# man > mh_profile(5mh) [_MH-PROFILE_(5mh)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/MH-PROFILE/5mh/markdown) [_MH-PROFILE_(5mh)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/MH-PROFILE/5mh/markdown) ## NAME mh-profile, mh_profile - user customization for nmh message handler ## DESCRIPTION Each user of **nmh **is expected to have a file named _.mh-profile_ in their home directory. This file contains a set of user parameters used by the **nmh **family of programs. Each entry in the file is of the format _profile-component_: _value_ If the text of a profile entry is long, you may extend it across several real lines by in‐ denting the continuation lines with leading spaces or tabs. Comments may be introduced by a line starting with `#:': _#_: This is a comment. Blank lines are not permitted in _.mh-profile_. Shell quoting conventions are not available; each token is separated by whitespace. ### Standard Profile Entries The possible profile components are exemplified below. The only mandatory entry is `Path:'. 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. Note that a profile compo‐ nent can only appear once. Multiple appearances will trigger a warning that all appearances after the first are ignored. Some MH programs, including **mhbuild**, **mhshow**, and **mhstore**, have specific profile components that are described in their respective man pages. Each component name specific to these pro‐ grams begins with the name of the program and is followed by a dash. **Path**: Mail Locates **nmh **transactions in directory “Mail”. A relative Path starts from the user's home directory. This is the only mandatory profile entry. (profile, no default) **locale**: locale Set the locale for all **nmh **programs except **post**, **install-mh**, and **slocal**. See the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG variables in the "ENVIRONMENT" section below for a reference on how the locale is set if this profile component is not used. **context**: context Declares the location of the **nmh **context file. This can be overridden by the environ‐ ment variable MHCONTEXT. See the **HISTORY **section below. (profile, default: /context) **Current-Folder**: inbox Keeps track of the current open folder. (context, default: folder specified by “Inbox”) **Inbox**: inbox Defines the name of the default inbox. (profile, default: inbox) **Previous-Sequence**: _pseq_ Names the sequence or sequences which should be defined as the `msgs' or `msg' argument given to any **nmh **command. If not present or empty, no such sequences are defined. Oth‐ erwise, for each name given, the sequence is first zeroed and then each message is added to the sequence. Read [_mh-sequence_(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mh-sequence/5/markdown) for the details about this 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”. Read [_mh-sequence_(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mh-sequence/5/markdown) for the details. (profile, no default) **Unseen-Sequence**: unseen Names the sequence or sequences which should be defined as those messages which are un‐ read. The commands **inc**, **rcvstore**, **mhshow**, and **show **will add or remove messages from these sequences when they are incorporated or read. If not present or empty, no such sequences are defined. Otherwise, each message is added to, or removed from, each se‐ quence name given. Read [_mh-sequence_(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mh-sequence/5/markdown) for the details about this sequence. (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. Private se‐ quences are generally used for read-only folders. See [_mh-sequence_(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mh-sequence/5/markdown) for details about private sequences. (context, no default) **Editor**: prompter Defines the editor to be used by the commands **comp**, **dist**, **forw**, and **repl**. If not set, the value will be taken from the VISUAL and EDITOR environment variables. (profile, de‐ fault: prompter) **Msg-Protect**: 600 An octal number which defines the permission bits for new message files. See [_chmod_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/chmod/1/markdown) for an explanation of the octal number. Note that some filesystems, such as FAT32, do not support removal of read file permissions. (profile, default: 0600) **Folder-Protect**: 700 An octal number which defines the permission bits for new folder directories. See [_chmod_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/chmod/1/markdown) for an explanation of the octal number. (profile, default: 700) **datalocking**: fcntl The locking algorithm used to lock changes to any **nmh **data files, such as sequences or context. The locking algorithm is any one of the following entries: fcntl dot flock lockf Available locking algorithms can vary depending on the operating system. Note: cur‐ rently, transactional locking is only supported on public sequences; see [_mh-sequence_(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mh-sequence/5/markdown) for more information. (profile, default: fcntl) _program_: _default_ _switches_ Sets default switches to be used whenever the mh program _program_ is invoked. For exam‐ ple, 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 the “What now?” prompt 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) **Folder-Stack**: _folders_ The contents of the folder-stack for the **folder **command. (context, no default) **Local-Mailbox**: Your Username <> Tells the MH programs what your local mailbox is. If set, it will be used by the de‐ fault component files by programs like **comp **and **repl **to construct your default “From:” header. The text used here will be copied exactly to your “From:” header, so it should already be RFC 822 compliant. If this is set, the **Signature **profile entry is _not_ used, so it should include a signature as well. (profile, default: ) **Alternate-Mailboxes**: mh@uci-750a, bug-mh* Tells **repl **and **scan **which additional addresses are yours. In this way, **repl **knows which addresses should be included in the reply, and **scan **knows if a message 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 match‐ ing. (profile, default: your user-id) **Aliasfile**: aliases _other-aliases_ Indicates alias 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**, **refile**, and **repl**. Read [_mh-draft_(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mh-draft/5/markdown) for details. (profile, no default) **digest-issue-_**list_**: **1 Tells **forw **the last issue of the last volume sent for the digest _list_. (context, no de‐ fault) **digest-volume-_**list_**: **1 Tells **forw **the last volume sent for the digest _list_. (context, no default) **MailDrop**: .mail Tells **inc **your mail drop, if different from the default. This is superseded by the en‐ vironment variable MAILDROP. (profile, default: /var/mail/$USER) **Signature**: RAND MH System (agent: Marshall Rose) Tells front-end programs such as **comp**, **forw**, and **repl **your mail signature. (This is not to be confused with a .signature that might be appended to mails.) This is superseded 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. Your signature will be added to the address **send **puts in the “From:” header; do not include an address in the signature text. The “Local-Mailbox” profile component supersedes all of this. (profile, no default) **credentials**: legacy Indicates how the username and password credentials will be retrieved for access to ex‐ ternal servers, such as those that provide SMTP or POP service. The supported entry values are “legacy”, “file:_netrc_”, and “file-nopermcheck:_netrc_”. With “legacy”, or if there is no credentials entry, the username is the first of: 1) **-user **switch to **inc**, **msgchk**, **post**, **send**, or **whom **program 2) the login name on the local machine The password for SMTP services is the first of: 1) password value from matching entry in file named “.netrc” in the user's home directory 2) password obtained by interactively prompting the user With a “file:_netrc_” **credentials **entry, the username is the first of: 1) **-user **switch to program 2) login name from matching entry in _netrc_ file 3) value provided by user in response to interactive query Similarly, the password is provided either in the _netrc_ file or interactively. _netrc_ can be any valid filename, either absolute or relative to Path or $HOME. The _netrc_ file contains authentication information, for each server, using a line of the following form. (Replace _myserver_, _mylogin_, and _mypassword_ with your own account information.) **machine _**myserver_ **login _**mylogin_ **password _**mypassword_ This _netrc_ file must be owned and readable only by you. The “file-nopermcheck:_netrc_” **credentials **entry is identical in behavior to the “file” entry, with the exception that the permission checks done by “file” are not performed. This entry should be used with caution and only when absolutely necessary. (profile, default: legacy) **Welcome**: disable If the Welcome component is not present, or its value is not “_disable_”, a welcome mes‐ sage will be displayed the first time that an interactive **nmh **program is run after up‐ dating the **nmh **installation. The user must press the Enter key to continue. If the MHCONTEXT environment variable is set and non-empty (and the Welcome component is not “_disable_”), the welcome message is only displayed if the context file contains a version reference, and that reference is older than the installed **nmh **version. The ver‐ sion reference is of the form: Version: nmh-1.8 ### Process Profile Entries The following profile elements are used whenever an **nmh **program invokes some other program, such as **more**. The _.mh-profile_ can be used to select alternate programs if the user wishes. The default values are given in the examples. If the profile element contains spaces, the element is split at spaces into tokens and each token is given as a separate argument to the [_execvp_(2)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/execvp/2/markdown) system call. If the element contains shell metacharacters then the entire element is executed using **/bin/sh**. **buildmimeproc**: /usr/bin/mh/mhbuild This is the program used by **whatnow **to process drafts which are MIME composition files. **fileproc**: /usr/bin/mh/refile This program is used to refile or link a message to another folder. It is used by **post** to file a copy of a message into a folder given by a “Fcc:” field. It is used by the draft folder facility in **comp**, **dist**, **forw**, and **repl **to refile a draft message into an‐ other folder. It is used to refile a draft message in response to the **refile **directive at the “What now?” prompt. **formatproc**: Program called by **mhl **to filter a component when it is tagged with the “format” variable in the mhl filter. See [_mhl_(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mhl/5/markdown) for more information. **incproc**: /usr/bin/mh/inc Program called by **mhmail **to incorporate new mail when it is invoked with no arguments. **lproc**: more This program is used to list the contents of a message in response to the **list **directive at the “What now?” prompt. It is also used by the draft folder facility in **comp**, **dist**, **forw**, and **repl **to display the draft message. (Note that the environment variable PAGER supersedes the default built-in pager command.) **mailproc**: /usr/bin/mh/mhmail This is the program used to automatically mail various messages and notifications. It is used by **send **to post failure notices. It is used to retrieve an external-body with access-type `mail-server' (such as when storing the body with **mhstore**). **mhlproc**: /usr/lib/mh/mhl This is the program used to filter messages in various ways. It is used by **mhshow **to filter and display the message headers of MIME messages. When the **-format **or **-filter** option is used by **forw **or **repl**, the _mhlproc_ is used to filter the message that you are forwarding, or to which you are replying. When the **-filter **option is given to **send**, the _mhlproc_ is used to filter the copy of the message that is sent to “Bcc:” recipients. **moreproc**: more This is the program used by **mhl **to page the **mhl **formatted message when displaying to a terminal. It is also the default program used by **mhshow **to display message bodies (or message parts) of type text/plain. (Note that the environment variable PAGER supersedes the default built-in pager command.) **packproc**: /usr/bin/mh/packf Currently not used. **postproc**: /usr/lib/mh/post This is the program used by **send**, **mhmail**, **rcvdist**, and **viamail **(used by the **sendfiles** shell script) to post a message to the mail transport system. It is also called by **whom** (called with the switches **-whom **and **-library**) to do address verification. If the profile contains a **post **component and a **postproc **component is not present, a warning message that the **post **component will be ignored will be displayed by every **nmh** program that reads the profile and has its stderr associated with a terminal. **rmmproc**: none This is the program used by **rmm**, **refile**, and **mhfixmsg **to delete a message from a folder. **sendproc**: /usr/bin/mh/send This is the program used by **whatnow **to actually send the message **showmimeproc**: /usr/bin/mh/mhshow This is the program used by **show **to process and display non-text (MIME) messages. **showproc**: /usr/lib/mh/mhl This is the program used by **show **to filter and display text (non-MIME) messages. **whatnowproc**: /usr/bin/mh/whatnow This is the program invoked by **comp**, **dist**, **forw**, and **repl **to query about the disposition of a composed draft message. **whomproc**: /usr/bin/mh/whom This is the program used by **whatnow **to determine to whom a message would be sent. ### Profile Lookup After consulting .mh_profile, some programs read an optional profile specified by a program- specific environment variable, and then the system-wide profile /etc/nmh/mhn.defaults. These programs are **mhbuild**, **mhshow**, **mhstore**, and **mhn**. **mhfixmsg **is similar, but has no optional profile. The first occurrence of a component is used, e.g. .mh_profile's trumps $MHSHOW's. A compo‐ nent with no value still stops further occurrences being used, but is considered absent. 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 in‐ cludes, but is not limited to: the “Current-Folder” entry and all private sequence informa‐ tion. Public sequence information is kept in each folder in the file determined by the “mh-sequences” profile entry (default is _.mh-sequences_). 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. ## ENVIRONMENT The operation of **nmh **and its commands it also controlled by the presence of certain environ‐ ment variables. Many of these environment variables are used internally by the “What now?” interface. 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. The con‐ vention is that environment variables whose names are all upper-case are user-settable; those whose names are lower-case only are used internally by nmh and should not generally be set by the user. HOME If set and non-null, it is used as the user's home directory. If not set or null, then [getpwuid(3)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/getpwuid/3/markdown)'s pw_dir is used. LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG These variables are used to set the locale, see [locale(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/locale/1/markdown). The “locale” profile entry supersedes these. MAILDROP This variable tells **inc **the default mail drop. This supersedes the “MailDrop” profile entry. MAILHOST This variable tells **inc **the POP host to query for mail to incorporate. See [_inc_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/inc/1/markdown) for more information. MH With this environment variable, 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 di‐ rectory. This is one of the very few exceptions in **nmh **where non-absolute pathnames are not considered relative to the user's **nmh **directory. MHBUILD With this environment variable, you can specify an additional user profile (file) to be read by **mhbuild**, in addition to the mhn.defaults profile. MHCONTEXT With this environment variable, you can specify a context other than the normal con‐ text file (as specified in the **nmh **profile). As usual, unless the value of MHCONTEXT is absolute, it will be presumed to start from your **nmh **directory. MHLDEBUG If this variable is set to a non-null value, **mhl **will emit debugging information. MHMTSCONF If this variable is set to a non-null value, it specifies the name of the mail trans‐ port configuration file to use by **inc**, **post**, and other programs that interact with the mail transport system, instead of the default. See [_mh-tailor_(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mh-tailor/5/markdown). MHMTSUSERCONF If this variable is set to a non-null value, it specifies the name of a mail transport configuration file to be read in addition to the default. See [_mh-tailor_(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mh-tailor/5/markdown). MHN With this environment variable, you can specify an additional user profile (file) to be read by **mhn**, in addition to the mhn.defaults profile. **mhn **is deprecated, so sup‐ port for this variable will be removed from a future nmh release. MHSHOW With this environment variable, you can specify an additional user profile (file) to be read by **mhshow**, in addition to the mhn.defaults profile. MHSTORE With this environment variable, you can specify an additional user profile (file) to be read by **mhstore**, in addition to the mhn.defaults profile. MHTMPDIR, TMPDIR These variables are searched, in order, for the directory in which to create some tem‐ porary files. MHTMPDIR is deprecated and will be removed in a future release of nmh. MHWDEBUG If this variable is set to a non-null value, **nmh **commands that use the **Alternate-Mail‐** **boxes **profile entry will display debugging information about the values in that entry. PAGER If set to a non-null value, this supersedes the value of the default built-in pager command. SIGNATURE This variable tells **send **and **post **your mail signature. This supersedes the “Signa‐ ture” profile entry, and is not used when the “Local-Mailbox” profile component is set. USER This variable tells **repl **your user name and **inc **your default mail drop: see the “MailDrop” profile entry. USERNAME_EXTENSION This variable is for use with username_extension masquerading. See [_mh-tailor_(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mh-tailor/5/markdown). editalt This is 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, when the **-atfile **switch is used, 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, and if your current working directory is writable. mhaltmsg **dist **and **repl **set mhaltmsg to tell the _whatnowproc_ about an alternate message associ‐ ated with the draft (the message being distributed or replied to). mhannotate This is set by **dist**, **forw**, and **repl **if annotations are to occur. mhdist **dist **sets mhdist to tell the _whatnowproc_ that message re-distribution is occurring. mhdraft This is the path to the working draft. It is set by **comp**, **dist**, **forw**, and **repl **to tell the _whatnowproc_ which file to ask “What now?” questions about. mheditor This is set by **comp**, **repl**, **forw**, and **dist **to tell the _whatnowproc_ the user's choice of editor (unless overridden by **-noedit**). mhfolder This is the folder containing the alternate message. It is set by **dist **and **repl **dur‐ ing 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 **next**, **prev**, and **show **for use by **mhl**. mhinplace This is set by **dist**, **forw**, and **repl **if annotations are to occur. mhmessages This is set by **dist**, **forw**, and **repl **if annotations are to occur. mhuse This may be set by **comp**. ## FILES $HOME/.mh-profile The user's profile. /context The user's context /.mh-sequences Public sequences for . ## SEE ALSO [_mhbuild_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mhbuild/1/markdown), [_mhshow_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mhshow/1/markdown), [_mhstore_(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mhstore/1/markdown), [_mh-sequence_(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mh-sequence/5/markdown), [_nmh_(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/nmh/7/markdown), [_post_(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/post/8/markdown) ## BUGS There is some question as to what kind of arguments should be placed in the profile as op‐ tions. In order to provide a clear answer, recall the command line semantics of all **nmh **pro‐ grams: conflicting switches (e.g. **-header **and **-noheader**) may occur more than one time on the command line, with the last switch taking effect. Other arguments, such as message se‐ quences, filenames and folders, are always remembered on the invocation line and are not su‐ perseded by following arguments of the same type. Hence, it is safe to place only switches (and their arguments) in the profile. If one finds that an **nmh **program is being invoked again and again with the same arguments, and those arguments aren't switches, then there are a few possible solutions to this problem. The first is to create a (soft) link in your _$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) nmh-1.8 2016-10-19 [_MH-PROFILE_(5mh)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/MH-PROFILE/5mh/markdown)