Customized generic SPECS/build-nmh-cygwin for nmh.

[mmh] / docs / historical / mh4mm.txt

                                   MH  for  MM  Users



                            Mary  Hegardt                           Tim  Morgan



                                               April  12,  1990



1         Introduction



This document is another in a continuing series on use of the MH mail system

at  UCI.  It  is  intended  for  those  users  accustomed  to  the  mm  "user  agent"

(mail  program)  under  Tops-20  and  who  are  already  familiar  with  network

mail,  but  who  may  not  be  experienced  Unix  users.   For  an  introduction

to  MH,  see  "MH  For  Beginners"  by  Mary  Hegardt  and  Tim  Morgan.   For

complete, detailed information on the MH system, see The Rand MH Message

Handling System:  User's Manual  by Marshall T. Rose and John L. Romine.

Both documents are available for Xeroxing in suite CS408.



1.1         UNIX  Versus  Tops-20



The  Unix1  paradigm  is  that  each  command,  or  program,  should  perform

only  one  function.   An  extension  of  this  idea  is  that  the  operating  system

implements  only  those  functions  which  are  necessary,  but  it  does  so  in  a

very general way so that programs may still accomplish their functions.  This

philosophy  probably  evolved  because  the  original  versions  of  Unix  ran  on

PDP-11 minicomputers which had only a small memory space for each pro-

cess.
________________________________________________
    1 Unix is a trademark of AT&T Bell Laboratories



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Consequently,  all  commands  in  Unix,  with  a  very  few  exceptions,  are  in

actuality  programs.  On  Tops-20,  in  contrast,  many  of  the  most  frequently

used  commands  are  built  into  the  user's  shell,  or  exec.  Both  the  Exec  and

csh,  which  is  typically  the  user's  command  interface  on  Unix,  will  accept

and parse command lines, attempting to invoke a command as a program if

it is not one of the built-in commands.  Unix and Tops-20 are surprisingly

similar internally:  the use of the shell, separate processes for each command

or  program  to  execute,  standard  input  and  output  for  each  program,  and

many  other  ideas  are  common  to  both  operating  systems.  Users  should  be

familiar with the capabilities of the shell, which is described in the document

"Introduction to the Csh."



1.2         The  MH  User  Interface



The  MH  mail  "user  agent"  is  different  from  most  other  mail  systems.  mm,

for example, is a monolithic  system because one program implements all the

mail-related  functions.   The  disadvantages  of  monolithic  systems  are  that

(a) they are large, so they tend to put more burden on the computer system,

and (b) they allow for much less flexibility.  In contrast, MH implements each

mail command as a separate program:  there is no single program called mh.

This  approach  facilitates  interspersing  mail  commands  with  other,  perhaps

unrelated, commands.


Another  unique  feature  of  MH  is  that  it  takes  advantage  of  the  facilities

provided  by  the  operating  system.  Most  mail  agents,  such  as  mm,  maintain

a file containing the user's mail in a special, usually undocumented, format.

When  a  message  is  deleted,  mm  must  take  care  of  compacting  the  mail  file.

It  must  be  able  to  distinguish  the  separate  messages  contained  in  the  file.

mm must also implement a simple text editor to allow the user to enter and

modify a message while it is being composed.  These functions are essentially

those provided by the operating system when separate files are stored within

a  directory.   Therefore,  the  approach  taken  by  MH  is  that  each  message  is

kept  in  a  separate  file.  This  file  simply  contains  the  message,  with  no  other

special  formatting  characters  or  requirements.   All  the  messages  are  stored

within  a  normal  Unix  directory.   This  approach  makes  it  easy  to  add  new

MH commands, to edit messages using standard text editors, etc.



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All your MH related files are stored in a directory within your home directory.

Usually this directory is called Mail or mhbox, although you are free to name

it as you choose.  Another file in your home directory called .mh_profile is

equivalent  to  the  MM.INIT  file  under  mm.  It  contains  all  the  options  which

you  prefer  for  the  various  MH  commands.  It  also  contains  the  name  of  the

MH  directory  and  the  name  that  you  want  on  your  outgoing  mail  in  the

From:  field (your "signature ").



2         Getting  Started



2.1         Incorporating  Mail



Another important difference between mm and MH is the concept of the mail-

drop  file.  Under Tops-20, the mail transport system delivers new messages

directly into the recipient's MAIL.TXT file, where they may then be processed

with  mm.   In  contrast,  the  Unix  mail  transport  system,  called  MMDF-II,

makes  no  assumptions  about  the  user  agent  used  by  the  recipient.  Instead,

it puts all new mail into a special file called the maildrop.  This file is in the

/usr/spool/mail  directory.  When  you  log  in,  if  there  is  new  mail  for  you

in your maildrop, you will be so notified by the message


                 You  have  new  ZOTnet  mail  --  type  inc  (or  mail)


When you are ready to process this new mail, you may type the command


                 %  inc


("incorporate") which will copy the new mail into separate files, one per mes-

sage, stored in your "inbox" folder.  A folder is a subdirectory beneath your

MH directory which is used to store related messages.  Additional information

on  folders  is  given  in  Section  4.5,  page  13.   The  "inbox"  is  a  distinguished

folder  because  by  default  inc  will  always  copy  new  mail  into  that  folder,

removing it from the maildrop.


If  this  is  the  first  time  you  have  used  inc  or  any  other  MH  command,  the

mh-install  program  will  inform  you  that  it  is  creating  your  Mail  directory.

It will also create the "inbox" folder directory, and .mh_profile.



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2.2         Message  Numbers



As inc processes each message, it prints a "scan" listing showing the message

number, the date the message was sent, the name of the sender, the subject,

and  sometimes  the  initial  part  of  the  text  of  the  message.  A  "scan"  listing

is thus similar to the output of the HEADERS command in mm.  Each message

within  a  folder  is  given  a  number,  starting  with  1,  by  which  it  can  be  ref-

erenced.  Inc  will  display  the  numbers  assigned  to  each  new  message  in  its

"scan" listing.


As  in  mm,  there  is  a  "current  message"  number  which  usually  identifies  the

message most recently manipulated by the user.  With most MH commands,

this  will  be  the  default  message  if  no  messages  are  explicitly  specified  in

a  command.   Inc  makes  the  first  new  message  the  current  message,  which

is  indicated  by  a  "+"  character  in  the  scan  listing,  just  after  the  message

number.


Many  MH  commands  take  a  list  of  messages  to  process.   A  message  desig-

nation  is  either  a  single  message  number,  two  message  numbers  separated

by  a  dash.   The  dash  format  indicates  a  range  of  messages  including  the

endpoints.  A message list consists of one or more message designations sep-

arated by spaces.  For example, messages 11 through 15 and message 17 may

be indicated by typing


                 11-15  17


as the argument to some command.  There are also several predefined names

for  messages  or  lists  of  messages  which  may  be  used  in  place  of  message

numbers:


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

                to "."  or "CURRENT" in mm.

  next          The next message

  prev          The previous message

  first         The first message in the current folder.

   last         The last message in the folder.  Equivalent to % or * in mm.

     all        All messages (first  last ).  Same as in mm.


It  is  also  possible  for  you  to  define  your  own  named  sequences  of  messages.



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See the pick  command description for more details.



3         Processing  Messages



This section contains a list of the common mm commands and their equiva-

lents in the in MH mail system.  A short textual note describes how the MH

commands differ from their mm counterparts.



3.1         Listing  Messages



As mentioned in Section 2.2, the scan  command may be used to summarize

the  messages  in  a  folder,  similar  to  the  HEADERS  command  in  mm.   Unlike

most MH commands, however, scan defaults to all the messages in the current

folder unless you specify one or messages on the command line to be scanned.

So simply typing


                 %  scan


is equivalent to typing HEADERS  ALL (or H  A) in mm.



3.2         Reading  Mail



Unlike  the  READ  command  in  mm,  in  MH  there  is  no  special  mail-reading

mode (indicated in mm by the R> prompt).  The command to read messages

in  MH  is  show.   If  no  message  list  is  specified,  then  the  current  message

is  displayed.  The  message  is  displayed  by  your  "showproc",  as  specified  in

the  .mh_profile,  described  in  Section  4.2.  Normally,  your  "showproc"  will

be  more  or  mhless.  Both  of  these  programs__will__display_ your  messages  one

screenful  at  a  time.   You  press  the  __space_bar______ __on  your  terminal  to  see  the
                       ____________
next screenful, or the __return____ _key to see the next line.


The command


                 %  show  next



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(which  will  display  the  first  message  following  the  current  message  in  the

current folder) can be abbreviated as simply


                 %  next


Similarly, the command "show  prev" can be abbreviated as simply "prev".


To get a paper copy of a mail message, take the output from the show  com-

mand and pipe it into the imprint  command.


                 %  show  5  _  imprint


See the manual page for imprint  for more information.



3.3         Deleting  Messages



The equivalent of the DELETE command in mm is rmm  in MH (remove mes-

sages).  It  acts  on  the  current  message  unless  messages  are  specified  on  the

command  line.  Unlike  mm,  the  deleted  messages  will  no  longer  show  up  in

a  "scan"  listing.   But  the  messages  are  not  completely  removed;  they  are

renamed to have a comma prepended to the name of the file containing the

message within its folder directory.  Therefore, if you need to recover a mes-

sage,  it  is  possible  to  go  into  the  directory  and  rename  the  message  back.

Be careful in doing this not to overwrite a new message with the same mes-

sage  number!  It  is  a  Unix  convention  that  files  whose  names  begin  with  a

comma will be removed from disk (expunged ) early each morning.  Therefore,

your deleted messages will be available for the rest of the day, unless you re-

move another message subsequently which has the same message.  Then the

previously deleted message is gone.



3.4         Replying  to  Mail



The  equivalent  of  the  REPLY  command  in  mm  is  repl  in  MH.  Repl  may  be

given the number of the message to which you wish to reply, or it will default

to  the  current  message.   When  replying  in  mm,  you  are  prompted  asking

if  you  wish  to  reply  to  all  the  recipients  of  the  message  to  which  you  are

replying, or only to its sender.  In MH, normally the reply will be constructed



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to be sent to all the recipients.  You may select which recipients receive copies

of  your  reply  by  using  the  -query  option  on  repl,  or  by  putting  this  option

in  your  .mh_profile,  as  described  in  Section  4.2.  If  you  wish  a  reply  to  go

to everyone but yourself, you can use repl  -nocc  me.



3.5         Sending  Mail



The equivalent of the SEND mm command is comp ("compose") in MH. These

two  commands  are  fairly  similar,  except  that  the  recipient  of  the  message

cannot be specified on the comp  command line.  The comp  program invokes

a simple editor called prompter  which will prompt you for the To:, Cc:, and

Subject:   fields  of  the  message.   Then  a  line  of  dashes  is  typed,  and  you

may  enter  the__body__of  your  message  (its  text,__in__mm_ terms).  When  you  are

finished, type __ctrl__-__D (equivalent to typing __ESC_______or control-Z in mm).  Then

you'll receive the prompt


                 What  now?


which  is  similar  to  mm's  S>  prompt.  You  may  receive  a  list__of__the_ options

that  you  have  at  this  point  by  typing  "?"   followed  by  __return____._  Here  is  a

short  list  of  the  options  and  their  meanings.  Notice  that,  unlike  mm,  there

are very few commands to modify the message (such as the TEXT, TO, CC, etc.,

commands which may be typed at the S> prompt in mm).  In place of these

commands,  you  use  the  edit  command  to  invoke  your  favorite  text  editor

on the message, and you use it to make the equivalent changes.  You also use

your  editor  to  include  other  files  into  the  body  of  the  message,  rather  than

using  control-B,  as  in  mm.  One  additional  use  of  the  edit  command  is  for

spelling checking.  In mm, you may use the command SPELL for this purpose.

In MH, you type "edit  spell"2  instead.  This will cause the spelling checker

to be run, giving you a list of the possibly misspelled words in your message.



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

                               exit, you will be back at What  now?.
________________________________________________
    2 Actually, any program named after the "edit" command will be invoked with what-

ever  arguments  you  have  given  and  a  path  to  the  file  containing  the  message  you  are
editing.



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                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



3.6         Forwarding  Mail



The  forw  command  is  used  in  MH  to  forward  messages.   It  will  take  a  list

of  messages  on  the  command  line  to  be  forwarded,  or  it  will  default  to  the

current  message  if  none  are  specified.   It  will  prompt  you  like  comp  does

for  the  To:,  Cc:,  and  Subject:  fields.    Note  that,  unlike  mm's  FORWARD

command, forw  will not construct a subject line automatically.  Also as with

comp, you will have the opportunity to add additional text to the message(s)

which you are forwarding, ended with a control-D.



3.7         Resending  Mail



The  equivalent  of  the  RESEND  command  in  mm  is  the  dist  ("distribute")

command  in  MH.  Dist  works  very  much  like  the  forw  command,  except

that  the  prompts  will  be  Resend-To:,  Resend-Cc:,  etc.  After  filling  in  the

headers,  a  line  of  dashes  is  typed  giving  the  impression  that  additional  text

can be entered.  Nothing could be further from the truth; if you add any text

at  this  point  the  dist  will  fail.  Your  only  opportunity  to  add  text  is  in  the

Resend-Note:  field.



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4         Advanced  Topics



4.1         Selecting  Messages



In  mm,  you  may  use  several  reserved  command  words  to  select  messages

in  place  of  an  explicit  list  of  message  numbers.    For  example,  you  can

type  "DELETE  FROM  SMITH"  to  remove  all  the  messages  from  a  user  named

"Smith".   Rather  than  building  such  a  capability  into  each  MH  program

which  can  process  message  lists,  a  special  program  called  pick  is  used  in-

stead.   Just  as  there  are  predefined  sequences  of  messages,  such  as  "all",

"cur", etc., you may use pick  to define your own sequences.  Pick  is capable

of selecting messages from a folder based on the To:, From:, Subject:, Cc:,

or  Date:  fields,  or  by  searching  the  body  of  the  message.  The  patterns  to

be searched for may include full regular expressions (see the "man" page for

ed(1)  for more information) or simple strings.


Pick  may  be  used  in  one  of  two  ways.  First,  it  may  output  the  sequence  of

message  numbers  which  match  the  search  parameters.  Using  the  backquot-

ing  mechanism  of  the  shell,  these  message  numbers  may  then  become  the

arguments to other MH programs.  The second way to use pick  is to have it

define a new sequence name which will be the messages which were selected.

Only  this  second  method  of  using  pick  will  be  described  here;  see  pick(l)  if

you wish to use the first method.


In your .mh_profile, add the line


                 pick:    -seq  sel


Then  each  time  you  use  the  pick  command,  it  will  define  the  resulting  se-

quence of messages to be called "sel".  Then to "pick" all the messages in the

current folder which are from "Smith", just type


                 %  pick  -from  smith


To see a summary of those messages, type


                 %  scan  sel


Then to the remove the messages, type the command



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                 %  rmm  sel


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).



4.2         Customizing  Your  Mail  Environment



In  mm,  you  use  the  PROFILE  command  to  tailor  your  mail  environment.

This  command  writes  a  file  called  MM.INIT  in  your  home  directory  which

is  then  read  by  subsequent  executions  of  mm.   In  the  MH  system,  the  file

.mh_profile  serves  the  same  purpose.   It  is  edited  with  any  normal  text

editor,  rather  than  using  a  special-purpose  command  to  modify  it.    The

format of the file is line oriented, one line per MH program or MH option to

be  set.  The  only  required  line  in  the  profile  is  the  name  of  the  primary  MH

mail directory, which is by default Mail.  This information is specified by the

line


                 Path:    Mail


The  textual  name  you  would  like  to  have  on  your  outgoing  mail  is  specified

by the Signature:  line.  For example,


                 Signature:    Mary  Hegardt


The BBoards which you like to read should also be listed in the .mh_profile

(see  Section  4.6,  page  14,  for  additional  information).   For  example,  if  you

read the "system" BBoard (where all important announcements are posted),

as well as "whimsey" and "imagen-users" BBoards, your .mh_profile should

contain the line


                 bboards:    system  whimsey  imagen-users


Other options may be specified on a per-program basis.  The format for these

lines is the same.  First, the program name is given followed by a colon.  Then

any flags which are to be the default options for that program are given.  Here

is a short list of the most common options which you may want to set in your

.mh_profile:


                 showproc:    mhless



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The  showproc  is  the  program  used  to  show  messages  to  you.  By  default,  it

is the more  command.  Mhless  is the same as more  except that it omits the

headers of the messages which you indicate that you wish not to see.  Type


                 %  man  mhless


for more information about this program.


                 msh:    -scan


Selecting this option causes an automatic scan of new messages on BBoards to

be made when reading BBoards with bbc, similar to the scan listing produced

by inc.


                 repl:    -query


causes repl  to ask for each address in the message being replied to if it should

be included in the To:  or Cc:  fields of the reply being composed.


                 pick:    -seq  sel


This  line  will  cause  messages  "picked"  by  the  pick  command  to  be  put  into

a  sequence  named  "sel".  This  sequence  name  may  then  be  used  just  as  the

built-in sequences ("last", "first", etc.).



4.3         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



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entries  for  the  commands  ali,  whom,  send,  and  push,  creating  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.



4.4         Blind  Lists



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

Users  of  mm  may  already  be  familiar  with  the  "Blind  Carbon  Copy",  or

BCC:  field.   It  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

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;



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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.



4.5         Folders



As  mentioned  previously,  folders  are  directories  within  your  MH  directory

used  to  store  related  messages.  There  is  no  equivalent  of  the  folder  concept

in the mm system.  Usually, you will use only the folder "inbox", so you won't

have to worry about folders.  However, if you process a large volume of mail,

then folders become invaluable in managing the messages which you wish to

keep for future reference.


Just as there is a "current message," MH maintains a "current folder," which

will  normally  be  "inbox".   You  can  change  folders  either  by  specifying  the

folder on the command line of MH programs which take a list of messages as

an argument, or by using the folder command:


                 %  folder  +folder__name


In  general,  the  folder  name  is  indicated  by  a  "+"  sign  followed  immediately

by  the  folder  name,  all  preceeding  any  list  of  messages.   For  example,  you

may  read  the  most  recent  message  in  a  folder  called  "job__offers"  using  the

command


                 %  show  +job__offers  last


This  command  will  have  the  side-effect  of  setting  the  current  folder  to  be

"job__offers".    You  may  move  messages  from  the  current  folder  into  the

"job__offers" folder using the command


                 %  refile  +job__offers  messages


where, as usual, the messages  list will default to the current message in the

current  folder  if  none  are  specified.   Note  that,  in  contrast  with  the  show

command  and  most  other  MH  commands,  the  messages  are  not  considered

to be in the folder "job__offers".  You may obtain a summary of all your folders

by typing the command


                 %  folders



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When  you  remove  messages  from  a  folder  using  the  rmm  command,  the

deleted  messages  will  show  up  as  a  "hole"  in  the  message  numbering.  The

command


                 %  folder  -pack


will cause all the messages within one folder to be renumbered starting with 1.

Similarly, the command


                 %  folders  -pack


will do the same thing for all your folders.


To remove an empty folder, use the command


                 %  rmf  +folder



4.6         Reading  BBoards



Two  special-purpose  programs  are  utilized  in  reading  BBoards.  The  first  is

bbc,  which  is  used  to  check  a  list  of  BBoards  for  new  messages.  The  list  of

messages may be given on the command line, or if not, it will be taken from

the  BBoards:   list  in  your  .mh_profile.   You  may  obtain  a  list  of  all  the

available BBoards by typing the command


                 %  bbc  -topics


For  each  BBoard  with  unseen  messages,  bbc  will  invoke  the  MH  shell,  msh,

whose prompt is


                 (msh)


The msh  program allows you to read BBoard mail as if it were normal mes-

sages  in  one  of  your  folders.   Almost  all  the  MH  commands  will  work  just

as  the  normally  do.  Typing  the  command  "quit"  to  msh  causes  it  to  stop

reading  the  current  BBoard  and  go  on  to  the  next  one  containing  unseen

messages,  or  to  exit  if  there  are  no  more  such  BBoards.   Typing  control-D

causes  msh  to  exit  unconditionally.  The  command  mark  followed  by  a  mes-

sage  number  causes  msh  to  act  as  if  you  have  seen  that  message  and  all

previous ones.



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4.7         Checking  for  Mail



Under  Unix,  there  are  about  a  dozen  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  your  .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  of  new  mail  when  you  are

between commands, when the shell is about to prompt you.


If you desire 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  new  mail  arrives,  you  will  receive  a  one-line  "scan"  listing

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

"maildelivery" files, type:


                 %  man  5  maildelivery



4.8         Saving  Drafts



Normally  when  you  use  comp,  it  creates  the  message  being  composed  in  a

file  called  "draft"  in  your  MH  directory.   If  you  use  the  "quit"  option  at

the "What  now?"  prompt, this file will remain there.  You may later use the

command


                 %  comp  -use


to resume composing the message.



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If you begin composing a new message and there is already a "draft" file,_you___

will  be  asked  for  the  disposition  of  this  file.  Typing  ?  __return____ _will  give  you

a list of the options at this point.  Normally you will either replace (delete)

the old draft and begin a new one or use the old one.


The -file switch to comp  may be used to specify the name of a draft other

than "draft".  For example, one might type


                 %  comp  -file  mary


to begin composing a message maintained in the draft file "mary".  Typing


                 %  comp  -file  mary  -use


would cause comp  to resume composing this same draft after a "quit" com-

mand to the "What  now?"  prompt.


Very  advanced  users  of  MH  maintain  multiple  draft  files  in  a  draft  folder.

This  is  a  normal  folder  which  holds  all  your  drafts,  rather  than  having  just

one draft in your MH directory named "draft".  If you feel that you need to

use  draft  folders,  you  should  consult  the  MH  User's  Manual  for  additional

information.



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