---
name: "install-mh"
section: "8mh"
platform: "linux"
package: "nmh"
version: "1.8-3"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/install-mh/8mh"
---

# install-mh(8mh)

initialize the nmh environment

## NAME

install-mh - initialize the nmh environment

## SYNOPSIS

**/usr/lib/mh/install-mh** \[**-help**\] \[**-version**\] \[**-auto**\] \[**-check**\]

## DESCRIPTION

**install-mh** creates the initial setup for a first-time **nmh** user. **install-mh** is installed in two locations for historical reasons.

The **-auto** switch does things as automatically as possible and makes **install-mh** less chatty.

The user is prompted for the name of the directory to be designated as the user's **nmh** directory.  If this directory does not exist, the user is asked if it should be created.  Normally, this directory should be under the user's home directory, and has the default name of *\`Mail'*. **install-mh** writes an initial *.mh\_profile* for the user.

As with all **nmh** commands, **install-mh** first checks for the existence of the **$MH** environment variable, since that, if set, gives the profile path. If it isn't set, the **$HOME** environment variable is consulted to determine the user's home directory. If **$HOME** is not set, then the */etc/passwd* file is consulted.

When creating the user's *.mh\_profile*, **install-mh** will check for the existence of a global profile at */etc/nmh/mh.profile*. If found, this will be used to initialize the new *.mh\_profile*.

The **-check** switch checks if **nmh** is installed. (This can be used by other programs to determine if **nmh** has been installed.)

**install-mh** sets up the user's profile to support the [*mh-draft*(5)](/mh-draft/5.md) draft folder facility.

## FILES

- $HOME/.mh\_profile

  The user's profile.

- /etc/nmh/mh.profile

  Used to initialize user's profile.

## PROFILE COMPONENTS

- Path:

  To set the user's nmh directory.

## SEE ALSO

[*mh-draft*(5)](/mh-draft/5.md)

## CONTEXT

With **-auto**, the current folder is changed to “*inbox*”.

## UNDOING THE INSTALLATION

If you only ran install-mh to try out **nmh** briefly, you might like to remove the configuration files it creates. (This is not obligatory -- **install-mh** creates only a few small files so simply leaving them in place will not cause problems.)

Most **nmh** configuration information lives in the user's **nmh** directory; you can print its name by running

**mhpath +**

Basically all plain files in the **nmh** directory are configuration files and can be removed.

*Attention:* The **nmh** directory holds not just configuration files! Its subdirectories contain all the emails you have written or received with **nmh.** Don't delete the **nmh** directory without carefully checking that there are no mail files that you might want later!

The only configuration file that lives outside the **nmh** directory is your profile file. You can print its name by running

**echo ${MH:-$HOME/.mh-profile}**

If you aren't using nmh any more you can delete this file, too.