[comp.os.vms] MAIL$PERSONAL_NAME??

neubauer@bsu-cs.UUCP (Paul Neubauer) (01/28/88)

Does anybody know if vms has provision for a logical name such as
MAIL$PERSONAL_NAME which would set the personal_name field for mail, but
only for the process?  It would be nice to be able to vary the personal_name
that shows up on the 'from' line so that different individuals using a
shared account can have their own names there.  Among other things, this
would make it much easier to tell who sent what messages to whom.  We are
not worried about things like forgery, just making life a little bit
easier.  What I am looking for is something that can be used like MAIL$EDIT,
which can be set so that different individuals using the same account can
use their preferred editors in mail.  

One person here has suggested running mail from a command procedure that sets
MAIL$INIT to a different and suitable mail command file for each person, so
that the last person to use the mail will reset the personal_name for all
processes belonging to the account until the next person uses it.  This
strikes me as a not-very-clean solution (e.g., what happens if two people
are using mail at overlapping times?).

Please don't just tell me RTFM.  I have searched for an answer in our
manuals, and either we do not have the right manuals, or it is not there, or
I have simply not managed to find it.  (I admit that I have also not managed
to find any reference to MAIL$EDIT, and I DO know that that exists, but that
piece of negative information still does not help me determine which of the
above 3 alternatives is applicable.)  If you do want to tell me RTFM, please
at least include the reference to the appropriate location in the FM and the
correct answer in case the first alternative is what prevails at our site.

Thanks in advance.

-- 
Paul Neubauer         neubauer@bsu-cs.UUCP
                      <backbones>!{iuvax,pur-ee,uunet}!bsu-cs!neubauer