DOKK / manpages / debian 11 / mmh / inc.1mh.en
INC(1mh) [mmh-0.4] INC(1mh)

inc - incorporate new mail

inc [+folder] [-audit audit-file] [-noaudit] [-changecur | -nochangecur] [-form formfile] [-file name] [-silent | -nosilent] [-truncate | -notruncate] [-width columns] [-Version] [-help]

Inc incorporates mail from the user's incoming mail drop into an mh folder.

You may specify which folder to use with +folder. If no folder is specified, then inc will use either the folder given by a (non-empty) `Inbox' entry in the user's profile, or the folder named `inbox'. If the specified (or default) folder doesn't exist, the user will (in -nosilent mode) be queried prior to its creation.

When the new messages are incorporated into the folder, they are assigned numbers starting with the next highest number for the folder. As the messages are processed, a scan listing of the new mail is produced.

If the user's profile contains a `Msg-Protect: nnn' entry, it will be used as the protection on the newly created messages, otherwise the mmh default of 0644 will be used. For all subsequent operations on these messages, this initially assigned protection will be preserved.

If the switch -audit audit-file is specified (usually as a default switch in the profile), then inc will append a header line and a line per message to the end of the specified audit-file with the format:

<<inc>> date
<scan line for first message>
<scan line for second message>
<etc.>

This is useful for keeping track of volume and source of incoming mail. Eventually, repl, forw, comp, and dist may also produce audits to this (or another) file, perhaps with `Message-Id' information to keep an exact correspondence history. `Audit-file' will be in the current directory unless a full path is specified.

Inc will incorporate even improperly formatted messages into the user's mh folder, inserting a blank line prior to the offending component and printing a comment identifying the bad message.

In all cases, the user's mail drop will be zeroed, unless the -notruncate switch is given.

If the profile entry `Unseen-Sequence' is present and non-empty, then inc will add each of the newly incorporated messages to each sequence named by the profile entry. Inc will not zero each sequence prior to adding messages.

The interpretation of the -form formatfile, and -width columns switches is the same as in scan.

By using the -file name switch, one can direct inc to incorporate messages from a file other than the user's maildrop. In particular, if name is `-' then inc will read messages from standard input. Note that the named file will NOT be zeroed, unless the -truncate switch is given.

If the environment variable $MAILDROP is set, then inc uses it as the location of the user's maildrop instead of the default (the -file name switch still overrides this, however). If this environment variable is not set, then inc will consult the profile entry `MailDrop' for this information. If the value found is not absolute, then it is interpreted relative to the user's mh directory. If the value is not found, then inc will look in the standard system location for the user's maildrop.

The -silent switch directs inc to be quiet and not ask any questions at all. This is useful for putting inc in the background and going on to other things.

^$HOME/.mmh/profile~^The user profile
^/var/mail/$USER~^Location of mail drop

^Path:~^To determine the user's mail storage
^Alternate-Mailboxes:~^To determine the user's mailboxes
^Inbox:~^To determine the inbox, default `inbox'
^Folder-Protect:~^To set mode when creating a new folder
^Msg-Protect:~^To set mode when creating a new message and audit-file
^Unseen-Sequence:~^To name sequences denoting unseen messages

scan(1), mh-mail(5)

`+folder' defaulted by `Inbox' above
`-noaudit'
`-changecur'
`-form' defaulted as described above
`-nosilent'
`-truncate' if `-file name' not given, `-notruncate' otherwise
`-width' defaulted to the width of the terminal

The folder into which messages are being incorporated will become the current folder. The first message incorporated will become the current message, unless the -nochangecur option is specified. This leaves the context ready for a show of the first new message.

2019-01-06 MH.6.8