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There are some basic commands that allow you to use MH to read mail:
- inc
- incorporate
- scan
- scan messages
- show
- show current message
- prev
- previous message
- next
- next message
- rmm
- remove message
- repl
- reply to message
- comp
- compose message
These are the basic commands that are most often used.
- inc
- moves mail from your system maildrop into your
MH `+inbox' folder, breaking it up into separate files and
converting it to MH format as it goes. It prints one line for
each message it processes, containing the "From" field, the
subject field, and as much of the first line of the message
as will fit. It leaves the first message it processes as
your current message. You'll need to run inc each time
you wish to incorporate new mail into your MH file.
- scan
- prints a list of the messages in your current
folder. It will place a + in front of the current message in
the folder. Scan may be passed a list of messages or a range.
- show, next, prev
- are used to read specific
messages from the current folder.
show displays
the current message, or a specific message, which may be
specified by its number, which you pass as an argument to
show. next and prev display, respectively,
the message numerically after or before the current
message. In all cases, the message displayed becomes the
current message. If there is no current message, show may
be called with an argument, or next may be used to
advance to the first message.
- rmm
- deletes the current message. It may be called
with message numbers passed as arguments, to delete specific messages.
- repl
- is used to respond to the current message (by
default). It places you in the editor with a prototype response
form. While you're in the editor, you may peruse the item
you're responding to by reading the file . After completing
your response, you will be prompted by the
what now?
prompt. By pressing return you will see all of the
options available to you, l will "list" your message,
s will "send" your message, or p will "push"
your message in to the background. Push is the same as
send but much faster.
- comp
- allows you to compose a message by putting you
in the editor on a prototype message form, and then lets
you send it.
All the MH commands may be run with the single argument: `-help', which causes
them to print a list of the arguments they may be invoked with.
Commands which take a message number as an argument
(scan, show, repl, ...) also take one of the words:
first, prev, cur, next, or last to indicate
(respectively) the first, previous, current, next, or
last message in the current folder (assuming they are defined).
Commands which take a range of message numbers
(rmm, scan, show, ...) also take any of the abbreviations:
- num1 - num2
- Indicates all messages in the range num1
to num2, inclusive. (the range must be nonempty)
- num:+N
- Up to N messages beginning with message
num.
- num:-N
- Up to N messages ending with message
num.
- (num
- may be any of the pre-defined symbols:
first, prev, cur, next or last)
- first:N
- The first N messages, if they exist.
- prev:N
- The previous N messages, if they exist.
- next:N
- The next N messages, if they exist.
- last:N
- The last N messages, if they exist.
One of the most useful examples is:
scan cur-last
There are many other possibilities such as creating multiple folders for
different topics, and automatically refiling messages according to subject,
source, destination, or content. For more information please consult the MH
manual pages. (man folder, man mh, man refile)
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