READMSG
Section: Misc. Reference Manual Pages (1L)
Updated: Elm Version 2.3
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NAME
readmsg - read messages from incoming mail
SYNOPSIS
readmsg
[-p]
[-n]
[-f filename]
[-h]
readmsg
[-p]
[-n]
[-f filename]
[-h]
number [number ...]
readmsg
[-p]
[-n]
[-f filename]
[-h]
pattern
DESCRIPTION
Readmsg
is a program that gives the elm user the functionality of
the mailx "~r" command from the editor of their choice. There
are three different ways of using the program;
First off, if you're actually creating a reply to a message
from within the elm system then readmsg without any
arguments will include a summary of the headers and the body
of the message being replied
to. If you aren't currently editing a message the program will
return an error.
Secondly, if you want to include certain messages, you can
specify them by listing their ordinal locations in the
mail file (that is, their "message numbers")
up to 25 at a time. The meta-number '$' is understood to mean
the last message in the mailfile. Similarly, '*' is understood to
represent every message in the file (that is, 1-$)
Finally, you can also specify a pattern that occurs in one of
the messages as a way of including it. This pattern can be
typed in directly (no quotes) if the words are separated by a
single space in the actual message. The pattern matching is case
sensitive, so "Hello" and "hello" are NOT the same thing!!
The -f flag indicates that you'd rather use the file specified
for the operations specified rather than the default mailbox.
The -h flag instructs the program to include the entire header
of the matched message or messages when displaying their
text. (default is to display the From: Date: and Subject: lines
only)
The -n flag instructs the program to exclude all
headers. This is used mostly for extracting files mailed and
such.
Finally, the -p flag indicates that the program should
put form-feeds (control-L) between message headers.
EXAMPLES
First off, to use this from within vi to include the text of the
current message, you could use the command:
:r !readmsg
(as you hit the ':' the editor will put you at the bottom of the screen
with the ':' prompt). The space following ':r' is required.
Let's look at something more interesting, however;
Suppose you have the mailfile;
From joe Jun 3 1986 4:45:30 MST
Subject: hello
Hey Guy! Wanta go out and have a milk this evening?
Joe
From john Jun 3 1986 4:48:20 MST
Subject: Dinner at Eight
From: John Dinley <xyz!john>
Remember you should show up about eight, okay?
- John D -
From xxzyz!cron Jun 3 1986 5:02:43 MST
Cannot connect to server: blob
Job 43243 deleted from queue.
The following commands will result in;
$ readmsg 2
[ display the second message, from John ]
$ readmsg
[ an error, unless we're calling from elm ]
$ readmsg BLOB
[ no match - case sensitive! ]
$ readmsg -h connect to server
[ displays third message, including headers ]
FILES
/usr/mail/<username> The incoming mail
$HOME/.readmsg The temp file from elm
AUTHOR
Dave Taylor, Hewlett-Packard Laboratories
SEE ALSO
newmail(1L), elm(1L)
BUGS
The '*' metacharacter doesn't always work as expected!
Perhaps the pattern matching should be case insensitive?
BUG REPORTS TO
Syd Weinstein elm@DSI.COM (dsinc!elm)
COPYRIGHTS
© Copyright 1986, 1987 by Dave Taylor
© Copyright 1988, 1989, 1990 by The USENET Community Trust
Index
- NAME
-
- SYNOPSIS
-
- DESCRIPTION
-
- EXAMPLES
-
- FILES
-
- AUTHOR
-
- SEE ALSO
-
- BUGS
-
- BUG REPORTS TO
-
- COPYRIGHTS
-
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