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MH for Beginners
Mary Hegardt Tim Morgan
April 12, 1990
This document is intended to be an introduction for new users to the MH
mail system. For more detailed information, users will want to read the
document called The Rand MH Message Handling System: User's Manual
by Marshall T. Rose and John L. Romine. It is available for Xeroxing in
suite CS408.
1 Using Electronic Mail
Electronic mail (e-mail) is a quick, convenient way to send a message to
another person (or persons). The message recipient can read and reply to
the message at his convenience. E-mail is much faster than a paper memo
and avoids inconveniences associated with the telephone such as unwanted
interruptions and "phone tag."
At UCI, one can send e-mail to people within the ICS department, people in
other units on campus, and to people at some other institutions off campus
(usually other universities).
An electronic mail message consists of two parts: the headers and the body.
The body comes after the headers and consists of the "message": whatever
the sender types in. The headers are the lines at the top of the message
including the subject and addresses of the people to whom the message is
addressed. It is similar to the top lines of a memo: To:, From:, Subject:,
and so on. The headers are separated from the body by a blank line. As in
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memos, the people listed in the Cc: field are not intended to be the primary
recipients of the message. The message is for their information only, and
they are not expected to reply.
E-mail is also useful for discussions among groups of people. This "bboards"
(electronic bulletin boards) facility will be discussed later.
An electronic mail address looks like "name @site ". The name is a person's
"mail handle" _ usually his first initial followed by his last name. For
example, Mary Hegardt's mail handle is "mhegardt". The site is the system
where the addressee receives mail. Within the ICS Department, you need
only know the person's mail handle; the mail system will automatically fill
in the "@site " part.
2 Why MH ?
The MH system is very different from most mail user agents. Instead of
running one large program which handles all mail functions and keeps mes-
sages in one large file, MH is a collection of smaller single-purpose programs
used to manipulate mail messages which are kept in individual files. MH
may seem to be more complicated or harder to use than other mail systems
(MM, for example), but MH has been designed to allow you to take full ad-
vantage of existing Unix1 commands and programs in connection with mail
messages. For example, you can use your usual text editor, spelling program,
and printer commands on individual messages.
3 The Basics
The first time you use an MH command (probably inc), MH will create a
directory called "Mail" in your home (login) directory. All your mail will be
stored in directories beneath this one. It will also create a file in your home
directory called .mh_profile. It is a file that allows you to tailor your MH
environment. We'll discuss this more later.
________________________________________________
1 Unix is a trademark of AT&T Bell Laboratories
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3.1 Reading Mail
When someone sends a mail message to you, it is delivered to a file called
your "mail drop" file. When you are ready to read your mail, you have to
incorporate (or "inc") your mail messages from the mail drop area into your
account.
Everytime you log in to your Unix account, you will be told if you have
new mail messages. When you are ready to read them, type inc. The inc
program will copy your mail into your "inbox" and generate a "scan" listing
of the new messages. For example,
4.2 BSD UNIX #116: Mon Jul 15 14:03:21 PDT 1985
You have new ZOTnet mail, type "inc" (or mail)
TERM = (dm1520)
% inc
Incorporating new mail into inbox ...
1+ 10/29 1732-PST Tim Morgan new bboard! <<Please add us to the uni
2 11/12 0016-PST ROODE@uci-20b CP6 from the 20s <<What is (will be) t
4 11/15 1909-EDT tts@tts Hello, got a few questions
5 11/15 2134-PST Marshall Rose MH.6 on 750a <<Mary, I've left the dis
6 11/16 0808-PST Mail Delivery Su Returned mail: Host unknown
7 11/16 1021-PST Tim Morgan Unix-wizards/info-unix move
8 11/18 0952-PST freeman@icsd.UCI Re:New system wide aliases for ICS facu
9 11/18 1346-EDT tts@tts Have we got a problem?
This is what a typical "inc" session for the Postmaster looks like. Inc copies
my mail into my "inbox" folder, assigns a unique number to each message,
and scans them for me. The numbers allow you to refer to each message
individually. After the message number, you see the date and time the mes-
sage was sent, the name of the sender, and the subject of the message. The
"current" message is indicated by a "+" sign. To read it, type "show":
% show
(Message inbox:1)
Received: from localhost by UCI.EDU id a005369; 29 Oct 85 17:32 PST
To: postmaster@UCI.EDU
Subject: new bboard!
Date: 29 Oct 85 17:32:24 PST (Tue)
From: Tim Morgan <morgan@UCI.EDU>
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Please add us to the unix-sw list. Also, if RAJ hasn't mentioned it,
and if it still exists, we should get on the Astronomy bboard.
Tim
If the message is longer than one screenful, you will see the word "more" at
the bottom_of_the_screen.__When you are ready to see "more" of the message,______
press the __space_bar______ __to see another screenful, or press the __return____ _key to see
just one more line.
To see the next message, you could type a couple of different commands:
% next
or
% show next
or
% show 2
All of these commands would have the same effect: to type out the next
message in the list. The most efficient thing to do is to type "next". When
You do that, message number 2 will be shown and become the "current
message".
% next
(Message inbox:2)
Received: from UCI-20B by UCI-ICSA id aa01222; 12 Nov 85 0:23 PST
Date: 12 Nov 1985 0016-PST
From: ROODE@uci-20b
Subject: CP6 from the 20s
To: zotnet@uci-20b
cc: dana_roode%ucicp6@UCI.EDU
What is (will be) the prescribed method of addressing for sending
CP6 mail from the 20s? They dont seem to know about @CF, @UCICP6,
but "Name_Name%UCICP6"@ICSA seems to fly.
dana
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3.2 Selecting Messages
As you have seen, messages can be referred to by their message numbers.
Some MH commands, such as show, can act upon more than one message
at a time. A range of messages can be specified using the form "name1-
name2 " where name is a message number or one of the reserved message
names described below:
cur The current message (the last one that was handled)
next The next message (same as cur + 1)
prev The previous message (cur 1)
first The first message in the current folder
last The last message in the folder
all All messages (first last )
If you do not name a specific message, the command will act upon the "cur-
rent message".
3.3 Sending Messages
A mail message consists of two parts: the headers and the body. The headers
are the lines at the top of the message that say "To:" and so on. The body
is the actual text of the message (what you want to say). To send someone
a message, you start with the comp command. This will start up an editor
called prompter that will prompt you to fill in_the_headers._ You should type
the requested information for that header or a __return____ _to_omit_it._ You should
end the message by typing control-D (press down the key marked __ctrl__ __and
strike the D key) at the beginning of a new line. Here's an example:
% comp
To: morgan, raj
Cc:
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Subject: Lunch
---------
Where are we going for lunch today ?
Mary
<control-D>
--------
What now ? send
At the "What now ?" prompt you can type a ? to see what commands you
can type next. One of the most useful options at this point is to edit the
draft of the message to correct any mistakes. To do this you type:
What now ? edit vi
This will put you in the vi editor to edit the message. If you use emacs or any
other editor, just type "edit emacs" or whatever. When you have finished
editing, just exit the editor as you would normally. You will then get another
"What now ?" prompt. Here are some of the "What now" options:
edit editor Edit the message using the specified editor. When you
exit, you will be back at What now.
list Shows the message you just typed
whom -check Verifies that the addresses you have used are valid as far
as our system can tell
send Sends the message to the recipients
push Sends the message in the background
quit Quits without sending the message. Saves the text of
the message as a "draft". Type comp -use to get back
to that draft later.
quit -delete Quit, throwing away the draft
Make sure you are happy with your message before typing send. There is no
way to recall a message once it has been sent.
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3.4 Replying to Messages
To reply to the current message type repl. When you do this, the reply
headers will be printed out and you will be put in the prompter editor to
type in your reply text. When you are replying to a message, the name of
the sender of the original message will appear in the "To:" field. Any people
on the "To:" or "Cc:" lists will also be copied on your reply message. As
with comp, when you have finished, type control-D and send (or whatever)
at What now ?.
3.5 Forwarding Messages
If you receive a particularly interesting message and can't resist sharing
it with others, you can forward it using the forw command. You will be
prompted to fill in the headers (the address to which the message is to be
forwarded, etc.). When you have done this, you will see the text of the mes-
sage which you are forwarding and will be given the opportunity to add some
enlightening text to the message. Exit with control-D and do whatever feels
good at the What now ? prompt.
3.6 The Advanced Features
You will probably want to master the beginning MH concepts before you
tackle the following. . .
3.7 Folders
Folders are really just directories for storing mail messages in an organized
way. To store a message in a folder named "inbox", type:
% refile 5 +inventory
If the folder doesn't exist yet, you will be asked if it should be created. To
access messages in another folder, you can change your current folder from
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"inbox" to something else. If you want to look at all the messages pertaining
to the inventory, you type:
% folder +inventory
and now you use scan, show, etc., to manipulate the messages in that folder.
To change back to inbox, type:
% folder +inbox
Using the inc command will change your current folder to be the "inbox"
automatically.
4 Mailing files
Mailing files is usually not a good idea, especially for large files. The mail
system was never designed for moving big files. You can use the cp file to
move the file to another account much more efficiently:
% cp "frated/desired-file "./newfile
This will copy the file from frated's account to the current directory and call
it "newfile".
You can also copy files across the network using rcp:
% rcp icsd:frated/desired-file ./newfile
This copies frated's file on the system icsd to the current directory.
If you really have to mail a file, you use the mhmail program. To mail a file
"myfile" to another user "frated", with "MyFile" as the subject type:
% mhmail frated -subject MyFile < myfile
5 Searching for messages
The pick program allows you to search your inbox (or any other) folder to
find messages which contain a certain word. If you want to list all messages
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from Smith you can type:
% pick -from smith -list
and it will list the numbers of all messages from Smith that are in the cur-
rent folder. You can pick messages according to any of the headers (-to
-from -subj -cc or -date) or just search all the messages for a given word
(-search).
6 The MH Profile
Each MH user has a file in his directory called .mh_profile. This file contains
a list of user-specified default options for MH programs. The only required
entry is the name of your MH directory:
Path: Mail
or
Path: mhbox
To make a change to your .mh_profile, you edit the file and add a line for
the applicable program. For example, if you would like to use vi instead of
prompter as your initial editor when composing messages, you would add
this line to your .mh_profile:
comp: -editor vi
or, if you want to have a format file for scan to use, you should have:
scan: -form formatfile
Almost all of the MH programs have options that can be set using the
.mh_profile. You should consult the MH User's Manual for more infor-
mation about this.
Many people will want to add a signature line to their .mh_profile. This
line will appear as your signature on the From: line in messages you send. It
looks like this:
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Signature: John Q. Public
Occasionally people express an interest in getting rid of some of the header
lines in their mail messages. They don't want to see the "Received from",
"Via" information, or some other header. It is possible to prevent these
and other annoying headers from being displayed by changing your show
processor to be mhless. To do this you must add this line
showproc: mhless
to your .mh_profile. You also must create a file called ".mhlessrc" contain-
ing the words which appear at the beginning of the lines you don't want to
see.
The typical ".mhlessrc" file will look like this:
Received
Via
BB-Posted
Return-Path
The ".mhlessrc" file must be in your home directory.
7 BBoards
Electronic bulletin boards (BBoards) are a convenient way for a group of peo-
ple to discuss a particular topic. Messages are sent to an address where they
can be read and replied to by all interested parties. In the ICS department
we have some "local" BBoards which involve only people in the department.
We also subscribe to many nationally distributed BBoards. BBoards are
read using the bbc program which will allow you to read the messages with
an MH-like interface.
One very important BBoard is "system". It contains vital news about
changes in software, system downtime, new programs, and other informa-
tion useful to all users.
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To read a BBoard, you type "bbc BBoard__name ". The bbc program will
check to see if there are new messages in the named BBoard and if there are,
it will start up msh so you can read them. The msh program allows you to
use regular MH commands when reading BBoards. Type "show" to see the
current message, "next" to see the next message, and so on. Type "quit" to
quit reading the current BBoard. If you have named more than one BBoard
on the command line or in your .mh_profile, bbc will continue processing
the next BBoard in the list.
Here is an example of using bbc to read the system BBoard:
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% bbc system
Reading system, currently at message 1 of 22
(msh) show
(Message 1, BBoard-ID: 1360)
BBoard-ID: 1360
BB-Posted: Wed, 29 Jan 86 15:36:39 PST
Received: from localhost by UCI.EDU id a006693; 29 Jan 86 15:20 PST
To: network@UCI.EDU
Subject: Imagen 24300
Date: Wed, 29 Jan 86 15:19:43 -0800
From: Tinh Tang <ttang@UCI.EDU>
The Imagen 24300 is now operating normally. It was broken down
due to the paper jammed in the drum. Luckily, it didn't cause
any damage.
/ttang
(msh) next
(Message 4, BBoard-ID: 1363)
BBoard-ID: 1363
BB-Posted: Fri, 31 Jan 86 13:33:37 PST
Received: from localhost by UCI.EDU id a001631; 31 Jan 86 13:30 PST
To: msgs@UCI.EDU
Subject: uci.edu down 2/7/86 17:10 - 2/7/86 20:30
Date: Fri, 31 Jan 86 13:30:27 -0800
From: root@UCI.EDU
The uci.edu will be down from
February 7,1986 17:10 till February 7,1986 20:30.
The reason for the downtime is:
Both, the Computing Facility and the Physical Sciences Dataswitches
will be unavailable from 5:10pm until 8:30pm on Friday, February 7th.
Therefore all the Computers attached to those switches and the
corresponding tandem link will be unavailable to users on
the specified time. (RJ).
Downtime Scheduler
(msh) quit
%
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You can see a list of all the available BBoards by typing:
% bbc -topics
You can also put a line in your ".mh_profile" listing all the BBoards you
want to read on a regular basis:
bboards: system movies mh-users events
Then you only need to type "bbc" to read all your BBoards.
8 Checking for Mail
Under Unix, there are many different ways to check for new mail. The easiest
way to do it is to set the csh variable named "mail" to tell csh to check for
new mail for you periodically. To do this, add the line
set mail=(60 /usr/spool/mail/$USER)
to the .login file in your home directory. This command says to check for
mail if csh is about to prompt you with a % sign, and if it has been at least
60 seconds since it last checked for mail. The advantage of this method of
mail notification, besides simplicity, is that you will never be interrupted by
a mail notification. You will only be notified about new mail when you are
between commands.
If you want asynchronous mail notification, which will print to your terminal
regardless of what you are currently doing, you may make use of a "receive
mail hook" called "rcvtty". To do this, create a file in your home directory
called ".maildelivery". In this file, put the line
* - pipe R /usr/uci/lib/mh/rcvtty
Then, each time mail arrives, you will receive a one-line "scan" listing of
the mail if your terminal is world-writable. For more information on mail
delivery files, type:
% man 5 maildelivery
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This will tell you about all the options available to you if you use maildelivery
files.
9 Aliases
Using MH, you may specify your own private mail aliases. This feature allows
you to store lists of addresses or long internet addresses of people with whom
you frequently correspond in one file, and then to address them using short
mnemonic names. Typically, you will call your alias file "aliases"; it must
be stored in your MH directory. The format of this file is simple. The alias
is given, followed by a colon, followed by one or more legal mail addresses
separated by commas. For example, you might for some reason have an alias
for all the users named "Rose" in the ICS department:
roses: prose, srose, mrose, drose
In addition to your "aliases" file, you will need to modify your
.mh_profile in order to use aliases. You should add the flag "-alias
aliases" to the entries for the commands ali, whom, send, and push, cre-
ating entries for these programs if they aren't already in your .mh_profile.
Now, messages addressed to "roses" will be distributed to all the people
listed in the alias.
The ali command is used to show you what an alias expands to. You just
type
% ali alias
and ali will respond with the expansion of the alias. Ali searches the system
aliases file in addition to your private ones.
10 Blind Lists
There are two different types of so-called "blind addressing" of messages.
The BCC: field allows you to add recipients to your message just like those
who are CC'd, but the normal recipients will not see that the BCC recipients
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were copied on the message, their replies will not go to the blind recipients,
and the blind recipients cannot (easily) reply to the message.
The second type of blind mailing is actually called a "group address list",
although it is commonly referred to as a "blind list". The format of this type
of address is
phrase : address__list ;
where the "phrase " is any English phrase of one or more words, and the
address__list consists of one or more addresses separated by commas. The
recipients of a message addressed in this fashion will see simply
phrase : ;
so when they reply to the message, their reply will come only to the sender
(or the Reply-To: field, if one was specified), rather than going to all the
recipients of the original list. For example, to use a group address list for the
"roses" alias you would type:
To: People Named Rose: roses;
This type of group address is very useful for making up lists of related people,
such as all the people working on a particular research project.
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