DOKK / manpages / debian 11 / nmh / inc.1mh.en
INC(1mh) INC(1mh)

inc - incorporate new mail to an nmh folder

inc [-help] [-version] [+folder] [-audit audit-file] [-noaudit] [-changecur | -nochangecur] [-form formfile] [-format string] [-file name] [-silent | -nosilent] [-truncate | -notruncate] [-width columns] [-host hostname] [-port portname/number] [-user username] [-proxy command] [-sasl | -nosasl] [-saslmech mechanism] [-authservice service] [-initialtls] [-notls] [-certverify | -nocertverify] [-snoop]

inc incorporates mail from the user's incoming mail drop into an nmh folder. If the mail drop is a file, it can be in mbox or MMDF format. If the mail drop is a directory it is considered to be in Maildir format.

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 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.

The newly created messages will have a mode of 0600, see chmod(1), on filesystems that support it. Alternatively, a “Msg-Protect: nnn” profile entry gives the mode to use, in octal. For all subsequent operations on these messages, this initially assigned mode will be preserved.

If the switch -audit audit-file is specified (usually as a default switch in the user's profile), then inc will append a header line and a line per message to 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 output audit information to this (or another) file, perhaps with “Message-Id” information to keep an exact correspondence history. “Audit-file” is assumed to be in the user's nmh directory unless a full path is specified.

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

In all cases, except the use of -file name (see below), 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 in the profile entry. inc will not zero each sequence prior to adding messages.

The interpretation of the -form formatfile, -format string, and -width columns switches is the same as in scan(1).

By using the -file name switch, one can direct inc to incorporate messages from a file other than the user's mail drop. Note that the named file will not be zeroed, unless the -truncate switch is given.

The -file switch does not support the use of standard input. Instead, the rcvstore command can be used to incorporate mail from the standard input stream.

If the environment variable $MAILDROP is set, then inc uses it as the location of the user's mail drop 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 nmh directory. If the value is not found, then inc will look in the standard system location for the user's mail drop.

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.

inc will normally check local mail drops for mail, as covered above. But if the option “pophost” is set in “mts.conf”, or if the -host hostname switch is given, or if the $MAILHOST environment variable is set, then inc will query this POP service host for mail to incorporate. If $MAILHOST is set and -host is specified as well, the command-line switch will override the environment variable. The -port switch specifies the port name or number used to connect to the POP server. If unspecified, the default is “pop3”.

To specify a username for authentication with the POP server, use the -user username switch. The credentials profile entry in mh-profile(5) describes the ways to supply a username and password.

If passed the -proxy command switch, inc will use the specified command to establish the connection to the POP server. The string %h in the command will be substituted by the hostname to connect to.

For debugging purposes, you may give the switch -snoop, which will allow you to monitor the POP transaction. If -sasl -saslmech xoauth2 is used, the HTTP transaction is also shown.

If nmh has been compiled with SASL support, the -sasl switch will enable the use of SASL authentication. Depending on the SASL mechanism used, this may require an additional password prompt from the user (but the netrc file can be used to store this password, as described in mh-profile(5)). The -saslmech switch can be used to select a particular SASL mechanism.

If SASL authentication is successful, inc will attempt to negotiate a security layer for session encryption. Encrypted traffic is labelled with `(encrypted)' and `(decrypted)' when viewing the POP transaction with the -snoop switch; see the post man page description of -snoop for its other features.

If nmh has been compiled with OAuth support, the -sasl and -saslmech xoauth2 switches will enable OAuth authentication. The -user switch must be used, and the user-name must be an email address the user has for the service, which must be specified with the -authservice service switch. Before using this, the user must authorize nmh by running mhlogin and granting authorization to that account. See mhlogin(1) for more details.

If nmh has been compiled with TLS support, the -initialtls switch will require the negotiation of TLS when connecting to the remote POP server. inc will negotiate TLS immediately after the connection has taken place, before any POP commands are sent or received. Data encrypted by TLS is labeled `(tls-encrypted)' and `(tls-decrypted)` when viewing the POP transaction with the -snoop switch. The -notls switch will disable all attempts to negotiate TLS.

When using TLS the default is to verify the remote certificate and SubjectName against the local trusted certificate store. This can be controlled by the -certverify and -nocertverify switches. See your OpenSSL documentation for more information on certificate verification.

$HOME/.mh_profile
The user's profile.
/etc/nmh/mts.conf
mts configuration file.
/var/mail/$USER
Location of the system mail drop.

To determine the user's nmh directory.
To determine the user's mailboxes.
To determine the inbox.
To set mode when creating a new folder.
To set mode when creating a new message and audit-file.
To name sequences denoting unseen messages.

mhmail(1), scan(1), mh-mail(5), mh-profile(5), mhlogin(1), post(8), rcvstore(1)

+folder
defaulted by “Inbox” above.
As described above.
Unless -file name is given.
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.

2016-11-02 nmh-1.7.1