MHPATH(1)MHPATH(1)NAMEmhpath - print full pathnames of nmh messages and folders
SYNOPSISmhpath [+folder] [msgs] [-version] [-help]
DESCRIPTIONmhpath expands and sorts the message list `msgs' and writes the full
pathnames of the messages to the standard output separated by newlines.
If no `msgs' are specified, mhpath outputs the current mail folder's
pathname instead. If the only argument is `+', your nmh “Path” is out‐
put; this can be useful in shell scripts.
Contrasted with other nmh commands, a message argument to mhpath may
often be intended for writing. Because of this:
1) the name “new” has been added to mhpath's list of reserved message
names (the others are “first”, “last”, “prev”, “next”, “cur”, and
“all”). The new message is equivalent to the message after the
last message in a folder (and equivalent to 1 in a folder without
messages). The “new” message may not be used as part of a message
range.
2) Within a message list, the following designations may refer to mes‐
sages that do not exist: a single numeric message name, the single
message name “cur”, and (obviously) the single message name “new”.
All other message designations must refer to at least one existing
message, if the folder contains messages.
3) An empty folder is not in itself an error.
A message number less than that of the smallest existing message in a
folder is treated as if the message already exists. A message number
greater than that of the highest existing message in a folder causes an
“out of range” error message to be displayed.
As part of a range designation that contains messages that do exist,
message numbers less than the smallest, or greater than the highest,
existing message in a folder are ignored.
Examples: The current folder foo contains messages 3 5 6. Cur is 4.
% mhpath
/r/phyl/Mail/foo
% mhpath all
/r/phyl/Mail/foo/3
/r/phyl/Mail/foo/5
/r/phyl/Mail/foo/6
% mhpath 2001
mhpath: message 2001 out of range 1-6
% mhpath 1-2001
/r/phyl/Mail/foo/3
/r/phyl/Mail/foo/5
/r/phyl/Mail/foo/6
% mhpath new
/r/phyl/Mail/foo/7
% mhpath last new
/r/phyl/Mail/foo/6
/r/phyl/Mail/foo/7
% mhpath last-new
mhpath: bad message list last-new
% mhpath cur
/r/phyl/Mail/foo/4
% mhpath 1-2
mhpath: no messages in range 1-2
% mhpath first:2
/r/phyl/Mail/foo/3
/r/phyl/Mail/foo/5
% mhpath 1 2
/r/phyl/Mail/foo/1
/r/phyl/Mail/foo/2
mhpath is also useful in backquoted operations:
% cd `mhpath +inbox`
% echo `mhpath +`
/r/phyl/Mail
Because mhpath expands and sorts [msgs]. the command
mv `mhpath 501 500`
to will not move 501 to 500. Quite the reverse. But
mv `mhpath 501` `mhpath 500`
will do the trick.
Out-of-range message 0 produces a different error message than large
out-of-range message numbers. But both cause mhpath to exit with non-
zero status.
FILES
$HOME/.mh_profile The user profile
PROFILE COMPONENTS
Path: To determine the user's nmh directory
Current-Folder: To find the default current folder
SEE ALSOfolder(1)DEFAULTS
`+folder' defaults to the current folder
`msgs' defaults to none
CONTEXT
None
nmh-1.6 January 20, 2014 MHPATH(1)