1MHSTORE(1) [nmh-1.3] MHSTORE(1)
2
6 mhstore - store contents of MIME messages into files
7
9 mhstore [+folder] [msgs] [-file file] [-part number] ... [-type con‐
10 tent] ... [-auto | -noauto] [-verbose | -noverbose] [-rcache pol‐
11 icy] [-wcache policy] [-check | -nocheck] [-version] [-help]
12
14 The mhstore command allows you to store the contents of a collection of
15 MIME (multi-media) messages into files or other messages.
16 mhstore manipulates multi-media messages as specified in RFC-2045 thru
18 RFC-2049.
19 By default, mhstore will store all the parts of each message. Each
21 part will be store in a separate file. The header fields of the mes‐
22 sage are not stored. By using the -part and -type switches, you may
23 limit the scope of mhstore to particular subparts (of a multipart con‐
24 tent) and/or particular content types.
25 The option -file file directs mhstore to use the specified file as the
27 source message, rather than a message from a folder. If you specify
28 this file as “-”, then mhstore will accept the source message on the
29 standard input. Note that the file, or input from standard input
30 should be a validly formatted message, just like any other nmh message.
31 It should NOT be in mail drop format (to convert a file in mail drop
32 format to a folder of nmh messages, see inc(1)).
33 A part specification consists of a series of numbers separated by dots.
35 For example, in a multipart content containing three parts, these would
36 be named as 1, 2, and 3, respectively. If part 2 was also a multipart
37 content containing two parts, these would be named as 2.1 and 2.2,
38 respectively. Note that the -part switch is effective for only mes‐
39 sages containing a multipart content. If a message has some other kind
40 of content, or if the part is itself another multipart content, the
41 -part switch will not prevent the content from being acted upon.
42 A content specification consists of a content type and a subtype. The
44 initial list of “standard” content types and subtypes can be found in
45 RFC-2046.
46 A list of commonly used contents is briefly reproduced here:
48 Type Subtypes
50 ---- --------
51 text plain, enriched
52 multipart mixed, alternative, digest, parallel
53 message rfc822, partial, external-body
54 application octet-stream, postscript
55 image jpeg, gif, png
56 audio basic
57 video mpeg
58 A legal MIME message must contain a subtype specification.
60 To specify a content, regardless of its subtype, just use the name of
62 the content, e.g., “audio”. To specify a specific subtype, separate
63 the two with a slash, e.g., “audio/basic”. Note that regardless of the
64 values given to the -type switch, a multipart content (of any subtype
65 listed above) is always acted upon. Further note that if the -type
66 switch is used, and it is desirable to act on a message/external-body
67 content, then the -type switch must be used twice: once for mes‐
68 sage/external-body and once for the content externally referenced.
69 Checking the Contents
71 The -check switch tells mhstore to check each content for an integrity
72 checksum. If a content has such a checksum (specified as a Content-MD5
73 header field), then mhstore will attempt to verify the integrity of the
74 content.
75 Storing the Contents
77 The mhstore will store the contents of the named messages in “native”
78 (decoded) format. Two things must be determined: the directory to
79 store the content, and the filenames. Files are written in the direc‐
80 tory given by the “nmh-storage” profile entry, e.g.,
81 nmh-storage: /tmp
83 If this entry isn't present, the current working directory is used.
85 If the -auto switch is given, then mhstore will check if the message
87 contains information indicating the filename that should be used to
88 store the content. This information should be specified as the
89 attribute “name=filename” in the “Content-Type” header for the content
90 you are storing. For security reasons, this filename will be ignored
91 if it begins with the character '/', '.', '|', or this switch is not
92 the default, and it is recommended that you do NOT put the -auto switch
93 in your .mh_profile file.
94 If the -auto switch is not given (or is being ignored for security rea‐
96 sons) then mhstore will look in the user's profile for a “formatting
97 string” to determine how the different contents should be stored.
98 First, mhstore will look for an entry of the form:
99 mhstore-store-<type>/<subtype>
101 to determine the formatting string. If this isn't found, mhstore will
103 look for an entry of the form:
104 mhstore-store-<type>
106 to determine the formatting string.
108 If the formatting string starts with a “+” character, then content is
110 stored in the named folder. A formatting string consisting solely of a
111 “+” character is interpreted to be the current folder.
112 If the formatting string consists solely of a “-” character, then the
114 content is sent to the standard output.
115 If the formatting string starts with a '|', then the display string
117 will represent a command for mhstore to execute which should ultimately
118 store the content. The content will be passed to the standard input of
119 the command. Before the command is executed, mhstore will change to
120 the appropriate directory, and any escapes (given below) in the display
121 string will be expanded.
122 Otherwise the formatting string will represent a pathname in which to
124 store the content. If the formatting string starts with a '/', then
125 the content will be stored in the full path given, else the file name
126 will be relative to the value of “nmh-storage” or the current working
127 directory. Any escapes (given below) will be expanded, except for the
128 a-escape.
129 A command or pathname formatting string may contain the following
131 escapes. If the content isn't part of a multipart (of any subtype
132 listed above) content, the p-escapes are ignored.
133 %a Parameters from Content-type (only valid with command)
135 %m Insert message number
136 %P Insert part number with leading dot
137 %p Insert part number without leading dot
138 %t Insert content type
139 %s Insert content subtype
140 %% Insert character %
141 If no formatting string is found, mhstore will check to see if the con‐
143 tent is application/octet-stream with parameter “type=tar”. If so,
144 mhstore will choose an appropriate filename. If the content is not
145 application/octet-stream, then mhstore will check to see if the content
146 is a message. If so, mhstore will use the value “+”. As a last
147 resort, mhstore will use the value “%m%P.%s”.
148 Example profile entries might be:
150 mhstore-store-text: %m%P.txt
152 mhstore-store-text: +inbox
153 mhstore-store-message/partial: +
154 mhstore-store-audio/basic: | raw2audio -e ulaw -s 8000 -c 1 > %m%P.au
155 mhstore-store-image/jpeg: %m%P.jpg
156 mhstore-store-application/PostScript: %m%P.ps
157 Reassembling Messages of Type message/partial
159 mhstore is also able to reassemble messages that have been split into
160 multiple messages of type “message/partial”.
161 When asked to store a content containing a partial message, mhstore
163 will try to locate all of the portions and combine them accordingly.
164 The default is to store the combined parts as a new message in the cur‐
165 rent folder, although this can be changed using formatting strings as
166 discussed above. Thus, if someone has sent you a message in several
167 parts (such as the output from sendfiles), you can easily reassemble
168 them all into a single message in the following fashion:
169 % mhlist 5-8
171 msg part type/subtype size description
172 5 message/partial 47K part 1 of 4
173 6 message/partial 47K part 2 of 4
174 7 message/partial 47K part 3 of 4
175 8 message/partial 18K part 4 of 4
176 % mhstore 5-8
177 reassembling partials 5,6,7,8 to folder inbox as message 9
178 % mhlist -verbose 9
179 msg part type/subtype size description
180 9 application/octet-stream 118K
181 (extract with uncompress | tar xvpf -)
182 type=tar
183 conversions=compress
184 This will store exactly one message, containing the sum of the parts.
186 It doesn't matter whether the partials are specified in order, since
187 mhstore will sort the partials, so that they are combined in the cor‐
188 rect order. But if mhstore can not locate every partial necessary to
189 reassemble the message, it will not store anything.
190 External Access
192 For contents of type message/external-body, mhstore supports these
193 access-types:
194 · afs
196 · anon-ftp
198 · ftp
200 · local-file
202 · mail-server
204 For the “anon-ftp” and “ftp” access types, mhstore will look for the
206 “nmh-access-ftp” profile entry, e.g.,
207 nmh-access-ftp: myftp.sh
209 to determine the pathname of a program to perform the FTP retrieval.
211 This program is invoked with these arguments:
212 domain name of FTP-site
214 username
215 password
216 remote directory
217 remote filename
218 local filename
219 “ascii” or “binary”
220 The program should terminate with an exit status of zero if the
222 retrieval is successful, and a non-zero exit status otherwise.
223 If this entry is not provided, then mhstore will use a simple built-in
225 FTP client to perform the retrieval.
226 The Content Cache
228 When mhstore encounters an external content containing a “Content-ID:”
229 field, and if the content allows caching, then depending on the caching
230 behavior of mhstore, the content might be read from or written to a
231 cache.
232 The caching behavior of mhstore is controlled with the -rcache and
234 -wcache switches, which define the policy for reading from, and writing
235 to, the cache, respectively. One of four policies may be specified:
236 “public”, indicating that mhstore should make use of a publically-
237 accessible content cache; “private”, indicating that mhstore should
238 make use of the user's private content cache; “never”, indicating that
239 mhstore should never make use of caching; and, “ask”, indicating that
240 mhstore should ask the user.
241 There are two directories where contents may be cached: the profile
243 entry “nmh-cache” names a directory containing world-readable contents,
244 and, the profile entry “nmh-private-cache” names a directory containing
245 private contents. The former should be an absolute (rooted) directory
246 name.
247 For example,
249 nmh-cache: /tmp
251 might be used if you didn't care that the cache got wiped after each
253 reboot of the system. The latter is interpreted relative to the user's
254 nmh directory, if not rooted, e.g.,
255 nmh-private-cache: .cache
257 (which is the default value).
259 User Environment
261 Because the display environment in which mhstore operates may vary for
262 different machines, mhstore will look for the environment variable If
263 present, this specifies the name of an additional user profile which
264 should be read. Hence, when a user logs in on a particular machine,
265 this environment variable should be set to refer to a file containing
266 definitions useful for that machine. Finally, mhstore will attempt to
267 consult one other additional user profile, e.g.,
268 /etc/nmh/mhn.defaults
270 which is created automatically during nmh installation.
272
275 $HOME/.mh_profile The user profile
276 $MHSTORE Additional profile entries
277 /etc/nmh/mhn.defaults System default MIME profile entries
278
281 Path: To determine the user's nmh directory
282 Current-Folder: To find the default current folder
283 nmh-access-ftp: Program to retrieve contents via FTP
284 nmh-cache Public directory to store cached external contents
285 nmh-private-cache Personal directory to store cached external contents
286 nmh-storage Directory to store contents
287 mhstore-store-<type>*Template for storing contents
288
291 mhbuild(1), mhlist(1), mhshow(1), sendfiles(1)
292
295 `+folder' defaults to the current folder
296 `msgs' defaults to cur
297 `-noauto'
298 `-nocheck'
299 `-rcacheask'
300 `-wcacheask'
301 `-noverbose'
302
305 If a folder is given, it will become the current folder. The last mes‐
306 sage selected will become the current message.
307
310 Partial messages contained within a multipart content are not reassem‐
311 bled.
312MH.6.8 1 June 2008 MHSTORE(1)