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<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Getting Started - The MH-E Manual</title>
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<a name="Getting-Started"></a>
Next: <a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="Tour-Through-MH_002dE.html#Tour-Through-MH_002dE">Tour Through MH-E</a>,
Previous: <a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="Conventions.html#Conventions">Conventions</a>,
Up: <a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="index.html#Top">Top</a>
<hr>
</div>
<h2 class="chapter">2 Getting Started</h2>
<p><a name="index-MH_002dE_002c-versions-76"></a><a name="index-history-77"></a><a name="index-versions-of-MH_002dE-78"></a>
Because there are many old versions of MH-E out there, it is important
to know which version you have. I'll be talking about Version 8<!-- /@w -->
which is pretty close to Version 6<!-- /@w --> and Version 7<!-- /@w -->. It differs
from Version 4<!-- /@w --> and Version 5<!-- /@w --> and is vastly different from
Version 3<!-- /@w -->. See <a href="History.html#History">History</a>.
<p><a name="index-mh_002dversion-79"></a>
To determine which version of MH-E that you have, enter <kbd>M-x
mh-version <RET></kbd>. Hopefully it says that you're running
Version 8.0.3<!-- /@w --> which is the latest version as of this
printing.
<p>If your version is much older than this, please consider upgrading.
You can have your system administrator upgrade the system-wide
version, or you can install your own personal version. It's really
quite easy. See <a href="Getting-MH_002dE.html#Getting-MH_002dE">Getting MH-E</a>, for instructions for getting and
installing MH-E.
<p>If the <code>mh-version</code> command displays `<samp><span class="samp">No MH variant
detected</span></samp>'<a rel="footnote" href="#fn-1" name="fnd-1"><sup>1</sup></a>, then you need
to install MH or tell MH-E where to find MH.
<p><a name="index-Debian-80"></a><a name="index-nmh-81"></a><a name="index-GNU-mailutils-82"></a>
If you don't have MH on your system already, you must install a
variant of MH. The Debian mh-e package does this for you automatically
(see <a href="Getting-MH_002dE.html#Getting-MH_002dE">Getting MH-E</a>). Most people use
<a href="http://www.nongnu.org/nmh/">nmh</a>, but you may be interested in
trying out <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/mailutils/">GNU mailutils</a>, which supports IMAP. Your GNU/Linux distribution probably
has packages for both of these.
<p><a name="index-g_t_0040command_007binstall_002dmh_007d-83"></a><a name="index-MH-commands_002c-_0040command_007binstall_002dmh_007d-84"></a><a name="index-MH-book-85"></a>
If you've never run MH before, you need to run <samp><span class="command">install-mh</span></samp>
from the shell before you continue. This sets up your personal MH
environment<a rel="footnote" href="#fn-2" name="fnd-2"><sup>2</sup></a>. If you don't, you'll be greeted with the error message:
`<samp><span class="samp">Install MH and run install-mh before running MH-E</span></samp>'. This is all
you need to know about MH to use MH-E, but the more you know about MH,
the more you can leverage its power. See the
<a href="http://rand-mh.sourceforge.net/book/mh/../">MH book</a> to learn more about MH.
<p><a name="index-g_t_0040samp_007bPath_003a_007d-MH-profile-component-86"></a><a name="index-MH-profile-87"></a><a name="index-MH-profile-component-88"></a><a name="index-MH-profile-component_002c-_0040samp_007bPath_003a_007d-89"></a>
Your MH environment includes your <dfn>MH profile</dfn> which is found in
the file <samp><span class="file">~/.mh_profile</span></samp>. This file contains a number of <dfn>MH
profile components</dfn>. For example, the `<samp><span class="samp">Path:</span></samp>' MH profile
component contains the path to your mail directory, which is
<samp><span class="file">~/Mail</span></samp> by default.
<p><a name="index-g_t_0040command_007bmhparam_007d-90"></a><a name="index-MH-commands_002c-_0040command_007bmhparam_007d-91"></a><a name="index-exec_002dpath-92"></a><a name="index-mh_002dpath-93"></a><a name="index-mh_002dsys_002dpath-94"></a><a name="index-mh_002dvariant-95"></a><a name="index-mh_002dvariant_002din_002duse-96"></a>
There are several options MH-E uses to interact with your MH
installation. The option <code>mh-variant</code> specifies the variant used
by MH-E (see <a href="Options.html#Options">Options</a>). The default setting of this option is
`<samp><span class="samp">Auto-detect</span></samp>' which means that MH-E will automatically choose the
first of nmh, MH, or GNU mailutils that it finds in the directories
listed in <code>mh-path</code> (which you can customize),
<code>mh-sys-path</code>, and <code>exec-path</code>. If MH-E can't find MH at
all, you may have to customize <code>mh-path</code> and add the directory in
which the command <samp><span class="command">mhparam</span></samp> is located. If, on the other hand,
you have both nmh and mailutils installed (for example) and
<code>mh-variant-in-use</code> was initialized to nmh but you want to use
mailutils, then you can set <code>mh-variant</code> to `<samp><span class="samp">mailutils</span></samp>'.
<p><a name="index-mh_002dflists_002dpresent_002dflag-97"></a><a name="index-mh_002dlib-98"></a><a name="index-mh_002dlib_002dprogs-99"></a><a name="index-mh_002dprogs-100"></a>
When <code>mh-variant</code> is changed, MH-E resets <code>mh-progs</code>,
<code>mh-lib</code>, <code>mh-lib-progs</code>, <code>mh-flists-present-flag</code>, and
<code>mh-variant-in-use</code> accordingly.
<p><a name="index-g_t_0040file_007b_002eemacs_007d-101"></a><a name="index-files_002c-_0040file_007b_002eemacs_007d-102"></a>
<pre class="sp">
</pre>
<div align="center"><strong>NOTE</strong></div>
<blockquote>
Prior to version 8, it was often necessary to set some of these
variables in <samp><span class="file">~/.emacs</span></samp>; now it is no longer necessary and can
actually cause problems.
</blockquote>
<pre class="sp">
</pre>
<a name="index-MH-profile-component_002c-_0040samp_007bDraft_002dFolder_003a_007d-103"></a><a name="index-MH-profile-component_002c-_0040samp_007bPath_003a_007d-104"></a><a name="index-MH-profile-component_002c-_0040samp_007bPrevious_002dSequence_003a_007d-105"></a><a name="index-MH-profile-component_002c-_0040samp_007bUnseen_002dSequence_003a_007d-106"></a><a name="index-g_t_0040samp_007bDraft_002dFolder_003a_007d-MH-profile-component-107"></a><a name="index-g_t_0040samp_007bPath_003a_007d-MH-profile-component-108"></a><a name="index-g_t_0040samp_007bPrevious_002dSequence_003a_007d-MH-profile-component-109"></a><a name="index-g_t_0040samp_007bUnseen_002dSequence_003a_007d-MH-profile-component-110"></a><a name="index-mh_002dfind_002dpath-111"></a><a name="index-mh_002ddraft_002dfolder-112"></a><a name="index-mh_002dfind_002dpath_002dhook-113"></a><a name="index-mh_002dinbox-114"></a><a name="index-mh_002dprevious_002dseq-115"></a><a name="index-mh_002dunseen_002dseq-116"></a><a name="index-mh_002duser_002dpath-117"></a>
In addition to setting variables that point to MH itself, MH-E also
sets a handful of variables that point to where you keep your mail.
During initialization, the function <code>mh-find-path</code> sets
<code>mh-user-path</code> from your `<samp><span class="samp">Path:</span></samp>' MH profile component (but
defaults to `<samp><span class="samp">Mail</span></samp>' if one isn't present), <code>mh-draft-folder</code>
from `<samp><span class="samp">Draft-Folder:</span></samp>', <code>mh-unseen-seq</code> from
`<samp><span class="samp">Unseen-Sequence:</span></samp>', <code>mh-previous-seq</code> from
`<samp><span class="samp">Previous-Sequence:</span></samp>', and <code>mh-inbox</code> from `<samp><span class="samp">Inbox:</span></samp>'
(defaults to `<samp><span class="samp">+inbox</span></samp>'). The hook <code>mh-find-path-hook</code> is run
after these variables have been set. This hook can be used the change
the value of these variables if you need to run with different values
between MH and MH-E.
<div class="footnote">
<hr>
<h4>Footnotes</h4><p class="footnote"><small>[<a name="fn-1" href="#fnd-1">1</a>]</small> In very old versions of MH-E, you may get the error
message, `<samp><span class="samp">Cannot find the commands `inc' and `mhl' and the file
`components'</span></samp>' if MH-E can't find MH. In this case, you need to update
MH-E, and you may need to install MH too. However, newer versions of
MH-E are better at finding MH if it is on your system.</p>
<p class="footnote"><small>[<a name="fn-2" href="#fnd-2">2</a>]</small> See the section
<a href="http://rand-mh.sourceforge.net/book/mh/../overall/setup.html">Setting Up MH</a> in the
MH book.</p>
<p><hr></div>
</body></html>
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