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<title>mha-mhedit - MH/nmh reply editor for multipart, non-text/plain messages</title>
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<big><strong><span class="block"> mha-mhedit - MH/nmh reply editor for multipart, non-text/plain messages</span></strong></big>
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<p><a name="__index__"></a></p>
<!-- INDEX BEGIN -->
<ul>
<li><a href="#name">NAME</a></li>
<li><a href="#synopsis">SYNOPSIS</a></li>
<li><a href="#description">DESCRIPTION</a></li>
<li><a href="#options">OPTIONS</a></li>
<li><a href="#installation">INSTALLATION</a></li>
<li><a href="#notes">NOTES</a></li>
<li><a href="#files">FILES</a></li>
<li><a href="#mh/nmh_profile_components">MH/nmh PROFILE COMPONENTS</a></li>
<li><a href="#environment">ENVIRONMENT</a></li>
<li><a href="#dependencies">DEPENDENCIES</a></li>
<li><a href="#version">VERSION</a></li>
<li><a href="#author">AUTHOR</a></li>
</ul>
<!-- INDEX END -->
<hr />
<p>
</p>
<h1><a name="name">NAME</a></h1>
<p>mha-mhedit - MH/nmh reply editor for multipart, non-text/plain messages</p>
<p>
</p>
<hr />
<h1><a name="synopsis">SYNOPSIS</a></h1>
<pre>
repl -editor mha-mhedit</pre>
<p>
</p>
<hr />
<h1><a name="description">DESCRIPTION</a></h1>
<p>mha-mhedit nicely formats MIME messages for use with MH/nmh's <code>repl(1)</code>
command.</p>
<p>A big deficiency with MH/nmh's <code>repl</code> is that it is not MIME aware,
or more technically, repl filters are not MIME aware. Consequently,
if replying to a multipart, non-plain text message, and your repl
filter includes the body of the message being replied to, all the
MIME formatting is included, which can be messing for binary data,
like images, and for quoted-printable text.</p>
<p>mha-mhedit is designed to be used as the <code>repl</code> editor:</p>
<pre>
repl -editor mha-mhedit</pre>
<p>mha-mhedit is designed to functional transparently. mha-mhedit formats
and quotes the reply-to message body for editing in the message draft.
After the formatting is complete, mha-mhedit invokes your regular
editor for final composition.</p>
<p>mha-mhedit does its job by using MHonArc,
<<a href="http://www.mhonarc.org">http://www.mhonarc.org</a>>, with a specially crafted MHonArc
resource file, and by using a text-based HTML viewer, like w3m,
<<a href="http://w3m.sourceforge.net/">http://w3m.sourceforge.net/</a>>. Of course, a tool can be
developed that does not depend on these types of tools, but I did
not feel like developing one and these work well for what I wanted.</p>
<p>mha-mhedit can be invoke by default when using <code>repl</code> by
having the following in your <code>.mh_profile</code>:</p>
<pre>
repl: -editor mha-mhedit</pre>
<p>However, since using mha-mhedit adds some extra initial overhead
before your regular editor is invoked, you may choose to define a
shell alias instead:</p>
<pre>
(t)csh:
alias mrepl repl -editor mha-mhedit</pre>
<pre>
bash:
alias mrepl="repl -editor mha-mhedit"</pre>
<p>Therefore, if replying to a MIME messages, you enter <code>mrepl</code> at your
shell prompt and continue to use <code>repl</code> for plain text messages.</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> It is recommended to have something like the following
in your <code>.mh_profile</code>:</p>
<pre>
mha-mhedit-next: <your-editor></pre>
<p>This way, at the <code>What now?</code> prompt, if you enter <code>edit</code>, it
will invoke your regular editor again instead of calling
mha-mhedit, which will cause all your edits to be lost.</p>
<p>
</p>
<hr />
<h1><a name="options">OPTIONS</a></h1>
<p>Options can be defined in your <code>.mh_profile</code> like any other
MH/nmh component. For example:</p>
<pre>
mha-mhedit: -editor vim</pre>
<p>The following options are available:</p>
<dl>
<dt><strong><a name="item_%2deditor_editor">-editor <em>editor</em></a></strong><br />
</dt>
<dd>
Text editor to invoke at the end. If not specified, the
value of the Editor profile component, the EDITOR environment variable,
or <code>vi</code> is used.
</dd>
<dd>
<p>Arguments to the editor can be defined by setting the <a href="#item_mha%2dmhedit%2deditor"><code>mha-mhedit-editor</code></a>
profile component. For example, if your editor is set to <code>vim</code>, the
following can be added to your <code>.mh_profile</code> to have vim start at the
end of your reply:</p>
</dd>
<dd>
<pre>
mha-mhedit-vim: +</pre>
</dd>
<p></p>
<dt><strong><a name="item_%2dhtmlconv_command">-htmlconv <em>command</em></a></strong><br />
</dt>
<dd>
Command that converts HTML to plain text. The command must be able
to take HTML from stdin and dump plain text to stdout. If the command
requires arguments. If not specified, then <a href="#item_w3m"><code>w3m</code></a> is used.
</dd>
<dd>
<p>You can define arguments to give the specified converter by defining the
<a href="#item_mha%2dmhedit%2dhtmlconv"><code>mha-mhedit-htmlconv</code></a> profile component in your <code>.mh_profile</code>. For
example, the following represents the default arguments used if
<code>-htmlconv</code> is <a href="#item_w3m"><code>w3m</code></a>:</p>
</dd>
<dd>
<pre>
mha-mhedit-w3m: -dump -cols 76 -T text/html</pre>
</dd>
<dd>
<p>The following works well if <code>-htmlconv</code> is set to <code>lynx</code>:</p>
</dd>
<dd>
<pre>
mha-mhedit-lynx: -stdin -dump -force_html -nolist -width=76</pre>
</dd>
<p></p>
<dt><strong><a name="item_%2dlinelen_number">-linelen <em>number</em></a></strong><br />
</dt>
<dd>
Maxium line length of formated reply text. If the orginal message
contains lines longer then <code>-linelen</code>, the lines will be wrapped.
Default value is 76.
</dd>
<p></p>
<dt><strong><a name="item_%2dmharc_pathname">-mharc <em>pathname</em></a></strong><br />
</dt>
<dd>
Pathname to mhonarc resource file. If not specified, the file
<code>mha-repl.mrc</code> in your MH/nmh directory.
</dd>
<dd>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> If a resource file is not found, mha-mhedit aborts execution.
If using a custom resource file, be careful of settings that could
create extra files during mail-to-html conversion.</p>
</dd>
<p></p>
<dt><strong><a name="item_%2dmhonarc_pathname">-mhonarc <em>pathname</em></a></strong><br />
</dt>
<dd>
Pathname to mhonarc program. If not specified, <code>mhonarc</code> is used.
</dd>
<dd>
<p>You can define extra arguments to give <code>mhonarc</code> by defining the
<a href="#item_mha%2dmhedit%2dmhonarc"><code>mha-mhedit-mhonarc</code></a> profile component in your <code>.mh_profile</code>. However,
I'm unsure if you will ever need to.</p>
</dd>
<p></p>
<dt><strong><a name="item_%2dquotechars_chars">-quotechars <em>chars</em></a></strong><br />
</dt>
<dd>
List of characters denoting the start of a quoted line in a message.
This option affects is used during line wrapping when detecting for
quoted lines.
</dd>
<dd>
<p>The default value is <code>></code>.</p>
</dd>
<p></p>
<dt><strong><a name="item_%2dquoteprefix_string">-quoteprefix <em>string</em></a></strong><br />
</dt>
<dd>
String to prepend to each line of text being responded to. The default
value is ``<code>> </code>'' (greater-than sign followed by a space).
</dd>
<p></p>
<dt><strong><a name="item_%2dtmpdir_pathname">-tmpdir <em>pathname</em></a></strong><br />
</dt>
<dd>
Pathname to directory to use for temporary files. If not
specified, then the TMPDIR environment variable is used or
the path location of Draft-Folder profile component.
</dd>
<p></p>
<dt><strong><a name="item_%2dhelp">-help</a></strong><br />
</dt>
<dd>
Display help information.
</dd>
<p></p>
<dt><strong><a name="item_%2dman">-man</a></strong><br />
</dt>
<dd>
Display entire manpage.
</dd>
<p></p></dl>
<p>
</p>
<hr />
<h1><a name="installation">INSTALLATION</a></h1>
<p>Copy the mha-mhedit program to somewhere in your search path.
Copy mha-repl.mrc into your MH/nmh directory.</p>
<p>
</p>
<hr />
<h1><a name="notes">NOTES</a></h1>
<ul>
<li></li>
mha-mhedit is designed to work friendly with your normal replcomps
and repl filter. mha-mhedit reads the head of the draft created
by repl in order to preserve it after formatting the initial
message body. mha-mhedit preserves the replcomps message header
and up-to the next 5 lines afterwards that does not look like
quoted reply text generated from the repl filter (mha-mhedit assumes
that the a line starting with a '>' denotes the begining of
quoted reply text).
<p>If I have lost you, here is the replcomps I have:</p>
<pre>
%(lit)%(formataddr %<{reply-to}%?{from}%?{sender}%?{return-path}%>)\
%<(nonnull)%(void(width))%(putaddr To: )\n%>\
%(lit)%(formataddr{to})%(formataddr{cc})%(formataddr(me))\
%<(nonnull)%(void(width))%(putaddr cc: )\n%>\
%<{fcc}Fcc: %{fcc}\n%>\
%<{subject}Subject: Re: %(putstr(trim{subject}))\n%>\
From: Earl Hood \<earl@earlhood.com\>
Reply-To: Earl Hood \<earl@earlhood.com\>
%<{date}In-reply-to: %<{message-id}%{message-id}%>\n%>\
%<{message-id}References: %<{references}%(void{references})%(trim)%(putstr) %>
%(void{message-id})%(trim)%(putstr)\n%>\
--------
On %(lmonth{date}) %(mday{date}), %(year{date}) at \
%02(putnumf(hour{date})):%02(putnumf(min{date})), \
%<{from}%(friendly{from})%|you%> wrote:</pre>
<p>And the repl filter (repl.filter) I use for quoting the body of the
reply-to message:</p>
<pre>
leftadjust,compwidth=14
body:component=> ,overflowtext=> ,noleftadjust</pre>
<p>The replcomps file includes a preamble in the message body providing the
date and person who wrote the message I am replying to.</p>
<p>My repl.filter causes the reply-to message body to be included in
the composition draft quoted with ``> '' before each line.</p>
<p>mha-mhedit automatically reads the initial draft header (everything
up to the <code>--------</code>). After that, mha-mhedit reads up-to the
next 5 lines for potential inclusion. The body preamble in my
replcomps takes up 2 lines (there is a trailing blank line that
may not be easily noticed above). Therefore, mha-mhedit will
preserve it. The third line will be the start of quoted text.
mha-mhedit sees this, and stops reading the draft.</p>
<p>Now, if I plan to make mha-mhedit my default repl editor, it will be
more efficient if I remove the message body quoting since mha-mhedit
will ignore and overwrite anyway.</p>
<p></p>
<li></li>
Currently, no temporary files should be generated. However, this
depends on the version of mhonarc you are using, the type
of message being replied to, and any edits you may make to the
mhonarc resource file.
<p>It may be possible that by-product files, like attachments, could
be created. If so, manual deletion of the files in <code>-tmpdir</code> will
be required.</p>
<p></p></ul>
<p>
</p>
<hr />
<h1><a name="files">FILES</a></h1>
<dl>
<dt><strong><a name="item_%24home%2f%2emh_profile"><code>$HOME/.mh_profile</code></a></strong><br />
</dt>
<dd>
Profile definitions.
</dd>
<p></p>
<dt><strong><a name="item_%3cmh%2ddir%3e%2fmha%2drepl%2emrc"><code><mh-dir>/mha-repl.mrc</code></a></strong><br />
</dt>
<dd>
MHonArc resource file. The resource file can be explicitly
defined via the <code>-mharc</code> command-line option.
</dd>
<p></p></dl>
<p>
</p>
<hr />
<h1><a name="mh/nmh_profile_components">MH/nmh PROFILE COMPONENTS</a></h1>
<dl>
<dt><strong><a name="item_mha%2dmhedit"><code>mha-mhedit</code></a></strong><br />
</dt>
<dd>
Arguments to mha-mhedit.
</dd>
<p></p>
<dt><strong><a name="item_mha%2dmhedit%2deditor"><code>mha-mhedit-editor</code></a></strong><br />
</dt>
<dd>
Arguments to pass to editor invoked by mha-mhedit, where
<em>editor</em> is the name of the editor.
</dd>
<p></p>
<dt><strong><a name="item_mha%2dmhedit%2dhtmlconv"><code>mha-mhedit-htmlconv</code></a></strong><br />
</dt>
<dd>
Arguments to pass to html-to-text converter, where
<em>htmlconv</em> is the name of the html-to-text converter program.
</dd>
<p></p>
<dt><strong><a name="item_mha%2dmhedit%2dmhonarc"><code>mha-mhedit-mhonarc</code></a></strong><br />
</dt>
<dd>
Extra arguments to pass to mhonarc.
</dd>
<p></p>
<dt><strong><a name="item_editor"><code>Editor</code></a></strong><br />
</dt>
<dd>
Text editor.
</dd>
<p></p></dl>
<p>
</p>
<hr />
<h1><a name="environment">ENVIRONMENT</a></h1>
<dl>
<dt><strong><a name="item_editor"><code>EDITOR</code></a></strong><br />
</dt>
<dd>
Default editor.
</dd>
<p></p>
<dt><strong><a name="item_tmpdir"><code>TMPDIR</code></a></strong><br />
</dt>
<dd>
Location of temporary files.
</dd>
<p></p></dl>
<p>
</p>
<hr />
<h1><a name="dependencies">DEPENDENCIES</a></h1>
<dl>
<dt><strong><a name="item_mhonarc">MHonArc</a></strong><br />
</dt>
<dd>
MHonArc, <<a href="http://www.mhonarc.org/">http://www.mhonarc.org/</a>>, is used to translate
the raw message into HTML. MHonArc is used since it conveniently
combines multipart, non-plain text, messages into a singe HTML
document.
</dd>
<p></p>
<dt><strong><a name="item_w3m">w3m</a></strong><br />
</dt>
<dd>
w3m, <<a href="http://w3m.sourceforge.net/">http://w3m.sourceforge.net/</a>>, is used to translate HTML
generated by mhonarc into format plain text.
</dd>
<dd>
<p>An alternate converter program can be used via the <code>-htmlconv</code> option.
It must be able to take HTML as standard input and dump formated text
to standard out.</p>
</dd>
<p></p></dl>
<p>
</p>
<hr />
<h1><a name="version">VERSION</a></h1>
<p><code>$Id: mha-mhedit.html,v 1.1 2003/01/04 21:11:26 ehood Exp $</code></p>
<p>
</p>
<hr />
<h1><a name="author">AUTHOR</a></h1>
<p>Earl Hood, <a href="mailto:earl@earlhood.com">earl@earlhood.com</a></p>
<p>Copyright (C), 2002.
This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY and may be copied only
under the terms of the GNU General Public License.</p>
<table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
<tr><td class="block" style="background-color: #cccccc" valign="middle">
<big><strong><span class="block"> mha-mhedit - MH/nmh reply editor for multipart, non-text/plain messages</span></strong></big>
</td></tr>
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