Added -check/-nocheck switches to sortm(1). Also removed obsolete

[mmh] / docs / historical / beginners.txt

                                   MH  for  Beginners



                            Mary  Hegardt                           Tim  Morgan



                                               April  12,  1990



This  document  is  intended  to  be  an  introduction  for  new  users  to  the  MH

mail  system.   For  more  detailed  information,  users  will  want  to  read  the

document  called  The  Rand  MH  Message  Handling  System:  User's  Manual

by  Marshall  T.  Rose  and  John  L.  Romine.   It  is  available  for  Xeroxing  in

suite CS408.



1         Using  Electronic  Mail



Electronic  mail  (e-mail)  is  a  quick,  convenient  way  to  send  a  message  to

another  person  (or  persons).   The  message  recipient  can  read  and  reply  to

the  message  at  his  convenience.  E-mail  is  much  faster  than  a  paper  memo

and  avoids  inconveniences  associated  with  the  telephone  such  as  unwanted

interruptions and "phone tag."


At UCI, one can send e-mail to people within the ICS department, people in

other  units  on  campus,  and  to  people  at  some  other  institutions  off  campus

(usually other universities).


An electronic mail message consists of two parts:  the headers and the body.

The  body  comes  after  the  headers  and  consists  of  the  "message":  whatever

the  sender  types  in.   The  headers  are  the  lines  at  the  top  of  the  message

including  the  subject  and  addresses  of  the  people  to  whom  the  message  is

addressed.  It  is  similar  to  the  top  lines  of  a  memo:  To:,  From:,  Subject:,

and so on.  The headers are separated from the body by a blank line.  As in



                                                           1
\f



memos, the people listed in the Cc: field are not intended to be the primary

recipients  of  the  message.   The  message  is  for  their  information  only,  and

they are not expected to reply.


E-mail is also useful for discussions among groups of people.  This "bboards"

(electronic bulletin boards) facility will be discussed later.


An  electronic  mail  address  looks  like  "name @site ".  The  name  is  a  person's

"mail  handle"  _  usually  his  first  initial  followed  by  his  last  name.    For

example, Mary Hegardt's mail handle is "mhegardt".  The site  is the system

where  the  addressee  receives  mail.   Within  the  ICS  Department,  you  need

only  know  the  person's  mail  handle;  the  mail  system  will  automatically  fill

in the "@site " part.



2         Why  MH  ?



The  MH  system  is  very  different  from  most  mail  user  agents.   Instead  of

running  one  large  program  which  handles  all  mail  functions  and  keeps  mes-

sages in one large file, MH is a collection of smaller single-purpose programs

used  to  manipulate  mail  messages  which  are  kept  in  individual  files.   MH

may seem to be more complicated or harder to use than other mail systems

(MM, for example), but MH has been designed to allow you to take full ad-

vantage of existing Unix1  commands and programs in connection with mail

messages.  For example, you can use your usual text editor, spelling program,

and printer commands on individual messages.



3         The  Basics



The  first  time  you  use  an  MH  command  (probably  inc),  MH  will  create  a

directory called "Mail" in your home (login) directory.  All your mail will be

stored in directories beneath this one.  It will also create a file in your home

directory  called  .mh_profile.  It  is  a  file  that  allows  you  to  tailor  your  MH

environment.  We'll discuss this more later.
________________________________________________
    1 Unix is a trademark of AT&T Bell Laboratories



                                                           2
\f



3.1         Reading  Mail



When  someone  sends  a  mail  message  to  you,  it  is  delivered  to  a  file  called

your  "mail  drop"  file.  When  you  are  ready  to  read  your  mail,  you  have  to

incorporate (or "inc") your mail messages from the mail drop area into your

account.


Everytime  you  log  in  to  your  Unix  account,  you  will  be  told  if  you  have

new  mail  messages.  When  you  are  ready  to  read  them,  type  inc.  The  inc

program will copy your mail into your "inbox" and generate a "scan" listing

of the new messages.  For example,



4.2  BSD  UNIX  #116:  Mon  Jul  15  14:03:21  PDT  1985
You  have  new  ZOTnet  mail,  type  "inc"  (or  mail)

TERM  =  (dm1520)

%  inc

Incorporating  new  mail  into  inbox  ...

    1+  10/29  1732-PST  Tim  Morgan           new  bboard!   <<Please  add  us  to  the  uni
    2   11/12  0016-PST  ROODE@uci-20b       CP6  from  the  20s   <<What  is  (will  be)  t
    4   11/15  1909-EDT  tts@tts               Hello,  got  a  few  questions
    5   11/15  2134-PST  Marshall  Rose       MH.6  on  750a   <<Mary,  I've  left  the  dis
    6   11/16  0808-PST  Mail  Delivery  Su   Returned  mail:  Host  unknown
    7   11/16  1021-PST  Tim  Morgan           Unix-wizards/info-unix  move
    8   11/18  0952-PST  freeman@icsd.UCI   Re:New  system  wide  aliases  for  ICS  facu
    9   11/18  1346-EDT  tts@tts               Have  we  got  a  problem?



This is what a typical "inc" session for the Postmaster looks like.  Inc  copies

my  mail  into  my  "inbox"  folder,  assigns  a  unique  number  to  each  message,

and  scans  them  for  me.   The  numbers  allow  you  to  refer  to  each  message

individually.  After the message number, you see the date and time the mes-

sage was sent, the name of the sender, and the subject of the message.  The

"current" message is indicated by a "+" sign.  To read it, type "show":



%  show

    (Message  inbox:1)
    Received:  from  localhost  by  UCI.EDU  id  a005369;  29  Oct  85  17:32  PST
    To:  postmaster@UCI.EDU
    Subject:  new  bboard!
    Date:  29  Oct  85  17:32:24  PST  (Tue)
    From:  Tim  Morgan  <morgan@UCI.EDU>



                                                           3
\f



    Please  add  us  to  the  unix-sw  list.   Also,  if  RAJ  hasn't  mentioned  it,
    and  if  it  still  exists,  we  should  get  on  the  Astronomy  bboard.

    Tim



If the message is longer than one screenful, you will see the word "more" at

the bottom_of_the_screen.__When you are ready to see "more" of the message,______

press the __space_bar______ __to see another screenful, or press the __return____ _key to see

just one more line.


To see the next message, you could type a couple of different commands:


                 %  next


or


                 %  show  next


or


                 %  show  2


All  of  these  commands  would  have  the  same  effect:   to  type  out  the  next

message in the list.  The most efficient thing to do is to type "next".  When

You  do  that,  message  number  2  will  be  shown  and  become  the  "current

message".



%  next


(Message  inbox:2)
Received:  from  UCI-20B  by  UCI-ICSA  id  aa01222;  12  Nov  85  0:23  PST
Date:  12  Nov  1985  0016-PST
From:  ROODE@uci-20b
Subject:  CP6  from  the  20s
To:  zotnet@uci-20b
cc:  dana_roode%ucicp6@UCI.EDU


What  is  (will  be)  the  prescribed  method  of  addressing  for  sending
CP6  mail  from  the  20s?   They  dont  seem  to  know  about  @CF,  @UCICP6,
but  "Name_Name%UCICP6"@ICSA  seems  to  fly.


dana



                                                           4
\f



3.2         Selecting  Messages



As  you  have  seen,  messages  can  be  referred  to  by  their  message  numbers.

Some  MH  commands,  such  as  show,  can  act  upon  more  than  one  message

at  a  time.   A  range  of  messages  can  be  specified  using  the  form  "name1-

name2 "  where  name  is  a  message  number  or  one  of  the  reserved  message

names described below:



      cur           The current message (the last one that was handled)


     next           The next message (same as cur    + 1)


     prev           The previous message (cur     1)


     first          The first message in the current folder


      last          The last message in the folder


       all          All messages (first  last )



If you do not name a specific message, the command will act upon the "cur-

rent message".



3.3         Sending  Messages



A mail message consists of two parts:  the headers and the body.  The headers

are the lines at the top of the message that say "To:"  and so on.  The body

is  the  actual  text  of  the  message  (what  you  want  to  say).  To  send  someone

a  message,  you  start  with  the  comp  command.  This  will  start  up  an  editor

called prompter  that will prompt you to fill in_the_headers._ You should type

the requested information for that header or a __return____ _to_omit_it._ You should

end the message by typing control-D (press down the key marked __ctrl__ __and

strike the D key) at the beginning of a new line.  Here's an example:



%  comp

To:  morgan,  raj

Cc:



                                                           5
\f



Subject:  Lunch

---------

Where  are  we  going  for  lunch  today  ?



Mary

<control-D>

--------

What  now  ?    send



At  the  "What  now  ?"  prompt  you  can  type  a  ?  to  see  what  commands  you

can  type  next.   One  of  the  most  useful  options  at  this  point  is  to  edit  the

draft of the message to correct any mistakes.  To do this you type:


                 What  now  ?    edit  vi


This will put you in the vi  editor to edit the message.  If you use emacs or any

other  editor,  just  type  "edit  emacs"  or  whatever.   When  you  have  finished

editing, just exit the editor as you would normally.  You will then get another

"What  now  ?" prompt.  Here are some of the "What now" options:



     edit  editor              Edit  the  message  using  the  specified  editor.   When  you

                               exit, you will be back at What  now.


                list           Shows the message you just typed


   whom  -check                Verifies that the addresses you have used are valid as far

                               as our system can tell


                send           Sends the message to the recipients


                push           Sends the message in the background


                quit           Quits  without  sending  the  message.   Saves  the  text  of

                               the  message  as  a  "draft".  Type  comp  -use  to  get  back

                               to that draft later.


 quit  -delete                 Quit, throwing away the draft



Make sure you are happy with your message before typing send.  There is no

way to recall a message once it has been sent.



                                                           6
\f



3.4         Replying  to  Messages



To  reply  to  the  current  message  type  repl.   When  you  do  this,  the  reply

headers  will  be  printed  out  and  you  will  be  put  in  the  prompter  editor  to

type  in  your  reply  text.  When  you  are  replying  to  a  message,  the  name  of

the sender of the original message will appear in the "To:"  field.  Any people

on  the  "To:"  or  "Cc:"  lists  will  also  be  copied  on  your  reply  message.   As

with  comp,  when  you  have  finished,  type  control-D  and  send  (or  whatever)

at What  now  ?.



3.5         Forwarding  Messages



If  you  receive  a  particularly  interesting  message  and  can't  resist  sharing

it  with  others,  you  can  forward  it  using  the  forw  command.   You  will  be

prompted  to  fill  in  the  headers  (the  address  to  which  the  message  is  to  be

forwarded, etc.).  When you have done this, you will see the text of the mes-

sage which you are forwarding and will be given the opportunity to add some

enlightening text to the message.  Exit with control-D and do whatever feels

good at the What  now  ? prompt.



3.6         The  Advanced  Features



You  will  probably  want  to  master  the  beginning  MH  concepts  before  you

tackle the following. . .



3.7         Folders



Folders  are  really  just  directories  for  storing  mail  messages  in  an  organized

way.  To store a message in a folder named "inbox", type:


                 %  refile  5  +inventory


If  the  folder  doesn't  exist  yet,  you  will  be  asked  if  it  should  be  created.  To

access  messages  in  another  folder,  you  can  change  your  current  folder  from



                                                           7
\f



"inbox" to something else.  If you want to look at all the messages pertaining

to the inventory, you type:


                 %  folder  +inventory


and now you use scan, show, etc., to manipulate the messages in that folder.

To change back to inbox, type:


                 %  folder  +inbox


Using  the  inc  command  will  change  your  current  folder  to  be  the  "inbox"

automatically.



4         Mailing  files



Mailing  files  is  usually  not  a  good  idea,  especially  for  large  files.  The  mail

system  was  never  designed  for  moving  big  files.  You  can  use  the  cp  file  to

move the file to another account much more efficiently:


                 %  cp  "frated/desired-file  "./newfile


This will copy the file from frated's account to the current directory and call

it "newfile".


You can also copy files across the network using rcp:


                 %  rcp  icsd:frated/desired-file  ./newfile


This copies frated's file on the system icsd to the current directory.


If you really  have to mail a file, you use the mhmail  program.  To mail a file

"myfile" to another user "frated", with "MyFile" as the subject type:


                 %  mhmail  frated  -subject  MyFile  <  myfile



5         Searching  for  messages



The  pick  program  allows  you  to  search  your  inbox  (or  any  other)  folder  to

find messages which contain a certain word.  If you want to list all messages



                                                           8
\f



from Smith you can type:


                 %  pick  -from  smith  -list


and  it  will  list  the  numbers  of  all  messages  from  Smith  that  are  in  the  cur-

rent  folder.   You  can  pick  messages  according  to  any  of  the  headers  (-to

-from  -subj  -cc  or  -date) or just search all the messages for a given word

(-search).



6         The  MH  Profile



Each MH user has a file in his directory called .mh_profile.  This file contains

a  list  of  user-specified  default  options  for  MH  programs.  The  only  required

entry is the name of your MH directory:


                 Path:    Mail


or


                 Path:    mhbox


To make a change to your .mh_profile, you edit the file and add a line for

the  applicable  program.  For  example,  if  you  would  like  to  use  vi  instead  of

prompter  as  your  initial  editor  when  composing  messages,  you  would  add

this line to your .mh_profile:


                 comp:    -editor  vi


or, if you want to have a format file for scan  to use, you should have:


                 scan:    -form  formatfile


Almost  all  of  the  MH  programs  have  options  that  can  be  set  using  the

.mh_profile.   You  should  consult  the  MH  User's  Manual  for  more  infor-

mation about this.


Many  people  will  want  to  add  a  signature  line  to  their  .mh_profile.  This

line will appear as your signature on the From:  line in messages you send.  It

looks like this:



                                                           9
\f



                 Signature:    John  Q.  Public


Occasionally  people  express  an  interest  in  getting  rid  of  some  of  the  header

lines  in  their  mail  messages.  They  don't  want  to  see  the  "Received  from",

"Via"  information,  or  some  other  header.   It  is  possible  to  prevent  these

and  other  annoying  headers  from  being  displayed  by  changing  your  show

processor to be mhless.  To do this you must add this line


                 showproc:    mhless


to your .mh_profile.  You also must create a file called ".mhlessrc" contain-

ing  the  words  which  appear  at  the  beginning  of  the  lines  you  don't  want  to

see.


The typical ".mhlessrc" file will look like this:



Received

Via

BB-Posted

Return-Path



The ".mhlessrc" file must be in your home directory.



7         BBoards



Electronic bulletin boards (BBoards) are a convenient way for a group of peo-

ple to discuss a particular topic.  Messages are sent to an address where they

can  be  read  and  replied  to  by  all  interested  parties.  In  the  ICS  department

we have some "local" BBoards which involve only people in the department.

We  also  subscribe  to  many  nationally  distributed  BBoards.   BBoards  are

read  using  the  bbc  program  which  will  allow  you  to  read  the  messages  with

an MH-like interface.


One  very  important  BBoard  is  "system".    It  contains  vital  news  about

changes  in  software,  system  downtime,  new  programs,  and  other  informa-

tion useful to all users.



                                                           10
\f



To  read  a  BBoard,  you  type  "bbc  BBoard__name ".   The  bbc  program  will

check to see if there are new messages in the named BBoard and if there are,

it  will  start  up  msh  so  you  can  read  them.  The  msh  program  allows  you  to

use  regular  MH  commands  when  reading  BBoards.  Type  "show"  to  see  the

current message, "next" to see the next message, and so on.  Type "quit" to

quit reading the current BBoard.  If you have named more than one BBoard

on  the  command  line  or  in  your  .mh_profile,  bbc  will  continue  processing

the next BBoard in the list.


Here is an example of using bbc  to read the system BBoard:



                                                           11
\f



%  bbc  system
Reading  system,  currently  at  message  1  of  22
(msh)  show


(Message  1,  BBoard-ID:  1360)
BBoard-ID:  1360
BB-Posted:  Wed,  29  Jan  86  15:36:39  PST
Received:  from  localhost  by  UCI.EDU  id  a006693;  29  Jan  86  15:20  PST
To:  network@UCI.EDU
Subject:  Imagen  24300
Date:  Wed,  29  Jan  86  15:19:43  -0800
From:  Tinh  Tang  <ttang@UCI.EDU>


The  Imagen  24300  is  now  operating  normally.   It  was  broken  down
due  to  the  paper  jammed  in  the  drum.   Luckily,  it  didn't  cause
any  damage.


/ttang


(msh)  next


(Message  4,  BBoard-ID:  1363)
BBoard-ID:  1363
BB-Posted:  Fri,  31  Jan  86  13:33:37  PST
Received:  from  localhost  by  UCI.EDU  id  a001631;  31  Jan  86  13:30  PST
To:  msgs@UCI.EDU
Subject:  uci.edu  down  2/7/86  17:10  -  2/7/86  20:30
Date:  Fri,  31  Jan  86  13:30:27  -0800
From:  root@UCI.EDU


The  uci.edu  will  be  down  from
February   7,1986  17:10  till  February   7,1986  20:30.
The  reason  for  the  downtime  is:
Both,  the  Computing  Facility  and  the  Physical  Sciences  Dataswitches
will  be  unavailable  from  5:10pm  until  8:30pm  on  Friday,  February  7th.
Therefore  all  the  Computers  attached  to  those  switches  and  the
corresponding  tandem  link  will  be  unavailable  to  users  on
the  specified  time.                       (RJ).


Downtime  Scheduler


(msh)  quit
%



                                                           12
\f



You can see a list of all the available BBoards by typing:


                 %  bbc  -topics


You  can  also  put  a  line  in  your  ".mh_profile"  listing  all  the  BBoards  you

want to read on a regular basis:


                 bboards:    system  movies  mh-users  events


Then you only need to type "bbc" to read all your BBoards.



8         Checking  for  Mail



Under Unix, there are many different ways to check for new mail.  The easiest

way to do it is to set the csh  variable named "mail" to tell csh  to check for

new mail for you periodically.  To do this, add the line


                 set  mail=(60  /usr/spool/mail/$USER)


to  the  .login  file  in  your  home  directory.  This  command  says  to  check  for

mail if csh  is about to prompt you with a % sign,  and if it has been at least

60  seconds  since  it  last  checked  for  mail.  The  advantage  of  this  method  of

mail notification, besides simplicity, is that you will never be interrupted by

a  mail  notification.  You  will  only  be  notified  about  new  mail  when  you  are

between commands.


If you want asynchronous mail notification, which will print to your terminal

regardless  of  what  you  are  currently  doing,  you  may  make  use  of  a  "receive

mail  hook"  called  "rcvtty".  To  do  this,  create  a  file  in  your  home  directory

called ".maildelivery".  In this file, put the line


                 *  -  pipe  R  /usr/uci/lib/mh/rcvtty


Then,  each  time  mail  arrives,  you  will  receive  a  one-line  "scan"  listing  of

the  mail  if  your  terminal  is  world-writable.   For  more  information  on  mail

delivery files, type:


                 %  man  5  maildelivery



                                                           13
\f



This will tell you about all the options available to you if you use maildelivery

files.



9         Aliases



Using MH, you may specify your own private mail aliases.  This feature allows

you to store lists of addresses or long internet addresses of people with whom

you  frequently  correspond  in  one  file,  and  then  to  address  them  using  short

mnemonic names.  Typically, you will call your alias file "aliases";  it must

be  stored  in  your  MH  directory.  The  format  of  this  file  is  simple.  The  alias

is  given,  followed  by  a  colon,  followed  by  one  or  more  legal  mail  addresses

separated by commas.  For example, you might for some reason have an alias

for all the users named "Rose" in the ICS department:


                 roses:    prose,  srose,  mrose,  drose


In   addition   to   your   "aliases"   file,   you   will   need   to   modify   your

.mh_profile  in  order  to  use  aliases.    You  should  add  the  flag  "-alias

aliases"  to  the  entries  for  the  commands  ali,  whom,  send,  and  push,  cre-

ating entries for these programs if they aren't already in your .mh_profile.

Now,  messages  addressed  to  "roses"  will  be  distributed  to  all  the  people

listed in the alias.


The  ali  command  is  used  to  show  you  what  an  alias  expands  to.  You  just

type


                 %  ali  alias


and ali  will respond with the expansion of the alias.  Ali  searches the system

aliases file in addition to your private ones.



10           Blind  Lists



There  are  two  different  types  of  so-called  "blind  addressing"  of  messages.

The  BCC:  field  allows  you  to  add  recipients  to  your  message  just  like  those

who are CC'd, but the normal recipients will not see that the BCC recipients



                                                           14
\f



were copied on the message, their replies will not go to the blind recipients,

and the blind recipients cannot (easily) reply to the message.


The  second  type  of  blind  mailing  is  actually  called  a  "group  address  list",

although it is commonly referred to as a "blind list".  The format of this type

of address is


                 phrase :    address__list ;


where  the  "phrase "  is  any  English  phrase  of  one  or  more  words,  and  the

address__list  consists  of  one  or  more  addresses  separated  by  commas.   The

recipients of a message addressed in this fashion will see simply


                 phrase :    ;


so  when  they  reply  to  the  message,  their  reply  will  come  only  to  the  sender

(or  the  Reply-To:  field,  if  one  was  specified),  rather  than  going  to  all  the

recipients of the original list.  For example, to use a group address list for the

"roses" alias you would type:


                 To:    People  Named  Rose:    roses;


This type of group address is very useful for making up lists of related people,

such as all the people working on a particular research project.



                                                           15