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

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

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Time: 21:59:40 GMT, February 15, 2023