mhpath - print full pathnames of nmh messages and folders

Mhpath 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 folder pathname instead. If the only argument is `+', your nmh “Path” is output; this can be useful is 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 messages 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.

3)

An empty folder is not in itself an error.

Message numbers greater than the highest existing message in a folder as part of a range designation are replaced with the next free message number.

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 /r/phyl/Mail/foo/7

% 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 bad message list “last-new”.

% mhpath cur /r/phyl/Mail/foo/4

% mhpath 1-2 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 back-quoted operations:

% cd `mhpath +inbox`

% echo `mhpath +` /r/phyl/Mail

^$HOME/.mhprofile~^The user profile

^Path:~^To determine the user's nmh directory
^Current-Folder:~^To find the default current folder

folder(1)

`+folder' defaults to the current folder
`msgs' defaults to none

None

Like all nmh commands, mhpath expands and sorts [msgs]. So don't expect

mv `mhpath 501 500`

to move 501 to 500. Quite the reverse. But

mv `mhpath 501` `mhpath 500`

will do the trick.

Out of range message 0 is treated far more severely than large out of range message numbers.