2 .\" @(#)$Id: mh.rf,v 1.12 1992/10/28 17:00:27 jromine Exp $
10 \fIMH\fR is the name of a powerful message handling system.
11 Rather then being a single comprehensive program,
12 \fIMH\fR consists of a collection of fairly simple
13 single-purpose programs to send, receive, save,
14 and retrieve messages. The user should refer
15 to the \fIMH User's Manual\fR
16 and the pages for the \fIMH\fR
17 programs in the Unix Programmers Manual.
19 Unlike \fImail\fR, the standard UNIX mail user interface program,
20 \fIMH\fR is not a closed system which must be explicitly run,
21 then exited when you wish to return to the shell.
22 You may freely intersperse \fIMH\fR commands with other shell commands,
23 allowing you to read and answer your mail while you have (for example)
24 a compilation running,
25 or search for a file or run programs as needed to find the answer to
26 someone's question before answering their mail.
28 The rest of this manual entry is a quick tutorial which will teach you the
30 You should read the manual entries for the individual programs for complete
33 To get started using \fIMH\fR, put the directory
34 \fB@(MHBINPATH)\fR on your \fB$PATH\fR.
35 This is best done in one of the files:
36 \fB\&.profile\fR, \fB\&.login\fR, or \fB\&.cshrc\fR
37 in your home directory.
38 (Check the manual entry for the shell you use,
39 in case you don't know how to do this.)
40 Run the \fIinc\fR command.
41 If you've never used \fIMH\fR before,
42 it will create the necessary default files and directories after
43 asking you if you wish it to do so.
45 \fIinc\fR moves mail from your system maildrop
46 into your \fIMH\fR `+inbox' folder,
47 breaking it up into separate files
48 and converting it to \fIMH\fR format as it goes.
49 It prints one line for each message it processes,
50 containing the from field, the subject field
51 and as much of the first line of the message as will fit.
52 It leaves the first message it processes as your current message.
53 You'll need to run \fIinc\fR each time you wish to incorporate new mail
54 into your \fIMH\fR file.
56 \fIscan\fR prints a list of the messages in your current folder.
59 \fIshow\fR, \fInext\fR, and \fIprev\fR
60 are used to read specific messages from the current folder.
61 \fIshow\fR displays the current message,
62 or a specific message, which may be specified by its number,
63 which you pass as an argument to \fIshow\fR.
64 \fInext\fR and \fIprev\fR display, respectively,
65 the message numerically after or before the current message.
66 In all cases, the message displayed becomes the current message.
67 If there is no current message,
68 \fIshow\fR may be called with an argument,
69 or \fInext\fR may be used to advance to the first message.
71 \fIrmm\fR (remove message) deletes the current message.
72 It may be called with message numbers passed as arguments,
73 to delete specific messages.
75 \fIrepl\fR is used to respond to the current message (by default).
76 It places you in the editor with a prototype response form.
77 While you're in the editor,
78 you may peruse the item you're responding to by reading the file \fB@\fR.
79 After completing your response,
80 type \fBl\fR to review it,
81 or \fBs\fR to send it.
83 \fIcomp\fR allows you to compose a message by putting you in the editor on
84 a prototype message form,
85 and then lets you send it.
87 All the \fIMH\fR commands may be run with the single argument: `\-help',
88 which causes them to print a list of the arguments they may be invoked with.
90 Commands which take a message number as an argument
91 (\fIscan\fR, \fIshow\fR, \fIrepl\fR, ...)
92 also take one of the words:
93 \fIfirst\fR, \fIprev\fR, \fIcur\fR, \fInext\fR, or \fIlast\fR
94 to indicate (respectively) the first, previous, current, next, or last
95 message in the current folder (assuming they are defined).
97 Commands which take a range of message numbers
98 (\fIrmm\fR, \fIscan\fR, \fIshow\fR, ...)
99 also take any of the abbreviations:
104 - Indicates all messages in the range <num1> to <num2>, inclusive. The range
114 messages beginning with (or ending with) message
117 may be any of the pre-defined symbols:
118 .I first, prev, cur, next
130 - The first, previous, next or last
132 messages, if they exist.
135 There are many other possibilities such as creating multiple folders for
136 different topics, and automatically refiling messages according to subject,
137 source, destination, or content.
138 These are beyond the scope of this manual entry.
140 Following is a list of all the \fIMH\fR commands:
146 ^ali (1)~^\- list mail aliases
147 ^anno (1)~^\- annotate messages
149 ^bbc (1)~^\- check on BBoards
151 ^bbl (1)~^\- manage a BBoard
152 ^bbleader (1)~^\- responsiblities of a BBoard\-leader
154 ^bboards (1)~^\- the UCI BBoards facility
156 ^burst (1)~^\- explode digests into messages
158 ^cipher (1)~^\- en/de\-cipher txt
160 ^comp (1)~^\- compose a message
162 ^decipher (1)~^\- decipher messages
164 ^dist (1)~^\- redistribute a message to additional addresses
165 ^folder (1)~^\- set/list current folder/message
166 ^folders (1)~^\- list all folders
167 ^forw (1)~^\- forward messages
168 ^inc (1)~^\- incorporate new mail
169 ^mark (1)~^\- mark messages
170 ^mhl (1)~^\- produce formatted listings of MH messages
171 ^mhmail (1)~^\- send or read mail
172 ^mhook (1)~^\- MH receive\-mail hooks
173 ^mhparam (1)~^\- print MH profile components
174 ^mhpath (1)~^\- print full pathnames of MH messages and folders
175 ^msgchk (1)~^\- check for messages
176 ^msh (1)~^\- MH shell (and BBoard reader)
177 ^next (1)~^\- show the next message
178 ^packf (1)~^\- compress a folder into a single file
179 ^pick (1)~^\- select messages by content
180 ^prev (1)~^\- show the previous message
181 ^prompter (1)~^\- prompting editor front end
182 ^rcvstore (1)~^\- incorporate new mail asynchronously
183 ^refile (1)~^\- file messages in other folders
184 ^repl (1)~^\- reply to a message
185 ^rmf (1)~^\- remove folder
186 ^rmm (1)~^\- remove messages
187 ^scan (1)~^\- produce a one line per message scan listing
188 ^send (1)~^\- send a message
189 ^show (1)~^\- show (list) messages
190 ^slocal (1)~^\- special local mail delivery
191 ^sortm (1)~^\- sort messages
193 ^tma (1)~^\- manipulate the TTI Trusted Mail Agent (TMA)
195 ^vmh (1)~^\- visual front\-end to MH
196 ^whatnow (1)~^\- prompting front\-end for send
197 ^whom (1)~^\- report to whom a message would go
200 ^mh\-alias (5)~^\- alias file for MH message system
201 ^mh\-format (5)~^\- format file for MH message system
202 ^mh\-mail (5)~^\- message format for MH message system
203 ^mh\-profile (5)~^\- user customization for MH message system
204 ^mh\-sequence (5)~^\- sequence specification for MH message system
206 ^ap (8)~^\- parse addresses 822\-style
207 ^conflict (8)~^\- search for alias/password conflicts
208 ^dp (8)~^\- parse dates 822\-style
209 ^fmtdump (8)~^\- decode \fIMH\fP format files
210 ^install\-mh (8)~^\- initialize the MH environment
211 ^post (8)~^\- deliver a message
218 ^@(MHBINPATH)~^directory containing \fIMH\fR commands
219 ^@(MHETCPATH)~^\fIMH\fR library
221 \fIThe RAND \fIMH\fR Message Handling System: User's Manual\fR,
223 \fIThe RAND \fIMH\fR Message Handling System: Tutorial\fR,
225 \fIThe RAND \fIMH\fR Message Handling System: The UCI BBoards Facility\fR,
227 \fIMH.5: How to process 200 messages a day and still get some real work
231 If problems are encountered with an \fIMH\fR program,
232 the problems should be reported to the local maintainers of \fIMH\fR.
234 the name of the program should be reported,
235 along with the version information for the program.
237 To find out what version of an \fIMH\fR program is being run,
238 invoke the program with the `\-help' switch.
239 In addition to listing the syntax of the command,
240 the program will list information pertaining to its version.
241 This information includes the version of \fIMH\fR,
242 the host it was generated on,
243 and the date the program was loaded.
244 A second line of information,
245 found on versions of \fIMH\fR after #5.380 include \fIMH\fR configuration
251 version: MH 6.1 #1[UCI] (glacier) of Wed Nov 6 01:13:53 PST 1985
252 options: [BSD42] [MHE] [NETWORK] [SENDMTS] [MMDFII] [SMTP] [POP]
256 The `6.1 #1[UCI]' indicates that the program is from the UCI \fIMH.6.1\fR
258 The program was generated on the host `glacier' on
259 `Wed Nov 6 01:13:53 PST 1985'.
260 It's usually a good idea to send the output of the `\-help' switch along
263 If there is no local \fIMH\fR maintainer,
264 try the address \fBBug-MH\fR.
265 If that fails, use the Internet mailbox \fBBug-MH@ICS.UCI.EDU\fR.
267 ^$HOME/\&.mh\(ruprofile~^The user profile
269 ^Path:~^To determine the user's MH directory
271 .\" for each additional profile entry
273 .\" the see\-also's go here
275 .\" the first default goes here
277 .\" for each additional default
279 .\" context changes go here
280 .\" You can also have
281 .\" .Hh \- the helpful hints section
282 .\" .Hi \- the history section
283 .\" .Bu \- the bugs section