msh - MH shell (only available within the message handling
system, mh)
msh [-help] [-prompt string] [file]
Prints a list of the valid options for this command. Sets
the prompt for msh. If the string you specify includes
white space, you must enclose it in double quotes ("). If
you do not specify this option, the default prompt is
(msh).
The following defaults are used by msh:
file defaults to ./msgbox
-prompt (msh)
The command msh is an interactive program that implements
a subset of the normal MH commands operating on a single
file in packf format. That is, msh is used to read a file
that contains a number of messages, as opposed to the
standard MH style of reading a number of files, each file
being a separate message in a folder.
The chief advantage of msh is that, unlike the normal MH
style, it allows a file to have more than one message in
it. In addition, msh can be used on other files, such as
message archives which have been packed using packf.
When invoked, msh reads the named file, and enters a command
loop. You can type most of the normal MH commands.
The syntax and semantics of these commands typed to msh
are identical to their MH counterparts. In cases where the
nature of msh would be inconsistent with the way MH works
(for example, specifying a +folder with some commands),
msh will duly inform you. The commands that msh currently
supports are: ali burst comp dist
folder forw inc mark mhmail
msgchk next packf pick prev
refile repl rmm scan send
show sortm whatnow whom
In addition, msh has a help command which gives a brief
overview of all the msh options. To terminate msh, either
type <CTRL/D>, or use the quit command. If the file is
writable and has been modified, then using quit will ask
you if the file should be updated.
A redirection facility is supported by msh. Commands may
be followed by one of the following standard symbols: Open
an interprocess channel; connect output to another command.
Write output to file. Append output to file.
If file starts with a tilde (~), then a C-shell-like
expansion takes place. Note that commands are interpreted
by sh(1).
When parsing commands to the left of any redirection symbol,
msh will honor the backslash (\) as the quote nextcharacter
symbol, and double quotes (") as quote-word
delimiters. All other input tokens are separated by white
space (spaces and tabs).
You may wish to use an alternative profile for the commands
that msh executes; see mh_profile(4) for details of
the $MH environment variable.
The msh shell is not the C-shell, and a lot of the facilities
provided by the latter are not present in the former.
In particular, msh does not support back-quoting, history
substitutions, variable substitutions, or alias substitutions.
msh does not understand back-quoting. The only effective
way to use pick inside msh is to always use the seq select
option. If you add the following line to your pick will
work equally well from both the shell and msh:
pick: -seq select -list
There is a strict limit of messages per file in packf format
which msh can handle. Usually, this limit is 1000 messages.
Path: To determine your Mail directory
Msg-Protect: To set protections when creating a new file
fileproc: Program to file messages
showproc: Program to show messages
The user profile. The system customization file.
csh(1), packf(1), sh(1), mh_profile(4)
msh(1)
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