table of contents
MH-MAIL(5mh) | MH-MAIL(5mh) |
NAME¶
mh-mail - message format for nmh message systemDESCRIPTION¶
nmh processes messages in a particular format. It should be noted that although neither Bell nor Berkeley mailers produce message files in the format that nmh prefers, nmh can read message files in that antiquated format. Each user possesses a mail drop box which initially receives all messages processed by post. Inc will read from that drop box and incorporate the new messages found there into the user's own mail folders (typically “+inbox”). The mail drop box consists of one or more messages. Messages are expected to consist of lines of text. Graphics and binary data are not handled. No data compression is accepted. All text is clear ASCII 7-bit data. The general “memo” framework of RFC 822 is used. A message consists of a block of information in a rigid format, followed by general text with no specified format. The rigidly formatted first part of a message is called the header, and the free-format portion is called the body. The header must always exist, but the body is optional. These parts are separated by an empty line, i.e., two consecutive newline characters. Within nmh, the header and body may be separated by a line consisting of dashes:From: Local Mailbox <user@example.com> To: cc: Fcc: +outbox Subject:
Added by post, contains date and time of the
message's entry into the mail transport system.
From:
This header is filled in by default with the system's
idea of the user's local mailbox. This can be changed with the
Local-Mailbox profile entry. It contains the address of the author or
authors (may be more than one if a “Sender:” field is present).
For a standard reply (using repl), the reply address is constructed by
checking the following headers (in this order):
“Mail-Reply-To:”, “Reply-To:”,
“From:”, “Sender:”. A “From:” header
MUST exist when the message is sent to post, otherwise the message will
be rejected.
Envelope-From:
Used by post to specify a value for the sender's
envelope address to the mail transport system. If omitted, post will
use the value of the “Sender:” or the “From:”
header. See send(1) for more details.
Mail-Reply-To:
For a standard reply (using repl), the reply
address is constructed by checking the following headers (in this order):
“Mail-Reply-To:”, “Reply-To:”,
“From:”, “Sender:”.
Mail-Followup-To:
When making a “group” reply (using
repl -group), any addresses in this field will take precedence,
and no other reply address will be added to the draft. If this header is not
available, then the return addresses will be constructed from the
“Mail-Reply-To:”, or “Reply-To:”, or
“From:”, along with adding the addresses from the headers
“To:”, “cc:”, as well as adding your personal
address.
Reply-To:
For a standard reply (using repl), the reply
address is constructed by checking the following headers (in this order):
“Mail-Reply-To:”, “Reply-To:”,
“From:”, “Sender:”.
Sender:
Required by post in the event that the message has
multiple addresses on the “From:” line. It is otherwise
optional. This line should contain the address of the actual sender.
To:
Contains addresses of primary recipients.
cc:
Contains addresses of secondary recipients.
Bcc:
Still more recipients. However, the “Bcc:”
line is not copied onto the message as delivered, so these recipients are not
listed. nmh uses an encapsulation method for blind copies, see
send(1).
Dcc:
Still more recipients. However, the “Dcc:”
line is not copied onto the messages as delivered. Recipients on the
“Dcc:” line receive the same messsage as recipients on the
“To:” and “cc:” lines. See send(1) for more
details. Dcc is not supported with the sendmail/pipe mail
transport method.
Fcc:
Causes post to copy the message into the specified
folder for the sender, if the message was successfully given to the transport
system.
Message-ID:
A unique message identifier added by post if the
-msgid flag is set.
Subject:
Sender's commentary. It is displayed by
scan.
In-Reply-To:
A commentary line added by repl when replying to a
message.
Resent-Date:
Added when redistributing a message by post.
Resent-From:
Used instead of the “From:” header when
post redistributes a message. See “From:” for more
information about this header is used.
Resent-To:
New recipients for a message resent by dist.
Resent-cc:
Still more recipients. See “cc:” and
“Resent-To:”.
Resent-Bcc:
Even more recipients. See “Bcc:” and
“Resent-To:”.
Resent-Fcc:
Copy resent message into a folder. See
“Fcc:” and “Resent-To:”.
Resent-Message-Id:
A unique identifier glued on by post if the
-msgid flag is set. See “Message-Id:” and
“Resent-To:”.
Resent:
Annotation for dist under the -annotate
option.
Forwarded:
Annotation for forw under the -annotate
option.
Replied:
Annotation for repl under the -annotate
option.
Attach:
Used by mhbuild to specify a filename to attach to
this message. See mhbuild(1) for more information.
FILES¶
^/var/mail/$USER~^Location of mail drop
SEE ALSO¶
Standard for the Format of ARPA Internet Text Messages (RFC 822)CONTEXT¶
NoneJanuary 8, 2014 | nmh-1.6 |