xmh(1)xmh(1)NAMExmh - send and read mail with an X interface to MH
SYNOPSISxmh [-path mailpath] [-initial foldername] [-flag] [-toolkitoption ...]
DESCRIPTION
The xmh program provides a graphical user interface to the MH Message
Handling System. To actually do things with your mail, it makes calls
to the MH package. Electronic mail messages may be composed, sent,
received, replied to, forwarded, sorted, and stored in folders. xmh
provides extensive mechanism for customization of the user interface.
This document introduces many aspects of the Athena Widget Set.
OPTIONS-path directory
This option specifies an alternate collection of mail folders
in which to process mail. The directory is specified as an
absolute pathname. The default mail path is the value of the
Path component in the MH profile, which is determined by the MH
environment variable and defaults to $HOME/.mh_profile.
$HOME/Mail will be used as the path if the MH Path is not given
in the profile.
-initial folder
This option specifies an alternate folder which may receive new
mail and is initially opened by xmh. The default initial
folder is ``inbox''.
-flag This option will cause xmh to change the appearance of appro‐
priate folder buttons and to request the window manager to
change the appearance of the xmh icon when new mail has
arrived. By default, xmh will change the appearance of the
``inbox'' folder button when new mail is waiting. The applica‐
tion-specific resource checkNewMail can be used to turn off
this notification, and the -flag option will still override it.
These three options have corresponding application-specific resources,
MailPath, InitialFolder, and MailWaitingFlag, which can be specified in
a resource file.
The standard toolkit command line options are given in X11(7).
INSTALLATIONxmh requires that the user is already set up to use MH, version 6. To
do so, see if there is a file called .mh_profile in your home direc‐
tory. If it exists, check to see if it contains a line that starts
with ``Current-Folder''. If it does, you've been using version 4 or
earlier of MH; to convert to version 6, you must remove that line.
(Failure to do so causes spurious output to stderr, which can hang xmh
depending on your setup.)
If you do not already have a .mh_profile, you can create one (and
everything else you need) by typing ``inc'' to the shell. You should
do this before using xmh to incorporate new mail.
Much of the user interface of xmh is configured in the Xmh application
class defaults file; if this file was not installed properly a warning
message will appear when xmh is used. xmh is backwards compatible with
the R4 application class defaults file.
The default value of the SendBreakWidth resource has changed since R4.
BASIC SCREEN LAYOUTxmh starts out with a single window, divided into four major areas:
- Six buttons with pull-down command menus.
- A collection of buttons, one for each top level folder. New users
of MH will have two folders, ``drafts'' and ``inbox''.
- A listing, or Table of Contents, of the messages in the open
folder. Initially, this will show the messages in ``inbox''.
- A view of one of your messages. Initially this is blank.
XMH AND THE ATHENA WIDGET SETxmh uses the X Toolkit Intrinsics and the Athena Widget Set. Many of
the features described below (scrollbars, buttonboxes, etc.) are actu‐
ally part of the Athena Widget Set, and are described here only for
completeness. For more information, see the Athena Widget Set documen‐
tation.
SCROLLBARS
Some parts of the main window will have a vertical area on the left
containing a grey bar. This area is a scrollbar. They are used when‐
ever the data in a window takes up more space than can be displayed.
The grey bar indicates what portion of your data is visible. Thus, if
the entire length of the area is grey, then you are looking at all your
data. If only the first half is grey, then you are looking at the top
half of your data. The message viewing area will have a horizontal
scrollbar if the text of the message is wider than the viewing area.
You can use the pointer in the scrollbar to change what part of the
data is visible. If you click with pointer button 2, the top of the
grey area will move to where the pointer is, and the corresponding por‐
tion of data will be displayed. If you hold down pointer button 2, you
can drag around the grey area. This makes it easy to get to the top of
the data: just press with button 2, drag off the top of the scrollbar,
and release.
If you click with button 1, then the data to the right of the pointer
will scroll to the top of the window. If you click with pointer button
3, then the data at the top of the window will scroll down to where the
pointer is.
BUTTONBOXES, BUTTONS, AND MENUS
Any area containing many words or short phrases, each enclosed in a
rectangular or rounded boundary, is called a buttonbox. Each rectangle
or rounded area is actually a button that you can press by moving the
pointer onto it and pressing pointer button 1. If a given buttonbox
has more buttons in it than can fit, it will be displayed with a
scrollbar, so you can always scroll to the button you want.
Some buttons have pull-down menus. Pressing the pointer button while
the pointer is over one of these buttons will pull down a menu. Con‐
tinuing to hold the button down while moving the pointer over the menu,
called dragging the pointer, will highlight each selectable item on the
menu as the pointer passes over it. To select an item in the menu,
release the pointer button while the item is highlighted.
ADJUSTING THE RELATIVE SIZES OF AREAS
If you're not satisfied with the sizes of the various areas of the main
window, they can easily be changed. Near the right edge of the border
between each region is a black box, called a grip. Simply point to
that grip with the pointer, press a pointer button, drag up or down,
and release. Exactly what happens depends on which pointer button you
press.
If you drag with the pointer button 2, then only that border will move.
This mode is simplest to understand, but is the least useful.
If you drag with pointer button 1, then you are adjusting the size of
the window above. xmh will attempt to compensate by adjusting some
window below it.
If you drag with pointer button 3, then you are adjusting the size of
the window below. xmh will attempt to compensate by adjusting some
window above it.
All windows have a minimum and maximum size; you will never be allowed
to move a border past the point where it would make a window have an
invalid size.
PROCESSING YOUR MAIL
This section will define the concepts of the selected folder, current
folder, selected message(s), current message, selected sequence, and
current sequence. Each xmh command is introduced.
For use in customization, action procedures corresponding to each com‐
mand are given; these action procedures can be used to customize the
user interface, particularly the keyboard accelerators and the func‐
tionality of the buttons in the optional button box created by the
application resource CommandButtonCount.
FOLDERS AND SEQUENCES
A folder contains a collection of mail messages, or is empty. xmh sup‐
ports folders with one level of subfolders.
The selected folder is whichever foldername appears in the bar above
the folder buttons. Note that this is not necessarily the same folder
that is currently being viewed. To change the selected folder, just
press on the desired folder button with pointer button 1; if that
folder has subfolders, select a folder from the pull-down menu.
The Table of Contents, or toc, lists the messages in the viewed folder.
The title bar above the Table of Contents displays the name of the
viewed folder.
The toc title bar also displays the name of the viewed sequence of mes‐
sages within the viewed folder. Every folder has an implicit ``all''
sequence, which contains all the messages in the folder, and initially
the toc title bar will show ``inbox:all''.
FOLDER COMMANDS
The Folder command menu contains commands of a global nature:
Open Folder
Display the data in the selected folder. Thus, the selected
folder also becomes the viewed folder. The action procedure
corresponding to this command is XmhOpenFolder([foldername]).
It takes an optional argument as the name of a folder to select
and open; if no folder is specified, the selected folder is
opened. It may be specified as part of an event translation
from a folder menu button or from a folder menu, or as a bind‐
ing of a keyboard accelerator to any widget other than the
folder menu buttons or the folder menus.
Open Folder in New Window
Displays the selected folder in an additional main window.
Note, however, that you cannot reliably display the same folder
in more than one window at a time, although xmh will not pre‐
vent you from trying. The corresponding action is XmhOpen‐
FolderInNewWindow().
Create Folder
Create a new folder. You will be prompted for a name for the
new folder; to enter the name, move the pointer to the blank
box provided and type. Subfolders are created by specifying
the parent folder, a slash, and the subfolder name. For exam‐
ple, to create a folder named ``xmh'' which is a subfolder of
an existing folder named ``clients'', type ``clients/xmh''.
Click on the Okay button when finished, or just type Return;
click on Cancel to cancel this operation. The action corre‐
sponding to Create Folder is XmhCreateFolder().
Delete Folder
Destroy the selected folder. You will be asked to confirm this
action (see CONFIRMATION WINDOWS). Destroying a folder will
also destroy any subfolders of that folder. The corresponding
action is XmhDeleteFolder().
Close Window
Exits xmh, after first confirming that you won't lose any
changes; or, if selected from any additional xmh window, simply
closes that window. The corresponding action is XmhClose().
HIGHLIGHTED MESSAGES, SELECTED MESSAGES
AND THE CURRENT MESSAGE
It is possible to highlight a set of adjacent messages in the area of
the Table of Contents. To highlight a message, click on it with
pointer button 1. To highlight a range of messages, click on the first
one with pointer button 1 and on the last one with pointer button 3; or
press pointer button 1, drag, and release. To extend a range of
selected messages, use pointer button 3. To highlight all messages in
the table of contents, click rapidly three times with pointer button 1.
To cancel any selection in the table of contents, click rapidly twice.
The selected messages are the same as the highlighted messages, if any.
If no messages are highlighted, then the selected messages are consid‐
ered the same as the current message.
The current message is indicated by a `+' next to the message number.
It usually corresponds to the message currently being viewed. Upon
opening a new folder, for example, the current message will be differ‐
ent from the viewed message. When a message is viewed, the title bar
above the view will identify the message.
TABLE OF CONTENTS COMMANDS
The Table of Contents command menu contains commands which operate on
the open, or viewed, folder.
Incorporate New Mail
Add any new mail received to viewed folder, and set
the current message to be the first new message.
This command is selectable in the menu and will exe‐
cute only if the viewed folder is allowed to receive
new mail. By default, only ``inbox'' is allowed to
incorporate new mail. The corresponding action is
XmhIncorporateNewMail().
Commit Changes Execute all deletions, moves, and copies that have
been marked in this folder. The corresponding action
is XmhCommitChanges().
Pack Folder Renumber the messages in this folder so they start
with 1 and increment by 1. The corresponding action
is XmhPackFolder().
Sort Folder Sort the messages in this folder in chronological
order. (As a side effect, this may also pack the
folder.) The corresponding action is XmhSort‐
Folder().
Rescan Folder Rebuild the list of messages. This can be used when‐
ever you suspect that xmh's idea of what messages you
have is wrong. (In particular, this is necessary if
you change things using straight MH commands without
using xmh.) The corresponding action is XmhForceRes‐
can().
MESSAGE COMMANDS
The Message command menu contains commands which operate on the
selected message(s), or if there are no selected messages, the current
message.
Compose Message Composes a new message. A new window will be brought
up for composition; a description of it is given in
the COMPOSITION WINDOWS section below. This command
does not affect the current message. The correspond‐
ing action is XmhComposeMessage().
View Next Message View the first selected message. If no messages are
highlighted, view the current message. If current
message is already being viewed, view the first
unmarked message after the current message. The cor‐
responding action is XmhViewNextMessage().
View Previous View the last selected message. If no messages are
highlighted, view the current message. If current
message is already being viewed, view the first
unmarked message before the current message. The
corresponding action is XmhViewPrevious().
Delete Mark the selected messages for deletion. If no mes‐
sages are highlighted, mark the current message for
deletion and automatically display the next unmarked
message. The corresponding action is Xmh‐
MarkDelete().
Move Mark the selected messages to be moved into the cur‐
rently selected folder. (If the selected folder is
the same as the viewed folder, this command will just
beep.) If no messages are highlighted, mark the cur‐
rent message to be moved and display the next
unmarked message. The corresponding action is Xmh‐
MarkMove().
Copy as Link Mark the selected messages to be copied into the
selected folder. (If the selected folder is the same
as the viewed folder, this command will just beep.)
If no messages are highlighted, mark the current mes‐
sage to be copied. Note that messages are actually
linked, not copied; editing a message copied by xmh
will affect all copies of the message. The corre‐
sponding action is XmhMarkCopy().
Unmark Remove any of the above three marks from the selected
messages, or the current message, if none are high‐
lighted. The corresponding action is XmhUnmark().
View in New Create a new window containing only a view of the
first selected message, or the current message, if
none are highlighted. The corresponding action is
XmhViewInNewWindow().
Reply Create a composition window in reply to the first
selected message, or the current message, if none are
highlighted. The corresponding action is XmhReply().
Forward Create a composition window whose body is initialized
to contain an encapsulation of of the selected mes‐
sages, or the current message if none are high‐
lighted. The corresponding action is XmhForward().
Use as Composition
Create a composition window whose body is initialized
to be the contents of the first selected message, or
the current message if none are selected. Any
changes you make in the composition will be saved in
a new message in the ``drafts'' folder, and will not
change the original message. However, there is an
exception to this rule. If the message to be used as
composition was selected from the ``drafts'' folder,
(see BUGS), the changes will be reflected in the
original message (see COMPOSITION WINDOWS). The
action procedure corresponding to this command is
XmhUseAsComposition().
Print Print the selected messages, or the current message
if none are selected. xmh normally prints by invok‐
ing the enscript(1) command, but this can be custom‐
ized with the xmh application-specific resource
PrintCommand. The corresponding action is Xmh‐
Print().
SEQUENCE COMMANDS
The Sequence command menu contains commands pertaining to message
sequences (See MESSAGE-SEQUENCES), and a list of the message-sequences
defined for the currently viewed folder. The selected message-sequence
is indicated by a check mark in its entry in the margin of the menu.
To change the selected message-sequence, select a new message-sequence
from the sequence menu.
Pick Messages Define a new message-sequence. The corresponding
action is XmhPickMessages().
The following menu entries will be sensitive only if the current folder
has any message-sequences other than the ``all'' message-sequence.
Open Sequence Change the viewed sequence to be the same as the
selected sequence. The corresponding action is
XmhOpenSequence().
Add to Sequence Add the selected messages to the selected sequence.
The corresponding action is XmhAddToSequence().
Remove from Sequence
Remove the selected messages from the selected
sequence. The corresponding action is XmhRemoveFrom‐
Sequence().
Delete Sequence Remove the selected sequence entirely. The messages
themselves are not affected; they simply are no
longer grouped together to define a message-sequence.
The corresponding action is XmhDeleteSequence().
VIEW COMMANDS
Commands in the View menu and in the buttonboxes of view windows (which
result from the Message menu command View In New) correspond in func‐
tionality to commands of the same name in the Message menu, but they
operate on the viewed message rather than the selected messages or cur‐
rent message.
Close Window When the viewed message is in a separate view window,
this command will close the view, after confirming
the status of any unsaved edits. The corresponding
action procedure is XmhCloseView().
Reply Create a composition window in reply to the viewed
message. The related action procedure is XmhViewRe‐
ply().
Forward Create a composition window whose body is initialized
contain an encapsulation of the viewed message. The
corresponding action is XmhViewForward().
Use As Composition
Create a composition window whose body is initialized
to be the contents of the viewed message. Any
changes made in the composition window will be saved
in a new message in the ``drafts'' folder, and will
not change the original message. An exception: if
the viewed message was selected from the ``drafts''
folder, (see BUGS) the original message is edited.
The action procedure corresponding to this command is
XmhViewUseAsComposition().
Edit Message This command enables the direct editing of the viewed
message. The action procedure is XmhEditView().
Save Message This command is insensitive until the message has
been edited; when activated, edits will be saved to
the original message in the view. The corresponding
action is XmhSaveView().
Print Print the viewed message. xmh prints by invoking the
enscript(1) command, but this can be customized with
the application-specific resource PrintCommand. The
corresponding action procedure is XmhPrintView().
Delete Marks the viewed message for deletion. The corre‐
sponding action procedure is XmhViewMarkDelete().
OPTIONS
The Options menu contains one entry.
Read in Reverse
When selected, a check mark appears in the margin of this menu
entry. Read in Reverse will switch the meaning of the next and
previous messages, and will increment to the current message
marker in the opposite direction. This is useful if you want to
read your messages in the order of most recent first. The
option acts as a toggle; select it from the menu a second time
to undo the effect. The check mark appears when the option is
selected.
COMPOSITION WINDOWS
Composition windows are created by selecting Compose Message from the
Message command menu, or by selecting Reply or Forward or Use as Compo‐
sition from the Message or View command menu. These are used to com‐
pose mail messages. Aside from the normal text editing functions,
there are six command buttons associated with composition windows:
Close Window Close this composition window. If changes have been
made since the most recent Save or Send, you will be
asked to confirm losing them. The corresponding
action is XmhCloseView().
Send Send this composition. The corresponding action is
XmhSend().
New Headers Replace the current composition with an empty mes‐
sage. If changes have been made since the most
recent Send or Save, you will be asked to confirm
losing them. The corresponding action is XmhReset‐
Compose().
Compose Message Bring up another new composition window. The corre‐
sponding action is XmhComposeMessage().
Save Message Save this composition in your drafts folder. Then
you can safely close the composition. At some future
date, you can continue working on the composition by
opening the drafts folder, selecting the message, and
using the ``Use as Composition'' command. The corre‐
sponding action is XmhSave().
Insert Insert a related message into the composition. If
the composition window was created with a ``Reply''
command, the related message is the message being
replied to, otherwise no related message is defined
and this button is insensitive. The message may be
filtered before being inserted; see ReplyInsertFilter
under APPLICATION RESOURCES for more information.
The corresponding action is XmhInsert().
ACCELERATORS
Accelerators are shortcuts. They allow you to invoke commands without
using the menus, either from the keyboard or by using the pointer.
xmh defines pointer accelerators for common actions: To select and view
a message with a single click, use pointer button 2 on the message's
entry in the table of contents. To select and open a folder or a
sequence in a single action, make the folder or sequence selection with
pointer button 2.
To mark the highlighted messages, or current message if none have been
highlighted, to be moved to a folder in a single action, use pointer
button 3 to select the target folder and simultaneously mark the mes‐
sages. Similarly, selecting a sequence with pointer button 3 will add
the highlighted or current message(s) to that sequence. In both of
these operations, the selected folder or sequence and the viewed folder
or sequence are not changed.
xmh defines the following keyboard accelerators over the surface of the
main window, except in the view area while editing a message:
Meta-I Incorporate New Mail
Meta-C Commit Changes
Meta-R Rescan Folder
Meta-P Pack Folder
Meta-S Sort Folder
Meta-space View Next Message
Meta-c Mark Copy
Meta-d Mark Deleted
Meta-f Forward the selected or current message
Meta-m Mark Move
Meta-n View Next Message
Meta-p View Previous Message
Meta-r Reply to the selected or current message
Meta-u Unmark
Ctrl-V Scroll the table of contents forward
Meta-V Scroll the table of contents backward
Ctrl-v Scroll the view forward
Meta-v Scroll the view backward
TEXT EDITING COMMANDS
All of the text editing commands are actually defined by the Text wid‐
get in the Athena Widget Set. The commands may be bound to different
keys than the defaults described below through the X Toolkit Intrinsics
key re-binding mechanisms. See the X Toolkit Intrinsics and the Athena
Widget Set documentation for more details.
Whenever you are asked to enter any text, you will be using a standard
text editing interface. Various control and meta keystroke combina‐
tions are bound to a somewhat Emacs-like set of commands. In addition,
the pointer buttons may be used to select a portion of text or to move
the insertion point in the text. Pressing pointer button 1 causes the
insertion point to move to the pointer. Double-clicking button 1
selects a word, triple-clicking selects a line, quadruple-clicking
selects a paragraph, and clicking rapidly five times selects every‐
thing. Any selection may be extended in either direction by using
pointer button 3.
In the following, a line refers to one displayed row of characters in
the window. A paragraph refers to the text between carriage returns.
Text within a paragraph is broken into lines for display based on the
current width of the window. When a message is sent, text is broken
into lines based upon the values of the SendBreakWidth and SendWidth
application-specific resources.
The following keystroke combinations are defined:
Ctrl-a Beginning Of Line Meta-b Backward Word
Ctrl-b Backward Character Meta-f Forward Word
Ctrl-d Delete Next Character Meta-iInsert File
Ctrl-e End Of Line Meta-k Kill To End Of Paragraph
Ctrl-f Forward Character Meta-q Form Paragraph
Ctrl-g Multiply Reset Meta-v Previous Page
Ctrl-h Delete Previous Character Meta-yInsert Current Selection
Ctrl-j Newline And Indent Meta-z Scroll One Line Down
Ctrl-k Kill To End Of Line Meta-d Delete Next Word
Ctrl-l Redraw Display Meta-D Kill Word
Ctrl-m Newline Meta-h Delete Previous Word
Ctrl-n Next Line Meta-H Backward Kill Word
Ctrl-o Newline And Backup Meta-< Beginning Of File
Ctrl-p Previous Line Meta-> End Of File
Ctrl-r Search/Replace Backward Meta-]Forward Paragraph
Ctrl-s Search/Replace Forward Meta-[Backward Paragraph
Ctrl-t Transpose Characters
Ctrl-u Multiply by 4 Meta-Delete Delete Previous Word
Ctrl-v Next Page Meta-Shift DeleteKill Previous Word
Ctrl-w Kill Selection Meta-Backspace Delete Previous Word
Ctrl-y Unkill Meta-Shift BackspaceKill Previous Word
Ctrl-z Scroll One Line Up
In addition, the pointer may be used to copy and paste text:
Button 1 Down Start Selection
Button 1 MotionAdjust Selection
Button 1 Up End Selection (copy)
Button 2 Down Insert Current Selection (paste)
Button 3 Down Extend Current Selection
Button 3 MotionAdjust Selection
Button 3 Up End Selection (copy)
CONFIRMATION DIALOG BOXES
Whenever you press a button that may cause you to lose some work or is
otherwise dangerous, a popup dialog box will appear asking you to con‐
firm the action. This window will contain an ``Abort'' or ``No'' but‐
ton and a ``Confirm'' or ``Yes'' button. Pressing the ``No'' button
cancels the operation, and pressing the ``Yes'' will proceed with the
operation.
When xmh is run under a Release 6 session manager it will prompt the
user for confirmation during a checkpoint operation. The dialog box
asks whether any current changes should be committed (saved) during the
checkpoint. Responding ``Yes'' will have the same effect as pressing
the ``Commit Changes'' or ``Save Message'' buttons in the respective
folder and view windows. Responding ``No'' will cause the checkpoint
to continue successfully to completion without actually saving any
pending changes. If the session manager disallows user interaction
during the checkpoint a ``Yes'' response is assumed; i.e. all changes
will be committed during the checkpoint.
Some dialog boxes contain messages from MH. Occasionally when the mes‐
sage is more than one line long, not all of the text will be visible.
Clicking on the message field will cause the dialog box to resize so
that you can read the entire message.
MESSAGE-SEQUENCES
An MH message sequence is just a set of messages associated with some
name. They are local to a particular folder; two different folders can
have sequences with the same name. The sequence named ``all'' is pre‐
defined in every folder; it consists of the set of all messages in that
folder. As many as nine sequences may be defined for each folder,
including the predefined ``all'' sequence. (The sequence ``cur'' is
also usually defined for every folder; it consists of only the current
message. xmh hides ``cur'' from the user, instead placing a ``+'' by
the current message. Also, xmh does not support MH's``unseen''
sequence, so that one is also hidden from the user.)
The message sequences for a folder (including one for ``all'') are dis‐
played in the ``Sequence'' menu, below the sequence commands. The ta‐
ble of contents (also known as the ``toc'') is at any one time display‐
ing one message sequence. This is called the ``viewed sequence'', and
its name will be displayed in the toc title bar after the folder name.
Also, at any time one of the sequences in the menu will have a check
mark next to it. This is called the ``selected sequence''. Note that
the viewed sequence and the selected sequence are not necessarily the
same. (This all pretty much corresponds to the way folders work.)
The Open Sequence, Add to Sequence, Remove from Sequence, and Delete
Sequence commands are active only if the viewed folder contains mes‐
sage-sequences other than ``all'' sequence.
Note that none of the above actually affect whether a message is in the
folder. Remember that a sequence is a set of messages within the
folder; the above operations just affect what messages are in that set.
To create a new sequence, select the ``Pick'' menu entry. A new window
will appear, with lots of places to enter text. Basically, you can
describe the sequence's initial set of messages based on characteris‐
tics of the message. Thus, you can define a sequence to be all the
messages that were from a particular person, or with a particular sub‐
ject, and so on. You can also connect things up with boolean opera‐
tors, so you can select all things from ``weissman'' with a subject
containing ``xmh''.
The layout should be fairly obvious. The simplest cases are the easi‐
est: just point to the proper field and type. If you enter in more
than one field, it will only select messages which match all non-empty
fields.
The more complicated cases arise when you want things that match one
field or another one, but not necessarily both. That's what all the
``or'' buttons are for. If you want all things with subjects that
include ``xmh'' or ``xterm'', just press the ``or'' button next to the
``Subject:'' field. Another box will appear where you can enter
another subject.
If you want all things either from ``weissman'' or with subject
``xmh'', but not necessarily both, select the ``-Or-'' button. This
will essentially double the size of the form. You can then enter
``weissman'' in a from: box on the top half, and ``xmh'' in a subject:
box on the lower part.
If you select the ``Skip'' button, then only those messages that don't
match the fields on that row are included.
Finally, in the bottom part of the window will appear several more
boxes. One is the name of the sequence you're defining. (It defaults
to the name of the selected sequence when ``Pick'' was pressed, or to
``temp'' if ``all'' was the selected sequence.) Another box defines
which sequence to look through for potential members of this sequence;
it defaults to the viewed sequence when ``Pick'' was pressed.
Two more boxes define a date range; only messages within that date
range will be considered. These dates must be entered in RFC 822-style
format: each date is of the form ``dd mmm yy[yy] hh:mm:ss zzz'', where
dd is a one or two digit day of the month, mmm is the three-letter
abbreviation for a month, and yy[yy] is a year in either 2-digit or
4-digit format. The remaining fields are optional: hh, mm, and ss
specify a time of day, and zzz selects a time zone. Note that if the
time is left out, it defaults to midnight; thus if you select a range
of ``7 nov 86'' - ``8 nov 86'', you will only get messages from the
7th, as all messages on the 8th will have arrived after midnight.
Note: The 2-digit yy year date format is not year 2000 compliant and
will cause incorrect date information for dates beginning year 2000.
Use of MH version 6.8 or later with a 4-digit date format will ensure
year 2000 compliance of xmh.
``Date field'' specifies which field in the header to look at for this
date range; it defaults to ``Date''. If the sequence you're defining
already exists, you can optionally merge the old set with the new;
that's what the ``Yes'' and ``No'' buttons are all about. Finally, you
can ``OK'' the whole thing, or ``Cancel'' it.
In general, most people will rarely use these features. However, it's
nice to occasionally use ``Pick'' to find some messages, look through
them, and then hit ``Delete Sequence'' to put things back in their
original state.
WIDGET HIERARCHY
In order to specify resources, it is useful to know the hierarchy of
widgets which compose xmh. In the notation below, indentation indi‐
cates hierarchical structure. The widget class name is given first,
followed by the widget instance name. The application class name is
Xmh.
The hierarchy of the main toc and view window is identical for addi‐
tional toc and view windows, except that a TopLevelShell widget is
inserted in the hierarchy between the application shell and the Paned
widget.
Xmh xmh
Paned xmh
SimpleMenu folderMenu
SmeBSB open
SmeBSB openInNew
SmeBSB create
SmeBSB delete
SmeLine line
SmeBSB close
SimpleMenu tocMenu
SmeBSB inc
SmeBSB commit
SmeBSB pack
SmeBSB sort
SmeBSB rescan
SimpleMenu messageMenu
SmeBSB compose
SmeBSB next
SmeBSB prev
SmeBSB delete
SmeBSB move
SmeBSB copy
SmeBSB unmark
SmeBSB viewNew
SmeBSB reply
SmeBSB forward
SmeBSB useAsComp
SmeBSB print
SimpleMenu sequenceMenu
SmeBSB pick
SmeBSB openSeq
SmeBSB addToSeq
SmeBSB removeFromSeq
SmeBSB deleteSeq
SmeLine line
SmeBSB all
SimpleMenu viewMenu
SmeBSB reply
SmeBSB forward
SmeBSB useAsComp
SmeBSB edit
SmeBSB save
SmeBSB print
SimpleMenu optionMenu
SmeBSB reverse
Viewport.Core menuBox.clip
Box menuBox
MenuButton folderButton
MenuButton tocButton
MenuButton messageButton
MenuButton sequenceButton
MenuButton viewButton
MenuButton optionButton
Grip grip
Label folderTitlebar
Grip grip
Viewport.Core folders.clip
Box folders
MenuButton inbox
MenuButton drafts
SimpleMenu menu
SmeBSB <folder_name>
.
.
.
Grip grip
Label tocTitlebar
Grip grip
Text toc
Scrollbar vScrollbar
Grip grip
Label viewTitlebar
Grip grip
Text view
Scrollbar vScrollbar
Scrollbar hScrollbar
The hierarchy of the Create Folder popup dialog box:
TransientShell prompt
Dialog dialog
Label label
Text value
Command okay
Command cancel
The hierarchy of the Notice dialog box, which reports messages from MH:
TransientShell notice
Dialog dialog
Label label
Text value
Command confirm
The hierarchy of the Confirmation dialog box:
TransientShell confirm
Dialog dialog
Label label
Command yes
Command no
The hierarchy of the dialog box which reports errors:
TransientShell error
Dialog dialog
Label label
Command OK
The hierarchy of the composition window:
TopLevelShell xmh
Paned xmh
Label composeTitlebar
Text comp
Viewport.Core compButtons.clip
Box compButtons
Command close
Command send
Command reset
Command compose
Command save
Command insert
The hierarchy of the view window:
TopLevelShell xmh
Paned xmh
Label viewTitlebar
Text view
Viewport.Core viewButtons.clip
Box viewButtons
Command close
Command reply
Command forward
Command useAsComp
Command edit
Command save
Command print
Command delete
The hierarchy of the pick window:
(Unnamed widgets have no name.)
TopLevelShell xmh
Paned xmh
Label pickTitlebar
Viewport.Core pick.clip
Form form
Form groupform
The first 6 rows of the pick window have identical structure:
Form rowform
Toggle
Toggle
Label
Text
Command
Form rowform
Toggle
Toggle
Text
Text
Command
Form rowform
Command
Viewport.core pick.clip
Form form
From groupform
Form rowform
Label
Text
Label
Text
Form rowform
Label
Text
Label
Text
Label
Text
Form rowform
Label
Toggle
Toggle
Form rowform
Command
Command
APPLICATION-SPECIFIC RESOURCES
The application class name is Xmh. Application-specific resources are
listed below by name. Application-specific resource class names always
begin with an upper case character, but unless noted, are otherwise
identical to the instance names given below.
Any of these options may also be specified on the command line by using
the X Toolkit Intrinsics resource specification mechanism. Thus, to
run xmh showing all message headers,
% xmh-xrm '*HideBoringHeaders:off'
If TocGeometry, ViewGeometry, CompGeometry, or PickGeometry are not
specified, then the value of Geometry is used instead. If the result‐
ing height is not specified (e.g., "", "=500", "+0-0"), then the
default height of windows is calculated from fonts and line counts. If
the width is not specified (e.g., "", "=x300", "-0+0"), then half of
the display width is used. If unspecified, the height of a pick window
defaults to half the height of the display.
The following resources are defined:
banner A short string that is the default label of the folder, Table
of Contents, and view. The default is "xmh X Consortium
R6".
blockEventsOnBusy
Whether to disallow user input and show a busy cursor while xmh
is busy processing a command. If false, the user can `mouse
ahead' and type ahead; if true, user input is discarded when
processing lengthy mh commands. The default is true.
busyCursor
The name of the symbol used to represent the position of the
pointer, displayed if blockEventsOnBusy is true, when xmh is
processing a time-consuming command. The default is "watch".
busyPointerColor
The foreground color of the busy cursor. Default is XtDefault‐
Foreground.
checkFrequency
How often to check for new mail, make checkpoints, and rescan
the Table of Contents, in minutes. If checkNewMail is true,
xmh checks to see if you have new mail each interval. If
makeCheckpoints is true, checkpoints are made every fifth
interval. Also every fifth interval, the Table of Contents is
checked for inconsistencies with the file system, and rescanned
if out of date. To prevent all of these checks from occurring,
set CheckFrequency to 0. The default is 1. This resource is
retained for backward compatibility with user resource files;
see also checkpointInterval, mailInterval, and rescanInterval.
checkNewMail
If true, xmh will check at regular intervals to see if new mail
has arrived for any of the top level folders and any opened
subfolders. A visual indication will be given if new mail is
waiting to be incorporated into a top level folder. Default is
true. The interval can be adjusted with mailInterval.
checkpointInterval (class Interval)
Specifies in minutes how often to make checkpoints of volatile
state, if makeCheckpoints is true. The default is 5 times the
value of checkFrequency.
checkpointNameFormat
Specifies how checkpointed files are to be named. The value of
this resource will be used to compose a file name by inserting
the message number as a string in place of the required single
occurance of `%d'. If the value of the resource is the empty
string, or if no `%d' occurs in the string, or if "%d" is the
value of the resource, the default will be used instead. The
default is "%d.CKP". Checkpointing is done in the folder of
origin unless an absolute pathname is given. xmh does not
assist the user in recovering checkpoints, nor does it provide
for removal of the checkpoint files.
commandButtonCount
The number of command buttons to create in a button box in
between the toc and the view areas of the main window. xmh
will create these buttons with the names button1, button2 and
so on, in a box with the name commandBox. The default is 0.
xmh users can specify labels and actions for the buttons in a
private resource file; see the section ACTIONS AND INTERFACE
CUSTOMIZATION.
compGeometry
Initial geometry for windows containing compositions.
cursor The name of the symbol used to represent the pointer. Default
is ``left_ptr''.
debug Whether or not to print information to stderr as xmh runs.
Default is false.
draftsFolder
The folder used for message drafts. Default is ``drafts''.
geometry
Default geometry to use. Default is none.
hideBoringHeaders
If ``on'', then xmh will attempt to skip uninteresting header
lines within messages by scrolling them off the top of the
view. Default is ``on''.
initialFolder
Which folder to display on startup. May also be set with the
command-line option -initial. Default is ``inbox''.
initialIncFile
The absolute path name of your incoming mail drop file. In
some installations, for example those using the Post Office
Protocol, no file is appropriate. In this case, initialIncFile
should not be specified, or may be specified as the empty
string, and inc will be invoked without a -file argument. By
default, this resource has no value. This resource is ignored
if xmh finds an .xmhcheck file; see the section on multiple
mail drops.
mailInterval (class Interval)
Specifies the interval in minutes at which the mail should be
checked, if mailWaitingFlag or checkNewMail is true. The
default is the value of checkFrequency.
mailPath
The full path prefix for locating your mail folders. May also
be set with the command line option, -path. The default is the
Path component in the MH profile, or ``$HOME/Mail'' if none.
mailWaitingFlag
If true, xmh will attempt to set an indication in its icon when
new mail is waiting to be retrieved. If mailWaitingFlag is
true, then checkNewMail is assumed to be true as well. The
-flag command line option is a quick way to turn on this
resource.
makeCheckpoints
If true, xmh will attempt to save checkpoints of volatile
edits. The default is false. The frequency of checkpointing
is controlled by the resource checkpointInterval. For the
location of checkpointing, see checkpointNameFormat.
mhPath What directory in which to find the MH commands. If a command
isn't found in the user's path, then the path specified here is
used. Default is ``/usr/local/mh6''.
newMailBitmap (class NewMailBitmap)
The bitmap to show in the folder button when a folder has new
mail. The default is ``black6''.
newMailIconBitmap (class NewMailBitmap)
The bitmap suggested to the window manager for the icon when
any folder has new mail. The default is ``flagup''.
noMailBitmap (class NoMailBitmap)
The bitmap to show in the folder button when a folder has no
new mail. The default is ``box6''.
noMailIconBitmap (class NoMailBitmap)
The bitmap suggested to the window manager for the icon when no
folders have new mail. The default is ``flagdown''.
pickGeometry
Initial geometry for pick windows.
pointerColor
The foreground color of the pointer. Default is XtDefaultFore‐
ground.
prefixWmAndIconName
Whether to prefix the window and icon name with "xmh: ".
Default is true.
printCommand
An sh command to execute to print a message. Note that stdout
and stderr must be specifically redirected. If a message or
range of messages is selected for printing, the full file paths
of each message file are appended to the specified print com‐
mand. The default is ``enscript >/dev/null 2>/dev/null''.
replyInsertFilter
An sh command to be executed when the Insert button is acti‐
vated in a composition window. The full path and filename of
the source message is appended to the command before being
passed to sh(1). The default filter is cat; i.e. it inserts
the entire message into the composition. Interesting filters
are: sed 's/^/> /' or awk -e '{print " " $0}' or <mh direc‐
tory>/lib/mhl -form mhl.body.
rescanInterval (class Interval)
How often to check the Table of Contents of currently viewed
folders and of folders with messages currently being viewed,
and to update the Table of Contents if xmh sees inconsistencies
with the file system in these folders. The default is 5 times
the value of checkFrequency.
reverseReadOrder
When true, the next message will be the message prior to the
current message in the table of contents, and the previous mes‐
sage will be the message after the current message in the table
of contents. The default is false.
sendBreakWidth
When a message is sent from xmh, lines longer than this value
will be split into multiple lines, each of which is no longer
than SendWidth. This value may be overridden for a single mes‐
sage by inserting an additional line in the message header of
the form SendBreakWidth: value. This line will be removed from
the header before the message is sent. The default is 2000 (to
allow for sending mail containing source patches).
sendWidth
When a message is sent from xmh, lines longer than SendBreak‐
Width characters will be split into multiple lines, each of
which is no longer than this value. This value may be overrid‐
den for a single message by inserting an additional line in the
message header of the form SendWidth: value. This line will be
removed from the header before the message is sent. The
default is 72.
showOnInc
Whether to automatically show the current message after incor‐
porating new mail. Default is true.
skipCopied
Whether to skip over messages marked for copying when using
``View Next Message'' and ``View Previous Message''. Default
is true.
skipDeleted
Whether to skip over messages marked for deletion when using
``View Next Message'' and ``View Previous Message''. Default
is true.
skipMoved
Whether to skip over messages marked for moving to other fold‐
ers when using ``View Next Message'' and ``View Previous Mes‐
sage''. Default is true.
stickyMenu
If true, when popup command menus are used, the most recently
selected entry will be under the cursor when the menu pops up.
Default is false. See the file clients/xmh/Xmh.sample for an
example of how to specify resources for popup command menus.
tempDir Directory for xmh to store temporary files. For privacy, a
user might want to change this to a private directory. Default
is ``/tmp''.
tocGeometry
Initial geometry for main xmh toc and view windows.
tocPercentage
The percentage of the main window that is used to display the
Table of Contents. Default is 33.
tocWidth
How many characters to generate for each message in a folder's
table of contents. Default is 100. Use less if the geometry
of the main xmh window results in the listing being clipped at
the right hand boundary, or if you plan to use mhl a lot,
because it will be faster, and the extra characters may not be
useful.
viewGeometry
Initial geometry for windows showing a view of a message.
MULTIPLE MAIL DROPS
Users may need to incorporate mail from multiple spool files or mail
drops. If incoming mail is forwarded to the MH slocal program, it can
be sorted as specified by the user into multiple incoming mail drops.
Refer to the MH man page for slocal to learn how to specify fowarding
and the automatic sorting of incoming mail in a .maildelivery file.
To inform xmh about the various mail drops, create a file in your home
directory called .xmhcheck. In this file, a mapping between existing
folder names and mail drops is created by giving a folder name followed
by the absolute pathname of the mail drop site, with some white space
separating them, one mapping per line. xmh will read this file whether
or not resources are set for notification of new mail arrival, and will
allow incorporation of new mail into any folder with a mail drop. xmh
will invoke inc with the -file argument, and if xmh has been requested
to check for new mail, it will check directly, instead of using msgchk.
An example of .xmhcheck file format, for the folders ``inbox'' and
``xpert'':
inbox /usr/spool/mail/converse
xpert /users/converse/maildrops/xpert
ACTIONS AND INTERFACE CUSTOMIZATION
Because xmh provides action procedures which correspond to command
functionality and installs accelerators, users can customize accelera‐
tors and new button functionality in a private resource file. For
examples of specifying customized resources, see the file
mit/clients/xmh/Xmh.sample. To understand the syntax, see the Appendix
of the X Toolkit Intrinsics specification on Translation Table Syntax,
and any general explanation of using and specifying X resources.
Unpredictable results can occur if actions are bound to events or wid‐
gets for which they were not designed.
Here's an example of how to bind actions to your own xmh buttons, and
how to redefine the default accelerators so that the Meta key is not
required, in case you don't have access to the sample file mentioned
above.
! To create buttons in the middle of the main window and give them semantics:
Xmh*CommandButtonCount: 5
Xmh*commandBox.button1.label: Inc
Xmh*commandBox.button1.translations: #override\
<Btn1Down>,<Btn1Up>: XmhIncorporateNewMail()unset()
Xmh*commandBox.button2.label: Compose
Xmh*commandBox.button2.translations: #override\
<Btn1Down>,<Btn1Up>: XmhComposeMessage()unset()
Xmh*commandBox.button3.label: Next
Xmh*commandBox.button3.translations: #override\
<Btn1Down>,<Btn1Up>: XmhViewNextMessage()unset()
Xmh*commandBox.button4.label: Delete
Xmh*commandBox.button4.translations: #override\
<Btn1Down>,<Btn1Up>: XmhMarkDelete()unset()
Xmh*commandBox.button5.label: Commit
Xmh*commandBox.button5.translations: #override\
<Btn1Down>,<Btn1Up>: XmhCommitChanges()unset()
! To redefine the accelerator bindings to exclude modifier keys,
! and add your own keyboard accelerator for Compose Message:
Xmh*tocMenu.accelerators: #override\n\
!:<Key>I: XmhIncorporateNewMail()\n\
!:<Key>C: XmhCommitChanges()\n\
!:<Key>R: XmhForceRescan()\n\
!:<Key>P: XmhPackFolder()\n\
!:<Key>S: XmhSortFolder()\n
Xmh*messageMenu.accelerators: #override\n\
!:<Key>E: XmhComposeMessage()\n\
!<Key>space: XmhViewNextMessage()\n\
!:<Key>c: XmhMarkCopy()\n\
!:<Key>d: XmhMarkDelete()\n\
!:<Key>f: XmhForward()\n\
!:<Key>m: XmhMarkMove()\n\
!:<Key>n: XmhViewNextMessage()\n\
!:<Key>p: XmhViewPreviousMessage()\n\
!:<Key>r: XmhReply()\n\
!:<Key>u: XmhUnmark()\n
xmh provides action procedures which correspond to entries in the com‐
mand menus; these are given in the sections describing menu commmands,
not here. In addition to the actions corresponding to commands in the
menus, these action routines are defined:
XmhPushFolder([foldername, ...])
This action pushes each of its argument(s) onto a stack of
foldernames. If no arguments are given, the selected folder
is pushed onto the stack.
XmhPopFolder()
This action pops one foldername from the stack and sets the
selected folder.
XmhPopupFolderMenu()
This action should always be taken when the user selects a
folder button. A folder button represents a folder and zero
or more subfolders. The menu of subfolders is built upon the
first reference, by this routine. If there are no subfold‐
ers, this routine will mark the folder as having no subfold‐
ers, and no menu will be built. In that case the menu button
emulates a toggle button. When subfolders exist, the menu
will popup, using the menu button action PopupMenu().
XmhSetCurrentFolder()
This action allows menu buttons to emulate toggle buttons in
the function of selecting a folder. This action is for menu
button widgets only, and sets the selected folder.
XmhLeaveFolderButton()
This action ensures that the menu button behaves properly
when the user moves the pointer out of the menu button win‐
dow.
XmhPushSequence([sequencename, ...])
This action pushes each of its arguments onto the stack of
sequence names. If no arguments are given, the selected
sequence is pushed onto the stack.
XmhPopSequence()
This action pops one sequence name from the stack of sequence
names, which then becomes the selected sequence.
XmhPromptOkayAction()
This action is equivalent to pressing the okay button in the
Create Folder popup.
XmhReloadSeqLists()
This action rescans the contents of the public MH sequences
for the currently opened folder and updates the sequence menu
if necessary.
XmhShellCommand( parameter [, parameter])
At least one parameter must be specified. The parameters
will be concatenated with a space character separator, into a
single string, and the list of selected messsages, or if no
messages are selected, the current message, will be appended
to the string of parameters. The string will be executed as
a shell command. The messages are always given as absolute
pathnames. It is an error to cause this action to execute
when there are no selected messages and no current message.
XmhCheckForNewMail()
This action will check all mail drops known to xmh. If no
mail drops have been specified by the user either through the
.xmhcheck file or by the initialIncFile resource, the MH com‐
mand msgchk is used to check for new mail, otherwise, xmh
checks directly.
XmhWMProtocols([wm_delete_window] [wm_save_yourself])
This action is responsible for participation in window man‐
ager communication protocols. It responds to delete window
and save yourself messages. The user can cause xmh to
respond to one or both of these protocols, exactly as if the
window manager had made the request, by invoking the action
with the appropriate parameters. The action is insensitive
to the case of the string parameters. If the event received
is a ClientMessage event and parameters are present, at least
one of the parameters must correspond to the protocol
requested by the event for the request to be honored by xmh.
CUSTOMIZATION USING MH
The initial text displayed in a composition window is generated by exe‐
cuting the corresponding MH command; i.e. comp, repl, or forw, and
therefore message components may be customized as specified for those
commands. comp is executed only once per invocation of xmh and the
message template is re-used for every successive new composition.
xmh uses MH commands, including inc, msgchk, comp, send, repl, forw,
refile, rmm, pick, pack, sort, and scan. Some flags for these commands
can be specified in the MH profile; xmh may override them. The appli‐
cation resource debug can be set to true to see how xmh uses MH com‐
mands.
ENVIRONMENT
HOME - users's home directory
MH - to get the location of the MH profile file
FILES
~/.mh_profile - MH profile, used if the MH environment variable is not
set
~/Mail - directory of folders, used if the MH profile cannot be found
~/.xmhcheck - optional, for multiple mail drops in cooperation with
slocal.
/usr/local/mh6 - MH commands, as a last resort, see mhPath.
~/Mail/<folder>/.xmhcache - scan output in each folder
~/Mail/<folder>/.mh_sequences - sequence definitions, in each folder
/tmp - temporary files, see tempDir.
SEE ALSOX11(7), xrdb(1), enscript(1),
X Toolkit Intrinsics, Athena Widget Set
At least one book has been published about MH and xmh.
BUGS
- When the user closes a window, all windows which are transient for
that window should also be closed by xmh.
- When XmhUseAsComposition and XmhViewUseAsComposition operate on mes‐
sages in the DraftsFolder, xmh disallows editing of the composition if
the same message is also being viewed in another window.
- Occasionally after committing changes, the table of contents will
appear to be completely blank when there are actually messages present.
When this happens, refreshing the display, or typing Control-L in the
table of contents, will often cause the correct listing to appear. If
this doesn't work, force a rescan of the folder.
- Should recognize and use the ``unseen'' message-sequence.
- Should determine by itself if the user hasn't used MH before, and
offer to create the .mh_profile, instead of hanging on inc.
- A few commands are missing (rename folder, resend message).
- WM_DELETE_WINDOW protocol doesn't work right when requesting deletion
of the first toc and view, while trying to keep other xmh windows
around.
- Doesn't support annotations when replying to messages.
- Doesn't allow folders to be shared without write permission.
- Doesn't recognize private sequences.
- MH will report that the .mh_sequences file is poorly formatted if any
sequence definition in a particular folder contains more than BUFSIZ
characters. xmh tries to capture these messages and display them when
they occur, but it cannot correct the problem.
- Should save a temporary checkpoint file rather than requiring changes
to be committed in the non-shutdown case.
AUTHOR
Terry Weissman, formerly of Digital Western Research Laboratory
Donna Converse, MIT X Consortium
X Version 11 Release 6 xmh(1)
