nmh
nmh (new message handler), is a powerful electronic mail handling system. Following the Unix Philosophy, nmh is made up by a collection of simple programs each of which has a single purpose. This architecture allows the user to intersperse nmh with other commands at the shell prompt and to write scripts tailored to their needs.
Installing
Install nmh AUR or nmh-git AUR.
Optionally install a utility to handle IMAP or POP, for example fdm , offlineimap or getmail AUR.
Also optionally install msmtp or another utility for sending mail.
Configuring
nmh is extensively configurable in a variety of ways. The primary of these is the ~/.mh_profile file.
The syntax for ~/.mh_profile is unusual. For example, nmh will refuse to run if there are blank lines in the file. Read the mh_profile(5) page for more.
By default, nmh uses ~/Mail as your mail folder. To change this, set Path:
Path: path/to/mail/folder
- Path can be either full (if prefixed with
/) or relative to $HOME. - Nmh uses the mh mail format, which is different from the maildir and mbox. Setting your Path to a preexisting maildir folder, for example, will not work.
Set inbox (relative to Path):
Inbox: inbox
Also by default, nmh populates the mail folder with the inc command, which incorporates mail from the user's mail drop (/var/mail/user).
If you have a non-standard mail drop path, you can set an environment variable $MAILDROP, or set MailDrop in mh_profile:
MailDrop: /path/to/mail-drop
or set inc:
inc: -file /path/to/mail-drop
command: -flag format in mh_profile. These work much like bash aliases.Nmh is also capable of retrieving mail via POP. A basic POP setup (see inc(1) for more):
inc: -host example.com -user username -sasl
Usage
To become familiar with basic nmh usage, learn and practice the following commands:
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| inc | Incorporate new mail. |
| scan | Scan the contents of the current folder. |
| folder/folders | Change the current folder or list folders and their contents. |
| show | Display messages. |
| comp | Compose a new message. |
| repl | Reply to a message. |
| refile | Move a message to another folder. |
Frontends
While nmh is fully usable from the command-line, several console-based and graphical user interfaces exist. Also, some common mail tools interact smoothly with the mh format.
MH-specific Frontends
- MH-V, a console interface to mh/nmh with vi- keybindings.
- MH-E, a console interface to mh/nmh with Emacs keybindings.
- exmh, a TK-based mh GUI.
MH-compatible Frontends
- Popular MUA mutt understands mh format. (Use
set mbox_type = mhin your muttrc.) - Full-text mail indexer and search utility mairix can read and write in mh format. (Use
mh=path/to/mh/folderandmformat=mhin .mairixrc)