto.html">www@freebsd.org</a>
|
||||||
@@UPDATE@@
|
|
||||||
</address>
|
</address>
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
|
||||||
|
|
@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
|
||||||
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN" [
|
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN" [
|
||||||
<!ENTITY base CDATA "..">
|
<!ENTITY base CDATA "..">
|
||||||
<!ENTITY date "$Date: 1997-01-19 15:29:57 $">
|
<!ENTITY date "$Date: 1997-01-19 21:30:13 $">
|
||||||
<!ENTITY title "FreeBSD Tutorials">
|
<!ENTITY title "FreeBSD Tutorials">
|
||||||
<!ENTITY % includes SYSTEM "../includes.sgml"> %includes;
|
<!ENTITY % includes SYSTEM "../includes.sgml"> %includes;
|
||||||
]>
|
]>
|
||||||
|
|
@ -15,9 +15,8 @@
|
||||||
<ul>
|
<ul>
|
||||||
<li><a href="newuser/newuser.html">For People New to Both FreeBSD
|
<li><a href="newuser/newuser.html">For People New to Both FreeBSD
|
||||||
<em>and</em> Unix</a></li>
|
<em>and</em> Unix</a></li>
|
||||||
<li><a href="mh/mh.html">An introduction to the MH mail software</a>
|
|
||||||
(<a href="mh/mh.ps">postscript</a>,
|
<li><a href="mh/mh.html">An introduction to the MH mail software</a></li>
|
||||||
<a href="mh/mh-html.tar.gz">gzipd tar file</a>)</li>
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
<li><a href="devel/devel.html">A User's Guide to FreeBSD Programming
|
<li><a href="devel/devel.html">A User's Guide to FreeBSD Programming
|
||||||
Tools</a></li>
|
Tools</a></li>
|
||||||
|
|
|
||||||
Loading…
Reference in a new issue