Using `MH & nmh: Email for Users & Programmers'

The book MH & xmh: Email for Users & Programmers, ISBN 1-56592-093-7, written by Jerry Peek, was published by and is copyright © 1991, 1992, 1995 by O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. (now O'Reilly Media, Inc.). In June, 1996, O'Reilly made the book freely available under the terms of the GNU General Public License. The book was split into more than 400 separate files. Since then, some of the files have been updated. Those files with information from the original book still have the original copyright; they're marked "Revised by author's name." Some other files that are new, and didn't appear in the original print edition, are marked "This file first appeared in the updated online edition of the book MH & nmh: Email for Users & Programmers." These new files are not copyrighted by O'Reilly; each file explains its own copyright.

The original book's title was MH & xmh: Email for Users & Programmers. The updated book title is MH & nmh: Email for Users & Programmers (without the & xmh).

The file you're reading, copying.html, explains the terms for copying, distributing, and modifying all of the files that make up this book. ("This book" refers to this file and the other files distributed with it.)

This book is freely available; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. Where the License refers to "software" substitute "book."

The original book source files, in HTML, are in the file http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/rand-mh/MH-book-original.tgz?download. That file was created with two widely-available utilities: the UNIX tar archiver and the GNU gzip compression program. If you want the original book source, get that file and expand it.

This book is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this book; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

The email address of the original book publisher is info@oreilly.com. The postal address is O'Reilly Media, Inc., 101 Morris Street, Sebastopol, CA 95472, USA. The author's address is at the end of every file.

Some files were written by authors other than Jerry Peek. If you'd like to write a page, or more, please get in touch with Jerry or the volunteer who's maintaining this book; we'll help you fit your work into the book and avoid overlaps between your work and what other writers do. We hope that this book will be a resource for everyone who uses MH, that it will grow and change as MH (and front-end programs like exmh) evolves.


GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE

Note: this document is available at: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html. We've included it here for your convenience.

                        GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
                           Version 2, June 1991

     Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
                              675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
     Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
     of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.

                                Preamble

      The licenses for most software are designed to take away your
    freedom to share and change it.  By contrast, the GNU General Public
    License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free
    software--to make sure the software is free for all its users.  This
    General Public License applies to most of the Free Software
    Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to
    using it.  (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by
    the GNU Library General Public License instead.)  You can apply it to
    your programs, too.

      When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
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      To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid
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      For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether
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      We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and
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      Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain
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      Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software
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      The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and
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                        GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
       TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION

      0. This License applies to any program or other work which contains
    a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it may be distributed
    under the terms of this General Public License.  The "Program", below,
    refers to any such program or work, and a "work based on the Program"
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    language.  (Hereinafter, translation is included without limitation in
    the term "modification".)  Each licensee is addressed as "you".

    Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not
    covered by this License; they are outside its scope.  The act of
    running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program
    is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the
    Program (independent of having been made by running the Program).
    Whether that is true depends on what the Program does.

      1. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's
    source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you
    conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate
    copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the
    notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty;
    and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License
    along with the Program.

    You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and
    you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.

      2. You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion
    of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and
    distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1
    above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:

        a) You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices
        stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.

        b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in
        whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any
        part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third
        parties under the terms of this License.

        c) If the modified program normally reads commands interactively
        when run, you must cause it, when started running for such
        interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an
        announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a
        notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide
        a warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under
        these conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this
        License.  (Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but
        does not normally print such an announcement, your work based on
        the Program is not required to print an announcement.)

    These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole.  If
    identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program,
    and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in
    themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those
    sections when you distribute them as separate works.  But when you
    distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based
    on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of
    this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the
    entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it.

    Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest
    your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to
    exercise the right to control the distribution of derivative or
    collective works based on the Program.

    In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program
    with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of
    a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under
    the scope of this License.

      3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,
    under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of
    Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:

        a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
        source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections
        1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,

        b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
        years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your
        cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete
        machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be
        distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium
        customarily used for software interchange; or,

        c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer
        to distribute corresponding source code.  (This alternative is
        allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you
        received the program in object code or executable form with such
        an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)

    The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for
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    If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering
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    distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not
    compelled to copy the source along with the object code.

      4. You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program
    except as expressly provided under this License.  Any attempt
    otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is
    void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.
    However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under
    this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such
    parties remain in full compliance.

      5. You are not required to accept this License, since you have not
    signed it.  However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or
    distribute the Program or its derivative works.  These actions are
    prohibited by law if you do not accept this License.  Therefore, by
    modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the
    Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and
    all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying
    the Program or works based on it.

      6. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the
    Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the
    original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to
    these terms and conditions.  You may not impose any further
    restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein.
    You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to
    this License.

      7. If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent
    infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues),
    conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or
    otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not
    excuse you from the conditions of this License.  If you cannot
    distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this
    License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you
    may not distribute the Program at all.  For example, if a patent
    license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by
    all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then
    the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to
    refrain entirely from distribution of the Program.

    If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under
    any particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to
    apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other
    circumstances.

    It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any
    patents or other property right claims or to contest validity of any
    such claims; this section has the sole purpose of protecting the
    integrity of the free software distribution system, which is
    implemented by public license practices.  Many people have made
    generous contributions to the wide range of software distributed
    through that system in reliance on consistent application of that
    system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is willing
    to distribute software through any other system and a licensee cannot
    impose that choice.

    This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to
    be a consequence of the rest of this License.

      8. If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in
    certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the
    original copyright holder who places the Program under this License
    may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding
    those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among
    countries not thus excluded.  In such case, this License incorporates
    the limitation as if written in the body of this License.

      9. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions
    of the General Public License from time to time.  Such new versions will
    be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to
    address new problems or concerns.

    Each version is given a distinguishing version number.  If the Program
    specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and "any
    later version", you have the option of following the terms and conditions
    either of that version or of any later version published by the Free
    Software Foundation.  If the Program does not specify a version number of
    this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software
    Foundation.

      10. If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free
    programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the author
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    make exceptions for this.  Our decision will be guided by the two goals
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                                NO WARRANTY

      11. BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY
    FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.  EXCEPT WHEN
    OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES
    PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED
    OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
    MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  THE ENTIRE RISK AS
    TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU.  SHOULD THE
    PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING,
    REPAIR OR CORRECTION.

      12. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING
    WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR
    REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES,
    INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING
    OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED
    TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY
    YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER
    PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE
    POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

                         END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS

            Appendix: How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs

      If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest
    possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it
    free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms.

      To do so, attach the following notices to the program.  It is safest
    to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively
    convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least
    the "copyright" line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.

        <one line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does.>
        Copyright (C) 19yy  <name of author>

        This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
        it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
        the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
        (at your option) any later version.

        This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
        but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
        MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
        GNU General Public License for more details.

        You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
        along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
        Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

    Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.

    If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this
    when it starts in an interactive mode:

        Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) 19yy name of author
        Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `show w'.
        This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
        under certain conditions; type `show c' for details.

    The hypothetical commands `show w' and `show c' should show the appropriate
    parts of the General Public License.  Of course, the commands you use may
    be called something other than `show w' and `show c'; they could even be
    mouse-clicks or menu items--whatever suits your program.

    You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your
    school, if any, to sign a "copyright disclaimer" for the program, if
    necessary.  Here is a sample; alter the names:

      Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program
      `Gnomovision' (which makes passes at compilers) written by James Hacker.

      <signature of Ty Coon>, 1 April 1989
      Ty Coon, President of Vice

    This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into
    proprietary programs.  If your program is a subroutine library, you may
    consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the
    library.  If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Library General
    Public License instead of this License.