1 .TH NMH %manext7% "April 21, 2014" "%nmhversion%"
5 .\" Register 'tt' contains the indent for .TP in the COMMANDS section:
6 .nr tt \w'\fImh-sequence\fR(5)\0\0'u
9 nmh \- new MH message system
12 is the name of a powerful message handling system. Rather than
13 being a single comprehensive program,
15 consists of a collection
16 of fairly simple single-purpose programs to send, retrieve, save,
17 and manipulate messages.
19 Unlike most mail clients in UNIX,
21 is not a closed system which
22 must be explicitly run, then exited when you wish to return to the shell.
23 You may freely intersperse
25 commands with other shell commands,
26 allowing you to read and answer your mail while you have (for example)
27 a compilation running, or search for a file or run programs as needed
28 to find the answer to someone's question before answering their mail.
30 The rest of this manual entry is a quick tutorial which will teach you
33 You should read the manual entries for the
34 individual programs for complete documentation.
44 command. If you've never used
46 before, it will create the necessary default files and directories after
47 asking you if you wish it to do so.
50 moves mail from your system maildrop into your
53 folder, breaking it up into separate files and converting it
56 format as it goes. It prints one line for each message it
57 processes, containing the from field, the subject field and as much of
58 the first line of the message as will fit. It leaves the first message
59 it processes as your current message. You'll need to run
62 time you wish to incorporate new mail into your
67 prints a list of the messages in your current folder.
75 specific messages from the current folder.
78 current message, or a specific message, which may be specified by its
79 number, which you pass as an argument to
84 display, respectively, the message numerically after or before
85 the current message. In all cases, the message displayed becomes the
86 current message. If there is no current message,
89 called with an argument, or
91 may be used to advance to the
95 (remove message) deletes the current message. It may be called
96 with message numbers passed as arguments, to delete specific messages.
99 is used to respond to the current message (by default).
100 It places you in the editor with a prototype response form. While you're
101 in the editor, you may peruse the item you're responding to by reading
104 After completing your response, type
115 allows you to compose a message by putting you in the editor
116 on a prototype message form, and then lets you send it via the
120 also supports easy\-to\-use management of MIME attachments via
123 and related responses, as described in its man page.
126 command arguments are usually called
128 Some switches have a corresponding \*(lq\-no\*(rq switch, which
129 negates all previous occurrences of that switch on the command line.
130 This allows a user to conveniently override, on the command line, a
131 switch in their profile. Switches may be abbreviated as long as there
132 is no ambiguity with another switch of the same command. To avoid
133 ambiguity with any switches that may be added in the future, it is
134 recommended that full switch names be used in durable code such as
135 shell scripts, functions, and aliases.
139 commands may be run with the single switch
141 which causes them to print a list of the switches they may be invoked
146 commands may be run with the single switch
148 which causes them to print the version number of the
150 distribution, and then exit.
152 Commands which take a message number as an argument
156 \&...) also take one of the words \*(lqfirst\*(rq,
157 \*(lqprev\*(rq, \*(lqcur\*(rq, \*(lqnext\*(rq, or \*(lqlast\*(rq to indicate
158 (respectively) the first, previous, current, next, or last message in
159 the current folder (assuming they are defined).
160 As a shorthand, \*(lq\&.\*(rq is equivalent to \*(lqcur\*(rq.
162 Commands which take a range of message numbers
166 \&...) also take any of the abbreviations:
169 Indicates all messages in the range <num1> to <num2>, inclusive.
170 The range must be nonempty.
173 Indicates all messages, i.e.,
182 messages beginning with (or ending with) message
185 may be any of the pre-defined symbols
202 The first, previous, next or last
203 messages, if they exist.
206 Commands that take a folder name
210 \&...) accept the folder name in two formats: \*(lq+folder\*(rq or
211 \*(lq@folder\*(rq. In both cases, \*(lqfolder\*(rq can be a
212 \*(lq/\*(rq-separated path, e.g. \*(lqfoo/bar\*(rq. \*(lq+folder\*(rq
213 specifies a directory path to a folder. If \*(lqfolder\*(rq starts
214 with \*(lq/\*(rq then it's an absolute path from the root directory.
215 If it is \*(lq.\*(rq or \*(lq..\*(rq, or starts with \*(lq./\*(rq or
216 \*(lq../\*(rq, then it's relative to the current working directory.
217 Otherwise it's relative to mh-profile(5)'s
218 .RI \*(lq Path \*(rq,
221 \*(lq@folder\*(rq is a shorthand for \*(lq+curfolder/folder\*(rq; it's
222 a relative path from the current folder. \*(lqcurfolder\*(rq is given
225 For example, assuming a
227 profile component of Mail,
231 scans $HOME/Mail/inbox
233 .BI "scan " +work/todo
234 scans $HOME/Mail/work/todo
237 scans $HOME/Mail/work/todo, if current folder is +work
239 .BI "refile " @../done
240 refiles to $HOME/Mail/work/done, if the current folder is +work/todo
246 scans the current directory
249 refiles current message to end of current folder.
252 There are many other possibilities such as creating multiple folders
253 for different topics, and automatically refiling messages according to
254 subject, source, destination, or content. These are beyond the scope
255 of this manual entry.
259 Following is a list of all the
261 commands, grouped loosely according to their role.
277 prompting front-end for send
282 provides much of the primary
284 user interface for sending mail, it is almost never invoked manually,
285 but rather is invoked indirectly by one of the above commands, after
286 you've composed a message in your editor, and before you've decided to
287 send it. Here you can add attachments, check the recipient
288 list, decide to quit and send it later, etc.
300 report to whom a message would go
303 redistribute a message to additional addresses
306 Advanced commands, only sometimes invoked directly:
310 translate MIME composition draft
316 send multiple files in a MIME message
329 explode digests into messages
335 asynchronously redistribute new mail
338 append message to file
341 asynchronously incorporate new mail
344 asynchronously filter and deliver new mail
352 show the next message
355 show the previous message
358 show(display) messages
361 produce a one line per message scan listing
364 select the next folder with new messages
367 select the previous folder with new messages
370 Related utilities, only sometimes invoked directly:
374 produce formatted listings of nmh messages
377 list information about content of MIME messages
380 display/list/store/cache MIME messages
383 display MIME messages
386 store contents of MIME messages into files
395 select messages by content
401 list folders with new messages
404 list new messages in a give set of folders
407 list folders with messages in given sequence(s)
410 list all folders with messages in given sequence(s)
413 set/list current folder/message
427 file messages in other folders
452 rewrite MIME messages with various transformations
455 print nmh profile components
458 print full pathnames of nmh messages and folders
461 compress a folder into a single file
464 prompting editor front end
471 Indirectly Invoked Commands
475 parse addresses RFC 822\-style
478 parse dates RFC 822\-style
486 initialize the nmh environment
493 Files Used by nmh Commands
497 alias file for nmh message system
500 format file for nmh message system
503 user customization for nmh message system
506 mail transport customization for nmh message system
514 draft folder facility
517 nmh message storage format specification
520 message format for nmh message system
523 sequence specification for nmh message system
544 The user's nmh profile
553 If problems are encountered with an
555 program, the problems should
556 be reported to the local maintainers of
559 name of the program should be reported, along with the version information
562 To find out what version of an
564 program is being run, invoke
570 the host it was compiled on, and the date the
573 Send bug reports and suggestions to
574 .IR nmh-workers@nongnu.org .
projects / nmh / blob