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mh_profile

NAME

mh-profile - user profile customization for nmh message handler

SYNOPSIS

$HOME/.mh_profile

DESCRIPTION

Each user of nmh is expected to have a file named .mh_profile in his or her home directory. This file contains a set of user parameters used by some or all of the nmh family of programs. Each entry in the file is of the format

profile-component: value

If the text of profile entry is long, you may extend it across several real lines by indenting the continuation lines with leading spaces or tabs.

Standard Profile Entries

The possible profile components are exemplified below. The only mandatory entry is `Path:'. The others are optional; some have default values if they are not present. In the notation used below, (profile, default) indicates whether the information is kept in the user's nmh profile or nmh context, and indicates what the default value is.

Path: Mail

Locates nmh transactions in directory ``Mail''. This is the only mandatory profile entry. (profile, no default)

context: context

Declares the location of the nmh context file. This is overridden by the environment variable $MHCONTEXT. See the HISTORY section below. (profile, default: <nmh-dir>/context)

Current-Folder: inbox

Keeps track of the current open folder. (context, default: folder specified by ``Inbox'')

Inbox: inbox

Defines the name of your default inbox. (profile, default: inbox)

Previous-Sequence: pseq

Names the sequence or sequences which should be defined as the `msgs' or `msg' argument given to any nmh command. If not present or empty, no such sequences are defined. Otherwise, for each name given, the sequence is first zero'd and then each message is added to the sequence. Read the mh-sequence(5) man page for the details about this sequence. (profile, no default)

Sequence-Negation: not

Defines the string which, when prefixed to a sequence name, negates that sequence. Hence, ``notseen'' means all those messages that are not a member of the sequence ``seen''. Read the mh-sequence(5) man page for the details. (profile, no default)

Unseen-Sequence: unseen

Names the sequence or sequences which should be defined as those messages which are unread. The commands inc, rcvstore, mhshow, and show will add or remove messages from these sequences when they are incorporated or read. If not present or empty, no such sequences are defined. Otherwise, each message is added to, or removed from, each sequence name given. Read the mh-sequence(5) man page for the details about this sequence. (profile, no default)

mh-sequences: .mh_sequences

The name of the file in each folder which defines public sequences. To disable the use of public sequences, leave the value portion of this entry blank. (profile, default: .mh_sequences)

atr-seq-folder: 172 178-181 212

Keeps track of the private sequence called ``seq'' in the specified folder. Private sequences are generally used for read-only folders. See the mh-sequence(5) man page for details about private sequences. (context, no default)

Editor: /usr/bin/vi

Defines the editor to be used by the commands comp, dist, forw, and repl. (profile, default: /usr/bin/sensible-editor)

automimeproc:

If defined and set to 1, then the whatnow program will automatically invoke the buildmimeproc (discussed below) to process each message as a MIME composition draft before it is sent. (profile, no default)

Msg-Protect: 644

An octal number which defines the permission bits for new message files. See chmod(1) for an explanation of the octal number. (profile, default: 0644)

Folder-Protect: 750

An octal number which defines the permission bits for new folder directories. See chmod(1) for an explanation of the octal number. (profile, default: 700)

program: default switches

Sets default switches to be used whenever the mh program program is invoked. For example, one could override the ``Editor:'' profile component when replying to messages by adding a component such as:

repl: -editor /bin/ed

(profile, no defaults)

lasteditor-next: nexteditor

Names ``nexteditor'' to be the default editor after using ``lasteditor''. This takes effect at ``What now?'' prompt in comp, dist, forw, and repl. After editing the draft with ``lasteditor'', the default editor is set to be ``nexteditor''. If the user types ``edit'' without any arguments to ``What now?'', then ``nexteditor'' is used. (profile, no default)

bboards: system

Tells bbc which BBoards you are interested in. (profile, default: system)

Folder-Stack: folders

The contents of the folder-stack for the folder command. (context, no default)

mhe:

If present, tells inc to compose an MHE auditfile in addition to its other tasks. MHE is Brian Reid's emacs front-end for nmh. (profile, no default)

Alternate-Mailboxes: mh@uci-750a, bug-mh*

Tells repl and scan which addresses are really yours. In this way, repl knows which addresses should be included in the reply, and scan knows if the message really originated from you. Addresses must be separated by a comma, and the hostnames listed should be the ``official'' hostnames for the mailboxes you indicate, as local nicknames for hosts are not replaced with their official site names. For each address, if a host is not given, then that address on any host is considered to be you. In addition, an asterisk (`*') may appear at either or both ends of the mailbox and host to indicate wild-card matching. (profile, default: your user-id)

Aliasfile: aliases other-alias

Indicates aliases files for ali, whom, and send. This may be used instead of the -alias file switch. (profile, no default)

Draft-Folder: drafts

Indicates a default draft folder for comp, dist, forw, and repl. Read the mh-draft(5) man page for details. (profile, no default)

digest-issue-list: 1

Tells forw the last issue of the last volume sent for the digest list. (context, no default)

digest-volume-list: 1

Tells forw the last volume sent for the digest list. (context, no default)

MailDrop: .mail

Tells inc your maildrop, if different from the default. This is superseded by the environment variable $MAILDROP. (profile, default: /var/mail/$USER)

Signature: RAND MH System (agent: Marshall Rose)

Tells send your mail signature. This is superseded by the environment variable $SIGNATURE. If $SIGNATURE is not set and this profile entry is not present, the ``gcos'' field of the /etc/passwd file will be used; otherwise, on hosts where nmh was configured with the UCI option, the file $HOME/.signature is consulted. Your signature will be added to the address send puts in the ``From:'' header; do not include an address in the signature text. (profile, no default)

Process Profile Entries

The following profile elements are used whenever an nmh program invokes some other program such as more. The .mh_profile can be used to select alternate programs if the user wishes. The default values are given in the examples.

buildmimeproc: /usr/bin/mh/mhbuild

This is the program used by whatnow to process drafts which are MIME composition files.

fileproc: /usr/bin/mh/refile

This program is used to refile or link a message to another folder. It is used by post to file a copy of a message into a folder given by a ``Fcc:'' field. It is used by the draft folder facility in comp, dist, forw, and repl to refile a draft message into another folder. It is used to refile a draft message in response to the refile directive at the ``What now?'' prompt.

incproc: /usr/bin/mh/inc

Program called by mhmail to incorporate new mail when it is invoked with no arguments.

installproc: /usr/lib/mh/install-mh

This program is called to initialize the environment for new users of nmh.

lproc: /usr/bin/sensible-pager

This program is used to list the contents of a message in response to the list directive at the ``What now?'' prompt. It is also used by the draft folder facility in comp, dist, forw, and repl to display the draft message.

mailproc: /usr/bin/mh/mhmail

This is the program used to automatically mail various messages and notifications. It is used by conflict when using the -mail option. It is used by send to post failure notices. It is used to retrieve an external-body with access-type `mail-server' (such as when storing the body with mhstore).

mhlproc: /usr/lib/mh/mhl

This is the program used to filter messages in various ways. It is used by mhshow to filter and display the message headers of MIME messages. When the -format or -filter option is used by forw or repl, the mhlproc is used to filter the message that you are forwarding, or to which you are replying. When the -filter option is given to send or post, the mhlproc is used by post to filter the copy of the message that is sent to ``Bcc:'' recipients.

moreproc: /usr/bin/sensible-pager

This is the program used by mhl to page the mhl formatted message when displaying to a terminal. It is also the default program used by mhshow to display message bodies (or message parts) of type text/plain.

mshproc: /usr/bin/mh/msh

Currently not used.

packproc: /usr/bin/mh/packf

Currently not used.

postproc: /usr/lib/mh/post

This is the program used by send, mhmail, rcvdist, and viamail (used by the sendfiles shell script) to post a message to the mail transport system. It is also called by whom (called with the switches -whom and -library) to do address verification.

rmmproc: none

This is the program used by rmm and refile to delete a message from a folder.

rmfproc: /usr/bin/mh/rmf

Currently not used.

sendproc: /usr/bin/mh/send

This is the program to use by whatnow to actually send the message

showmimeproc: /usr/bin/mh/mhshow

This is the program used by show to process and display non-text (MIME) messages.

showproc: /usr/lib/mh/mhl

This is the program used by show to filter and display text (non-MIME) messages.

whatnowproc: /usr/bin/mh/whatnow

This is the program invoked by comp, forw, dist, and repl to query about the disposition of a composed draft message.

whomproc: /usr/bin/mh/whom

This is the program used by whatnow to determine to whom a message would be sent.

Environment Variables

The operation of nmh and its commands it also controlled by the presence of certain environment variables.

Many of these environment variables are used internally by the ``What now?'' interface. It's amazing all the information that has to get passed via environment variables to make the ``What now?'' interface look squeaky clean to the nmh user, isn't it? The reason for all this is that the nmh user can select any program as the whatnowproc, including one of the standard shells. As a result, it's not possible to pass information via an argument list. The convention is that environment variables whose names are all upper-case are user-settable; those whose names are lower-case only are used internally by nmh and should not generally be set by the user.

If the WHATNOW option was set during nmh configuration, and if this environment variable is set, then if the commands refile , send, show, or whom are not given any `msgs' arguments, then they will default to using the file indicated by mh-draft(5). This is useful for getting the default behavior supplied by the default whatnowproc.

$MH

With this environment variable, you can specify a profile other than .mh_profile to be read by the nmh programs that you invoke. If the value of $MH is not absolute, (i.e., does not begin with a ``/''), it will be presumed to start from the current working directory. This is one of the very few exceptions in nmh where non-absolute pathnames are not considered relative to the user's nmh directory.

$MHCONTEXT

With this environment variable, you can specify a context other than the normal context file (as specified in the nmh profile). As always, unless the value of $MHCONTEXT is absolute, it will be presumed to start from your nmh directory.

$MM_CHARSET

With this environment variable, you can specify the native character set you are using. You must be able to display this character set on your terminal.
This variable is checked to see if a RFC-2047 header field should be decoded (in inc, scan, mhl). This variable is checked by show to see if the showproc or showmimeproc should be called, since showmimeproc will be called if a text message uses a character set that doesn't match $MM_CHARSET. This variable is checked by mhshow for matches against the charset parameter of text contents to decide it the text content can be displayed without modifications to your terminal. This variable is checked by mhbuild to decide what character set to specify in the charset parameter of text contents containing 8-bit characters.
When decoding text in such an alternate character set, nmh must be able to determine which characters are alphabetic, which are control characters, etc. For many operating systems, this will require enabling the support for locales (such as setting the environment variable $LC_CTYPE to iso_8859_1).

$MAILDROP

This variable tells inc the default maildrop. This supersedes the ``MailDrop'' profile entry.

$SIGNATURE

This variable tells send and post your mail signature. This supersedes the ``Signature'' profile entry.

$HOME

This variable tells all nmh programs your home directory

$SHELL

This variable tells bbl the default shell to run

$TERM

This variable tells nmh your terminal type.
The environment variable $TERMCAP is also consulted. In particular, these tell scan and mhl how to clear your terminal, and how many columns wide your terminal is. They also tell mhl how many lines long your terminal screen is.

$editalt

This is the alternate message.
This is set by dist and repl during edit sessions so you can peruse the message being distributed or replied to. The message is also available through a link called ``@'' in the current directory if your current working directory and the folder the message lives in are on the same UNIX filesystem.

$mhdraft

This is the path to the working draft.
This is set by comp, dist, forw, and repl to tell the whatnowproc which file to ask ``What now?'' questions about.

$mhfolder

This is set by dist, forw, and repl, if appropriate.

$mhaltmsg

dist and repl set $mhaltmsg to tell the whatnowproc about an alternate message associated with the draft (the message being distributed or replied to).

$mhdist

dist sets $mhdist to tell the whatnowproc that message re-distribution is occurring.

$mheditor

This is set by comp, repl, forw, and dist to tell the whatnowproc the user's choice of editor (unless overridden by -noedit).

$mhuse

This may be set by comp.

$mhmessages

This is set by dist, forw, and repl if annotations are to occur.

$mhannotate

This is set by dist, forw, and repl if annotations are to occur.

$mhinplace

This is set by dist, forw, and repl if annotations are to occur.

$mhfolder

This is the folder containing the alternate message.
This is set by dist and repl during edit sessions so you can peruse other messages in the current folder besides the one being distributed or replied to. The environment variable $mhfolder is also set by show, prev, and next for use by mhl.

FILES

 
 ^$HOME/.mh_profile~^The user profile
 ^or $MH~^Rather than the standard profile
 ^<mh-dir>/context~^The user context
 ^or $MHCONTEXT~^Rather than the standard context
 ^<folder>/.mh_sequences~^Public sequences for <folder>
 

SEE ALSO

nmh(7), environ(5), mh-sequence(5)

HISTORY

The .mh_profile contains only static information, which nmh programs will NOT update. Changes in context are made to the context file kept in the users nmh directory. This includes, but is not limited to: the ``Current-Folder'' entry and all private sequence information. Public sequence information is kept in each folder in the file determined by the ``mh-sequences'' profile entry (default is .mh_sequences).

The .mh_profile may override the path of the context file, by specifying a ``context'' entry (this must be in lower-case). If the entry is not absolute (does not start with a ``/''), then it is interpreted relative to the user's nmh directory. As a result, you can actually have more than one set of private sequences by using different context files.

BUGS

The shell quoting conventions are not available in the .mh_profile. Each token is separated by whitespace.

There is some question as to what kind of arguments should be placed in the profile as options. In order to provide a clear answer, recall command line semantics of all nmh programs: conflicting switches (e.g. -header and -noheader) may occur more than one time on the command line, with the last switch taking effect. Other arguments, such as message sequences, filenames and folders, are always remembered on the invocation line and are not superseded by following arguments of the same type. Hence, it is safe to place only switches (and their arguments) in the profile.

If one finds that an nmh program is being invoked again and again with the same arguments, and those arguments aren't switches, then there are a few possible solutions to this problem. The first is to create a (soft) link in your $HOME/bin directory to the nmh program of your choice. By giving this link a different name, you can create a new entry in your profile and use an alternate set of defaults for the nmh command. Similarly, you could create a small shell script which called the nmh program of your choice with an alternate set of invocation line switches (using links and an alternate profile entry is preferable to this solution).

Finally, the csh user could create an alias for the command of the form:

alias cmd 'cmd arg1 arg2 ...'

In this way, the user can avoid lengthy type-in to the shell, and still give nmh commands safely. (Recall that some nmh commands invoke others, and that in all cases, the profile is read, meaning that aliases are disregarded beyond an initial command invocation)