1 Newsgroups: comp.mail.mh,comp.answers,news.answers
2 Subject: MH Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) with Answers
3 Keywords: FAQ,mh,mail,question,answer,pop,slocal,letter,signature,
4 draft,message,folder,xmh,olmh,vmail,vmailtool,comp,repl,
5 forw,scan,SMTP,bind,MH-E,MIME,plum,exmh,nmh
6 Summary: This document answers Frequently Asked Questions about MH, a
7 sophisticated mail interface. It should be read by new MH
8 users and comp.mail.mh readers and before posting to this group.
10 Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu
11 Reply-To: Bill Wohler <wohler@newt.com>
12 From: Bill Wohler <wohler@newt.com>
13 Organization: Newt Software, Menlo Park, California, USA
15 Archive-name: mail/mh-faq/part1
16 Last-modified: $Date: 2012-11-23 21:47:03 -0800 (Fri, 23 Nov 2012) $
17 Version: $Revision: 11334 $
18 Posting-Frequency: monthly
20 This is a living list of frequently asked questions on the mailer
21 user interface, Mail Handler, or MH. The point of this is to
22 circulate existing information, and avoid rehashing old answers.
23 Better to build on top than start again. Please read this document
24 before ever posting to this newsgroup.
26 This article is posted monthly. If it has already expired and you're
27 not reading this, you can hope that you saved the instructions to
28 retrieve the FAQ (see "Where can I get MH") so that you can get a
29 copy through other means.
31 Please do not post an answer when someone posts a frequently asked
32 question; rather, email the relevant section of the FAQ to eliminate
33 unnecessary traffic in this newsgroup.
35 This list depends on your comments, additions and fixes: please send
36 them to Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>.
38 Copyright 1991-1999, 2001, 2004-2007, 2012 Bill Wohler
40 Permission to use, copy, distribute, and translate this document for
41 any non-commercial purpose is hereby granted, provided that this
42 copyright notice appears in all copies. Commercial distributions
43 require prior written consent.
45 This article is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
46 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
47 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
49 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
51 Subject: Table of Contents
52 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
53 Date: Sat, 3 Mar 2001 11:29:16 -0800
55 Legend: + new, - deleted, ! changed
60 01.01 Why should I use MH?
61 !01.02 What is the current version/status of MH?
62 !01.03 Where can I get MH?
63 01.04 What references exist for MH?
64 01.05 What other MH software is available?
65 01.06 How can I print a MH manual?
66 01.07 How should I report bugs?
67 01.08 How can I convert from my mailer to MH?
68 01.09 What is the copyright status of nmh?
73 02.01 What machines does MH run on?
74 02.02 How do I build MH?
75 02.03 What options should I use?
76 02.04 What do I need to do to use POP?
77 02.05 Does MH support IMAP?
78 02.06 Why does "mailgroup mail" only affect inc and not slocal?
79 02.07 How can I build MH on Solaris 2?
80 02.08 How can I build MH on Linux?
81 02.09 How can I build MH on IRIX?
82 02.10 How can I get MH to interpret the Content-Length field?
83 02.11 How do I build MH on HP-UX?
84 02.12 Can I prevent adding the local hostname to addresses behind firewalls?
85 02.13 Is there a patch to fix this or that?
86 02.14 How can I build MH on OS/2?
87 02.15 Do any POP/IMAP servers handle MH format?
88 !02.16 How can I build MH on Windows?
89 !02.17 How can I build MH on a Mac?
90 ________________________
92 03.00 Scanning & Reading
94 03.01 What do I do if scan shows the wrong date?
95 03.02 How would one go about reading Usenet with MH?
96 03.03 How can I search through multiple folders?
97 03.04 Why don't MH format commands such as %(friendly) work?
98 03.05 Why doesn't "show" display all of a MIME message?
99 03.06 Can I get show not to run "less" so much on MIME messages?
100 03.07 Why do I get "mhn: don't know how to display content"?
101 03.08 How can I automatically delete MH backup files?
102 03.09 Fixing "cannot fopen and lock /var/spool/mail/(user)"
103 03.10 Can I read my mail with a Web browser?
104 03.11 How can I run inc automatically with POP?
105 03.12 Why does inc hang (on Sun)?
106 03.13 How can I get POP to work?
107 03.14 How do I persuade mhshow (mhn) not to bring up a new window?
108 03.15 How do I turn off of all the mhshow (mhn) prompts?
109 03.16 Why is inc splitting messages improperly?
110 03.17 Can MH thread messages?
111 03.18 How can I avoid reading the HTML version of the message?
112 03.19 How do I view or save attachments?
113 03.20 How do I view HTML attachments with Netscape?
114 03.21 Fixing folders: unable to allocate storage for msgstats
115 03.22 How do I recursively list message attachments?
116 03.23 Why do folder and flist overlook some of my sub-folders?
121 04.01 Can I append MH messages to a Unix mailbox format file?
122 04.02 Can I append MH messages to a GNU Emacs rmail BABYL-format file?
123 04.03 Why do I get ".../.mh_sequences is poorly formatted?"
124 04.04 How can you save News articles into an MH folder?
125 04.05 Are there any good tools to archive MH messages?
126 04.06 How can I remove duplicate messages?
127 04.07 How can I remove holes in numbering?
128 __________________________
130 05.00 Composing & Replying
132 05.01 Why does repl add a "Re:" to a message that already has one?
133 05.02 How do I include messages in repl with or without ">"?
134 05.03 How can I eliminate duplicate copies of letters to myself?
135 05.04 How can I include my signature?
136 05.05 How do I call my editor with arguments?
137 05.06 How can I digestify messages in a folder for mail to another user?
138 05.07 How can I change my return address?
139 05.08 How can I change my From header?
140 05.09 How can I save a copy of all messages I send?
141 05.10 Can the folder in Fcc: be dynamically specified?
142 05.11 Can I post secure/encryped mail?
143 05.12 How can I send multi-media (MIME) attachments?
144 05.13 What's the best way to send mail to a long list of people?
145 05.14 What is the Dcc header?
146 05.15 How can I make sense of the replcomps file?
147 05.16 How can I convert quoted-printable to 8bit in quoted text in replies?
148 05.17 Can I have aliases include aliases?
149 05.18 Why doesn't mhmail understand aliases?
150 05.19 How do I send blind carbon copies?
151 05.20 When I forward a message, can I use its Subject?
152 05.21 Why is the timezone field in my 'Date:' field wrong?
153 05.22 Can I automate the comp -editor mhn process?
154 05.23 How can I remove those "=20" characters when forwarding?
155 05.24 Can I use mh-format substitution with forw?
156 05.25 How can I keep repl from breaking long lines?
157 05.26 How do I fix a bogus In-Reply-To or missing References field?
162 06.01 What to do with "Problems with edit - draft removed".
163 06.02 Can I run my message through a program (e.g., ispell) before sending?
164 06.03 What to do with "bad address 'xxx' - no at-sign after local-part".
165 !06.04 Fixing "post: problem initializing server; [BHST] no servers available"
166 06.05 Fixing "post: problem initializing server; [RPLY] 503 Sender
168 06.06 Fixing "post: unexpected response; [BHST] no socket opened"
169 06.07 How do I fix the "X-Authentication-Warning" header?
170 06.08 Fixing "post: unexpected response; [RPLY] 503 Need MAIL
172 !06.09 Fixing "post: problem initializing server; [BHST] premature
173 end-of-file on socket"
174 06.10 Fixing "Sender didn't use the HELO protocol"
175 06.11 Fixing "post: problem initializing server; [RPLY] 553 Local
176 configuration error, hostname not recognized as local"
181 07.01 What mail filters are available?
182 07.02 Why slocal writes messages to system mailbox that from(1) can't read.
183 07.03 Where can I read about slocal and the format of .maildelivery?
184 07.04 How do I debug my .maildelivery file?
185 07.05 Why isn't slocal working?
186 07.06 Are there any good biff applications for MH?
187 07.07 How do I read new messages filed by procmail?
192 08.01 I have a question about MH-E
197 09.01 How can I get xmh to use Emacs as the editor?
198 09.02 Does xmh support subfolders?
199 09.03 How do I precede included messages with ">" when replying in xmh?
204 Glossary & Acknowledgments
205 Switching xmh's editor
207 inco - babyl to MH converter
208 t2h - add hyperlinks to message viewed
211 HP-UX 10.20 config file
212 Removing duplicate messages (Bourne)
213 Removing duplicate messages (Perl)
214 Removing duplicate messages (Perl)
216 ------------------------------
218 Subject: Viewing This Article
219 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
220 Date: Mon, 27 Nov 1995 14:44:19 -0800
222 To skip to a particular question with Subject or number xx, use
223 "/^S.*xx" with most pagers. In GNU Emacs type "M-C-s ^S.*xx", (or
224 C-r to search backwards), followed by ESC to end the search.
226 To skip to new or changed questions, use "/^S.*[!+]" with most
227 pagers and "M-C-s ^S.*[!+]" in GNU Emacs.
229 This article is in digest format. nn may have already broken this
230 message into separate articles; if not, then type "G %". In rn, use
233 This article is treated as an outline when edited by GNU Emacs. Run
234 "M-x describe-mode" to see available outline-mode commands. Useful
235 commands are "M-x hide-body", "C-c C-s" (show-subtree) and "M-x
238 Check out the Usenet Hypertext FAQ Archive (see "What references
239 exist for nn?"). Files available by ftp, man pages, and other Web
240 pages, as well as cross-references like the one in this paragraph
241 are just a click away.
243 A "Date" field whose time is 00:00:00 is approximate. The month and
244 year in these fields represent the time they were added to the FAQ,
245 rather than when they were contributed by the author, as is the case
246 since November, 1995.
248 If you should need the Internet address, use nslookup or dig if you
249 have them, or send mail to <dns at grasp.insa-lyon.fr> with "help"
252 References to $MHLIB refer to the directory that contains MH support
253 files and routines. This directory is usually /usr/lib/mh or
254 /usr/local/lib/mh (or /usr/local/nmh/lib or /etc/nmh for nmh). Do
255 not use $MHLIB literally; use the real, absolute path to your MH
258 There are slight differences between the original MH and nmh. In the
259 text, the nmh command or filename is preferred, and the MH
260 equivalent is placed in parenthesis. For example, the MH
261 configuration is in $MHLIB/mts.conf (mtstailor); mhshow (mhn -show)
262 is used to view attachments.
264 Note that due to bottom feeding email address harvesting spam scum,
265 mailto links have been removed and @s in addresses have been
268 ------------------------------
270 Subject: 01.00 ***** Introduction *****
271 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
272 Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1991 13:03:15 -0800
274 ------------------------------
276 Subject: 01.01 Why should I use MH?
277 From: Jerry Peek <jpeek at jpeek.com>
278 Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1991 13:03:15 -0800
280 The MH message handling system is a set of electronic mail programs
281 in the public domain. If your computer runs Unix, it can probably
284 The big difference between MH and most other "mail user agents" is
285 that you can use MH from a Unix shell prompt. In MH, each command is
286 a separate program, and the shell is used as an interpreter. So, all
287 the power of Unix shells (pipes, redirection, history, aliases, and
288 so on) works with MH--you don't have to learn a new interface. Other
289 mail agents have their own command interpreter for their individual
290 mail commands (although the mush mail agent simulates a Unix shell).
292 Because MH commands aren't part of a monolithic mail system, you can
293 use them at any time; you don't have to start or quit the mail
294 agent. Because you use them from a shell prompt, you can use all the
297 If your shell has time-saving aliases or functions (and most do),
298 you'll be able to use them with MH, of course. And because MH isn't
299 a monolithic mail agent, you can use MH commands in Unix shell
300 scripts, or call them from programs in high-level languages like C.
302 Unlike most mail agents, MH keeps each message in a separate file.
303 The filename is the message number. To rearrange the messages, MH
304 just changes the filenames. MH can use standard Unix file system
305 operations such as removing, copying and linking messages. The
306 message files are grouped into one or more folders, which are
307 actually Unix directories.
309 MH is free, powerful, flexible--and the basics are easy to learn.
311 ------------------------------
313 Subject: !01.02 What is the current version/status of MH.
314 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
315 Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2007 23:51:52 -0700
317 The current official version of MH is 6.8.3, although a beta of
320 This version includes MIME, a multi-media MH package that implements
321 the new IETF work on Multi-media 822 (MIME). This allows you to
322 include things like audio, graphics, and the like, in your mail
323 messages. --Marshall Rose <mrose at dbc.mtview.ca.us>
325 MH now works with Kerberos as well.
327 In addition, a new program called mhparam extracts arguments from
328 .mh_profile which is useful in shell scripts.
330 Please see the file CHANGES in the distribution for more details.
332 Due to the languishing state of MH, Richard Coleman <coleman at
333 math.gatech.edu> created another version of MH called nmh based upon
334 MH 6.8.3. He added GNU autoconf to ease installation considerably
335 and fixed several bugs and inconsistencies. Doug Morris <doug at
336 mhost.com. hosted the web site, mailing lists, web pages, and CVS
337 repository for a long time. Ken Hornstein <kenh at pobox.com> picked
338 up the torch in 2002 and moved development to Savannah where Jon
339 Steinhart <nmh at fourwinds.com> joined him as a project maintainer.
340 See http://www.nongnu.org/nmh/. The stable version of nmh is 1.5.
341 The file docs/DIFFERENCES in the nmh distribution contains a list of
342 differences between nmh and MH.
344 GNU mailutils (version 2.99.97) is a collection of mail-related
345 utilities. At the core of mailutils is libmailbox, a library which
346 provides access to various forms of mailbox files (including remote
347 mailboxes via popular protocols and MH). See
348 http://www.gnu.org/software/mailutils/.
350 ------------------------------
352 Subject: !01.03 Where can I get MH?
353 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
354 Date: Fri, 23 Nov 2012 12:19:17 -0800
356 MH comes standard with many systems.
358 nmh (or mailutils) can be installed on Debian-based systems with:
362 On Red Hat-based systems, use:
366 nmh source code releases are available at:
368 http://download.savannah.nongnu.org/releases/nmh/
370 GNU mailutils source code releases are available at:
372 http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/mailutils/mailutils-latest.tar.gz
373 (or .bz2 or .lzma or .xz)
375 ------------------------------
377 Subject: 01.04 What references exist for MH?
378 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
379 Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2007 23:51:41 -0700
382 http://rand-mh.sourceforge.net/
383 http://www.nongnu.org/nmh/
384 http://www.gnu.org/software/mailutils/
385 http://mh-e.sourceforge.net/
388 MH & xmh: E-mail for Users & Programmers. Third edition. Jerry
389 Peek, with Bill Wohler and Brent Welch.
390 ISBN 1-56592-093-7. 738 pages.
391 O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.
392 Out of print as of August, 1996.
394 References to "the MH book" in this document refer to the third
395 edition (plus updates) of this book online at
396 http://rand-mh.sourceforge.net/book/. Section numbers for the
397 second edition may appear in parentheses.
399 There is another book that contains a number of examples of
400 advanced mail handing using MH as the example message handler.
401 It's also quite a good reference on email in general.
403 The Internet Message. Marshall T. Rose
404 ISBN 0-13-092941-7. 396 pages.
408 MHN Tutorial by Jerry Sweet
409 ftp://ftp.ics.uci.edu/pub/mh/contrib/multimedia/mhn-tutorial.ps.Z 141k
410 ftp://ftp.ics.uci.edu/pub/mh/contrib/multimedia/mhn-tutorial.tex.Z 48k
414 gmane.mail.exmh.devel
416 gmane.mail.mh-e.announce
417 gmane.mail.mh-e.devel
422 There are three mailing lists for nmh: nmh-announce, nmh-workers,
423 and nmh-commits. See:
425 http://savannah.nongnu.org/mail/?group=nmh
427 The page for each list contains a link to the archives.
430 Current archives can be found at:
432 http://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/nmh-workers/
434 Older archive can be found in the mh-users and mh-workers archives
437 http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=143658&package_id=188462
439 There are directions in the release notes. Basically, you can use
440 either "msh" or the individual commands "inc -file" to get the
441 messages into a folder, and then "scan", "pick", "show", and so on
442 (or your favorite commands in xmh, MH-E, etc.). --Jerry Peek
446 http://www.newt.com/faq/mh.html
447 http://faqs.cs.uu.nl/na-dir/mail/mh-faq/part1.html
450 GNU Emacs 19.29 comes with a version of MH-E that includes online
451 (Texinfo) documentation. Try "C-h i m mh-e RET". It is also
452 available in HTML and PDF formats at
453 http://mh-e.sourceforge.net/manual/. See also "What other MH
454 software is available?" to see where you can get the latest
455 version of MH-E which includes the documentation sources.
458 The FAQ is available at http://www.beedub.com/exmh/exmh-faq.html.
459 The online exmh sections from the MH book can be found at
461 http://rand-mh.sourceforge.net/book/index.html#chTourexmh
463 Signature and Finger FAQ:
464 http://www.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/signature-faq/
466 ------------------------------
468 Subject: 01.05 What other MH software is available?
469 From: Stephen Gildea <gildea at stop.mail-abuse.org>, Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
470 Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 21:20:57 -0700
472 MH-E is the Emacs interface to the MH mail system. It offers all the
473 functionality of MH, the visual orientation and simplicity of use of
474 a GUI, and full integration with Emacs and XEmacs, including
475 thorough configuration and online help.
477 MH-E allows one to read and process mail very quickly: many commands
478 are single characters; completion and smart defaults are used for
479 folder names and aliases. With MH-E you compose outgoing messages in
480 Emacs. This is a big plus for Emacs users, but even non-Emacs users
481 have been known to use MH-E after only learning the most basic
482 cursor motion commands.
484 Additional features include:
486 * attractive text rendering with font lock
487 * composition and display of MIME body parts
488 * display of images and HTML within the Emacs frame
489 * folder browsing with speedbar
492 * lightning-fast full-text indexed searches of all of your email
493 * virtual folders to view ticked and unseen messages, search results
494 * multiple personalities
495 * signing and encrypting
496 * spam filter interaction
497 * XFace, Face, X-Image-URL header field support with picons
499 The GNU Emacs distribution includes MH-E.
501 MH-E is maintained at SourceForge:
503 http://mh-e.sourceforge.net/
505 From: Chris Menzel <cmenzel at philebus.tamu.edu>
506 Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2001 10:02:38 -0600
508 The terminal-oriented, fast, and powerful mutt mail client not only
509 supports the MH mail format but also supports .mh_sequences files,
510 providing a robust interface to MH. It is also amazingly
511 configurable and is very adept at handling MIME attachments and HTML
514 Unlike MH, the displayed message numbers do not necessarily
515 correspond to the message filenames. This makes threading and
516 sorting lightning fast but slower to display very large folders.
520 From: Brent Welch <welch at acm.org>
521 Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2001 22:42:15 -0800
523 EXMH is a user interface for the MH mail system written in TCL/TK.
525 Exmh has MIME support, color feedback in the scan listing, a folder
526 display with one label per folder, clever scan caching, facesaver
527 bitmap display; background inc, various inc styles, searching over
528 folder listing and message body, a dialog-box interface to MH pick,
529 a simple built-in emacs-like editor, interfaces to other editors,
530 user preferences, user hacking support. For more info or to obtain
533 http://exmh.sourceforge.net/
535 From: "Eric D. Friedman" <friedman at hydra.acs.uci.edu>
536 Date: Tue, 9 Feb 1999 22:52:44 -0800
538 Mhtake is a perl script that lets you add people to your mail
539 aliases file by typing mhtake [message #].
541 http://orion.oac.uci.edu/~friedman/mhtake.txt
543 From: Steinar Bang <sb at metis.no>
544 Date: Fri, 26 Jan 1996 13:51:08 +0100
546 Mew (an Emacs interface to MH that has MIME and PGP capabilities) is
549 ftp://ftp.aist-nara.ac.jp/pub/elisp/Mew/mew-current.tar.gz
551 [MH-E has had these capabilities since version 7.0 so mew is
552 obsolete if you use MH-E. --Ed]
554 From: James Perkins <jamesp at sp-eug.com>
555 Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 00:00:00 -0800
557 Vmh is designed for people using the bulletin-board features of MH,
558 where mail is stored in packed (single-file) folders. As a result,
559 use of this program cannot be mixed with the use of normal MH
560 commands. Vmh is a part of the official MH distribution.
562 From: James Perkins <jamesp at sp-eug.com>
563 Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 00:00:00 -0800
565 Xmh is a X11 mouse-based MH browsing tool. It is very powerful and
566 feature-filled and thus comes with a moderate learning curve. Its
567 dependence on the X11 environment makes it very reconfigurable, but
568 only by people well-versed in X applications programming. Its
569 message reply built-in-editor interface is not always popular among
570 those used to having MH bring up the editor of their choice.
572 Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 00:00:00 -0800
574 xmh is part of the standard X Window System distribution from the X
575 Consortium. Ultrix also ships dxmail which is similar.
577 ftp://cs.utk.edu/pub/xmh.shar.Z 162k
579 From: Harald Tveit Alvestrand <hta at boheme.er.sintef.no>
580 Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 00:00:00 -0800
582 Here's a version of xmh that includes MIME.
584 ftp://aun.uninett.no/pub/mail/mixmh/mixmh-0.3.tar.Z 232k
586 From: Nathaniel Borenstein <nsb at thumper.bellcore.com>
587 Date: Sun, 26 Nov 1995 19:04:51 -0800
589 Metamail is a package that can be used to convert virtually ANY
590 mail-reading program on Unix into a multi-media mail-reading
591 program. It is an extremely generic implementation of MIME
592 (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions), the proposed standard for
593 multi-media mail formats on the Internet. The implementation is
594 extremely flexible and extensible, using a "mailcap" file mechanism
595 for adding support for new data formats when sent through the mail.
596 At a heterogeneous site where many mail readers are in use, the
597 mailcap mechanism can be used to extend them all to support new
598 types of multi-media mail by a single addition to a mailcap file.
600 The metamail distribution comes complete with a small patch for each
601 of over a dozen popular mail reading programs, including Berkeley
602 mail, mh, Elm, Xmh, Xmail, Mailtool, Emacs Rmail, Emacs VM, Andrew,
603 and others. Note that the MH patches are now integrated into MH 6.8.
605 ftp://ftp.bellcore.com/pub/nsb/mm2.7.tar.Z
607 From: Tom Christiansen <tchrist at perl.com>
608 Date: Tue, 9 Feb 1999 22:55:24 -0800
610 Plum is a highly configurable and extensible screen-oriented
611 front-end for processing MH mail on ASCII terminals. Unlike MH-E,
612 the extension language used in plum is perl, not LISP. Plum offers
613 many of the advantages of xmh, but lacks several of xmh's
614 disadvantages. The look&feel derives more from vi than from emacs.
615 Key bindings and functions may be changed on the fly to suit the
616 user's preference. It offers filename and word completion on folder,
617 variables, and command names.
619 Until it is included in the standard distribution (under
620 miscellany), you can find a copy on:
622 http://www.cpan.org/authors/Tom_Christiansen/scripts/plum.gz 29k
624 or mail requests to Tom
626 From: Jerry Sweet <jsweet at irvine.com>
627 Date: Tue, 1 Nov 1994 00:00:00 -0800
629 Mhunify is a set of perl scripts and templates that provides
630 shell-level MH functionality with USENET news. Since MH supports
631 MIME, MIME-format news articles just work. I've found that being
632 able to handle news in the same way that I handle email is very
633 useful, although there are some tradeoffs.
635 Mhunify also treats MH folders just like news groups. If you
636 subscribe to several mailing lists, and your email is automatically
637 delivered to separate folders, say, via procmail or via MMDF's
638 .maildelivery, the mhunify package lets you progress automatically
639 through your folders just as you would news groups.
641 ftp://ftp.ics.uci.edu/pub/mh/contrib/multimedia/mhunify.shar.gz
643 From: Dale Carstensen <dlc at c3file.c3.lanl.gov>
644 Date: Tue, 1 Nov 1994 00:00:00 -0800
646 olmh is a demo for OLIT (Open Look Interface Toolkit, the Open Look
647 wrapper to Xt) in Sun's Open Windows 3 that does handle 3rd and
648 subsequent levels of nesting of folders.
650 Obtain the Open Windows 3 distribution CD/ROM from Sun (SPARC only).
651 To do this, call 1-800-USA-4SUN and send tone "2" for telemarketing
652 after it answers. The 4.1.2 CD/ROM may also have Open Windows 3. The
653 list price for the 4.1.2 CD/ROM is $200.
655 From: James Perkins <jamesp at sp-eug.com>
656 Date: Sun, 1 May 1994 00:00:00 -0800
658 Vmail is a curses-based, vi-like message browser which calls on MH
659 programs to manipulate mail. It can be used on almost any terminal.
660 It organizes mail folders into index pages, from which a message can
661 be selected to be shown, replied-to, forwarded, refiled, deleted,
662 and so on. The vi-like interface and command keystrokes are
663 comfortable to less-experienced Unix users, and it is a small,
664 compact program, unlike the MH-E Emacs package.
666 This version of vmail has been bugfixed and enhanced from the
667 original vmail published on the net in 1987 by J. Zobel.
669 ftp://ftp.uu.net/comp.sources.unix/volume12/vmail/part0*.Z 46k
670 ftp://ftp.ucs.ubc.ca/pub/mh/vmail.[1-3]of3.Z 58k
672 Or mail requests to James.
674 From: James Perkins <jamesp at sp-eug.com>
675 Date: Sun, 1 May 1994 00:00:00 -0800
677 vmailtool may be for you if you have a Sun workstation. It is a
678 button gadget panel for the above-mentioned vmail program. It brings
679 vmail into the windows era where people no longer need to memorize
680 specific command keystrokes. It also provides a mail icon with the
681 flag that pops up when new mail arrives. Again, this is a compact,
682 simple tool, unlike the powerful xmh program. Still, it's a welcome
683 alternative for many people who are running SunView or OpenWindows.
685 ftp://ftp.ucs.ubc.ca/pub/mh/vmailtool.Z 18k
687 or mail requests to James.
689 MMH, My Mail Handler, is a Motif interface for reading and sending
690 mail. It uses the MH commands to actually handle sending a receiving
691 messages. It does not support all the capabilities of MH, but offers
692 a large enough subset to handle the majority of users. Its intended
693 user is someone between "bumbling email novice" and "sophisticated
694 user". Hooks are provided to allow the user to customize and add new
697 ftp://ftp.eos.ncsu.edu/pub/bill/bill.tar.Z 120k
699 From: Andrew Waugh <ajw at mel.dit.csiro.au>
700 Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 00:00:00 -0800
702 X.500 lookups: If a name is enclosed in square brackets, when
703 entering a destination address:
705 To: [Greg Wickham,CSIRO]
707 a search will be made in the X.500 Directory for the individual's
708 entry. If an address exists then it will be extracted and placed
709 into the headers. Mail requests for the software to the author.
711 From: Barbara Dyker <dyker at teal.csn.org>
712 Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 00:00:00 -0800
714 QueueMH is an email based service request and tracking system based
715 on the Rand Mail Handler.
717 ftp://ftp.cs.colorado.edu/pub/cs/sysadmin/utilities/queuemh.tar.Z 98k
719 From: <info at rootgroup.com>
720 Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1993 00:00:00 -0800
722 Qmh is an MH-based group mail management tool. Written entirely in
723 perl, Qmh combines the best aspects of MH with group mail heuristics
724 and delivers a sensible package for all levels of Unix users. A
725 limitless number of individual queues and associated groups of
726 permitted users can be established.
728 Specific functionality includes the following modes of operation;
729 checking header dates and sending reminder/deadline mail, editing
730 existing messages, help screens, creating new messages from scratch
731 or exiting messages, resolving messages, scanning queue folders, and
732 annotating with status both by editing and sending mail.
734 Qmh is a single generic program in and of itself from which all
735 modes of operation are invoked. Additionally, each separate queue
736 may be accessed via a link to the single program. All system
737 configuration is maintained in a single file that is read upon each
738 invocation of Qmh. Formatting and template files are provided in the
739 system library, although individual users can override the defaults
740 simply by creating equivalent files in their own MH mail directory.
742 Qmh provides a powerful database-like functionality by allowing
743 limitless per-queue X-Qmh-<$value> headers to be included in
744 messages. These "fields" then form the context of the queue messages
745 and provide a user-defined, but yet structured environment for
746 queries, reporting, and random information.
748 Qmh is designed to provide a complete solution for SA groups, help
749 desks, support organizations, or wherever two or more individuals
750 are trying to manage multiple mail requests.
752 Qmh is also compatible with versions of xmh that provide user-level
753 command buttons. Provided in the Qmh package is a ~/.Xdefaults
754 template file that's setup to harness the power of Qmh.
756 From: Jerry Peek <jpeek at jpeek.com>, Shannon Yeh <yeh at netix.com>
757 Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2001 00:23:21 -0800
760 These were available only for non-commercial degree-granting
763 Networking & Communication Systems
766 Stanford, CA 94305-4122
767 Phone: +1 415-723-3909
770 ftp://netix.com/pub/pc-mh-info/*
772 For more PC/MH info, contact:
774 Netix Communications, Inc.
775 15375 Barranca Parkway
776 Building G, Suite 107
778 Phone: +1 714-727-9532
780 Internet: info at netix.com
782 In addition, you might try Wollongong, to see if they have
783 something you can get.
785 [This information appears to be out of date. Please send me
786 pointers to valid information. Potential sites include
787 jessica.stanford.edu. --Ed]
789 Two other potential methods to run MH under Windows: Run Unix
790 under Windows with VMware (http://www.vmware.com/) or try to
791 compile nmh with the Cygwin tools (http://www.cygwin.com/).
793 ------------------------------
795 Subject: 01.06 How can I print a MH manual?
796 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>, Jos Vos <jos at bull.nl>
797 Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2007 23:51:33 -0700
799 Documentation in text and PostScript format is found in the
800 MH-doc.tgz tarball on:
802 http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=143658&package_id=188464
804 To generate your own copy for printing, first obtain the MH sources
805 (see "Where can I get MH?") if you don't already have it. Go into
806 the "doc" directory and run "make guide" to create the
807 administrators guide and "make manual" to create a user's manual
808 which includes tutorials and man pages. If the doc directory is
809 empty or is missing the Makefile, you'll have to run "mhconfig MH"
810 in the conf directory so that the documentation with correct local
811 information is created.
813 For properly formatting the documentation (at least the manual
814 pages) you might even have to install MH, because a reference to a
815 tmac.h file in the MH lib directory is made in the manual pages.
817 ------------------------------
819 Subject: 01.07 How should I report bugs?
820 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
821 Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2004 00:12:42 -0700
823 Bugs in nmh should be reported at:
825 http://savannah.nongnu.org/bugs/?group=nmh
827 Bugs in MH-E should be reported at:
829 http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=113357&group_id=13357
831 ------------------------------
833 Subject: 01.08 How can I convert from my mailer to MH?
834 From: Mike Sutton <mws115 at llcoolj.dayton.saic.com>
835 Date: 7 Jul 1995 10:03:50 GMT
837 The unrmail function will convert rmail format to mbox format.
839 From: Jerry Peek <jpeek at jpeek.com>
840 Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1991 13:03:15 -0800
842 If you use one of a mail agent like 'mail', 'mailx', 'elm' or
843 'mush', converting to MH is easy. When you run the 'inc' command, it
844 reads all new messages from the system mailbox into your 'inbox'
845 folder. Those mail agents also have separate files or "folders" that
846 hold messages in the same format as the system mailbox. You can read
847 them with the 'inc -file' command. For example, to read the messages
848 from your 'mbox' mail file into your MH 'inbox' folder, you'd type:
851 % cp mbox mbox.backup
854 If you see the usual "Incorporating new mail into inbox..." message
855 and a scan listing, the messages probably were converted. Read some
856 or all of them (with the 'show' command) and be sure. The 'inc'
857 won't remove your mbox unless you use '-truncate'.
859 From: "Jason R. Mastaler" <jason at Mastaler.COM>
860 Date: Mon, 1 May 1995 00:00:00 -0800
862 You can also specify an alternate folder to inc. Here's how you can
863 convert all your folders en masse:
865 for arg in `cat flist`; do
866 echo "converting $arg"
867 inc +"$arg" -file "$arg" -silent
870 Section D.4 of the MH book's second edition lists two scripts to
871 convert mail files to MH folders: babyl2mh to convert from rmail's
872 BABYL format; vmsmail2mh to convert from VMS's mail (see "What
873 references exist for MH") to see where the book's examples can be
874 ftped from). These scripts aren't in the third edition but are in
877 From: Vivek Khera <khera at cs.duke.edu>
878 Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 00:00:00 -0800
880 I rewrote the above script in Perl since the original script doesn't
881 work for some people (see "babyl2mh.pl" below).
883 From: Juergen Nickelsen <nickel at cs.tu-berlin.de>
884 Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 00:00:00 -0800
886 You can remove the second to last second line ("> $input"), so that
887 the script doesn't zero out your RMAIL file.
889 Another alternative is to replace this line with "inc -file $tmpmbox
890 $folder && > $input", so that the RMAIL is only zeroed if inc
891 successfully incorporated the mail. Finally one could add a switch
892 -z, so that the RMAIL file is only zeroed if the switch is given.
893 (See "Appendix inco".)
895 Date: Sun, 1 May 1994 00:00:00 -0800
897 Use the following to convert a BABYL format file to Unix mail
900 ftp://inf.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pub/gnu/emacs_extras/rmailtovm.el.Z
903 See also MH book second edition (Appendix D).
905 ------------------------------
907 Subject: 01.09 What is the copyright status of nmh?
908 From: Richard Coleman <coleman at math.gatech.edu>
909 Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 18:16:58 -0700
911 nmh is distributed under a variant of the classical BSD copyright.
912 Check the COPYRIGHT file in the nmh distribution for the details.
913 There are some specific files which were contributed to the original
914 MH package that are copyrighted by their original author. We have
915 retained the copyright notices of these authors in these files.
917 ------------------------------
919 Subject: 02.00 ***** Building MH *****
920 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
921 Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1991 13:03:15 -0800
923 ------------------------------
925 Subject: 02.01 What machines does MH run on?
926 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
927 Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 21:22:55 -0700
929 MH isn't just for Unix any more. Versions are reported to run on
930 OS/2 (see "How can I build MH on OS/2?"), Windows (see "How can I
931 build MH on Windows?"), and Mac (see "How can I build MH on Mac?").
932 Oh yeah, the Mac is now Unix. Maybe Windows Longhorn will be built
935 From: Jerry Peek <jpeek at jpeek.com>
936 Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1991 13:03:15 -0800
938 If you have a computer running Unix, you can probably run MH.
940 ------------------------------
942 Subject: 02.02 How do I build MH?
943 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
944 Date: Sun, 8 Sep 1996 15:13:12 -0700
946 If you're using Linux, you can simply install the nmh or MH package
947 which is available in most distributions.
949 If you want to build nmh, follow the directions in the file named
950 INSTALL. Basically, it's simply "./configure; make; make install."
952 If you have MH on the other hand, if you carefully read the file
953 named READ-ME in the root of the source hierarchy, you should not
954 have any trouble building MH.
956 If you're having troubles building MH, it could be that the problem
957 has already been fixed, but hasn't yet gotten into an official
958 release. Please see http://www.gw.com/mail/mh/patches/ for more
961 ------------------------------
963 Subject: 02.03 What options should I use?
964 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
965 Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1992 00:00:00 -0800
967 BERK: Do NOT include the BERK option (in versions 6.7 or later)!
968 BERK breaks the mh-format functions that take apart address lines,
969 for example mbox, from, and friendly. This would really put a crimp
970 on my replcomps file.
972 LOCKF: if you have NFS, you need to lock your mailbox with lockf()
973 so the lock will be honored by all machines on the local network. If
974 you have the lockf() system call, include LOCKF.
976 JQ Johnson <jqj at duff.uoregon.edu> makes the point that one should
977 use this option carefully since it requires a robust lockf() call.
978 For example, this option caused serious problems on his SunOS 4.1.1.
979 He suggested using LOK_BELL instead, and adding "lockstyle: 1" to
980 $MHLIB/mts.conf (mtstailor).
982 ATZ: makes your timezones print like "EST" instead of "-0500". Much
983 prettier. --Stephen Gildea <gildea at stop.mail-abuse.org>
985 However, Tony Landells <ahl at technix.oz.au> replies: "Yes; very
986 pretty. How unfortunate that timezone names are so ambiguous, so
987 that EST can be interpreted, at a minimum, as (American) Eastern
988 Standard Time, (Australian) Eastern Standard Time, or (Australian)
989 Eastern Summer Time (and yes, I think it's dumb having the same
990 acronym for both normal and Summer time, but that's a different
991 problem). While the numeric timezones may not look as nice, they
992 are, at least, reasonably unambiguous. I would urge anyone who ever
993 intends/hopes/expects to use email outside the U.S. to NOT use ATZ
996 At any rate, the conf/examples directory has been updated and
997 contains many examples show you which options are required on your
998 platform and which are optional (in the upcoming version MH 6.8). At
999 any rate, it is recommended that you examine the options in the
1000 example configuration files, and read about them in READ-ME.
1002 RPATHS: a side-effect is that slocal writes messages to your system
1003 maildrop without the MMDF C-A's that separate messages, so your BSD
1004 tools like from work.
1006 ------------------------------
1008 Subject: 02.04 What do I need to do to use POP?
1009 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
1010 Date: Sun, 8 Sep 1996 23:31:01 -0700
1012 MH6.7 (and earlier versions too) include a server for version 3 of POP.
1014 From: Morgan Fletcher <morgan at tupelo.best.com>
1015 Date: 14 Mar 1996 19:24:23 -0800
1017 Ensure that /etc/services contains the following:
1019 pop2 109/tcp postoffice # POP version 2
1021 ->pop 110/tcp # POP version 3 (MH's inc thinks it's "pop")
1023 pop3 110/tcp # POP version 3
1026 Also compile with the POP options: POP, DPOP, RPOP, etc.
1028 From: Richard Coleman <coleman at math.gatech.edu>
1029 Date: 06 Feb 1997 03:43:17 -0500
1031 To get MH to use the pop3 service, add POPSERVICE=pop3 to your MH
1032 configuration and recompile:
1034 ------------------------------
1036 Subject: 02.05 Does MH support IMAP?
1037 From: Lyndon Nerenberg <lyndon at MessagingDirect.COM>
1038 Date: 27 Jul 1999 11:33:39 -0600
1040 Run exmh on the laptop, and modify your .mh_profile to inc using
1041 APOP. This is how I run MH-E and it works fine. (I did have to
1042 modify MH-E a wee bit to allow it to prompt for the password. You
1043 would likely have to do something similar with exmh.)
1045 As a spare time project I'm adding enough IMAP support to MH (6.8.3)
1046 to allow you to 'inc -imap [-imapfolder foo]'. If I ever get this
1047 done I'll stick the diffs up somewhere. (It's not a big priority as
1048 I can get at my IMAP INBOX using APOP.)
1050 From: Tim Showalter <tjs at andrew.cmu.edu>, John Prevost <visigoth at cs.cmu.edu>
1051 Date: Wed, 25 Sep 1996 21:34:56 -0400
1053 We are developing fmh and intend to support as much of MH as is
1054 feasible. However, MH and IMAP don't necessarily agree as to what
1055 things are going to look like. MH has static message numbers until
1056 you pack a folder; IMAP keeps two numbers on a message, one which is
1057 absolutely static and one which is relative to the top of a mailbox.
1058 Messages in IMAP are essentially immutable. IMAP doesn't (currently)
1059 allow message annotations. fmh will keep state with a background
1060 daemon instead of writing it to disk, and will probably try and keep
1061 as little on disk as possible.
1063 fmh doesn't understand MH folders at the moment, and probably won't
1064 for a really long time, if ever. As I said before, we're mostly
1065 interested in the IMAP aspects as we're using a networked file
1066 system and saving stuff on the local disk just isn't an option.
1068 fmh is not MH at a very fundamental level. It is very unlikely that
1069 it will be merged, as we're not quite as interested in creating
1070 something that is MH and IMAP as we are in writing a good IMAP
1071 client. Also, the MH code isn't going to take the introduction of
1072 IMAP without a near complete rewrite.
1074 It is not available yet. Inquiries are welcome at <tjs+fmh at
1077 From: Rahul Dhesi <dhesi at rahul.net>
1078 Date: 23 Sep 1996 08:39:52 GMT
1080 What prevents people from doing a telnet to their mail server,
1081 logging in, and firing up MH directly? Site policy? An operating
1082 system that does not let MH compile or run? Overloaded machine with
1083 insufficient processing power for MH? All these are site-specific
1084 problems and the solution lies in solving them locally, not in
1085 forcing MH to go over IMAP.
1087 IMAP was never designed to emulate a filesytem. MH was designed to
1088 make direct advantage of the filesytem structure. There is no
1089 compatibility between the two. By the time IMAP is revised enough to
1090 support MH you will have reinvented NFS.
1092 There *is* scope for redesign here, though. It would be nice to have
1093 a single-user filesystem. Create a binary telnet session to the
1094 filesystem server, log in as yourself, and then over that session
1095 run a filesystem protocol. Normal filesystem protections at the
1096 other end will be sufficient for all permissions checking, so the
1097 filesystem protocol would need to do no other permissions checking.
1098 The question of whom to export directories to would go away: They
1099 are exported to whoever completes a successful login, and accessible
1100 to the user if he would be able to access them on the server as his
1101 login id. You could even use challenge-response for the initial
1102 login, coupled with ssh-based encryption, so you automatically have
1103 a secure filesystem without even trying.
1105 IMAP is too restricted in its scope to be easily modifiable to
1106 emulate such a filesystem. It would have to be a redesign from
1109 From: John Romine <jromine at ics.uci.edu>
1110 Date: Sun, 8 Sep 1996 15:45:27 -0700
1112 No. MH only supports retrieving mail using POP3. POP3 is on the
1113 "standards track"--it is now an elective Internet Draft Standard
1114 (see RFC 1939 for more details). At this point, IMAP[23] are
1115 "experimental, limited use" protocols; it is unlikely that MH will
1118 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
1119 Date: Sun, 8 Sep 1996 15:45:32 -0700
1121 Since John posted the message above, IMAP has progressed from an
1122 "experiemental, limited use" protocol. While IMAP is not universal,
1123 many vendors now have implementations.
1125 I've found several things which might help. First, a definition
1126 lifted from the Pine FAQ:
1130 IMAP stands for "Internet Message Access Protocol". An IMAP client
1131 program on any platform at any location on the Internet can access
1132 email folders on an IMAP server. While the messages appear to be
1133 local, they reside on the server until the client explicitly moves
1134 or deletes them. The IMAP protocol is a superset of POP, containing
1135 all POP commands plus more. For a comparison of IMAP and POP, see
1136 the paper Comparing Two Approaches to Remote Mailbox Access: IMAP
1137 vs. POP (in ftp.cac.washington.edu:/mail/imap.vs.pop). IMAP is what
1138 allows Pine (or any other IMAP client) to get to email on a central
1139 campus email server. There are current IETF working groups revising
1140 IMAP and readying it to become an Internet standard. A copy of the
1141 latest IMAP draft may be obtained from:
1143 ftp://ftp.cac.washington.edu/mail/latest-imap-draft
1145 For a list of IMAP clients, see the file imap.software, in the same
1148 From: David L Miller <dlm at cac.washington.edu>
1149 Date: Mon, 1 Aug 1994 00:00:00 -0800
1151 ipop3d from the UW IMAP toolkit can operate in a couple modes. As a
1152 straight POP3 server, it uses the same C-client library as imapd, so
1153 it co-exists comfortably with imapd. It can also operate as a
1154 POP-to-IMAP gateway so that your POP-only clients can access IMAP
1157 ftp://ftp.cac.washington.edu/mail/imap.tar.Z 1.0M
1159 From: Mark Crispin <MRC at Panda.COM>
1160 Date: Mon, 1 Aug 1994 00:00:00 -0800
1162 The only answer I can give for [how MH users can use IMAP] is that
1163 Pine can read mailboxes in MH format; and that someone might in the
1164 future develop a version of MH that can use IMAP.
1166 ------------------------------
1168 Subject: 02.06 Why does "mailgroup mail" only affect inc but not slocal?
1169 From: John Romine <jromine at ics.uci.edu>
1170 Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 00:00:00 -0800
1172 If "mailgroup" is set, inc is made set-group-id to this group name.
1173 Some SYS5 systems want this to be set to "mail". Set this if
1174 /usr/spool/mail (or /usr/mail) is not world-writable. These changes
1175 were contributed by Peter Marvit, and "inc" is very careful about
1176 its use of the set-gid privilege.
1178 Note that slocal doesn't know how to deal with this, and will not
1179 work under these systems; just making it set-group-id will open a
1180 security hole (since it doesn't know when to drop the set-gid
1181 privileges). If you're using "mailgroup", you should remove slocal
1182 (and its man page) from your system.
1184 Alternatives to slocal include deliver, procmail, and mailagent.
1185 (See "What mail filters are available?")
1187 ------------------------------
1189 Subject: 02.07 How can I build MH on Solaris 2?
1190 From: Richard Coleman <coleman at math.gatech.edu>
1191 Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 02:19:58 -0500
1193 nmh builds out of the box on Solaris.
1195 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
1196 Date: Sun, 8 Sep 1996 15:56:31 -0700
1198 See http://www.gw.com/mail/mh/patches/solaris/ for patches you may need.
1200 From: Neil Rickert <rickert at cs.niu.edu>,
1201 Scott K. Hutton <shutton at habanero.ucs.indiana.edu>,
1202 Casper H.S. Dik <casper at fwi.uva.nl>
1203 Date: Sun, 8 Sep 1996 15:57:25 -0700
1205 First, don't use the BSD compatible stuff. Make sure that the Sun or
1206 GNU compiler appear before the BSD compiler in your PATH (e.g.,
1209 Second, don't use GNU make. Make sure that the Sun make appears
1210 before the GNU make in your PATH.
1212 Use conf/examples/solaris2.sun.com and fix the paths, if necessary.
1213 Optionally change the following to use the GNU compiler, to perform
1214 optimization, and to create shared libraries.
1217 ccoptions -O -g -msupersparc
1220 Fix mhn.c with the diff in
1222 http://www.gw.com/mail/mh/patches/solaris/si_value_2.3.
1224 Optionally incorporate the Content-Length header fix. (See "How can
1225 I get MH to interpret the Content-Length field?")
1227 Linking with /usr/ucblib/libucb.so is incompatible with including
1230 When compiling, you can ignore the following warning:
1232 fmtcompile.c, line 238: warning: semantics of "/" change in ANSI C;
1235 If you're using AFS, you'll have to replace any occurrence of "ln"
1236 with "ln -s" wherever the make dies when it tries to make a link "on
1237 a different file system."
1239 See also ftp://ftp.fwi.uva.nl/pub/solaris/solaris2.faq.
1241 Date: Thu, 1 Dec 1994 00:00:00 -0800
1243 Unset LD_LIBRARY_PATH.
1245 From: Gary Strand <strandwg at ncar.ucar.edu>
1246 Date: Mon, 1 May 1995 00:00:00 -0800
1248 To cure slocal's Segmentation Fault problems, I decided to try 'cc'
1249 instead of 'gcc' (an alleged no-no under Solaris) and MH built just
1250 fine, and it's working perfectly.
1252 From: "Jason R. Mastaler" <jason at Mastaler.COM>
1253 Date: Mon, 25 Sep 1995 17:35:13 -0400
1255 Don't use "ldoptions -s" with gcc. It may cause the compile to fail
1258 gcc: Internal compiler error: program ld got fatal signal 11
1261 From: "Jeffrey T. Eaton" <jeaton at galt.com>
1262 Date: Fri, 04 Apr 1997 15:30:36 GMT
1264 Fixed [DBM_PAGFNO_NOT_AVAILABLE error] by getting the latest gdbm
1265 package, compiling and installing it and the dbm/ndbm compatability
1266 stuff, and moving Sun's broken ndbm.h out of /usr/include.
1268 To fix "../sbr/libmh.so: undefined reference to
1269 `__builtin_va_arg_incr'", add "option __BUILTIN_VA_ARG_INCR" to your
1272 ------------------------------
1274 Subject: 02.08 How can I build MH on Linux?
1275 From: Richard Coleman <coleman at math.gatech.edu>
1276 Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 02:19:58 -0500
1278 nmh should build out of the box for most Linux systems.
1280 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
1281 Date: Tue, 9 Feb 1999 23:04:53 -0800
1283 The Debian distribution of Linux comes with an MH and nmh packages.
1286 http://www.debian.org/.
1288 See also http://www.gw.com/mail/mh/patches/linux/.
1290 From: "James A. Robinson" <jimr at simons-rock.edu>
1291 Date: 17 Apr 96 20:39:02 GMT
1293 Somebody on Debian ported it to Linux ELF. Look on
1294 ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/stable/binary/mail/mh_6.8.4-13.deb for
1295 the .deb package of MH (it's a compressed tar file). The source is
1296 in ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/stable/source/mail/mh_6.8.4-orig.tar.gz
1297 and mh_6.8.4-13.diff.gz.
1299 From: Brian Kirouac <bri at psa.pencom.com>
1300 Date: 18 Apr 96 14:00:20 GMT
1302 If you are running Redhat and have rpm available you can also use
1303 ftp://???/pub/redhat-3.0.3/i386/RedHat/RPMS/mh-6.8.3-5.i386.rpm. The
1305 ftp://???/pub/redhat-3.0.3/i386/SRPMS/mh-6.8.3-5.i386.rpm
1307 From: "Brandon S. Allbery" <bsa at kf8nh.wariat.org>
1308 Date: Sun, 26 Nov 1995 16:18:50 -0800
1310 The current patch is the first one listed below. The old patch only
1311 works with libc-4.4, which is no longer used. The current patch is
1312 split into two pieces, as with the previous patch, but now the
1313 divisions are purely functional: the first diff enables MH to
1314 compile, the second allows creation of a shared library. [The paths
1315 are up to date, but I think the info in this paragraph is old. --Ed]
1317 Recent versions of GNU make choke on MH's makefiles. Unfortunately,
1318 the shared library patches depend on "export". If you have problems
1319 building MH, remove the "export" lines from all of the makefiles (if
1320 you applied the shared library patches) and try using BSD pmake
1323 If you don't want to compile MH, the second file contains
1324 pre-compiled ready-to-run binaries which can simply be extracted in
1327 ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/Mail/readers/mh-6.8.3-diffs.tar.gz
1328 ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/Mail/readers/mh-6.8.3-bin.tar.gz
1330 The sizes are 650k and 22k respectively.
1332 Note that these files are occasionally "cleaned up" by accident so
1333 please let me know if they are missing.
1335 ------------------------------
1337 Subject: 02.09 How can I build MH on IRIX?
1338 From: Richard Coleman <coleman at math.gatech.edu>
1339 Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 02:19:58 -0500
1341 nmh should build out of the box for Irix.
1343 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
1344 Date: Sun, 8 Sep 1996 15:33:22 -0700
1346 See http://www.gw.com/mail/mh/patches/sgi/ for patches you may need.
1348 From: Arne K. Frick <frick at info.uni-karlsruhe.de>
1349 Date: 06 Jun 1995 18:30:01 GMT
1351 There is a file at viz.tamu.edu:/pub/sgi (see FAQ) containing a diff
1352 and sample configuration. If you cannot locate it, I can mail it to
1353 you. Note, however, that I had tremendous difficulties with them
1356 1. Be sure to use /bin/make, NOT GNU make.
1357 2. patch vomits over the diff. You can get around this by increasing the
1359 3. The Makefile target for the shared library doesn't work. I had to do it
1362 But I'm stuck compiling mhn.c.
1364 From: Shankar Unni <shankar at sgi.com>
1365 Date: 9 Jun 1995 01:53:48 GMT
1367 The fix for compiling mhn.c is in
1369 http://www.gw.com/mail/mh/patches/solaris/si_value_2.3.
1371 From: Jack Repenning <jackr at informix.com>
1372 Date: 25 Jul 1995 02:35:41 GMT
1374 (See "IRIX config file") below.
1376 ------------------------------
1378 Subject: 02.10 How can I get MH to interpret the Content-Length field?
1379 From: Casper H.S. Dik <Casper.Dik at Holland.Sun.COM>
1380 Date: Sun, 8 Sep 1996 15:38:30 -0700
1382 Apply http://www.gw.com/mail/mh/patches/solaris/content_length to
1383 your MH distribution and add the configuration option
1384 "CONTENT_LENGTH". It also includes the si_ fix in
1386 http://www.gw.com/mail/mh/patches/solaris/si_value_2.3
1388 ------------------------------
1390 Subject: 02.11 How can I build MH on HP-UX?
1391 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
1392 Date: Sun, 8 Sep 1996 15:50:54 -0700
1394 If you find that your zotnet/tws directory isn't compiling, upgrade
1395 your MH (see "What is the current version/status of MH?") which
1396 includes fixes to lexedit.sed.
1398 See http://www.gw.com/mail/mh/patches/hp/ for for patches you may need.
1400 ------------------------------
1402 Subject: 02.12 Can I prevent adding the local hostname to addresses behind firewalls?
1404 From: Ted Remillard <tedr at hood.sd.com>
1405 Date: 24 Jun 1996 08:53:42 -0700
1407 You can get MH to stop managing the headers and let the email server
1408 to do it. To do this, build MH with the options DUMB and REALLYDUMB.
1409 In the $MHLIB/mts.conf (mtstailor) file, set the server option to
1410 the IP address of the email server. After this is done, MH sends
1411 email directly to the email server and Local email To: and From:
1412 fields just have the user's simple email address, e.g., <fred>, and
1413 the remote email From: header will contain user@domainname, e.g.,
1416 Don't forget to define the REALLYDUMB option in the file
1417 sbr/addrsbr.c described below.
1419 From: Bret Rothenberg <bretr at endeavour.exar.com>
1420 Date: Tue, 23 Jan 1996 12:25:24 -0800 (PST)
1422 Yes, use the "localname" parameter in "$MHLIB/mts.conf" (mtstailor)
1423 to specify the desired hostname.
1425 From: Ken Hornstein <kenh at cmf.nrl.navy.mil>
1426 Date: 18 Aug 1995 23:51:48 -0400
1428 If you're behind a firewall and sendmail gives you fits because MH
1429 adds the node name or site name to each address in the To: and CC:
1430 fields, you'll need to modify the MH source.
1432 The relevant source has to do with the REALLYDUMB option in
1433 sbr/addrsbr.c. Essentially what you need to do is set it up so
1434 REALLYDUMB is turned on (normally, it's turned off if you have MMDF
1435 or SMTP turned on). This will do what you want. I did this at our
1436 site, and it's been working great. The stuff for REALLYDUMB starts
1439 ------------------------------
1441 Subject: 02.13 Is there a patch to fix this or that?
1442 From: Kimmo Suominen <kim at tac.nyc.ny.us>
1443 Date: Sat, 3 Mar 2001 13:40:35 -0800
1445 The MH Patch Archive has been opened at
1447 http://www.gw.com/mail/mh/patches/
1449 It is a collection of patches to MH (the RAND MH Message Handling
1450 System), a set of electronic mail programs in the public domain.
1451 Since the last complete release of MH (version 6.8.3) UNIX systems
1452 have evolved making changes in the MH code necessary. Several new
1453 UNIX systems have emerged requiring new configuration templates and
1454 examples. This archive tries to collect all these fixes and
1455 enhancements that in the past have been available only through
1456 word-of-mouth and occasional reposts to newsgroups or mailing lists.
1458 The initial archive layout and the very time consuming collecting
1459 and categorizing of patches has been done by Jerry Peek.
1461 I will be the primary maintainer of the archive. Even though I will
1462 be monitoring several sources for new material (mainly the
1463 comp.mail.mh newsgroup but also the mailing lists <mh-workers at
1464 ics.uci.edu>, <mh-e-users at lists.sourceforge.net> and
1465 <exmh-workers at redhat.com>), I'd like to encourage everyone to
1466 submit patches also directly to the archive at <mh-archive at
1469 ------------------------------
1471 Subject: 02.14 How can I build MH on OS/2?
1472 From: Sanjay Aiyagari <sanjay at sandbox.snetnsa.com>
1473 Date: 21 Nov 1996 19:37:10 GMT
1475 ftp://ftp.jaist.ac.jp/pub/os/os2/network/MH/
1477 ------------------------------
1479 Subject: 02.15 Do any POP/IMAP servers handle MH format?
1480 From: "Carl S. Gutekunst" <csg at eng.sun.com>
1481 Date: 27 May 1997 07:24:34 GMT
1483 The University of Washington POP3 and IMAP servers can be backended
1484 by a variety of stores, including MH. This is the basis for
1485 Netscape's store, curiously enough. I haven't looked closely at how
1486 Mark Crispin implemented support for the new IMAP4 features when
1487 using an MH backend; it seems like there is a lot of computation
1488 when opening a folder for the first time, writing in the UID fields
1489 and such. But it basically appears to work.
1491 From: Lyndon Nerenberg <lyndon at MessagingDirect.COM>
1492 Date: 27 Jul 1999 11:36:25 -0600
1494 But [the UW IMAP server] can't delete/expunge from MH folders. (At
1495 least I've never been able to get it to work, and I've tried just
1496 about everything.) #mh in UW imapd isn't something I'd recommend to
1497 any serious MH user.
1499 From: Mark Crispin <mrc at CAC.Washington.EDU>
1500 Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1999 14:43:25 -0700
1502 > But it can't delete/expunge from MH folders.
1504 That's a very old version. delete/expunge has been in imap-4.x for a
1505 long while. However, there's no sticky flags.
1507 > #mh in UW imapd isn't something I'd recommend to any serious MH user.
1509 The converse is also true. The two don't play ball very well.
1511 From: Dieter Weber <dieter at Compatible.COM>
1512 Date: 11 Feb 2003 04:23:38 -0800
1514 The UW imap server supports MH folders. In order to see the MH
1515 mailboxes, you need to "subscribe" to the folders or add them to the
1516 .mailboxlist file in your home directory.
1518 ------------------------------
1520 Subject: !02.16 How can I build MH on Windows?
1521 From: David Levine <levinedl@acm.org>
1522 Date: Sun Sep 30 22:45:08 CDT 2012
1524 nmh is now available as a Cygwin package. Select it using Cygwin
1525 setup. Or, download and build from source. Hacks are no longer
1528 From: Satyaki Das <satyaki at theforce.stanford.edu>
1529 Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2002 20:57:19 -0700
1531 I have gotten MH-E to work on Windows (under Cygwin) using Earl
1532 Hood's patched nmh. It was really quite simple, but not very
1533 portable. I just needed to add/subtract "c:/cygwin" from a couple of
1534 places. Now it can read and send mail (even does PGP attachments).
1535 Thought this might be of interest to those of you stuck using
1538 From: Earl Hood <ehood at earlhood.com>
1539 Date: Sat, 08 Jun 2002 20:30:44 GMT
1541 I've made a tar/bz2 bundle available at
1543 <http://www.nacs.uci.edu/indiv/ehood/tmp/nmh-1.0.4-ehood-cygwin.tar.bz2>
1545 This includes the patched source with binaries pre-built.
1547 I just remembered that I also had to hack the makefiles to get
1548 things to install since windoze executables have to end with .exe. I
1549 hacked the generated makefiles, so if you rerun configure, you may
1550 lose the hacks. Also, I believe the install will fail when trying to
1551 install the documentation, so to force things do:
1555 The binaries and support files should get installed (under
1556 /usr/local/nmh), but the docs probably won't.
1558 Then you will need to edit /usr/local/nmh/etc/mts.conf to reflect
1559 your local configuration.
1561 If anyone has any problems installing, I could zip up my
1562 /usr/local/nmh since I think it contains everything needed for
1565 From: Bill Goffe <goffe at oswego.edu>
1566 Date: 25 May 1999 18:13:55 GMT
1568 If you have Windows, consider looking at VMware
1570 http://www.vmware.com/
1572 which provides a virtual machine where you can run Unix and
1573 therefore MH under Windows.
1575 From: Ted Nolan <ted at ags.ga.erg.sri.com>
1576 Date: 24 May 99 17:20:27 GMT
1578 The latest Cygnus Cygwin, GNU tools that run under Windows,
1580 http://www.cygwin.com/
1582 seems to work pretty well and may well be able to build nmh.
1584 ------------------------------
1586 Subject: 02.17 How can I build MH on a Mac?
1587 From: David Levine <levinedl@acm.org>
1588 Date: Sun Sep 30 22:47:12 CDT 2012
1590 nmh 1.3 and later build on Mac OS X out of the box.
1592 From: Dr Eberhard W Lisse <el at lisse.na>
1593 Date: Sun, 05 Jun 2005 13:43:19 +0100
1595 nmh compiles on the G4 iBook running Mac OS X 10.3.7 more or less
1596 out of the box with the powerpc HOST option. Use make all install.
1598 Use fink to install the nmh package on Max OS X 10.3.9 (and 10.4.1).
1600 metamail does not work out of the box. However,
1601 metamail-2.7.19-1030.src.rpm (SuSE) which compiles and installs
1604 For exmh, first use fink to install the tcltk package. Then use fink
1607 ------------------------------
1609 Subject: 03.00 ***** Scanning & Reading *****
1610 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
1611 Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1991 13:03:15 -0800
1613 ------------------------------
1615 Subject: 03.01 What do I do if scan shows the wrong date?
1616 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
1617 Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 00:00:00 -0800
1619 Upgrade to MH 6.8 or nmh.
1621 From: Darryl Okahata <darrylo at sr.hp.com>
1622 Date: 19 Jan 2000 23:01:10 -0800
1624 MH 6.8.3 and nmh 1.0 still have a minor buglet where sortm doesn't
1625 always sort messages properly. If a (questionable) mail client sends
1626 messages with 2-digit years, like:
1628 Date: Sat, 23 Oct 09 22:02:01 EST
1630 or sends out buggy dates like (as buggy versions of Elm do):
1632 Date: Sat, 23 Oct 100 22:02:01 EST
1634 then sortm will not sort these messages properly.
1636 I have submitted patches to nmh-workers.
1638 ------------------------------
1640 Subject: 03.02 How would one go about reading Usenet with MH?
1641 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
1642 Date: Sun, 26 Nov 1995 12:32:09 -0800
1644 You can post via mail. Send your article to <mail2news at
1645 news.demon.co.uk> with a legitimate Newsgroups field.
1647 From: Jerry Peek <jpeek at jpeek.com>
1648 Date: Tue, 1 Nov 1994 00:00:00 -0800
1650 You can save articles in the news readers for later perusal with MH.
1652 First, create a symbolic link from your mail directory (e.g.,
1653 usenet) to your news directory (e.g., "ln -s ~/News ~/Mail/usenet").
1654 You can then treat your news directory as a mail folder. Thus, to
1655 select a news group, use "folder +usenet/comp/mail/mh".
1657 To set the default save location correctly in rn, use:
1661 or in your nn presentation sequence:
1663 news.announce. +$F/$N
1668 If there's news spooled on your machine (that is, not via NNTP) then
1669 you can read a newsgroup with commands like:
1671 show first +/usr/spool/news/comp/mail/mh
1675 You can also use sequences to keep track of what you've read. MH
1676 will automatically set a "cur" sequence in each newsgroup you read
1677 that way. So, to continue reading the newsgroup sometime later,
1678 after you've read some other folder, you can do:
1680 next +/usr/spool/news/comp/mail/mh
1682 and you'll read the next (new) article (if any) in that newsgroup.
1684 Note that this can eventually make your private context file pretty
1685 huge; if there's a group you don't read often, you can remove its
1686 context entries with a command like:
1688 rmf +/usr/spool/news/comp/mail/mh
1690 Don't try that on a folder full of mail (a folder that isn't
1691 read-only), though... in that case, it'll remove all the messages!
1693 I haven't looked into posting. It seems like it shouldn't be hard.
1694 You could set up a "sendproc" that would look at outgoing email
1695 messages. If the message had a Newsgroups: header field, your
1696 sendproc could call inews(1) instead of post(8). I haven't seen much
1697 in the MH manpages or documentation about sendprocs (though I
1698 haven't looked for a couple of years...). See the "mysend" script in
1699 the MH book section 7.1.4 (13.13), or the URL:
1701 http://rand-mh.sourceforge.net/book/mh/senove.html#ASAtDm
1703 A threaded news reader like trn or tin is so much nicer, though,
1704 that reading news with MH may not be worth the hassle.
1706 See also MH book section 9.9 (8.7), or the URL:
1708 http://rand-mh.sourceforge.net/book/mh/shafol.html
1710 From: Stephen Gildea <gildea at stop.mail-abuse.org>
1711 Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1991 13:03:15 -0800
1713 Although news readers are better, if one really wants to use MH, bbc
1714 will do the job. For example, "bbc comp.mail.mh" reads this
1715 newsgroup. To enable bbc, you have to specify "bboards" when you
1718 From: Kimmo Suominen <kim at tac.nyc.ny.us>
1719 Date: 15 Aug 1996 18:18:10 GMT
1721 Sendmail v8 comes with MAILER(pop) which was written for the MH
1722 spop. Since I use bboards with NNTP, I never looked at the bboards
1725 Date: Tue, 1 Nov 1994 00:00:00 -0800
1727 See mhunify in (see also "What other MH software is available?").
1729 ------------------------------
1731 Subject: 03.03 How can I search through multiple folders?
1732 From: Jerry Peek <jpeek at jpeek.com>
1733 Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1993 00:00:00 -0800
1735 Recurse through the folders (in csh and sh):
1737 % foreach f (`folders -f`) $ for f in `folders -f`
1738 ? pick [switches] +$f > pick [switches] +$f
1741 Or create a folder that contains links to all messages (in csh and sh):
1743 % foreach f (`folders -f | grep -v -x ln`)
1744 ? refile -src +$f -link all +ln
1747 $ for f in `folders -f | grep -v -x ln`
1748 > do refile -src +$f -link all +ln
1751 and in the future, refile messages with "refile +folder +ln". To
1752 find something, use:
1754 % pick [switches] +ln
1756 See MH book sections 8.2.9 (7.2.9), 8.9.3 (7.8.3), or the URLs:
1758 http://rand-mh.sourceforge.net/book/mh/finpic.html#SeMTOnFo
1759 http://rand-mh.sourceforge.net/book/mh/usilin.html#AFoFuoLi
1761 ------------------------------
1763 Subject: 03.04 Why don't MH format commands such as %(friendly) work?
1764 From: Anthony Baxter <anthony at aaii.oz.au>
1765 Date: Sun, 1 May 1994 00:00:00 -0800
1767 The BERK option disables address parsing and therefore functions
1768 such as %(friendly). Recompile MH without the BERK option.
1770 ------------------------------
1772 Subject: 03.05 Why doesn't "show" display all of a MIME message?
1773 From: Jerry Peek <jpeek at jpeek.com>
1774 Date: Mon, 1 Aug 1994 00:00:00 -0800
1776 It's not the fault of the "show" command or of MH in general. It's
1777 your system's configuration. Check the $MHLIB/mhn.defaults
1778 (mhn_defaults) file; if it doesn't have defaults for all content
1779 types, add them. Or, if you can't (or shouldn't) change mhn.defaults
1780 (mhn_defaults), you can put default entries in your MH profile file
1781 for those content types.
1783 Here's the part of the mhshow(1) (mhn(1)) manpage that explains how
1784 content types are handled. The example is for mhshow, but if you're
1785 using mhn, you'd replace mhshow with mhn:
1787 First, mhshow will look for an entry of the form:
1789 mhshow-show-<type>/<subtype>
1791 to determine the command to use to display the content. If this
1792 isn't found, mhshow will look for an entry of the form:
1796 to determine the display command. If this isn't found, mhshow has
1799 mhshow-show-text/plain: %pmoreproc '%F'
1800 mhshow-show-message/rfc822: %pshow -file '%F'
1802 If neither apply, mhshow will check to see if the message has a
1803 application/octet-stream content with parameter "type=tar". If so,
1804 mhshow will use an appropriate command. If not, mhshow will
1807 So, add defaults that cover the types MH doesn't handle right now
1808 (or doesn't handle the way you want it to). Your defaults will
1809 override corresponding defaults in the $MHLIB/mhn.defaults
1810 (mhn_defaults) file. For example, if you don't have an HTML
1811 editor/browser on your system, you could tell MH to use the "less"
1812 paginator for HTML message parts:
1814 mhshow-show-text/x-html: less %F
1816 You can put that line in your MH profile.
1818 You can even set different defaults for different terminal types
1819 (say, your VT100 at home and your X setup at work). Make a file in
1820 the same format as mhn.defaults (mhn_defaults); store its pathname
1821 in the MHSHOW (MHN) environment variable. Add a test to your shell
1822 setup file (.bash_profile, .profile, .login) that tests the value of
1823 the TERM variable -- and, if you have an mhshow (mhn) setup file for
1824 that terminal type, store its pathname in the MHSHOW (MHN) variable.
1826 See also MH book sections 6.2.3, 9.4.4, 9.4.5, or the URLs:
1828 http://rand-mh.sourceforge.net/book/mh/remime.html#HomhShMe
1829 http://rand-mh.sourceforge.net/book/mh/confmhn.html#ShComhsh
1830 http://rand-mh.sourceforge.net/book/mh/confmhn.html#DiOChSmc
1832 From: Michael K. Neylon <mneylon at engin.umich.edu>
1833 Date: Tue, 1 Nov 1994 00:00:00 -0800
1835 If you are not using the X Window System, you may have to add this
1836 line to your MH profile:
1838 mhshow-charset-iso-8859-1: /bin/sh -c '%s' # nmh
1839 mhn-charset-iso-8859-1: /bin/sh -c '%s' # MH
1841 ------------------------------
1843 Subject: 03.06 Can I get show not to run "less" so much on MIME messages?
1844 From: Richard Coleman <coleman at math.gatech.edu>
1845 Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 02:19:58 -0500
1847 On nmh, you can do this just by "show -nocheckmime". This will
1848 disable the detection of MIME messages.
1850 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
1851 Date: Tue, 1 Nov 1994 00:00:00 -0800
1853 If you say, "show all," and one of the messages was a MIME message,
1854 your pager will be run several times on each message, rather than
1855 once on all the messages as a whole. If you find this annoying, set
1856 the environment variable NOMHNPROC:
1858 % setenv NOMHNPROC "" # csh
1859 $ NOMHNPROC= # sh and bash
1862 See also MH book sections 6.2.3, 6.2.10, or the URLs:
1864 http://rand-mh.sourceforge.net/book/mh/remime.html#HomhShMe
1865 http://rand-mh.sourceforge.net/book/mh/remime.html#Alttomhn
1867 ------------------------------
1869 Subject: 03.07 Why do I get "mhn: don't know how to display content"?
1870 From: Richard Coleman <coleman at math.gatech.edu>
1871 Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 02:19:58 -0500
1873 This has already been fixed in nmh.
1875 From: Keith Moore <moore at cs.utk.edu>
1876 Date: Sun, 8 Sep 1996 15:49:50 -0700
1878 MH 6.8.3 has a bug where it will not handle multipart/foo correctly
1879 if it doesn't know about foo. The patch:
1881 http://www.gw.com/mail/mh/patches/all/mhn_multipart
1883 tells it to treat such things as if they were multipart/mixed.
1885 (See also "Why doesn't "show" display all of a MIME message?").
1887 ------------------------------
1889 Subject: 03.08 How can I automatically delete MH backup files?
1890 From: mccammaa at expt05.stp.xfi.bp.com (Andy McCammont)
1891 Date: 22 May 1995 06:27:36 -0400
1893 On System V system, add this to your crontab. If you don't have one,
1894 put this in a file, and run "crontab file". If your system does not
1895 support personal crontab files, get your system administrator to add
1896 an equivalent line to the system crontab file or daily clean-up
1897 script. Note that some administrators set the prefix character to
1900 # Remove old MH files
1901 5 5 * * * find /PATH/TO/HOME/Mail -name ",*" -mtime +5 -exec rm {} \;
1903 ------------------------------
1905 Subject: 03.09 Fixing "cannot fopen and lock /var/spool/mail/(user)"
1906 From: Patrick.Wambacq at esat.kuleuven.ac.be
1907 Date: Mon, 30 Sep 96 15:00:16 +0200
1909 One should put the following lines in the $MHLIB/mts.conf
1915 This prevents MH from using kernel level locking, and uses lock
1916 files instead. It solved the problem for me on two different
1917 architectures. When the lockldir entry is left empty as above, the
1918 lock file is put in the same directory as the file to be locked. If
1919 another directory is wanted, its name should be put here.
1921 From: alhy at MAILBOX.SLAC.Stanford.EDU
1922 Date: Mon, 9 Sep 1996 01:01:16 -0700
1924 Often, this is caused by an NFS file lock. Don't ask me how it got
1925 there in the first place. To remove the file lock, do the following:
1927 # cd /var/spool/mail
1928 # cp user /tmp/user.tmp; rm user # save mail; remove locked file
1929 # chown user /tmp/user.tmp # allow user to inc old mail
1931 user% inc -file user.tmp # incorporate user's old mail
1933 Any mail that you receive in the fraction of a second that the
1934 second set of commands takes will be lost.
1936 (See also "Why does inc hang (on Sun)?")
1938 ------------------------------
1940 Subject: 03.10 Can I read my mail with a Web browser?
1941 From: Jerry Heyman <jerry@fourwinds.cx>
1942 Date: Sat, 09 Oct 2004 12:41:03 -0400
1944 See http://www.squirrelmail.org/
1946 SquirrelMail is a standards-based webmail package written in PHP4.
1947 It includes built-in pure PHP support for the IMAP and SMTP
1948 protocols, and all pages render in pure HTML 4.0 (with no
1949 JavaScript required) for maximum compatibility across browsers. It
1950 has very few requirements and is very easy to configure and
1951 install. SquirrelMail has all the functionality you would want
1952 from an email client, including strong MIME support, address
1953 books, and folder manipulation.
1955 No MH support. Unless you're willing to write it...
1957 From: J C Lawrence <claw at kanga.nu>
1958 Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2003 09:54:15 -0500
1960 UW-imap can read MH folders although it doesn't maintain sequence
1961 files properly. Drop any of the IMAP web front ends in front of
1964 From: aeriksson at fastmail.fm
1965 Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2003 22:36:52 +0100
1967 Have a peek at http://wmh.sf.net/. It's been a while since I worked
1968 on it, but it does give me what I need.
1970 Date: Mon, 05 Oct 1998 11:02:52 -0500
1971 From: Kent Landfield <kent at nfr.net>
1973 Hypermail now supports MIME and alternate mailbox formats and sorts
1974 by author, date, and thread and can be read by a WWW reader.
1976 http://www.landfield.com/hypermail/
1978 From: "Patrick A. Coronato" <coronato at me216.teb.allied.com>
1979 Date: 8 Sep 1995 16:36:03 GMT
1981 MHonArc, by Earl Hood from Convex, will read MH mailboxes as well as
1982 Unix mailboxes, create HTML "archives" and will also sort by date,
1983 thread and author and has support for MIME. Also, MHonArc is written
1984 in the Perl language. (You should go to this site if nothing more
1985 than to see the cool logo!)
1987 http://www.mhonarc.org/
1989 ------------------------------
1991 Subject: 03.11 How can I run inc automatically with POP?
1992 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
1993 Date: Mon, 27 Nov 1995 12:23:51 -0800
1995 If MH has been compiled with RPOP, then the POP server host either
1996 needs to have your host in /etc/hosts.equiv or in your .rhosts file.
1997 Then add to your MH profile:
2001 given that "cuckoo" is the name of the your POP server.
2003 From: Andy Norman <ange at hplb.hpl.hp.com>
2004 Date: Mon, 1 May 1995 00:00:00 -0800
2006 Assuming your POP server is called cuckoo, add an entry to your MH
2007 profile for 'inc' like so:
2009 inc: -noaudit -norpop -noapop -host cuckoo
2011 Add the following to ~/.netrc and ensure it is readable only by you
2012 (e.g., chmod 600 .netrc):
2014 machine cuckoo.domain.name login joeuser password secret
2016 Replace the hostname, login and password with your own, of course.
2017 The hostname probably has to be fully qualified (i.e., include the
2018 full domain name). This example assumes that you can send mail by
2019 other means (e.g., with SMTP).
2021 ------------------------------
2023 Subject: 03.12 Why does inc hang (on Sun)?
2024 From: ericding at mit.edu (Eric J. Ding)
2025 Date: 30 Apr 1996 00:22:01 -0400
2027 This may be due to a non-robust implementation of lockf() over NFS.
2028 Try setting lockstyle to 1 in the $MHLIB/mts.conf (mtstailor) file
2029 so that MH uses dotfile locking rather than FLOCK or LOCKF.
2031 ------------------------------
2033 Subject: 03.13 How can I get POP to work?
2034 From: Jonathan George <jmg at hpopd.pwd.hp.com>
2035 Date: Tue, 23 Apr 1996 10:23:16 GMT
2037 If you get the error:
2039 inc: -ERR Unknown command: "rpop"
2041 you're trying to use "rpop" as the mechanism to authenticate the
2042 user. This mechanism is specified in RFC 1225 and then removed by
2045 Your POP server is (rightly) rejecting this.
2047 The POP specification (RFC 1939) states that authentication is done
2048 either via a USER/PASS pair or via the APOP command.
2050 Try running inc with -noapop -norpop flags.
2052 ------------------------------
2054 Subject: 03.14 How do I persuade mhshow (mhn) not to bring up a new window?
2055 From: Joel Reicher <joel at panacea.null.org>
2056 Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2001 16:49:04 +1100
2058 I personally think [the solution below] is not the right solution.
2059 There's a reason that new window is opened--to ensure the correct
2060 characters are available. The "right" solution is surely to set the
2061 MM_CHARSET env var to iso-8859-1 and make the appropriate
2062 adjustments to the pager (in the case of less, setting
2063 LESSCHARSET=latin1).
2065 From: Larry Daffner <ldaffner at convex.com>
2066 Date: 27 Mar 1996 16:53:39 -0600
2068 Add one of the following to your .mh_profile:
2070 mhshow-charset-iso-8859-1: %s # nmh
2071 mhn-charset-iso-8859-1: %s # MH
2073 ------------------------------
2075 Subject: 03.15 How do I turn off of all the mhshow (mhn) prompts?
2076 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
2077 Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2001 11:33:10 -0800
2079 In nmh, use mhshow -nopause.
2081 From: Larry Daffner <ldaffner at convex.com>
2082 Date: 27 Mar 1996 16:53:39 -0600
2084 The "part xxx" message is controlled by the -list switch to mhn so
2085 add "mhn: -nolist" to your .mh_profile. To remove the pause, add an
2086 entry for "mhn-show-text/plain: more '%F'" to override the default
2087 which includes the "%p" escape. All of this is covered in the mhn
2088 man page (sort of--you need to add 2+2). It's a bit long, but well
2091 ------------------------------
2093 Subject: 03.16 Why is inc splitting messages improperly?
2094 From: Mayank Choudhary <micky at eng.sun.com>
2095 Date: Mon, 29 Apr 1996 09:39:29 -0700
2097 MH considers "From " lines as message separators, so if this string
2098 is found within the body, inc splits the message.
2100 Add the following line to your .forward
2102 "|/usr/bin/mailcompat <user-name>"
2104 where user-name is your login-id.
2106 See mailcompat(1) for more information.
2108 ------------------------------
2110 Subject: 03.17 Can MH thread messages?
2111 From: "John W. Coomes" <jcoomes at delirius.cs.uiuc.edu>
2112 Date: 30 Apr 1997 13:02:10 -0500
2114 Sort of. You can resort your folders by Subject with:
2116 sortm -textfield subject
2118 ------------------------------
2120 Subject: 03.18 How can I avoid reading the HTML version of the message?
2121 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at gbr.newt.com>
2122 Date: 23 Jun 2000 10:19:34 -0700
2124 You might find that you have two versions of the same message within
2125 the message. For example, one part might have a content type of
2126 text/plain and the other might be text/html.
2128 You may find that mhshow (mhn -show) wants to show the HTML version
2129 This is a feature of the multipart/alternative content type. If you
2130 prefer reading the the plain text version over the HTML version,
2131 you'd have to remove the line in $MHLIB/mhn.defaults or
2132 ~/.mh_profile that starts with mhshow-show-text/html
2133 (mhn-show-text/html). Of course, the tradeoff is that you'd never be
2134 able to view text/html at all, but you probably wouldn't care.
2136 ------------------------------
2138 Subject: 03.19 How do I view or save attachments?
2139 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at gbr.newt.com>
2140 Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 09:12:15 -0800
2142 Use mhshow (mhn -show) and mhstore (mhn -store) respectively. See
2143 the man pages for more details.
2145 ------------------------------
2147 Subject: 03.20 How do I view HTML attachments with Netscape?
2148 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at gbr.newt.com>
2149 Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 09:58:05 -0800
2151 Add one of the following to ~/.mh_profile:
2153 mhshow-show-text/html: %lnetscape -remote 'openURL(file:%f, new-window)'
2154 mhn-show-text/html: %lnetscape -remote 'openURL(file:%f, new-window)'
2156 The % escapes are described in the mhshow (mhn) man page. The ",
2157 new-window" argument in the netscape invocation is optional, but
2158 handy. After reading the message, you can dismiss the window with
2159 M-w and go back to reading mail.
2161 ------------------------------
2163 Subject: 03.21 Fixing folders: unable to allocate storage for msgstats
2164 From: Pete Phillips <pete at smtl.co.uk>
2165 Date: 30 Jan 2003 03:33:57 -0800
2167 I found the following in my context file:
2172 For some reason folders doesn't like this. Whether it's because of
2173 permission problems or just the size of my tmp directory (about 3/4
2174 of a GB) I don't know, but removing these lines from my context file
2177 ------------------------------
2179 Subject: 03.22 How do I recursively list message attachments?
2180 From: Joel Reicher <joel at panacea.null.org>
2181 Date: 31 Oct 2001 00:36:14 +1100
2183 I haven't quite managed a recursive listing, but I have worked out a
2184 recursive store, which is still useful. Hinted by a builtin display
2185 string for mhshow, I found the following works for mhstore:
2187 mhstore-store-message/rfc822: | mhstore -file -
2189 With that, mhstore will happily recurse down storing everything on
2190 its way. Not very discriminate, but the line can be altered to limit
2191 without destroying the recursion:
2193 mhstore-store-message/rfc822: | mhstore -auto -type message/rfc822 -type image/jpeg -file -
2195 which also names the files automatically for good measure.
2197 And, FWIW, I engage this by putting it in a separate file and
2198 invoking mhstore like
2200 env MHSTORE=mhn.rec mhstore
2202 ------------------------------
2204 Subject: 03.23 Why do folder and flist overlook some of my sub-folders?
2205 From: Richard Coleman <coleman at math.gatech.edu>
2206 Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 18:14:24 -0700
2208 There was a bug in these commands which caused them to quit
2209 searching a folder for sub-folders too early if the folder contained
2210 sub-folders which were symbolic links. This has been improved in
2211 nmh-0.25, but folder and flist will still not recurse into folders
2212 that contain only symbolic links.
2214 ------------------------------
2216 Subject: 04.00 ***** Filing *****
2217 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
2218 Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1991 13:03:15 -0800
2220 ------------------------------
2222 Subject: 04.01 Can I append MH messages to a Unix mailbox format file?
2223 From: Richard Coleman <coleman at math.gatech.edu>
2224 Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 02:19:58 -0500
2226 In nmh, use packf instead.
2228 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
2229 Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 00:00:00 -0800
2231 Yes, see $MHLIB/packmbox.
2233 ------------------------------
2235 Subject: 04.02 Can I append MH messages to a GNU Emacs rmail BABYL-format file?
2236 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
2237 Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1991 13:03:15 -0800
2239 To convert your MH folders to BABYL folders, first run the following
2240 script on your Mail directory.
2247 folder=`basename $f`
2248 echo -n packing $folder ...
2251 mv msgbox Mail-rmail/$folder
2255 This assumes you don't have nested folders. Your rmail folders will
2256 be left in $HOME/Mail-rmail in MMDF format which rmail can read.
2257 Then run rmail-input for each folder, which converts each folder
2260 Be sure not to append any messages before they are converted from
2261 MMDF to BABYL, since there may be really strange results.
2263 ------------------------------
2265 Subject: 04.03 Why do I get ".../.mh_sequences is poorly formatted?"
2266 From: Richard Coleman <coleman at math.gatech.edu>
2267 Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 02:19:58 -0500
2269 This bug has been fixed in nmh (as of version 0.20). There are no
2270 limitations on the length of an entry in the .mh_sequences file.
2272 From: Jerry Peek <jpeek at jpeek.com>
2273 Date: Mon, 1 Aug 1994 00:00:00 -0800
2275 There is a line length limit in this file. When sequences are
2276 unbroken (without gaps in numbering), that makes short entries in
2277 the .mh_sequences file, like this:
2281 But when there are lots of numbering gaps, the entry gets long:
2283 inftex: 76 79-81 87 95-96 105 109 120 124 135 141 158 163...
2285 That's when you run into problems, and why it's good to keep the
2286 folder packed when you can. Simply run "folder -pack +folder".
2288 If you're refiling a lot of messages in a large folder, you might
2289 not be able to use sequences. Use backquotes to give the message
2290 numbers directly to "refile". For example:
2292 refile +tex/info-tex `pick -to info-tex`
2294 That can still generate a long list of arguments to the "refile"
2295 command, and some Unixes can't handle that. In that case, use
2298 pick -to info-tex | xargs refile +tex/info-tex
2300 If worse comes to worst, fire up a Bourne shell and use a "while"
2303 pick -to info-tex | fmt | while read nums; do
2304 refile +tex/info-tex $nums
2307 The fmt(1) command breaks long lines into manageable chunks of 72
2308 characters or so, splitting arguments at whitespace. When you
2309 redirect the input of a while loop, a "read" command will read the
2310 incoming text and store it in a shell variable line by line. This is
2311 a quick-&-dirty way to write xargs(1) if you don't have it.
2313 ------------------------------
2315 Subject: 04.04 How can you save News articles into an MH folder?
2316 From: Jerry Peek <jpeek at jpeek.com>
2317 Date: Mon, 1 May 1995 00:00:00 -0800
2319 If your newsreader handles backquotes on its command line, you can
2320 use the mhpath command. For instance, if your "save" command is "s":
2322 s `mhpath new +somefolder`
2324 Or if your newsreader lets you define your own commands, as in shell
2325 aliases, you could define that as a command.
2327 If your newsreader can pipe an article to the standard input of a
2328 program, use the "rcvstore" command (in the MH library). For
2329 instance, if your "pipe" command is "|":
2331 | $MHLIB/rcvstore +somefolder
2333 Of course, you can also put that in a little shell script.
2335 ------------------------------
2337 Subject: 04.05 Are there any good tools to archive MH messages?
2338 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
2339 Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2007 18:35:53 -0700
2341 For those of lesser means, I have three shell scripts for archiving,
2342 seeking, and extracting MH messages that I had been using for a
2343 couple of decades. Send mail if interested.
2345 However, now that disk space is cheap and one can index years worth
2346 of mail in a minute or two, I haven't run those scripts in a few
2347 years. I intend to update them to index and archive a years-worth of
2350 Since glimpse is no longer free (as in speech), I've switched to
2351 swish++. Other indexing tools (which are also compatible with MH-E)
2352 include mairix and namazu.
2354 From: glimpse at cs.arizona.edu
2355 Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2001 10:26:24 -0800
2357 Glimpse is a very powerful indexing and query system that allows you
2358 to search through all your files very quickly. It can be used by
2359 individuals for their personal file systems as well as by
2360 organizations for large data collections.
2362 http://www.webglimpse.org/
2364 ------------------------------
2366 Subject: 04.06 How can I remove duplicate messages?
2367 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
2368 Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2004 13:04:57 -0700
2370 Don't let them get in there in the first place. Add the following to
2374 * ? formail -D 16384 $PM_CACHE/msgid
2377 If it's too late, you might be interested in mhfinddup, attached
2378 below, which is an embellishment of the Perl script in (see
2379 "Removing duplicate messages (Perl)").
2381 From: Jerry Peek <jpeek at jpeek.com>
2382 Date: 20 Nov 1995 18:51:24 GMT
2384 The easiest way I know of is to sort the folder by the Message-ID
2385 field using the sortm(1) command.
2387 After the sort, each message should be next to its duplicates in the
2388 folder. Use a script (shell, Perl, etc.) to weed out the duplicates.
2389 (See "Removing duplicate messages (Bourne)").
2391 The Perl script in (see "Removing duplicate messages (Perl)") does
2392 not require that you first sort the folder.
2394 ------------------------------
2396 Subject: 04.07 How can I remove holes in numbering?
2397 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
2401 ------------------------------
2403 Subject: 05.00 ***** Composing & Replying *****
2404 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
2405 Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1991 13:03:15 -0800
2407 ------------------------------
2409 Subject: 05.01 Why does repl add a "Re:" to a message that already has one?
2410 From: Larry McVoy <lm at slovax.Eng.Sun.COM>
2411 Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1991 13:03:15 -0800
2413 I carefully reconfigured and rebuilt MH from scratch and the problem
2416 ------------------------------
2418 Subject: 05.02 How do I include messages in repl with or without ">"?
2419 From: Richard Coleman <coleman at math.gatech.edu>
2420 Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 02:19:58 -0500
2422 In nmh, to include a message in a reply with a leading ">", just use
2425 From: Alan Thew <qq11 at liv.ac.uk>, Mike Schwager <schwager at cs.uiuc.edu>,
2426 James T Perkins <jamesp at sp-eug.com>
2427 Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 00:00:00 -0800
2429 When making a reply, specify a filter file on the command line:
2431 repl -filter repl.format
2433 This filter file must be in your MH mail directory (usually "Mail",
2434 in your home directory). Here are a couple of example repl.format
2437 overflowtext="",overflowoffset=0
2438 message-id:nocomponent,formatfield=\
2439 "In message %{text}, you wrote:"
2440 body:component="> ",overflowtext="> ",overflowoffset=0
2444 overflowtext="",overflowoffset=0
2445 date:component="Your message dated",formatfield=\
2446 "%<(nodate{text})%{text}%|%(pretty{text})%>"
2447 body:component="> ",overflowtext="> ",overflowoffset=0
2449 Setting overflowoffset to 0 keeps MH from doing anything to
2450 extra-long lines in the headers. In the body, however, this behavior
2451 is overridden so that long lines are automatically broken and a ">"
2452 is inserted before every line. You could put almost whatever you
2453 want between those quotes, although the "standard" ">" makes it
2454 easier to read notes that have been included several times. The
2455 examples differ with the descriptive text that is inserted before
2458 It is suggested not to use the "prompter" editor in this case, since
2459 it is likely that you'll not want to use all of the included
2460 message. Indeed, it is proper etiquette to edit out all unnecessary
2461 include verbiage so readers don't have to wade through the morass to
2462 read your pearls of wisdom.
2464 WARNING: the '>' appears on the first line ONLY in versions prior to
2465 6.7.2. Upgrade to MH 6.8.
2467 See also MH book sections 7.8.4 (6.7.4), 7.8.5 (6.7.5), 10.4.1
2468 (9.4.1), or the URLs:
2470 http://rand-mh.sourceforge.net/book/mh/reprep-2.html#ReaEdi
2471 http://rand-mh.sourceforge.net/book/mh/reprep-2.html#Inc
2472 http://rand-mh.sourceforge.net/book/mh/verrep.html#IncRep
2474 ------------------------------
2476 Subject: 05.03 How can I eliminate duplicate copies of letters to myself?
2477 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
2478 Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1991 13:03:15 -0800
2480 Add these two lines to your MH profile file:
2482 Alternate-Mailboxes: user@host1, user@host2, ...
2485 The Alternate-Mailboxes also tells scan which messages are really
2486 from you so that it can place the recipient in the scan line instead
2489 From: Jerry Peek <jpeek at jpeek.com>
2490 Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1991 13:03:15 -0800
2492 To get one copy, you can either:
2494 - Take out the "-nocc me"... then you'll get exactly one copy of
2495 your replies (assuming all your addresses are listed in
2496 Alternate-Mailboxes), or
2498 - (See also "How can I save a copy of all messages I send?").
2500 For more info, see the man pages comp(1), repl(1), forw(1),
2501 dist(1) and mh-mail(5).
2503 See also MH book sections 7.8.2 (6.7.2), 9.8 (8.6), or the URLs:
2505 http://rand-mh.sourceforge.net/book/mh/reprep-2.html#Sel
2506 http://rand-mh.sourceforge.net/book/mh/defmai.html
2508 From: Alec Wolman <wolman at crl.dec.com>
2509 Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1991 13:03:15 -0800
2511 Listing the name of a mailing list in Alternate-Mailboxes is also a
2512 convenient way to AVOID automatically cc-ing a mailing list when
2513 replying to a person who sent the message to the mailing-list.
2515 From: Andre Srinivasan <asriniva at us.oracle.com>
2516 Date: Fri, 24 Jan 1997 09:33:19 -0800
2518 Rather than specify the hostname as part of the mailbox, you can
2519 simply specify the username and it will match on any host:
2521 Alternate-Mailboxes: asriniva
2523 ------------------------------
2525 Subject: 05.04 How can I include my signature?
2526 From: Eric W. Ziegast <ziegast at uunet.uu.net>,
2527 Hardy Mayer <hardy at golem.ps.uci.edu>
2528 Date: Tue, 1 Nov 1994 00:00:00 -0800
2530 There are several ways.
2534 1a) In your Mail directory, create files that include your signature
2535 into the format of the message.
2544 Eric Ziegast ziegast at uunet.uu.net
2545 UUNET Technologies uunet!ziegast
2548 body:component="> ",compwidth=2
2550 :Eric Ziegast ziegast at uunet.uu.net
2551 :UUNET Technologies uunet!ziegast
2553 To use the replfmt file, add the following to your ~/.mh_profile:
2555 repl: -filter replfmt
2557 When comp is used, your signature is already there along with my
2558 headers. When repl is used, the mhl program takes the body of
2559 the letter you're replying to, prepends '> ' to each line and
2560 then adds your signature at the end (available after version
2563 1b) Create an "editor" which can be called from whatnow to add the
2564 signature when desired or create a frontend to post (use the
2565 .mh_profile line "postproc: postproc" to call it) that always
2566 appends the .signature file before calling post to mail the
2567 message. David J. Fiander <david at golem.uucp>, David A.
2568 Truesdell <truesdel at nas.nasa.gov> and Tom Wilmore <sastjw at
2569 unx.sas.com> have sample scripts to do these.
2571 From: Jerry Peek <jpeek at jpeek.com>
2572 Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 00:00:00 -0800
2574 1c) mysend, a sendproc script, processes a message after "What now?
2575 send". See "What references exist for MH" to see where the MH
2576 book scripts can be ftped from. The script is explained in MH
2577 book Section 7.1.4 (13.13), or the URL:
2578 http://rand-mh.sourceforge.net/book/mh/senove.html#ASAtDm
2580 2) Using your editor. If you use vi, you can use something like:
2582 map S :r ~/.signature
2584 to load your signature out of .signature every time you
2587 3) Use your windowing system. xterm, for example, can provide key
2588 and button mappings for the utterly lazy.
2590 4) If you use Emacs with MH-E:
2592 4a) C-c C-s will append the signature.
2594 From: Andre Srinivasan <andre at neuronet.pitt.edu>
2595 Date: Mon, 1 May 1995 00:00:00 -0800
2597 4b) Add the following to your .emacs file:
2599 (add-hook 'mh-compose-letter-function
2603 (goto-char (point-max))
2605 (mh-insert-signature)))))
2607 This hook is called after the draft buffer has been initialized,
2608 but before you have a chance to type anything.
2610 From: Tom Christiansen <tchrist at perl.com>
2611 Date: Tue, 1 Nov 1994 00:00:00 -0800
2613 Tired of the same old signature? Want different signatures for
2614 different newsgroups? Here's a program to help you out.
2616 The way it works is to have .signature be a named pipe, so if you
2617 don't have named pipes, just say 'n'.
2619 The sigrand program then feeds stuff down the pipe every time
2620 someone wants to read it. That way it works for more than just news,
2621 but for anything that wants to read your .signature, like a mailer.
2623 You have your choice of three kinds of signatures:
2625 1) random (short) fortune from "fortune -s"; you get these if
2626 you don't have a global sig file.
2627 2) random fortune from ~/News/SIGNATURES [global sig file]
2628 3) random fortune form ~/News/(newsgroup)/SIGNATURES [local sig files]
2630 Send mail if interested.
2632 Date: Tue, 1 Nov 1994 00:00:00 -0800
2634 See also the Signature FAQ (see "What references exist for MH?").
2636 ------------------------------
2638 Subject: 05.05 How do I call my editor with arguments?
2639 From: John Romine <jromine at ics.uci.edu>
2640 Date: Mon, 1 May 1995 00:00:00 -0800
2642 Set your editor (in .mh_profile) to the following shellscript.
2645 <youreditor> <yourargs> "$@"
2648 From: Ray Nickson <Ray.Nickson at comp.vuw.ac.nz>
2649 Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1991 13:03:15 -0800
2651 You might find it useful to make <youreditor> $EDITOR, or to use
2652 different arguments depending on your EDITOR environment variable.
2654 ------------------------------
2656 Subject: 05.06 How can I digestify messages in a folder for mail to another user?
2657 From: Jerry Peek <jpeek at jpeek.com>, Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
2658 Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1991 13:03:15 -0800
2662 forw [-digest tmp] [-form forwcomps] [-filter mhl.digest]
2665 These messages can be un-digestified :-) by the MH burst(1) program.
2667 See also MH book sections 7.9.7 (6.8.7), 8.10 (7.9), or the URLs:
2669 http://rand-mh.sourceforge.net/book/mh/forfor-2.html#CreDig
2670 http://rand-mh.sourceforge.net/book/mh/burdig.html
2672 From: Glenn Vanderburg <glv at utdallas.edu>
2673 Date: Tue, 1 Nov 1994 00:00:00 -0800
2675 There's another way, which is better if the recipient understands
2678 forw -mime messages +folder
2680 (Make sure that you either have "automhnproc: mhn" in your mh
2681 profile, or type "edit mhn" to whatnow before you send it.)
2683 This bundles each message in a MIME message/rfc822 part, and then
2684 bundles the whole mess up in a multipart/digest part. You can still
2685 add your own text at the beginning. The MH burst program can also
2686 understand these messages and split them apart with no problem. This
2687 works beautifully with MIME-capable mail readers, especially exmh.
2689 ------------------------------
2691 Subject: 05.07 How can I change my return address?
2692 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
2693 Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1992 00:00:00 -0800
2695 If you find that your mailer creates a From header that others have
2696 trouble replying to, you can add a Reply-To header to override the
2697 From header in replies.
2699 Copy the components and replcomps files which are normally found in
2700 $MHLIB into your Mail directory and add a line like the following
2701 after the Subject header replacing my address with your address:
2703 Reply-To: jack@newt.com
2705 ------------------------------
2707 Subject: 05.08 How can I change my From header?
2708 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
2709 Date: Mon, 27 Nov 1995 11:40:50 -0800
2711 With either of the following solutions, you'll need to add an
2712 Alternate-Mailboxes entry in your MH profile so that scan prints
2713 "To: recipient" rather than your faked address. For example, if your
2714 real address is user@somedomain.com and you've added a From field
2717 From: Joe Bob <joe.bob@somedomain.com>
2719 you'll add the following to .mh_profile:
2721 Alternate-Mailboxes: joe.bob@somedomain.com
2723 From: Bill Wisner <wisner at netcom.com>
2724 Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1992 00:00:00 -0800
2726 If you're just interested in changing the hostname, add a line to
2727 $MHLIB/mts.conf (mtstailor):
2729 localname: desired_host_name
2731 From: Jerry Peek <jpeek at jpeek.com>
2732 Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1992 00:00:00 -0800
2734 Just put a "From:" header in your "components", "replcomps" and
2735 "forwcomps" files. MH will add a "Sender:" header with what it
2736 thinks is your real address.
2738 ------------------------------
2740 Subject: 05.09 How can I save a copy of all messages I send?
2741 From: Ping Huang <pshuang at sgihub.corp.sgi.com>
2742 Date: Mon, 18 Dec 1995 17:51:33 -0800
2744 I suggest the use of the Dcc: field (See "What is the Dcc header?"),
2745 since the use of "Dcc:" solves the issue of having the same
2746 Message-Id. The warning about using Dcc: in general contexts doesn't
2747 apply to self-blind-carbon copies, and if "Dcc:" is used and you are
2748 automatically sorting messages into folders based on mailing lists,
2749 messages which you send will get refiled in the same way. Some may
2750 prefer all outgoing messages to be segregated; others (including
2751 myself) prefer not to segregate outgoing messages.
2753 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>, Jerry Peek <jpeek at jpeek.com>
2754 Date: Mon, 1 Aug 1994 00:00:00 -0800
2756 Copy the components and replcomps files which are normally found in
2757 $MHLIB into your Mail directory and add a line like the following
2758 after the cc header:
2762 All outgoing messages will then be saved in the +out folder. If you
2763 make a distcomps file, it needs "Resent-Fcc:".
2765 From: Jeppe Sigbrandt <jay at elec.gla.ac.uk>
2766 Date: Sat, 5 Apr 1997 02:04:53 +0100
2768 You can also use @ in the Fcc field to file the outgoing message in
2773 This is useful if you filter your mail (e.g., with procmail) and you
2774 read your mail in folders other than +inbox.
2776 From: David S. Goldberg <dsg at linus.mitre.org>
2777 Date: 30 Oct 1995 10:23:55 -0500
2779 You can get the Message-ID field by placing the folder in the "Fcc"
2784 to your .mh_profile. Unfortunately, this Message-ID isn't as useful
2785 as sendmail's--it doesn't include the date.
2787 ------------------------------
2789 Subject: 05.10 Can the folder in Fcc: be dynamically specified?
2790 From: Andy Rabagliati <andyr at wizzy.com>
2791 Date: Mon, 1 Aug 1994 00:00:00 -0800
2793 My suggestion would be to run Tom Christiansen's rfi script. If you
2794 cannot find it on *.sources archive sites (please try first), I can
2797 One good idea would be to write a whatnowproc that files the mail
2798 based on a procmail or deliver file. Then you can use the same file
2799 for incoming and outgoing mail.
2801 ------------------------------
2803 Subject: 05.11 Can I post secure/encryped mail?
2804 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
2805 Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 18:06:39 -0700
2807 MH-E 7.0 supports GPG out of the box.
2809 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
2810 Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 05:30:43 -0800
2812 PGP keys can be obtained via mail from <pgp-public-keys at
2813 pgp.mit.edu>, and via the Web at
2814 http://www.pgp.net/pgpnet/pks-commands.html. Many PGP front-ends
2815 (e.g., mailcrypt) automatically obtain keys for you.
2817 See http://www.pgp.net/ for more info.
2819 From: Vivek Khera <khera at kciLink.com>
2820 Date: 19 Jun 1995 22:06:37 GMT
2822 A much more robust Perl script I wrote is appended below. [Send a
2823 note to Vivek for the script. --Ed] It works its way through
2824 aliases, and avoids problems with full names in the headers.
2826 Here is my mhn profile entry to display the messages.
2828 mhshow-show-application/x-pgp: %l pgp -m '%F' # nmh
2829 mhn-show-application/x-pgp: %l pgp -m '%F' # MH
2831 to use the script, after you edit the message, at the What now?
2832 prompt, type "edit pgpmail" for plain ascii encryption or "pgpmail
2833 -m" for a MIME formatted encryption. If you want to add a digital
2834 signature, give the script the -s flag also.
2836 From: Jeffrey C. Ollie <jeff at ollie.clive.ia.us>
2837 Date: Mon, 1 May 1995 00:00:00 -0800
2839 TIS has a free, draft-standard compliant public key system that
2840 works with MH (PEM). Check it out on ftp.tis.com.
2842 From: Kimmo Suominen <kim at tac.nyc.ny.us>
2843 Date: Mon, 1 May 1995 00:00:00 -0800
2845 You could try looking at the URL http://www.tac.nyc.ny.us/ and
2846 following the link from the cover page. Everything you need for PGP
2847 to work with MH is there (scripts and mhn entries).
2849 From: mathew at mantis.co.uk
2850 Date: Mon, 1 May 1995 00:00:00 -0800
2852 Excellent stuff. I've tried altering it to conform to
2853 draft-borenstein-pgp-mime-00.txt.
2855 Unfortunately, I can't get mhn to tag PGP-armoured text as
2856 application/pgp; format=text without it insisting on base64 encoding
2857 it. So I can't quite manage to implement the standard. *sigh*
2859 Presumably mhn thinks that anything which isn't text/* must be
2862 From: John R MacMillan <john at interlog.com>
2863 Date: Wed, 16 Apr 1997 00:06:59 -0700
2865 Premail, in conjunction with MH, can display and compose security
2866 multiparts (e.g., multipart/signed and multipart/encrypted PGP mail,
2867 non-MIME PGP, and some S/MIME). Check out
2869 http://www.c2.org/~raph/premail/
2873 ------------------------------
2875 Subject: 05.12 How can I send multi-media (MIME) attachments?
2876 From: Brian Exelbierd <bex at ncsu.edu>
2877 Date: Mon, 09 Oct 1995 08:05:55 -0400
2881 1. Compose a letter using comp.
2883 2. When you get to a point where you want to include a MIME
2884 attachment, type the following to include a GIF image (note: the
2885 '#' must be in the first column):
2887 #image/gif [Pictures at an Exhibition] /usr/lib/pictures/exhibition.gif
2889 3. Finish your letter, adding more text or attachments as needed.
2891 4. Save your letter and exit the editor. At the Whatnow prompt type
2892 "edit mhn". mhn will automatically format your letter with the
2893 MIME attachments leaving the original letter in ,##,orig where ##
2894 is the letter number.
2896 5. Type "send" at the Whatnow prompt, and poof, you have just sent
2897 MIME mail. I strongly recommend you practice sending yourself
2900 For more information, see the mhn(1) man page,
2901 ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/iana/assignments/media-types/media-types
2902 for a list of allowed media types in addition to image/gif, and
2903 Chapter 3 in the MH book or the URL:
2905 http://rand-mh.sourceforge.net/book/overall/tocs/intmime.html
2907 ------------------------------
2909 Subject: 05.13 What's the best way to send mail to a long list of people?
2910 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
2911 Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 07:53:53 -0700
2913 There are three ways to keep the list of members from appearing in
2916 If you're planning on mailing to these people regularly, the best
2917 way is to create an alias in /etc/aliases (/usr/lib/aliases). That
2918 way, recipients can send and reply to the list as well.
2920 The other two ways allow you to manage the list privately, but the
2921 recipients cannot send to the list (unless you set something up with
2922 your deliver or procmail script). One is with a group list. It looks
2925 To: All-members: member1, member2, member3, ..., membern;
2927 The recipients see this:
2931 You can make this an MH alias as well.
2933 The second way is to use a blind carbon copy (see "How do I send
2934 blind carbon copies?").
2936 Or you could also use the undocumented Dcc field which is used like
2937 the Bcc field, but doesn't inject the "Blind-Carbon-Copy." Warning:
2938 (See "What is the Dcc header?")
2940 ------------------------------
2942 Subject: 05.14 What is the Dcc header?
2943 From: jpeek at jpeek.com (Jerry Peek)
2944 Date: 14 Sep 96 05:51:13 GMT
2946 If you put the alias in the Dcc field and leave the To: field empty,
2947 there's a good chance that the recipients will get a message with
2950 Apparently-to: <someaddress>
2952 and it might even list several addresses. To avoid that, use a To:
2953 field with some address (like yours) in it. I use a comment that
2954 tells people what's really happening--like this, more or less:
2956 To: "Faculty members, c/o" <super@wierdlmpc.msci.memphis.edu>
2959 There are some other choices, like using an un-replyable group list
2960 in the To: field, but I think they tend to confuse non-techies.
2962 Date: Wed, 27 Sep 1995 09:46:37 -0700
2963 From: John Romine <jromine at yoyodyne.ICS.UCI.EDU>
2965 The Dcc (Distribution Carbon Copy) field behaves much like the Bcc
2966 field, but does not add the "Blind-Carbon-Copy" notice. This header
2967 is removed before posting the message,and a copy of the message is
2968 distributed to each listed address. This could be considered a form
2969 of Blind Carbon Copy which is best used for sending to an address
2970 which would never reply (such as an auto-archiver).
2972 People should not be using Dcc as a substitute-Bcc to send to other
2973 people. When users use Dcc as a substitute for Bcc, there is *no*
2974 indication to the "blind" recipients that they have received a blind
2975 copy. If those recipients should reply (and they have no indication
2976 why they shouldn't), the original author could be very embarassed
2979 ------------------------------
2981 Subject: 05.15 How can I make sense of the replcomps file?
2982 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
2983 Date: Thu, 9 Mar 2006 19:27:14 -0800
2985 The best thing to do is curl up with the mh-format(5) man page, or
2986 Section 11.2 of the MH book, or the URL:
2988 http://rand-mh.sourceforge.net/book/mh/mhstr.html
2990 These will explain the default replcomps file, included here. Don't
2991 start with the first four lines--the latter group of lines are much
2992 easier to understand.
2994 %; $Header: /cvsroot/nmh/nmh/etc/replcomps,v 1.3.2.1 2003/10/24 20:14:46 kenh Exp $
2996 %; These next lines slurp in lots of addresses for To: and cc:.
2997 %; Use with repl -query or else you may get flooded with addresses!
2999 %; If no To:/cc:/Fcc: text, we output empty fields for prompter to fill in.
3001 %(lit)%(formataddr{reply-to})\
3002 %(formataddr %<{from}%(void{from})%|%(void{apparently-from})%>)\
3003 %(formataddr{resent-to})\
3004 %(formataddr{prev-resent-to})\
3005 %(formataddr{x-to})\
3006 %(formataddr{apparently-to})\
3007 %(void(width))%(putaddr To: )
3008 %(lit)%(formataddr{to})\
3010 %(formataddr{x-cc})\
3011 %(formataddr{resent-cc})\
3012 %(formataddr{prev-resent-cc})\
3014 %(void(width))%(putaddr cc: )
3015 Fcc: %<{fcc}%{fcc}%|+outbox%>
3016 Subject: %<{subject}Re: %{subject}%>
3018 %; Make References: and In-reply-to: fields for threading.
3019 %; Use (void), (trim) and (putstr) to eat trailing whitespace.
3021 %<{message-id}In-reply-to: %{message-id}\n%>\
3022 %<{message-id}References: \
3023 %<{references}%(void{references})%(trim)%(putstr) %>\
3024 %(void{message-id})%(trim)%(putstr)\n%>\
3025 Comments: In-reply-to \
3026 %<{from}%(void{from})%?(void{apparently-from})%|%(void{sender})%>\
3028 message dated "%<(nodate{date})%{date}%|%(tws{date})%>."
3031 In particular, note the following:
3033 \ consider the following line to be part of the current line. If
3034 this continuation character is absent, a newline (\n) will
3035 always be inserted. Note that if the field is conditional, and
3036 the condition is false, and there isn't a trailing backslash,
3037 then a blank line will appear in your reply. Since the rest of
3038 the header will now be considered to be part of the body, this
3039 is probably not what you want.
3040 \n inject an actual newline into the reply. Note that inserting a
3041 field without a trailing backslash (\) will cause that field
3042 to be emitted in the reply as well.
3043 %<{field}, %?{field}, %|, %>
3044 if field exists, else if field exists, else, endif.
3045 Conditional fields nearly always contain an explicit newline
3046 (\n) and end with a continuation character (\).
3047 %(command) mh-format commands
3048 %{field} value of the header field inserted at this point
3050 To add new fields, you can either add fields based on whether
3051 certain fields exist in the original message (e.g.,
3052 %<{message-id}...), or hard-code them, as in the Fcc, Subject, or
3053 Comments fields above.
3055 ------------------------------
3057 Subject: 05.16 How can I convert quoted-printable to 8bit in quoted text in replies?
3058 From: Jarle F. Greipsland <jarle at idt.unit.no>
3059 Date: 22 Aug 1995 10:42:07 +0200
3061 The idea behind the solution is that I need mhn to store the
3062 contents of the mail in the native iso8859-1 format somewhere. I did
3063 this by creating a custom editor that is invoked when I reply to a
3064 message. This editor extracts the body of the message (sorry, no
3065 multipart stuff), indents it with '> ', appends it to the draft
3066 message and invokes the ordinary editor on it. Here are the details:
3068 `isorepl' is a symbolic link from my $HOME/bin-directory to `repl'.
3070 In my .mh_profile I added the following two lines:
3072 isorepl: -form isoreplcomps -editor isoextract
3075 The isoreplcomps file in my Mail-directory contains:
3077 %(lit)%(formataddr %<{reply-to}%?{from}%?{sender}%?{return-path}%>)\
3078 %<(nonnull)%(void(width))%(putaddr To: )\n%>\
3079 %(lit)%(formataddr{to})%(formataddr{cc})%(formataddr(me))\
3080 %<(nonnull)%(void(width))%(putaddr cc: )\n%>\
3081 %<{fcc}Fcc: %{fcc}\n%>\
3082 %<{subject}Subject: Re: %{subject}\n%>\
3083 %<{date}In-reply-to: Your message of "\
3084 %<(nodate{date})%{date}%|%(pretty{date})%>."%<{message-id}
3085 %{message-id}%>\n%>\
3087 #<text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
3088 %<{message-id}In message %{message-id} %>\
3089 %<{from}%(friendly{from}) writes%|You write%>:
3091 This is a "Usenet-like" quoting style. Modify to suit your own
3092 taste. This form will setup the proper header, as well as the first
3093 line of the new message (In <mmmmbbbb> nnnn writes etc.).
3095 The first editor, `isoextract', looks like this:
3099 # Called from within repl where the "editalt" variable is valid
3101 # Point to a special MHN configuration file (save old one)
3103 MHN=$HOME/`mhparam Path`/isoquotemsg
3106 # Extract message body to "native" format (should be iso-8859-1)
3108 mhn -file "$editalt" -store >> $1 2>/dev/null
3111 myname=`basename $0`
3112 next=`mhparam ${myname}-next`
3113 if [ "x$next" != "x" ]; then
3117 `isoquotemsg' has just one rule; how mhn should store a text message.
3119 mhn-store-text: |sed -e 's/^[ ]*$//' \
3120 -e 's/^\([>|]\)\(.*\)$/>\1\2/' \
3121 -e 's/^\([^>|].*\)$/> \1/'
3123 This tells mhn to pipe the message to stdout, where the sed commands
3124 will do the reformatting/quoting. (Note: the first pair of square
3125 brackets contains a space and a tab.)
3127 So, when I do a `isorepl' to a message, `repl' will create the draft
3128 message with the proper headers (based on the `isoreplcomps' format
3129 file), fire off its first editor, `isoextract', with the name of the
3130 draft file as its parameter. `isoextract' then invokes mhn in a
3131 suitable environment, tells it that it is to use the file $editalt
3132 as its source, and orders it to store the contents. The store-text
3133 rule in the custom MHN-file tells it to just pipe the message (in
3134 native iso8859-1 form) through a small set of sed commands, and
3135 `isoextract' uses the normal shell construct to append the result to
3136 the draft file. Then, if there's defined a `isoextract-next' entry
3137 in the .mh_profile, isoextract exec's this editor.
3139 ------------------------------
3141 Subject: 05.17 Can I have aliases include aliases?
3142 From: Bruce Cox <bruce at maths.su.oz.au>
3143 Date: Fri, 16 Aug 1996 14:26:12 +1000
3147 You just need to remember the way MH expands aliases. In particular,
3148 the right hand sides are only expanded by the aliases below them in
3149 your aliases file. So, if you put in:
3151 dead-men: presidents, authors
3152 presidents: washington, lincoln, jefferson, roosevelt
3153 authors: thoreau, irving, london
3159 then you would get the response:
3161 washington, lincoln, jefferson, roosevelt, thoreau, irving, london
3163 If you had the dead-men line after the presidents and authors
3164 aliases, the response would be:
3168 ------------------------------
3170 Subject: 05.18 Why doesn't mhmail understand aliases?
3171 From: "John L. Romine" <jromine at yoyodyne.ics.uci.edu>
3172 Date: 25 Apr 1996 16:34:10 GMT
3174 One way that mhmail might be run is from a shell script. This means
3175 that the user running it might not use MH, and would not have a
3176 .mh_profile, etc. If you want to use aliases with mhmail, expand
3177 them before passing them as arguments (e.g., "mhmail `ali joe`").
3179 ------------------------------
3181 Subject: 05.19 How do I send blind carbon copies?
3182 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
3183 Date: Mon, 9 Sep 1996 00:32:14 -0700
3185 Use the Bcc header field:
3187 To: your-address-here
3188 Bcc: member1, member2, member3, ..., membern
3190 The recipients see this:
3192 To: your-address-here
3194 ------- Blind-Carbon-Copy
3196 Content of message, with headers
3198 If you don't want the "Blind-Carbon-Copy" message, use the Dcc
3199 field, but this is discouraged in true blind carbon copies since the
3200 warning may prevent the recipient from embarrassing someone
3201 inadvertently. Read the warning in (see "What is the Dcc header?").
3203 ------------------------------
3205 Subject: 05.20 When I forward a message, can I use its Subject?
3206 From: Jerry Peek <jpeek at jpeek.com>
3207 Date: Sun, 17 Nov 1996 20:16:31 -0800
3211 http://rand-mh.sourceforge.net/book/examples/mh/bin/forwedit
3213 ------------------------------
3215 Subject: 05.21 Why is the timezone field in my 'Date:' field wrong?
3216 From: Alex Tomlinson <tomlinson at acm.com>
3217 Date: Wed, 11 Jun 1997 09:16:41 -0500
3219 If the date field in your mail header looks like this:
3221 Date: Tue, 10 Jun 1997 15:59:03 +2228904
3223 remove -lbsd from your MH configuration, add "curses -lcurses", and
3226 ------------------------------
3228 Subject: 05.22 Can I automate the comp -editor mhn process?
3229 From: Soren Dayton <csdayton at gargoyle164.cs.uchicago.edu>
3230 Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 17:23:32 GMT
3238 ------------------------------
3240 Subject: 05.23 How can I remove those "=20" characters when forwarding?
3241 From: Dave Marquardt <marquard at Austin.IBM.Com>
3242 Date: 12 Oct 2000 10:27:38 -0500
3246 ------------------------------
3248 Subject: 05.24 Can I use mh-format substitution with forw?
3249 From: Dave Marquardt <marquard at Austin.IBM.Com>
3250 Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1999 13:28:30 -0500 (EST)
3252 The answer is no, and the real question is why not?
3254 ------------------------------
3256 Subject: 05.25 How can I keep repl from breaking long lines?
3257 From: Jerry Peek <jpeek at jpeek.com>
3258 Date: Fri, 14 May 1999 11:15:07 -0400
3260 Try adding width=10000 (or so) to your replcomps. It should work
3261 unless you have messages with lines longer than that...
3263 ------------------------------
3265 Subject: 05.26 How do I fix a bogus In-Reply-To or missing References field?
3266 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
3267 Date: Thu, 9 Mar 2006 21:42:21 -0800
3269 In the past, the In-reply-to header field looked as it does in the
3270 new Comments field (see "How can I make sense of the replcomps
3271 file?"). However, the old format is no longer allowable under RFC
3272 2822 which specifies that this field should only include the
3273 Message-ID. You can fix the replcomps and replgroupcomps files by
3274 upgrading to nmh 1.1 (be sure to update your personal copies if
3275 applicable) or simply by fixing the In-reply-to field in your own
3276 replcomps file using the example in the question referenced in this
3279 In addition, older replcomps files lacked the References field which
3280 enables threading in capable UIs. You can get it in the same fashion
3281 as the In-reply-to field--by upgrading or copying.
3283 ------------------------------
3285 Subject: 06.00 ***** Posting *****
3286 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
3287 Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1991 13:03:15 -0800
3289 ------------------------------
3291 Subject: 06.01 What to do with "Problems with edit - draft removed".
3292 From: John Romine <jromine at ics.uci.edu>
3293 Date: Mon, 1 May 1995 00:00:00 -0800
3295 If your users are using an AT&T version of "vi", it's exiting with
3296 non-zero status (supposedly a count of the "errors" during the
3297 edit). Move "vi" to "broken_vi" and put it its place :
3300 /usr/ucb/broken_vi "$@"
3303 Alternatively, compile MH with the ATTVIBUG option.
3305 Then complain to your vendor that "vi" is broken, and they shouldfix it.
3307 ------------------------------
3309 Subject: 06.02 Can I run my message through a program (e.g., ispell) before sending?
3310 From: Jerry Peek <jpeek at jpeek.com>
3311 Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1991 13:03:15 -0800
3313 It's pretty simple. If your speller is called myspell, use:
3315 What now? edit myspell
3317 MH will actually execute:
3319 myspell /your-mail-draft-directory/draftfile
3321 and give the entire draft message to your speller. The header will
3322 probably be "misspelled," of course, though you might be able to
3323 tell the speller to ignore it--or you could hack up a little shell
3324 script to run the speller on just the message body, then tack the
3325 corrected body back onto the header before sending.
3327 You can automate this some more. For example, if you want your
3328 speller to run after your first edit with "prompter" and also after
3329 you leave the "vi" editor, add these lines to your MH profile:
3331 prompter-next: myspell
3334 Then, at the "What now?" prompt:
3338 your speller will run. For more info, see the mh-profile(5) man page
3339 or section 7.2.1 (6.2.1) of the MH book, or the URL:
3341 http://rand-mh.sourceforge.net/book/mh/chaedi.html#Edi
3343 ------------------------------
3345 Subject: 06.03 What to do with "bad address 'xxx' - no at-sign after local-part".
3346 From: Owen Rees <rtor at ansa.co.uk>
3347 Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 00:00:00 -0800
3349 You may find that post returns the following message:
3351 post: bad address 'Mr. Foo Bar <fb@somewhere.edu>' - no at-sign
3352 after local-part (Bar), continuing...
3354 The unquoted dot causes "Mr. Foo" to be parsed as the local part of
3355 the address. Either remove the dot, or rewrite the address as
3358 "Mr. Foo Bar" <fb@somewhere.edu>
3359 (Mr. Foo Bar) <fb@somewhere.edu>
3360 (Mr. Foo Bar) fb@somewhere.edu
3362 ------------------------------
3364 Subject: !06.04 Fixing "post: problem initializing server; [BHST] no servers available"
3365 From: Peter Marvit <marvit at hplabs.hpl.hp.com>,
3366 Eric Bracken <bracken at bacon.performance.com>
3367 Date: Tue, 1 Nov 1994 00:00:00 -0800
3369 The error message itself is essentially correct. However, what this
3370 really means is: MH's post cannot connect to a running sendmail over
3371 an SMTP port (MH configured with SMTP and SENDMTS).
3373 The potential problems:
3375 1. Your local sendmail daemon is dying or not running for some
3378 2. You use BIND and your local nameserver is not responding.
3379 Solution: Delete "/etc/resolv.conf."
3381 3. Your $MHLIB/mts.conf (mtstailor) has its "servers:" pointing to a
3382 non-existent machine or a machine which is a) not reachable or b)
3383 not running the sendmail daemon.
3385 From: Bdale Garbee <bdale at col.hp.com>,
3386 Eric Bracken <bracken at bacon.performance.com>
3387 Date: Sun, 1 May 1994 00:00:00 -0800
3389 4. The hostname localhost [127.0.0.1] is missing from /etc/hosts.
3391 Solution: add an entry for "localhost" to /etc/hosts or your DNS
3392 database or add the following to $MHLIB/mts.conf (mtstailor):
3394 servers: 127.0.0.1 \01localnet
3396 From: David Levine <levinedl@acm.org>
3397 Date: Sun Sep 30 22:47:12 CDT 2012
3398 From: Larry Daffner <ldaffner at convex.com>
3399 Date: 3 Mar 1996 14:39:54 -0600
3401 5. Your load average is so high that sendmail is refusing
3404 Solution: Change your configuration from "mts: smtp" to "mts:
3405 sendmail" (after nmh 1.5, "mts: sendmail/smtp" or "mts:
3406 sendmail/pipe") so that a sendmail processes is spawned to
3407 deliver the message. This is a double-edged sword since the extra
3408 process only makes the load worse.
3410 From: Neil W Rickert <rickert+nn at cs.niu.edu>
3411 Date: 13 Apr 2001 18:47:43 -0500
3413 8. You don't want to use an available server.
3415 See David Levine's answer in Fixing "post: problem initializing
3416 server; [BHST] premature end-of-file on socket."
3418 ------------------------------
3420 Subject: 06.05 Fixing "post: problem initializing server; [RPLY] 503 Sender already specified"
3421 From: Paul Pomes <ppomes at Qualcomm.com>
3422 Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1993 00:00:00 -0800
3424 The problem in sendmail is that the RSET after the ONEX does not
3425 reset all the state information. Normally sendmail fork()s after
3426 the Mail from: statement and a RSET causes that child to exit. This
3427 automatically cleans up. If the fork() is suppressed by ONEX, then
3428 the source must be modified to do the cleanup. See "srvrsmtp.c
3429 patch" in the Appendix. If you don't have the sources, modify your
3430 MH sources to not use the ONEX verb.
3432 ------------------------------
3434 Subject: 06.06 Fixing "post: unexpected response; [BHST] no socket opened"
3435 From: Steve Lembark <lembark at wrkhors.la.ca.us>, Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
3436 Date: Mon, 1 Aug 1994 00:00:00 -0800
3438 This problem happens when there is no interface defined within the
3439 tcp system. A couple of workarounds include:
3441 o Use a hostname (other than the local host) instead of localhost in
3442 the "servers" entry of the $MHLIB/mts.conf (mtstailor) file.
3443 o Recompile MH with sendmail instead of sendmail/smtp (not very
3446 A better fix would be to define your tcp interface.
3448 Here, you run ifconfig and route (as root) to define the loopback
3449 device and route. You should add them to rc.local so they are
3450 effected at every boot.
3452 # ifconfig lo 127.0.0.1 # Linux
3453 # ifconfig lo0 127.0.0.1 # Sun
3457 If all is well, "ifconfig lo" (or lo0), will show something like
3458 this (on my Linux system):
3460 lo Link encap Local Loopback
3461 inet addr 127.0.0.1 Bcast 127.255.255.255 Mask 255.0.0.0
3462 UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU 2000 Metric 0
3463 RX packets 0 errors 0 dropped 0 overrun 0
3464 TX packets 519 errors 0 dropped 0 overrun 0
3466 and "netstat -r" will show:
3469 Destination net/address Gateway address Flags RefCnt Use Iface
3470 127.0.0.0 * UN 0 519 lo
3472 If you're not on a network and running DNS, your /etc/hosts will
3475 127.0.0.1 your_host_name localhost # loopback address
3477 Note: put your name FIRST on the localhost line. This official name
3478 is used by sendmail to determine your return address.
3480 If you are on a network and running DNS, you might find that putting
3481 your host name in the localhost entry might gum up other things, in
3482 which case you'll want your hostname to have its own proper address.
3484 This might not do it though. David Youatt <dpy at sgi.com> says that
3485 his network was happy but he still had the problem until he upgraded
3486 his system and got the latest revision of sendmail as well. He says:
3487 "Turns out that that the problem I was having seems to be caused (at
3488 least partly, maybe entirely) by the version of sendmail that is
3489 shipped with IRIX 5.2 (sendmail 5.65, I think). The version shipped
3490 w/IRIX 5.3 (in beta) is sendmail 8.6.9 and works fine."
3492 I'm not entirely happy with this section, so please give me some
3493 feedback. If you have this problem, please send me <wohler at
3494 newt.com> a brief description so I'll know which problems and
3495 solutions seem to be the most prevalent.
3497 ------------------------------
3499 Subject: 06.07 How do I fix the "X-Authentication-Warning" header?
3500 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
3501 Date: Mon, 9 Sep 1996 01:32:15 -0700
3503 (See "Fixing "Sender didn't use the HELO protocol"".)
3505 ------------------------------
3507 Subject: 06.08 Fixing "post: unexpected response; [RPLY] 503 Need MAIL before RCPT"
3508 From: Bjoern Stabell <bjoerns at acm.org>
3509 Date: Mon, 1 May 1995 00:00:00 -0800
3513 clientname: localhost
3515 in the $MHLIB/mts.conf (mtstailor) file, and that fixed the problem.
3517 ------------------------------
3519 Subject: !06.09 Fixing "post: problem initializing server; [BHST] premature end-of-file on socket"
3520 From: David Levine <levinedl@acm.org>
3521 Date: Sun Sep 30 22:52:46 CDT 2012
3523 To use a different SMTP server temporarily (after nmh 1.5):
3525 What now? send -server smtp.example.com
3527 Use the name or address of your SMTP server, of course.
3528 Alternatively, if you can use your local sendmail program, then
3529 enable that by one of these methods:
3531 1. Change the mts setting in your mts.conf to:
3535 2. Add the mts setting to a send entry in your profile. For example,
3537 send: -mts sendmail/pipe
3539 3. Override the mts setting temporarily:
3541 What now? send -mts sendmail/pipe
3543 4. Add the following to your profile:
3545 postproc: $MHLIB/spost
3547 This is the only available solution if you are running a version
3548 of MH other than nmh 1.5 and higher. However, the use of spost is
3549 discouraged because:
3551 a) It requires the local sendmail to be configured for delivery
3552 to all possible addresses. This may not be as common as it used
3553 to be, as it is limited by many ISPs.
3555 b) spost and blind MH aliases turn out to be a potentially
3556 dangerous combination: spost expands them as if they weren't
3557 blind, so all recipients see them.
3559 From: Ginko <gianluca at noroboter.rotoni.com>
3560 Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2001 09:18:14 +0000 (UTC)
3562 I have sendmail under control of tcpwrapper started by inetd and
3563 didn't want to take it away, the very simple fix to this problem was
3564 to allow the localhost on /etc/hosts.allow on the sendmail entry.
3566 From: Chuck Mattern <cmattern at mindspring.com>
3567 Date: Mon, 1 May 1995 00:00:00 -0800
3569 If you are running sendmail instead of smail, make sure that all
3570 smtp entries in /etc/inetd.conf are commented out. If you do edit
3571 /etc/inetd.conf, don't forget to run to restart inetd with "kill -1
3574 ------------------------------
3576 Subject: 06.10 Fixing "Sender didn't use the HELO protocol"
3577 From: rickert at cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert)
3578 Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2001 22:01:16 -0800
3580 If you are sharing your $MHLIB/mts.conf (mtstailor) file among
3581 several machines, and you are connecting to the local sendmail, then
3582 use 'localhost' as the hostname argument to the clientname parameter
3585 Otherwise, place mts.conf somewhere under /etc on each system, and
3586 install a symlink to it on the shared file system.
3588 From: labrown at dg-rtp.dg.com (Lance A. Brown)
3589 Date: 23 Apr 1996 14:43:04 -0400
3591 You can solve this by putting
3593 localname: localhostname
3594 localdomain: local.domain.name
3596 in your $MHLIB/mts.conf (mtstailor) file. This will make MH send a
3597 HELO string in the SMTP transaction.
3599 From: Terry Manderson <terry at azure.dstc.edu.au>
3600 Date: Mon, 1 May 1995 00:00:00 -0800
3606 to $MHLIB/mts.conf (mtstailor) where sender is the name of the
3607 machine sending the message. The error message occurs because newer
3608 MTA's require SMTP's "HELO" command which MH omits in some
3609 configurations. When you add the above line, it forces MH to use the
3612 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
3613 Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1991 13:03:15 -0800
3615 You get a header like:
3617 X-Authentication-Warning: screamer.rtp.ericsson.se: Host
3618 rcur7.rtp.ericsson.se didn't use HELO protocol
3620 Easy possibilities are: apply the patch to MH that comes with
3621 Sendmail 8.X.X and makes it use HELO, or comment out the line that
3626 in your sendmail.cf.
3628 ------------------------------
3630 Subject: 06.11 Fixing "post: problem initializing server; [RPLY] 553 Local configuration error, hostname not recognized as local"
3631 From: "Matthew V. J. Whalen" <whalenm at aol.net>
3632 Date: Mon, 1 May 1995 00:00:00 -0800
3634 Change your "mts" in "conf/MH" from "sendmail/smtp" to just
3637 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
3638 Date: Mon, 1 May 1995 00:00:00 -0800
3640 The solution above will keep MH from using any SMTP server on your
3641 network. require sendmail to be installed on all machines. You could
3642 take advantage of the "sendmail/smtp" option to have MH talk to a
3643 non-local sendmail. In $MHLIB/mts.conf (mtstailor) add:
3645 servers <SMTP-server>
3647 It may also be caused by old versions of sendmail.
3649 ------------------------------
3651 Subject: 07.00 ***** Mail Filters *****
3652 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
3653 Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1991 13:03:15 -0800
3655 ------------------------------
3657 Subject: 07.01 What mail filters are available?
3658 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
3659 Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2001 10:27:24 -0800
3661 The list currently includes slocal (included with MH), deliver,
3662 procmail and mailagent. They are briefly described here. Slocal is
3663 probably the most popular by virtue of being included in the
3664 distribution. The next most popular entry is procmail, followed by
3667 Slocal comes with MH. It can be used to process incoming mail based
3668 on the contents of any of the headers. Actions include filing
3669 messages, running commands, printing messages on your terminal and
3670 so on. The configuration is made in ~/.maildelivery. People seem to
3671 have trouble with slocal bugs, and you can't use it if you don't
3672 have write permission on your system maildrop so a lot of people
3673 have opted for the alternatives, but it's easy to use and comes with
3676 procmail is quite popular and has a very powerful configuration
3677 file. However, the syntax is its own, but it is easy to learn given
3678 a couple of good examples. Its advantages are its small size and
3679 speed. Like deliver, procmail may be installed as a delivery agent
3680 so you would not even have to have a .forward file.
3682 Deliver can run any script or program (called ~/.deliver), so you
3683 really can do anything you want to incoming mail. One feature that
3684 it sports that no other does is that you can install it as a local
3685 mailer in place of /bin/mail. If it's the local mailer, you don't
3686 need to have a .forward--~/.deliver is run anyway. In addition, it
3687 allows the system administrator to write some programs to filter
3688 everybody's mail. It came with my Linux system, so installation was
3691 I started with slocal, and then moved to deliver. I switched to
3692 procmail because of a bug in deliver (which I think has since been
3693 fixed) whereby a blank line would be inserted into the header before
3694 header fields with numbers in them.
3696 I am still using procmail and probably will do so indefinitely since
3697 it is powerful, there are many spam filters written in it, and it
3698 coexists with MH and Gnus so well.
3700 My recommendation is to use the one that is installed on your system
3701 or get procmail. Here are the URLs for the filters mentioned in this
3704 http://www.procmail.org/
3706 From: "Eric D. Friedman" <friedman at hydra.acs.uci.edu>
3707 Date: 28 Aug 1996 08:28:46 GMT
3709 See http://www.faqs.org/faqs/mail/filtering-faq/index.html.
3711 From: Stephen R. van den Berg <berg at pool.informatik.rwth-aachen.de>
3712 Date: Mon, 1 Aug 1994 00:00:00 -0800
3714 Procmail can be used to create mail-servers, mailing lists, sort
3715 your incoming mail into separate folders/files (real convenient when
3716 subscribing to one or more mailing lists or for prioritizing your
3717 mail), preprocess your mail, start any programs upon mail arrival
3718 (e.g. to generate different chimes on your workstation for different
3719 types of mail) or selectively forward certain incoming mail
3720 automatically to someone.
3722 From: Raphael Manfredi <Raphael_Manfredi at pobox.com>
3723 Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 13:22:07 +0200
3725 "mailagent" is yet another mail filter, written in perl, which will
3726 let you do anything with your mail. It has all the features you may
3727 expect from a filter: mailing lists sorting, forwarding to MTA or to
3728 inews, pre-processing of message before saving into folder, vacation
3729 mode, etc. It was initially written as an Elm-filter replacement,
3730 but has now enough power to also supplant MMDF's .maildelivery.
3731 There is also a support for @SH mail hooks, which allows you to
3732 automatically distribute patches or software via command mails.
3734 The mailagent was designed to make mail filtering as easy as it can
3735 be. It is highly configurable and fairly complete. Rules are
3736 specified in a lex-like style, with the full power of perl's regular
3737 expressions. The automaton supports the notion of mode, and header
3738 selection has many magic features built-in, to ease the rule writing
3741 The distribution comes with a set of examples, an exhaustive test
3742 suite, and naturally a detailed manual page. It should be noted that
3743 the mailagent will work even if your system administrator forbids "|
3744 programs" hooks in the ~/.forward, provided you have access to some
3745 sort of cron daemon.
3747 http://www.cpan.org/authors/Raphael_Manfredi/
3749 ------------------------------
3751 Subject: 07.02 Why slocal writes messages to system mailbox that from(1) can't read.
3752 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
3753 Date: Mon, 1 May 1995 00:00:00 -0800
3755 Upgrade to MH 6.8 and set the RPATHS option. Better yet, use a more
3756 MH-like command instead of from: "scan -file $MAIL".
3758 ------------------------------
3760 Subject: 07.03 Where can I read about slocal and the format of .maildelivery?
3761 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
3762 Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1991 13:03:15 -0800
3764 See the slocal man page.
3766 Here is brief example of a .maildelivery file that stores messages
3767 to babble in a folder and the system mailbox, stores mh-users in a
3768 folder but not the system mailbox, and puts the rest in the system
3771 to mh-users | A "$MHLIB/rcvstore -create +lists/mh-users"
3772 cc mh-users | A "$MHLIB/rcvstore -create +lists/mh-users"
3773 to babble | R "$MHLIB/rcvstore -create +lists/babble"
3774 cc babble | R "$MHLIB/rcvstore -create +lists/babble"
3775 default - > ? /usr/spool/mail/wohler
3777 Your .forward file may look like (quotes necessary):
3779 "| $MHLIB/slocal -user your_login"
3781 In some implementations, the "-user your_login" is not needed. If
3782 not, manually running slocal with the flag will produce an error.
3784 See also chapter 12 (11) in the MH book, or the URL:
3786 http://rand-mh.sourceforge.net/book/mh/tocs/prmaau.html
3788 Alternatives to slocal include deliver, procmail, and mailagent.
3789 (See "What mail filters are available?")
3791 ------------------------------
3793 Subject: 07.04 How do I debug my .maildelivery file?
3794 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
3795 Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1993 00:00:00 -0800
3797 Use as many of the following as necessary.
3799 Put a message into a file and call slocal directly on it.
3801 $MHLIB/slocal -user $USER -verbose -debug < test-msg
3803 Modify your .forward to look like:
3805 "|/bin/sh -c 'exec >> /tmp/out 2>&1;
3806 $MHLIB/slocal -user $USER -verbose -debug'"
3808 Or modify a rule in .maildelivery to look like this:
3810 to foo | R "set -xv; exec >/tmp/out 2>&1; $MHLIB/rcvstore +foo"
3812 The previous examples are broken up for readability; the text must
3815 See also MH book section 12.11 (11.11), or the URL:
3817 http://rand-mh.sourceforge.net/book/mh/debugti.html
3819 ------------------------------
3821 Subject: 07.05 Why isn't slocal working?
3822 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
3823 Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1993 00:00:00 -0800
3825 If slocal doesn't appear to be doing anything, run the following
3827 $MHLIB/slocal -user your_login -verbose < file
3829 where "file" is some message in a mail folder. If you get something
3832 .maildelivery: ownership/modes bad (0, 154,154,0100666)
3834 your .maildelivery is writable by too many people. Make it writable
3835 only by you by running "chmod 644 .maildelivery".
3837 See also "How do I debug my .maildelivery file?"
3839 ------------------------------
3841 Subject: 07.06 Are there any good biff applications for MH?
3842 From: Rob Austein <sra at epilogue.com>
3843 Date: Tue, 01 Dec 1998 03:02:34 -0500
3845 I've been been using a program called xlbiff (X Literate Biff) and
3846 have been quite happy with it. By default, xlbiff generates its
3847 pop-up listings by running scan on your mail drop file, but it's not
3848 a big deal to customize xlbiff for more complicated setups if you
3849 make heavy use of procmail, multiple mail drops, and so on.
3851 From: Richard Coleman <coleman at math.gatech.edu>
3852 Date: 07 Jul 1997 03:31:42 -0400
3854 nmh (new MH) has an additional command (flist) that will tell you
3855 which folders have unseen messages. I can't imagine using MH without
3858 From: crow at tivoli.com (David L. Crow)
3859 Date: 7 Jul 97 09:36:32 GMT
3861 I have used the following X resource with xbiff before:
3863 xbiff*checkCommand: grep -q '^unread' `mhpath +inbox`/.mh_sequences \
3866 This should be all one line, but I split it with a line continuation
3867 character for readability.
3869 ------------------------------
3871 Subject: 07.07 How do I read new messages filed by procmail?
3872 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
3873 Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2004 15:17:14 -0700
3875 If you use MH-E, use "F n (mh-index-new-messages)" to display unseen
3878 From: Neil W Rickert <rickert+nn at cs.niu.edu>
3879 Date: 23 Apr 2002 20:38:57 GMT
3881 Here is my "unseen" shell script:
3886 "") grep unseen $HOME/Mail/context $HOME/Mail/*/.mh_sequences |
3887 sed -e '/\/fromme\//d' \
3888 -e "s=$HOME/Mail/==" \
3889 -e 's=/.mh_sequences:unseen=='
3892 mark -sequence unseen -add "$@"
3895 mark -sequence unseen -delete "$@"
3897 *) echo "Invalid arguments $*"
3901 From: Paul Fox <pgf-spam at foxharp.boston.ma.us>
3902 Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 20:13:42 GMT
3904 I have procmail deliver to a set of mbox files and use "inc -f foo"
3905 to inc from them. The names of the mbox files are the same as the MH
3906 folders which makes it easy to write a script that does something
3914 ------------------------------
3916 Subject: 08.00 ***** MH-E *****
3917 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
3918 Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1991 13:03:15 -0800
3920 ------------------------------
3922 Subject: 08.01 I have a question about MH-E
3923 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
3924 Date: Sat, 3 Mar 2001 13:51:29 -0800
3926 Let me send you over to:
3928 http://mh-e.sourceforge.net/
3930 This is the SourceForge MH-E project. It has mailing lists and files
3931 to download, and will let you submit patches or support requests.
3933 The Support Requests section may already contain an answer to your
3934 question. If not, you can post your question:
3936 http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=13357&atid=213357
3938 ------------------------------
3940 Subject: 09.00 ***** Xmh *****
3941 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
3942 Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1991 13:03:15 -0800
3944 ------------------------------
3946 Subject: 09.01 How can I get xmh to use Emacs as the editor?
3947 From: Bob Ellison <ellison at sei.cmu.edu>
3948 Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1991 13:03:15 -0800
3950 The modifications to xmh to support an external editor, annotations,
3951 and an append command can be found in the these places.
3953 ftp://ftp.x.org/R5contrib/xmh-mods-R5-1.7.Z 37k
3954 ftp://ftp.sei.cmu.edu/pub/xmh/xmh-mods-R5-1.7.Z 37k
3955 ftp://ftp.sei.cmu.edu/pub/xmh/xmh-mods-R6-1.0.Z 37k
3957 From: Andrew Wason <aw at bae.bellcore.com>
3958 Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1991 13:03:15 -0800
3960 As of R5, xmh has a new action proc called XmhShellCommand. A string
3961 parameter will be executed as a shell command with the currently
3962 selected messages as parameters (or the current message if there are
3963 no selected messages).
3965 Using this new action, a couple of shell scripts, a window version
3966 of emacs (e.g. xemacs) and some elisp code, xmh can use emacs as its
3967 editor instead of the built in Athena text widget editor. This
3968 doesn't require any source code changes to xmh. These are included
3969 in the Appendix "Switching xmh's editor".
3971 ------------------------------
3973 Subject: 09.02 Does xmh support subfolders?
3974 From: Steve Malowany <malowany at cenparmi.concordia.ca>
3975 Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1991 13:03:15 -0800
3977 Yes. Create one by invoking "Create Folder" as usual, and enter
3978 something like: existing-folder/new-sub-folder. You can then access
3979 the subfolder by popping up a menu over the "existing-folder" button
3984 From: John Cooper <jsc at saxon.Eng.Sun.COM>
3985 Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1991 13:03:15 -0800
3987 The R5 version of xmh does *not* handle nested sub-folders. If you
3988 create a folder as 'grab/some/bandwidth', xmh displays this folder
3989 name for the remainder of the session where it was created, BUT if
3990 you later re-run xmh, the folder is no longer visible to xmh.
3992 See also MH book section 15.6.2 (15.6.2), or the URL:
3994 http://rand-mh.sourceforge.net/book/xmh/orgfol.html#FolaSub
3996 ------------------------------
3998 Subject: 09.03 How do I precede included messages with ">" when replying in xmh?
3999 From: Len Makin <len at mel.dit.csiro.au>
4000 Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1991 13:03:15 -0800
4002 Include the following line in your ~/app-defaults/XMh file:
4004 Xmh*replyInsertFilter: "sed 's/^/> /'"
4008 Xmh.ReplyInsertFilter: $MHLIB/mhl -form repl.filter
4010 From: Andy Linton <andy.linton at comp.vuw.ac.nz>
4011 Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1991 13:03:15 -0800
4013 Using this means that you can chose to insert the original by use of
4014 the "Insert" button in the Draft message pane. See "How do I include
4015 messages in repl with or without ">"?" to find examples of
4018 See also MH book sections 15.1.4 (15.1.4), 16.3.3 (16.3.3), or the URLs:
4020 http://rand-mh.sourceforge.net/book/xmh/senmai.html#MorRep
4021 http://rand-mh.sourceforge.net/book/xmh/resfun.html#Rep
4023 ------------------------------
4026 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
4027 Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2004 00:04:34 -0700
4030 MHLIB Where MH support routines and files are kept; usually /usr/lib/mh
4031 or /usr/local/lib/mh.
4032 POP3 Post Office Protocol, RFC 1939
4033 MMDF Multi-channel Memo Distribution Facility
4034 MIME Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions, RFC 1521
4035 IMAP Internet Message Access Protocol, RFC 1064, 1176
4036 TIS Trusted Information Systems
4037 PEM Privacy Enhanced Mail
4038 PGP Pretty Good Privacy
4039 SMTP Simple Mail Transport Protocol (STD 10; RFC 821)
4041 ------------------------------
4043 Subject: Acknowledgments
4044 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
4045 Date: Mon, 9 Sep 1996 01:37:27 -0700
4047 I'd like to thank the following people for providing ideas on the
4048 layout of this article:
4050 Joe Wells <jbw at bigbird.bu.edu> Richard M. Stallman <rms at gnu.org>
4051 David Elliott <dce at smsc.sony.com> Tom Christiansen <tchrist at perl.com>
4052 Eugene N. Miya <eugene at nas.nasa.gov>
4054 We are also grateful to Kim F. Storm <storm at olicom.dk> and Edward
4055 Vielmetti <emv at ox.com> and the folks mentioned in the text of this
4056 document who have provided answers or other information to make this a
4057 better document. I regret that it is possible that some names have
4058 been accidently omitted. I would also like to thank all the readers
4061 I'd also like to thank John Romine <jromine at yoyodyne.ICS.UCI.EDU> for
4062 maintaining MH and the MH Web page, Jerry Peek <jpeek at jpeek.com> for
4063 writing the MH bible and for all his hard work with the entire MH
4064 project, Stephen Gildea <gildea at stop.mail-abuse.org> for maintaining MH-E
4065 in years past and always sending me lots of great comments, Kimmo
4066 Suominen <kim at tac.nyc.ny.us> for maintaining the MH patch page, and
4067 Richard Coleman <coleman at math.gatech.edu> for taking MH to nmh.
4069 ------------------------------
4071 Subject: Switching xmh's editor
4072 From: Andrew Wason <aw at bae.bellcore.com>
4073 Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1991 13:03:15 -0800
4076 # This is a shell archive. Remove anything before this line, then unpack
4077 # it by saving it into a file and typing "sh file". To overwrite existing
4078 # files, type "sh file -c". You can also feed this as standard input via
4079 # unshar, or by typing "sh <file", e.g.. If this archive is complete, you
4080 # will see the following message at the end:
4081 # "End of shell archive."
4082 # Contents: README Xmh.ad xmh-command.el xmhcommand xmhemacs
4083 # Wrapped by aw@jello on Fri Nov 15 17:10:34 1991
4084 PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/ucb ; export PATH
4085 if test -f 'README' -a "${1}" != "-c" ; then
4086 echo shar: Will not clobber existing file \"'README'\"
4088 echo shar: Extracting \"'README'\" \(1269 characters\)
4089 sed "s/^X//" >'README' <<'END_OF_FILE'
4090 XThis is a short description of what to do with each of the enclosed files.
4093 X Merge this in with your xmh resources. If you already have
4094 X user defined buttons, then you may need to renumber the
4095 X buttons in this resource file.
4098 X Byte compile this file and put it in your GNU emacs load-path.
4102 X Put these somewhere in your path.
4105 XOnce you have installed these, restart the R5 xmh with the new
4106 Xresources. When you press the repl, forw or comp buttons
4107 Xan xemacs window will come up with your draft message.
4109 XOnce you have written your mail, save it and exit GNU emacs (C-xC-c).
4110 XYou will be prompted if you want to send the current message.
4111 XIf you enter 'y', the message will be sent and the output will
4112 Xbe displayed in an emacs window (in case you use -verbose or -snoop).
4113 XThen you will be prompted to exit emacs. Enter 'y' when you are ready.
4115 XIf you answered 'n' when prompted to send the message,
4116 Xthen the draft message will be deleted and emacs will exit.
4118 XYou can modify the Xmh.ad resources to add more buttons.
4119 XAny MH command which accepts "+folder msg" can be used
4120 X(e.g. a replx shell script which includes the body of the
4121 Xmessage being replied to can be bound to a replx button)
4125 Xaw at bae.bellcore.com
4127 if test 1269 -ne `wc -c <'README'`; then
4128 echo shar: \"'README'\" unpacked with wrong size!
4132 if test -f 'Xmh.ad' -a "${1}" != "-c" ; then
4133 echo shar: Will not clobber existing file \"'Xmh.ad'\"
4135 echo shar: Extracting \"'Xmh.ad'\" \(457 characters\)
4136 sed "s/^X//" >'Xmh.ad' <<'END_OF_FILE'
4137 XXmh*CommandButtonCount: 3
4139 XXmh*commandBox.button1.label: repl
4140 XXmh*commandBox.button1.translations:\
4142 X <Btn1Up>: XmhShellCommand(xmhcommand y repl) unset()
4144 XXmh*commandBox.button2.label: forw
4145 XXmh*commandBox.button2.translations:\
4147 X <Btn1Up>: XmhShellCommand(xmhcommand y forw) unset()
4149 XXmh*commandBox.button3.label: comp
4150 XXmh*commandBox.button3.translations:\
4152 X <Btn1Up>: XmhShellCommand(xmhcommand n comp) unset()
4154 if test 457 -ne `wc -c <'Xmh.ad'`; then
4155 echo shar: \"'Xmh.ad'\" unpacked with wrong size!
4159 if test -f 'xmh-command.el' -a "${1}" != "-c" ; then
4160 echo shar: Will not clobber existing file \"'xmh-command.el'\"
4162 echo shar: Extracting \"'xmh-command.el'\" \(1294 characters\)
4163 sed "s/^X//" >'xmh-command.el' <<'END_OF_FILE'
4164 X;;; These functions are for use with xemacs and xmh.
4165 X;;; The R5 xmh has a new action - XmhShellCommand which executes
4166 X;;; a shell command with the current msg as an arg.
4167 X;;; By executing something like:
4168 X;;; XmhShellCommand(xmhcommand repl)
4169 X;;; you can use xemacs as your editor with xmh.
4171 X;;; The following elisp functions perform the basic whatnowproc functionality
4172 X;;; (quitting and deleting, sending)
4174 X;;; Andrew Wason aw at bae.bellcore.com
4177 X;;; Override C-xC-c
4178 X(define-key indented-text-mode-map "\C-x\C-c" 'xmh-command-send-or-delete)
4181 X(setq mhdraft (getenv "mhdraft")) ; save the filename of the draft
4184 X(find-file mhdraft) ; load the draft letter
4185 X(indented-text-mode)
4186 X(setq draft-buffer (current-buffer)) ; save the buffer the draft is in
4189 X(defun xmh-command-send-or-delete ()
4190 X "Prompt to send or delete letter, then quit."
4192 X (set-buffer draft-buffer)
4193 X (if (y-or-n-p "Send message? ")
4195 X (save-buffer) ; save the draft buffer
4196 X (message "Sending...")
4197 X (pop-to-buffer "MH mail delivery"); pop to a buffer for "send" output
4199 X (call-process "send" nil t t mhdraft) ; call MH "send"
4200 X (if (y-or-n-p "Exit? ")
4201 X (kill-emacs))) ; exit emacs
4202 X (delete-file mhdraft) ; delete the draft letter
4203 X (kill-emacs))) ; exit emacs
4205 if test 1294 -ne `wc -c <'xmh-command.el'`; then
4206 echo shar: \"'xmh-command.el'\" unpacked with wrong size!
4208 # end of 'xmh-command.el'
4210 if test -f 'xmhcommand' -a "${1}" != "-c" ; then
4211 echo shar: Will not clobber existing file \"'xmhcommand'\"
4213 echo shar: Extracting \"'xmhcommand'\" \(669 characters\)
4214 sed "s/^X//" >'xmhcommand' <<'END_OF_FILE'
4216 X# This shell should be invoked by the xmh XmhShellCommand() action as
4217 X# XmhShellCommand(xmhcommand y repl)
4218 X# XmhShellCommand(xmhcommand n comp) etc.
4219 X# If the second arg is y, then the message list will be used.
4221 X# We invoke the passed MH command on the identified message
4222 X# (we must strip the message number and folder from the pathname)
4225 X $2 -whatnowproc xmhemacs +`dirname \`echo $3 | \
4226 X sed "s;\\\`mhpath +\\\`/;;"\`` `basename $3`
4228 X# You can use this more readable version instead if you have ksh
4229 X# $2 -whatnowproc xmhemacs +$(dirname $(echo $3 | \
4230 X# sed "s;$(mhpath +)/;;")) $(basename $3)
4233 X $2 -whatnowproc xmhemacs
4236 if test 669 -ne `wc -c <'xmhcommand'`; then
4237 echo shar: \"'xmhcommand'\" unpacked with wrong size!
4239 chmod +x 'xmhcommand'
4240 # end of 'xmhcommand'
4242 if test -f 'xmhemacs' -a "${1}" != "-c" ; then
4243 echo shar: Will not clobber existing file \"'xmhemacs'\"
4245 echo shar: Extracting \"'xmhemacs'\" \(116 characters\)
4246 sed "s/^X//" >'xmhemacs' <<'END_OF_FILE'
4248 X# Invoke xemacs and load the xmh-command.el stuff.
4249 X# xmhemacs is used by xmhcommand
4250 Xxemacs -l xmh-command
4252 if test 116 -ne `wc -c <'xmhemacs'`; then
4253 echo shar: \"'xmhemacs'\" unpacked with wrong size!
4258 echo shar: End of shell archive.
4261 ------------------------------
4263 Subject: babyl2mh.pl
4264 From: Vivek Khera <khera at cs.duke.edu>
4265 Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1991 13:03:15 -0800
4268 # incorporate an RMAIL babyl file into an MH folder
4270 # usage: babyl2mh +folder babyl-file
4272 # V. Khera <khera at cs.duke.edu> 17-JUL-1991
4274 # where to find rcvstore
4275 $rcvstore = "/usr/local/lib/mh/rcvstore";
4278 # pull out command line args
4280 die "usage: babyl2mh +folder babyl-file\n" unless @ARGV == 2;
4283 # make sure folder name starts with a "+"
4284 (substr($folder,0,1) eq "+") || (substr($folder,0,0) = "+");
4287 print "Incorporating RMAIL file $bfname into MH folder $folder\n";
4290 # read in babyl file.
4292 $/ = "\037"; # this separates the records in a babyl file
4293 $* = 1; # records are multi-lines
4295 open(BABYL,$bfname) || die "Couldn't open $bfname\n";
4297 $_ = <BABYL>; # discard header.
4302 chop; # get rid of delimeter
4303 s/\f(.|\n)*\*\*\* EOOH \*\*\*\n//; # remove duplicate header information
4304 open(RCVSTORE,"|" . $rcvstore . " $folder");
4307 print "Message $msgnum done.\n";
4310 ------------------------------
4312 Subject: inco - babyl to MH converter
4313 From: Juergen Nickelsen <nickel at cs.tu-berlin.de>
4314 Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1991 13:03:15 -0800
4317 # Usage: inco [from [folder]]
4318 # "from" defaults to $HOME/Mail/outbound, "folder" to +inbox.
4320 lispfile=/tmp/inco.$$.el
4321 input=${1-$HOME/Mail/outbound}
4322 tmpmbox=/tmp/inc.$$.mbox
4325 if [ $# -ge 3 ]; then
4326 echo Usage: `basename $0` [ from [ folder ]]
4330 trap "rm -f $lispfile $tmpmbox ; exit 1" 1 2 15
4335 echo '(rmail-input "'$input'")
4336 (rmail-last-message)
4337 (setq last (rmail-what-message))
4338 (rmail-show-message 1)
4339 (while (not (equal (rmail-what-message) last))
4340 (rmail-output "'$tmpmbox'")
4341 (rmail-delete-forward nil))
4342 (rmail-output "'$tmpmbox'")
4343 (kill-buffer (current-buffer))
4346 emacs -batch -l $lispfile
4347 inc -file $tmpmbox $folder
4350 rm -f $lispfile $tmpmbox
4352 ------------------------------
4354 Subject: t2h - add hyperlinks to message viewed
4355 From: TANAKA Tomoyuki <tanaka at step.mother.com>
4356 Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1999 11:35:43 -0600
4359 # "t2h" by TT news:alt.tanaka-tomoyuki http://listen.to/TT
4360 # USE: t2h <file.txt >file.html
4361 # Or: show | t2h | lynx -
4367 s/http:[^ "&) ]*/<a href="&">&<\/a>/g
4368 s/news:[^ "&) ]*/<a href="&">&<\/a>/g
4369 s/ftp:[^ "&) ]*/<a href="&">&<\/a>/g
4370 s/telnet:[^ "&) ]*/<a href="&">&<\/a>/g
4378 ------------------------------
4380 Subject: srvrsmtp.c patch
4381 From: Paul Pomes <ppomes at Qualcomm.com>
4382 Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1991 13:03:15 -0800
4384 >From the 5.67 sources:
4386 *** srvrsmtp.c- Mon Feb 22 12:25:54 1993
4387 --- srvrsmtp.c Mon Feb 22 12:29:09 1993
4391 message("250", "Reset state");
4395 + /* clean up a bit if running in parent */
4397 + dropenvelope(CurEnv);
4398 + CurEnv = newenvelope(CurEnv);
4399 + CurEnv->e_flags = BlankEnvelope.e_flags;
4402 case CMDVRFY: /* vrfy -- verify address */
4404 ------------------------------
4406 Subject: IRIX config file
4407 From: Jack Repenning <jackr at informix.com>
4408 Date: 25 Jul 1995 02:35:41 GMT
4410 # Irix 5.3 (based on examples/sys5r4)
4412 bin /usr/local/bin/mh
4417 etc /usr/local/lib/mh
4418 ldoptions -L/usr/local/lib/mh
4424 popdir /usr/local/bin
4427 #slibdir /usr/local/lib/mh
4433 options FOLDPROT='"0700"'
4437 options MORE='"/usr/bsd/more"'
4438 options MSGPROT='"0600"'
4441 options SBACKUP='"\\#"'
4450 options _XOPEN_SOURCE
4453 From: David Paschich <dpassage at bigbook.com>
4454 Date: 23 Apr 96 21:27:12 GMT
4456 # @(#)$Id: mh.faq 11334 2012-11-24 05:47:03Z wohler $
4457 # a 4.2BSD VAX system running SendMail
4458 bin /usr/local/bin/mh
4460 etc /usr/local/lib/mh
4463 mandir /usr/local/man
4468 options BIND LOCKF FOLDPROT='"0700"' MHE MHRC MORE='"/usr/bsd/more"'
4469 options MSGPROT='"0600"' RPATHS SENDMTS SGI SMTP SOCKETS SYS5
4470 options TYPESIG="void" ncr MIME VSPRINTF UNISTD SYSVR4 SYS5DIR
4472 ------------------------------
4474 Subject: HP-UX 10.20 config file
4475 From: Marko Heikkinen <hema at iki.fi>
4476 Date: 06 Jan 1997 17:19:07 +0000
4480 etc /opt/mail/lib/mh
4488 ccoptions +DA1.0 +DS1.0
4492 slibdir: /opt/mail/lib
4504 options MORE='"/opt/gnu/bin/less"'
4505 options MSGPROT='"0600"'
4512 options TYPESIG=void
4517 curses -lcurses -ltermlib
4520 ------------------------------
4522 Subject: Removing duplicate messages (Bourne)
4523 From: Jerry Peek <jpeek at jpeek.com>
4524 Date: 20 Nov 1995 18:51:24 GMT
4526 Here's a simple-minded Bourne shell version. It uses
4527 "scan" to get the message number and message-id of each message. If
4528 a message has the same message-id as the previous message, the
4529 script adds its message number to the "remove" shell variable.
4535 scan -width 300 -format '%(msg) %{message-id}' |
4536 while read msg msgid; do
4537 if [ "$msgid" = "$lastmsgid" ]; then
4538 remove="$remove $msg"
4545 That's pretty simple-minded. For example, if the $remove variable
4546 gets too big, your system may complain. And I'm sure there are some
4547 more-efficient ways to find the list of duplicate message-ids. But
4550 Subject: Removing duplicate messages (Perl)
4551 From: rtor at ansa.co.uk (Owen Rees)
4552 Date: 20 Nov 1995 12:39:47 GMT
4554 I wrote a perl script to do this some time ago. All the usual dire
4555 warnings about destructive technology apply - take a backup, do it on
4556 a copy, try it on a small test case first etc. Don't use this script
4557 unless you are prepared to accept the consequences.
4559 #!/usr/local/bin/perl
4561 $version = "rmmdup 1";
4563 if (@ARGV == 0) { $folder = ""; }
4564 elsif (@ARGV == 1) { $folder = $ARGV[0];
4565 unless ( $folder =~ /^\+.+$/ )
4566 { die "usage $0 [+folder]\n"; };
4568 else { die "usage $0 [+folder]\n"; };
4572 open (scan, "scan $folder -format '%(msg) %{message-id}'|");
4574 { if ( ($msg,$msgid) = /^(\d+) (<.*>)$/)
4575 { if ($msgs{$msgid})
4576 { print "$msg duplicates $msgs{$msgid}\n";
4577 $rmmlist .= " $msg";
4579 else { $msgs{$msgid} = $msg; };
4582 if ( $rmmlist ) { exec "rmm $folder $rmmlist"; };
4585 Subject: Removing duplicate messages (Perl)
4586 From: Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
4587 Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2004 13:00:20 -0700
4591 # Id: mhfinddup 6593 2004-09-02 16:34:24Z wohler
4595 mhfinddup - find duplicate messages
4599 mhfinddup [options] [folder ...]
4603 B<mhfinddup> finds and removes duplicate MH messages in the folders listed on
4604 the command line (default: current folder). By default, you deal with
4605 duplicate messages interactively. You can either remove the duplicate, not
4606 remove the duplicate, or view the original and duplicate message before
4609 If you use the B<-msgid> option to B<send>, then you probably don't want to
4610 list any F<+outbox> folders if you are using the B<--no-same-folder> option
4611 and you want to preserve your sent messages as well as your messages to
4614 Note that if you specify one or more folders, or if you use the B<--all>
4615 option, B<mhfinddup> recursively descends the given folders.
4619 Context is per B<flist>(1). That is, if F<+folder> is given, it will become
4620 the current folder. If multiple folders are given, the last one specified will
4621 become the current folder.
4629 Look for duplicates in all folders. If any folders are specified, this option
4634 Turn on debugging messages.
4638 Display the usage of this command.
4642 List duplicated messages.
4644 =item --no-same-folder
4646 Since it is common to use C<refile -link> to file a message in multiple
4647 folders, this script doesn't consider messages in different folders to be
4648 duplicates. Specify this option to list or remove duplicates across folders.
4652 Remove messages non-interactively. Use with care! For safety, the B<--list>
4653 option takes precedence if specified and is a good option to use before using
4658 Display program version.
4664 Returns 0 if all is well; non-zero otherwise.
4672 Interactively remove duplicates from the current folder.
4674 =item mhfinddup --all --list --no-same-folder
4676 List all duplicates regardless if they are in different folders or not.
4678 =item mhfinddup --rmm +lists
4680 Remove all duplicates in F<+lists>, recursively.
4686 B<rmm>(1), B<mhl>(1), B<scan>(1)
4694 Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>
4696 Copyright (c) 2003 Newt Software. All rights reserved.
4698 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
4699 modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
4700 as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
4701 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
4703 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
4704 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
4705 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
4706 GNU General Public License for more details.
4708 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
4709 along with this program; if not, you can find it at
4710 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html or write to the Free Software
4711 Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
4717 # Packages and pragmas.
4723 my $cmd; # name by which command called
4724 ($cmd = $0) =~ s|^\./||; # ...minus the leading ./
4725 my $ver = '6593'; # program version with CVS noise
4727 # Variables (may be overridden by arguments).
4728 my $all = 0; # look in all folders
4729 my $debug = 0; # verbose mode
4730 my $help = 0; # display usage
4731 my $version = 0; # display version
4732 my $list = 0; # list duplicates
4733 my $no_same_folder = 0; # consider duplicates across folders
4734 my $rmm = 0; # remove duplicates without asking
4737 my $mhl = "/usr/lib/mh/mhl";
4738 my $tmp = "/tmp/mhfinddup$$";
4740 # Parse command line.
4741 # The use of the posix_default option is to ensure that folders like +a are
4742 # not confused with --all. I'd really prefer to set prefix_pattern to "(--|-)"
4743 # so that abbreviations of options can be used without being confused with
4744 # folders, but I couldn't make it so.
4746 Getopt::Long::Configure("pass_through", "posix_default");
4747 GetOptions('all' => \$all,
4751 'no-same-folder' => \$no_same_folder,
4753 'version' => \$version,
4756 show_version() if ($version);
4757 usage() if ($help || int(@ARGV) != int(map(/^\+/, @ARGV)));
4759 my @folders = expand_folders(@ARGV);
4760 print("Expanded " . join(" ", @ARGV) . " into\n" . join("\n", @folders) . "\n")
4763 print("Scanning for duplicate messages...\n");
4765 foreach my $folder (sort @folders) {
4766 print("Scanning $folder...\n") if ($debug);
4768 "MHCONTEXT=$tmp scan +$folder -format '%(msg) %{message-id}'|");
4770 if (my ($msg, $msgid) = /^(\d+) (<.*>)$/) {
4771 if ($msgs{$msgid}) {
4772 $msgs{$msgid} =~ m|^\+(.*)/(\d+)$|;
4773 my($f, $m) = ($1, $2);
4774 if ($folder eq $f || $no_same_folder) {
4775 handle_dup($f, $m, $folder, $msg);
4778 $msgs{$msgid} = "+$folder/$msg";
4787 sub expand_folders {
4790 print("Getting list of folders...");
4793 . (($all == 1 && @folders == 0) ? "-all" : join(" ", @folders))
4795 or die("Could not determine folders\n");
4797 chomp(my $current_folder = `mhparam Current-Folder`);
4798 $current_folder = quotemeta($current_folder);
4801 my ($folder, $a, $b, $c, $d, $e, $f, $g, $count) = split;
4802 if ($folder =~ /^$current_folder\+$/) {
4803 $folder =~ s/\+$//; # remove current folder indication
4805 next if ($count == 0);
4806 push(@folders, $folder);
4815 my($f1, $m1, $f2, $m2) = @_;
4820 print("+$f2/$m2 duplicate of +$f1/$m1");
4829 print(", remove? [Yns?] ");
4830 chomp($ans = <STDIN>);
4833 if ($ans eq "y" || $ans eq "") {
4834 system("rmm +$f2 $m2");
4835 } elsif ($ans eq "s") {
4836 system("$mhl `mhpath +$f1 $m1` `mhpath +$f2 $m2`");
4838 } elsif ($ans eq "?") {
4839 print("y, remove message (default)\n" .
4840 "n, don't remove message\n" .
4841 "s, show messages\n" .
4842 "?, show this message\n");
4851 Display usage information and exit.
4857 Usage: $cmd [options] [folder ...]
4858 --all remove duplicates in all folders
4859 --debug print actions that program takes
4860 --help display this message
4861 --list list duplicates only
4862 --no-same-folder consider duplicates even if in different folders
4863 --rmm remove duplicates without asking
4864 --version display program version
4871 Display version information and exit.
4876 print("$cmd version $ver\n".
4877 "Copyright (c) 2003 Bill Wohler <wohler at newt.com>\n\n".
4878 "$cmd comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.\n\n".
4879 "This is free software, and you are welcome\n".
4880 "to redistribute it under certain conditions.\n\n".
4881 "See `http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html' for details.\n");
4888 outline-regexp: "^Subject:"