The MH-E Manual

1 GNU Emacs Terms and Conventions

If you’re an experienced Emacs user, you can skip the following conventions and definition of terms and go directly to the next section (see Getting Started).

In general, functions in this text refer to Emacs Lisp functions that one would call from within Emacs Lisp programs (for example, (mh-inc-folder)). On the other hand, commands are those things that are run by the user, such as i or M-x mh-inc-folder. Programs outside of Emacs are specifically called MH commands, shell commands, or Unix commands.

The conventions for key names are as follows:

C-x

Hold down the CTRL (Control) key and press the x key.

M-x

Hold down the META or ALT key and press the x key.

Since some keyboards don’t have a META key, you can generate M-x, for example, by pressing ESC (Escape), releasing it, and then pressing the x key.

RET

Press the RETURN or ENTER key. This is normally used to complete a command.

SPC

Press the space bar.

TAB

Press the TAB key.

DEL

Press the DELETE key.

BS

Press the BACKSPACE key.

A prefix argument allows you to pass an argument to any Emacs function. To pass an argument, type C-u before the Emacs command or keystroke. Numeric arguments can be passed as well. For example, to insert five f’s, use C-u 5 f. There is a default of four when using C-u, and you can use multiple prefix arguments to provide arguments of powers of four. To continue our example, you could insert four f’s with C-u f, 16 f’s with C-u C-u f, 64 f’s with C-u C-u C-u f, and so on. Numeric and valueless negative arguments can also be inserted with the META key. Examples include M-5 to specify an argument of 5, or M-- which specifies a negative argument with no particular value.

The prefix C-u or M- is not necessary in MH-E’s MH-Folder mode (see Receiving Mail). In this mode, simply enter the numerical argument before entering the command.

Emacs uses variables to hold values. These can be changed via calls to the function setq in ~/.emacs.

Variables in MH-E that are normally modified by the user are called options and are modified through the customize functions (such as M-x customize-option or M-x customize-group). See section Easy Customization in The GNU Emacs Manual. See Options.

You can specify various styles for displaying text using faces. MH-E provides a set of faces that you can use to personalize the look of your MH-E buffers. Use the command M-x customize-face to do this. See section Face Customization in The GNU Emacs Manual.

Commands often offer hooks which enable you to extend or modify the way a command works. See section Hooks in The GNU Emacs Manual for a description about normal hooks and abnormal hooks. MH-E uses normal hooks in nearly all cases, so you can assume that we are talking about normal hooks unless we explicitly mention that a hook is abnormal. We also follow the conventions described in that section: the name of the abnormal hooks end in -functions and all the rest of the MH-E hooks end in -hook. You can add hooks with either customize-option or add-hook.

There are several other terms that are used in Emacs that you should know. The point is where the cursor currently is. You can save your current place in the file by setting a mark. This operation is useful in several ways. The mark can be later used when defining a region, which is the text between the point and mark. Many commands operate on regions, such as those for deleting text or filling paragraphs. A mark can be set with C-@ (or C-SPC).

The minibuffer is the bottom line of the Emacs window, where all prompting and multiple-character input is directed. You can use completion to enter values such as folders. Completion means that Emacs fills in text for you when you type SPC or TAB. A second SPC or TAB will list all possibilities at that point. See the section Completion in The GNU Emacs Manual. Note that SPC cannot be used for completing filenames and folders.

The minibuffer is also where you enter Emacs function names after typing M-x. For example, in the preface, I mentioned that you could obtain help with C-h t (help-with-tutorial). What this means is that you can get a tutorial by typing either C-h t or M-x help-with-tutorial. In the latter case, you are prompted for ‘help-with-tutorial’ in the minibuffer after typing M-x.

The ‘~’ notation in filenames represents your home directory. This notation is used by many shells including bash, tcsh, and csh. It is analogous to the environment variable ‘$HOME’. For example, ~/.emacs can be written $HOME/.emacs or using the absolute path as in /home/wohler/.emacs instead.

In case of trouble: Emacs can be interrupted at any time with C-g. For example, if you’ve started a command that requests that you enter something in the minibuffer, but then you change your mind, type C-g and you’ll be back where you started. If you want to exit Emacs entirely, use C-x C-c.

2 Getting Started

Because there are many old versions of MH-E out there, it is important to know which version you have. I’ll be talking about Version 8 which is pretty close to Version 6 and Version 7. It differs from Version 4 and Version 5 and is vastly different from Version 3. See History of MH-E.

To determine which version of MH-E that you have, enter M-x mh-version RET. Hopefully it says that you’re running Version 8.6 which is the latest version as of this printing.

If your version is much older than this, please consider upgrading. You can have your system administrator upgrade the system-wide version, or you can install your own personal version. It’s really quite easy. See Getting MH-E, for instructions for getting and installing MH-E.

If the mh-version command displays ‘No MH variant detected’², then you need to install MH or tell MH-E where to find MH.

If you don’t have MH on your system already, you must install a variant of MH. The Debian mh-e package does this for you automatically (see Getting MH-E). Most people use nmh, but you may be interested in trying out GNU mailutils MH, which supports IMAP. Your GNU/Linux distribution probably has packages for both of these.

If you’ve never run MH before, you need to run install-mh from the shell before you continue. This sets up your personal MH environment³. If you don’t, you’ll be greeted with the error message: ‘Install MH and run install-mh before running MH-E’. This is all you need to know about MH to use MH-E, but the more you know about MH, the more you can leverage its power. See the MH book to learn more about MH.

Your MH environment includes your MH profile which is found in the file ~/.mh_profile, or the file named in the environment variable ‘$MH’. This file contains a number of MH profile components. For example, the ‘Path:’ MH profile component contains the path to your mail directory, which is ~/Mail by default.

There are several options MH-E uses to interact with your MH installation. The option mh-variant specifies the variant used by MH-E (see Options). The default setting of this option is ‘Auto-detect’ which means that MH-E will automatically choose the first of nmh, MH, or GNU mailutils MH that it finds in the directories listed in mh-path (which you can customize), mh-sys-path, and exec-path. If MH-E can’t find MH at all, you may have to customize mh-path and add the directory in which the command mhparam is located. If, on the other hand, you have both nmh and GNU mailutils MH installed (for example) and mh-variant-in-use was initialized to nmh but you want to use GNU mailutils MH, then you can set mh-variant to ‘gnu-mh’.

When mh-variant is changed, MH-E resets mh-progs, mh-lib, mh-lib-progs, mh-flists-present-flag, and mh-variant-in-use accordingly.

Prior to version 8, it was often necessary to set some of these variables in ~/.emacs; now it is no longer necessary and can actually cause problems.

In addition to setting variables that point to MH itself, MH-E also sets a handful of variables that point to where you keep your mail. During initialization, the function mh-find-path sets mh-user-path from your ‘Path:’ MH profile component (but defaults to ‘Mail’ if one isn’t present), mh-draft-folder from ‘Draft-Folder:’, mh-unseen-seq from ‘Unseen-Sequence:’, mh-previous-seq from ‘Previous-Sequence:’, and mh-inbox from ‘Inbox:’ (defaults to ‘+inbox’). The hook mh-find-path-hook is run after these variables have been set. This hook can be used the change the value of these variables if you need to run with different values between MH and MH-E.

3 Tour Through MH-E

This chapter introduces some of the terms you’ll need to know and then takes you on a tour of MH-E⁴. When you’re done, you’ll be able to send, read, and file mail, which is all that a lot of people ever do. But if you’re the curious or adventurous type, read the rest of the manual to be able to use all the features of MH-E. I suggest you read this chapter first to get the big picture, and then you can read the manual as you wish.

• Sending Mail
• Receiving Mail
• Processing Mail
• Leaving MH-E
• More About MH-E

--:--  *scratch*   All L1     (Lisp Interaction)-------------------------
To: wohler
cc:
Subject: Test
X-Mailer: MH-E 8.1; nmh 1.1; GNU Emacs 23.1
--------
This is a test message to get the wheels churning...#


--:**  {draft}   All L5     (MH-Letter)----------------------------------
Type C-c C-c to send message, C-C ? for help

  3 t08/24 root       received fax files on Wed Aug 24 11:00:13 PDT 1
# 4+t08/24 To:wohler  Test<<This is a test message to get the wheels

-:%%  {+inbox/select} 4 msgs (1-4)   Bot L4     (MH-Folder Show)---------
To: wohler
Subject: Test
X-Mailer: MH-E 8.1; nmh 1.1; GNU Emacs 23.1
Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2006 10:49:11 -0800
From: Bill Wohler <wohler@stop.mail-abuse.org>

This is a test message to get the wheels churning...



--:--  {show-+inbox} 4   All L1     (MH-Show)----------------------------

To:
cc:
Subject: Re: Test
In-Reply-To: <31054.1142621351@stop.mail-abuse.org>
References: <31054.1142621351@stop.mail-abuse.org>
Comments: In-Reply-To Bill Wohler <wohler@stop.mail-abuse.org>
   message dated "Fri, 17 Mar 2006 10:49:11 -0800."
X-Mailer: MH-E 8.1; nmh 1.1; GNU Emacs 23.1
--------
#

--:--  {draft}  All L10     (MH-Letter)----------------------------------
To: wohler
Subject: Test
X-Mailer: MH-E 8.1; nmh 1.1; GNU Emacs 23.1
Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2006 10:49:11 -0800
From: Bill Wohler <wohler@stop.mail-abuse.org>

This is a test message to get the wheels churning...

--:--  {show-+inbox} 4   All L1     (MH-Show)----------------------------
Type C-c C-c to send message, C-c ? for help

4 Using This Manual

This chapter begins the meat of the manual which goes into more detail about every MH-E command and option.

There are many commands, but don’t get intimidated. There are command summaries at the beginning of each chapter. In case you have or would like to rebind the keys, the command summaries also list the associated Emacs Lisp function. Furthermore, even if you’re stranded on a desert island with a laptop and are without your manuals, you can get a summary of all these commands with GNU Emacs built-in help: use C-h m (describe-mode) for a brief summary of commands, ? (mh-help) for an even briefer summary¹⁰ (C-c ? in MH-Letter mode), or C-h i to read this manual via Info. The built-in help is quite good; try running C-h C-h. This brings up a list of available help topics, one of which displays the documentation for a given key (like C-h k C-n). Another useful help feature is to view the manual section that describes a given key (such as C-h K i). In addition, review GNU Emacs Terms and Conventions, if any of the GNU Emacs conventions are strange to you.

In addition to all of the commands, it is also possible to reconfigure MH-E to fit the needs of even the most demanding user. The following chapters also describe all of the options, show the defaults, and make recommendations for customization.

However, when customizing your mail environment, first try to change what you want in MH, and only change MH-E if changing MH is not possible. That way you will get the same behavior inside and outside GNU Emacs. Note that MH-E does not provide hooks for customizations that can be done in MH; this omission is intentional.

I hope I’ve included enough examples here to get you well on your way. If you want to explore Emacs Lisp further, a programming manual does exist, ¹¹ and you can look at the code itself for examples. Look in the Emacs Lisp directory on your system (such as /usr/local/share/emacs/lisp/mh-e) and find all the mh-*.el files there. When calling MH-E and other Emacs Lisp functions directly from Emacs Lisp code, you’ll need to know the correct arguments. Use the built-in help for this. For example, try C-h f mh-execute-commands RET. If you write your own functions, please do not prefix your symbols (variables and functions) with ‘mh-’. This prefix is reserved for the MH-E package. To avoid conflicts with existing MH-E symbols, use a prefix like ‘my-’ or your initials. (Unless, of course, your initials happen to be mh!)

• Options
• Ranges
• Folder Selection

5 Incorporating Your Mail

This chapter talks about getting mail from your system mailbox into your MH ‘+inbox’ folder. The following command accomplishes that and is found in the ‘Folder’ menu.

i

Incorporate new mail into a folder (mh-inc-folder).

The following options in the ‘mh-inc’ customization group are used.

mh-inc-prog ¶

Program to incorporate mail (default: "inc").

mh-inc-spool-list ¶

Alternate spool files (default: nil).

The following hook is available.

mh-inc-folder-hook ¶

Hook run by mh-inc-folder after incorporating mail into a folder (default: nil).

If at any time you receive new mail, incorporate the new mail into your ‘+inbox’ buffer with i (mh-inc-folder). Note that i will display the ‘+inbox’ buffer, even if there isn’t any new mail. You can incorporate mail from any file into the current folder by specifying a prefix argument; you’ll be prompted for the name of the file to use as well as the destination folder (for example, C-u i ~/mbox RET +tmp RET).

Emacs can notify you when you have new mail by displaying ‘Mail’ in the mode line. To enable this behavior, and to have a clock in the mode line as well, add the following to ~/.emacs:

(display-time)

The name of the program that incorporates new mail is stored in mh-inc-prog; it is "inc" by default. This program generates a one-line summary for each of the new messages. Unless it is an absolute pathname, the file is assumed to be in the mh-progs directory (see Getting Started). You may also link a file to inc that uses a different format (see ‘mh-profile’(5), and sections Reading Mail: inc show next prev and MH Format Strings in the MH book). You’ll then need to modify several variables appropriately (see Scan Line Formats).

You can use the mh-inc-spool-list variable to direct MH-E to retrieve mail from arbitrary spool files other than your system mailbox, file it in folders other than your ‘+inbox’, and assign key bindings to incorporate this mail.

Suppose you are subscribed to the mh-e-devel mailing list and you use procmail to filter this mail into ~/mail/mh-e with the following recipe in .procmailrc:

PATH=$PATH:/usr/bin/mh
MAILDIR=$HOME/`mhparam Path`
:0:
* ^From mh-e-devel-admin@stop.mail-abuse.org
mh-e

In order to incorporate ~/mail/mh-e into ‘+mh-e’ with an I m (mh-inc-spool-mh-e) command, customize this option, and click on the ‘INS’ button. Enter a ‘Spool File’ of ‘~/mail/mh-e’, a ‘Folder’ of ‘mh-e’, and a ‘Key Binding’ of ‘m’.

You can use xbuffy to automate the incorporation of this mail using the Emacs command emacsclient as follows:

box ~/mail/mh-e
    title mh-e
    origMode
    polltime 10
    headertime 0
    command emacsclient --eval '(mh-inc-spool-mh-e)'

You can set the hook mh-inc-folder-hook, which is called after new mail is incorporated by the i (mh-inc-folder) command. A good use of this hook is to rescan the whole folder either after running M-x mh-rmail the first time or when you’ve changed the message numbers from outside of MH-E.

(defun my-mh-inc-folder-hook ()
  "Hook to rescan folder after incorporating mail."
  (if (buffer-modified-p)            ; if outstanding refiles and deletes,
      (mh-execute-commands))         ;   carry them out
  (mh-rescan-folder)                 ; synchronize with +inbox
  (mh-show))                         ; show the current message

(add-hook 'mh-inc-folder-hook 'my-mh-inc-folder-hook)

Rescan folder after incorporating new mail via mh-inc-folder-hook

6 Reading Your Mail

The MH-E entry point for reading mail is M-x mh-rmail. This command incorporates your mail and creates a buffer called ‘+inbox’ in MH-Folder mode. The command M-x mh-rmail shows you only new mail, not mail you have already read¹².

There are some commands that need to read mail, such as mouse-2 over the ‘Mail’ button that display-time adds to the mode line. You can configure Emacs to have these commands use MH-E by setting the option read-mail-command to ‘mh-rmail’.

The ‘+inbox’ buffer contains scan lines, which are one-line summaries of each incorporated message. You can perform most MH commands on these messages via one- or two-letter commands in either the MH-Folder or MH-Show buffers or by using the ‘Message’ menu. See scan(1) for a description of the contents of the scan lines, and see the Figure in Receiving Mail, for an example.

?

Display cheat sheet for the MH-E commands (mh-help).

RET

Display message (mh-show).

, (comma)

Display message with all header fields (mh-header-display).

: (colon)

Display message with the default preferred alternative (mh-show-preferred-alternative).

; (semicolon)

Toggle the value of mh-decode-mime-flag (mh-toggle-mh-decode-mime-flag).

SPC

Display next page in message (mh-page-msg).

BS

Display previous page in message (mh-previous-page).

>

Append message to end of file (mh-write-msg-to-file).

|

Pipe message through shell command (mh-pipe-msg).

C-d

Delete range, don’t move to next message (mh-delete-msg-no-motion).

d

Delete range (mh-delete-msg).

D ?

Display cheat sheet for the commands of the current prefix in minibuffer (mh-prefix-help).

D SPC

Display next message in digest (mh-page-digest).

D BS

Display previous message in digest (mh-page-digest-backwards).

D b

Break up digest into separate messages (mh-burst-digest).

g

Go to a message (mh-goto-msg).

k

Delete messages with same subject or thread (mh-delete-subject-or-thread).

K ?

Display cheat sheet for the commands of the current prefix in minibuffer (mh-prefix-help).

K TAB

Go to the next button (mh-next-button).

K S-TAB

Go to the previous button (mh-prev-button).

K a

Save attachments (mh-mime-save-parts).

K e

View attachment externally (mh-display-with-external-viewer).

K i

Show attachment verbatim (mh-folder-inline-mime-part).

K o

Save (output) attachment (mh-folder-save-mime-part).

K t

Toggle option mh-display-buttons-for-inline-parts-flag (mh-toggle-mime-buttons).

K v

View attachment (mh-folder-toggle-mime-part).

M

Edit message (mh-modify).

M-<

Display first message (mh-first-msg).

M->

Display last message (mh-last-msg).

M-n

Display next unread message (mh-next-unread-msg).

M-p

Display previous unread message (mh-previous-unread-msg).

n

Display next message (mh-next-undeleted-msg).

p

Display previous message (mh-previous-undeleted-msg).

P ?

Display cheat sheet for the commands of the current prefix in minibuffer (mh-prefix-help).

P C

Toggle whether color is used in printing messages (mh-ps-print-toggle-color).

P F

Toggle whether printing is done with faces or not (mh-ps-print-toggle-faces).

P f

Print range to file (mh-ps-print-msg-file).

P l

Print range the old fashioned way (mh-print-msg).

P p

Print range (mh-ps-print-msg).

X ?

Display cheat sheet for the commands of the current prefix in minibuffer (mh-prefix-help).

X s

X u

Unpack message created with uudecode or shar (mh-store-msg).

mouse-2

Move point to mouse event and show message (mh-show-mouse).

Within the MH-Show buffer, the following command is defined.

RET

mouse-1

mouse-2

View contents of button (mh-press-button).

The following table lists options in the ‘mh-show’ customization group that are used while reading mail.

mh-bury-show-buffer-flag ¶

On means show buffer is buried (default: ‘on’).

mh-clean-message-header-flag ¶

On means remove extraneous header fields (default: ‘on’).

mh-decode-mime-flag ¶

On means attachments are handled (default: ‘on’ if the Gnus ‘mm-decode’ package is present).

mh-display-buttons-for-alternatives-flag ¶

On means display buttons for all alternative attachments (default: ‘off’).

mh-display-buttons-for-inline-parts-flag ¶

On means display buttons for all inline attachments (default: ‘off’).

mh-do-not-confirm-flag ¶

On means non-reversible commands do not prompt for confirmation (default: ‘off’).

mh-fetch-x-image-url ¶

Control fetching of ‘X-Image-URL:’ header field image (default: ‘Never Fetch’).

mh-graphical-smileys-flag ¶

On means graphical smileys are displayed (default: ‘on’).

mh-graphical-emphasis-flag ¶

On means graphical emphasis is displayed (default: ‘on’).

mh-highlight-citation-style ¶

Style for highlighting citations (default: ‘Multicolor’).

mh-invisible-header-fields-default ¶

List of hidden header fields (default: a checklist too long to list here).

mh-invisible-header-fields ¶

Additional header fields to hide (default: nil).

mh-lpr-command-format ¶

Command used to print (default: "lpr -J '%s'").

mh-max-inline-image-height ¶

Maximum inline image height if ‘Content-Disposition:’ is not present (default: 0).

mh-max-inline-image-width ¶

Maximum inline image width if ‘Content-Disposition:’ is not present(default: 0).

mh-mhl-format-file ¶

Specifies the format file to pass to the mhl program (default: ‘Use Default mhl Format (Printing Only)’).

mh-mime-save-parts-default-directory ¶

Default directory to use for K a.

mh-print-background-flag ¶

On means messages should be printed in the background (default: ‘off’).

mh-show-buffer-mode-line-buffer-id ¶

Format string to produce mode-line-buffer-identification for show buffers (default: " {show-%s} %d").

mh-show-maximum-size ¶

Maximum size of message (in bytes) to display automatically (default: 0).

mh-show-use-xface-flag ¶

On means display face images in MH-Show buffers (default: ‘on’).

mh-store-default-directory ¶

Default directory for X s (default: ‘Current’).

mh-summary-height ¶

Number of lines in MH-Folder buffer (including the mode line) (default: depends on size of frame).

The following hooks are available.

mh-delete-msg-hook ¶

Hook run after marking each message for deletion (default: nil).

mh-show-hook ¶

Hook run after RET shows a message (default: nil).

mh-show-mode-hook ¶

Hook run upon entry to mh-show-mode (default: nil).

The following faces are available.

mh-show-cc ¶

Face used to highlight ‘cc:’ header fields.

mh-show-date ¶

Face used to highlight ‘Date:’ header fields.

mh-show-from ¶

Face used to highlight ‘From:’ header fields.

mh-show-header ¶

Face used to deemphasize less interesting header fields.

mh-show-pgg-bad ¶

Bad PGG signature face.

mh-show-pgg-good ¶

Good PGG signature face.

mh-show-pgg-unknown ¶

Unknown or untrusted PGG signature face.

mh-show-signature ¶

Signature face.

mh-show-subject ¶

Face used to highlight ‘Subject:’ header fields.

mh-show-to ¶

Face used to highlight ‘To:’ header fields.

mh-show-xface ¶

X-Face image face.

The functions and variables introduced here are explained in more detail in the following sections.

• Viewing Your Mail
• Viewing Attachments
• HTML
• Digests
• Signed and Encrypted Messages
• Printing Your Mail
• Files and Pipes
• Navigating
• Miscellaneous Commands and Options

-----{show-+inbox} 4      (MH-Show)--Bot--------------------------------

[1. image/jpeg; foo.jpg]...

[1. text/html; foo.html]...

(global-set-key [S-mouse-2] 'browse-url-at-mouse)

[[PGP Signed Part:Bill Wohler <wohler@stop.mail-abuse.org>]]
This is a signed message.

[[End of PGP Signed Part]]

[[PGP Signed Part:Failed]]
This is a signed message.
This is garbage added after the signature was made.

[[End of PGP Signed Part]]

[[PGP Encrypted Part:OK]]

[[PGP Signed Part:Bill Wohler <wohler@stop.mail-abuse.org>]]
This is the secret message.

[[End of PGP Signed Part]]

[[End of PGP Encrypted Part]]

[[PGP Encrypted Part:Failed]]

[[PGP Encrypted Part:Failed]
Invalid base64 data]

[GNUPG:] ENC_TO CD9C88BB610BD9AD 1 0
[GNUPG:] USERID_HINT CD9C88BB610BD9AD Bill Wohler <wohler@stop.mail-abuse.org>
[GNUPG:] NEED_PASSPHRASE CD9C88BB610BD9AD CD9C88BB610BD9AD 1 0
[GNUPG:] BAD_PASSPHRASE CD9C88BB610BD9AD
gpg: encrypted with 1024-bit RSA key, ID 610BD9AD, created 1997-09-09
      "Bill Wohler <wohler@stop.mail-abuse.org>"
gpg: public key decryption failed: bad passphrase
[GNUPG:] BEGIN_DECRYPTION
[GNUPG:] DECRYPTION_FAILED
gpg: decryption failed: secret key not available
[GNUPG:] END_DECRYPTION

gpg exited abnormally: '2'

(defvar my-mh-screen-saved nil
  "Set to non-nil when MH-E window configuration shown.")
(defvar my-normal-screen nil "Normal window configuration.")
(defvar my-mh-screen nil "MH-E window configuration.")

(defun my-mh-rmail (&optional arg)
  "Toggle between MH-E and normal screen configurations.
With non-nil or prefix argument, include mailbox as well
when going into mail."
  (interactive "P")                 ; user callable function, P=prefix arg
  (setq my-mh-screen-saved          ; save state
        (cond
         ;; Bring up MH-E screen if arg or normal window configuration.
         ;; If arg or +inbox buffer doesn’t exist, run mh-rmail.
         ((or arg (null my-mh-screen-saved))
          (setq my-normal-screen (current-window-configuration))
          (if (or arg (null (get-buffer "+inbox")))
              (mh-rmail)
            (set-window-configuration my-mh-screen))
          t)                        ; set my-mh-screen-saved to t
         ;; Otherwise, save MH-E screen and restore normal screen.
         (t
          (setq my-mh-screen (current-window-configuration))
          (set-window-configuration my-normal-screen)
          nil))))                   ; set my-mh-screen-saved to nil

(global-set-key "\C-x\r" 'my-mh-rmail)  ; call with C-x RET

Starting MH-E

7 Organizing Your Mail with Folders

This chapter discusses the things you can do with folders within MH-E. The commands in this chapter are also found in the ‘Folder’ and ‘Message’ menus.

?

Display cheat sheet for the MH-E commands (mh-help).

!

Repeat last output command (mh-refile-or-write-again).

c

Copy range to folder (mh-copy-msg).

F ?

Display cheat sheet for the commands of the current prefix in minibuffer (mh-prefix-help).

F '

Display ticked messages (mh-index-ticked-messages).

F c

Delete range from the ‘unseen’ sequence (mh-catchup).

F k

Remove folder (mh-kill-folder).

F l

List all folders (mh-list-folders).

F n

Display unseen messages (mh-index-new-messages).

F p

Pack folder (mh-pack-folder).

F q

Display messages in any sequence (mh-index-sequenced-messages).

F r

Rescan folder (mh-rescan-folder).

F s

Search your MH mail (mh-search).

F S

Sort folder (mh-sort-folder).

F u

Undo all refiles and deletes in the current folder (mh-undo-folder).

F v

Visit folder (mh-visit-folder).

o

Refile (output) range into folder (mh-refile-msg).

q

Quit the current MH-E folder (mh-quit).

t

Toggle between MH-Folder and MH-Folder Show modes (mh-toggle-showing).

u

Undo pending deletes or refiles in range (mh-undo).

x

Process outstanding delete and refile requests (mh-execute-commands).

The ‘mh-folder’ customization group is used to tune these commands.

mh-new-messages-folders ¶

Folders searched for the ‘unseen’ sequence (default: Inbox).

mh-ticked-messages-folders ¶

Folders searched for mh-tick-seq (default: t).

mh-large-folder ¶

The number of messages that indicates a large folder (default: 200).

mh-recenter-summary-flag ¶

On means to recenter the summary window (default: ‘off’).

mh-recursive-folders-flag ¶

On means that commands which operate on folders do so recursively (default: ‘off’).

mh-sortm-args ¶

Additional arguments for sortm (default: nil).

The following hooks are available.

mh-after-commands-processed-hook ¶

Hook run by x after performing outstanding refile and delete requests (default: nil).

mh-before-commands-processed-hook ¶

Hook run by x before performing outstanding refile and delete requests (default: nil).

mh-before-quit-hook ¶

Hook run by q before quitting MH-E (default: nil).

mh-folder-mode-hook ¶

Hook run by mh-folder-mode when visiting a new folder (default: nil).

mh-kill-folder-suppress-prompt-functions ¶

Abnormal hook run at the beginning of mh-kill-folder (default: 'mh-search-p).

mh-pack-folder-hook ¶

Hook run by mh-pack-folder after renumbering the messages (default: nil).

mh-quit-hook ¶

Hook run by q after quitting MH-E (default: nil).

mh-refile-msg-hook ¶

Hook run by o after marking each message for refiling (default: nil).

The following faces are available for customizing the appearance of the MH-Folder buffer. See Scan Line Formats.

mh-folder-address ¶

Recipient face.

mh-folder-body ¶

Body text face.

mh-folder-cur-msg-number ¶

Current message number face.

mh-folder-date ¶

Date face.

mh-folder-deleted ¶

Deleted message face.

mh-folder-followup ¶

‘Re:’ face.

mh-folder-msg-number ¶

Message number face.

mh-folder-refiled ¶

Refiled message face.

mh-folder-sent-to-me-hint ¶

Fontification hint face in messages sent directly to us. The detection of messages sent to us is governed by the scan format mh-scan-format-nmh and regular expression mh-scan-sent-to-me-sender-regexp.

mh-folder-scan-format ¶

Sender face in messages sent directly to us. The detection of messages sent to us is governed by the scan format mh-scan-format-nmh and regular expression mh-scan-sent-to-me-sender-regexp.

mh-folder-subject ¶

Subject face.

mh-folder-tick ¶

Ticked message face.

mh-folder-to ¶

‘To:’ face.

The hook mh-folder-mode-hook is called when visiting a new folder in MH-Folder mode. This could be used to set your own key bindings, for example:

(defvar my-mh-init-done nil
  "Non-nil when one-time MH-E settings made.")

(defun my-mh-folder-mode-hook ()
  "Hook to set key bindings in MH-Folder mode."
  (if (not my-mh-init-done)             ; only need to bind the keys once 
      (progn
        (local-set-key "//" 'my-search-msg)
        (local-set-key "b" 'mh-burst-digest)    ; better use of b
        (setq my-mh-init-done t))))

(add-hook 'mh-folder-mode-hook 'my-mh-folder-mode-hook)

(defun my-search-msg ()
  "Search for a regexp in the current message."
  (interactive)                         ; user function
  (save-window-excursion
    (other-window 1)                    ; go to next window
    (isearch-forward-regexp)))          ; string search; hit return
                                        ;   when done

Create additional key bindings via mh-folder-mode-hook

MH-E has analogies for each of the MH folder and refile commands²⁶. To refile a message in another folder, use the command o (mh-refile-msg) (mnemonic: “output”). You are prompted for the folder name (see Folder Selection). Note that this command can also be used to create folders. If you specify a folder that does not exist, you will be prompted to create it. The hook mh-refile-msg-hook is called after a message is marked to be refiled.

If you are refiling several messages into the same folder, you can use the command ! (mh-refile-or-write-again) to repeat the last refile or write (for the description of > (mh-write-msg-to-file), see Files and Pipes). You can use a range in either case (for example, C-u o 1 3 5-7 last:5 frombob RET, see Ranges).

If you’ve deleted a message or refiled it, but changed your mind, you can cancel the action before you’ve executed it. Use u (mh-undo) to undo a refile on or deletion of a single message. You can also undo refiles and deletes for messages that are found in a given range (see Ranges).

Alternatively, you can use F u (mh-undo-folder) to undo all refiles and deletes in the current folder.

If you’ve marked messages to be deleted or refiled and you want to go ahead and delete or refile the messages, use x (mh-execute-commands). Many MH-E commands that may affect the numbering of the messages (such as F r or F p) will ask if you want to process refiles or deletes first and then either run x for you or undo the pending refiles and deletes.

The command x runs mh-before-commands-processed-hook before the commands are processed and mh-after-commands-processed-hook after the commands are processed. Variables that are useful with the former hook include mh-delete-list and mh-refile-list which can be used to see which changes will be made to the current folder, mh-current-folder. Variables that are useful with the latter hook include mh-folders-changed, which lists which folders were affected by deletes and refiles. This list will always include the current folder mh-current-folder.

If you wish to copy a message to another folder, you can use the command c (mh-copy-msg) (see the -link argument to refile(1)). Like the command o, this command prompts you for the name of the target folder and you can specify a range (see Ranges). Note that unlike the command o, the copy takes place immediately. The original copy remains in the current folder.

The command t (mh-toggle-showing) switches between MH-Folder mode and MH-Folder Show mode²⁷. MH-Folder mode turns off the associated show buffer so that you can perform operations on the messages quickly without reading them. This is an excellent way to prune out your junk mail or to refile a group of messages to another folder for later examination.

When you use t to toggle from MH-Folder Show mode to MH-Folder mode, the MH-Show buffer is hidden and the MH-Folder buffer is left alone. Setting mh-recenter-summary-flag to a non-nil value causes the toggle to display as many scan lines as possible, with the cursor at the middle. The effect of mh-recenter-summary-flag is rather useful, but it can be annoying on a slow network connection.

When you want to read the messages that you have refiled into folders, use the command F v (mh-visit-folder) to visit the folder. You are prompted for the folder name. The folder buffer will show just unseen messages if there are any; otherwise, it will show all the messages in the buffer as long there are fewer than mh-large-folder messages. If there are more, then you are prompted for a range of messages to scan. You can provide a prefix argument in order to specify a range of messages to show when you visit the folder (see Ranges). In this case, regions are not used to specify the range and mh-large-folder is ignored. Note that this command can also be used to create folders. If you specify a folder that does not exist, you will be prompted to create it.

If you forget where you’ve refiled your messages, you can find them using F s (mh-search). See Searching Through Messages.

If you use a program such as procmail to file your incoming mail automatically, you can display new, unseen, messages using the command F n (mh-index-new-messages). All messages in the ‘unseen’ sequence from the folders in mh-new-messages-folders are listed. However, this list of folders can be overridden with a prefix argument: with a prefix argument, enter a space-separated list of folders, or nothing to search all folders.

If you have ticked messages (see Using Sequences), you can display them using the command F ' (mh-index-ticked-messages). All messages in the ‘tick’ sequence from the folders in mh-ticked-messages-folders are listed. With a prefix argument, enter a space-separated list of folders, or nothing to search all folders.

You can display messages in any sequence with the command F q (mh-index-sequenced-messages). All messages from the folders in mh-new-messages-folders in the sequence you provide are listed. With a prefix argument, enter a space-separated list of folders at the prompt, or nothing to search all folders.

Set the options mh-new-messages-folders and mh-ticked-messages-folders to ‘Inbox’ to search the ‘+inbox’ folder or ‘All’ to search all of the top level folders. Otherwise, list the folders that should be searched with the ‘Choose Folders’ menu item. See mh-recursive-folders-flag.

Other commands you can perform on folders include: F l (mh-list-folders), to place a listing of all the folders in your mail directory in a buffer called *MH-E Folders* (see Miscellaneous Commands, Variables, and Buffers); F k (mh-kill-folder), to remove a folder; F S (mh-sort-folder), to sort the messages by date (see sortm(1) to see how to sort by other criteria); F p (mh-pack-folder), to pack a folder, removing gaps from the numbering sequence; and F r (mh-rescan-folder), to rescan the folder, which is useful to grab all messages in your ‘+inbox’ after processing your new mail for the first time. If you don’t want to rescan the entire folder, the commands F r or F p will accept a range (see Ranges).

The command F p runs mh-pack-folder-hook after renumbering the messages. A variable that is useful with this hook is mh-current-folder.

By default, operations on folders work only one level at a time. Set mh-recursive-folders-flag to non-nil to operate on all folders. This mostly means that you’ll be able to see all your folders when you press TAB when prompted for a folder name.

The hook mh-kill-folder-suppress-prompt-functions is an abnormal hook run at the beginning of the command k. The hook functions are called with no arguments and should return a non-nil value to suppress the normal prompt when you remove a folder. This is useful for folders that are easily regenerated. The default value of mh-search-p suppresses the prompt on folders generated by searching.

Use this hook with care. If there is a bug in your hook which returns t on ‘+inbox’ and you press k by accident in the +inbox folder, you will not be happy.

The option mh-sortm-args holds extra arguments to pass on to the command sortm²⁸ when a prefix argument is used with F S. Normally default arguments to sortm are specified in the MH profile. This option may be used to provide an alternate view. For example, ‘'(\"-nolimit\" \"-textfield\" \"subject\")’ is a useful setting.

When you want to quit using MH-E and go back to editing, you can use the q (mh-quit) command. This buries the buffers of the current MH-E folder and restores the buffers that were present when you first ran M-x mh-rmail. It also removes any MH-E working buffers whose name begins with ‘ *mh-’ or *MH-E (see Miscellaneous Commands, Variables, and Buffers). You can later restore your MH-E session by selecting the ‘+inbox’ buffer or by running M-x mh-rmail again.

The two hooks mh-before-quit-hook and mh-quit-hook are called by q. The former one is called before the quit occurs, so you might use it to perform any MH-E operations; you could perform some query and abort the quit or call mh-execute-commands, for example. The latter is not run in an MH-E context, so you might use it to modify the window setup. If you find that q buries a lot of buffers that you would rather remove, you can use both mh-before-quit-hook and mh-quit-hook to accomplish that.

(defvar my-mh-folder-buffer-to-delete nil
  "Folder buffer that is being quit.")

(defun my-mh-before-quit-hook ()
  "Save folder buffer that is to be deleted."
  (setq my-mh-folder-buffer-to-delete (current-buffer)))

(defun my-mh-quit-hook ()
  "Kill folder buffer rather than just bury it."
  (set-buffer my-mh-folder-buffer-to-delete)
  (if (get-buffer mh-show-buffer)
      (kill-buffer mh-show-buffer))
  (kill-buffer (current-buffer)))

Kill MH-Folder buffer instead of burying it

You can use dired to manipulate the folders themselves. For example, I renamed my ‘+out’ folder to the more common ‘+outbox’ by running dired on my mail directory (M-x dired RET ~/Mail RET), moving my cursor to ‘out’ and using the command R (dired-do-rename).

8 Sending Mail

You can send a mail message in several ways. You can call M-x mh-smail directly, or from the command line like this:

$ emacs -f mh-smail

There are some commands that need to send a mail message, such as goto-address-at-point. You can configure Emacs to have these commands use MH-E by setting the option mail-user-agent to ‘Emacs interface to MH’.

From within MH-E’s MH-Folder mode, other methods of sending mail are available as well. These can also be found in the ‘Message’ menu.

e

Edit a message to send it again (mh-edit-again).

E

Edit a message that was returned by the mail system (mh-extract-rejected-mail).

f

Forward message (mh-forward).

r

Reply to a message (mh-reply).

s

Compose a message (mh-send).

M-d

Redistribute a message (mh-redistribute).

M-x mh-smail

Compose a message with the MH mail system.

M-x mh-smail-other-window

Compose a message with the MH mail system in other window.

In addition, several options from the ‘mh-sending-mail’ customization group are useful when sending mail or replying to mail. They are summarized in the following table.

mh-compose-forward-as-mime-flag ¶

On means that messages are forwarded as attachments (default: ‘on’).

mh-compose-letter-function ¶

Hook run when starting a new draft (default: nil).

mh-compose-prompt-flag ¶

On means prompt for header fields when composing a new draft (default: ‘off’).

mh-forward-subject-format ¶

Format string for forwarded message subject (default: "%s: %s").

mh-insert-x-mailer-flag ¶

On means append an ‘X-Mailer:’ header field to the header (default: ‘on’).

mh-redist-full-contents-flag ¶

On means the dist command needs entire letter for redistribution (default: ‘off’).

mh-reply-default-reply-to ¶

Sets the person or persons to whom a reply will be sent (default: ‘Prompt’).

mh-reply-show-message-flag ¶

On means the MH-Show buffer is displayed using r (mh-reply) (default: ‘on’).

The following hooks are available.

mh-annotate-msg-hook ¶

Hook run by mh-annotate-msg after annotation (default: nil).

mh-forward-hook ¶

Hook run by mh-forward on a forwarded letter (default: nil).

mh-letter-mode-hook ¶

Hook run by mh-letter-mode on a new letter (default: nil).

A hook that is called whenever a message is sent and after the scan lines and message are annotated is mh-annotate-msg-hook. Hook functions can access the current folder name with mh-current-folder and obtain the message numbers of the annotated messages with mh-annotate-list.

The rest of the functions and options introduced here are explained in more detail in the following sections.

• Composing
• Replying to Mail
• Forwarding Mail
• Redistributing Your Mail
• Editing Old Drafts and Bounced Messages

(global-set-key "\C-xm" 'mh-smail)
(global-set-key "\C-x4m" 'mh-smail-other-window)

(defvar letter-mode-init-done-flag nil
  "Non-nil means one-time MH-E settings have been made.")

(defun my-mh-letter-mode-hook ()
  "Prepare letter for editing."
  (when (not letter-mode-init-done)     ; only need to bind the keys once
    (local-set-key "\C-ctb" 'add-enriched-text)
    (local-set-key "\C-cti" 'add-enriched-text)
    (local-set-key "\C-ctf" 'add-enriched-text)
    (local-set-key "\C-cts" 'add-enriched-text)
    (local-set-key "\C-ctB" 'add-enriched-text)
    (local-set-key "\C-ctu" 'add-enriched-text)
    (local-set-key "\C-ctc" 'add-enriched-text)
    (setq letter-mode-init-done t))
  (save-excursion
    (goto-char (point-max))             ; go to end of message to
    (mh-insert-signature)))             ;   insert signature

Prepare draft for editing via mh-letter-mode-hook

To: Bill Wohler <wohler@stop.mail-abuse.org>
Subject: Re: 49er football
From: Greg DesBrisay <gd@stop.mail-abuse.org>

Subject: Greg DesBrisay: Re: 49er football

9 Editing a Draft

When you edit a message that you want to send (called a draft in this case), the mode used is MH-Letter. This mode provides several commands in addition to the normal Emacs editing commands to help you edit your draft. These can also be found in the ‘Letter’ menu.

SPC

Perform completion or insert space (mh-letter-complete-or-space).

M-TAB

Perform completion on header field or word preceding point (mh-letter-complete).

, (comma)

Flash alias expansion (mh-letter-confirm-address).

TAB

Cycle to next field (mh-letter-next-header-field-or-indent).

S-TAB

Cycle to the previous header field (mh-letter-previous-header-field).

C-c ?

Display cheat sheet for the MH-E commands (mh-help).

C-c C-c

Save draft and send message (mh-send-letter).

C-c C-d

Insert fields specified by the given identity (mh-insert-identity). See Identities.

C-c C-e

Compose MIME message from MH-style directives (mh-mh-to-mime).

C-c C-f C-a

C-c C-f a

Move to ‘Mail-Reply-To:’ header field (mh-to-field).

C-c C-f C-b

C-c C-f b

Move to ‘Bcc:’ header field (mh-to-field).

C-c C-f C-c

C-c C-f c

Move to ‘Cc:’ header field (mh-to-field).

C-c C-f C-d

C-c C-f d

Move to ‘Dcc:’ header field (mh-to-field).

C-c C-f C-f

C-c C-f f

Move to ‘Fcc:’ header field (mh-to-fcc).

C-c C-f C-l

C-c C-f l

Move to ‘Mail-Followup-To:’ header field (mh-to-field).

C-c C-f C-m

C-c C-f m

Move to ‘From:’ header field (mh-to-field).

C-c C-f C-r

C-c C-f r

Move to ‘Reply-To:’ header field (mh-to-field).

C-c C-f C-s

C-c C-f s

Move to ‘Subject:’ header field (mh-to-field).

C-c C-f C-t

C-c C-f t

Move to ‘To:’ header field (mh-to-field).

C-c C-i

Insert a message (mh-insert-letter).

C-c C-m C-e

Add tag to encrypt the message (mh-mml-secure-message-encrypt).

C-c C-m C-f

C-c C-m f

Add tag to forward a message (mh-compose-forward).

C-c C-m C-g

C-c C-m g

Add tag to include anonymous ftp reference to a file (mh-mh-compose-anon-ftp).

C-c C-m C-i

C-c C-m i

Add tag to include a file such as an image or sound (mh-compose-insertion).

C-c C-m C-m

C-c C-m m

Compose MIME message from MML tags (mh-mml-to-mime).

C-c C-m C-n

C-c C-m n

Remove any secure message tags (mh-mml-unsecure-message).

C-c C-m C-s

Add tag to sign the message (mh-mml-secure-message-sign).

C-c C-m C-t

C-c C-m t

Add tag to include anonymous ftp reference to a compressed tar file (mh-mh-compose-external-compressed-tar).

C-c C-m C-u

C-c C-m u

Undo effects of C-c C-e (mh-mh-to-mime-undo).

C-c C-m C-x

C-c C-m x

Add tag to refer to a remote file (mh-mh-compose-external-type).

C-c C-m e e

Add tag to encrypt the message (mh-mml-secure-message-encrypt).

C-c C-m e s

Add tag to encrypt and sign the message
(mh-mml-secure-message-signencrypt).

C-c C-m s e

Add tag to encrypt and sign the message
(mh-mml-secure-message-signencrypt).

C-c C-m s s

Add tag to sign the message (mh-mml-secure-message-sign).

C-c C-o

Insert a newline and leave point before it (mh-open-line).

C-c C-q

Quit editing and delete draft message (mh-fully-kill-draft).

C-c C-s

Insert signature in message (mh-insert-signature).

C-c C-t

Toggle display of header field at point (mh-letter-toggle-header-field-display).

C-c C-w

Verify recipients, showing expansion of any aliases (mh-check-whom).

C-c C-y

Insert the current message into the draft buffer (mh-yank-cur-msg).

C-c M-d

Insert custom fields if recipient is found in mh-auto-fields-list (mh-insert-auto-fields). See Identities.

Several options from the ‘mh-letter’ customization group are used while editing a draft.

mh-compose-insertion ¶

Type of MIME message tags in messages (default: ‘MML’ if available; otherwise ‘MH’).

mh-compose-skipped-header-fields ¶

List of header fields to skip over when navigating in draft (default: '("From" "Organization" "References" "In-Reply-To" "X-Face" "Face" "X-Image-URL" "X-Mailer").

mh-compose-space-does-completion-flag ¶

On means SPC does completion in message header (default: ‘off’).

mh-delete-yanked-msg-window-flag ¶

On means delete any window displaying the message (default: ‘off’).

mh-extract-from-attribution-verb ¶

Verb to use for attribution when a message is yanked by C-c C-y (default: "wrote:").

mh-ins-buf-prefix ¶

String to put before each line of a yanked or inserted message (default: "> ").

mh-letter-complete-function ¶

Function to call when completing outside of address or folder fields (default: ispell-complete-word).

mh-letter-fill-column ¶

Fill column to use in MH-Letter mode (default: 72).

mh-mml-method-default ¶

Default method to use in security tags (default: ‘PGP (MIME)’ if support for it is available; otherwise ‘None’).

mh-signature-file-name ¶

Source of user’s signature (default: "~/.signature").

mh-signature-separator-flag ¶

On means a signature separator should be inserted (default: ‘on’).

mh-x-face-file ¶

File containing X-Face or Face header field to insert in outgoing mail. (default: "~/.face").

mh-yank-behavior ¶

Controls which part of a message is yanked by C-c C-y (default: ‘Body With Attribution’).

The following hooks are available.

mail-citation-hook ¶

Hook for modifying a citation just inserted in the mail buffer (default: nil).

mh-before-send-letter-hook ¶

Hook run at the beginning of the C-c C-c command (default: ‘nil’).

mh-mh-to-mime-hook ¶

Hook run on the formatted letter by C-c C-e (default: ‘nil’).

mh-insert-signature-hook ¶

Hook run by C-c C-s after signature has been inserted (default: nil).

The following face is available.

mh-letter-header-field ¶

Editable header field value face in draft buffers.

The commands and options introduced here are explained in more detail in the following sections.

• Editing the Message
• Inserting Letter to Which You’re Replying
• Inserting Messages
• Inserting Your Signature
• Inserting Your Picture
• Adding Attachments
• Signing and Encrypting Messages
• Checking Recipients
• Sending a Message
• Killing the Draft

> Hopefully this gives you an idea of what I'm currently doing. I'm \
not sure yet whether I'm completely satisfied with my setup, but    \
it's worked okay for me so far.

> Hopefully this gives you an idea of what I'm currently doing. I'm not
> sure yet whether I'm completely satisfied with my setup, but it's
> worked okay for me so far.

> Hopefully this gives you an idea of what I'm currently doing.

>                                                               I'm not
> sure yet whether I'm completely satisfied with my setup, but it's
> worked okay for me so far.

Michael W Thelen <thelenm@stop.mail-abuse.org> wrote:

> Hopefully this gives you an idea of what I'm currently doing. I'm not
> sure yet whether I'm completely satisfied with my setup, but it's
> worked okay for me so far.

(defvar enriched-text-types '(("b" . "bold") ("i" . "italic")
                              ("u" . "underline")
                              ("s" . "smaller") ("B" . "bigger")
                              ("f" . "fixed")
                              ("c" . "center"))
  "Alist of (final-character . tag) choices for add-enriched-text.
Additional types can be found in RFC 1563.")

(defun add-enriched-text (begin end)
  "Add enriched text tags around region.
The tag used comes from the list enriched-text-types and is
specified by the last keystroke of the command.  When called from Lisp,
arguments are BEGIN and END."
  (interactive "r")
  ;; Set type to the tag indicated by the last keystroke.
  (let ((type (cdr (assoc (char-to-string (logior last-input-char ?`))
                          enriched-text-types))))
    (save-restriction               ; restores state from narrow-to-region
      (narrow-to-region begin end)      ; narrow view to region
      (goto-char (point-min))           ; move to beginning of text
      (insert "<" type ">")             ; insert beginning tag
      (goto-char (point-max))           ; move to end of text
      (insert "</" type ">"))))         ; insert terminating tag
Emacs function for entering enriched text

3 t08/24  root               received fax files on Wed Aug 24 11:00:
4+t08/24  To:wohler          Test<<This is a test message to get the





--:%%  {+inbox} 4 msgs (1-4)   Bot L4     (MH-Folder Show)---------------
To: wohler
cc:
Subject: Test of MIME
--------
Here is the SETI@Home logo:

<#part type="image/x-xpm" filename="~/lib/images/setiathome.xpm"
disposition=inline description="SETI@home logo">
<#/part>
--:**  {draft}   All L8     (MH-Letter)----------------------------------

To: wohler
cc:
Subject: Test of MIME
X-Mailer: MH-E 8.1; nmh 1.1; GNU Emacs 23.1
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="=-=-="
--------
--=-=-=

Here is the SETI@Home logo:


--=-=-=
Content-Type: image/x-xpm
Content-Disposition: inline; filename=setiathome.xpm
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Description: SETI@home logo

LyogWFBNICovCnN0YXRpYyBjaGFyICogc2V0aWF0aG9tZV94cG1bXSA9IHsKIjQ1IDQ1IDc2N
--:--  {draft}   Top L1     (MH-Letter)----------------------------------

<#secure method=pgpmime mode=sign>

<#secure method=pgpmime mode=encrypt>

<#secure method=pgpmime mode=signencrypt>

10 Aliases

MH aliases are used in the same way in MH-E as they are in MH. Any alias listed as a recipient will be expanded when the message is sent. This chapter discusses other things you can do with aliases in MH-E.

The following commands are available in MH-Letter mode with the exception of mh-alias-reload which can be called from anywhere.

SPC

Perform completion or insert space (mh-letter-complete-or-space).

M-TAB

Perform completion on header field or word preceding point (mh-letter-complete).

mh-alias-apropos

Show all aliases or addresses that match a regular expression.

mh-alias-grab-from-field

Add alias for the sender of the current message

mh-alias-reload

Reload MH aliases.

The ‘mh-alias’ customization group contains options associated with aliases.

mh-alias-completion-ignore-case-flag ¶

On means don’t consider case significant in MH alias completion (default: ‘on’).

mh-alias-expand-aliases-flag ¶

On means to expand aliases entered in the minibuffer (default: ‘off’).

mh-alias-flash-on-comma ¶

Specify whether to flash address or warn on translation (default: ‘Flash but Don't Warn If No Alias’).

mh-alias-insert-file ¶

Filename used to store a new MH-E alias (default: ‘Use Aliasfile Profile Component’).

mh-alias-insertion-location ¶

Specifies where new aliases are entered in alias files (default: ‘Alphabetical’).

mh-alias-local-users ¶

If ‘on’, local users are added to alias completion (default: ‘on’).

mh-alias-local-users-prefix ¶

String prefixed to the real names of users from the password file (default: "local.".

mh-alias-passwd-gecos-comma-separator-flag ¶

On means the GECOS field in the password file uses a comma separator (default: ‘on’).

The following hook is available.

mh-alias-reloaded-hook ¶

Hook run by mh-alias-reload after loading aliases (default: nil).

Adding Addresses to Draft

You can use aliases when you are adding recipients to a message.

In order to use minibuffer prompting for recipients and the subject line in the minibuffer, turn on the option mh-compose-prompt-flag (see Composing), and use the TAB (minibuffer-complete) command to complete aliases (and optionally local logins) when prompted for the recipients. Turn on the option mh-alias-expand-aliases-flag if you want these aliases to be expanded to their respective addresses in the draft.

Otherwise, you can complete aliases in the header of the draft with M-TAB (mh-letter-complete) or SPC (mh-letter-complete-or-space).

As MH ignores case in the aliases, so too does MH-E. However, you may turn off the option mh-alias-completion-ignore-case-flag to make case significant which can be used to segregate completion of your aliases. You might use uppercase for mailing lists and lowercase for people. For example, you might have:

mark.baushke: Mark Baushke <mdb@stop.mail-abuse.org>
MH-E: MH-E Mailing List <mh-e-devel@stop.mail-abuse.org>

When this option is turned off, if you were to type M in the ‘To:’ field and then M-TAB, then you’d get the list; if you started with m and then entered M-TAB, then you’d get Mark’s address. Note that this option affects completion only. If you were to enter Mark.Baushke, it would still be identified with your ‘mark.baushke’ alias.

To verify that the alias you’ve entered is valid, the alias will be displayed in the minibuffer when you type a comma (mh-letter-confirm-address or mh-alias-minibuffer-confirm-address if the option mh-compose-prompt-flag is turned on). See Composing. This behavior can be controlled with the option mh-alias-flash-on-comma which provides three choices: ‘Flash but Don't Warn If No Alias’, ‘Flash and Warn If No Alias’, and ‘Don't Flash Nor Warn If No Alias’.

For another way to verify the alias expansion, see Checking Recipients.

Loading Aliases

MH-E loads aliases for completion and folder name hints from various places. It uses the MH command ali⁴⁵ to read aliases from the files listed in the profile component ‘Aliasfile:’ as well as system-wide aliases (for example, /etc/nmh/MailAliases).

In addition, aliases are created from /etc/passwd entries with a user ID larger than a magical number, typically 200. This can be a handy tool on a machine where you and co-workers exchange messages. These aliases have the form ‘local.first.last’ if a real name is present in the password file. Otherwise, the alias will have the form ‘local.login’.

The prefix ‘local.’ can be modified via the option mh-alias-local-users-prefix. This option can also be set to ‘Use Login’.

For example, consider the following password file entry:

psg:x:1000:1000:Peter S Galbraith,,,:/home/psg:/bin/tcsh

The following settings of option mh-alias-local-users-prefix will produce the associated aliases:

"local."

local.peter.galbraith

""

peter.galbraith

Use Login

psg

In the example above, commas are used to separate different values within the so-called GECOS field. This is a fairly common usage. However, in the rare case that the GECOS field in your password file is not separated by commas and whose contents may contain commas, you can turn the option mh-alias-passwd-gecos-comma-separator-flag off.

If you’re on a system with thousands of users you don’t know, and the loading of local aliases slows MH-E down noticeably, then the local alias feature can be disabled by turning off the option mh-alias-local-users. This option also takes a string which is executed to generate the password file. For example, use ‘ypcat passwd’ to obtain the NIS password file.

Since aliases are updated frequently, MH-E reloads aliases automatically whenever an alias lookup occurs if an alias source has changed. However, you can reload your aliases manually by calling the command M-x mh-alias-reload directly. This command runs mh-alias-reloaded-hook after the aliases have been loaded.

Adding Aliases

In the past, you have manually added aliases to your alias file(s) listed in your ‘Aliasfile:’ profile component. MH-E provides other methods for maintaining your alias file(s).

You can use the M-x mh-alias-add-alias command which will prompt you for the alias and address that you would like to add. If the alias exists already, you will have the choice of inserting the new alias before or after the old alias. In the former case, this alias will be used when sending mail to this alias. In the latter case, the alias serves as an additional folder name hint when filing messages (see Folder Selection).

Earlier, the alias prefix ‘local’ was presented. You can use other prefixes to organize your aliases or disambiguate entries. You might use prefixes for locales, jobs, or activities. For example, I have:

; Work
attensity.don.mitchell: Don Mitchell <dmitchell@stop.mail-abuse.com>
isharp.don.mitchell: Don Mitchell <donaldsmitchell@stop.mail-abuse.com>
...
; Sport
diving.ken.mayer: Ken Mayer <kmayer@stop.mail-abuse.com>
sailing.mike.maloney: Mike Maloney <mmaloney@stop.mail-abuse.com>
...
; Personal
ariane.kolkmann: Ariane Kolkmann <ArianeKolkmann@stop.mail-abuse.com>
...

Using prefixes instead of postfixes helps you explore aliases during completion. If you forget the name of an old dive buddy, you can enter ‘div’ and then SPC to get a listing of all your dive buddies.

An alias for the sender of the current message is added automatically by clicking on the ‘Grab From alias’ tool bar button or by running the M-x mh-alias-grab-from-field command. Aliases for other recipients of the current message are added by placing your cursor over the desired recipient and giving the M-x mh-alias-add-address-under-point command.

The options mh-alias-insert-file and mh-alias-insertion-location controls how and where these aliases are inserted.

The default setting of option mh-alias-insert-file is ‘Use Aliasfile Profile Component’. This option can also hold the name of a file or a list a file names. If this option is set to a list of file names, or the ‘Aliasfile:’ profile component contains more than one file name, MH-E will prompt for one of them.

The option mh-alias-insertion-location is set to ‘Alphabetical’ by default. If you organize your alias file in other ways, then the settings ‘Top’ and ‘Bottom’ might be more appropriate.

Querying Aliases

If you can’t quite remember an alias, you can use M-x mh-alias-apropos to show all aliases or addresses that match a regular expression (see the section Syntax of Regular Expressions in The GNU Emacs Manual).

11 Identities

MH-E supports the concept of multiple personalities or identities. This means that you can easily have a different header and signature at home and at work.

A couple of commands are used to insert identities in MH-Letter mode which are also found in the ‘Identity’ menu.

C-c C-d

Insert fields specified by given identity (mh-insert-identity).

C-c M-d

Insert custom fields if recipient found in mh-auto-fields-list (mh-insert-auto-fields).

The ‘mh-identity’ customization group contains the following options.

mh-auto-fields-list ¶

List of recipients for which header lines are automatically inserted (default: nil).

mh-auto-fields-prompt-flag ¶

On means to prompt before sending if fields inserted (default: ‘on’)

mh-identity-default ¶

Default identity to use when mh-letter-mode is called (default: ‘None’).

mh-identity-handlers ¶

Handler functions for fields in mh-identity-list.

mh-identity-list ¶

List of identities (default: nil).

Some of the common header fields that people change depending on the context are the ‘From:’ and ‘Organization:’ fields, as well as the signature.

This is done by customizing the option mh-identity-list. In the customization buffer for this option, click on the ‘INS’ button and enter a label such as ‘Home’ or ‘Work’. Then click on the ‘INS’ button with the label ‘Add at least one item below’. The ‘Value Menu’ has the following menu items:

‘From Field’

Specify an alternate ‘From:’ header field. You must include a valid email address. A standard format is ‘First Last <login@host.domain>’. If you use an initial with a period, then you must quote your name as in ‘"First I. Last" <login@host.domain>’.

‘Organization Field’

People usually list the name of the company where they work here.

‘Other Field’

Set any arbitrary header field and value here. Unless the header field is a standard one, precede the name of your field’s label with ‘X-’, as in ‘X-Fruit-of-the-Day:’.

‘Attribution Verb’

This value overrides the setting of mh-extract-from-attribution-verb. See Inserting Letter to Which You’re Replying.

‘Signature’

Set your signature with this item. You can specify the contents of mh-signature-file-name, a file, or a function. See Inserting Your Signature.

‘GPG Key ID’

Specify a different key to sign or encrypt messages.

You can select the identities you have added via the menu called ‘Identity’ in the MH-Letter buffer. You can also use C-c C-d (mh-insert-identity). To clear the fields and signature added by the identity, select the ‘None’ identity.

The ‘Identity’ menu contains two other items to save you from having to set the identity on every message. The menu item ‘Set Default for Session’ can be used to set the default identity to the current identity until you exit Emacs. The menu item ‘Save as Default’ sets the option mh-identity-default to the current identity setting. You can also customize the option mh-identity-default in the usual fashion. If you find that you need to add another identity, the menu item ‘Customize Identities’ is available for your convenience.

The option mh-auto-fields-list can also be used to set the identity depending on the recipient to provide even more control. To customize mh-auto-fields-list, click on the ‘INS’ button and enter a regular expression for the recipient’s address (see the section Syntax of Regular Expressions in The GNU Emacs Manual). Click on the ‘INS’ button with the ‘Add at least one item below’ label. The ‘Value Menu’ contains the following menu items:

‘Identity’

Select an identity from those configured in mh-identity-list. All of the information for that identity will be added if the recipient matches.

‘Fcc Field’

Insert an ‘Fcc:’ header field with the folder you provide. When you send the message, MH will put a copy of your message in this folder.

‘Mail-Followup-To Field’

Insert an ‘Mail-Followup-To:’ header field with the recipients you provide. If the recipient’s mail user agent supports this header field⁴⁶, then their replies will go to the addresses listed. This is useful if their replies go both to the list and to you and you don’t have a mechanism to suppress duplicates. If you reply to someone not on the list, you must either remove the ‘Mail-Followup-To:’ field, or ensure the recipient is also listed there so that he receives replies to your reply.

‘Other Field’

Other header fields may be added using this menu item.

These fields can only be added after the recipient is known. Because you can continue to add recipients as you edit the draft, MH-E waits until the message is sent to perform the auto-insertions. This seems strange at first, but you’ll get used to it. There are two ways to help you feel that the desired fields are added. The first is the action when the message is sent: if any fields are added automatically, you are given a chance to see and to confirm these fields before the message is actually sent. You can do away with this confirmation by turning off the option mh-auto-fields-prompt-flag. The second method is manual: once the header contains one or more recipients, you may run the command C-c M-d (mh-insert-auto-fields) or choose the ‘Identity -> Insert Auto Fields’ menu item to insert these fields manually. However, if you use this command, the automatic insertion when the message is sent is disabled.

You should avoid using the same header field in mh-auto-fields-list and mh-identity-list definitions that may apply to the same message as the result is undefined.

The option mh-identity-handlers is used to change the way that fields, signatures, and attributions in mh-identity-list are added. To customize mh-identity-handlers, replace the name of an existing handler function associated with the field you want to change with the name of a function you have written. You can also click on an ‘INS’ button and insert a field of your choice and the name of the function you have written to handle it.

The ‘Field’ field can be any field that you’ve used in your mh-identity-list. The special fields ‘:attribution-verb’, ‘:signature’, or ‘:pgg-default-user-id’ are used for the mh-identity-list choices ‘Attribution Verb’, ‘Signature’, and ‘GPG Key ID’ respectively.

The handler associated with the ‘:default’ field is used when no other field matches.

The handler functions are passed two or three arguments: the field itself (for example, ‘From’), or one of the special fields (for example, ‘:signature’), and the action ‘'remove’ or ‘'add’. If the action is ‘'add’, an additional argument containing the value for the field is given.

12 The Speedbar

You can also use the speedbar (see the section Speedbar Frames in The GNU Emacs Manual) to view your folders. To bring up the speedbar, run M-x speedbar RET. You will see a new frame appear with all of your MH folders. Folders with unseen messages appear in boldface. Click on a folder name with mouse-2 to visit that folder in a similar fashion to the command F v (mh-visit-folder) (see Organizing Your Mail with Folders). Click on the ‘+’ icon to expand and view the sub-folders of that folder.

The speedbar can be manipulated with the keyboard as well. Use the Emacs navigational keys (like the arrow keys, or C-n) to move the cursor over the desired folder and then use the shortcuts for the menu items listed in the table below.

‘Visit Folder’ (RET)

Visits the selected folder just as if you had used F v (mh-speed-view).

‘Expand Nested Folders’ (+)

Expands the selected folder in the speedbar, exposing the children folders inside it (mh-speed-expand-folder).

‘Contract Nested Folders’ (-)

Contracts or collapses the selected folder in the speedbar, hiding the children folders inside it (mh-speed-contract-folder).

‘Refresh Speedbar’ (r)

Regenerates the list of folders in the speedbar. Run this command if you’ve added or deleted a folder, or want to update the unseen message count before the next automatic update (mh-speed-refresh).

You can click on mouse-3 to bring up a context menu that contains these items. Dismiss the speedbar with C-x 5 0 (delete-frame).

The MH-E speedbar uses the MH command flists⁴⁷ to generate the list of folders. The ‘mh-speedbar’ customization group contains the following option which controls how often the speedbar calls flists.

mh-speed-update-interval ¶

Time between speedbar updates in seconds (default: 60). Set to 0 to disable automatic update.

You can modify the appearance of the folders in the speedbar by customizing the following faces.

mh-speedbar-folder ¶

Basic folder face.

mh-speedbar-folder-with-unseen-messages ¶

Folder face when folder contains unread messages.

mh-speedbar-selected-folder ¶

Selected folder face.

mh-speedbar-selected-folder-with-unseen-messages ¶

Selected folder face when folder contains unread messages.

13 The Menu Bar

For those of you who prefer to mouse and menu instead of using the meta-coke-bottle-bucky keys, MH-E provides menu items for most of its functions. The MH-Folder buffer adds the ‘Folder’, ‘Message’, and ‘Sequence’ menus. The MH-Letter buffer adds the ‘Identity’ and ‘Letter’ menus. The MH-Search buffer adds the ‘Search’ menu. There’s no need to list the actual items here, as you can more easily see them for yourself, and the functions are already described elsewhere in this manual.

For a description of the menu bar, please see the section The Menu Bar in The GNU Emacs Manual.

The Emacs manual describes how to get help for a particular menu item. You can also look up a menu item in the index of this manual in two ways: all of the menu items are listed alphabetically, and you can also browse all of the items under the index entry ‘menu item’.

14 The Tool Bar

Emacs also provides a graphical tool bar. For a description of the tool bar, please see the section Tool Bars in The GNU Emacs Manual.

MH-E adds several icons to this tool bar; you can modify the MH-E aspects of the tool bar via the ‘mh-tool-bar’ customization group.

mh-tool-bar-folder-buttons ¶

List of buttons to include in MH-Folder tool bar (default: a checklist too long to list here).

mh-tool-bar-letter-buttons ¶

List of buttons to include in MH-Letter tool bar (default: a checklist too long to list here).

mh-tool-bar-search-function ¶

Function called by the tool bar search button (default: mh-search).

Icons for some of MH-E’s functions are added to the tool bar.

In either case, you can select which of these functions you’d like to see by customizing the options mh-tool-bar-folder-buttons and mh-tool-bar-letter-buttons. As you probably guessed, the former customizes the tool bar in MH-Folder mode and the latter in MH-Letter mode. Both of these options present you with a list of functions; check the functions whose icons you want to see and clear the check boxes for those you don’t.

The function associated with the searching icon can be set via the option mh-tool-bar-search-function. By default, this is set to mh-search. See Searching Through Messages. You can also choose ‘Other Function’ from the ‘Value Menu’ and enter a function of your own choosing.

15 Searching Through Messages

Earlier, the command F s (mh-search) was introduced which helps you find messages that lie buried in your folders (see Organizing Your Mail with Folders). This chapter covers this command in more detail. Several commands are used to compose the search criteria and to start searching. A couple of them can be found in the ‘Search’ menu.

C-c ?

Display cheat sheet for the MH-E commands (mh-help).

C-c C-c

Find messages using mh-search-program (mh-index-do-search).

C-c C-p

Find messages using pick (mh-pick-do-search).

C-c ?

Display cheat sheet for the MH-E commands (mh-help).

C-c C-f a

C-c C-f C-a

Move to ‘Mail-Reply-To:’ header field (mh-to-field).

C-c C-f b

C-c C-f C-b

Move to ‘Bcc:’ header field (mh-to-field).

C-c C-f c

C-c C-f C-c

Move to ‘Cc:’ header field (mh-to-field).

C-c C-f d

C-c C-f C-d

Move to ‘Dcc:’ header field (mh-to-field).

C-c C-f f

C-c C-f C-f

Move to ‘Fcc:’ header field (mh-to-field).

C-c C-f l

C-c C-f C-l

Move to ‘Mail-Followup-To:’ header field (mh-to-field).

C-c C-f m

C-c C-f C-m

Move to ‘From:’ header field (mh-to-field).

C-c C-f r

C-c C-f C-r

Move to ‘Reply-To:’ header field (mh-to-field).

C-c C-f s

C-c C-f C-s

Move to ‘Subject:’ header field (mh-to-field).

C-c C-f t

C-c C-f C-t

Move to ‘To:’ header field (mh-to-field).

Another few commands are available in the MH-Folder buffer resulting from a search.

TAB

Jump to the next folder marker (mh-index-next-folder).

S-TAB

Jump to the previous folder marker (mh-index-previous-folder).

v

Visit original folder from where the message at point was found (mh-index-visit-folder).

There is one option from the ‘mh-search’ customization group used in searching.

mh-search-program ¶

Search program that MH-E shall use (default: ‘Auto-detect’).

The following hook is available.

mh-search-mode-hook ¶

Hook run upon entry to mh-search-mode (default: nil).

The following face is available.

mh-search-folder ¶

Folder heading face in MH-Folder buffers created by searches.

The command F s (mh-search-folder) helps you find messages in your entire corpus of mail. You can search for messages to or from a particular person or about a particular subject. In fact, you can also search for messages containing selected strings in any arbitrary header field or any string found within the messages.

Out of the box, MH-E uses pick to find messages. With a little extra effort, you can set an indexing program which rewards you with extremely quick results. The drawback is that sometimes the index does not contain the words you’re looking for. You can still use pick in these situations.

You are prompted for the folder to search. This can be ‘all’ to search all folders. Note that the search works recursively on the listed folder.

Next, an MH-Search buffer appears where you can enter search criteria.

From:
To:
Cc:
Date:
Subject:
--------
#








--:**  search-pattern   All L7     (MH-Search)---------------------------
Type C-c C-c to search messages, C-c C-p to use pick, C-c ? for help

Search window

Edit this template by entering your search criteria in an appropriate header field that is already there, or create a new field yourself. If the string you’re looking for could be anywhere in a message, then place the string underneath the row of dashes.

As an example, let’s say that we want to find messages from Ginnean about horseback riding in the Kosciusko National Park (Australia) during January, 1994. Normally we would start with a broad search and narrow it down if necessary to produce a manageable amount of data, but we’ll cut to the chase and create a fairly restrictive set of criteria as follows:

From: ginnean
To:
Cc:
Date: Jan 1994
Subject:
--------
horse
kosciusko

As with MH-Letter mode, MH-Search provides commands like C-c C-f C-t (mh-to-field) to help you fill in the blanks. See Editing the Message.

If you find that you do the same thing over and over when editing the search template, you may wish to bind some shortcuts to keys. This can be done with the variable mh-search-mode-hook, which is called when F s is run on a new pattern.

To perform the search, type C-c C-c (mh-index-do-search). Sometimes you’re searching for text that is either not indexed, or hasn’t been indexed yet. In this case you can override the default method with the pick method by running the command C-c C-p (mh-pick-do-search).

The messages that are found are put in a temporary sub-folder of ‘+mhe-index’ and are displayed in an MH-Folder buffer. This buffer is special because it displays messages from multiple folders; each set of messages from a given folder has a heading with the folder name. The appearance of the heading can be modified by customizing the face mh-search-folder. You can jump back and forth between the headings using the commands TAB (mh-index-next-folder) and S-TAB (mh-index-previous-folder).

In addition, the command v (mh-index-visit-folder) can be used to visit the folder of the message at point. Initially, only the messages that matched the search criteria are displayed in the folder. While the temporary buffer has its own set of message numbers, the actual messages numbers are shown in the visited folder. Thus, the command v is useful to find the actual message number of an interesting message, or to view surrounding messages with the command F r mh-rescan-folder. See Organizing Your Mail with Folders.

Because this folder is temporary, you’ll probably get in the habit of killing it when you’re done with F k (mh-kill-folder). See Organizing Your Mail with Folders.

You can regenerate the results by running F s with a prefix argument.

Note: This command uses an ‘X-MHE-Checksum:’ header field to cache the MD5 checksum of a message. This means that if an incoming message already contains an ‘X-MHE-Checksum:’ field, that message might not be found by this command. The following procmail recipe avoids this problem by renaming the existing header field:

:0 wf
| formail -R "X-MHE-Checksum" "X-Old-MHE-Checksum"

See Limiting Display, for an alternative interface to searching.

• Configuring Indexed Searches

IncludeMeta         Bcc Cc Comments Content-Description From Keywords
IncludeMeta         Newsgroups Resent-To Subject To
IncludeMeta         Message-Id References In-Reply-To
IncludeFile         Mail    *
IndexFile           /home/user/Mail/.swish++/swish++.index

find /home/user/Mail -path /home/user/Mail/mhe-index -prune \
                     -o -path /home/user/Mail/.swish++ -prune \
                     -o -name "[0-9]*" -print \
    | index -c /home/user/Mail/.swish++/swish++.conf -

DefaultContents TXT*
IndexDir /home/user/Mail
IndexFile /home/user/Mail/.swish/index
IndexName "Mail Index"
IndexDescription "Mail Index"
IndexPointer "https://nowhere"
IndexAdmin "nobody"
#MetaNames automatic
IndexReport 3
FollowSymLinks no
UseStemming no
IgnoreTotalWordCountWhenRanking yes
WordCharacters abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789-
BeginCharacters abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
EndCharacters abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789
IgnoreLimit 50 1000
IndexComments 0
FileRules filename contains \D
FileRules pathname contains /home/user/Mail/.swish
FileRules pathname contains /home/user/Mail/mhe-index
FileRules filename is index

FileRules pathname contains /home/user/Mail/scripts

swish-e -c /home/user/Mail/.swish/config

base=~/Mail

# List of folders that should be indexed. 3 dots at the end means there
# are subfolders within the folder
mh=archive...:inbox:drafts:news:sent:trash

mformat=mh
database=~/Mail/.mairix/database

mairix -f ~/Mail/.mairix/config

package conf;  # Don't remove this line!
$ADDRESS = 'user@localhost';
$ALLOW_FILE = "[0-9]*";
$EXCLUDE_PATH = "^/home/user/Mail/(mhe-index|spam)";

mknmz -f /home/user/Mail/.namazu/mknmzrc -O /home/user/Mail/.namazu \
      -q /home/user/Mail

16 Viewing Message Threads

MH-E groups messages by threads which are messages that are part of the same discussion and usually all have the same ‘Subject:’ header field. Other ways to organize messages in a folder include limiting (see Limiting Display) or using full-text indexed searches (see Searching Through Messages).

A thread begins with a single message called a root. All replies to the same message are siblings of each other. Any message that has replies to it is an ancestor of those replies.

There are several commands that you can use to navigate and operate on threads.

T ?

Display cheat sheet for the commands of the current prefix in minibuffer (mh-prefix-help).

T o

Refile (output) thread into folder (mh-thread-refile).

T d

Delete thread (mh-thread-delete).

T t

Toggle threaded view of folder (mh-toggle-threads).

T n

Display next sibling (mh-thread-next-sibling).

T p

Display previous sibling (mh-thread-previous-sibling).

T u

Display ancestor of current message (mh-thread-ancestor).

The ‘mh-thread’ customization group contains one option.

mh-show-threads-flag ¶

On means new folders start in threaded mode (default: ‘off’).

Threading large number of messages can be time consuming so the option mh-show-threads-flag is turned off by default. If you turn on this option, then threading will be done only if the number of messages being threaded is less than mh-large-folder. In any event, threading can be turned on (and off) with the command T t (mh-toggle-threads).

There are a few commands to help you navigate threads. If you do not care for the way a particular thread has turned, you can move up the chain of messages with the command T u (mh-thread-ancestor. At any point you can use T n (mh-thread-next-sibling or T p (mh-thread-previous-sibling) to jump to the next or previous sibling, skipping the sub-threads. The command T u can also take a prefix argument to jump to the message that started everything.

There are threaded equivalents for the commands that delete and refile messages. For example, T o (mh-thread-refile) refiles the current message and all its children. Similarly, the command T d (mh-thread-delete) deletes the current message and all its children. These commands do not refile or delete sibling messages. See Navigating, for a description of the similar command k (mh-delete-subject-or-thread).

If you find that threading is too slow, it may be that you have mh-large-folder set too high. Also, threading is one of the few features of MH-E that really benefits from compiling. If you haven’t compiled MH-E, I encourage you to do so⁴⁸.

17 Limiting Display

Another way to organize messages in a folder besides threading (see Viewing Message Threads) or using full-text indexed searches (see Searching Through Messages) is by limiting the folder display to messages that are similar to the current message.

/ ?

Display cheat sheet for the commands of the current prefix in minibuffer (mh-prefix-help).

/ '

Limit to messages in the ‘tick’ sequence (mh-narrow-to-tick).

/ c

Limit to messages with the same ‘Cc:’ field (mh-narrow-to-cc).

/ m

Limit to messages with the same ‘From:’ field (mh-narrow-to-from).

/ g

Limit to range (mh-narrow-to-range).

/ s

Limit to messages with the same ‘Subject:’ field (mh-narrow-to-subject).

/ t

Limit to messages with the same ‘To:’ field (mh-narrow-to-to).

/ w

Remove last restriction (mh-widen).

All of the limiting commands above refine the display in some way.

The commands / c (mh-narrow-to-cc), / m (mh-narrow-to-from), / s (mh-narrow-to-subject), and / t (mh-narrow-to-to) restrict the display to messages matching the content of the respective field in the current message. However, you can give any of these a prefix argument to edit the pick expression used to narrow the view⁴⁹.

You can also limit the display to messages in the ‘tick’ sequence with the command / ' (mh-narrow-to-tick). See Using Sequences, for information on putting message into the ‘tick’ sequence. Use the / g (mh-narrow-to-range) command to limit the display to messages in a range (see Ranges).

Each limit can be undone in turn with the / w (mh-widen) command. Give this command a prefix argument to remove all limits.

18 Using Sequences

For the whole scoop on MH sequences, refer to ‘mh-sequence’(5)⁵⁰. As you’ve read, several of the MH-E commands can operate on a sequence, which is a shorthand for a range or group of messages. For example, you might want to forward several messages to a friend or colleague. Here’s how to manipulate sequences. These commands are also available in the ‘Sequence’ menu.

'

Toggle tick mark of range (mh-toggle-tick).

S ?

Display cheat sheet for the commands of the current prefix in minibuffer (mh-prefix-help).

S '

Limit to ticked messages (mh-narrow-to-tick).

S d

Delete range from sequence (mh-delete-msg-from-seq).

S k

Delete sequence (mh-delete-seq).

S l

List all sequences in folder (mh-list-sequences).

S n

Restrict display to messages in sequence (mh-narrow-to-seq).

S p

Add range to sequence (mh-put-msg-in-seq).

S s

Display the sequences in which the current message appears (mh-msg-is-in-seq).

S w

Remove last restriction (mh-widen).

M-x mh-update-sequences

Flush MH-E’s state out to MH.

The ‘mh-sequences’ customization group contains the options associated with sequences.

mh-refile-preserves-sequences-flag ¶

On means that sequences are preserved when messages are refiled (default: ‘on’).

mh-tick-seq ¶

The name of the MH sequence for ticked messages (default: ‘'tick’).

mh-update-sequences-after-mh-show-flag ¶

On means flush MH sequences to disk after message is shown (default: ‘on’).

mh-allowlist-preserves-sequences-flag ¶

On means that sequences are preserved when messages are allowlisted (default: ‘on’).

The following hook is available.

mh-unseen-updated-hook ¶

Hook run after the unseen sequence has been updated (default: nil).

To place a message in a sequence, use S p (mh-put-msg-in-seq). Give S p a range and you can add all the messages in a sequence to another sequence (for example, C-u S p SourceSequence RET DestSequence RET, see Ranges).

One specific use of the S p command is ' (mh-toggle-tick) which adds messages to the ‘tick’ sequence. This sequence can be viewed later with the F ' (mh-index-ticked-messages) command (see Organizing Your Mail with Folders).

You can customize the option mh-tick-seq if you already use the ‘tick’ sequence for your own use. You can also disable all of the ticking functions by choosing the ‘Disable Ticking’ item but there isn’t much advantage to that.

Once you’ve placed some messages in a sequence, you may wish to narrow the field of view to just those messages in the sequence you’ve created. To do this, use S n (mh-narrow-to-seq). You are prompted for the name of the sequence. What this does is show only those messages that are in the selected sequence in the MH-Folder buffer. In addition, it limits further MH-E searches to just those messages. To narrow the view to the messages in the ‘tick’ sequence, use S ' (mh-narrow-to-tick). When you want to widen the view to all your messages again, use S w (mh-widen).

You can see which sequences in which a message appears with the command S s (mh-msg-is-in-seq). Use a prefix argument to display the sequences in which another message appears (as in C-u 42 S s RET). Or, you can list all sequences in a selected folder (default is current folder) with S l (mh-list-sequences). The list appears in a buffer named *MH-E Sequences* (see Miscellaneous Commands, Variables, and Buffers).

If a message is in any sequence (except ‘Previous-Sequence:’⁵¹ and ‘cur’) when it is refiled, then it will still be in those sequences in the destination folder. If this behavior is not desired, then turn off the option mh-refile-preserves-sequences-flag.

If you want to remove a message (or range, see Ranges) from a sequence, use S d (mh-delete-msg-from-seq). If you want to delete an entire sequence, use S k (mh-delete-seq). In the latter case you are prompted for the sequence to delete. Note that this deletes only the sequence, not the messages in the sequence. If you want to delete the messages, use C-u d (see Reading Your Mail).

Three sequences are maintained internally by MH-E and pushed out to MH when a message is shown. They include the sequence specified by your ‘Unseen-Sequence:’ profile component, ‘cur’, and the sequence listed by the option mh-tick-seq which is ‘tick’ by default. If you do not like this behavior, turn off the option mh-update-sequences-after-mh-show-flag. You can then update the state manually with the x, q, or M-x mh-update-sequences commands.

The hook mh-unseen-updated-hook is run after the unseen sequence has been updated. The variable mh-seen-list can be used by this hook to obtain the list of messages which were removed from the unseen sequence.

With the exceptions of S n and S w, the underlying MH command dealing with sequences is mark⁵².

19 Dealing With Junk Mail

Marshall Rose once wrote a paper on MH entitled, How to process 200 messages a day and still get some real work done. This chapter could be entitled, How to process 1000 spams a day and still get some real work done.

We use the terms junk mail and spam interchangeably for any unwanted message which includes spam, viruses, and worms. The opposite of spam is ham. The act of classifying a sender as one who sends junk mail is called blocklisting; the opposite is called allowlisting.

J ?

Display cheat sheet for the commands of the current prefix in minibuffer (mh-prefix-help).

J b

Blocklist range as spam (mh-junk-blocklist).

J a

Allowlist range as ham (mh-junk-allowlist).

mh-spamassassin-identify-spammers

Identify spammers who are repeat offenders.

The following table lists the options from the ‘mh-junk’ customization group.

mh-junk-background ¶

If on, spam programs are run in background (default: ‘off’).

mh-junk-disposition ¶

Disposition of junk mail (default: ‘Delete Spam’).

mh-junk-program ¶

Spam program that MH-E should use (default: ‘Auto-detect’).

The following option in the ‘mh-sequences’ customization group is also available.

mh-allowlist-preserves-sequences-flag ¶

On means that sequences are preserved when messages are allowlisted (default: ‘on’).

The following hooks are available.

mh-blocklist-msg-hook ¶

Hook run by J b (mh-junk-blocklist) after marking each message for blocklisting (default: nil).

mh-allowlist-msg-hook ¶

Hook run by J a (mh-junk-allowlist) after marking each message for allowlisting (default ‘nil’).

The following faces are available.

mh-folder-blocklisted ¶

Blocklisted message face.

mh-folder-allowlisted ¶

Allowlisted message face

MH-E depends on SpamAssassin, bogofilter, or SpamProbe to throw the dreck away. This chapter describes briefly how to configure these programs to work well with MH-E and how to use MH-E’s interface that provides continuing education for these programs.

The default setting of the option mh-junk-program is ‘Auto-detect’ which means that MH-E will automatically choose one of SpamAssassin, bogofilter, or SpamProbe in that order. If, for example, you have both SpamAssassin and bogofilter installed and you want to use bogofilter, then you can set this option to ‘Bogofilter’.

The command J b (mh-junk-blocklist) trains the spam program in use with the content of the range (see Ranges) and then handles the message(s) as specified by the option mh-junk-disposition. By default, this option is set to ‘Delete Spam’ but you can also specify the name of the folder which is useful for building a corpus of spam for training purposes.

In contrast, the command J a (mh-junk-allowlist) reclassifies a range of messages (see Ranges) as ham if it were incorrectly classified as spam. It then refiles the message into the +inbox folder.

If a message is in any sequence (except ‘Previous-Sequence:’ and ‘cur’) when it is allowlisted, then it will still be in those sequences in the destination folder. If this behavior is not desired, then turn off the option mh-allowlist-preserves-sequences-flag.

By default, the programs are run in the foreground, but this can be slow when junking large numbers of messages. If you have enough memory or don’t junk that many messages at the same time, you might try turning on the option mh-junk-background. ⁵³

The following sections discuss the various counter-spam measures that MH-E can work with.

SpamAssassin

SpamAssassin is one of the more popular spam filtering programs. Get it from your local distribution or from the SpamAssassin web site.

To use SpamAssassin, add the following recipes to ~/.procmailrc:

PATH=$PATH:/usr/bin/mh
MAILDIR=$HOME/`mhparam Path`

# Fight spam with SpamAssassin.
:0fw
| spamc

# Anything with a spam level of 10 or more is junked immediately.
:0:
* ^X-Spam-Level: ..........
/dev/null

:0:
* ^X-Spam-Status: Yes
spam/.

If you don’t use spamc, use ‘spamassassin -P -a’.

Note that one of the recipes above throws away messages with a score greater than or equal to 10. Here’s how you can determine a value that works best for you.

First, run ‘spamassassin -t’ on every mail message in your archive and use gnumeric to verify that the average plus the standard deviation of good mail is under 5, the SpamAssassin default for “spam”.

Using gnumeric, sort the messages by score and view the messages with the highest score. Determine the score which encompasses all of your interesting messages and add a couple of points to be conservative. Add that many dots to the ‘X-Spam-Level:’ header field above to send messages with that score down the drain.

In the example above, messages with a score of 5–9 are set aside in the ‘+spam’ folder for later review. The major weakness of rules-based filters is a plethora of false positives so it is worthwhile to check.

If SpamAssassin classifies a message incorrectly, or is unsure, you can use the MH-E commands J b (mh-junk-blocklist) and J a (mh-junk-allowlist).

The command J b (mh-junk-blocklist) adds a ‘blacklist_from’ entry to ~/spamassassin/user_prefs, deletes the message, and sends the message to the Razor, so that others might not see this spam. If the sa-learn command is available, the message is also recategorized as spam.

The commandJ a (mh-junk-allowlist) adds a ‘whitelist_from’ rule to ‘~/.spamassassin/user_prefs’. If the sa-learn command is available, the message is also recategorized as ham.

Over time, you’ll observe that the same host or domain occurs repeatedly in the ‘blacklist_from’ entries, so you might think that you could avoid future spam by blocklisting all mail from a particular domain. The utility function mh-spamassassin-identify-spammers helps you do precisely that. This function displays a frequency count of the hosts and domains in the ‘blacklist_from’ entries from the last blank line in ~/.spamassassin/user_prefs to the end of the file. This information can be used so that you can replace multiple ‘blacklist_from’ entries with a single wildcard entry such as:

blacklist_from *@*amazingoffersdirect2u.com

In versions of SpamAssassin (2.50 and on) that support a Bayesian classifier, J b (mh-junk-blocklist) uses the program sa-learn to recategorize the message as spam. Neither MH-E, nor SpamAssassin, rebuilds the database after adding words, so you will need to run ‘sa-learn --rebuild’ periodically. This can be done by adding the following to your crontab:

0 * * * *       sa-learn --rebuild > /dev/null 2>&1

Bogofilter

Bogofilter is a Bayesian spam filtering program. Get it from your local distribution or from the bogofilter web site.

Bogofilter is taught by running:

bogofilter -n < good-message

on every good message, and

bogofilter -s < spam-message

on every spam message. This is called a full training; three other training methods are described in the FAQ that is distributed with bogofilter. Note that most Bayesian filters need 1000 to 5000 of each type of message to start doing a good job.

To use bogofilter, add the following recipes to ~/.procmailrc:

PATH=$PATH:/usr/bin/mh
MAILDIR=$HOME/`mhparam Path`

# Fight spam with Bogofilter.
:0fw
| bogofilter -3 -e -p

:0:
* ^X-Bogosity: Yes, tests=bogofilter
spam/.

:0:
* ^X-Bogosity: Unsure, tests=bogofilter
spam/unsure/.

If bogofilter classifies a message incorrectly, or is unsure, you can use the MH-E commands J b (mh-junk-blocklist) and J a (mh-junk-allowlist) to update bogofilter’s training.

The Bogofilter FAQ suggests that you run the following occasionally to shrink the database:

bogoutil -d wordlist.db | bogoutil -l wordlist.db.new
mv wordlist.db wordlist.db.prv
mv wordlist.db.new wordlist.db

The Bogofilter tuning HOWTO describes how you can fine-tune bogofilter.

SpamProbe

SpamProbe is a Bayesian spam filtering program. Get it from your local distribution or from the SpamProbe web site.

To use SpamProbe, add the following recipes to ~/.procmailrc:

PATH=$PATH:/usr/bin/mh
MAILDIR=$HOME/`mhparam Path`

# Fight spam with SpamProbe.
:0
SCORE=| spamprobe receive

:0 wf
| formail -I "X-SpamProbe: $SCORE"

:0:
*^X-SpamProbe: SPAM
spam/.

If SpamProbe classifies a message incorrectly, you can use the MH-E commands J b (mh-junk-blocklist) and J a (mh-junk-allowlist) to update SpamProbe’s training.

Other Things You Can Do

There are a couple of things that you can add to ~/.procmailrc in order to filter out a lot of spam and viruses. The first is to eliminate any message with a Windows executable (which is most likely a virus). The second is to eliminate mail in character sets that you can’t read.

PATH=$PATH:/usr/bin/mh
MAILDIR=$HOME/`mhparam Path`

#
# Filter messages with w32 executables/virii.
#
# These attachments are base64 and have a TVqQAAMAAAAEAAAA//8AALg
# pattern. The string "this program cannot be run in MS-DOS mode"
# encoded in base64 is 4fug4AtAnNIbg and helps to avoid false
# positives (Roland Smith via Pete from the bogofilter mailing list).
#
:0 B:
* ^Content-Transfer-Encoding:.*base64
* ^TVqQAAMAAAAEAAAA//8AALg
* 4fug4AtAnNIbg
spam/exe/.

#
# Filter mail in unreadable character sets (from the Bogofilter FAQ).
#
UNREADABLE='[^?"]*big5|iso-2022-jp|ISO-2022-KR|euc-kr|gb2312|ks_c_5601-1987'

:0:
* 1^0 $ ^Subject:.*=\?($UNREADABLE)
* 1^0 $ ^Content-Type:.*charset="?($UNREADABLE)
spam/unreadable/.

:0:
* ^Content-Type:.*multipart
* B ?? $ ^Content-Type:.*^?.*charset="?($UNREADABLE)
spam/unreadable/.

20 Miscellaneous Commands, Variables, and Buffers

This chapter covers the following command and the various MH-E buffers,

mh-version ¶

Display version information about MH-E and the MH mail handling system.

One command worth noting is M-x mh-version. You can compare the version this command prints to the latest release (see Getting MH-E). The output of M-x mh-version, found in a buffer named *MH-E Info*, should usually be included with any bug report you submit (see Bug Reports).

MH-E Buffers

Besides the MH-Folder, MH-Show, and MH-Letter buffers, MH-E creates several other buffers. They are:

‘*MH-E Folders*’ ¶

This buffer contains the output of F l (mh-list-folders). See Organizing Your Mail with Folders.

‘*MH-E Help*’ ¶

This buffer contains the output of ? (mh-help) and C-c ? in MH-Letter mode. See Using This Manual.

‘*MH-E Info*’

This buffer contains the output of M-x mh-version RET.

‘*MH-E Log*’

This buffer contains the last 100 lines of the output of the various MH commands.

‘*MH-E Mail Delivery*’

This buffer contains the transcript of a mail delivery. See Sending a Message.

‘*MH-E Recipients*’ ¶

This buffer contains the output of C-c C-w (mh-check-whom) and is killed when draft is sent. See Checking Recipients.

‘*MH-E Sequences*’

This buffer contains the output of S l (mh-list-sequences). See Using Sequences.

‘*mh-temp*’

This is a scratch, ephemeral, buffer used by MH-E functions. Note that it is hidden because the first character in the name is a space. You’ll generally not have any need for this buffer.