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.TH MultiMail 1 "February 14, 2019"
.SH NAME
mm - offline mail reader for Blue Wave, QWK, OMEN, SOUP and OPX packets
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B mm [-option1 value] [-option2 value] [...] [filename1] [filename2] [...]
.br
.SH 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.
.SH 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
.br
PgDn = B
.br
PgUp = F
.br
Right = +
.br
Left = -
.br
(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, Windows), 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.)
.SH MOUSING
MultiMail is mousable on many platforms: X, SDL, the Linux console (with
gpm), Windows, DOS and OS/2. (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.
.SH 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.
.SH 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.
.SH OFFLINE CONFIGURATION
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.) Offline config is not 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.
.SH 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.
.SH 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.
.SH 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 Windows) 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.
.SH 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'.
.SH 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'.
.SH 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.
.SH 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.).
.SH FILES
The only hardwired file is the configuration file:
.B .mmailrc (mmail.rc in DOS, OS/2 or Windows).
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:
.TP
.B ~/mmail
To store the tagline file, netmail addressbook, etc.
.TP
.B taglines
A plain text file, one tagline per line.
.TP
.B addressbook (address.bk in DOS, OS/2 or Windows)
A list of names and corresponding Fido netmail or Internet email
addresses. Note that Internet addresses are prefaced with an 'I'.
.TP
.B colors
Specifies the colors to use. (See COLORS.md.)
.TP
.B ~/mmail/down
To store the packets as they came from the bbs.
.TP
.B ~/mmail/up
To store the reply packet(s) which you have to upload to the bbs.
.TP
.B ~/mmail/save
The default directory for saving messages.
.SH 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
\&'#'; you can remove these or add your own. (But note that the comments are
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:
.TP
.B 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.
.TP
.B 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.
.TP
.B InetAddr
Your Internet email address, e.g., "InetAddr:
wmcbrine@gmail.com". This
is combined with the UserName in the form "UserName <InetAddr>"
("William McBrine <wmcbrine@gmail.com>") 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.
.TP
.B 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
.br
%t = To
.br
%d = Date (of original message)
.br
%s = Subject
.br
%a = Area
.br
%n = newline (for multi-line headers)
.br
%% = insert an actual percent character
.br
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.
.TP
.B mmHomeDir
MultiMail's home directory.
.TP
.B 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).
.TP
.B 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.
.TP
.B 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.
.TP
.B PacketDir
Default packet directory.
.TP
.B ReplyDir
Default reply packet directory.
.TP
.B SaveDir
Default directory for saved messages.
.TP
.B 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.)
.TP
.B 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.
.TP
.B ColorFile
Path and filename of the colors file. See COLORS.md.
.TP
.B 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 or PDCurses/SDL) -- the entire background
will be transparent when using an appropriate terminal.
.TP
.B Transparency
Yes/No. Only available in ncurses or PDCurses for SDL. (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.
.TP
.B 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.
.TP
.B *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.
.TP
.B 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 '$'.
.TP
.B 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.
.TP
.B 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.)
.TP
.B 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.)
.TP
.B 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".
.TP
.B 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.).
.TP
.B UseTaglines
Yes/No. If no, the tagline window is not displayed at all when composing a
message.
.TP
.B 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).
.TP
.B 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.
.TP
.B 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.)
.TP
.B UseLynxNav
Yes/No. See the description under USAGE.
.TP
.B 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.
.TP
.B QuoteWrapCols
Numeric. The right margin for quoted material in replies (including the
quote indicator).
.TP
.B MaxLines
Numeric. See the description under REPLY SPLITTING.
.TP
.B outCharset
String. See the description under CHARACTER SETS.
.TP
.B UseQPMailHead
Yes/No. Controls the use of RFC 2047 encoding in outgoing mail headers.
.TP
.B UseQPNewsHead
Yes/No. Controls the use of RFC 2047 encoding in outgoing news headers.
.TP
.B UseQPMail
Yes/No. Controls the use of quoted-printable encoding in outgoing mail.
.TP
.B UseQPNews
Yes/No. Controls the use of quoted-printable encoding in outgoing news.
.TP
.B 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.
.TP
.B 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.
.SH 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.
.SH 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. Separated
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.
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.
.SH 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@gmail.com>.
Additional code has been contributed by Peter Krefting, Mark D. Rejhon,
Ingo Brueckl, Robert Vukovic and Mark Crispin.
.SH BUGS AND KNOWN PROBLEMS
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. I have yet 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 a hack.
If you find any bugs, please write to me.
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