-.TH MH\-MIME %manext7% " March 13, 2014" "%nmhversion%"
-.\"
+.TH MH\-MIME %manext7% 2014-12-15 "%nmhversion%"
+.
.\" %nmhwarning%
-.\"
+.
.SH NAME
-mh\-mime \- Overview of
-.IR nmh (7)
-MIME message composition and display
+mh\-mime \- overview of nmh MIME message composition and display
.\"
.SH DESCRIPTION
The acronym MIME stands for Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions, the
-format of Internet messages used to send multi\-media content.
+format of Internet messages used to send multi-media content.
The
.B nmh
-command suite has support for the display and composition of MIME messages, but
+command suite has support for the display and composition of MIME messages, but
currently MIME support is not completely integrated into all tools. This
document provides an overview as to which tools support MIME message display,
storage, and composition.
Local Character Set Conversion
All of the
.B nmh
-commands convert non\-native character sets to the local character set,
-as specified by the operating system locale settings. The
+commands convert non-native character sets to the local character set,
+as specified by the operating system locale settings. See
.IR locale (1)
-man page has more details on the environment variables used to set the
+for more details on the environment variables used to set the
local character set. Character set conversion will only take place if
.B nmh
was built with
-.IR icov (3)
+.IR iconv (3)
+support. See
+.IR mhparam (1)
+for how to determine whether your
+.B nmh
+installation includes
+.IR iconv (3)
support.
.PP
Depending on the source and target character set, it may not be possible
-to convert all characters to the local character set. In this case a
+to convert all characters to the local character set. In this case a
substitution character will be used for the characters that cannot be
converted.
.SS
Message Display
The default format used by
-.B scan
+.IR scan (1)
will automatically decode MIME-encoded headers. If you have a custom
-scan format, see the examples provided with the
+.B scan
+format, see the examples provided with the
.B nmh
distribution (found in the
-.RI \*(lq %etcdir% \*(rq
-directory) and the
+.RI \*(lq %nmhetcdir% \*(rq
+directory) and
.IR mh\-format (5)
-man page for details on how to make sure your MIME headers are properly
-decoded.
+for details on how to make sure your MIME headers are properly decoded.
.PP
By default, if
.B show
detects that it is reading a MIME message it will invoke
-.BR mhshow .
+.IR mhshow (1).
The default behavior of
.B mhshow
-is to only display text parts that are not marked as attachments. See the
+is to only display text parts that are not marked as attachments. See
.IR mhshow (1)
-man page for details on how to control what
+for details on how to control what
.B mhshow
will display.
.SS
Message Interrogation and Storage
The
-.B mhlist
+.IR mhlist (1)
command will display a listing of the MIME parts contained within a
-message. That information can be used in conjuction with the
+message. That information can be used in conjunction with the
.B mhstore
command to save individual parts or content types of a message. See
-the
.IR mhlist (1)
and
.IR mhstore (1)
-man pages for more details on how these commands work.
+for more details on how these commands work.
.SS
Message Composition and Reply
All messages sent by
-.B send
+.IR send (1)
will automatically be processed by
-.B mhbuild
+.IR mhbuild (1)
before being passed to
-.B post
+.IR post (1)
for message submission.
-.B Mhbuild
+.B mhbuild
will use the locale settings to mark text content with the appropriate
character set and apply any necessary encoding. If you wish to include
text in your message using a character set that does not match your
-locale, you will need to specify the character set using a
+locale, you will need to specify the character set using an
.B mhbuild
directive; see
.IR mhbuild (1)
for more information.
.PP
-For attaching files or composing other non-text content, there are two options: the attach system and
+For attaching files or composing other non-text content, there are two options:
+the attach system and
.B mhbuild
directives.
.PP
.B attach
command at the \*(lqWhat now?\*(rq prompt, or by inserting an \*(lqAttach:\*(rq
header in the message draft containing the name of the file you wish to
-attach to the message (it should be noted all that the
+attach to the message (note that all the
.B attach
-command does is place an \*(lqAttach\*(rq header in the message draft).
-.B Mhbuild
+command does is place an \*(lqAttach:\*(rq header in the message draft).
+.B mhbuild
will then automatically include the specified file(s) in the outgoing
-message. See the
+message. See
.IR send (1)
-man page for details on how
+for details on how
.B mhbuild
determines the proper content type of attached files.
.PP
The other method of composing MIME messages is to use
.B mhbuild
directives. This allows exact control over the contents and format of
-the MIME message, but has a more complicated syntax. The
+the MIME message, but has a more complicated syntax.
.IR mhbuild (1)
-man page contains details on the directive syntax and examples of directives
+contains details on the directive syntax and examples of directives
for different media types. It is important to note that when using
.B mhbuild
directives the user must run
command at the \*(lqWhat now?\*(rq prompt to process them.
.PP
When replying to messages using
-.B repl
+.IR repl (1)
the traditional MH method of including the original text in the reply does
-not interoperate with MIME messages. As of this writing there is no
-native solution for addressing this issue, but the contrib directory
+not interoperate with MIME messages. The
+.B \-convertargs
+switch to
+.IR repl (1)
+provides one solution. Another solution: the contrib directory
.RI ( %docdir%/contrib )
contains a Perl program called
.B replyfilter
for instructions on how to configure
.B nmh
to work with it.
+.SS
+Message Rewrite
+The
+.IR mhfixmsg (1)
+command can apply various transformations to MIME messages, including
+decoding of text parts, converting the character set of text parts,
+and insertion of text/plain parts to correspond to text parts of other
+subtypes.
+.B mhfixmsg
+can also repair defects in MIME messages, such as mismatched top-level
+boundary indicators and invalid Content-Transfer-Encoding values.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
-.IR nmh (7),
-.IR mhbuild (1),
.IR comp (1),
+.IR iconv (3),
+.IR mh\-format (5),
+.IR mhbuild (1),
+.IR mhfixmsg (1),
+.IR mhparam (1),
+.IR nmh (7),
.IR repl (1),
.IR whatnow (1),
-.IR mh\-format (5)
-.PP
-.I %docdir%/contrib/replyfilter
+.br
+.IR %docdir%/contrib/replyfilter ,
+.br
+.I %docdir%/contrib/replaliases
.SH BUGS
-MIME support should be more integrated into all of the
+MIME support should be more integrated into all of the
.B nmh
tools than it currently is.
projects / nmh / blobdiff