The files written by packf and rcvpack can be handled by the MH mail shell, msh. msh may also be able to read your system mailbox.
The commands your msh supports depend on your msh version. Some of the commands don't have all the features the corresponding MH command does. Check your online manual page, type ? for help at an msh prompt, or just try the command -- if what you want won't work, msh will tell you. The error messages start with say what:.)
Here's a sample short msh session:
% msh Reading ./msgbox, currently at message 1 of 4 (msh) scan 1+ 04/24 mary@hahvahd.edu rcvtty -- how do I use it?<<I've been 2 11/23 Al Bok Query about "repl -query"<<I have a q 3 02/09 "Wilbur, Orville" X Terminal Presentation/Demonstration 4 02/11 To:"Wilbur, Orvil Re: X Terminal Presentation/Demonstra (msh) show (Message 1) ...Message 1 appears... (msh) rmm (msh) refile 2 +questions Create folder /yourMHdir/questions? y (msh) quit Update file "./msgbox"? y %By default, msh reads a file named msgbox in your current directory. You can use a different filename by typing -file packedfile on the msh command line. One thing you might not expect is that refile does not write another packf format file. Instead, it writes to a standard MH folder. This is a nice way to move some messages out of a packed message file. To leave, type q or quit. msh will ask whether changes you've made, with commands like rmm and refile, should be made permanent. If you answer n, your packed message file won't be modified.
# Put all incoming mail into $HOME/msgbox for msh: * - ^ ? "/usr/local/lib/mh/rcvpack msgbox"In MH 6.8 and above, the next version will be more efficient:
# Put all incoming mail into $HOME/msgbox for msh: * - mbox ? msgbox
If inc uses POP to incorporate mail from a remote server, you can use inc -pack filename to incorporate new mail into a file that msh can read. For example, inc -pack msgbox would write to msgbox.
[Table of Contents] [Index] [Previous: Pack Messages into a File] [Next: Chapter Introduction: Making MH Work Your Way]
This file is from the third edition of the book MH & xmh: Email for Users & Programmers, ISBN 1-56592-093-7, by Jerry Peek. Copyright © 1991, 1992, 1995 by O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. This file is freely-available; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation. For more information, see the file copying.htm.
Suggestions are welcome: Jerry Peek <jpeek@jpeek.com>