The Rand MH Message Handling System: Tutorial Marshall T. Rosey Jerry N. Sweetz Wed May 21 21:04:08 PDT 1986 Abstract This document introduces the UCI version of the Rand MH system to novice users. In particular, this tutorial discusses how to read, send, reply to, and review mail; aspects of the MH user profile affecting these activities; and other reference works on MH. Although this document is based on the standard MH user manual[MRose85a], this document is meant to supple- ment, not supersede, that lengthier work. Comments concerning this documentation should be ad- dressed to the Internet mailbox Bug-MH@ICS.UCI.EDU. _____________________________________ Computer Mail: y MRose@NRTC.NORTHROP.COM, z JSweet@ICS.UCI.EDU. The Rand MH Message Handling System: Tutorial Acknowledgements The MH system described herein is based on the original Rand MH system. It has been extensively developed (perhaps too much so) by Marshall Rose and John Romine at the University of California, Irvine. Einar Stefferud, Jerry Sweet, and Terry Domae provided numerous suggestions to improve the UCI version of MH. Parts of this document are taken from a Rand tutorial [SPayn85] by Sue Payne. Disclaimer The Regents of the University of California issue the following disclaimer concerning the UCI version of MH: "Although each program has been tested by its contributor, no warranty, express or implied, is made by the contributor or the University of California, as to the accuracy and functioning of the program and related program material, nor shall the fact of distribution constitute any such warranty, and no responsibility is assumed by the contributor or the University of California in connection herewith." Scope This document assumes that you have no knowledge of MH. However, to use MH you should have some familiarity with the UNIX1 operating system, particularly with the way commands are given, how files are named, the jargon (e.g. shell, argument, home directory, pathname), and how to use a text editor (such as ex, vi, or emacs ). This tutorial covers only basic material. For additional information about MH, consult the User's Manual [MRose85a]. Other documents of possible interest to you include The UCI BBoards Facility [MRose84] and the MH Administrator's Guide [MRose85b]. _____________________________________ 1 UNIX is a trademark of AT&T Bell Laboratories. 1 2 How To Use This Tutorial Different typefaces and symbols are used in this document to denote the kinds of things you (the user) must type on your keyboard. 1. The names of programs are given in text italics: comp 2. Arguments to programs are given in typewriter style, delimited by single-quotes: `msgs' 3. UNIX pathnames are given in slanted roman: /usr/uci/ 4. Text giving a full example is presented in typewriter style: comp -editor vi The " " glyph is used to indicate an explicit space (the kind you make with the space bar on your keyboard). Introduction With MH you can send messages to other people on your system and read messages that other people send to you. Depending on how things have been set up on your system, it may be possible for you to send messages to people on remote systems. You can also reply to messages that you have received, review them, organize them in folders, and delete them. MH differs from other mail programs in that it is composed of many small programs instead of just one very large program. Among new users this sometimes causes some confusion along the lines of "what program do I run?" With MH, you use the shell to invoke one program at a time. This means that when you handle mail, the entire power of the shell is at your disposal in addition to the facilities that MH provides. In the beginning, this may not make much sense or may not seem important. However, we have found that as new users of MH gain experience, they find this style of interface to be very useful. 3 Summary The most minimal list of MH commands that you can get by with is: inc - incorporate mail (get new mail) show - show the first message next - show the next message prev - show the previous message comp - compose a new message to send repl - reply to a received message Comp and repl give enough prompting possibly to get you along. However, it is suggested that you take the time to peruse this tutorial before leaping into things. Messages and Folders A message takes the form of a memorandum, and is composed of two major parts: a header, which contains such information as ``To'' and ``From'' addresses, ``Subject'' , ``Date'' , etc.; and the body, which is the actual text of the message. Each component in the header starts with a keyword followed by a colon and additional information. For example, in the message: Date: 10 Oct 84 17:41:14 EDT (Wed) To: News@udel-dewey Subject: UCI Software Talk From: UCI Portal (agent: Marshall Rose) This is the text. there are four header items, and one line of text in the body. Note that a blank line separates the body from the headers. MH stores a message as an ordinary file in a UNIX directory. This directory is called a folder. If you choose to keep and organize your messages, you may create as many folders as you wish. There is no limit as to the number of messages in a folder. Typically messages are numbered from 1 up. All of your personal folders, along with some other information that MH needs to know, are kept in a special directory called Mail under your home directory. Normally, MH manages these files and directories automatically, so you needn't muck around with them directly unless you really want to. 4 You won't have any folders until somebody sends mail to you, as a rule. If you are anxious to try out MH, but no one has sent you mail yet, try sending mail to yourself to start out with. Reading New Mail When you are notified that you have mail (usually when you log in), perhaps with the message You have mail. then you know that messages are waiting in your maildrop. To read these messages, you first have to incorporate the mail into your "in-box" by typing the command: inc This incorporates the new mail from your mail drop to your in-box, which is a folder named (naturally enough) `+inbox' . As inc incorporates your new mail, it generates a scan listing of the mail: Incorporating new mail into inbox... 2 + 10/10 WESTINE% USC-ISIF RFC 916 Now Available <