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1.1 root 1: % appendix A % mtr
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23:
24: \appendix{A}{MH Commands}
25: \MH/ is composed of several \unix/ programs,
26: which in theory are fairly simple and single-purposed.
27: These commands are functionally grouped below:
28:
29: \psect{Composing Mail}
30: \pitem{comp} compose a message.
31: A program to originate a message.
32: Usually, a special prompting editor front-end, \pgm{prompter},
33: is used to fill-in a composition template with the addressees of
34: the message, subject, and so forth.
35:
36: \pitem{dist} redistribute a message to additional addresses.
37: A program that re-enters a message previously received by the user
38: into the message transport system.
39: Only new addresses are added;
40: the body of the message is not changed in any way.
41:
42: \pitem{forw} forward messages.
43: A program that encapsulates one or more messages in a new message draft.
44: In addition, the user may add initial and/or closing comments.
45:
46: \pitem{repl} reply to a message.
47: A program that constructs a reply to a message using a reply template.
48: The template mechanism has sufficient generality to permit the user to
49: ``program'' the form of the reply draft based on the contents of the message
50: being replied-to.
51:
52: \pitem{send} send a message.
53: A program that posts a draft with the message transport system.
54: The \pgm{send} program is
55: usually invoked by one of the four preceding programs,
56: and performs simple front-end pre-processing prior to invoking the
57: \pgm{post} program.
58: For example,
59: if invoked in {\it push}'d mode,
60: \pgm{send} will immediately relinquish control of the user's terminal and
61: post the message in the background.
62: If the posting fails,
63: \pgm{send} will send back a failure notice to the user.
64: If the user had \pgm{push\/}'d the sending of the draft,
65: then by default
66: the draft being sent is encapsulated in the failure notice.
67: This permits easy \pgm{burst}'ing of the failure notice to retrieve the
68: original draft.
69: Otherwise,
70: if the posting was successful,
71: the draft is marked as having been sent.
72:
73: \pitem{whatnow} prompting front-end for send.
74: A program which is called by \pgm{comp}, et. al.,
75: after the initial draft has been generated.
76: The \MH/ user can specify a different \pgm{whatnow} program,
77: which yields considerable extensibility.
78:
79: \pitem{whom} report to whom a message would go.
80: A program which examines the addresses of the draft and expands
81: all user-defined aliases contained therein.
82: Optionally,
83: \pgm{whom} may actually interact with the message transport system
84: to determine the validity of the final addresses.
85: This program is also usually invoked by \pgm{comp}, et.~al.
86:
87: \psect{Posting Mail}
88: \pitem{ali} list mail aliases.
89: A simple front-end to the \MH/ aliasing mechanism.
90:
91: \pitem{ap} parse addresses 822--style.
92: A useful debugging tool for PostMasters who wish to examine how \MH/
93: interprets an Internet address.
94:
95: \pitem{conflict} search for alias/password conflicts.
96: Another program used by system administrators to check the consistency of
97: \MH/ alias files, and portions of the local message transport agent.
98:
99: \pitem{install-mh} initialize the MH environment.
100: A program which is automatically executed the first time a user issues an
101: \MH/ command.
102: This program performs once-only initialization of the user's \MH/ environment.
103:
104: \pitem{mhmail} send or read mail.
105: A simple program generally used by other programs to generate messages.
106: The \pgm{mhmail} command is similar in purpose to the old \pgm{BellMail}
107: program.
108:
109: \pitem{post} deliver a message.
110: A complex \MH/ back-end that interacts with the local message transport agent
111: to enter messages through the posting slot.
112: (See the description of \pgm{send} above).
113:
114: \psect{Reading Mail}
115: \pitem{inc} incorporate new mail.
116: A program that interacts with the local message transport agent
117: to retrieve messages from the user's maildrop.
118:
119: \pitem{msgchk} check for waiting mail.
120: A program which reports the status of mail waiting in the user's maildrop.
121:
122: \pitem{show} show (list) messages.
123: A program which lists messages to its standard output
124: (usually the user's terminal),
125: possibly invoking another program to do the actual listing.
126: Most users of \MH/ have \pgm{show} automatically call the \pgm{mhl} program
127: to format the message.
128: The \pgm{next} and \pgm{prev} programs are simply
129: \eg{show\ next} and \eg{show\ prev},
130: respectively.
131:
132: \pitem{mhl} produce formatted listings of MH messages.
133: A program which displays a message as directed by a template.
134: This permits the user to filter out uninteresting headers
135: and re-arrange other headers to a particular preference.
136: In addition to being invoked by \pgm{show},
137: the \pgm{mhl} program is optionally also
138: invoked by \pgm{forw} to format each message being forwarded;
139: invoked by \pgm{repl} to format the body of a message being replied-to,
140: if that message is being included in the reply draft;
141: and,
142: invoked by \pgm{post} to format a message being sent as a blind-carbon-copy.
143:
144: \pitem{rmm} remove messages.
145: A program that removes messages from an \MH/ folder,
146: optionally running a user-defined program instead of deleting them.
147: If no program is given,
148: the messages are ``softly'' removed,
149: so they may possibly be recovered later.
150:
151: \pitem{scan} produce a one-line-per-message scan listing.
152: A program that generates a scan listing for messages.
153: Each line of the listing contains date, source, subject,
154: and possibly the initial body of the message.
155:
156: \psect{Folder Handling}
157: \pitem{folder} set/list current folder/message.
158: A program used to list information concerning the current folder,
159: or set the current folder and/or message.
160:
161: \pitem{folders} list all folders.
162: A program to list information on all folders
163: (actually, just a special case of the \pgm{folder} command).
164: Since the \MH/ folder structure may be recursive,
165: the user can indicate that \pgm{folders} should recursively examine all
166: folders.
167:
168: \pitem{refile} file message(s) in (an)other folder(s).
169: A program to move (or copy) messages from a source folder to one or more
170: destination folders.
171:
172: \pitem{rmf} remove folder.
173: A program that deletes a folder and all messages therein.
174:
175: \psect{Message Selection}
176: \pitem{anno} annotate messages.
177: A program to arbitrarily annotate messages.
178: If the user so desires,
179: after distributing, forwarding, or replying-to a message,
180: \MH/ will automatically attach an annotation to the
181: original message indicating the date and addresses.
182:
183: \pitem{mark} mark messages.
184: A program to manipulate user-defined sequences (lists of messages).
185: Usually, \pgm{mark} is not employed directly by the \MH/ user.
186:
187: \pitem{pick} select messages by content.
188: A program to examine a list of messages and choose those which meet a
189: particular selection criterion.
190: The \pgm{pick} program is often used in \unix/ back-quoted operations to pass
191: message sequences to other \MH/ commands.
192:
193: \pitem{sortm} sort messages.
194: A program to sort a list of messages according to the date given in a
195: particular field.
196:
197: \psect{Distribution List Handling}
198: \pitem{bbc} check on BBoards.
199: A front-end to run \pgm{msh} on a list of distribution lists which the
200: user isn't current on.
201:
202: \pitem{bbl} manage a BBoard.
203: A (depreciated) program used to manually manage the local archives of a
204: distribution list.
205: These functions (archiving, expunging) are performed automatically by \MH/.
206:
207: \pitem{burst} explode digests into messages.
208: A program used to decapsulate messages from ARPA Internet digests.
209: In addition,
210: messages which have been encapsulated during forwarding
211: (i.e., with \pgm{forw\/})
212: can also be decapsulated using \pgm{burst}.%
213: \nfootnote{Similarly, blind-carbon-copies may be decapsulated,
214: though only socially mature users should do so.}
215:
216: \pitem{msh} MH shell (and BBoard reader).
217: A monolithic program used to implement \MH/ commands on
218: messages arranged in a single file (maildrop format).
219: Useful
220: since distribution lists are kept in this format to minimize consumption of
221: system resources.
222:
223: \pitem{pack} compress a folder into a single file.
224: A program which takes messages stored in \MH/ format and places them in a
225: single file (using the same format known by \pgm{msh\/}).
226:
227: \psect{Interface to the \unix/ File System}
228: \pitem{mhpath} print full pathnames of \MH/ messages and folders.
229: A program which maps \MH/-style names into the \unix/ file naming convention.
230:
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