Installation

This section instructs you on how to install and get MHonArc running on your machine. The section covers Unix installation and MS-DOS installation. Read only the parts that pertain to the operating system you are using.


Unix

The following gives instructions on how to install MHonArc on a Unix system.

System Requirements

MHonArc is written in Perl 4. Therefore, you must have Perl 4 installed on your system. If you do not know if Perl is installed on your system, ask your system adminstrator.

If Perl is not installed on your system, you can retrieve Perl at <URL:http://www.cis.ufl.edu/perl/ftp.html>. I recommend version 4.0 patchlevel 34, or later. MHonArc has not been tested on earlier versions.

Installation

Extracting the Tar File

MHonArc is distributed in a gzipped tar file. Therefore, you must have gzip installed on your system. Contact your system administrator if your are unsure if gzip is installed. If gzip is not installed, you may obtain gzip at <URL:ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu>.

To extract the tar file, type the following command at your shell's prompt:

zcat MHonArc.1.1.0.tar.gz | tar xvof -

A directory called "MHonArc" should be created. The directory contains all the files need for installing MHonArc.

Installing MHonArc

Contained in the MHonArc directory is a Perl program called "install.me". This program will perform the tasks required to install MHonArc on you machine. To run the program, type the following at your shell's prompt:

perl install.me

NOTE
Make sure you are in the same directory as the install.me program.
Example Installation
Here's an example install.me session:

% perl install.me
MHonArc Installation
====================
The installation process will ask you a series of questions on where
the Perl executable is and where to put MHonArc files.  Just hit <CR>
to accept the default values listed in ()'s.

If directory path does not exist on your system, the installation
program will create the path for you.

-----------------------------------------------
Note:  Make sure all pathnames are absolute.
-----------------------------------------------

Hit <CR> to continue ...
Perl executable ("/usr/local/bin/perl")
-> /usr/bin/perl
Location to install programs ("/usr/local/bin")
-> /mnt/ehood/bin
Location to install libraries ("/usr/local/lib/MHonArc")
-> /mnt/ehood/lib/MHonArc
Install documentation ("y")?  y
Location to install docs ("/usr/local/lib/MHonArc/doc")
-> /mnt/ehood/lib/MHonArc/doc

You've specified the following:
        Perl location: /usr/bin/perl
        Program directory: /mnt/ehood/bin
        Library directory: /mnt/ehood/lib/MHonArc
        Doc directory: /mnt/ehood/lib/MHonArc/doc
Is this correct ("y")?  y
Installing the following into /mnt/ehood/bin
        mhonarc
Installing the following into /mnt/ehood/lib/MHonArc
        base64.pl
        mhexternal.pl
        mhtxthtml.pl
        mhtxtplain.pl
        mhtxtsetext.pl
        qprint.pl
        readmail.pl
Installing the following into /mnt/ehood/lib/MHonArc/doc
        mhonarc.txt
        ...


MS-DOS

The following gives instructions on how to install MHonArc on an MS-DOS (or similiar PC operating system) machine.

System Requirements

MHonArc is written in Perl 4. Therefore, you must have Perl 4 installed on your system. If Perl is not installed on your system, you can retrieve Perl at <URL:http://www.cis.ufl.edu/perl/ftp.html>. Because MHonArc is a large program, the only version of Perl for MS-DOS that is known to work is Darryl Okahata's BigPerl. This runs in extended memory in 386 protected mode, thus requiring a 386 or later processor.

Other (recommended) requirements:

Installation

NOTE
The paths and filenames used are for instructional purposes only. Please use paths and filenames that are appropriate for your system.

Batch File

If you would like the ability to run MHonArc like other programs, then create a batch file that contains something like the following:

@ECHO OFF
C:\BIN\PERL.EXE C:\BIN\MHONARC %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9

Of course, you'll need to change the paths to Perl and MHonArc to suit your systems configuration.

Sample batch files are available in the MHonArc distribution.


Notes on Installation


Program Name

Unix

If you, or other users at your site, use other mail software other than MH (eg. mail, Elm), then you might want create a symbolic link called "mbox2html" that points to mhonarc. Therefore, if mbox2html is used to invoke MHonArc, the -mbox option is automatically in effect.

The following list shows which options are in effect when invoked by different program names:

MS-DOS

There are two ways to invoke MHonArc under DOS:


Tested Environments

This section covers software environments MHonArc has worked successfully. Feedback is welcome about other success, or failure, stories covering MHonArc usage in other environments.

Unix

Perl

MHonArc is known to work with the following version of Perl 4, or later:

$RCSfile: perl.c,v $$Revision: 4.0.1.7 $$Date: 92/06/08 14:50:39 $
Patch level: 34

See the Perl 5 section for the status of MHonArc running under Perl 5.

Mail Software

News Software

Different news software store messages differently. Messages are either stored in a format similiar to MH or similiar to a mailbox file:

MS-DOS

System Configurations

Hardware:
386DX+387DX, 486DX2
Memory:
8-12 megabytes
Operating system:
MS-DOS 6.22
XMS extended memory management:
MS-DOS himem.sys
Perl:
Darry Okahata's BigPerl 4.0M4 and 5.000 beta (note that MHonArc is not yet 100% compatible with Perl 5.x on any platform)

WWW clients:
Netscape 1.0, Mosaic 2.0b4 under MS Windows 3.1 DOSLynx (limited)

Mail/News Software

MHonArc has been tested under MS-DOS with message files created by the following mail and news programs:

It also works with individual RFC822 mail messages, but you must run MHonArc without a batch file if you need to use redirection. For example:

perl c:\bin\mhonarc <one.msg >one.htm
perl c:\bin\mhonarc -add <one.msg


Perl 5

MHonArc will run under Perl 5, but MIME message processing will not work. Apparently, there is a bug in Perl 5 that prevents MHonArc from processing MIME messages correctly. Regular messages will get processed correctly. If you do not need to process MIME messages, then this problem will not affect you. If you need to filter MIME messages, you will have to use Perl 4.

The author welcomes any feedback from users that try MHonArc under Perl 5.


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MHonArc 1.1.0 -- Installation