4 .TH MH-PROFILE %manext5% "%nmhdate%" MH.6.8 [%nmhversion%]
6 mh-profile \- user profile customization for mmh message handler
14 is expected to have a file named
16 in his or her home directory. This file contains
17 a set of user parameters used by some or all of the
19 family of programs. Each entry in the file is of the format
22 .IR Profile\-Component ": " value
25 If the text of profile entry is long, you may extend it across several
26 real lines by indenting the continuation lines with leading spaces or tabs.
28 .SS "Standard Profile Entries"
29 The possible profile components are exemplified below. The only mandatory
30 entry is `Path:'. The others are optional; some have default values if
31 they are not present. In the notation used below, (profile, default)
32 indicates whether the information is kept in the user's
36 context, and indicates what the default value is.
41 Sets the user's mail storage to `Mail'. This is the
42 only mandatory profile entry. (profile, no default)
48 Declares the location of the
50 context file. This is overridden by the environment variable
55 (profile, default: $HOME/.mmh/context)
61 Keeps track of the current open folder.
62 (context, default: folder specified by `Inbox')
68 Defines the name of your default inbox.
69 (profile, default: inbox)
72 .BR Previous\-Sequence :
75 Names the sequence or sequences which should be defined as the `msgs' or
76 `msg' argument given to any
78 command. If not present or empty,
79 no such sequences are defined. Otherwise, for each name given, the
80 sequence is first zero'd and then each message is added to the sequence.
83 man page for the details about this sequence. (profile, no default)
86 .BR Sequence\-Negation :
89 Defines the string which, when prefixed to a sequence name, negates
90 that sequence. Hence, `!foo' means all those messages that
91 are not a member of the sequence `foo'.
92 To deactivate this mechanism, define Sequence\-Negation to an empty value.
95 man page for the details. (profile, default: !)
98 .BR Unseen\-Sequence :
101 Names the sequence or sequences which shall contain any unread messages.
107 will add or remove messages from these
108 sequences when they are incorporated or read. If defined with an empty
109 value, no such sequences are defined. Otherwise, each message is
110 added to, or removed from, each sequence name given. Read the
112 man page for the details about this sequence.
113 (profile, default: u)
119 The name of the file in each folder which defines public sequences.
120 To disable the use of public sequences, leave the value portion of this
121 entry blank. (profile, default: \&.mh_sequences)
124 .BI atr\- seq \- folder :
127 Keeps track of the private sequence called `seq' in the specified
128 folder. Private sequences are generally used for read\-only folders.
131 man page for details about private sequences.
132 (context, no default)
138 Defines the editor to be used by the commands
144 This profile entry overrides the $VISUAL and $EDITOR environment variables,
145 but gets overridden by the $MMHEDITOR environment variabel.
146 (profile, default: vi)
152 This is the program used by
156 formatted message when displaying to a terminal. It is also the default
159 to display message bodies (or message parts) of type text/plain.
160 This profile entry overrides the $PAGER environment variable, but gets
161 overridden by the $MMHPAGER environment variable.
162 (profile, default: more)
173 (profile, default: %sendmailpath%)
176 .BR Attachment-Header :
179 The (pseudo) header in draft messages, that contains files to be attached
180 to the message on sending.
181 If you like to type a lot, name it `X-MH-Attachment'.
182 (profile, default: `Attach')
185 .BR Mime-Type-Query :
188 A command that prints the MIME type of a file.
189 The file name gets appended to the command line.
190 Note: Older GNU versions of file(1) won't generate the desired
191 output. GNU file-4.26, for instance, omits a required semicolon.
192 GNU file-5.04 is known to work. Non-GNU version likely need different
193 options or don't provide this function at all. Alternatively, you can use
194 .BR print\-mimetype ,
195 which is part of mmh, but guesses MIME types by file name extensions only.
201 An octal number which defines the permission bits for new message files.
204 for an explanation of the octal number.
205 (profile, default: 0600)
208 .BR Folder\-Protect :
211 An octal number which defines the permission bits for new folder
214 for an explanation of the octal number.
215 (profile, default: 0700)
221 Sets default switches to be used whenever the mmh program
223 is invoked. For example, one could override the `Editor:' profile
224 component when replying to messages by adding a component such as:
227 repl: \-editor /bin/ed
230 (profile, no defaults)
233 .IB lasteditor "-next:"
236 Names `nexteditor' to be the default editor after using
237 `lasteditor'. This takes effect at `What now?' prompt
245 the draft with `lasteditor', the default editor is set to be
246 `nexteditor'. If the user types `edit' without any
247 arguments to `What now?', then `nexteditor' is used.
248 (profile, no default)
254 The contents of the folder-stack for the
257 (context, no default)
260 .BR Alternate\-Mailboxes :
261 mh@uci\-750a, bug-mh*
267 which addresses are really yours.
270 knows which addresses should be included in the
273 knows if the message really originated from you.
274 Addresses must be separated by a comma, and the hostnames listed should
275 be the `official' hostnames for the mailboxes you indicate, as
276 local nicknames for hosts are not replaced with their official site names.
277 For each address, if a host is not given, then that address on any host is
278 considered to be you. In addition, an asterisk (`*') may appear at either
279 or both ends of the mailbox and host to indicate wild-card matching.
280 (profile, default: your user-id)
287 Indicates aliases files for
292 (profile, no default)
298 Changes the default draft folder. Read the
300 man page for details. (profile, default: +drafts)
306 Changes the default folder for removed messages. Read the
308 man page for details.
309 (profile, default: +trash)
312 .BI digest\-issue\- list :
317 the last issue of the last volume sent for the digest
319 (context, no default)
322 .BI digest\-volume\- list :
327 the last volume sent for the digest
329 (context, no default)
337 your maildrop, if different from the default. This is
338 superseded by the environment variable
340 (profile, default: %mailspool%/$USER)
344 RAND MH System (agent: Marshall Rose)
348 your mail signature. This is superseded by the
353 is not set and this profile entry is not present, the `gcos' field of
354 the \fI/etc/passwd\fP file will be used.
355 Your signature will be added to the address
357 puts in the `From:' header; do not include an address in the
358 signature text. (profile, no default)
361 .SS "Process Profile Entries"
362 The following profile elements are used whenever an
364 program invokes some other program such as
366 The profile can be used to select alternate programs if the
367 user wishes. The default values are given in the examples.
373 This program is used to list the contents of a message in response
378 directive at the `What now?' prompt.
379 The absolute pathname of the message to list will be appended to
380 the command line given.
386 This is the program invoked by
392 to query about the disposition of a composed draft message.
395 .SS "Environment Variables"
398 and its commands it also controlled by the
399 presence of certain environment variables.
401 Many of these environment variables are used internally by the
402 `What now?' interface. It's amazing all the information
403 that has to get passed via environment variables to make the
404 `What now?' interface look squeaky clean to the
406 user, isn't it? The reason for all this is that the
414 one of the standard shells. As a result, it's not possible to pass
415 information via an argument list. The convention is that environment
416 variables whose names are all upper-case are user-settable; those
417 whose names are lower-case only are used internally by mmh and should
418 not generally be set by the user.
422 option was set during
425 if this environment variable is set, then if the commands
430 are not given any `msgs'
431 arguments, then they will default to using the file indicated by
433 This is useful for getting the default behavior
434 supplied by the default
439 With this environment variable, you can specify an alternative
440 mmh directory. Personal mmh configuration files are located relative to
442 Non-absolute values are relative to the home directory.
443 This is one of the very few exceptions in
445 where non-absolute pathnames are not considered relative to the user's
451 With this environment variable, you can specify a profile
453 .I $HOME/.mmh/profile
457 that you invoke. If the value of
459 is not absolute, it will be presumed to start from the mmh directory.
464 With this environment variable, you can specify a
465 context other than the normal context file (as specified in
466 the profile). As always, unless the value of
468 is absolute, it will be presumed to start from your mmh directory.
473 With this environment variable, you can specify
474 the native character set you are using. You must be able to display
475 this character set on your terminal.
477 This variable is checked to see if a RFC-2047 header field should be
490 be called, since showmimeproc will be called if a text message uses
491 a character set that doesn't match
496 for matches against the charset parameter
497 of text contents to decide it the text content can be displayed
498 without modifications to your terminal. This variable is checked by
500 to decide what character set to specify in the charset
501 parameter of text contents containing 8\-bit characters.
503 When decoding text in such an alternate character set,
505 must be able to determine which characters are alphabetic, which
506 are control characters, etc. For many operating systems, this
507 will require enabling the support for locales (such as setting
508 the environment variable
517 the default maildrop. This supersedes the `MailDrop' profile entry.
526 your mail signature. This supersedes the `Signature' profile entry.
531 This variable tells all
533 programs your home directory
540 the default shell to run
549 These variables (in descending priority) define the default editor to use.
556 These variables (in descending priority) define the default pager to use.
565 The environment variable
567 is also consulted. In particular,
572 how many columns wide your terminal is. They also tell
575 lines long your terminal screen is.
580 This is the path to the working draft.
590 which file to ask `What now?'
603 about an alternate message associated with the
604 draft (the message being distributed or replied to).
605 It is also set during edit sessions so you can peruse the
606 message being distributed or replied to.
607 This variable replaces the older
610 There used to be a link named `@' in the working directory, pointing
611 to the alternate message, there is no such link anymore.
621 that message re-distribution is occurring.
635 editor (unless overridden by
652 if annotations are to occur.
662 if annotations are to occur.
667 This is the folder containing the alternate message.
673 during edit sessions so you
674 can peruse other messages in the current folder besides the one being
675 distributed or replied to.
681 .ta \w'%etcdir%/ExtraBigFileName 'u
682 ^$HOME/.mmh~^The user's mmh directory
683 ^or $MMH~^Rather than the standard mmh directory
684 ^$HOME/.mmh/profile~^The user's profile
685 ^or $MMHP~^Rather than the standard profile
686 ^$HOME/.mmh/context~^The user's context
687 ^or $MMHC~^Rather than the standard context
688 ^<folder>/.mh_sequences~^Public sequences for <folder>
692 nmh(1), environ(5), mh-sequence(7)
696 .I $HOME/.mmh/profile
697 contains only static information, which
701 update. Changes in context are made to the
702 .I $HOME/.mmh/context
704 This includes, but is not limited to: the `Current\-Folder' entry
705 and all private sequence information. Public sequence information is
706 kept in each folder in the file determined by the `Mh\-Sequences'
707 profile entry (default is
708 .IR \&.mh_sequences ).
710 The profile may override the path of the
712 file, by specifying a `Context' entry.
713 As a result, you can actually have more than one set of
714 private sequences by using different context files.
717 The shell quoting conventions are not available in the profile.
718 Each token is separated by whitespace.
720 There is some question as to what kind of arguments should be placed
721 in the profile as options. In order to provide a clear answer, recall
722 command line semantics of all
724 programs: conflicting switches
729 may occur more than one time on the
730 command line, with the last switch taking effect. Other arguments, such
731 as message sequences, filenames and folders, are always remembered on
732 the invocation line and are not superseded by following arguments of
733 the same type. Hence, it is safe to place only switches (and their
734 arguments) in the profile.
738 program is being invoked again and again
739 with the same arguments, and those arguments aren't switches, then there
740 are a few possible solutions to this problem. The first is to create a
746 of your choice. By giving this link a different name, you can create
747 a new entry in your profile and use an alternate set of defaults for
750 command. Similarly, you could create a small shell script
753 program of your choice with an alternate set
754 of invocation line switches (using links and an alternate profile entry
755 is preferable to this solution).
759 user could create an alias for the command of the form:
762 alias cmd 'cmd arg1 arg2 ...'
765 In this way, the user can avoid lengthy type-in to the shell, and still
768 commands safely. (Recall that some
771 invoke others, and that in all cases, the profile is read, meaning that
772 aliases are disregarded beyond an initial command invocation)
projects / mmh / blob