3.3 Processing Mail

The first thing we want to do is reply to the message that we sent ourselves. Ensure that the cursor is still on the same line as your test message and type r. You are prompted in the minibuffer with ‘Reply to whom:’. Here MH-E is asking whether you’d like to reply to the original sender only, to the sender and primary recipients, or to the sender and all recipients. You can press TAB to see these choices. If you simply press RET, you’ll reply only to the sender. Press RET now.

You’ll find yourself in an Emacs buffer similar to that when you were sending the original message, like this:

To:
cc:
Subject: Re: Test
In-Reply-To: <31054.1142621351@stop.mail-abuse.org>
References: <31054.1142621351@stop.mail-abuse.org>
Comments: In-Reply-To Bill Wohler <wohler@stop.mail-abuse.org>
   message dated "Fri, 17 Mar 2006 10:49:11 -0800."
X-Mailer: MH-E 8.1; nmh 1.1; GNU Emacs 23.1
--------
#

--:--  {draft}  All L10     (MH-Letter)----------------------------------
To: wohler
Subject: Test
X-Mailer: MH-E 8.1; nmh 1.1; GNU Emacs 23.1
Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2006 10:49:11 -0800
From: Bill Wohler <wohler@stop.mail-abuse.org>

This is a test message to get the wheels churning...

--:--  {show-+inbox} 4   All L1     (MH-Show)----------------------------
Type C-c C-c to send message, C-c ? for help

Composition window during reply

By default, MH will not add you to the address list of your replies, so if you find that the ‘To:’ header field is missing, don’t worry. In this case, type C-c C-f C-t to create and go to the ‘To:’ field, where you can type your login name again. You can move around with the arrow keys or with C-p (previous-line), C-n (next-line), C-b (backward-char), and C-f (forward-char) and can delete the previous character with BS. When you’re finished editing your message, send it with C-c C-c as before.

You’ll often want to save messages that were sent to you in an organized fashion. This is done with folders. You can use folders to keep messages from your friends, or messages related to a particular topic. With your cursor in the MH-Folder buffer and positioned on the message you sent to yourself, type o to output (refile in MH parlance) that message to a folder. Enter test at the ‘Destination folder:’ prompt and type y (or SPC) when MH-E asks to create the folder ‘+test’. Note that a ‘^’ (caret) appears next to the message number, which means that the message has been marked for refiling but has not yet been refiled. We’ll talk about how the refile is actually carried out in a moment.

Your previous reply is now waiting in the system mailbox. You incorporate this mail into your MH-Folder buffer named ‘+inbox’ with the i command. Do this now. After the mail is incorporated, use n or p to move the cursor to the new message, and read it with RET. Let’s delete this message by typing d. Note that a ‘D’ appears next to the message number. This means that the message is marked for deletion but is not yet deleted. To perform the deletion (and the refile we did previously), use the x command.

If you want to send another message you can use m instead of M-x mh-smail. So go ahead, send some mail to your friends!

You can get a quick reminder about these commands by typing ?. This lists several prefix characters. To list the commands available via the prefix characters, type the prefix character followed by a ?, for example, F ?. More complete help is available with the C-h m (describe-mode) command.