MH-PROFILE(%manext5%)

NAME
mh-profile - user profile customization for nmh message handler

SYNOPSIS
.mh_profile

DESCRIPTION
Each user of nmh is expected to have a file named .mh_profile in his or her home directory. This file contains a set of user parameters used by some or all of the nmh family of programs. Each entry in the file is of the format
    profile-component: value If the text of an entry extends across several real lines, the continuation lines are indicated by leading spaces or tabs. The possible profile components are exemplified below. Only `Path:' is mandatory. The others are optional; some have default values if they are not present. In the notation used below, (profile, default) indicates whether the information is kept in the user's nmh profile or nmh context, and indicates what the default value is.
Path: Mail
Locates nmh transactions in directory “Mail”. (profile, no default)
context: context
Declares the location of the nmh context file, see the HISTORY section below. (profile, default: <mh-dir>/context)
Current-Folder: inbox
Keeps track of the current open folder. (context, default: folder specified by “Inbox”)
Inbox:    inbox
Defines the name of your inbox. (profile, default: inbox)
Previous-Sequence: pseq
Names the sequences which should be defined as the `msgs' or `msg' argument given to the program. If not present, or empty, no sequences are defined. Otherwise, for each name given, the sequence is first zero'd and then each message is added to the sequence. (profile, no default)
Sequence-Negation: not
Defines the string which, when prefixed to a sequence name, negates that sequence. Hence, “notseen” means all those messages that are not a member of the sequence “seen”. (profile, no default)
Unseen-Sequence: unseen
Names the sequences which should be defined as those messages recently incorporated by inc. Show knows to remove messages from this sequence once it thinks they have been seen. If not present, or empty, no sequences are defined. Otherwise, each message is added to each sequence name given. (profile, no default)
mh-sequences: .mh_sequences
The name of the file in each folder which defines public sequences. To disable the use of public sequences, leave the value portion of this entry blank. (profile, default: .mh_sequences)
atr-seq-folder: 172 178-181 212
Keeps track of the private sequence called seq in the specified folder. (context, no default)
Editor: /usr/bin/vi
Defines the editor to be used by the commands comp (1), dist (1), forw (1), and repl (1). (profile, default: %default_editor%)
Msg-Protect: 644
Defines octal protection bits for message files. See chmod (1) for an explanation of the octal number. (profile, default: 0644)
Folder-Protect: 711
Defines protection bits for folder directories. (profile, default: 0711)
program: default switches
Sets default switches to be used whenever the mh program program is invoked. For example, one could override the Editor: profile component when replying to messages by adding a component such as:
    repl: -editor /bin/ed
(profile, no defaults)
lasteditor-next: nexteditor
Names “nexteditor” to be the default editor after using “lasteditor”. This takes effect at “What now?” level in comp, dist, forw, and repl. After editing the draft with “lasteditor”, the default editor is set to be “nexteditor”. If the user types “edit” without any arguments to “What now?”, then “nexteditor” is used. (profile, no default)
bboards: system
Tells bbc which BBoards you are interested in. (profile, default: system)
Folder-Stack: folders
The contents of the folder-stack for the folder command. (context, no default)
mhe:
If present, tells inc to compose an MHE auditfile in addition to its other tasks. MHE is Brian Reid's Emacs front-end for nmh. (profile, no default)
Alternate-Mailboxes: mh@uci-750a, bug-mh*
Tells repl and scan which addresses are really yours. In this way, repl knows which addresses should be included in the reply, and scan knows if the message really originated from you. Addresses must be separated by a comma, and the hostnames listed should be the “official” hostnames for the mailboxes you indicate, as local nicknames for hosts are not replaced with their official site names. For each address, if a host is not given, then that address on any host is considered to be you. In addition, an asterisk (`*') may appear at either or both ends of the mailbox and host to indicate wild-card matching. (profile, default: your user-id)
Aliasfile: aliases other-alias
Indicates aliases files for ali, whom, and send. This may be used instead of the `-alias file' switch. (profile, no default)
Draft-Folder: drafts
Indicates a default draft folder for comp, dist, forw, and repl. (profile, no default)
digest-issue-list: 1
Tells forw the last issue of the last volume sent for the digest list. (context, no default)
digest-volume-list: 1
Tells forw the last volume sent for the digest list. (context, no default)
MailDrop: .mail
Tells inc your maildrop, if different from the default. This is superceded by the environment variable MAILDROP. (profile, default: %mailspool%/$USER)
Signature: RAND MH System (agent: Marshall Rose)
Tells send your mail signature. This is superceded by the environment variable SIGNATURE. If SIGNATURE is not set and this profile entry is not present, the “gcos” field of the /etc/passwd file will be used; otherwise, on hosts where nmh was configured with the UCI option, the file $HOME/.signature is consulted. Your signature will be added to the address send puts in the “From:” header; do not include an address in the signature text. (profile, no default)
The following profile elements are used whenever an nmh program invokes some other program such as more (1). The .mh_profile can be used to select alternate programs if the user wishes. The default values are given in the examples.
^fileproc:~^%bindir%/refile
^incproc:~^%bindir%/inc
^installproc:~^%libdir%/install-mh
^lproc:~^%default_pager%
^mailproc:~^%bindir%/mhmail
^mhlproc:~^%libdir%/mhl
^moreproc:~^%default_pager%
^mshproc:~^%bindir%/msh
^packproc:~^%bindir%/packf
^postproc:~^%libdir%/post
^rmmproc:~^none
^rmfproc:~^%bindir%/rmf
^sendproc:~^%bindir%/send
^showproc:~^%default_pager%
^whatnowproc:~^%bindir%/whatnow
^whomproc:~^%bindir%/whom
If you define the environment variable MH, you can specify a profile other than .mh_profile to be read by the nmh programs that you invoke. If the value of MH is not absolute, (i.e., does not begin with a / ), it will be presumed to start from the current working directory. This is one of the very few exceptions in nmh where non-absolute pathnames are not considered relative to the user's nmh directory. Similarly, if you define the environment variable MHCONTEXT, you can specify a context other than the normal context file (as specified in the nmh profile). As always, unless the value of MHCONTEXT is absolute, it will be presumed to start from your nmh directory. nmh programs also support other environment variables:
MAILDROP : tells inc the default maildrop
This supercedes the “MailDrop:” profile entry.
SIGNATURE : tells send and post your mail signature
This supercedes the “Signature:” profile entry.
HOME : tells all nmh programs your home directory
SHELL : tells bbl the default shell to run
TERM : tells nmh your terminal type
The environment variable TERMCAP is also consulted. In particular, these tell scan and mhl how to clear your terminal, and how many columns wide your terminal is. They also tell mhl how many lines long your terminal screen is.
editalt : the alternate message
This is set by dist and repl during edit sessions so you can peruse the message being distributed or replied to. The message is also available through a link called “@” in the current directory if your current working directory and the folder the message lives in are on the same UNIX filesystem.
mhdraft : the path to the working draft
This is set by comp, dist, forw, and repl to tell the whatnowproc which file to ask “What now?” questions about. In addition, dist, forw, and repl set mhfolder if appropriate. Further, dist and repl set mhaltmsg to tell the whatnowproc about an alternate message associated with the draft (the message being distributed or replied to), and dist sets mhdist to tell the whatnowproc that message re-distribution is occurring. Also, mheditor is set to tell the whatnowproc the user's choice of editor (unless overridden by `-noedit'). Similarly, mhuse may be set by comp. Finally, mhmessages is set by dist, forw, and repl if annotations are to occur (along with mhannotate, and mhinplace). It's amazing all the information that has to get passed via environment variables to make the “What now?” interface look squeaky clean to the nmh user, isn't it? The reason for all this is that the nmh user can select any program as the whatnowproc, including one of the standard shells. As a result, it's not possible to pass information via an argument list.
If the WHATNOW option was set during nmh configuration (type `-help' to an nmh command to find out), and if this environment variable is set, if the commands refile, send, show, or whom are not given any `msgs' arguments, then they will default to using the file indicated by mhdraft. This is useful for getting the default behavior supplied by the default whatnowproc.
mhfolder : the folder containing the alternate message
This is set by dist and repl during edit sessions so you can peruse other messages in the current folder besides the one being distributed or replied to. The environment variable mhfolder is also set by show, prev, and next for use by mhl.
MHBBRC :
If you define the environment variable MHBBRC, you can specify a BBoards information file other than .bbrc to be read by bbc. If the value of MHBBRC is not absolute, (i.e., does not begin with a / ), it will be presumed to start from the current working directory.
MHFD :
If the OVERHEAD option was set during nmh configuration (type `-help' to an nmh command to find out), then if this environment variable is set, nmh considers it to be the number of a file descriptor which is opened, read-only to the nmh profile. Similarly, if the environment variable MHCONTEXTFD is set, this is the number of a file descriptor which is opened read-only to the nmh context. This feature of nmh is experimental, and is used to examine possible speed improvements for nmh startup. Note that these environment variables must be set and non-empty to enable this feature. However, if OVERHEAD is enabled during nmh configuration, then when nmh programs call other nmh programs, this scheme is used. These file descriptors are not closed throughout the execution of the nmh program, so children may take advantage of this. This approach is thought to be completely safe and does result in some performance enhancements.
^$HOME/.mh_profile~^The user profile ^or $nmh~^Rather than the standard profile ^<mh-dir>/context~^The user context ^or $CONTEXT~^Rather than the standard context ^<folder>/.mh_sequences~^Public sequences for <folder> All mh(1), environ(5), mh-sequence(5) None All The .mh_profile contains only static information, which nmh programs will NOT update. Changes in context are made to the context file kept in the users nmh directory. This includes, but is not limited to: the “Current-Folder” entry and all private sequence information. Public sequence information is kept in a file called .mh_sequences in each folder. The .mh_profile may override the path of the context file, by specifying a “context” entry (this must be in lower-case). If the entry is not absolute (does not start with a / ), then it is interpreted relative to the user's nmh directory. As a result, you can actually have more than one set of private sequences by using different context files. The shell quoting conventions are not available in the .mh_profile. Each token is separated by whitespace. There is some question as to what kind of arguments should be placed in the profile as options. In order to provide a clear answer, recall command line semantics of all nmh programs: conflicting switches (e.g., `-header and `-noheader') may occur more than one time on the command line, with the last switch taking effect. Other arguments, such as message sequences, filenames and folders, are always remembered on the invocation line and are not superseded by following arguments of the same type. Hence, it is safe to place only switches (and their arguments) in the profile. If one finds that an nmh program is being invoked again and again with the same arguments, and those arguments aren't switches, then there are a few possible solutions to this problem. The first is to create a (soft) link in your $HOME/bin directory to the nmh program of your choice. By giving this link a different name, you can create a new entry in your profile and use an alternate set of defaults for the nmh command. Similarly, you could create a small shell script which called the nmh program of your choice with an alternate set of invocation line switches (using links and an alternate profile entry is preferable to this solution). Finally, the csh user could create an alias for the command of the form:
alias cmd 'cmd arg1 arg2 ...' In this way, the user can avoid lengthy type-in to the shell, and still give nmh commands safely. (Recall that some nmh commands invoke others, and that in all cases, the profile is read, meaning that aliases are disregarded beyond an initial command invocation)