VMAILTOOL

Section: LAD (1)
Updated:
Index Return to Main Contents
 

NAME

vmailtool - run vmail in a sunview window  

SYNOPSIS

vmailtool [ vmail-options ]  

DESCRIPTION

Vmailtool invokes the MH-based vmail mail editor in a sunview tooltool window. It provides buttons for incorporating, showing, printing, piping to a command, bursting, deleting, refiling, forwarding, disting (resending), and replying to mail. It provides functions for searching, moving to, listing, packing, sorting, and inactivating folders. It has the capability to resync the mail item listing with what's really in the mh mail folder. It even provides an animated mail icon with the flag that pops up and down based on whether you have mail or not.

Mouse

If you are looking at a scan listing, you can click the left mouse button on a message and the cursor will move to that message.

If you shift-click the left mouse button, it will move to and show the message.

If you control-click the left mouse button, the mouse will do the familiar text selection action.

Mailbox icon

If you click on the mailbox icon, the window will close. If you shift-click, vmailtool exits.

Inc button

If you click on the inc button, mail will be incorporated. If you shift-click, mail will be inc'ed and the first message will be show'ed.

Arrows

If you wish to go to the next/previous message, click on the up/down arrows.

If you wish to go to the top/bottom of the page, shift-click on the up/down arrows.

If you wish to move forward/backward pages of active messages, click on the left and right arrows.

If you wish to move forward/backward to the next/previous folder, shift-click on the right and left arrows.

Show button

If you click on the show button, it show's the mail. Further clicks advance the pager by one page. If you shift-click, the mail is printed on your favorite printer (default is lpr). If you control-click, you are asked to specify a command to pipe the mail to.

Delete button

A click deletes the current message. A shift-click will restore the last message deleted.

Refile button

A click pops up a dialog box to ask you into which folder you wish to refile the mail. A shift-click will refile the mail to the same folder as last time. A control-click will refile the mail to the previously-visited folder.

Comp button

A click composes a new message. A shift-click prompts you for arguments to give to comp.

Repl button

A click replies to the current message. A shift-click prompts you for arguments to give to repl.

Forw button

A click forwards the current message. A shift-click prompts you for additional arguments to give to forw (forward additional messages, for example).

Misc message menu

Hold down the right mouse button to open the menu for selections.

Rescan Causes vmail to refresh its scan listing to match what is really in the current MH mail folder.

Edit Runs your favorite editor on the current message.

Burst Bursts the current message. If the current message is a digest or contains forwarded mail, the individual internal messages are split out and placed at the end of your mail folder. Uses the MH burst program.

Burst... Prompts you for arguments to pass to burst.

Dist Dists (resends) the current message. If a message was sent to you that you wish to send on to additional recipients, without including it as a forwarded message, this menu item is for you. Uses the MH dist program.

Dist... Prompts you for arguments to pass to dist.

Search button

A click repeats the last (forward or backward) search on the current folder's scan listing. A shift-click prompts you for a string to search for, then performs the search, forward. A control-click prompts you for a string to search for, then performs the search, backwards.

New Folder button

A click prompts you for a new folder to activate and visit. A shift-click sends you back to the previously-visted folder.

Misc folder menu

Hold down the right mouse button to open the menu for selections.

List All lists all the folders vmail knows about, and whether they are active or not. If they are active, it lists how many messages are in the folder.

Pack Renumbers the messages in the current folder so there are no message number gaps.

Sort Sorts all messages in the current folder by date, then rescans the mail folder. Uses the MH sortm program.

Sort... Like Sort above, but allows you to specify options to pass to sortm.

Inactivate Removes the current folder from the active list of folders. If other folders were active (from using the New Folder button), you will go to the alternate folder; otherwise, vmailtool will exit.

Note that as with any tooltool application, if you hold down the right mouse button while the pointer is over one of the "buttons", vmailtool will list all the different functions of that button, and what shift-key is used to invoke that function: S for Shift, C for Control, and M for Meta. Or, if you place the mouse over one of the selections so it is highlighted, and release the right mouse button, that selection will be run.  

OPTIONS

Takes the standard vmail options. Beware of using -ans, -burst, -comp, -dist, -forw, and -sort, as these will mess up the repl, burst, comp, dist, forw, and sort functions.  

ENVIRONMENT

NEWMAILCMD

String containing a shell command to run everytime new mail arrives.

NEWMAILCMD="cat soundfile > /dev/audio"

PRINTER

The printer of choice for the print function of the show button. The default printer is "lp". To select "lprn" as the default, for example:

PRINTER="lprn"

MAILPATH, MAIL, USER

Where to find the user's mailbox. First choice is MAILPATH (see ksh(1)), then MAIL, then /usr/spool/mail/$USER.

MAILCHECK

Interval in seconds to wait between checking for mail. The default is 60 seconds.

MAILICON

Pathname of full-size sunview icon file to use to indicate that the user's system maildrop has mail in it.

NOMAILICON

Pathname of full-size sunview icon file to use to indicate that the user's system maildrop is empty.

BOLD_FONT

Pathname of font file to use for the bold-face font.
 

FILES

/usr/include/images/mail.icon

Default MAILICON.

/usr/include/images/nomail.icon

Default NOMAILICON.

/usr/lib/fonts/fixedwidthfonts/screen.b.14

Default BOLD_FONT.

/usr/public/bin/vmailicon

Shell script to set the window icon associated with /dev/tty. This script attempts to outsmart the window lock race condition bug by firing off "echo" and then killing it.
 

SEE ALSO

vmail(1), mh(1), inc(1), ksh(1), tooltool(1).  

AUTHOR

James T. Perkins (jamesp@metolius.wr.tek.com), March 1990. Version 1.4, 20 September 1990.  

DIAGNOSTICS

vmailicon: nnnn Killed

This indicates that vmailicon couldn't set the window icon (probably to raise or lower the flag), and is retrying.

vmailicon: icon not set after X tries

Indicates that vmailicon couldn't set the window icon after repeated attempts. The mailbox flag on the icon will not reflect reality until it is able to.

vmailtool: vmailtool and 'stty tostop' are incompatible. See the man page.

Vmailtool does not run correctly if you have the tostop function of the tty driver engaged. Check your .profile and .login to see if tostop is turned on there. You will probably want to edit these occurances to read -tostop instead, then log out and back in again, to reset your tty driver to the proper mode permanently.
 

BUGS

Editor sessions invoked when you compose, edit, or reply to mail, will hang if a suspend signal is sent to the process via ^Z.

One cannot add functions not already supported by vmail.

Because tooltool scripts are very loosely coupled to the application running underneath them, it is not easy, or possible, to change the set of buttons to more accurately reflect the current mode of operation ("show" mode, "edit" mode, "scan" mode, folder selection mode, etc).

Vmail will immediately exit if there is no mail in your "inbox" folder. Similarly, vmail will exit if you have inactivated the last active folder, or if you rescan the last active folder, when it has just been emptied of messages.

Vmail will get confused if you run MH commands that change the contents of the current folder in another Sunview window. To resync vmail with the contents of the MH folder, use the rescan function of the Misc folder menu.

Vmail is designed to flush type-ahead by default. Sometimes when you press a button, vmailtool will emit a stream of characters so fast that vmail flushes the first one or two, leading to unpredictable vmail behavior. Most people don't experience this behavior, but if it happens to you, add a line of the form:

vmail: -flush

To your .mh-profile.


 

Index

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
OPTIONS
ENVIRONMENT
FILES
SEE ALSO
AUTHOR
DIAGNOSTICS
BUGS

This document was created by man2html, using the manual pages.
Time: 07:56:00 GMT, May 19, 2025