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NAME

       mhbuild - translate MIME composition draft

SYNOPSIS

       mhbuild file [-verbose | -noverbose] [-Version] [-help]

DESCRIPTION

       The mhbuild command will translate a MIME composition draft into a valid MIME message.

       mhbuild  creates  multi-media  messages  as  specified in RFC-2045 thru RFC-2049.  Currently mhbuild only
       supports encodings in message bodies, and does support the encoding of message headers  as  specified  in
       RFC-2047.

       If you specify the name of the composition file as `-', then mhbuild will accept the composition draft on
       the standard input.  If the translation of this input is successful, mhbuild will  output  the  new  MIME
       message to the standard output.  This argument must be the last argument on the command line.

       Otherwise if the file argument to mhbuild is the name of a valid composition file, and the translation is
       successful, mhbuild will replace the original file with the new  MIME  message.   It  will  preserve  the
       original  file under the same name with `.orig' appended.  E.g., if you are editing the file `draft', its
       original contents it will be preserved as `draft.orig'.  This allows you to easily  recover  the  mhbuild
       input file.

   Translating the Composition File
       mhbuild  is  essentially  a  filter  to aid in the composition of MIME messages.  mhbuild will convert an
       mhbuild `composition file' into a valid MIME message.  A  mhbuild  `composition  file'  is  just  a  file
       containing  plain text that is interspersed with various mhbuild directives.  When this file is processed
       by mhbuild, the various directives will be expanded to the  appropriate  content,  and  will  be  encoded
       according to the MIME standards.  The resulting MIME message can then be sent by electronic mail.

       The  formal  syntax  for a mhbuild composition file is defined at the end of this document, but the ideas
       behind this format are not complex.  Basically, the body  contains  one  or  more  contents.   A  content
       consists of either a directive, indicated with a `#' as the first character of a line; or, plaintext (one
       or more lines of text).  The continuation character, `\`, may be used to enter a single directive on more
       than one line, e.g.,

            #image/png \
                /home/foobar/junk/picture.png

       There are three kinds of directives: `type', `message' (#forw), and `begin' (#begin).

       (1)  The  `type'  directive  is used to directly specify the type and subtype of a content.  You may only
       specify discrete types in this manner (can't specify the types multipart or message with this directive).
       You  may  optionally specify the name of a file containing the contents in `native' (decoded) format.  If
       this filename starts with the `|' character, then it represents a command  to  execute  whose  output  is
       captured accordingly.  For example,

            #audio/basic |raw2audio -F < /usr/lib/sound/giggle.au

       If  a filename is not given, mhbuild will look for information in the user's profile to determine how the
       different contents should be composed.  This is accomplished by  consulting  a  composition  string,  and
       executing  it  under  /bin/sh,  with  the  standard output set to the content.  If the -verbose switch is
       given, mhbuild will echo any commands that are used to create contents in this way.

       The composition string may contain the following escapes:

            %a  Insert parameters from directive
            %f  Insert filename containing content
            %F  %f, and stdout is not re-directed
            %s  Insert content subtype
            %%  Insert character %

       First, mhbuild will look for an entry of the form:

            mhbuild-compose-<type>/<subtype>

       to determine the command to use to compose the content.  If this isn't found, mhbuild will  look  for  an
       entry of the form:

            mhbuild-compose-<type>

       to determine the composition command. If this isn't found, mhbuild will complain.

       An example entry might be:

            mhbuild-compose-audio/basic: record | raw2audio -F

       Because  commands  like these will vary, depending on the display environment used for login, composition
       strings for different contents should probably be put in the file specified by the  $MHBUILD  environment
       variable, instead of directly in your user profile.

       (2)  The  `message'  directive (#forw) is used to specify a message or group of messages to include.  You
       may optionally specify the name of the folder and which messages are to be forwarded.  If a folder is not
       given,  it  defaults  to  the  current  folder.  Similarly, if a message is not given, it defaults to the
       current message.  The message directive is used by forw.

       For example,

            #forw +inbox 42 43 99

       If you include a single message, it will be included directly as a content of type `message/rfc822'.   If
       you include more than one message, then mhbuild will add a content of type `multipart/digest' and include
       each message as a subpart of this content.

       (3) The `begin' directive is used to create a multipart content.  When using the `begin'  directive,  you
       must specify at least one content between the begin and end pairs.

            #begin
            This will be a multipart with only one part.
            #end

       If you use multiple directives in a composition draft, mhbuild will automatically encapsulate them inside
       a multipart content.  Therefore the `begin' directive is  only  necessary  if  you  wish  to  use  nested
       multiparts, or create a multipart message containing only one part.

       For  all  of  these  directives,  the user may include a brief description of the content between the `['
       character and the `]' character.  This description will be copied into the  `Content-Description'  header
       when the directive is processed.

            #forw [important mail from Bob] +bob 1 2 3 4 5

       Similarly,  a  disposition  string  may optionally be provided between `{' and `}' characters; it will be
       copied into the `Content-Disposition' header when the directive is processed.  If a disposition string is
       provided that does not contain a filename parameter, and a filename is provided in the directive, it will
       be added to the `Content-Disposition' header.  For example, the following directive:

            #text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 <>{attachment} /tmp/summary.txt

       creates these message part headers:

            Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
            Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="summary.txt"

       By default, mhbuild will generate a unique  `Content-ID:'  for  each  directive,  corresponding  to  each
       message part; however, the user may override this by defining the ID using the `<' and `>' characters.

       In  addition  to  the  various  directives,  plaintext  can  be  present.  Plaintext is gathered, until a
       directive is found or the draft is exhausted, and this is made to form a text content.  If the  plaintext
       must contain a `#' at the beginning of a line, simply double it, e.g.,

            ##when sent, this line will start with only one #

       If  you  want  to  end the plaintext prior to a directive, e.g., to have two plaintext contents adjacent,
       simply insert a line containing a single `#' character, e.g.,

            this is the first content
            #
            and this is the second

       Finally, if the plaintext starts with a line of the form:

            Content-Description: text

       then this will be used to describe the plaintext content.  You MUST follow this line with  a  blank  line
       before starting your text.

       By  default,  plaintext  is  captured  as  a  text/plain  content.  You can override this by starting the
       plaintext with `#<' followed by a content-type specification.  For example, e.g.,

            #<text/enriched
            this content will be tagged as text/enriched
            #
            and this content will be tagged as text/plain
            #
            #<application/x-patch [this is a patch]
            and this content will be tagged as application/x-patch

       Note that if you use the `#<' plaintext-form, then the content-description must be on the same line which
       identifies the content type of the plaintext.

       When  composing  a  text  content,  you  may  indicate the relevant character set by adding the `charset'
       parameter to the directive.

            #<text/plain; charset=iso-8859-5

       If a text content contains any 8-bit characters (characters with the high bit set) and the character  set
       is  not  specified  as  above,  then  mhbuild  will  assume the character set is of the type given by the
       environment variable MM_CHARSET.  If this environment variable is not set, then the character set will be
       labeled as `x-unknown'.

       If  a  text  content contains only 7-bit characters and the character set is not specified as above, then
       the character set will be labeled as `us-ascii'.

       Putting this all together, here is an example of a more complicated message draft.  The  following  draft
       will expand into a multipart/mixed message containing five parts:

            To: nobody@nowhere.org
            Cc:
            Subject: Look and listen to me!
            --------
            The first part will be text/plain
            #<text/enriched
            The second part will be text/enriched
            #
            This third part will be text/plain
            #audio/basic [silly giggle]  \
                |raw2audio -F < /usr/lib/sounds/giggle.au
            #image/gif   [photo of foobar] \
                                /home/foobar/lib/picture.gif

   Transfer Encodings
       After  mhbuild constructs the new MIME message by parsing directives, including files, etc., it scans the
       contents of the message to determine which transfer encoding to use.  It will check for 8bit  data,  long
       lines, spaces at the end of lines, and clashes with multipart boundaries.  It will then choose a transfer
       encoding appropriate for each content type.

   Invoking mhbuild
       Typically, mhbuild is invoked by the send program.  It expects an mhbuild composition  file,  which  send
       will  create,  from  the  draft  file,  if MIME features are requested.  This is the case with attachment
       headers.

       In contrast to previous versions, the user does not need to care for any special actions anymore.

   User Environment
       Because the environment in which mhbuild operates may  vary  for  a  user,  mhbuild  will  look  for  the
       environment  variable  $MHBUILD.  If present, this specifies the name of an additional user profile which
       should be read.  Hence, when a user logs in on a particular machine, this environment variable should  be
       set to refer to a file containing definitions useful for that machine.

       Finally, mhbuild will attempt to consult a global mhbuild user profile, e.g.,

            /etc/mmh/mhn.defaults

       if it exists.

   Syntax of Composition Files
       The following is the formal syntax of a mhbuild `composition file'.

            body         ::=     1*(content | EOL)

            content      ::=     directive | plaintext

            directive    ::=     "#" type "/" subtype
                                     0*(";" attribute "=" value)
                                     [ "(" comment ")" ]
                                     [ "<" id ">" ]
                                     [ "[" description "]" ]
                                     [ "{" disposition "}" ]
                                     [ filename ]
                                     EOL

                               | "#forw"
                                     [ "<" id ">" ]
                                     [ "[" description "]" ]
                                     [ "{" disposition "}" ]
                                     [ "+"folder ] [ 0*msg ]
                                     EOL

                               | "#begin"
                                       [ "<" id ">" ]
                                       [ "[" description "]" ]
                                       [ "{" disposition "}" ]
                                       [   "alternative"
                                         | "parallel"
                                         | something-else    ]
                                       EOL
                                     1*body
                                 "#end" EOL

            plaintext    ::=     [ "Content-Description:"
                                       description EOL EOL ]
                                     1*line
                                 [ "#" EOL ]

                               | "#<" type "/" subtype
                                     0*(";" attribute "=" value)
                                     [ "(" comment ")" ]
                                     [ "[" description "]" ]
                                     [ "{" disposition "}" ]
                                     EOL
                                     1*line
                                 [ "#" EOL ]

            line         ::=     "##" text EOL
                                 -- interpreted as "#"text EOL
                               | text EOL

FILES

       $HOME/.mmh/profile         The user profile
       $MHBUILD                   Additional profile entries
       /etc/mmh/mhn.defaults      System default MIME profile entries

PROFILE COMPONENTS

       Path:                To determine the user's mail storage
       Current-Folder:      To find the default current folder
       mhbuild-compose-<type>Template for composing contents

SEE ALSO

       mhlist(1), show(1), mhstore(1), forw(1),
       Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part One: Format of Internet Message Bodies (RFC-2045),
       Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part Two: Media Types (RFC-2046),
       Multipurpose  Internet  Mail  Extensions  (MIME) Part Three: Message Header Extensions for Non-ASCII Text
       (RFC-2047),
       Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part Four: Registration Procedures (RFC-2048),
       Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part Five: Conformance Criteria and Examples (RFC-2049)

DEFAULTS

       `-noverbose'

CONTEXT

       If a folder is given, it will become the current folder.  The  last  message  selected  will  become  the
       current message.

BUGS

       Outlook 2002 won't display attachments that have a Content-ID header.  This is a bug in Outlook 2002, not
       in mhbuild.  To workaround it, invoke e mhbuild manually at the Whatnow prompt and edit the  draft  again
       thereafter,  removing  the  Content-ID headers.  Then send it.  There used to be a -nocontentid switch to
       prevent Content-ID headers to be inserted, but as it was considered wrong to complicate  all  other  MUAs
       instead  of  forcing  the  developers  and  users  of broken MUAs to fix or change their software, it was
       removed.