Introduction to mh

To use mh, you should include /usr/bin/mh on your PATH (if that does not mean anything to you, email sys-admin@cl.cam.ac.uk) Note that the names of the commands may be confusing. Unlike most mail readers, mh is not a single program which you enter and type the various commands - it is a set of programs which you call directly from the shell.

``man nmh'' is large, but do not be put off by it. All commands take a ``-help'' flag to give more help.

The main commands are:

inc

incorporate (accept) new mail (see below)

show

show the current message [ also ``show last'' ]

next

look at the next message [ also ``prev'' ]

rmm

remove (the current) message

repl

reply to (the current) message

comp

compose a new message

scan

show header of messages [ e.g. ``scan last:20'' ]

pick

select messages [ e.g. ``pick -from pb'' ]

sortm

resort messages by date

folder

[experts] manipulate multiple folders of mail

``inc'' should find your ``incoming mail'' file automatically. If you have not done anything unusual and it does not work, contact postmaster. If you have done non-standard things in the area of mail delivery, and it cannot find it, you can help it by setting the environment variable MAILDROP to the correct value. [ In fact the mh variable maildrop can also be used, but this will NOT work with xmh ]