sources-request@panda.UUCP (03/15/86)
Mod.sources: Volume 4, Issue 35
If your site has the "mm" macro package, then you don't need this, the
formatted documentation for the Msg mail system.
#! /bin/sh
# This is a shell archive, meaning:
# 1. Remove everything above the #! /bin/sh line.
# 2. Save the resulting text in a file.
# 3. Execute the file with /bin/sh (not csh) to create the files:
# Alias.fmtd
# Config.fmtd
# This archive created: Sat Mar 15 10:06:15 1986
export PATH; PATH=/bin:$PATH
echo shar: extracting "'Alias.fmtd'" '(13394 characters)'
if test -f 'Alias.fmtd'
then
echo shar: will not over-write existing file "'Alias.fmtd'"
else
cat << \SHAR_EOF > 'Alias.fmtd'
A Users Guide to the
MSG Alias System
(C) Copyright 1986, by
Dave Taylor
March 15, 1986
This document is intended as a supplement to the Msg
Users Guide and is only of interest to those users desiring
more knowledge about how aliases work and how to create
strange and exciting aliases for their systems (alright, so
it's not that exciting!)
This document is broken up into the following sections;
user aliases, group aliases, system aliases, editing and
installing new aliases, the machine routing database, and
general warnings and other chitchat.
1. User Aliases
The most simple sort of aliases in the Msg system are
individual user aliases. These are made up of three parts;
<aliasname list> : <username> : <address>
Where the alias list is either a single aliasname* or a list
of aliasnames separated by commas.
Username is currently a comment field, and is used to
indicate the full "real name" that the alias is for. For
example, if you had an alias for "dat" to get to me, the
username field would contain "Dave Taylor" or perhaps "Dave
Taylor, HP" or some other permutation of that. In a future
release of the mailer, the alias system will know about this
field and include it in outgoing messages AND as a supple-
ment to the usual list of aliasnames.
Address is either the users full electronic mail
address or, if the machine routing database is installed,
__________
* Please see the appendix for a full definition of what
exactly an aliasname consists of.
Page 1
the minimum address needed to specify the destination. For
example, say our routing database contained information on
how to get to machine "hp-sdd" and I wanted to have an
address for my friend Ken there - I could have his address
specified as simply "ken@hp-sdd" (or alternatively "hp-
sdd!ken" since the two are functionally equivalent).
Let's get on to some examples, shall we?
Consider this excerpt from my own .alias_text file;
wunder,walt : Walt Underwood : wunder@hpcea
laubach : Mark Laubach : laubach@hpcea
mary : Mary Hsia-Coron : hsia@hpindla
decot : Dave Decot : decot@hpda
jeff : Jeff Wu : hpcnoe!j_wu
dave : Dave Barrett : hpcnof!d_barrett
Note that the alias for Walt Underwood has two aliasnames
associated with it, "wunder" and "walt". Also notice that
the first four aliases use the ARPA style naming convention
(user@machine) but the last two use the UUCP style conven-
tion (machine!user). In this context it is independent.
The only time when it does make a difference which
notation you use is if you have to specify more than the
machine that the user is receiving mail on. That is, say we
have a friend who receives mail at a machine called
"twinkie" and our best connection is through Georgia
Tech...Then our alias for them could be;
buddy : Our friend : gatech!twinkie!buddy
or
buddy2 : Our friend : gatech!buddy@twinkie
but not;
buddy : Our friend : buddy@twinkie@gatech
(however, buddy%twinkie@gatech will also work, but that's
far too bizarre a notation to be recommended!!) (besides
there's no guarantee that "gatech" will like it, nor the
"buddy2" alias above!)
Anyway, suffice to say that if you must specify any
sort of route that you should use the uucp notation as much
as possible to ensure that the Msg system expands the
Page 2
correct machine name.
2. Group Aliases
After the confusion of user aliases, group aliases are
even more fun! For the most part the notation is very simi-
lar;
<aliasname list> : <groupname> : <list of people>
Where aliasname list and groupname are exactly equivalent to
the corresponding fields in user aliases.
The interesting part is the list of people field! This
field is actually in the same notation as the aliasname
list, so it's not quite as strange as I've lead you to
believe. It's best to illustrate by example;
friends, mypals, gang : The Gang of Six : joe, larry, mary, joanna,
nancy, michael
(Notice that you can continue onto as many lines as you'd
like so long as each additional line start with either a
SPACE or a TAB character)
The significant limitation with group aliases is that
each of the people in the list must be a previously defined
aliasname in either the existing alias file or the system
alias file or a valid destination on the current machine.
What does this mean? This means that the following
excerpt from an alias file;
hawaii : The Hawaiian Twins : joe@RIT-CS.ARPA, maoa
maoa : Maoa Lichtenski Jr : maoa@Hawaii.cs.uh.ARPA
will fail for two reasons - not only does the group list of
people contain a complex address, but it also contains an
aliasname that is defined later in the .alias_text file! **
BEWARE!!! **
The correct way to have the previous alias in the file
is to have it like;
joe : Joe Lichtenski : joe@RIT-CS
maoa : Maoa Lichtenski Jr : maoa@Hawaii
hawaii : The Hawaiian Twins : joe, maoa
which will then work correctly.
Page 3
This isn't too hard now, is it?
Fortunately, while this seems pretty tough, if you run the
newalias command to install your new aliases, it will give
you nice meaningful error messages that will help you fix
the list up correctly!
3. System Aliases
System aliases are functionally equivalent to the indi-
vidual Msg alias lists each Msg user has (both user aliases
and group aliases) but are "read only" for everyone but the
Msg administrator. The format of the file is identical to
the users file, and the only difference is that this file is
expected to be located in the directory that contains the
"system_hash_file" and "system_data_file" files (see the Msg
Configuration Guide for more details on these variables).
Simply create a .alias_text file in the specific direc-
tory as you would a normal file, and install it the same way
(see the following section for more details on that).
Voila!!
4. Editing and Installing New Aliases
To install new aliases, you need merely to create, or
modify, your .alias_text file in your home directory until
you're satisfied with it and it meets the requirements
stated above. You can then try to install it with the com-
mand;
$ newalias
which will either report back the number of aliases
installed into the system or will report errors indicative
of the changes that the program expects before it can accept
the alias list.
Note that blank lines are no problem and that comments
are not only allowed but actually encouraged, and must have
# as the first character of each comment line.
Finally, if you find that you're hitting the "Too many
aliases" error, then you'll need to reconfigure the entire
Msg system (again, see the Msg Configuration Guide espe-
cially the discussion on "MAX_UALIASES" and "MAX_SALIASES"
Page 4
therein).
5. The Hostname Routing Database
Floating about on the various networks is a rather
nifty program by a number of people, including Peter Honey-
man and Steve Bellovin, called "pathalias". What this
incredibly handy program does is take the strange postings
in groups like "mod.map" and massage them into a file of the
form;
<hostname> <address>
which is then sorted alphabetically and stored in the file
pointed to by "pathfile" (guess where to look for more
information!) for Msg to use.
If you don't have the program, or don't want to use it,
you can simulate this file by listing machines in the same
format. The exact format expected is;
<hostname><tab><machine-address>
where hostname is a limited identifier (no special charac-
ters) and machine-address MUST contain the sequence "%s"
(and consequently any other percent signs that appear in the
address must be paired) so that the call in the program
"sprintf(buffer, machine-address, username)" will generate a
valid return address.
By way of example, here are a few entries from my own file;
HPL hplabs!%s
PARC hplabs!%s@Xerox.PA.COM
amc-hq hplabs!%s@AMC-HQ.ARPA
imsss hplabs!%s%%IMSSS@SU-AI.ARPA
infopro hpfcla!ihnp4!astrovax!infopro!%s
interleaf hpfcdc!hpda!sun!interleaf!%s
jpl-vax hplabs!%s@jpl-vax
As you can see, the addresses can get pretty complicated!!
In fact it's due purely to the complication that a database
file of this sort can be so wonderful!!
If you'd like further information on the pathalias program,
try keeping track of the entries in "mod.sources" - it's
posted about once a year or so...
Page 5
6. Other Stuff not Covered Yet
Probably the biggest question you have in your mind
right now is "But how the heck does this relate to the 'ole
mailx aliases and the snazzo sendmail alias system??" Well,
rest assured, sendmail fans, that if you REALLY want to have
your aliases down in the transport you can. No problem.
All you'll need to do is to turn off the address validation
routine in Msg by defining the "NOCHECK_VALIDNAME" defini-
tion (I'm not even going to bother to tell you where to look
for this one!!).
For those mailx fanatics out there, you can translate
your aliases into the format that Msg wants by running them
through the awk script listed in Appendix Two.
Finally, if you have any problems or questions, try
looking in the newalias manual entry, or dropping me a line
at the "usual" email address (ask your administrator!).
Page 6
Appendix One
A BNF of the Alias File Grammar
In this listing, items in <> brackets are non-terminals,
items in {} are optional, and items in bold face are termi-
nals.
<alias_file> ::= <line> { <alias_file> }
<line> ::= <comment> | <empty> | <alias>
<comment> ::= .. any sequence of characters starting with '#' ..
<empty> ::= .. an empty line ..
<alias> ::= <user alias> | <group alias>
<user alias> ::= <aliaslist> : { <comment> : }
{<whitespace>} <address>
<group alias> ::= <aliaslist> : { <comment> : }
{<whitespace>} <list of addresses>
<aliaslist> ::= <aliasname> { , <aliaslist> }
<aliasname> ::= <alpha-char> { <sequence-of-chars> }
<comment> ::= .. anything other than ":" ..
<address> ::= <username> | <arpa-address> | <uucp-address> |
<complex-address>
<list-of-addresses> ::= <aliasname> { , <whitespace> }
{ <list-of-addresses> }
<username> ::= .. any valid mailbox name on the system ..
<arpa-address> ::= <username> ( @ <hostname> | <postfix> )
<hostname> ::= .. any legal host machine name ..
<uucp-address> ::= <hostname> ! <username>
<complex-address> ::= <prefix> ( <uucp-address> | <arpa-address> )
<prefix> ::= <hostname> ! { <prefix> }
Page 7
<postfix> ::= % <hostname> { <postfix> } @
<hostname>
<sequence-of-chars> ::= .. any characters other than space, tab,
return, or colon ..
<whitespace> ::= .. space, tab or newline followed by space or tab ..
Page 8
Appendix Two
An AWK Script for
Translating Aliases from a
".mailrc" Format to a
Msg Format
-------------------------------------------------------------------
BEGIN {
print "# MSG alias_text file, from a .mailrc file..."
print ""
}
next_line == 1 {
next_line = 0;
group = ""
for (i = 1; i <= NF; i++) {
if (i == NF && $i == "\\") sep = ""
else sep = ", "
if ($i == "\\") {
group = sprintf("%s,", group)
next_line = 1;
}
else if (length(group) > 0)
group = sprintf("%s%s%s", group, sep, $i);
else
group = $i;
}
print "\t" group
}
$1 ~ /[Aa]lias|[Gg]roup/ {
if ( NF == 3)
print $2 " : user alias : " $3;
else {
group = ""
for (i = 3; i <= NF; i++) {
if (i == NF && $i == "\\") sep = ""
else sep = ", "
if ($i == "\\") {
group = sprintf("%s,", group)
next_line = 1;
}
else if (length(group) > 0)
Page 9
group = sprintf("%s%s%s", group, sep, $i);
else
group = $i;
}
print $2 " : group alias : " group;
}
}
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: this script is contained in the release under the
name "mailrc.awk" in the utilities directory "utils".
Page 10
SHAR_EOF
if test 13394 -ne "`wc -c < 'Alias.fmtd'`"
then
echo shar: error transmitting "'Alias.fmtd'" '(should have been 13394 characters)'
fi
fi
echo shar: extracting "'Config.fmtd'" '(11466 characters)'
if test -f 'Config.fmtd'
then
echo shar: will not over-write existing file "'Config.fmtd'"
else
cat << \SHAR_EOF > 'Config.fmtd'
Configuration Guide
to the
MSG Mail System
(C) Copyright 1986, by
Dave Taylor
February 28, 1986
This document is intended as a supplement to the Msg
Users Guide and is only of interest to sites having the
source code to the msg system.
Virtually all of the installation dependent definitions
are contained in the file 'hdrs/sysdefs.h', as detailed
below;
-------------------------------------------------------------
#define USE_EMBEDDED_ADDRESSES
#define FIND_DELTA 10 /* for binary searches in path database */
#define MAX_HEADERS 500 /* max number of messages in one file! */
#define MAX_SALIASES 503 /* number of system aliases allowed */
#define MAX_UALIASES 251 /* number of user aliases allowed */
#define MAX_IN_WEEDLIST 50 /* max headers to weed out */
#define MAX_HOPS 35 /* max hops in return addr to E)veryone */
#define MAX_ATTEMPTS 6 /* #times to attempt lock file creation */
#define REMOVE_AT_LAST /* see leavembox.c */
#define DEFAULT_BATCH_SUBJECT "no subject (file transmission)"
#define NOCHECK_VALIDNAME /* see validname.c */
#define NOTES_HEADER "/***** "
#define NOTES_FOOTER "/* ---------- */"
#ifdef BSD
# define system_hash_file "/usr/spool/mail/.alias_hash"
# define system_data_file "/usr/spool/mail/.alias_data"
#else
# define system_hash_file "/usr/mail/.alias_hash"
# define system_data_file "/usr/mail/.alias_data"
#endif
Page 1
#define pathfile "/usr/lib/nmail.paths"
#define Lsys "/usr/lib/uucp/L.sys"
#define DEBUG "Msg.debug.info"
#define temp_file "/tmp/snd."
#define temp_mbox "/tmp/mbox."
#define temp_print "/tmp/print."
#define mailtime_file ".last_read_mail"
#ifdef BSD
# define default_editor "/usr/ucb/vi"
# define mailhome "/usr/spool/mail/"
#else
# define default_editor "/usr/bin/vi"
# define mailhome "/usr/mail/"
#endif
#define sendmail "/usr/lib/sendmail"
#define sendmailflags "-oi"
#define mailer "/bin/rmail"
#define mailx "/usr/bin/mailx"
#define helphome "/usr/local/lib/"
#define helpfile "main.help"
#define msgrcfile "/.msgrc"
#define mailheaders ".msgheaders"
#define unedited_mail "emergency.mbox"
#define newalias "newalias 1>&2 > /dev/null"
#define remove "/bin/rm -f" /* how to remove a file */
#define cat "/bin/cat" /* how to display files */
-------------------------------------------------------------
USE_EMBEDDED_ADDRESSES This controls the mailers response to
messages that contain "Reply-To:" or "From:"
lines that actually contain a return address.
If it's defined, the mailer will attempt to
use the address specified (overriding the
return address built from the path that the
mail took). It will look the address up in
the pathalias database (see the documentation
on the alias system) for incomplete paths,
but it is still recommended that this be left
undefined.
Page 2
This will, of course, make the mailer
not be a standard 'RFC-822' mailer, since the
mail system is defined to use the reply-to if
included rather than the return address, but,
at least for addresses on the ARPA net, it
ain't going to work a lot of the time!
FIND_DELTA This is the delta that the binary search of
the pathalias database will use to determine
when it's slicing up a single line, rather
than a multitude of lines. Ideally, this
should be set to 1 byte less than the shor-
test line in the file...the default is 10
bytes.
MAX_HEADERS The maximum number of messages allowed in a
single mailbox.
MAX_SALIASES The number of system aliases allowed. (It
is recommended that this be a prime number to
improve the performance of the hashing func-
tion (it's a complicated proof!))
MAX_UALIASES The number of user aliases allowed. (should
be a prime number - see the comment above)
MAX_IN_WEEDLIST The maximum number of headers that can be
specified in the weedout list of the .msgrc
file. A suggested alternative approach if
this number is too small is to specify ini-
tial substrings in the file rather than
increasing the number. For example, say you
want to weedout the headers "Latitude:" and
"Latitudinal-Coords:", you could simply
specify "Latitud" and match them both!
Furthermore you could also specify headers
like "X-" and remove all the user defined
headers!
MAX_HOPS When replying to a G)roup, this is the max-
imum number of hops that a message can have
taken. This is used to try to optimize the
return address (remove cyclic loops and so
on) and regular use should show that the
default of 35 is plenty more than you'll ever
need!
MAX_ATTEMPTS When reading in the default mailbox
(/usr/mail/$username) the mailer creates a
file called "/usr/mail/$username.lock" to
ensure that no mail is added to the file
Page 3
while it's being either read, or replaced (ie
written to). Occasionally, this lock file
will already be in place since someone is
currently sending you mail. If this occurs,
the mailer will wait a few seconds and try to
create the lock file again. This parameter
defines the number of tries the mailer should
take before giving up.
REMOVE_AT_LAST When it does decide to give up after trying
to create the lock file, (see MAX_ATTEMPTS,
above) this will define how to act. If it's
defined, the mailer will attempt to remove
the lock file after the MAX_ATTEMPTS timeout.
On the other hand, if it's not defined (the
recommended state) it'll simply quit the
mailer, telling the user to try again in a
few minutes.
DEFAULT_BATCH_SUBJECT What the subject should be on messages
that are from redirected input but don't have
a subject specified...
NOCHECK_VALIDNAME This disables the checking of validnames
on the existing machine. On machines that
run a system such as sendmail and use the
sendmail alias feature, this should be
defined. On other systems this should be
left as the default (not defined) to avoid
users generating "dead.letter" files...
NOTES_HEADER This defines the first "word" of the line
that a notes file entry would contain.
NOTES_FOOTER This defines the footer line (in it's
entirety).
system_hash_file This is the file that contains the hashed
version of the system aliases. It is also
used in the newalias command. (note that it
is defined differently if you're running on a
Berkeley system)
system_data_file This is the other file the newalias command
installs in the system alias area. (Note
this is defined differently if you're runnnig
a bsd system)
pathfile This defines the location of the alias
datafile. This file is in the format that
pathalias generates, that is;
Page 4
machine <tab> address
For further information, please see the Msg
Alias System documentation.
Lsys This defines where the system L.sys file is
kept. This is used for the mailer to quickly
know what machines the current machine can
talk to directly (to avoid trying to search
the pathalias database to route mail to these
machines).
DEBUG The name of the file to put in the users home
directory if they choose to use the "-d"
debug option.
temp_file Temporary file for sending outbound messages.
Place to keep copy of incoming mailbox to
avoid collisions with newer mail.
temp_print File to use when creating a printout of a
message.
mailtime_file File to compare date to to determine if a
given message is New since the last time the
mail was read or not.
default_editor If no editor is specified in the users .msgrc
file, this is which editor to use. ENSURE IT
IS A VALID EDITOR ON THIS MACHINE!! (Not
that the default home for "vi" is different
on BSD machines)
mailhome Where all the incoming mailboxes are, and
also where the 'lock' files have to be put
for the mailer to know not to add new mail
while we're reading/writing the mailfile.
(note that mail is kept in a different direc-
tory on Berkeley systems)
sendmail Defines where sendmail is (if you have it on
your system).
sendmailflags Defines the flags to hand to sendmail if and
when the program chooses to use it.
mailer If you don't have sendmail, this is the
mailer that'll be used.
Page 5
mailx If all else fails, this mailer can be used in
a rather dumb way.
helphome Where the help file is kept (soon to be help
files!)
helpfile The name of the main helpfile (kept in "hel-
phome").
msgrcfile The name of the automatic control file
(currently ".msgrc")
mailheaders The name of the optional file that users
may have that will be included in the headers
of each outbound message.
unedited_mail In the strange case when the mailer suddenly
finds all the directories it uses shut off
(like /usr/mail and /tmp) then it'll put the
current mailbox into this file in the users
home directory.
newalias How to install new aliases..
remove How to remove a file.
cat How to display a file to stdout.
Page 6
SHAR_EOF
if test 11466 -ne "`wc -c < 'Config.fmtd'`"
then
echo shar: error transmitting "'Config.fmtd'" '(should have been 11466 characters)'
fi
fi
exit 0
# End of shell archivesources-request@panda.UUCP (03/15/86)
Mod.sources: Volume 4, Issue 36
If your site has the "mm" macro package, then you don't need this, the
formatted documentation for the Msg mail system.
#! /bin/sh
# This is a shell archive, meaning:
# 1. Remove everything above the #! /bin/sh line.
# 2. Save the resulting text in a file.
# 3. Execute the file with /bin/sh (not csh) to create the files:
# Guide.fmtd
# This archive created: Sat Mar 15 10:06:24 1986
export PATH; PATH=/bin:$PATH
echo shar: extracting "'Guide.fmtd'" '(50526 characters)'
if test -f 'Guide.fmtd'
then
echo shar: will not over-write existing file "'Guide.fmtd'"
else
cat << \SHAR_EOF > 'Guide.fmtd'
Msg 3.1 Users Guide
Dave Taylor
March 15, 1986
1. Introduction
The UNIX operating system was originally written on a
small PDP machine to work with teletypewriters. Conse-
quently, all the original software for the operating system
was written with a 'tty' in mind - they were all line
oriented, rather than screen oriented.
Gradually this began to change, and, with the addition
of the Berkeley vi visual shell to the ed line editor, the
trend was brought to the attention of certain UNIX systems
designers.
This, however, seemingly hasn't been enough, as vi and
notes are still the only screen oriented software available
(other than games, which are a taboo subject with managers
and the like!). Consequently, after becoming more and more
frustrated with the existing electronic mail facilities on
the system ('mail' and 'mailx', both of which are essen-
tially line-editors) I decided to write my own!
This document discusses the msg mailer, and includes a
set of example screens and a discussion of configuration
(for systems administrators). It is broken down into the
following general sections; The .msgrc file, starting
options of msg, the main system level, responses of various
commands, the alias system, and system configuration.
Any comments or problems with either this document or
the program itself are welcome: all installed systems should
have an alias that will ensure that I receive any mail sent
to 'msg'.
Page 1
Msg Users Guide Version 3.2
2. The .msgrc File
The msg mailer has the ability to automatically read in
a configuration file at each invocation. The file must be
called ".msgrc" and reside in your home directory for it to
be read in, and can have any of the following entries in any
order (note that the first four entries replace environment
variables of the same name, and the four boolean options
supplement required starting parameters);
fullname This is the name the mailer will use when sending
mail from you. It is highly recommended that you
use your full name and nothing strange or unusual,
as that can appear extremely rude to people
receiving your mail.
maildir This is the default mail folder. It is used to
expand filenames in the mailer when specified
using the '=' metacharacter. That is, if you save
to file "=/stuff" then the '=' will be expanded to
the current value of maildir.
mailbox This is where to put incoming mail after you've
read it. When you answer 'y' to the "save to
mailbox?" prompt, this is where the messages go!
editor The editor to use when typing in message to peo-
ple.
print This indicates how to print out a message. There
are two possible formats for this string, either a
command that can have a filename affixed to (as a
suffix) and then sent to the system for execution,
or a string that contains the meta-sequence '%s'
which will be replaced by the name of the file and
then also sent to the shell. Examples of each
are;
print = print -formfeed
print = pr %s | lpr
prefix When you reply to a message or forward a message
to another person, you can optionally include the
original message. Defining the prefix value here
allows you to indicate what the prefix of each
included line should be. The default is "> " and
is fairly standard in the Unix community.
savemail This is where outgoing mail will have a copy
silently (and quickly) saved. This will only be
Page 2
Msg Users Guide Version 3.2
used if the flag 'copy' is turned on. Also note
that if the 'savename' flag is turned on then this
line is ignored since each outgoing message is
saved according to whom it's being sent to.
shell This defines the shell to use when doing '!'
escapes and such. Note that the program also
reads the $SHELL variable out of the current
environment, but that defining this in the .msgrc
file will override the environment definition.
weedout This is something new and exciting! When specify-
ing this option, you can then list as many headers
of messages that you don't want to see when you
are read mail. This list can continue for as many
lines as desired, as long as the continued lines
all have leading indentation.
alternatives This is a list of other machine/username combi-
nations that you receive mail from (forwarded).
This is used when the G)roup reply feature is
invoked to ensure that you don't send yourself a
copy of the outbound message.
autocopy This is a boolean flag, and if set will automati-
cally copy the text of each message being replied
to into the edit buffer. This is the same as the
'-a' starting parameter.
copy This, in combination with the "savemail" filename,
will allow you to have silent copies of all outgo-
ing mail made on the outbound step.
resolve This is a boolean flag that defines the behaviour
of the program for such actions as deletion, sav-
ing a message and so on.
weed This is a boolean flag that, in combination with
the "weedout" list, allows you to custom define
the set of headers you would like to not have
displayed while reading messages. The defaults
are listed further into the document.
noheader This boolean flag tells the mailer not to include
the headers of messages when copying a message
into a file buffer for replying to or forwarding.
titles This boolean flag allows you to have each page of
a message to be titled with:
Message #N from username Mailed date at time
where all the information has been previously
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Msg Users Guide Version 3.2
extracted from the message. This is especially
useful if you weed out all the headers of each
message with a large 'weedout' list...
Two more things: the format for each of the lines is;
variable = value
and for boolean variables, value can be 'ON' or 'OFF' only.
For a better idea of how this all works, here's my .msgrc
file. While looking through it, notice that you can have
lots of comments and blank lines for readability and that
you can also use 'shell variables' and the '~' metacharacter
for your home directory, and they are expanded accordingly
when read in by the mailer.
#
# .msgrc - automatic variable defines for the 'msg' mailer.
#
# Personalized for Dave Taylor
#
fullname = Dave Taylor
# where to save my mail to, default directory
maildir = ~/Mail
# where to save messages to, default file
mailbox = ~/Mail/mailbox
# what editor to use
editor = $EDITOR
# where to save mail if not specified somewhere else
savemail = ~/Mail/mail.sent
# how to print a message ('%s' is the filename)
print = /usr/local/bin/print -p lpn -f %s
# prefix sequence for including message text in other messages...
prefix = >
# what headers I DON'T want to see, ever.
weedout = "Via:" "Sent:" "Date:" "Status:" "Original"
"From" "Phase" "Subject:" "Fruit" "Sun"
"Lat" "Buzzword" "Return" "Posted" "Telephone"
"Postal-Address" "Origin" "X-Sent-By-Nmail-V"
"Resent" "X-Location" "Source" "Mood" "Neuron"
"Libido" "To:" "X-Mailer:" "Full-Name:" "X-HPMAIL"
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Msg Users Guide Version 3.2
"Cc:" "cc:" "Mmdf" "Network-"
# automatically copy message being replied to into buffer?
autocopy = OFF
# save a copy of all outbound messages?
copy = ON
# emulate the mailx message increment mode (only increment after something
# has been 'done' to a message, either saved or deleted)
resolve = ON
# enable the weedout list to be read...
weed = ON
# when messages are copied into the outbound buffer, don't include headers
noheader = ON
# display message title when displaying pages of message
titles = ON
# alternative addresses that I could receive mail from (usually a
# forwarding mailbox)
alternatives = hpcnof!dat, hpcnof!d_taylor, hpcnou!d_taylor,
hpcnou!root, hpcnou!postmaster, hpcnoe!d_taylor,
hpcnoe!dat, hpcnoa!d_taylor, hpcnoa!dat,
hpfcla!d_taylor
Along with this, there is still an environment variable that
the mailer checks for, namely "EDITOR", which can also
define what editor to use when entering messages. As with
the shell variable, having an editor specified in the .msgrc
file will override anything read in from the current
environment.
3. The Starting Parameters
There are a number of starting options to the msg pro-
gram, with only one that needs to be remembered: '-?'or '-h'
for help.
The flags are;
-d Debug. Useful for debugging the msg program. The
results of using the debug option is much less
drastic than in the previous versions of the pro-
gram - it creates a file in your home directory
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Msg Users Guide Version 3.2
called "Msg.debug.info" and creates a (verbose)
log of activity as the program is used.
-f <file> File. Read specified file rather than the
default input mailbox.
-h or -? Help. Gives a short list of all these options
and exit.
-k Keypad - This option, when used, lets the msg pro-
gram know that you're on an HP terminal, and it
can then interpret the PREV NEXT and HOME/DOWN-
HOME keys accordingly. If you are not on an HP
terminal, it is recommended that you do NOT use
this option.
-s Softkeys. The msg mailer can, to a rather limited
extent, use the HP softkeys as an alternative form
of input. If you specify this option be sure that
you're on an HP terminal that can accept the stan-
dard 2622 terminal escape sequences!
-z Zero. This causes the mailer not to be started if
you don't have any mail. This emulates the
behaviour of programs like 'mailx'.
-S <subject> In batch mode, this is how to indicate the
subject of the resulting message. Please see the
section on "Non-Interactive Uses of Msg" for
further information.
All the above flags default to reasonable options, so
there is usually no need to use them.
4. Non-Interactive Uses of Msg
Before we discuss the main mail system, it's worth not-
ing that there are a couple of other ways to use the msg
mail system, namely to 'send only' and to send files (batch-
mail).
To send a message to someone without any of the associ-
ated overhead of the main system being loaded, you can
invoke the mailer with the name(s) of the people to send to.
The mailer will then prompt for Subject, Copies, and then
drop you in your (defined in the ".msgrc" file) editor to
compose the message. When composition is complete, the
program verifies transmission then terminates. For example;
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Msg Users Guide Version 3.2
$ msg dat
To: ihnp4!hpfcla!d_taylor
Subject: this is a test
Copies To: <return>
<invokes editor, message composed, then>
Are you sure you want to send this? (y/n) y
mail sent.
$
Note that the user input is in bold face, so you can see
that the mailer verified the alias expansion too!
The mailer also supports batch type mailing, of files
and so on, by using the following starting sequence;
$ msg -S "File help.c" dat < help.c
which will read in the file and transmit it to the specified
user with the specified subject. Note that the program is
intelligent enough to check to see what the stdin is from
this invocation, so a command of the form
$ msg -S "file help.c" dat
would result in the following sequence (since the program is
reading the "standard in" for information;
$ msg -S "file help.c" dat
To: ihnp4!hpfcla!d_taylor
Subject: file help.c
Enter your message, ending with ^D
this is the message
Please don't ask me why I used this wierd mode!
^D
<end-of-message>
$
which is reasonable behaviour!! (not only that, but this is
almost exactly what /bin/mail does in the same situation!!)
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Msg Users Guide Version 3.2
Enough of this foolishness, however, let's get onto the
real stuff;
5. The Main System
Upon entry to the program, the main screen will be
displayed as below;
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Mailbox is '/usr/mail/mymail' with 13 messages. [Version 3.0]
1<- Apr 3 rob Doing anything tonight?
2 Apr 5 hplabs!joe bug in gammon game
3 Apr 5 root
4 Apr 6 root (continuation of previous message)
U 5 Apr 8 decvax!mouse Re: net.music article decvax:495
6 Apr 13 John Jacobs How can you hate RUSH?
7 Apr 15 kevin More software requests
N 8 Apr 18 games Hi there
N 9 Apr 18 Dave Taylor EditFile.c source...
N 10 Apr 23 veeger!carl More silly stuff
|=pipe, !=shell, ?=help, <n>=set current to n, /=search pattern
A)lias, C)hange mailbox, D)elete, F)orward, G)roup reply, M)ail,
N)ext, P)rint, R)eply, S)ave to file, Q)uit, U)ndelete, or eX)it
Mail :@
-----------------------------------------------------------------
There are a number of things to notice about this
screen;
o The top line always displays the current mail file, the
number of messages in the file, and the current msg
version number.
o On the left side of each message is the message number
which is unique for each message in the file.
o The arrow ('<-') always points to the current message.
This is the message that the commands having default
message numbers (such as D)elete, and N)ext) will work
with.
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Msg Users Guide Version 3.2
o The date associated with each message is the date the
person sent the message. This is obtained by either
the oldest of the ">From" line dates, or, if possible,
by parsing the "Date:" line.
o The third field displayed is a truncated 'from'
address, and will indicate whom the message is from.
Note that on the sixth and ninth messages full names
appear instead of the usual machine!login format. This
is because these messages have a From line of the form:
From: fullname <address>
or From: address (fullname)
which the mailer reads and displays if possible. The
msg mailer (version 2.1 and beyond) also generates this
header line on outgoing mail.
o The final field is the (optional) subject of the mes-
sage. Note that message 3 has no subject.
o Message five is an 'Urgent' message (it contains the
header
Priority: Urgent
to make it urgent) that should be read immediately.
o Messages 8 thru 10 are new since the last time the user
read their mail - the "N" in the leftmost margin indi-
cates this.
o A maximum of ten messages are displayed at one time*.
Further into the document we'll learn how to change
'pages' in the mailbox.
o The three line mini-menu will always indicate what com-
mands are available at the current moment.
o Finally, the '@' character indicates where the cursor
would be, awaiting your input.
The typical action at this point is to use the <return>
key to read the current message. This particular option
__________
0. On terminals with greater than 25 lines, more messages
will be displayed automatically.
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Msg Users Guide Version 3.2
isn't noted in the mini-menu, but choosing the '?=help'
option will inform you of a number of choices other than
those in the basic menu!
Pressing this key will clear the screen and display the
first page of the message. At the bottom of the page, the
system will write either;
Please press <space> to continue <xx> lines left
or
Please press <space> to return
These indicate how much of the current message has been
read: 'continue' indicates the presence of at least one more
line of information (the exact number will be indicated on
the right hand side as 'xx lines left'). Pressing <return>
rather than <space> will automatically return you to the
main system level at any page of a message.
When the message continues onto another page the msg
mailer will also indicate how many lines are left in the
message...
If resolve-mode is turned off (see the 'resolve' flag)
the current message pointer (the arrow) will be incremented
after reading the message and will point to the next message
in the list.
As you can see, it would be quite simple to quickly
read through all the pending mail by repeatedly using the
<return> command at the menu level, and the <space> bar
while reading each message!
While reading is perhaps the most fundamental function
that the msg program performs, there are a number of other
options available, namely;
Command Action
| Pipe current message to specified com-
mand.
! Shell escape.
? A help screen listing commands
+, <space>, or <NEXT> Next page of headers
-, or <PREV> Previous page of headers
=, or <HOME> Set current message to 1
*, or <SHIFT>-<HOME> Set current to last message.
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Msg Users Guide Version 3.2
<n> Set current message to n
a Alias, change to 'alias' mode
c Change current mail file
d Delete current message
f Forward message to specified user
g Group reply - reply to everyone who
received the current message
h Display message + headers
j Increment current message by one
k Decrement current message by one
m Mail to arbitrary user(s)
n or <return> Next message (Read current, then
increment)
o Option. Alter current options.
p Print current message.
r Reply to the author of current message
s Save current message to file
t The current time and date is displayed
q Quit - mail deleted, saved in mbox or
left.
u Undelete current message
v Variables. Display current variables.
x Exit - don't record as read, don't
save...
^L Rewrite screen.
^M (<return>) Read current message
^Q, ^Z, DEL Exit - don't record as read, don't
save...
That are all the commands available at the main level of the
msg program! Now you can see why it is nice to leave the
three-line menu displayed!
As an example, let's enter a series of commands and
indicate what the display would be after each one;
First off, let's go to the next page of mail with '+';
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Msg Users Guide Version 3.2
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Mailbox is '/usr/mail/mymail' with 13 messages. [Version 3.0]
N 11<- Apr 27 Jack Wanna buy some albums cheap?
N 12 Apr 28 Jack Cancel the previous offer!
N 13 Apr 30 sdcsvax!dx Moving day (long)
|=pipe, !=shell, ?=help, <n>=set current to n, /=search pattern
A)lias, C)hange mailbox, D)elete, F)orward, G)roup reply, M)ail,
N)ext, P)rint, R)eply, S)ave to file, Q)uit, U)ndelete, or eX)it
Mail :@
-----------------------------------------------------------------
We need to move the current message pointer to message
11, so type in '11', then let's read the new current message
by using the next command (typing <return>)...
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Message #11 from Jack Mailed December 7, 1984 at 8:45 pm
Hey Dave! I've got some old AC/DC and KISS albums, and as I know
you are a collector, do you want to buy them off of me before
I make ashtrays out of them (or frisbees...)?
Humourously,
Jack The Gripper
Please press <space> to return: @
-----------------------------------------------------------------
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Msg Users Guide Version 3.2
Needless to say, we can't let this message go by
without replying! So let's press the <space> bar to return
to the main menu, then use the reply command to respond.
After pressing the 'r' key, the program asks if a copy
of the source message is desired (the character under the
cursor indicates the default if <return> is pressed. In
this case, the default is 'no');
copy source message? (y/n) @
We choose to answer no, so press the 'n' key. Next msg
verifies that the subject is okay;
Subject: Re: Wanna buy some albums cheap?@
Typing anything other than <return> will allow us to change
the subject to something more appropriate. Furthermore, if
we choose to type our "kill line" character (the same as the
one the shell uses, probably Control-U or Control-X) the
entire line will be erased. We decide, however, to leave it
be and press return.
Finally, we're asked if we want to send copies of this mes-
sage to anyone. We don't, so we press <return> one more
time.
The program then puts us in the vi editor (the default,
assuming no other editor specified by the '.msgrc' variable
"editor") with a blank file.
After having entered a suitable reply, and left the
editor, the msg system then verifies that we really want to
send the message with;
Are you sure you want to send this message? (y/n) @
To which the response is 'y' for 'yes'. It then sends the
message off to Jack, who will receive it hopefully quite
soon (or at least before he makes ashtrays out of the
albums!)
Also, if we have a file called ".msgheaders" in our
home directory, the mailer will include those headers in the
outbound message. This is to allow custom (personalized)
mail, especially headers like "Organization:" and "Loca-
tion:".
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Msg Users Guide Version 3.2
Message 11 is still the current message, so, now that
we have saved it, let's mark it for deletion by using the
delete command 'd'.
The screen is now;
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Mailbox is '/usr/mail/mymail' with 13 messages. [Version 3.0]
N 11 * Apr 27 Jack Wanna buy some albums cheap?
N 12<- Apr 28 Jack Cancel the previous offer!
N 13 Apr 30 sdcsvax!dx Moving day (long)
|=pipe, !=shell, ?=help, <n>=set current to n, /=search pattern
A)lias, C)hange mailbox, D)elete, F)orward, G)roup reply, M)ail,
N)ext, P)rint, R)eply, S)ave to file, Q)uit, U)ndelete, or eX)it
Mail :@
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Now lets go back to the first page of messages by typing '=';
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Msg Users Guide Version 3.2
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Mailbox is '/usr/mail/mymail' with 13 messages. [version 2.2]
1<- Apr 3 rob Doing anything tonight?
2 Apr 5 hplabs!joe bug in gammon game
3 Apr 5 root
4 Apr 6 root (continuation of previous message)
U 5 Apr 8 decvax!mouse Re: net.music article decvax:495
6 Apr 13 John Jacob How can you hate RUSH?
7 Apr 15 kevin More software requests
N 8 Apr 18 games Hi there
N 9 Apr 18 Dave Taylor EditFile.c source...
N 10 Apr 23 veeger!carl More silly stuff
|=pipe, !=shell, ?=help, <n>=set current to n, /=search pattern
A)lias, C)hange mailbox, D)elete, F)orward, G)roup reply, M)ail,
N)ext, P)rint, R)eply, S)ave to file, Q)uit, U)ndelete, or eX)it
Mail :@
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Gee..note five not only looks mildly interesting but
it's an Urgent message too! So let's read it by typing
'5'<return> to make that the current message, and press
<return> again to read it. After reading the message we
decide that this seems like a message worth keeping in the
'music' mailbox, so lets do that by using the save to file
command!
Pressing 's' results in the msg system prompting;
Save to what file : @
to which we reply '=/music'. The file is then saved in the
directory we specified as mail home via the '.msgrc' vari-
able "maildir". After saving, the "Mail:" prompt returns,
with message 5 marked for deletion and the current message
pointer incremented to message 6.
Before we finish up, we suddenly remember that one of
the messages was supposed to be about how to write decent
documentation for Unix systems, so let's try to find it...
First off, we'll move back to message one with the
<HOME> key (you'll need to use the "-k" starting option and
be on an HP terminal for this to work!) and then use the '/'
pattern matching command:
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Msg Users Guide Version 3.2
Mail: Pattern / = match anywhere in messages
Match pattern: @
we'll type in 'document' and see if the system can find it.
After a brief second or two it returns 'pattern not found.'
Hmm...maybe it's not either the from or the subject of any
of the messages...In case, let's try using the new match
anywhere in message command;
Mail: @
To which we type '/' for pattern matching;
Mail: Pattern / = match anywhere in messages
Match pattern: @
Now we'll use '/' again to get the match anywhere in file
option, and then get the prompt;
Match pattern (in entire mailbox): @
to which we respond 'document' again.
The msg mailer then searches through each line of all
the messages in the file and moves the current message
pointer to message number 7. A quick check reveals that
this message indeed contains the word 'document', but it's
not the one we want, so we're going to just get outta here!
We've had enough mail for today, so lets quit, saving
all messages in our mailbox as defined in the '.msgrc' file,
except messages 5 and 11, which are marked for deletion.
Quit prompts;
Delete messages? (y/n) @
to which we answer 'y' for yes. The next prompt is then;
Keep mail in incoming mailbox? (y/n) @
To which we also answer yes...the program then quickly saves
the files, removing message 5 and 11 as it goes along, and
exits.
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Msg Users Guide Version 3.2
6. Responses...
This section will discuss each command in the msg pro-
gram in more detail than above, including the prompts the
user can expect upon executing the command, the meaning of
different options etc etc.
| Pipe. This command allows you to pipe the current
message through other filters as you desire. The
shell used for the entire command will be either
the one specified in your ".msgrc" file, or, if
none, /bin/sh.
! Shell. This allows you to send a command to the
shell without leaving the program.
? Help. This command produces a two-page display
that details all the commands available in a
reference guide format.
/ Pattern match. This command, on the top level,
allows the user to search through all the from and
subject lines of the current mailbox starting at
the current message and continuing through the
end. If the first character of the pattern is a
'/', then the program will try to match the speci-
fied pattern against ANY line in the mailbox.
Again, this works from one after the current mes-
sage through the end.
<n> Specify new current message. Typing in any of the
digits one thru nine will result in the msg pro-
gram producing the prompt 'Set current to : n',
where 'n' is the digit entered. Note that changing
the current message to a message not on the
current page of the headers will result in a new
page of headers being displayed.
a Alias. The alias system is a way by which more
complex mail addresses can be shortened for the
mail user. For example;
joe, blow : Joe Blow : veeger!hpcnoe!hpcfla!jblow
which allows mail to 'joe' with the system expand-
ing the address properly. As is obvious, this not
only saves remembering complex addresses, it also
allows the address to be optimized to go through
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Msg Users Guide Version 3.2
the minimum number of machines without anyone hav-
ing to be informed of the change. A more detailed
discussion can be found in the section entitled
'The Alias System'.
c Change mailbox. Specifying this command allows
the user to change the mailbox file that is
currently being read. This is intended for
perusal and reply to previously archived messages.
The prompt is 'Name of new mailbox : ' and enter-
ing <return> cancels the operation, while entering
a filename causes the program to read that file as
the new mailbox file, if possible. As with the
"save" command, this command expands filenames
with '~' being your home directory and '=' being
your MAILDIR directory, if defined. This command
also allows the special character '!' to be used
to allow you to change to the default incoming
mailbox.
d, u Delete and Undelete. Neither of these two com-
mands have any prompts and indicate their action
by either adding an asterisk to the current mes-
sage index entry (indicating deletion pending) or
removing the asterisk (indicating that the dele-
tion is cancelled).
f Forward. Allows the user to forward the current
message to another user. This copies the message
into the edit buffer and allows the user to add
their own message too. The prompt is 'Forward
to:' and will expand an alias if entered.
j, k These two keys work similarly to what they would
do in 'vi' or any of the other screen oriented
programs. The 'j' key moves the current message
pointer down to the next message (going to the
next page if needed) and the 'k' key moves the
current message pointer back to the previous mes-
sage (also changing pages if needed)
m Mail. Send mail to a specified user. The prompt
that is associated with this command is 'Send mail
to :'. Entering an alias name results in the full
address being rewritten in parenthesis immedi-
ately. This prompt is followed by 'Subject:'
which allows the user to title their note. The
final field is 'Copies to: ', which allows other
people specified to receive "carbon copies" of the
message. Upon entering all three items the vi edi-
tor (or any other editor specified by $EDITOR) is
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Msg Users Guide Version 3.2
invoked and the message can be composed.
n Next message. See above.
o Options. This is a small subsystem of the msg
system with the various options selected by their
first letter, '1' enabling the option, '0' disa-
bling it and <return> leaving it unchanged. 'r'
returns to the main system.
p Print message. This allows you to print out the
current message to a previously defined printer
(see the section on the '.msgrc' discussing the
"print" variable)
q Quit. This command's action is dependent on the
current state of the msg program. For example, if
the current mailbox is the default mailbox the
messages that are not deleted are saved in the
file $home/mbox, whereas if it is a specified
mailbox the to-be-deleted messages are removed
from the file. The possible prompts are 'Save to
mailbox?' if the default mailbox is being read and
there is at least one message to save, 'Delete all
messages' if all messages in any mailbox are
marked for deletion or 'Delete message(s)?' if not
reading the default mailbox and there are some
messages that should be saved. A response of 'n'
(no) to any of these questions will result in the
quit command aborting, and the files being
untouched.
r Reply. Reply to the author of the current mes-
sage. If the autocopy flag is not specified, the
program will prompt 'Copy Message? (y/n)' to which
the user can specify whether a copy of the source
message is to be copied into the edit buffer, or
not. If copied in, all lines from the message are
prepended with the prefix character sequence, as
specified in the users ".msgrc" file.
s Save to file. As demonstrated in the above exam-
ple, this command allows the current message to be
copied into an arbitrary file. If there is any-
thing in the file currently the message is
appended to the end, otherwise the file is created
containing only the message. The prompt for this
command is 'Save to file : '. A response of
<return> cancels the command and returns the user
to the system prompt. After saving a file, the
message is marked for deletion and the current
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Msg Users Guide Version 3.2
message pointer is incremented. There are two
available meta-characters when specifying a
filename too - '~' as the first character expands
to your home directory, and '=' as the first char-
acter expands to the mail folder directory defined
via the 'maildir' variable in the users ".msgrc"
file.
t Time. This simply displays the current date and
time in a nice readable format.
v Variables. This is also a small subsystem of the
msg system allowing you to alter the value of
various msg variables. The variables that you can
change are the 'EDITOR' variable which determines
what editor to use when you compose a message, the
'MAILBOX' variable which indicates where mail is
to be put after being read, and the 'USERNAME'
variable. (Note that only the superuser can
change their username within the program)
x Exit. This is functionally the same as answering
'n'o to the quit command prompt, and simply leaves
the program in the quickest possible manner. This
command can also occur from typing DELETE,
control-Q or control-Z, all of which are also exit
commands.
7. Special Outgoing Mail Processing
There are a few extra features that the mailer offers
on outgoing mail that are worthy of mention;
The first, and probably the most exciting feature, is
the ability to send encrypted mail! To do this is extremely
simple: You need merely to have two 'key lines' "[encode]"
and "[clear]" in the message body.
Consider the following outgoing message:
Joe,
Remember that talk we had about Amy? Well,
I talked to my manager about it and he said...
uhh...better encrypt this...the usual 'key'...
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Msg Users Guide Version 3.2
[encode]
He said that Amy was having family problems
and that it had been affecting her work.
Given this, I went and talked to her, and
told her I was sorry for getting angry. She said
that she understood.
We're friends again!!
[clear]
Exciting stuff, eh?
Mike
While this is obviously quite readable while being typed
into the editor, as soon as the message is confirmed as
wanting to be sent, the msg mailer prompts with;
Enter encryption key: @
and accepts a key (or series of 8 or less characters)
without echoing them to the screen. After entry, it will
ask for the same key again to confirm it, then *poof* it
will encrypt and send the mail!
If you have the "copy" option enabled, the program will
save your copy of the message encrypted too. (This is to
ensure the privacy and security of your archived mail too!)
If the mailer doesn't ask for the encryption key, it's
because you don't have the '[encode]' entered as the first 8
characters of the line. It MUST be so for this to work!!
On the other end, a person receiving this mail (they
must also be using msg to receive it, since this mailer has
a unique encryption program) will be reading the message and
then suddenly be prompted;
Enter decryption key: @
and will again be asked to re-enter it to confirm. The pro-
gram will then on-the-fly decrypt the mail and display each
line as it is decoded. The '[clear]' line signifies that
the block to encrypt is done.
For those sites not running msg, I also have available
the encryption code as a separate program suitable for a
filter for use with other mailers...
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Msg Users Guide Version 3.2
The other option on outgoing mail is the ability to
specify what section of the message you want to have
archived (assuming "copy" is enabled) and what section you
don't. This is most useful for sending out source file
listings and so on...
To indicate the end of the section that should be saved
in the archive, you need merely to have the line
[no save]
appear by itself on a line. This will be removed from the
outgoing mail, and will indicate the last line of the mes-
sage in the saved mail.
8. The Mail Archive File
The format of the mail saved to the archive file is
also worth a quick discussion. Unlike the usual exact copy
of the entire header section, the archived mail has the fol-
lowing header;
From To:<name> 15 Jan 1985 4:54:30 MST
Original-To: <address>
Subject: <subject>
<message body>
The first line, the 'From' line, is deliberately mangled
with the occurance of the 'To:<name' to ensure that when you
are perusing your archive file with the mailer that you see
WHO the message was TO, since they're all going to be FROM
you!! The <name> will either be the machine!login of the
person, or, if used as an alias, it will be the alias name.
To read this file, you can use the mailer, choosing the
"C)hange mailbox" command, or start up specifying your
archive file as the mailbox to read.
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Msg Users Guide Version 3.2
9. Using MSG with the Notes System
A new and innovative feature in the 3.0 release of the
msg program is the ability to read files saved by the notes
system and display them as individual messages. Unfor-
tunately, the notes software does not currently save a note
with the subject line, however, so the mailer uses the next
best thing and displays each note in the form:
1 Apr 5 hplabs!kundler Note from group net.unix-wizards
2 Apr 7 hplabs!richards Note from group net.unix-wizards
and so on. The individual notes can be replied to by using
the reply command, as with normal mail, and the mailer will
modify it's behaviour to work with this particular brand of
mail file.
How does the mailer know if it's reading a file that
contains normal mail versus a saved set of notes? By check-
ing the first line of the file - if it's the header line
that notes emits (ie "/***** host:login / notesgroup / date
**/") then the file is considered to be a notes file. If
not, the default for unknown files is to assume they're mail
files.
10. The Alias System
As mentioned previously, there exists in the msg system
a set of aliases that associate an arbitrary word (such as a
persons name) to a complex address or group. The advantages
are readily apparent; rather than remembering an address of
the form;
machine1!machine2!machine3! ... !machineN!account
the user merely has to remember a single word.
Two alias tables are available for a each user within
msg, namely the system alias file and the users' alias file.
The system alias file is created and maintained (by the sys-
tem administrator) by editing the file
'/usr/mail/.alias_text' as described in the documentation
with the newalias command, then running the newalias pro-
gram.
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Msg Users Guide Version 3.2
An individual user can also have an alias file which
works in conjunction with the system aliases. To do this,
they need merely to peruse the documentation for the
newalias command and create a file as indicated therein.
After executing the program, the aliases will be available
for using from within msg.
The command checkalias is also useful to ensure that
the aliases are installed correctly.
Within msg, however, the alias system acts as an
entirely different program, with it's own commands and own
mini-menu. The menu replaces the standard mini-menu with;
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Alias commands
A)lias current message, C)heck alias, M)ake user alias, R)eturn
Alias: @
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The commands are;
a Alias current message. This allows the user to
create an alias that has the return address of the
current message as the address field of the alias.
It prompts for a unique alias name. Important
note: when you alias an address in this fashion,
the mailer will try to minimize the amount it
needs to store by iteratively comparing machine
names in the path with the machines in the
pathalias database. Once it finds an entry the
address will be saved at that point. For further
information, please see the "Msg Alias System
Guide".
c Check alias. This is a simple way of checking
what is in the alias database - it prompts for an
alias name, and returns the address associated
with that name or the error message 'alias not
found' as appropriate.
m Make user alias. This will prompt for a unique
alias name and then for an address. The informa-
tion provided will be added to your individual
alias_text file ($home/.alias_text) and then added
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Msg Users Guide Version 3.2
to the database.
r Return. Return to the main level of the msg pro-
gram.
11. While We're Talking Aliases...
Another feature worthy of discussion, since it's been
getting lots of veiled references throughout this document,
is the system alias section. This is implemented using the
uucp pathalias database, with a file (whose location is
specified in the hdrs/sysdefs.h file - see the Configuration
Guide) in the format:
hostname <tab> address!%s
The actual details of the file are, suprise suprise, located
in the Alias System Users Guide.
Anyway, to use them is quite simple...when specifying
the address of someone, you can either have an alias for
them already, resond to their mail to you, or use the system
alias feature!
Enough hype, right? Okay...to use this feature, you
specify an address by either "machine!person" ignoring if
your specific machine can talk directly to the machine
specified, or, if you prefer the ARPANET addressing scheme,
"person@machine". When you enter the address as specified,
the mailer will quickly search through the pathalias data-
base file and expand the specified address to be a legiti-
mate routing address.
What's really nice about this is that the address that
we're going to send to can be either on ARPA, CSNET, BITNET,
uucp, or any other network. The method of specifying the
basic address is the same regardless!
For example, mail to me could be sent as either
"hpfcla!d_taylor" (or "hpfcla!hpcnof!d_taylor", with the
first machine name being expanded) or "d_taylor@hpfcla".
msg will expand them both in the same manner.
As the song goes, check the alias guide...
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Msg Users Guide Version 3.2
12. Expert Mail Users and Debugging the Mailer
There are some additional facilities available in the
msg mailer for those people who are knowledgable about mail
protocols, or trying to debug/track down a problem.
The 'h' command at the outermost level of the mailer
will display the current message ignoring the current set-
ting of the 'weed' option. This is most useful for answer-
ing questions of the form "I wonder what this guy put in his
header?" and such. This command does not show up on the
mini-menu because it is somewhat esoteric, but it DOES
appear on the '?' help screen (can you find it there?).
The '@' command at the outermost level of the mailer
will output a screen of debugging information, including the
number of lines and offsets of each of the message in the
current mailbox.
The '#' command at the outermost level of the mailer
will display the entire stored 'record structure' for the
current message.
The '%' command at the outermost level of the mailer
will display the full computed return address of the current
message.
Starting up msg with the "-d" debug option will create
a file called Msg.debug.info in your home directory and con-
tain a wealth of useful information (to me, at least!) to
aid in tracking down what errors are occuring and why. With
this option on, most everything acts the same with the
exception of when you get new mail while in the mailer - it
will indicate "New mail: N bytes" rather than the usual "New
mail has arrived...hang on...".
If there are any problems with the mailer, please try
to recreate the error with the debug option enabled before
sending defect reports my way.
One final note: all error numbers reported by the pro-
gram are defined in the HP-UX Reference Manual in Errno(2).
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Msg Users Guide Version 3.2
13. Credits and so on
This mailer has been evolving over the past year or so
with some extremely valuable input from the following people
at Hewlett Packard; Mark Laubach, Walt Underwood, Tw Cook,
Larry Fenske, Rob Sartin, and of course Carl Dierschow.
There have been many others, to numerous to mention, that
have inspired me with questions like "why can't the
mailer..." or "why does it do that?"
Also helpful was the ability to have my 'own' machine
to close up the many many iterative loops that this software
has gone through - since being on a big multi-user machine
tends to slow it down to a standstill...
Finally, it's also been a very useful experience
overall, confirming my beliefs that iterative software
design and keeping a close watch on users (not to mention an
open mind and mailbox!) improves a product manyfold.
Incidentally, this entire mail system, including this
documentation, is
(C) Copyright 1986 Dave Taylor
Page 27
SHAR_EOF
if test 50526 -ne "`wc -c < 'Guide.fmtd'`"
then
echo shar: error transmitting "'Guide.fmtd'" '(should have been 50526 characters)'
fi
fi
exit 0
# End of shell archive