1 .TH NMH %manext7% "December 15, 2016" "%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 individual programs for
34 complete documentation (see the section on
46 command. If you've never used
48 before, it will create the necessary default files and directories after
49 asking you if you wish it to do so.
52 moves mail from your system maildrop into your
55 folder, breaking it up into separate files and converting it
58 format. It prints one line for each message it processes,
59 containing the from field, the subject field and as much of
60 the first line of the message as will fit. It leaves the first message
61 it processes as your current message. You'll need to run
64 time you wish to incorporate new mail into your
69 prints a list of the messages in your current folder.
77 specific messages from the current folder.
79 displays the current message, or a specific message specified by its
80 number which is passed as an argument.
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 command may be run with the single switch
141 which causes it to print its available switches, along with any
142 profile components that apply, and then exit.
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.,
184 must be a positive number, messages beginning with (or ending with)
188 may be any of the pre-defined symbols
195 The + can be omitted.
206 As many of the first, previous, next, or last N messages that exist.
207 As above, N can be preceded with - to end the listing at the specified
208 message, or with an optional +.
211 Commands that take a folder name
215 \&...) accept the folder name in two formats: \*(lq+folder\*(rq or
216 \*(lq@folder\*(rq. In both cases, \*(lqfolder\*(rq can be a
217 \*(lq/\*(rq-separated path, e.g.\& \*(lqfoo/bar\*(rq. \*(lq+folder\*(rq
218 specifies a directory path to a folder. If \*(lqfolder\*(rq starts
219 with \*(lq/\*(rq then it's an absolute path from the root directory.
220 If it is \*(lq.\*(rq or \*(lq..\*(rq, or starts with \*(lq./\*(rq or
221 \*(lq../\*(rq, then it's relative to the current working directory.
222 Otherwise it's relative to mh-profile(5)'s
223 .RI \*(lq Path \*(rq,
226 \*(lq@folder\*(rq is a shorthand for \*(lq+curfolder/folder\*(rq; it's
227 a relative path from the current folder. \*(lqcurfolder\*(rq is given
230 For example, assuming a
232 profile component of Mail,
236 scans $HOME/Mail/inbox
238 .BI "scan " +work/todo
239 scans $HOME/Mail/work/todo
242 scans $HOME/Mail/work/todo, if current folder is +work
244 .BI "refile " @../done
245 refiles to $HOME/Mail/work/done, if the current folder is +work/todo
251 scans the current directory
254 refiles current message to end of current folder.
257 There are many other possibilities such as creating multiple folders
258 for different topics, and automatically refiling messages according to
259 subject, source, destination, or content. These are beyond the scope
260 of this manual entry.
264 Following is a list of all the
266 commands, grouped loosely according to their role.
282 prompting front-end for send
287 provides much of the primary
289 user interface for sending mail, it is almost never invoked manually,
290 but rather is invoked indirectly by one of the above commands, after
291 you've composed a message in your editor, and before you've decided to
292 send it. Here you can add attachments, check the recipient
293 list, decide to quit and send it later, etc.
305 report to whom a message would go
308 redistribute a message to additional addresses
311 Advanced commands, only sometimes invoked directly:
315 translate MIME composition draft
321 send multiple files in a MIME message
334 explode digests into messages
340 asynchronously redistribute new mail
343 append message to file
346 asynchronously incorporate new mail
349 asynchronously filter and deliver new mail
357 show the next message
360 show the previous message
363 show (display) messages
366 produce a one line per message scan listing
369 select the next folder with new messages
372 select the previous folder with new messages
375 Related utilities, only sometimes invoked directly:
379 produce formatted listings of nmh messages
382 list information about content of MIME messages
385 display/list/store/cache MIME messages
388 display MIME messages
391 store contents of MIME messages into files
400 select messages by content
406 list folders with new messages
409 list new messages in a given set of folders
412 list folders with messages in given sequence(s)
415 list all folders with messages in given sequence(s)
418 set/list current folder/message
432 file messages in other folders
457 rewrite MIME messages with various transformations
460 print nmh profile components
463 print full pathnames of nmh messages and folders
466 compress a folder into a single file
469 prompting editor front end
476 Indirectly Invoked Commands
480 parse addresses RFC 822\-style
483 parse dates RFC 822\-style
491 initialize the nmh environment
498 Files Used by nmh Commands
502 alias file for nmh message system
505 format file for nmh message system
508 user customization for nmh message system
511 mail transport customization for nmh message system
519 draft folder facility
522 nmh message storage format specification
525 message format for nmh message system
528 sequence specification for nmh message system
549 The user's nmh profile
558 \" The contents of this section also appear in sbr/print_help.c .
559 Send bug reports, questions, suggestions, and patches to
560 .IR nmh-workers@nongnu.org .
561 That mailing list is relatively quiet, so user questions are encouraged.
562 Users are also encouraged to subscribe, and view the archives, at
563 https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/nmh-workers .
565 If problems are encountered with an
568 be reported to the local maintainers of
570 if any, or to the mailing list noted above.
571 When doing this, the name of the program should be reported, along
572 with the version information for the program.
574 To find out what version of an
576 program is being run, invoke
582 the host it was compiled on, and the date the
585 New releases, and other information of potential interest, are announced at http://www.nongnu.org/nmh/
projects / nmh / blob