573 lines
27 KiB
Text
573 lines
27 KiB
Text
<!-- $Id: mh.sgml,v 1.3 1996-12-28 23:36:53 mpp Exp $ -->
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<!--
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From matt@garply.com Wed May 22 08:25:18 1996
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Date: Tue, 23 Jan 1996 11:02:50 -0600
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From: Matt Midboe <matt@garply.com>
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To: jfieber@freebsd.org
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Subject: Introduction to MH for FreeBSD Handbook
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Okay I've diverged from my original plan on the handbook and condensed it a
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bit. If I find some time I am going to start working on something about how
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to use sendmail, since I imagine that would be a bit more useful. Here is my
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guide to using mh on freebsd. Let me know what changes it might need or
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things that need to be clearer or shorter.
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-->
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<!DOCTYPE linuxdoc PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//DTD linuxdoc//EN">
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<!-- This document explains some about the MUA MH -->
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<article>
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<title>An MH Primer
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<author>Matt Midboe, <url url="mailto:matt@garply.com"
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name="matt@garply.com">
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<date>v1.0, 16 January 1996
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<abstract>This document contains an introduction to using MH on
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FreeBSD</abstract>
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<toc>
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<sect>Introduction<label id="mhintro">
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<p>
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<!-- This section is here to explain the philosophy behind MH Also
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make sure that the user has installed the mh package -->
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MH started back in 1977 at the RAND Corporation, where the initial
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philosophies behind MH were developed. MH isn't so much a monolithic
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email program but a philosophy about how best to develop tools for
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reading email. The MH developers have done a great job adhering to the
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KISS principle: Keep It Simple Stupid. Rather than have one large
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program for reading, sending and handling email they have written
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specialized programs for each part of your email life. One might liken
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MH to the specialization that one finds in insects and nature. Each
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tool in MH does one thing, and does it very well.
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Beyond just the various tools that one uses to handle their email MH
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has done an excellent job keeping the configuration of each of these
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tools consistent and uniform. In fact, if you are not quite sure how
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something is supposed to work or what the arguments for some command
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are supposed to be then you can generally guess and be right. Each MH
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command is consistent about how it handles reading the configuration
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files and how it takes arguments on the command line. One useful thing
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to remember is that you can always add a <tt/-help/ to the command to
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have it display the options for that command.
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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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<tscreen><verb>
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pkg_add /cdrom/packages/mh-6.8.3.tgz
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</verb></tscreen>
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You will notice that it created a /usr/local/lib/mh directory for you
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as well as adding several binaries to the /usr/local/bin directory. If
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you would prefer to compile it yourself then you can anonymous ftp it
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from <url url="ftp://ftp.ics.uci.edu/" name="ftp.ics.uci.edu"> or <url
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url="ftp://louie.udel.edu/" name="louie.udel.edu">.
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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 <url
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url="news:comp.mail.mh" name="comp.mail.mh"> newsgroup. Also you can
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read the <url
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url="http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/mh-faq/part1/faq.html"
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name="FAQ"> for MH. The best resource for MH is the O'Reilly and
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Associates book written by Jerry Peek.
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<sect>Reading Mail
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<p>
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<!-- This section covers how to use inc, msgchk, next, prev, rmm, and rmf -->
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This section covers how to use <tt/inc/, <tt/show/, <tt/scan/,
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<tt/next/, <tt/prev/, <tt/rmm/, <tt/rmf/, and <tt/msgchk/.
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One of the best things about MH is the consistent interface between
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programs. A few things to keep in mind when using these commands is
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how to specify message lists. In the case of <em/inc/ this doesn't
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really make any sense but with commands like <em/show/ it is useful to
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know.
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A message list can consist of something like <tt/23 20 16/ which will
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act on messages 23, 20 and 16. This is fairly simple but you can do
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more useful things like <tt/23-30/ which will act on all the messages
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between 23 and 30. You can also specify something like <tt/cur:10/
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which will act on the current message and the next 9 messages. The
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<tt/cur/, <tt/last/, and <tt/first/ messages are special messages that
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refer to the current, last or first message in the folder.
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<sect1><heading>inc, msgchk - read in your new email or check it<label id="inc"></>
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<p>
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If you just type in <em>inc</em> and hit return you will be well on your
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way to getting started with MH. The first time you run <em>inc</em> it
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will setup your account to use all the MH defaults and ask you about
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creating a Mail directory. If you have mail waiting to be downloaded
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you will see something that looks like:
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<tscreen><verb>
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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
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</verb></tscreen>
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This is the same thing you will see from a ``<ref id="scan">''. If you
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just run <em>inc</em> with no arguments it will look on your computer for email
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that is supposed to be coming to you.
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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 <em>inc</em> a few command
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line arguments.
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<tscreen><verb>
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inc -host mail.pop.org -user username -norpop
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</verb></tscreen>
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That tells <em>inc</> to go to <bf/mail.pop.org/ to download your
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email, and that your username on their system is <bf/username/. The
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<tt>-norpop</tt> option tells <em>inc</em> to use plain POP3 for
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downloading your email. MH has support for a few different dialects of
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POP. More than likely you will never ever need to use them
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though. While you can do more complex things with inc such as audit
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files and scan format files this will get you going.
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The <em/msgchk/ command is used to get information on whether or not
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you have new email. <em/msgchk/ takes the same <tt/-host/ and
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<tt/-user/ options that <em/inc/ takes.
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<sect1><heading>show, next and prev - displaying and moving through emails
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<label id="show"></>
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<p>
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<em/show/ is to show a letter in your current folder. Like inc,
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<em/show/ is a fairly straightforward command. If you just type
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<em/show/ and hit return then it displays the current message. You can
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also give specific message numbers to show:
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<tscreen><verb>
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show 32 45 56
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</verb></tscreen>
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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 <em/show/ basically just
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does a more on the email message.
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<em/next/ is used to move onto the next message and <em/prev/ will go
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to the previous message. Both commands have an implied <em/show/
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command so that when you go to the next message it automatically
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displays it.
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<sect1><heading>scan - shows you a scan of your messages<label id="scan"></>
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<p>
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<em/scan/ will display a brief listing of the messages in your current
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folder. This is an example of what the <em/scan/ command will give you.
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<tscreen><verb>
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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
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</verb></tscreen>
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Like just about everything in MH this display is very
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configurable. This is the typical default display. It gives you the
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message number, the date on the email, the sender, the subject line,
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and a sentence fragment from the very beginning of the email if it can
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fit it. The + means that message is the current message, so if you do
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a <em/show/ it will display that message.
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One useful option for scan is the <tt/-reverse/ option. This will list
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your messages with the highest message number first and lowest message
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number last. Another useful option with <em/scan/ is to have it
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read from a file. If you want to scan your incoming mailbox on FreeBSD
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without having to <em/inc/ it you can do <tt>scan -file
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/var/mail/username</tt>. This can be used with any file that is in the
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<bf/mbox/ format.
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<sect1><heading>rmm and rmf - remove the current message or folder
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<label id="rmm"></>
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<p>
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<em/rmm/ is used to remove a mail message. The default is typically to
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not actually remove the message but to rename the file to one that is
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ignored by the MH commands. You will need to through periodically and
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physically delete the "removed" messages.
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The <em/rmf/ command is used to remove folders. This doesn't just
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rename the files but actually removes the from the hard drive so you
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should be careful when you use this command.
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<sect1><heading>A typical session of reading with MH<label id="samplereading"></>
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<p>
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The first thing that you will want to do is <em/inc/ your new mail. So
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at a shell prompt just type in <em/inc/ and hit return.
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<tscreen><verb>
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tempest% 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%
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</verb></tscreen>
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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 <em/show/ the email and move around.
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<tscreen><verb>
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tempest% 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% rmm
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tempest% 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).
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</verb></tscreen>
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The <em/rmm/ removed the current message and the <em/next/ command
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moved me on to the next message. Now if I wanted to look at ten most
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recent messages so I could read one of them here is what I would do:
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<tscreen><verb>
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tempest% 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)<
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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
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35 01/19 support@foo.garpl [garply.com #1138] parlor<<Hello. This is the Ne
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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%
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</verb></tscreen>
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Then if I wanted to read message number 27 I would do a <tt/show 27/
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and it would be displayed. As you can probably tell from this sample
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session MH is pretty easy to use and looking through emails and
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displaying them is fairly intuitive and easy.
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<sect>Folders and Mail Searching
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<p>
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Anybody who gets lots of email definitely wants to be able to
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prioritize, stamp, brief, de-brief, and number their emails in a
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variety of different ways. MH can do this better than just about
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anything. One thing that we haven't really talked about is the concept
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of folders. You have undoubtedly come across the folders concept using
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other email programs. MH has folders too. MH can even do sub-folders
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of a folder. One thing you should keep in mind with MH is that when
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you ran <em/inc/ for the first time and it asked you if it could
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create a Mail directory it began storing everything in that
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directory. If you look at that directory you will find a directory
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named <bf/inbox/. The <bf/inbox/ directory houses all of your incoming
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mail that hasn't been thrown anywhere else.
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Whenever you create a new folder a new directory is going to be
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created underneath your MH Mail directory, and messages in that folder
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are going to be stored in that directory. When new email comes in that
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new email is thrown into your inbox directory with a file name that is
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equivalent to the message number. So even if you didn't have any of
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the MH tools to read your email you could still use standard UNIX
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commands to munge around in those directories and just more your
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files. It's this simplicity that really gives you a lot of power with
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what you can do with your email.
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Just as you can use message lists like <tt/23 16 42/ with most MH
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commands there is a folder option you can specify with just about
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every MH command. If you do a <tt/scan +freebsd/ it will scan your
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freebsd folder, and your current folder will be changed to freebsd. If
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you do a <tt/show +freebsd 23 16 42/ <em/show/ is going to switch to
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your freebsd folder and display messages 23, 16 and 42. So remember
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that +folder syntax. You will need to make sure you use it to make
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commands process different folders. Remember you default folder for
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mail is inbox so doing a <tt/folder +inbox/ should always get you back
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to your mail. Of course, in MH's infinite flexibility this can be
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changed but most places have probably left it as inbox.
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<!-- This section covers how to use pick, folder{s}, and slocal
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This needs to cover the general +folder format and an overview on the
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directory structure here. -->
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<sect1>pick - search email that matches certain criteria
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<p>
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<em/pick/ is one of the more complex commands in the MH system. So you
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might want to read the pick man page for a more thorough
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understanding. At its simplest level you can do something like
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<tscreen><verb>
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tempest% pick -search pci
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15
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42
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55
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56
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57
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</verb></tscreen>
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This will tell <em/pick/ to look through every single line in every
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message in your current folder and tell you which message numbers it
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found the word pci in. You can then <em/show/ those messages and read
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them if you wish or <em/rmm/ them. You would have to specify something
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like <tt/show 15 42 55-57/ to display them though. A slightly more
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useful thing to do is this:
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<tscreen><verb>
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tempest% pick -search pci -seq pick
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5 hits
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tempest% show pick
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</verb></tscreen>
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This will show you the same messages you just didn't have to work as
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hard to do it. The <tt/-seq/ option is really an abbreviation of
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<tt/-sequence/ and <bf/pick/ is just a sequence which contains the
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message numbers that matched. You can use sequences with just about
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any MH command. So you could have done an <tt/rmm pick/ and all those
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messages would be removed instead. You sequence can be named
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anything. If you run pick again it will overwrite the old sequence if
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you use the same name.
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Doing a <tt/pick -search/ can be a bit more time consuming than just
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searching for message from someone, or to someone. So <em/pick/ allows
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you to use the following predefined search criteria:
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<itemize>
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<item><tt/-to/ search based upon who the message is to
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<item><tt/-cc/ search based on who is in the cc list
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<item><tt/-from/ search for who sent the message
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<item><tt/-subject/ search for emails with this subject
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<item><tt/-date/ find emails with a matching dat
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<item><tt>--<em>component</em></tt> search for any other component in
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the header. (i.e. --reply-to to find all emails with a certain
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reply-to in the header)
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</itemize>
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This allows you to do things like
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<tscreen><verb>
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pick -to freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org -seq hackers
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</verb></tscreen>
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to get a list of all the email send to the FreeBSD hackers mailing
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list. <em/pick/ also allows you to group these criteria in different
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ways using the following options:
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<itemize>
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<item>... <tt/-and/ ...
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<item>... <tt/-or/ ...
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<item><tt/-not/ ...
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<item><tt/-lbrace/ ... <tt/-rbrace/
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</itemize>
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These commands allow you to do things like
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<tscreen><verb>
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pick -to freebsd-hackers -and -cc freebsd-hackers
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</verb></tscreen>
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That will grab all the email in your inbox that was sent to
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freebsd-hackers or cc'd to that list. The brace options allow you to
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group search criteria together. This is sometimes very necessary as
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in the following example
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<tscreen><verb>
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pick -lbrace -to freebsd-hackers -and -not -cc freebsd-questions -rbrace
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-and -subject pci
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</verb></tscreen>
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Basically this says pick (to freebsd-hackers and not cc'd on
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freebsd-questions) and the subject is pci. It should look through your
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folder and find all messages send to the freebsd-hackers list that
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aren't cc'd to the freebsd-questions list that contain something on
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pci in the subject line. Ordinarily you might have to worry about
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something called operator precedence. Remember in math how you
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evaluate from left to right and you do multiplication and division
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first and addition and subtraction second? MH has the same type of
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rules for <em/pick/. It's fairly complex so you might want to study
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the man page. This document is just to help you get acquainted with
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MH.
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<sect1>folder, folders, refile - three useful programs for folder maintenance
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<p>
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There are three programs which are primarily just for manipulating
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your folders. The <em/folder/ program is used to switch between
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folders, pack them, and list them. At its simplest level you can do a
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<tt/folder +newfolder/ and you will be switched into
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<bf/newfolder/. From there on out all your MH commands like <em/comp/,
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<em/repl/, <em/scan/, and <em/show/ will act on that <bf/newfolder/
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folder. Sometimes when you are reading and deleting messages you will
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develop ``holes'' in your folders.
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If you do a <em/scan/ you might just see messages
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34, 35, 36, 43, 55, 56, 57, 80. If you do a <tt/folder -pack/ this
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will renumber all your messages so that there are no holes. It doesn't
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actually delete any messages though. So you may need to periodically
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go through and physically delete <em/rmm/'d messages.
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If you need statistics on your folders you can do a <em/folders/ or
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<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>
|