NAME¶
mm - offline mail reader for Blue Wave, QWK, OMEN, SOUP and OPX packets
SYNOPSIS¶
mm [-option1 value] [-option2 value] [...] [filename1] [filename2] [...]
DESCRIPTION¶
MultiMail is an offline mail packet reader, supporting the Blue Wave, QWK, OMEN,
SOUP and OPX formats. It uses a simple curses-based interface.
SOUP is used for Internet email and Usenet. The other formats are primarily used
with dialup (or telnet) BBSes, to save connect time and to provide a better
interface to the message base.
Not all packet formats may be available, depending on how the program was
compiled.
This manpage is for version 0.49.
USAGE¶
On most screens, a summary of the available keystroke commands is displayed in
the lower part of the screen. (You can disable this, and reclaim some screen
real estate, by turning on "ExpertMode".) Note that for lack of
space, not all commands are listed on every screen where they're available.
For example, the search functions, which are available everywhere, are
summarized only in the packet list and address book. The principle, albeit not
one that's consistently implemented, is that the summary need appear only on
the first screen where the commands are available. When in doubt, try one and
see if it works. :-)
In the letter window or ANSI viewer, pressing F1 or '?' will bring up a window
listing the available commands.
The basic navigation keys, available throughout the program, consist of the
standard cursor and keypad keys, with <Enter> to select. For terminals
without full support for these keys, aliases are available for some of them:
ESC = Q
PgDn = B
PgUp = F
Right = +
Left = -
(Although shown in capitals, these may be entered unshifted.)
With "Lynx-style navigation", activated by the "UseLynxNav"
option, the Left arrow key backs out from any screen, while the Right arrow
key selects. The plus and minus keys are no longer aliases for Right and Left,
but perform the same functions as in the traditional navigation system.
Of special note is the space bar. In most screens, it functions as an alias for
PgDn; but in the letter window, it works as a combination PgDn/Enter key,
allowing you to page through an area with one key.
In the area list, the default view (selectable in the .mmailrc) is of Subscribed
areas only, or of Active areas (i.e., those with messages) if the Subscribed
areas are unknown. By pressing L, you can toggle between Active, All, and
Subscribed views. (Some formats, like plain QWK, don't have any way to
indicate subscribed areas. In other cases, you may have received an
abbreviated area list, so that the Subscribed and All views are the same.) In
all modes, areas with replies always appear, flagged with an 'R' in the
leftmost column.
In the letter list, only unread messages are displayed, by default; but you can
toggle this by pressing L. If there are any marked messages, L first switches
to a marked-only mode, then to all messages, then back to unread-only. Also,
the default mode -- unread or all -- can be set in the .mmailrc.
Multiple sort modes are available in the packet and letter lists; you can cycle
through them by pressing '$'. The default sort modes are set in the .mmailrc.
Options can be specified on the command line as well as in the .mmailrc. Option
names are the same as those which appear there, though they must be prefaced
by one or two dashes, and should not be followed by a colon. There must be a
space between the option name and the value; values which include spaces must
be quoted. All options must be specified before any packet names or
directories on the line. Finally, options which take a filename or path should
always include the full path. (This is not, however, necessary for packet
names.)
Packet names may be specified on the command line, bypassing the packet menu. If
multiple packets are named, they'll be opened sequentially. If a directory is
specified instead of a file, the packet window will by opened on that
directory, and no further items will be read from the command line. 'T' in the
packet menu may need clarification: it stamps the highlighted file with the
current date and time.
You can abort the program immediately from any screen with CTRL-X. You won't be
prompted to confirm the exit, but you will still be prompted to save replies
and pointers (unless autosaving is set). Note that if you've specified
multiple packets on the command line, this is the only way to terminate the
sequence prematurely.
You can obtain a temporary command shell anywhere by pressing CTRL-Z. In the
DOSish ports (MS-DOS, OS/2, Win32), it spawns a command shell, and you return
to MultiMail via the "exit" command. In Unix, it relies on the shell
to put MultiMail in the background; you return with "fg". (This has
always been available in the Unix versions; however, it won't work if
MultiMail wasn't launched from an interactive shell, or if the shell doesn't
support it.)
MOUSING¶
MultiMail is mousable on certain platforms: X, the Linux console (with gpm), and
Win32. (You can still use selection with X and gpm, too; to select or paste,
hold down the shift key.)
In each list window, button 1 highlights a line, or selects it (the same as
pressing Enter) if it's already highlighted. Double-click to select it
immediately. Click on the scrollbar to page up or down, or on the line just
above or below it to scroll a line at a time. In the packet, area, and letter
lists, click on the appropriate part of the window title to change the sort or
list type.
In the letter window, page up by clicking in the top half of the message text,
or down (and on to the next message) by clicking in the bottom half
(equivalent to the space bar). Scroll the message a single line up or down by
clicking on the status bars at top and bottom. The status flags
"Read" and "Marked" can be toggled by clicking on them;
clicking on "Save" saves, clicking on "Repl" starts a
reply (followup; i.e., the same as 'R'), and "Pvt" starts a private
reply (email or netmail; i.e., same as 'N').
In text-entry windows, button 1 works the same as the Enter key; and the dialog
boxes work in the obvious way.
Button 3 backs out of any screen, equivalent to ESC.
SEARCHING¶
A case-insensitive search function is available on all screens. Press '/' to
specify the text to look for, or '>' or '.' to repeat the last search.
New searches (specified with '/') always start at the beginning of the list or
message. Repeat searches (with '>' or '.') start with the line below the
current one. You can take advantage of this to manually adjust the starting
point for the next search.
Searches started in the letter, area or packet lists allow the searches to
extend below the current list. "Full text" searches all the way
through the text of each message; "Headers" searches only the
message headers (the letter list), "Areas" only the area list, and
"Pkt list" only the packet list. So, a "Full text" search
started from the packet list will search every message in every packet (but
only in the current directory).
When scanning "Full text", the automatic setting of the
"Read" marker is disabled. However, if you find a search string in
the header of a message and then select it manually, the marker will be set.
But if you start scanning from the packet list, and exit the packet via a
repeat search, the last-read markers won't be saved.
Scans of "Headers" or "Full text" that start from the area
list or packet list will automatically expand the letter lists they descend
into. Similarly, scans that start at the packet list will expand the area
lists. Otherwise, if you're viewing the short list, that's all that will be
searched.
I hope the above makes some sense. :-) The searching functions are difficult to
explain, but easy to use.
FILTERING¶
A new twist on searching, as of version 0.43, is filtering. This is available in
all of the list windows, but not the letter or ANSI viewer. Unlike searching,
it always applies only to the current list.
Press '|' to bring up the filter prompt, and specify the text to filter on. To
clear a filter, press '|', and then press return at a blank filter prompt. (A
string that's not found in the list will have the same effect.) Press ESC to
leave the filter as it was.
The list will now be limited to those items that contain the text you entered,
and that text will appear at the end of the window's title as a reminder. The
filter will be retained through lower levels, but will be cleared by exiting
to a higher level. Note that a search in, e.g., the letter list will search
only the message headers (and only those which are visible in the list), and
not the bodies.
When the filter is active in the letter list, the "All" option in the
Save menu will save only the items that match the filter. This can be used as
a quick alternative to marking and saving. You can also combine filtering and
marking.
Changing modes and sort types will not clear the filter. A search in a filtered
list will search only the items that match the filter.
OFFLINE CONFIGURATION¶
At present, offline config is limited to subscribe (add) and unsubscribe (drop)
functions. The Blue Wave, OPX, OMEN, QWKE, and QWK Add/Drop (with DOOR.ID)
methods are supported. (The QMAIL "CONFIG" method is not supported
yet.) Offline config is not yet available in SOUP mode.
In the area list, press 'U' or 'Del' to unsubscribe from the highlighted area.
To subscribe to a new conference, first expand the list ('L'), then highlight
the appropriate area and press 'S' or 'Ins'. Dropped areas are marked with a
minus sign ('-') in the first column; added areas with a plus ('+'). In the
expanded area list, already-subscribed areas are marked with an asterisk
('*'). (This and also applies to the little area list. With plain QWK packets,
the asterisk should not be relied upon; other areas may also be subscribed.)
Added or dropped areas are highlighted in the "Area_Reply" color.
Yeah, I'll have to change that name now. ;-)
Pressing 'S' on an area marked with '-', or 'U' on an area marked '+' turns the
flag off again.
In Blue Wave, OPX, OMEN or QWKE mode, the list of added and dropped areas is
read back in when the reply packet is reopened. If the reply packet has
already been uploaded, and you're reading a packet with the altered area list,
this is benign. If it's an older packet, you can alter the list before
uploading, as with reply messages. In QWK Add/Drop mode, the changed area
flags are converted to reply messages when the reply packet is saved. Note:
Adding or dropping areas sets the "unsaved replies" flag, like
entering a reply message, but does not invoke automatic reply packet saving
until you exit the packet.
Unfortunately, the OMEN mode has not actually been tested; but I believe it
conforms to the specs. Reports welcome.
HIDDEN LINES AND ROT13¶
In the letter window, you can toggle viewing of Fidonet "hidden" lines
(marked with a ^A in the first position) by pressing 'x'. The lines are shown
as part of the text, but in a different color. In Internet email and Usenet
areas, the full headers of the messages are available in the same way (if
provided in the packet -- generally, full headers are available in SOUP, and
partial extra headers in Blue Wave).
Pressing 'd' toggles rot13 encoding, the crude "encryption" method
used for spoiler warnings and such, primarily on Usenet.
ANSI VIEWER¶
If a message contains ANSI color codes, you may be able to view it as originally
intended by activating the ANSI viewer. Press 'v' to start it. Press 'q' to
leave the ANSI viewer; the navigation keys are the same as in the mail-reading
window.
The ANSI viewer includes support for animation. While within the ANSI viewer,
press 'v' again to animate the picture. Press any key to abort the animation.
The ANSI viewer is also used to display the new files list and bulletins, if any
are present.
New in version 0.43 is support for the '@' color codes used by PCBoard and
Wildcat. This is on by default in the ANSI viewer, but it can be toggled to
strip the codes, or pass them through untranslated, by pressing '@'.
As of version 0.46, the ANSI viewer also includes limited support for AVATAR
(level 0) and BSAVE (text only) screens. These can be toggled via ^V and ^B,
respectively.
CHARACTER SETS¶
MultiMail supports automatic translation between two character sets: the IBM PC
set (Code Page 437), and Latin-1 (ISO 8859-1). Messages can be in either
character set; the set is determined by the area attributes -- Internet and
Usenet areas default to Latin-1, while all others default to IBM -- and by a
CHRS or CHARSET kludge, if one is present. OMEN packets indicate their
character set in the INFOxy.BBS file. MultiMail translates when displaying
messages and creating replies.
The Unix versions of MultiMail assume that the console uses Latin-1, while the
DOSish versions (DOS, OS/2, and Win32) assume the IBM PC set. You can override
this via the .mmailrc option "Charset", or on a temporary basis by
pressing 'c'.
You can also use a different character set by disabling the conversion in
MultiMail, and letting your terminal handle it. For SOUP packets, and for
Internet or Usenet areas in other packets, everything will be passed through
unchanged if you set MultiMail to "Latin-1". For most other packet
types, setting MultiMail to "CP437" will have the same effect.
Beginning with version 0.33, a new character set variable is available:
"outCharset". This is a string which MultiMail puts into the MIME
identifier lines in SOUP replies if the text includes 8-bit characters. It's
also used for the pseudo-QP headers which are generated under the same
conditions; and when displaying such headers, MultiMail only converts text
back to 8-bit if the character set matches. The default is
"iso-8859-1".
By default, if a header line in a SOUP reply contains 8-bit characters,
MultiMail now writes it out with RFC 2047 (pseudo-QP) encoding. You can
disable this for mail and/or news replies via the "UseQPMailHead"
and "UseQPNewsHead" options, though I don't recommend it. The bodies
can also be encoded in quoted-printable; this is now on by default for mail,
and off for news. The options "UseQPMail" and "UseQPNews"
toggle QP encoding. (The headers and bodies of received messages will still be
converted to 8-bit.)
QP decoding is temporarily disabled when you toggle the display of hidden lines
('X') in the letter window, so that you can see the raw text of the message.
ADDRESS BOOK¶
The address book in MultiMail is intended primarily for use with Fido-style
Netmail or Internet email areas, in those packet types which support these.
When entering a message (other than a reply) into such an area, the address
book comes up automatically. It's also possible to use the name portion of an
address from the address book even when Fido/Internet addressing isn't
available, by starting a new message via CTRL-E instead of 'E'.
You can pull up the address book from most screens by pressing 'A', which allows
you to browse or edit the list. While reading in the letter window, you can
grab the current "From:" address by invoking the address book and
pressing 'L'.
TAGLINE WINDOW¶
From most screens, you can pull up the tagline window to browse or edit the list
by pressing CTRL-T. As of version 0.43, you can toggle sorting of the taglines
by pressing '$' or 'S'.
REPLY SPLITTING¶
Replies may be split, either automatically, or manually via CTRL-B in the reply
area. For automatic splitting, the default maximum number of lines per part is
set in the .mmailrc. The split occurs whenever the reply packet is saved. This
allows you to defer the split and still re-edit the whole reply as one.
However, with autosave on, the split will occur immediately after entering a
reply (because the save does, too). Setting MaxLines in the .mmailrc to 0
disables automatic splitting; manual splitting is still allowed. Attempts to
split at less than 20 lines are assumed to be mistakes and are ignored.
ENVIRONMENT¶
MultiMail uses the HOME or MMAIL environment variable to find its configuration
file, .mmailrc; and EDITOR for the default editor. MMAIL takes precedence over
HOME if it's defined. If neither is defined, the startup directory is used.
The use of EDITOR can be overridden in .mmailrc; however, environment variables
can't be used within .mmailrc.
You should also make sure that your time zone is set correctly. On many systems,
that means setting the TZ environment variable. A typical value for this
variable is of the form "EST5EDT" (that one's for the east coast of
the U.S.A.).
FILES¶
The only hardwired file is the configuration file:
.mmailrc (mmail.rc in DOS,
OS/2 or Win32). It's used to specify the pathnames to MultiMail's other
files, and the command lines for external programs (the editor and the
archivers).
By default, the other files are placed in the MultiMail home directory
($HOME/mmail or $MMAIL). Directories specified in the .mmailrc are created
automatically; the default Unix values are shown here:
- ~/mmail
- To store the tagline file, netmail addressbook, etc.
- taglines
- A plain text file, one tagline per line.
- addressbook (address.bk in DOS, OS/2 or Win32)
- A list of names and corresponding Fido netmail or Internet email
addresses. Note that Internet addresses are prefaced with an 'I'.
- colors
- Specifies the colors to use. (See README.col.)
- ~/mmail/down
- To store the packets as they came from the bbs.
- ~/mmail/up
- To store the reply packet(s) which you have to upload to the bbs.
- ~/mmail/save
- The default directory for saving messages.
CONFIG FILE¶
The config file (see above) is a plain text file with a series of values, one
per line, in the form "KeyWord: Value". The case of the keywords is
not signifigant. Additional, comment lines may be present, starting with
replaced by the defaults when you upgrade to a new version.) If any of the
keywords are missing, default values will be used.
As of version 0.41, any of these keywords except "Version" may also be
specified on the command line. Command-line options take precedence over those
in the config file, but their effect is not guaranteed -- some internal
pathnames are initialized before the command line is read, for example.
Here are the keywords and their functions:
- Version
- Specifies the version of MultiMail which last updated the file. This is
used to check whether the file should be updated and the "new
version" prompt displayed. Note that old values are preserved when
the file is updated; the update merely adds any keywords that are new.
This keyword is also used in the colors file.
- UserName
- Your name in plain text, e.g., "UserName: William McBrine". This
is used together with InetAddr to create a default "From:" line
for SOUP replies; and by itself in OMEN for display purposes (the actual
From name is set on upload), and for matching personal messages.
- InetAddr
- Your Internet email address, e.g., "InetAddr:
wmcbrine@users.sf.net". This is combined with the UserName in the
form "UserName <InetAddr>" ("William McBrine
<wmcbrine@users.sf.net>") to create a default "From:"
line for SOUP replies. Note that if neither value is specified, and
nothing is typed manually into the From: field when creating a message, no
From: line will be generated -- which is perfectly acceptable to at least
some SOUP programs, like UQWK.
- QuoteHead, InetQuote
- These strings are placed at the beginning of the quoted text when replying
in normal or Internet/Usenet areas, respectively. (The distinction is made
because the quoting conventions for BBSes and the Internet are different.)
Replaceable parameters are indicated with a '%' character, as follows:
%f = "From" in original message
%t = To
%d = Date (of original message)
%s = Subject
%a = Area
%n = newline (for multi-line headers)
%% = insert an actual percent character
Note that you can't put white space at the start of one of these strings (it
will be eaten by the config parser), but you can get around that by
putting a newline first.
- mmHomeDir
- MultiMail's home directory.
- TempDir
- This is the directory where MultiMail puts its temporary files -- by
default, as of 0.45, the same as mmHomeDir. The files are actually created
within a subdirectory of this directory; the subdirectory is named
"workNNNN", where NNNN is a random number (checked against any
existing files or directories before being created).
- signature
- Path to optional signature file, which should be a simple text file. If
specified, it will be appended to every message you write. You should give
the full path, not just the name.
- editor
- The editor MultiMail uses for replies, along with any command-line
options. This may also be a good place to insert spell-checkers, etc., by
specifying a batch file here. Note that the default value is just the
editor that's (almost) guaranteed to be available, for a given OS
(although the Unix "EDITOR" environment variable is checked
first), and is in no way a preferred editor; you can and should change
it.
- PacketDir
- Default packet directory.
- ReplyDir
- Default reply packet directory.
- SaveDir
- Default directory for saved messages.
- AddressBook
- Path and filename of the address book. (You might change this to share it
with another installation, but basically this keyword isn't too
useful.)
- TaglineFile
- Path and filename of the tagline file. This could be altered from a batch
file to swap between different sets of taglines. (But note that this value
is only read at startup.) You could also share taglines with another
program, but be careful with that; MultiMail truncates the lines at 76
characters.
- ColorFile
- Path and filename of the colors file. See README.col.
- UseColors
- Yes/No. This governs whether color is used, or monochrome. When colors are
disabled, the terminal's default foreground and background colors are
used. It's also a crude way to implement transparency (the only way, if
you're not using ncurses) -- the entire background will be transparent
when using an appropriate terminal.
- Transparency
- Yes/No. Only available in ncurses. (The option will appear, but not work,
in non-ncurses, non-PDCurses platforms.) When this is set to Yes, all
areas where the background color is the same as the background color set
in the "Main_Back" line, in the colors file, are instead set to
the default background color, and thus become transparent areas in those
terminal programs, like Eterm and Gnome Terminal, that support this.
- BackFill
- Yes/No. Normally the background area is filled with a checkerboard pattern
(ACS_BOARD characters, in curses terms). You can disable that here,
leaving those areas as flat background color. This option is intended
mostly to make transparency more effective, but it might help with any
color scheme. (Unlike the previous two, it's available in PDCurses.)
- *UncompressCommand, *CompressCommand
- Command lines (program name, options, and optionally the path) for the
archivers to compress and uncompress packets and reply packets. ZIP, ARJ,
RAR, LHA and tar/gzip are recognized. The "unknown" values are a
catch- all, attempted for anything that's not recognized as one of the
other four types; if you have to deal with ARC or ZOO files, you might
define the archiver for them here.
- PacketSort
- The packet list can be sorted either in inverse order of packet date and
time (the newest at the top), or in alphabetical order by filename.
"Time" specifies the former, and "Name" the latter.
(Actually only the first letter is checked, and case is not signifigant.
This applies to the other keywords of this type (the kind that have a
fixed set of values to choose from) as well.) The sort type specified here
is only the default, and can be toggled from the packet window by pressing
'$'.
- AreaMode
- The default mode for the area list: "All",
"Subscribed", or "Active". This is the mode that will
be used on first opening a packet, but it can be changed by pressing L
while in the area list or little area list. For a description of the
modes, see USAGE.
- LetterSort
- The sort used by default in the letter list. Can be "Subject"
(subjects sorted alphabetically, with a case-insensitive compare),
"Number" (sorted by message number), "From" or
"To". (This can be overridden, as in the packet list.)
- LetterMode
- The default mode for the letter list: "All" or
"Unread". This is the mode used on first opening an area; it can
be toggled by pressing L. (The Marked view is also available in the letter
list, but cannot be set as the default here.)
- ClockMode
- The display mode for the clock in the upper right corner of the letter
window: "Time" (of day), "Elapsed" (since MultiMail
started running), or "Off".
- Charset
- The character set that the console is assumed to use. Either
"CP437" (code page 437, the U.S. standard for the IBM PC and
clones) or "Latin-1" (aka ISO-8859-1, the standard for most
other systems). Note that the character set of messages is determined
separately (q.v.).
- UseTaglines
- Yes/No. If no, the tagline window is not displayed at all when composing a
message.
- AutoSaveReplies
- Yes/No. If yes, the reply packet is saved automatically -- the equivalent
of pressing F2, but without a confirmation prompt -- whenever the contents
of the reply area are changed. This can be convenient, and even a safety
feature if your power supply is irregular, but it provides less
opportunity to take back a change (like deleting a message). If no, you're
prompted whether to save the changes on exiting the packet. Note that if
you say no to that prompt, nothing that you wrote during that session will
be saved (unless you saved it manually with F2).
- StripSoftCR
- Yes/No. Some messages on Fido-type networks contain spurious instances of
character 141, which appears as an accented 'i' in code page 437. These
are really so-called "soft returns", where the message was
wrapped when composing it, but not indicating a paragraph break.
Unfortunately, the character can also appear legitimately as that accented
'i', so this option defaults to no. It can be toggled temporarily via the
'I' key in the letter window, and it doesn't apply to messages in the
Latin-1 character set. This is now applied only in Blue Wave mode.
- BeepOnPers
- Yes/No. If yes, MultiMail beeps when you open a message addressed to or
from yourself in the letter window. (These are the same messages which are
highlighted in the letter list.)
- UseLynxNav
- Yes/No. See the description under USAGE.
- ReOnReplies
- Yes/No. By popular demand. :-) Setting this to "No" will disable
the automatic prefixing of "Re: " to the Subject when replying
-- except in areas flagged as Internet email or Usenet, where this is the
standard, and is still upheld.
- QuoteWrapCols
- Numeric. The right margin for quoted material in replies (including the
quote indicator).
- MaxLines
- Numeric. See the description under REPLY SPLITTING.
- outCharset
- String. See the description under CHARACTER SETS.
- UseQPMailHead
- Yes/No. Controls the use of RFC 2047 encoding in outgoing mail
headers.
- UseQPNewsHead
- Yes/No. Controls the use of RFC 2047 encoding in outgoing news
headers.
- UseQPMail
- Yes/No. Controls the use of quoted-printable encoding in outgoing
mail.
- UseQPNews
- Yes/No. Controls the use of quoted-printable encoding in outgoing
news.
- ExpertMode
- Yes/No. If set to No, the onscreen help menus are not shown; instead, the
space is used to extend the size of info windows by a few lines.
- IgnoreNDX
- Yes/No. This option applies only to QWK packets. If set to yes, the *.NDX
files are always ignored, in favor of the "new" indexing method
that depends only on MESSAGES.DAT. This method is slightly slower than the
*.NDX-based indexing method (though the delay is dwarfed by packet
decompression time), but the most common problem with QWK packets is
corrupt *.NDX files. MultiMail now recognizes some cases where the *.NDX
files are corrupt and switches automatically, but it doesn't catch them
all.
UPGRADING¶
The basic upgrade procedure is to simply copy the new executable over the old
one. No other files are needed. When you run a new version of MultiMail (0.19
or later) for the first time, it automatically updates your .mmailrc and
ColorFile with any new keywords. (Old keywords, and the values you've set for
them, are preserved. However, comments are lost.) Some notes on specific
upgrades:
Version 0.48 adds the .mmailrc option "Mouse", which allows you to
enable or disable mouse input (for instance, if you don't want to see the
mouse cursor).
Version 0.45 adds "TempDir". Note that temporary files are handled
differently in this version, and the TEMP and TMP environment variables are
ignored. "homeDir" has been removed.
Version 0.43 adds "ClockMode", and makes "UseColors"
available in all ports. Also note that CPU usage while idle may be higher in
some configurations.
Version 0.41 adds the option "IgnoreNDX".
Version 0.39 changes the function of the "Transparency" option
slightly. It now operates on the color set in "Main_Back", rather
than Black. Also, if you're accustomed to using the mouse to cut and paste
under X or gpm, note that you now have to hold down the shift key while doing
this.
Version 0.38 adds "ExpertMode", "Transparency",
"UseColors", and "BackFill", while removing the options
"BuildPersArea", "UseScrollBars",
"MakeOldFlags", and "AutoSaveRead".
Version 0.37 adds "tarUncompressCommand" and
"tarCompressCommand".
Version 0.36 adds "LetterMode" and "AreaMode".
Version 0.33 adds "ReOnReplies", "outCharset",
"UseQPMailHead", "UseQPNewsHead", "UseQPMail"
and "UseQPNews"; changes some default values.
Version 0.32 adds "BuildPersArea" and "MakeOldFlags".
Version 0.30 adds "UserName", "InetAddr",
"QuoteHead", "InetQuote", and "QuoteWrapCols".
Version 0.29 adds "UseScrollBars" and "UseLynxNav".
Version 0.28 adds "MaxLines", "StripSoftCR", and
"BeepOnPers".
Version 0.26 adds "AutoSaveReplies", "AutoSaveRead", and
"UseTaglines".
Version 0.25 adds "Charset", "PacketSort", and
"LetterSort". The default packet sort is now by time instead of
name.
If you're upgrading from 0.19 to 0.20 or later, and you have a customized
ColorFile, be sure to note the new options.
The ColorFile is new in 0.19. Check it out (~/mmail/colors, by default).
As of 0.16, the HOME environment variable can be overridden with MMAIL, or
omitted altogether.
If you're upgrading from a version before 0.9, and you have existing reply
packets (.rep or .new) whose names are partly or wholly in uppercase, you must
rename them to lowercase before version 0.9 or higher will recognize them.
(Downloaded packets are not at issue.)
If you're upgrading from a version below 0.8, you may want to manually delete
the /tmp/$LOGNAME directory created by previous versions. (0.8 and higher
clean out their own temp directories, and use different names for each
session.)
If you're upgrading from a version prior to 0.7, please note the changes in the
default directories; previously they were "~/mmail/bwdown", etc.
NOTES¶
Unlike the other archive types, tar/gzip recompresses the entire packet when
updating the .red flags, so it can be a bit slow. Also, the supplied command
lines assume GNU tar, which has gzip built-in. Seperated gunzip/tar and
tar/gzip command lines are possible, but would require a (simple) external
script. MultiMail only checks for the gzip signature, and does not actually
verify that the gzipped file is a tar file.
OPX reply packets are always created with a .rep extension, which differs from
the behavior of some other readers. If you switch from QWK packets to OPX
packets on the same board, MultiMail will _not_ open an old QWK .rep in OPX
mode, nor vice versa. (It will try, and will terminate with "Error
opening reply packet".)
SOUP reply packets are created with the name "basename.rep", where
basename is the part of the original packet name before the first period.
(Unlike other formats, there's no actual standard for this in SOUP, but this
seems to be the most common form among the SOUP readers I surveyed.) Also, not
that I expect anyone to try this, but currently MultiMail is only able to read
reply packets generated by other SOUP readers if the replies are in 'b' or 'B'
mode, and are one to a file within the packet. Most readers meet the first
criterion, but some of them batch all mail and news replies into a single file
for each type. A future version of MultiMail will be able to read these, too.
When re-editing a reply, it gets pushed to end of the list of replies.
The R)ename function in the packet window can also be used to move files between
directories; however, the destination filename must still be specified along
with the path.
If you're using the XCurses (PDCurses) version, and your editor isn't an X app,
it will work better if you set MultiMail's "editor" keyword to
"xterm -e filename" (instead of just "filename"). I
decided not to do this automatically because someone might actually use it
with an X editor.
Editing and deletion of old replies are available through the REPLY area, which
always appears at the top of the area list. This differs from Blue Wave and
some other readers.
The Escape key works to back out from most screens, but after you press it,
you'll have to wait a bit for it to be sensed (with ncurses; not true with
PDCurses).
Only Blue Wave style taglines (beginning with "...") are recognized by
the tagline stealer. The tagline must be visible on the screen to be taken.
Netmail only works in Blue Wave, OMEN and OPX modes, and is still slightly
limited. Netmail from points includes the point address. Internet email is
available in Blue Wave and OPX modes, for those doors that support it, and in
SOUP mode, using the same interface as Fido netmail.
AUTHORS¶
MultiMail was originally developed under Linux by Kolossvary Tamas and Toth
Istvan. John Zero was the maintainer for versions 0.2 through 0.6; since
version 0.7, the maintainer is William McBrine <wmcbrine@users.sf.net>.
Additional code has been contributed by Peter Karlsson, Mark D. Rejhon, Ingo
Brueckl, Robert Vukovic and Mark Crispin.
BUGS AND KNOWN PROBLEMS¶
The RSX/NT version is reported to be incompatible with 4DOS: shelling to
external programs (archivers or editors) fails. Thanks to Tony Summerfelt for
figuring this one out. You can set the MultiMail session to use COMMAND.COM
while retaining 4DOS elsewhere.
Red Hat Linux 6.0 (and possibly 6.x) comes with a defective installation of
ncurses. When linked to this, MultiMail mostly works, but odd effects appear
when scrolling. (Users describe it as double-spaced.) The problem can be fixed
by reinstalling ncurses from the source -- not the source RPM that comes with
Red Hat, but the original source from the ncurses site (see INSTALL).
SOUP area type 'M' is not recognized yet. First I have to find a program that
can generate one. :-)
The ANSI viewer eats a lot less memory than it used to, but it can still be a
problem. (Each character/attribute pair takes up four bytes in memory. But
lines which have the same attribute throughout are stored as plain text.)
The new file list and bulletin viewer is, as yet, a hack. A better means of
selecting which ones to view will be forthcoming, if I can ever decide just
how it should look. (Your opinion is welcome.)
If you find any bugs, or have ideas for improvement, please write to me.