ftp.freefriends.org/ftp.freefriends.org.tar/ftp.freefriends.org/arnold/Source/mush.rstevens.tar.gz/mush.tar/README-7.0

Text File | 1990-05-03 | 16KB | 322 lines

This is the official release of the Mush port to SunView, referred to in
alpha and beta versions as "mushview".  This file describes most of the
changes from revision 6.5.6 of "mush" and "mushtool".  Sorry, IBM, we
never managed to get the DOS code integrated.  Note that this is version
7.0.0, not to be confused (we hope) with alpha-test releases that had a
third zero appended to the number.  Check the dates if you aren't sure.

Thanks up front to Rich Burridge of Sun Australia for his work on
converting mush's SunWindows code to SunView, and for giving mush a really
thorough linting, which it had needed for some time.  Thanks also to the
many alpha and beta testers who sent valuable comments.

Version 7.0.0 differs from the several 6.5.6 Beta releases in that a
large portion of the Sun code has changed to use text subwindows instead
of pixrects.  This is a significant enough change in "look and feel" that
the release number was increased from 6 to 7.  Addition of file completion
to the line/curses modes is also considered a major improvement, as are
changes to the "mail" command (described below).

Tool mode changes include:
    * The message display window is a textsw, with scrollbars.
    * The composition window is also a textsw, and opens in a separate
      frame, so you can read messages in the main frame while composing.
      You can still invoke an editor, and the default window size is
      such that vi no longer gets confused (as far as we can tell).
    * There are variables to control the sizes of most subwindows.
    * Header-editing works in tool mode (in fact, you MUST use it).
    * Help, options, and alias settings also pop up in their own frames.
      The help descriptions have been improved (we believe).
    * Interactive function-key binding is no longer supported; the clash
      of mush function keys with SunView functions has been eliminated.
    * The list of folders in your folder directory is made into a
      walking menu.  (Handling of this may improve in future patches.)

In addition to the SunView conversions and linting, which make up the bulk
of the changes, there have been a number of bug fixes and enhancements to
the 6.5.6 baseline.  These include:

mush -h file
mush -U -h file
mush -U! -h file
    The new -h (-draft) options allows mush to read in a prepared message
    for sending, in the same manner as Rnmail.  The specified file must
    contain the message headers (either when first read or after editing
    by the user); mush will not add headers to it.  The intended use of
    this option is to write a partially finished message to a file and
    then return to it later.  (See commentary below on "mail -h".)  The
    new -U (-send) option allows the draft file to be sent immediately
    without editing (-U means "unedited").  Signatures and fortunes are
    not appended when -U! is used ("unsigned" as well as unedited).

mush -I file
mush -I! file
    The new -I (-init) option allows the user to specify an init file that
    is read before any of the other init files.  -I! causes the specified
    file to replace the system Mushrc file; otherwise, the given file and
    the system Mushrc are both read.  -I has no effect on reading of the
    user's own $HOME/.mushrc file (except that the indicated file could
    "setenv MAILRC", thus changing the location of the user's file).

mush -n
mush -n!
    The first form of this option now works like the ucbMail -n option,
    that is, it prevents sourcing of the system Mushrc but the user's own
    $HOME/.mushrc is still read.  The new -n! variation prevents either
    file from being sourced, which was the old behavior of -n.  Using -n
    does not change the effect of -I, so the following are equivalent:
        mush -n -I file            mush -I! file

cd
    The cdpath variable now works correctly when specified with either
    colons or spaces separating the list of directories.

help
    The help facility has been expanded; there is now a help file entry
    consisting of a usage line and short explanation for every documented
    line-mode command except "debug" and "version", all accessible via
    "? command" or "command -?".  In addition, there are variables:
    set cmd_help = path    Give new location for cmd_help file
    set tool_help = path    Give new location for tool_help file
    These variables, which can be set in the system or user init files,
    have replaced the old -1 and -2 startup options, i.e. cmd_help and
    tool_help can no longer be specified on the mush command line.

mail -E
mail -h file
mail -H file
mail -I
mail -u
mail -U -h file
    The new "-h file" option of the mail command corresponds to the -h
    option of mush itself, and is intended for reading in previously
    begun letters.  It implies -E (edit_hdrs).  The previous meaning of
    -h (include and indent a message with its headers) is now supported
    by the -I option, corresponding to the ~I escape (see below).  The
    -H option is analogous to -h, except that the file need not contain
    message headers (edit_hdrs is not implied).  (Some alpha versions
    used -H for the function now supplied by -I.)
    The -E option no longer implies autoedit.
    The new -u option turns off autosign and fortune.  Most useful
    with "-h file" when you want to continue editing the draft but a
    signature or fortune has already been appended; but -h is not
    required for -u.  The new -U option sends the file immediately; it
    cannot be used without -h or -H, and will be ignored if no To:
    address has been specified.
    Also, the user is no longer required to provide a To: address in
    order to begin composing a letter (one is still required before
    sending it), and the To: address may be only files and/or pipes if
    desired (in which case the MTA is not run).
    Finally, the tilde-escape ~I has replaced ~H for purposes of
    including a message and its headers in the letter being composed.
    This is analagous to the -i and -I options and the ~i escape.

my_hdr From: address
    This is now allowed (it is allowed but neither documented nor correctly
    used in 6.5.6, and was not allowed previously).  The user's From: header
    is verified as best mush can, and used if it appears valid.  It is up
    to the MTA to assure authenticity and/or add a Sender: header.  Mush
    provides a From: if the user does not or if it cannot verify the one
    given.

pipe -p pattern unix-command
    The pipe command has been modified to allow its use as a shell script
    extractor.  See the man page and "pipe -?" for details.  KNOWN BUG:
    given a list of messages, all are sent to the same unix process.
    This can cause havoc e.g. when each of the messages is a shell script
    intended to be run by a virgin shell.  Changes are being discussed.
    Also, pipe is now affected by $alwaysignore (see below).

Pipe
    See the comments under "write" below.

pwd
    This now prints the actual current working directory rather than
    simply echoing the value of $cwd.

reply
    Assorted repairs have been made to to take_me_off() (implements the
    inverse of $metoo) and reply_to().  These include doing a better
    (though still not perfect) job of getting the name and address to
    match when replying to forwarded mail.

sort
    The current message now moves with the sort, that is, the same actual
    message (not necessarily the same message *number*) will be the
    current message after the sort as was current before the sort.

save/copy
    The 'p' (printed) and 'f' (forwarded) Status flags are now properly
    saved when messages are saved/copied, and restored when the folders
    are read.  Also, a "-f" (force) flag has been added, which has the
    same meaning as the old "!" flag, that is, overwrite the file rather
    than appending to it.  "save !" is still supported.

undigest -p pattern
    The specified pattern is used as the article separator for unpacking
    digests.  The default is "--------".  A literal match (no regexps or
    wildcards) is done at beginning-of-line.

write
    The write command (and other commands such as Pipe that omit message
    headers) no longer outputs the blank line that separates the message
    body from the headers, and also does not output the trailing blank
    line that separates messages from one another.  (This applies only
    when MSG_SEPARATOR is not defined during compilation.)  This makes
    the command more useful for saving multi-part uuencoded files, etc.

$$
$name:l
$name:u
$name:<number>
    Four new variable forms.  The first returns the PID of the running
    mush; the second converts all alphabetics in the value of $name to
    lower case; the third converts all alphabetics in the value of $name
    to uppercase; the fourth splits the value into words and returns the
    <number>th word.  Only one modifier can be used at a time.

$[%fmt]
    This special variable form expands %fmt (a string with no spaces) as
    a hdr_format format.  E.g., $h%a is the author of the current message.
    Any colon-modifier may be applied, e.g.
    $[%n]:1        First name of author of current message

$(%c)
    This special variable form expands %c (c is a character) as a prompt
    format.  E.g., $(%T) is the current time.  Colon-modifiers apply.

$alwaysignore
    This variable now actually works as documented.  If you've gotten used
    to the old behavior, you'll need to set this.  Note, however, that the
    documented behavior has changed slightly.  The (erroneous) behavior of
    Mush 6.5.6 when this variable was UNset is now achieved by:
    set alwaysignore = "include,forward,pipe"
    Setting this variable with no value has the same effect as in 6.5.6.

$autosign
    You can now specify a program to be run, whose output will sign the
    letter; the syntax is
    set autosign = '|program-name'
    This syntax has not been finalized and may change.  The argument list
    passed to the program is the list of addresses that will go to the MTA,
    in exactly the same form as that which will be used for the MTA (e.g.,
    there may be a comma after each address).

$complete
    Mush now supports filename completion and will eventually support
    command completion as well.  This variable has a two-character "string"
    value; the first character is used for name completion, the second for
    listing, ala ESC and ^D in 4.3 BSD csh.

$domain_route
    This variable allows the user to specify that domain short-circuiting
    should be done in conjunction with auto_route.  Addresses that are
    already in RFC822 domain form (user@domain) are not normally changed.
    UUCP paths that contain fully-qualified domains are short-circuited
    to the rightmost such domain.  Optionally, domain_route may be set
    to a string, in which case all addresses are rewritten to UUCP form,
    short-circuited, and the given string is then prepended as the first
    host in the path.  This variable is intended for use at RFC976 Class 3
    UUCP hosts, or UUCP sites with a connection to a Class 3 host.

$fignore
    This variable modifies the behavior of file completion by specifying
    file name forms that should NOT be completed.  See the man page for
    more details.

$hdr_format
    A new formatting string now allows access to *any* message header.
    The format is:    %?header-name?
    For example,
    set hdr_format='%n "%?x-mailer?"'
    might display
    1 >   Barton E. Schaefer "Mail User's Shell (7.0.0 12/10/89)"
    This can be used to avoid mush's TO: display for messages you
    authored; just replace "%f" with "%?from?".

$lister
    Has been removed.  The "folders" command now supplies its own set
    of flags to ls, and "cmd ls 'ls ...'" suffices for other uses.

$quiet
    This variable now has a value of one to six comma-delimited words.
    For compatibility with previous versions, setting quiet without a
    value has the original behavior of suppressing the startup message.
    The recognized words are:
    autosign    Don't tell me when a signature is appended
    await        Await command doesn't ring for new mail
    complete    Word completion doesn't ring on failure
    fortune        Don't tell me when a fortune is appended
    startup        Don't print the startup message
    tool        Tool mode doesn't ring for new mail
    Errors in autosigning or fortunes are still reported.  (Some beta
    releases assigned three of these fields, with the on/off sense
    reversed, to a variable named $bell; that variable is gone.)

$version
    The version string, as printed on startup.
____________

MMDF Changes and File Locking Improvements
------------------------------------------

The MMDF support code has been modified to use the MMDF library calls for
file locking.  The files makefile.* were modified to make the need to link
in the MMDF library more obvious, and the comments in config.h-dist now
reflect the current (simpler) installation instructions for MMDF sites.

In the course of these updates, the structure of the file locking calls
was reworked to make open and lock a single (non-atomic) operation.  Many
thanks to [e-mail] (Lee McLoughlin) and [e-mail]
(Marc Rouleau) for instigation and help with implementation and testing of
these changes.

In the course of making these changes, a number of errors were discovered
and repaired:

    An "update" would remove empty files and then try to reload them,
    generating error messages.  The copyback() function now returns -1 if
    it removes a file; folder() recognizes this and does not attempt to
    load_folder() on a removed file.

    There was a remote possibility of a race condition in in copyback()
    because open-and-lock is non-atomic.  copyback() now checks for new
    mail AFTER locking the spool file; this guarantees the MTA can't
    slip a new message into the file just before it gets truncated.  The
    check_new_mail() function has been broken into three specialized
    parts to allow this:  get_new_mail() and show_new_mail() work as you
    probably expect, and check_new_mail() now calls them.

    The mbox file ($HOME/mbox or whatever) is locked by copyback(), and
    all folders are locked by save_msg().

    The dead.letter file is locked by dead_letter().

    "Reinitializing" of a folder that was modified behind mush's back
    would do pretty strange things in curses mode.  It now behaves more
    sensibly.  Also, if your spool folder shrinks while you are using a
    non-spool folder, mush won't incorrectly re-initialize the current
    folder (a bug no one ever saw, we hope).

    All mailboxes are locked for reading when they are first loaded or
    when new mail comes in, whenever possible (DOT_LOCK and old Xenix
    installations cannot read-lock).  If the MTA also uses a compatible
    locking scheme (as one would hope), this should prevent "truncation"
    of new messages without unduly restricting the reading of folders.

    NOTE:  All this precautionary locking has its drawbacks.  Sending
    mail can deadlock if you mention the same file twice in the list
    of addresses.  (Of course, before the advent of locking, this would
    cause interleaved writes; which is the lesser evil?)  Be careful.

Additional changes apply to installations where SYSV is defined:

    Because lockf() requires a file open for writing, the locking code
    has been rewritten to call fcntl(F_SETLK) directly.  Read and write
    locks are used as appropriate.

    This locking code has been only minimally tested, because none of the
    authors has direct access to a true SysV machine.  Bug reports with
    suggestions for improvement are requested.