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- .TL
- BM User Manual
- .AF
- .AU "Dave Trulli, NN2Z"
- .MT 4 1
-
- .H 1 "What is BM ?"
- \f3BM\f1 is designed to serve as the mail user-interface for the
- KA9Q TCP/IP inter-networking package. It provides a full set
- of mail services to the user which allows the sending and receipt
- of electronic mail.
-
- .H 1 "BM Installation"
- To install \f3BM\f1 requires the modification of the supplied configuration files
- and the creation of the proper directory structure.
- The following sections describe the file and directory structure
- used by \f3BM\f1 and SMTP.
-
- .H 2 "Directory Structure"
- .VL 16
- .LI %spool%mqueue
- This directory holds the outbound mail jobs for SMTP. Each job
- consists of 2 files a xxxx.txt and xxxx.wrk file where
- xxxx is a unique numerical prefix.
- The format of the files are described in a later section.
-
- .LI %spool%rqueue
- This directory is used by SMTP for jobs that have been received
- and will be processed by a user defined mail routing program.
- This directory is not used directly by \f3BM\f1.
-
- .LI %spool%mail
- This directory holds the individual mailboxes for each user name on your
- system. The extension .txt is add to the user name to form the mailbox
- name. Mail received by the SMTP server is appended to the mailbox file.
-
- .H 2 "Configuration Files"
-
- .H 3 "The %bm.rc file"
- The \\bm.rc file provides \f3BM\f1 with the configuration needed for
- the operation of the mailer.
-
- The format for the \\bm.rc file is:
- .DS I
- variable <space> value <newline>
- .DE
-
- The following variables are valid in the bm.rc file:
- .sp
- .HU "smtp <mail path>"
- defines the path to the directory containing the mailbox files.
- The default directory is \\spool\\mail on the current drive.
-
- .HU "host <your host name>"
- Is used to set the local hostname for use
- in the RFC822 mail headers. This is a required field.
-
- .HU "user <user name>"
- Defines the user name of the person who is sending mail.
- This is also used as the default mailbox for reading mail.
- On the AMPRNET this is usually set to your call.
- There is a DOS limit of 8 characters for the user name.
-
- .HU "edit <path of your editor>"
- Defines the name of your favorite editor which can be used
- to construct and edit the text of outgoing messages.
- The use of edit is optional.
-
- .HU "fullname <your full name>"
- Is used to provide your full name
- to the mailer for use in the comment portion of "From:" header line.
- The use of fullname is optional.
-
- .HU "reply <return address>"
- Defines the address where you wish to receive replies to messages sent.
- This option is useful if you are operating your pc on a local area
- network and would like your mail replies sent to a more "well known host".
- The address specified by reply is used to generate a "Reply-To:" header
- in outbound mail. The "Reply-To:" header overrides the "From:" header
- which is the address normally used to reply to mail. This field is optional.
-
- .HU "maxlet <number of messages>"
- defines the maximum number of messages that can be processed
- by \f3BM\f1 in one mailbox file. The default value of maxlet is 100.
-
- .HU "mbox <filename>"
- Specifies the default file to be used for the "save" command.
- This file is in the same format as a mailbox and may later be viewed using
- the -f option of \f3BM\f1. If this option is not used then the default is set
- to mbox.
-
- .HU "record <filename>"
- If defined a copy of each message sent will be saved
- in <filename>.
-
- .HU "folder <directory name>"
- If defined folder contains the path used by the save command.
-
- .HU "screen [bios | direct]"
- In the Turboc compiled version of \f3BM\f1, screen sets the display output mode
- to use either direct writes to screen memory or the ROM BIOS.
- The default is direct which provides the fastest output mode.
- If you are using a windowing system
- such as Desqview you should set the mode to bios.
- .sp
- Here is a sample bm.rc file.
- .DS I
- host nn2z.ampr
- user nn2z
- fullname Dave Trulli
- # send my replies to the Sun
- reply nn2z@ka9q.bellcore.com
- screen direct
- edit /bin/vi
- mbox c:/folder/mbox
- record c:/folder/outmail
- folder c:/folder
- maxlet 200
- .DE
-
- .H 3 "The %alias file"
- The alias file provides an easy way to maintain mailing lists.
- An alias can be any string of characters not containing the "@" symbol.
- The format for the alias file is:
- .DS I
- alias recip1 recip2 recip3
- <tab> recip4
- .DE
- Note that a long list of aliases can be continued on an additional line
- by placing a tab or space on the continuation line.
- .sp
- Some examples aliases are:
- .DS I
- dave nn2z@nn2z.ampr
-
- phil karn@ka9q.bellcore.com
-
- # mail to local nnj users
- nnj wb2cop@wb2cop.ampr karn@ka9q.bellcore.com
- wb0mpq@home.wb0mpq.ampr w2kb@w2kb.ampr ka2tsm@ka2tsm.ampr
- .DE
- In the above example, when specifying nnj as the recipient,
- \f3BM\f1 will expand the alias into the
- list of recipients from the alias file.
- At this time an alias may not contain any other aliases.
-
- .H 3 "%spool%mqueue%sequence.seq"
- The sequence file maintains a message counter which is used
- by \f3BM\f1 and \f3SMTP\f1 to generate message ids and unique filenames.
- This file is created by \f3BM\f1.
-
- .H 2 "Environment"
- The timezone used in mail headers is obtained from the DOS
- environment variable TZ. An example TZ setting is:
- .DS I
- set TZ=EDT4
- .DE
- It is set in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. The first 3 characters are the
- timezone and the fourth character is the number of hours
- from GMT time. If TZ is not set, GMT is assumed.
-
- .H 1 "Commands"
- All \f3BM\f1 commands are single letters followed by optional arguments.
- The command list has been designed to make those familiar with Berkeley
- mailers comfortable with \f3BM\f1.
-
- .H 2 "Main menu commands"
- .HU "m [ userlist ]
- The mail command is used to send a message to one or more recipients.
- All local recipient names ( those which don't contain an '@' ) are
- checked for possible aliases.
- If no arguments are supplied you will be prompted for a recipient list.
- While entering a message into the text buffer several commands are
- available such as: invoking an editor, and reading in text from other messages
- or files. See the section below for a description of these commands.
- To end a message enter a line containing a single period.
- .P
- It is important to remember that the input line buffer has a 128 character
- limit. You should format your text by entering a carriage return at the
- end of each line. Typing excessively long lines may cause data loss
- due to truncation when passing the message through other hosts.
- Keeping lines less than 80 characters is always a good idea.
-
- .HU "d [ msglist ]"
- Mark messages for deletion.
- Messages marked for deletion are removed when exiting \f3BM\f1 via the
- \f3q\f1 command or when changing to an alternate mailbox with the
- \f3n\f1 command.
-
- .HU h
- Display message headers. The message headers contain the message
- number, the status indicating whether it has been read or deleted, the sender,
- size, date, and subject.
-
- .HU "u [ msglist ]"
- Undelete a message that is marked for deletion. The status
- of a message can be determined by looking at the status field of the
- message using the \f3h\f1 command.
-
- .HU "n [ mailbox ]"
- Display or change mailbox. The \f3n\f1 command with no arguments
- will display a list of mailboxes containing mail. If an argument
- is supplied, then the current mailbox is closed and a
- new mailbox is opened.
-
- .HU "! cmd"
- Run a DOS command from inside \f3BM\f1. An error message will result if
- there is not enough memory available to load the command.
-
- .HU ?
- Print a help menu for \f3BM\f1 commands.
-
- .HU "s [ msglist ] [ file ]"
- The \f3s\f1 command is used to save
- messages in a file. If no filename is given the default from
- the mbox variable in \\bm.rc is used.
- If no message number is supplied then the current message is saved.
- The message is stored in the same format as a mailbox file with
- all mail headers left intact.
-
- .HU "p [ msglist ]"
- The \f3p\f1 command is used to send messages to the printer.
- This command uses the DOS device \f3PRN\f1 for output.
- This command is equivalent to:
- .DS CB
- s [ msglist ] PRN
- .DE
-
- .HU "w [ msglist ] file"
- The \f3w\f1 command is used to save messages
- in a file. Only the message body is saved. All mail headers
- are removed.
- If no message number is supplied then the current message is saved.
-
- .HU "f [ msg ]"
- The \f3f\f1 command is used to forward a mail message to another recipient.
- If no message number is supplied the current message is used.
- The user is prompted for the recipients and a subject. The RFC822
- header is added to the message text while retaining the complete
- original message in the body.
- Also see the ~m command.
-
- .HU "b [ msg ]"
- Bounce a message. Bounce is similar to forwarding but instead of
- your user information,
- the original sender information is maintained.
- If no message number is supplied the current message is used.
-
- .HU "r [ msg ]"
- Reply to a message. Reply reads the header information in order
- to construct a reply to the sender.
- The destination information is taken from the "From:"
- or the "Reply-To:"header, if included.
- If no message number is supplied the current message is used.
-
- .HU msg #
- Entering a message number from the header listing will
- cause the message text to be displayed.
-
- .HU l
- List outbound messages.
- The job number, the sender, and the destination for each message
- is displayed. A status of "L" will appear if the SMTP sender
- has the file locked.
-
- .HU "k [ msglist ]"
- Remove an outbound message from the mqueue.
- A message can be removed from the send
- queue by specifying the job number obtained by the l command.
- If the message is locked you will be warned that you may
- be removing a file that is currently being sent by SMTP. You
- will asked if this job should still be killed.
-
-
- .HU $
- Update the mailbox. This command updates the mailbox, deleting messages
- marked for deletion and reading in any new mail that may have
- arrived since entering \f3BM\f1.
-
- .HU x
- Exit to DOS without changing the data in the mailbox.
-
- .HU q
- Quit to DOS updating the mailbox.
-
- .H 2 "Text input commands"
- The following commands are available while entering message text into
- the message buffer.
- .VL 15
- .LI "~r <filename>"
- read <filename> into the message buffer.
- .LI "~m <msg #>"
- read <msg #> into the message buffer.
- .LI ~p
- display the text in the message buffer.
- .LI ~e
- invoke the editor defined in \\bm.rc with
- a temporary file containing the text in the message buffer.
- .LI ~q
- Abort the current message. No data is sent.
- .LI ~~
- Insert a single tilda character into the message.
- .LI ~?
- Display help menu of tilda escape commands.
- .LE
-
- .H 1 "Mailer Operation"
- .H 2 "Command Line Options"
- \f3BM\f1 may be invoked as follows:
- .DS I
- To send mail:
- bm [ -s subject ] recip1 .. .. recipN
-
- To read mail:
- bm [ -u mailbox | -f file ]
- .DE
- .VL 15
- .LI "-s subject"
- This option sets the subject to the text on the command line.
-
- .LI "-u mailbox"
- Specify which mailbox to read. This overides the default from the bm.rc.
-
- .LI "-f file"
- Read message from "file" instead of a mailbox.
- .LE
- .H 2 "Sending Mail"
- .H 2 "Reading Mail"
- .H 1 "BM/SMTP Interface"
- .H 2 "File Formats"
- .H 1 "Bug Reports"
- Please send any comments, suggestions or bug reports to:
- .DS CE
- Dave Trulli
- Usenet: nn2z@ka9q.bellcore.com
- packet: nn2z@nn2z
- AMPRNET: nn2z@nn2z.ampr [44.64.0.10]
- .DE