MH-PROFILE(5mh) | MH-PROFILE(5mh) |
NAME¶
mh-profile - user profile customization for nmh message handlerDESCRIPTION¶
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 formatprofile-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.
Comments may be introduced by a line starting with `#:':
#: This is a comment.
Blank lines are not permitted in .mh_profile. The shell quoting
conventions are not available in the .mh_profile; each token is
separated by whitespace.
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. Note that a profile component can only appear once. Multiple appearances with trigger a warning that all appearances after the first are ignored. Path: MailLocates 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: vi
Defines the editor to be used by the commands
comp, dist, forw, and repl. If not set in profile
the value will be taken from the VISUAL and EDITOR environment variables.
(profile, default: vi)
Msg-Protect: 600
An octal number which defines the permission bits for new
message files. See chmod(1) for an explanation of the octal number.
Note that some filesystems, such as FAT32, do not support removal of read file
permissions. (profile, default: 0600)
Folder-Protect: 700
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)
datalocking: fcntl
The locking algorithm used to lock changes to any
nmh data files, such as sequences or the context. The locking algorithm
is any one of the following entries:
Available locking algorithms can vary depending on what is supported by the
operating system. Note: currently transactional locking is only supported on
public sequences; see mh-sequence(5) for more information. (profile,
default: fcntl)
program: default switches
fcntl dot flock lockf
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:
lasteditor-next: nexteditor
repl: -editor /bin/ed
(profile, no defaults)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)
Folder-Stack: folders
The contents of the folder-stack for the folder
command. (context, no default)
Local-Mailbox: Your Username <user@some.host>
Tells the various MH tools what your local mailbox is. If
set, will be used by the default component files by tools like comp and
repl to construct your default “From” header. The text
used here will be copied exactly to your From: header, so it should already be
RFC 822 compliant. If this is set, the Signature profile entry is NOT
used, so it should include a signature as well. (profile, default:
userid@local.hostname)
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, refile, 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 front-end programs such as comp,
forw, and repl 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. Your signature will be added to the
address send puts in the “From:” header; do not include
an address in the signature text. The “Local-Mailbox” profile
component supersedes all of this. (profile, no default)
credentials: legacy
Indicates how the username and password credentials will
be retrieved for access to external servers, such as those that provide SMTP
or POP service. The supported entry values are “legacy” and
“file:netrc”. With “legacy”, or if there is
no credentials entry, the username is the first of:
1) -user switch to send, post,
whom, inc, or msgchk program
2) the login name on the local machine
The password for SMTP services is the first of:
1) password value from matching entry in file named
“.netrc” in the user's home directory
2) password obtained by interactively prompting the user
The password for POP service when the -sasl switch is used with one of
these programs is the login name on the local machine.
With a “file:netrc” credentials entry, the username
is the first of:
1) -user switch to program
2) login name from matching entry in netrc file
3) value provided by user in response to interactive query
Similarly, the password is provided either in the netrc file or
interactively. netrc can be any valid filename, either absolute or
relative to Path or $HOME. The netrc file contains authentication
information, for each server, using a line of the following form. Replace the
words myserver, mylogin, and mypassword with your own
account information:
machine myserver login
mylogin password mypassword
This netrc file must be owned and readable only by you. (profile,
default: legacy)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. If the profile element contains spaces, the element is split at spaces into tokens and each token is given as a separate argument to the execvp(2) system call. If the element contains shell metacharacters then the entire element is executed using /bin/sh. buildmimeproc: /usr/bin/mh/mhbuildThis 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 send 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.
formatproc:
Program called by mhl to filter a component when
it is tagged with the “format” variable in the mhl filter. See
mhl(5) for more information.
incproc: /usr/bin/mh/inc
Program called by mhmail to incorporate new mail
when it is invoked with no arguments.
lproc: more
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. (Note that
$PAGER supersedes the default built-in pager command.)
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, the mhlproc is used to filter the copy
of the message that is sent to “Bcc:” recipients.
moreproc: more
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. (Note that $PAGER supersedes the default
built-in pager command.)
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, refile,
and mhfixmsg to delete a message from a folder.
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.
Profile Lookup¶
After consulting .mh_profile, some programs read an optional profile specified by a program-specific environment variable, and then the system-wide profile /etc/nmh/mhn.defaults. These programs are mhbuild, mhshow, mhstore, and mhn. mhfixmsg is similar, but has no optional profile. The first occurrence of a component is used, e.g. .mh_profile's trumps $MHSHOW's. A component with no value still stops further occurrences being used, but is considered absent.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. $MHWith 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.
$MHBUILD
With this environment variable, you can specify an
additional user profile (file) to be read by mhbuild, in addition to
the mhn.defaults profile.
$MHN
With this environment variable, you can specify an
additional user profile (file) to be read by mhn, in addition to the
mhn.defaults profile. mhn is deprecated, so this support for this
variable will be removed from a future nmh release.
$MHSHOW
With this environment variable, you can specify an
additional user profile (file) to be read by mhshow, in addition to the
mhn.defaults profile.
$MHSTORE
With this environment variable, you can specify an
additional user profile (file) to be read by mhstore, in addition to
the mhn.defaults profile.
$MAILDROP
This variable tells inc the default maildrop. This
supersedes the “MailDrop” profile entry.
$MAILHOST
This variable tells inc the POP host to query for
mail to incorporate. See the inc(1) man page for more information.
$USERNAME_EXTENSION
This variable is for use with username_extension
masquerading. See the mh-tailor(5) man page.
$SIGNATURE
This variable tells send and post your mail
signature. This supersedes the “Signature” profile entry, and is
not used when the “Local-Mailbox” profile component is
set.
$USER
This variable tells repl your user name and
inc your default maildrop: see the “MailDrop” profile
entry.
$HOME
This variable tells all nmh programs your home
directory
$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.
$MHMTSCONF
If this variable is set to a non-null value, it specifies
the name of the mail transport configuration file to use by post,
inc, and other programs that interact with the mail transport system,
instead of the default. See mh-tailor(5).
$MHMTSUSERCONF
If this variable is set to a non-null value, it specifies
the name of a mail transport configuration file to be read in addition to the
default. See mh-tailor(5).
$MHTMPDIR $TMPDIR
These variables are searched, in order, for the directory
in which to create some temporary files.
$MHLDEBUG
If this variable is set to a non-null value, mhl
will emit debugging information.
$MHPDEBUG
If this variable is set to a non-null value, pick
will emit a representation of the search pattern.
$MHWDEBUG
If this variable is set to a non-null value, nmh
commands that use the Alternate-Mailboxes profile entry will display
debugging information about the values in that entry.
$PAGER
If set to a non-null value, this supersedes the value of
the default built-in pager command.
$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, when the -atfile switch is used, 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, and if
your current working directory is writable.
$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.
$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).
$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.
$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.
$mhinplace
This is set by dist, forw, and repl
if annotations are to occur.
FILES¶
^$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¶
environ(5), mh-sequence(5), nmh(7)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¶
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)February 16, 2014 | nmh-1.6 |