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What is xlbiff
==============
Is "you have mail" not quite enough detail? Is a per-message
notification too much? Welcome to xlbiff, the X Literate Biff.
Xlbiff presents enough information to tell you: Is this new mail worth
reading right now? And it stops distracting you once you decide.
Xlbiff waits in the background, monitoring your mailbox file or IMAP
server (or running your custom check-mail script). When a new message
arrives, it invokes the MH scan(1) command (or your custom
mail-scanning script) and pops up a window with the output (typically
the From and Subject line of each new message). If more mail arrives,
xlbiff scans again and resizes its preview window accordingly.
Clicking the left mouse button anywhere in the window causes it to
vanish. It will also vanish if the mailbox becomes empty. Xlbiff
stays out of your way when there is no new mail and pops up only
when something requests your attention.
Included with xlbiff is mailbox-preview, a command-line program
that peeks at an IMAP mailbox and uses scan to display a summary,
one line per new message. Local mailboxes are also supported:
Maildir directories and any single-file format scan supports
(mbox and MMDF). Use mailbox-preview stand-alone on the command line
or as the back-end of xlbiff.
Advantages (or, why yet another biff?)
==========
Xlbiff:
+ occupies no screen real estate until mail comes in
+ supports scripts for checking mail
+ has configurable screen location, color, and font
+ can notify by bell and/or keyboard LED
+ shows all new messages in one, easy-to-dismiss window
+ lets you click anywhere on it; no trying to select a tiny "x"
Installing
==========
./configure
make && make install
The configured default mail file template is /var/mail/%s.
If this is incorrect for your system, set CONFIG_MAILPATH when
running configure, e.g.:
./configure CONFIG_MAILPATH=/somewhere/mail/%s
To see a list of the flags that control where "make install"
installs various files:
./configure --help
If you are building from a source repository, without "configure"
and "Makefile.in" files, you will need the GNU Autotools: autoconf
and automake. With those packages installed, you can create the
needed files with this command:
autoreconf -i
Documentation
=============
The complete guide to using and configuring xlbiff is in xlbiff.man.
Using and configuring mailbox-preview is documented in mailbox-preview.man.
After installing xlbiff, you can view the formatted manuals with
man xlbiff
man mailbox-preview
Author
======
Ed Santiago <ed@edsantiago.com>
The latest version of xlbiff may be found at
<https://github.com/edsantiago/xlbiff/>
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