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From: [e-mail] (Piero Serini)
Subject: Elm Mail User Agent FAQ - monthly posting
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Organization: Computer Science Dep. - Milan University
Date: Tue, 18 May 1993 17:54:00 GMT
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Summary: This posting contains a list of Frequently Asked
         Questions (and their answers) about the Elm Mail
     User  Agent.  It  should  be read by  anyone who
     wishes to post to the comp.mail.elm newsgroup.
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Archive-name: elm/FAQ
Last-modified: 1993/4/27
Version: 2.0


                        Frequently Asked Questions
                                Elm 2.4 [21]


                                Piero Serini
                         [e-mail]
                       [e-mail]

                           Last Update: Apr 26 1993
                          This FAQ's version:  2.0

This is an unofficial Frequently Asked Questions (with answers) list
about Elm. Syd Weinstein kindly checked this, but he is not responsible
for the errors in the answers, which are my fault, unless otherwise
specified.  I do NOT claim to be a member of the Elm Development Group.


0.0     Organization

    This FAQ is posted monthly, the 15th, on news.answers,
    comp.answers and comp.mail.elm.
    It is available by anonymous ftp from ghost.dsi.unimi.it
    [149.132.2.1]: ~ftp/pub/Elm/.
    It is also available upon mail request.

    This FAQ is NOT reposted if modified, until the next issue
    date. I will modify the ftp file only.  I suggest using ftp
    to get the latest version of this document.

    This FAQ refers to latest patchlevel I put my hands on.
    Questions about a specific patchlevel are kept if
    of common interest.


        This FAQ consists of five parts:
        0.*     Organization.
        1.*     Operational Questions (and answers).
        2.*     Installation Questions (and answers).
    3.*    Bugs list.
        4.*     Archivers, what they archive, how to download.


Here is an (incomplete) questions list, followed by an (incomplete)
answers part. This list (and answers) are now divided into two
major groups, the "operational" one and the "installation" one.
The "operational group" is dedicated to those having any problem
running Elm. The "installation group" is dedicated to those who
want to install Elm and don't succeed in.
The operational questions group also contains a few general questions,
like "What is Elm?"

Please, mail me any comment, suggestion, correction
to any of the addresses above, with Subject: Elm-FAQ
Answers are from the "Elm montly posting" or from comp.mail.elm
and proper credit is given before each answer.

1.0     Operational Questions

    1.01    What is Elm?
    1.02    Which is Elm current version?
    1.03    Where can I find the distribution?
    1.04    Where do I get the "Elm Reference Guide" and the other docs ?
    1.05    How to get frm(1L) to only show new mail?
    1.06    My incoming mailbox isn't /usr/mail/<logname>:
    1.07    How do I save a message without deleting it?
    1.08    How do I append a .signature?
    1.09    Why do I get the remote signature on replies to local mail?
    1.10    How can I get elm to NOT expand the alias list on outgoing msgs?
    1.11    How does one mark a message as urgent?
    1.12    How can I get a line like "Quoting foo:" before a replied-to mail?
    1.13    How do i customize the ">" sign ??
    1.14    When I receive uudecoded files, can I tag files in the order
                I want and then uudecode them?
    1.15    Is there any way to bounce all the tagged messages, i.e.
                not having to bounce every message one by one?
    1.16    Does ELM have MIME (metamail) support?
    1.17    How not to include headers in outward bound mail?
    1.18    Is it possible to save mail messages without the headers?
    1.19    How do I upgrade my ELM aliases from 2.3 to 2.4PL21 ?
    1.20    Elm seems to ignore HOME environment variable. Why?
    1.21    Sometimes Elm (PL < 21) seems to join two messages in one. Why?
    1.22    How can ELM 2.3 be used for an automatic reply?
    1.23    How to list your mail from the oldest to the newest?
    1.24    How to use elmheaders file?
    1.25    How to change the Full Name in sent mail ?
    1.26    "Alias too long" or string too long errors.
    1.27    How to crypt mail in elm ?
    1.28    8 bit characters configuration?
    1.29    Sun mailtool attachments and elm?
    1.30    Is there an Elm for DOS? If yes, where?

2.0    Installation Questions

    2.01    On SCO Xenix, all mail is from user anonymous. Why?
    2.02    Elm doesn't work on Next. Why?
    2.03    Compiling with Microsoft UNIX C Compilers won't work. Why?
    2.04    Various problems on Unix 286.
    2.05    Configure won't run on HP-UX. Why?
    2.06    Configure won't run on SCO XENIX 2.2.1. Why?
    2.07    Will Elm work on SGI Indigo?
    2.08    I have problems compiling elm2.4 on HP/Apollo
    2.09    I have problems compiling elm2.4 on IBM AIX
    2.10    Compiling elm 2.4 under NS 3.0
    2.11    Elm sends 'empty mail' on 386BSD: why?
    2.12    Why can't I get SGI to work for non ROOT?
    2.13    I have problems p)rinting messages in 2.4PL20
    2.14    Elm2.4 PL20 - 'x' key causes segmentation violation
    2.15    readmsg:illegal option -- I. Why?
    2.16    Forms don't work. Why?
    2.17    ELM does not recognize VMS mail. Why?
    2.18    Huge headers cause Memory Fault. Why?
    2.19    Can I use elm for posting and replying to news?
1.xx    Operational Answers

1.01    What is Elm?

    From Elm documentation:
        Currently on Unix, there seems to be a preponderence
    of line-oriented software.  This is most unfortunate as most
    of the software on Unix tends to be pretty darn hard to use!
    I believe that there is more than a slight correlation between
    the two, and, since I was myself having problems using
    "mailx" with high-volume mail, I created a new mail system.

        In the lingo of the mail guru, Elm is a "User Agent" system,
        it's designed to run with "sendmail" or "/bin/rmail" or any
    other UNIX Mail Transport Agent (according to what's on your
    system) and is a full replacement of programs like "/bin/mail"
    and "mailx".  The system is more than just a single program,
    however, and includes programs like "frm" to list a 'table
    of contents' of your mail, "printmail" to quickly paginate mail
    files (to allow 'clean' printouts), and "autoreply", a system-
    wide daemon that can autoanswer mail for people while they're
    on vacation without having multiple copies spawned on the system.

1.02    Which is Elm current version?

    Elm current version is 2.4 PatchLevel (PL) 21.

1.03    Where can I find the distribution?

    There's a list of sites distributing Elm at the bottom of this
        file (4.*     Archivers, what they archive, how to download.).
    In addition, new releases will be posted to comp.sources.unix,
    patches will be posted to comp.sources.bugs.
    After patches have been proven and out for a while, they will
    be posted to comp.sources.unix.

1.04    Where do I get the "Elm Reference Guide" and the other docs ?

        From the monthly posting:
        Elm has several documents (over 100 pages worth of doc)
        that were written to help users install, support and use Elm.
        These are in the doc directory of the source distribution.
        Contact your systems administrator for a copy of the documents.
        For those sites that do not have troff (either di-troff or
        o-troff) and do have postscript printers, dsinc (dsinc.dsi.com)
        has a copy of the docs already in postscript format available
        for anonymous uucp or ftp.

    Adam Lasnik ([e-mail]):
    [about TEXT documentation]
    So, anyone who wants them, they're available for FTP on
    raven.alaska.edu in /pub/elmguidespl21.  The files are gzipped;
    if that's a problem I will replace them with compressed editions.

1.05    How to get frm(1L) to only show new mail?

    * Alan Thew ([e-mail]):
    Try the fromwho program which IMHO is better tham frm and
    allows you to type  "fromwho -n"  to show who has sent you
    new mail amd what the subject line is.
    Availabe from comp.sources.unix archives and needs an ANSI C compiler
    (but will build on Suns with "unproto" software).

    * Syd Weinstein ([e-mail]):
    Better answer:
        use nfrm, it will only show new mail.  nfrm is a link to frm.
        There are other command line options to show various restrictions
        see the frm(1) manual page.
        possible status limitations are new, unread and old or any combination
        of these.  typing frm -h yields:

    frm -- list from and subject lines of messages in mailbox or folder
    Usage: frm [-n] [-v] [-s {new|old|read}] [filename | username] ...

    option summary:
    -h      print this help message.
    -n      display the message number of each message printed.
    -Q      very quiet -- no output is produced.  This option allows shell
        scripts to check frm's return status without having output.
    -q      quiet -- only print summaries for each mailbox or folder.
    -S      summarize the number of messages in each mailbox or folder.
    -s    status only select messages with the specified status.
        'status' is one of "new", "old", "unread" (same as "old"),
        or "read".  The first letter need only be specified.
    -v      print a verbose header.

1.06    My incoming mailbox isn't /usr/mail/<logname>:
        how do I get ELM to read the correct mailbox?

    Elm uses the MAIL environment variable to read the correct
    mailbox.

1.07    How do I save a message without deleting it?

    C)opy it instead of s)aving.

1.08    How do I append a .signature?

    Jeff Zabek ([e-mail]) and
    the Elm documentation:
    Create a file called .signature.  Then in the .elm/elmrc file, find
    the following two lines:
    # local ".signature" file to append to appropriate messages...
    localsignature = .signature
             ^^^^^^^^^^
    # remote ".signature" file to append to appropriate messages...
    remotesignature = .signature
              ^^^^^^^^^^
    The parts marked by ^^^^^ are what you have to add in.  This can be
    any text file, but usually signatures are 4 lines or less.

1.09    Why do I get the remote signature on replies to local mail?

        From the monthly posting:
        In Elm 2.4, any address with an ! or @ in it is considered
        remote, without those characters, its local.
        Any reply is qualified to prevent alias expansion.  If you had
        an alias in your private Elm aliases that matched the name of a
        user on your system, but that alias did not point to that user,
        there would be no way to reply to the message.  It would end up
        going to the alias name, not the user that mailed you.  To
        prevent this, Elm fully qualifies (adds the site name) to a
        reply address.  This makes the simplistic signature detector
        think that the message is 'remote'. This is not slated to
        change until 3.0.

1.10    How can I get elm to NOT expand the alias list on outgoing msgs?

        From the monthly posting:
    Problem is if a list has, say, 100 names in it then sending to
    the list expands every single one of the 100 names. I would like
    the message to have the "To" line = the name of the list itself
    and have the actual recipients' names not appear.
        You can't and don't want to. (and yet you can also) An alias is
        a mechanism of making Elm address a message to multiple
        people.  However, when the message gets to its destination, Elm
        also has to allow that person do a group reply.  If the message
        only has your local private elm alias in it, the group reply
        will try and go to that alias name.  Unfortunately, that name
        is meaningless to that other person (its private to both Elm
        and you).

        There are two solutions:

        The preferred if replies are desired:
                Have your mail administrator create a file include
                alias for you in your MTA (sendmail, et al).. This is
                usually of the type

        alias   :include:/some/path/to/a/file

        where the file would be in a place you control and you have write
    access to the file.  Then you can add/drop members of the list, and
        the mail just goes to the alias, and, someone sending to
        [e-mail] will be able to send to all members. (group
        reply works correctly)

        The less preferred method: (no group reply is possible)
                Send the message to yourself, with a bcc to the Elm
                alias.
        Of course, the Bcc: won't be expanded by the MTA internal to
        the message, so it won't appear in the message.

1.11    How does one mark a message as urgent?

    David W. Tamkin ([e-mail]):
    Having an Action: header sets the recipient's A flag (if the recipient
    uses Elm); in 2.3 have a Priority: header set the U flag no matter what
    it said (even "Priority: none" or "junk" or "low").  In 2.4 there are
    certain precoded Priority: values that do not turn on the U flag
    [Can anyone supply a list?], but anything else will.

1.12    How can I get a line like "Quoting foo:" before a replied-to mail?

    Joshua A. Laff ([e-mail]):
    from $HOME/.elm/elmrc:
    # attribution string for replies ('%s' is the author of original
    # message)
    attribution = In our previous episode, %s said:

1.13    How do i customize the ">" sign ??

    Sven Guckes ([e-mail]):
    You can edit the "quote prefix" by editing the "elmrc"
    ($HOME/.elm/elmrc). Just change the value of the variable "prefix".

    # prefix sequence for indenting included message text
    prefix = >_

    Note:  The '_' stands for a <space>.

1.14    When I receive uudecoded files, can I tag files in the order
        I want and then uudecode them?

    * Alan Edmonds ([e-mail]):
    I save all of the items into a single folder,
    order not important (yet).  Bring up elm on the single folder.
    Go to the options screen and select "Sort by Subject."  Go back
    to the main screen.  All of the items are (usually) in the
    proper order.  I can then tag related messages and save them
    (in order) to another folder.  I then run
    'uucat new_folder | uudecode' to decode the pieces.  Works great.
    I can go back to the original folder if something gets messed up.
    I don't have to trim the headers out of each part (uucat does this),
    and elm figures out the order for me.
    (Ask Alan Edmonds for uucat source.)

    * Steve Faiwiszewski ([e-mail]):
    UUdecode expects to decode a single uuencoded file. It
    knows nothing about multiple parts, and certainly has no knowledge
    of the correct sequencing.
    Here's what I do:  Typically, I receive a multipart uuencoded file
    with the subject line of each msg containing the part number, so I can
    get the parts ordered properly by telling Elm to sort by Msg
    Subject.  I then save all the parts to a folder, and run it through
    this program I found a long time ago, called unpack (source follows).
    The neat thing about this program, is that you can append many
    uuencoded files to the same folder, and unpack will do the right
    thing - as long as all the parts are ordered correctly, and the
    "begin" line of each part 1 contains a unique file name.
    Invoke it like this: "unpack < foldername"
    I guess tagging and piping should work with it too.
    (Ask Steve Faiwiszewski for unpack source.)

1.15    Is there any way to bounce all the tagged messages, i.e.
    not having to bounce every message one by one?

    Chip Rosenthal ([e-mail]):
    Save the following to a script in your personal bin directory,
    say `bounce':

        : use /bin/sh
        : ${ELMSTATE?} ${1?}
        sed -n -e 's/^S//p' $ELMSTATE | while read mssgno ; do
                echo "Bouncing message $mssgno to $@ . . ."
                readmsg -a $mssgno | rmail $@
        done

    When you run:  !bounce addr ...
    then all of the tagged messages will be bounced to the indicated
    address(es). If no messages are tagged, then the currently selected
    message will be bounced.


1.16    Does ELM have MIME (metamail) support?

    MIME allows for sending and receiving of Messages compliant
    to the Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (RFC 1341).
    MIME provides a way to attach binary, graphic, audio,
    video, postscript and other files. MIME doesn't necessarily
    need graphics capabilities on your display, but its useful.

    If you have intalled Nathaniel Borenstein's metamail package for
    displaying MIME messages, elm can make use of it.  If you didn't
    have metamail installed you might want to obtain a copy of it.
    The most recent version is on thumper.bellcore.com [128.96.41.1].

    Compiling of elm even with MIME support enabled would not
    depend on the metamail package. But you would not be able to
    use nearly all of the MIME features as long as you don't have
    metamail installed. Metamail with its companion programs
    (mmencode) must be installed somewhere in the search path,
    usually /usr/local/bin.

1.17    How not to include headers in outward bound mail?

    Problem:
    all outward bound mail still includes the following lines,
    even if I have the "noheader = ON" line in my .elmrc:

    X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL21]
    MIME-Version: 1.0
    Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
    Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
    Content-Length: 67

    Syd Weinstein ([e-mail]):
    "noheader = ON" means when the message is copied into the buffer
    for a reply or forward.
    The "X-Mailer:" header is controlled at Configure time.  There
    is a compile time option to produce or not produce it.
    The three "Content-*" headers are always going to be produced by 2.4.

1.18    Is it possible to save mail messages without the headers?

    * Chip Rosenthal ([e-mail]):
    Use: !readmsg -n >filename
    If you want to save a few keystrokes, you can encapsulate this
    in a shell script to go in your personal bin directory.

    * Syd Weinstein ([e-mail]):
    Note that some of the newer features of readmsg are only
    available in later 2.4 releases

1.19    How do I upgrade my ELM aliases from 2.3 to 2.4PL21 ?

        Syd Weinstein ([e-mail]):
    All I did, was make sure 2.4 as installed, and then had each
    user run newalias and I ran newalias -g.  The aliases.text
    file is upwards compatible.  The old newalias converted
    aliases.text to aliases.data and aliases.hash the 2.4 newalias
    converts aliases.text to aliases, aliases.dir and aliases.pag.
    If you don't have those three new files, you didn't install
    2.4 correctly and are still running 2.3's newalias.

1.20    Elm seems to ignore HOME environment variable. Why?

        Syd Weinstein ([e-mail]):
    This is a feature.  Elm ignores $HOME, so that when su'd you read
    the right mail file.  Its a choice of one or the other and we chose
    to allow su over $HOME.

1.21    Sometimes Elm (PL < 21) seems to join two messages in one. Why?

        Syd Weinstein ([e-mail]):
    Early versions of Elm 2.4 had a problem with messages with bad content
    length headers. I'd update to a more recent version when 21 comes out
    in a bit.

    Compiler's Note: now 21 is out. I chose to report this Question
    as it is so a strange behaviour (mail still reads the mailbox
    correctly) a person can get mad about it :)

1.22    How can ELM 2.3 be used for an automatic reply?

    Tim McNeil ([e-mail]):
    You need to install the "auto reply daemon" supplied with elm
        and then make use of the autoreply command.

1.23    How to list your mail from the oldest to the newest?

    Arnaud Girsch ([e-mail]):
    You can change the sortby= in your .elm/elmrc file, or change in menu
    (O)ption, and then (S)orting criteria .... It allows you to choose
    lots of different order .. and  you can choose whatever you want

1.24    How to use elmheaders file?

    Arnaud Girsch ([e-mail]):
    You only have to create a file named elmheaders, a text file
    where you put all the lines you want to be seen in the header !
    If you redefine an existing header, it'll take it's place.
    Example: if you want to redefine your Reply-To: header,
    just create the file with the first line:
        Reply-To: [e-mail]

1.25    How to change the Full Name in sent mail ?

    with /bin/sh : $ NAME="foo" ; export NAME
    with /bin/csh: > setenv NAME "foo"

1.26    "Alias too long" or string too long errors.

    Errors are to be expected when trying to expand very long
    aliases, mailing lists, and so on. This error is due
    to the fixed lenght strings in Elm 2.xx, and will not
    be fixed until 3.xx is released.

1.27    How to crypt mail in elm ?

    Sven Guckes ([e-mail]):
    You need these two "keylines":
    [encode]
    and
    [clear]

    Just put your top secret messages in between these two lines.
    See the "ELM Reference Guide", "5. Special Outgoing Mail Processing"
    for an example.

    For all folks outside the US I might quote that little footnote:
    "Unfortunately, at many non-US sites, it's quite probable that
    you won't be able to use this feature since you won't have the
    crypt() library available due to licensing restrictions."

1.28    8 bit characters configuration?

    Hakan Sjogren ([e-mail])
    reports both the problem and the solution:

    PROBLEM: When receiving mails having swedish characters
    the display of these national characters on the terminal are wrong
    when using ELM.  If I add the line
    Content-type: text/plain charset=iso-8859-1
    into this received mail, ELM displays correctly.
    Since this is a normal situation I would assume ELM to display
    full 8bit characters if the mail bandwith is set to 8bit.

    SOLUTION: The solution to this problem was to set the environment
    variable LC_CTYPE=iso_8859_1 .

1.29    Sun mailtool attachments and elm?

    Kurt Swanson ([e-mail]):
    > Has anyone hacked elm to support the Sun attachment
    > style in the Openwindow's Mailtool?
    This is handled by metamail, not well, unfortunately,
    but handled that way in any case...

1.30    Is there an Elm for DOS? If yes, where?

        * Mike O'Connor ([e-mail]):
        There is a package called PC-Elm that's an imitation of Elm (i.e. it
        didn't come from Elm's source tree). It's available for anonymous FTP
        from oak.oakland.edu:/pub/msdos/ka9q-tcpip/, but it's supposed to
        interoperate with UUPC and possibly other common PC UUCP mailers.

    * Martin W Freiss ([e-mail]):
    The next release of PCELM (3.1) is finished except for the manual
    and some of the foreign language support. I don't know a release
    date yet, but around June this year is probably realistic.


2.xx    Installation Answers

2.01    On SCO Xenix, all mail is from user anonymous. Why?

    From Elm README:
        On SCO Xenix, if you are all mail is from user anonymous,
    this is because the mail delivery agent should be
    /usr/lib/mail/execmail instead of /usr/bin/rmail or /bin/rmail.

2.02    Elm doesn't work on Next. Why?

    The complete NeXT document by [e-mail] is
    available via anon ftp from: yak.macc.wisc.edu [144.92.30.18]
    and via e-mail from me ([e-mail])

2.03    Compiling with Microsoft UNIX C Compilers won't work. Why?

    Thomas Bullinger ([e-mail]):
    On many systems with the Microsoft UNIX C Compilers (such as SCO),
    compiling with optimization breaks the code.  One symptom is
    that aliases do not work.
    On those machines do not compile any of Elm with optimizations.
    To accomplish that, set all occurences of "OPTIMZE" in the
    makefiles to "-Od" - then it works.

2.04    Various problems on Unix 286.

    From Elm README:
        On some systems, especially those based on the AT&T Port to
    286's the -O flag of the compiler produces improper code causing
    segmentation violations.  If this happens, recompile the code without
    the -O flag.  This has been seen with Microport SysV/AT type systems.

        The Configuration script has been known to exceed the default
    stack size in Unix 286 sh's.  If Configure does not run correctly on
    this type of machine increase the stack size and rerun it.  On
    Microport SysV/AT machines, Configure might run correctly under ksh.
    Obtain ksh from Microport (available to current version owners without
    additional charge) and rerun Configure using it.

        Also on Microport SysV/AT Machines, the C compiler produces
    improper code for one of the arithmetic calls.  To fix this
    problem it is necessary to reduce the complexity of the
    statement, as reported by one of our testers here is the
    symptom and his patch.  Being this is a compiler bug on only
    one system, we make the information available, but not incorporate
    it in the main release.  Note, this may effect other areas
    of Elm, and in the future, Microport may even fix this problem.
    [Read the README file for the patches]

2.05    Configure won't run on HP-UX. Why?

        From Elm README:
        The Configuration script has been known to exercise an old bug
    on HP-UX's version of /bin/sh.  This shows up as part of the variable
    setting section showing up on your screen, and configure aborting
    on errors.  If this happens, try using ksh instead of sh as in:
        ksh Configure
    this will usually solve the problem.

2.06    Configure won't run on SCO XENIX 2.2.1. Why?

    Keith Brazington ([e-mail]):
    The solution is simple, up the stack size for /bin/sh. I used

    # mv /bin/sh /bin/sh.old
    # cp /bin/sh.old /bin/sh
    # fixhdr -F 8000 /bin/sh

    This may seem a bit over the top, but I put it back after!

2.07    Will Elm work on SGI Indigo?

        Syd Weinstein ([e-mail]):
    Well, I had no problems at all configuring and running Elm
    on my SGI Iris under 4.0.5.
    The biggie for SGI is to say Elm is a non ansi application,
    so you need to  list -cckr as an additional compilation flag.
    I took all the defaults from configure and it ran just fine.

2.08    I have problems compiling elm2.4 on HP/Apollo

    Gordon D. Berkley ([e-mail]):
    As of ELM2.4pl17, The system compiles cleanly (?) for Apollo.
    This patch level includes many "fixes" that I submitted to ensure
    this.  There *are* many compilor warnings, but they can safely
    be ignored.

    I would suggest discarding any config.sh from a previous Configure,
    though, as this will cause the corrections to NOT work.

2.09    I have problems compiling elm2.4 on IBM AIX

    * Steve Adams ([e-mail]):
    >I am trying to compile the latest and greatest version of ELM on my
    >RS/6000 running 3.2.? (exact level unclear). I received the following
    >error messages about setgid being redefined:
    >
    >"init.c", line 128.16: 1506-132 (S) Function getgid cannot be
    >redeclared.
    >"init.c", line 128.26: 1506-132 (S) Function getuid cannot be
    >redeclared.

    You can get around the problem defining -U__STR__ during 'Configure'
    It will be fixed in PL22.

    * From the monthly posting:
        This version of Elm 2.4 should not require any changes
        to the configure run to link under AIX 3.2 or newer.
    On IBM RISC 6000 AIX, prior to 3.2, you might get string
        function errors on the compile.
    The solution is to do the following:

    Look at /usr/lpp/bos/bsdsport. It tells you to add
    following lines to /etc/xlc.cfg:
        * BSD 4.3 c compiler stanza
        bsdcc:  use        = DEFLT
            crt        = /lib/crt0.o
            mcrt       = /lib/mcrt0.o
            gcrt       = /lib/gcrt0.o
            libraries  = -lbsd, -lc
            proflibs   = -L/lib/profiled,-L/usr/lib/profiled
            options    = -H512,-T512, -qlanglvl=extended, -qnoro,
                     -D_BSD, -D_NONSTD_TYPES, -D_NO

        And then link bsdcc to xlc and use bsdcc instead of cc.

    In addition, Elm should be linked with the curses lib
    and not termcap lib if /etc/termcap is not there.
    (You can always copy the termcap database to etc
    (or make a symlink)).

2.10    Compiling elm 2.4 under NS 3.0

    Paul Terray ([e-mail]):
    Check if fcntl.h is included somewhere (as it probably is).
    It contains most of the declaration the program are looking for.
    If not, include it. Then, just comment the include line for unistd.h.

2.11    Elm sends 'empty mail' on 386BSD: why?

    * From the monthly posting:
    On 386bsd, the shell that is shipped with the system,
    ash, does not work for sending messages within Elm.  Mail
    messages have headers only and no body.  Replacing the shell
    with bash (from GNU) seems to solve the problem.  The bash
    shell is in the 'etc' distribution of 386BSD.

    * Another solution if you can't get a fixed shell
    is to change line 520 in mailmsg2.c to:
    sprintf(very_long_buffer,"( (%s %s %s < %s ; %s %s) & )",
        mailer, mailerflags, expanded_to, whole_msg_file,
        remove_cmd, whole_msg_file);

2.12    Why can't I get SGI to work for non ROOT?

        From the monthly posting:
        SGI, at 3.3, doesn't have vfork, but instead a stub that does
        not work.  Make sure vfork is undef in the configuration.

2.13    I have problems p)rinting messages in 2.4PL20

    When I try and print a message, I get
    "readmsg: Cannot find start of selected message". Why?

    Chip Rosenthal ([e-mail]):
    Please take a look at the From_ line of the message you are trying to
    print.  I'm going to guess that it has a complex address, maybe with
    some quoting or special characters, or maybe a strange date syntax.

    The utilities in the current Elm release (including `readmsg') use
    very simpleminded routines to crack the From_ lines.  Some headers
    that Elm handles fine confuse these utilities.  One of the larger
    changes in the next Elm update will be moving all of the From_ and
    ~Date: processing out of the main Elm code and into the library, so
    the utilities (including `readmsg') will use the same algorithms as
    Elm.

    If you look at the From_ line and it doesn't seem particularly
    unusual, feel free to drop me a line.  Most of the changes to
    readmsg and Elm printing came from my hands, and I'm working on
    the aforementioned changes too.  If there is something else broke
    in there, I'd be glad to look at it.

2.14    Elm2.4 PL20 - 'x' key causes segmentation violation

    Nigel Metheringham ([e-mail]):
    in the file src/exitprog.c, there is a line
        char *msg, answer;
    replace it with
        char msg[SLEN], answer;

2.15    readmsg:illegal option -- I. Why?

    Chip Rosenthal ([e-mail]):
    It means you installed an updated `elm' binary but continue
    to use an old version of `readmsg'.

2.16    Forms don't work. Why?

    Syd Weinstein ([e-mail]):
    If you have `forms = ON' in elmrc, Forms is there, but
    the menu items to make a form require that user level
    be set off beginner.  (anything but 0 (beginner))

2.17    ELM does not recognize VMS mail. Why?

    * This is fixed in Pl22.

    * Syd Weinstein ([e-mail]):
    Looks to me like you found a bug in Elm's quote parsing routines.
    It just needs to be looked into.

    Reported from: Steen Hammerum ([e-mail])

2.18    Huge headers cause Memory Fault. Why?

    Syd Weinstein ([e-mail]):
    Any part of Elm at the 2.x level will abort if given a header line
    that is too long.  It uses fixed length buffers, and at some point
    they overflow, and none too gracefully.
    3.x will support dynamic strings to solve this problem.

2.19    Can I use elm for posting and replying to news?

        * Andreas Spiegl ([e-mail]):
        In order to set things up so elm is your mailer when you
        respond r or R to a news article in rn or trn, define an
        environment variable RNINIT that points to an initialization
        file for rn/trn. E.g. .rnrc
        Then put the following line in this file (.rnrc):
        -EMAILPOSTER="elm -i %h -s \"Re: %S\" %t"
        This is from now on telling rn to start elm with the appropriate
        parameters whenever you reply to an article and works great.
        But:  --> This is not for followup postings on the usenet! <--
        If you want to use elm in order to post article, you'd need a
        line with -ENEWSPOSTER instead of -EMAILPOSTER. Then you would
        tell elm (once it was evoked by rn/trn) that you want to send
        this to [e-mail],
        for example use "[e-mail]". This will post
        your email message to the usenet.
        This is not very convenient though, as you have to convert the
        address manually. Unless you write a nice script for it, of course.
        Be sure to send me a copy if you do. :-)

        * Mike O'Connor ([e-mail]):
        Of course, the DEC gateway allows one to gateway email to Usenet with
        email addresses of the following format:
        [e-mail]
        and has the additional advantage that they carry a LOT of the regional
        newsgroups.
        I still think piping it to sendmail with a macro for R is the way to
        go.  This allows you to use the mailer of your choice, be it elm or
        pine or Berkeley Mail or Z-Mail or whatever.  This gets it into your
        /usr/spool)/mail or /usr/mail or /var/mail or wherever.


3.0    Bugs list

    This list is included for completeness in the ftp version only.
    please, ftp to ghost.dsi.unimi.it as stated at the beginning
    of this FAQ to get it.

    You can get it via a mail server,too:
    Syd Weiunstein ([e-mail]):
    The script I use to get it is:
        smail [e-mail] <<\!
        Subject: command
        @SH elmbugs [e-mail]
        !

4.0     Archivers

    This is the list of Internet and UUCP sites distributing
    the latest version of Elm, from the Elm monthly posting.

4.0.1   The following sites have agreed to make Elm available
    via anonymous ftp.

        Site                    Contact

        In the US/Canada:
        wuarchive.wustl.edu     David J. Camp, [e-mail]
        (128.252.135.4)
        /mirrors/elm

        ftp.uu.net
        (137.39.1.9, 192.48.96.9)
        /networking/mail/elm

        In Europe:
    ftp.cs.ruu.nl           Edwin Kremer, [e-mail]
        (131.211.80.17)
        /pub/ELM-2.4

    ftp.th-darmstadt.de     [e-mail]
    (130.83.55.75)
    /pub/networking/mail/elm

        In the UK:
        uk.ac.soton.ecs         [e-mail] (bitnet)
        (152.78.64.201)         [e-mail] (JANET)

        ftp.demon.co.uk         Cliff Stanford, [e-mail]
        (158.152.1.65)
        /pub/unix/mail/elm

        In Australia:
        ftp.adelaide.edu.au     Mark Prior, [e-mail]
        (129.127.40.3)
        /pub/mailers

        In Taiwan:
        NCTUCCCA.edu.tw         Huang, Chih-Hsien [e-mail]
        (140.111.3.21)
        /packages/mail/elm


4.0.2    The following sites have agreed to make Elm available
    via anonymous uucp:

        Site                    Contact

        uunet                   Elm is /networking/mail/elm

        dsinc                   Syd Weinstein
                                [e-mail], dsinc!syd
                                note: anon uucp info changed 12/16/91
                                For further info, send an e-mail
                                message to [e-mail] stating:
                                send anon how-to dir

        stanton                 Steven P. Donegan
                                [e-mail], stanton!donegan
                                714-894-2246 uucp - nuucp no word
                                Elm is /u/public/elm2.3.tar.Z

----------------------
*** END of Elm FAQ *** This file has not been truncated

--
Piero Serini                                 Computer Science Dept.
<[e-mail]>          Univ. Statale - Milano - ITALY