Aminet 6/Aminet 6 - June 1995.iso/Aminet/comm/mail/GDMail_1_3.lha/gdmail/GDMail.doc

Text File | 1995-04-11 | 25.1 KB | 640 lines

NAME
    GDMail

SYNOPSIS
    GDMail        go into mail shell if mail pending
    GDMail Open    go into mail shell whether you have mail or not
    GDMail path    mail somebody (go directly to mail editor)
    GDMail -f file    use a file other than your default mail box

There are other options.  To get a complete list of options enter
'GDMail ?' at a CLI prompt.  GDMail can also be started from a Workbench
startup BUT if you plan to use MIME or PGP the paths for these must be
setup correctly.  See the applicable sections.

NOTE: The USERNAME and REALNAME enviroment variables override any
UULIB:Config based enviroment variable.

NOTE: Under 2.0 you may use local USERNAME and REALNAME variables to
support true multi-user capability.

NOTE: Your signature file default should be UULIB:<username>.signature
(where <username> is your user name) instead of just UULIB:.signature.
Similarly your header file should be UULIB:<username>.header


DESCRIPTION

GDMail is an Gadtools based mail tool that allows you to view and
respond to messages in your mail box as well as generate new messages
from scratch.

When sending and replying to email, what you see from the editor is
pretty much what you get.  If you quit out of the editor without saving,
the email is aborted.  If you save and quit from the editor, GDMail will
scan the message and figure out who to send it to by extracting
addresses out of the To:, Cc:, and Bcc: fields.  GDMail then runs
sendmail to actually send the message (which may wind up queueing it via
UUCP to somewhere else).

You list the primary recipients of the message in the To: field,
separated by commas.  you may continue an address list like this:

    To:     blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
            blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
    Cc:

The Cc: field lists carbon-copy recipients of the message.  These are
people you want to see the message but for which the message is not
primarily meant for.  This can be left blank or deleted.

The Bcc: field lists blind-carbon-copy recipients of the message.
Specifically, the message gets sent to these people but the Bcc: field
itself is NOT propogated, so nobody but you knows that the message was
also sent to these people.

Every message should have a Subject: field, usually a one liner that
describes the subject of the message.  When replying to a message you
usually keep the original message's Subject: line and prepend an 'Re:'
to it.  Normally you do NOT allow Re:'s to build up.
I.E. Re: Re: Re: <original subj> is not considered proper.

When Replying to mail the original text of the message is included,
please prune out as much as you can to decrease redundant bandwidth.
The original sender most likely has a copy of the original message
anyway and the idea is to simply provide a soft reminder to jog the
originator's memory.

  A BLANK LINE ALWAYS SEPARATES THE HEADER LIST FROM THE MESSAGE BODY!!!


KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

GDMail offers a variety of keyboard shortcuts; the right Amiga based
menu short cuts, the button character short cuts and cursor key
short cuts.

While the other shortcuts are obvious to a practiced Amiga user, the
cursor shortcuts are not.  These commands control both the message list
at the top of the window and the message display at the bottom of the
window.
  cursor-up:          move message display up one line
  cursor-down:          move message display down one line
  control-cursor-up:      move message display to top of article
  control-cursor-down:      move message display to bottom of article

  cursor-right:          select next message
  cursor-left:          select previous message

  ALT-cursor-up:      move message list up by one item
  ALT-cursor-down:      move message list down by one item
  ALT-control-cursor-up:  move message list to top
  ALT-control-cursor-down:  move message list to bottom


DIRECTORY

GDMail can maintain a directory of user names and addresses.  If use_book
is enabled either by CLI startup option, .dmailrc configuration, or by
pressing the Shift key when clicking the Send button, the directory or
"book" will appear just before the editor window opens.  If you just want to
modify the directory, you can use the Modify Directory menu item.

The directory file is $user$.book in the same directory as GDMail.  It is
a line oriented file with each line containing 3 elements, each surrounded
in double qoutes.  In order, the elements are; user name, user mail address
and user comment.  The user comment will have 0x7F characters in place of
any end of line characters that were generated in the comment gadget.

The directory window contains a text field gadget for maintaining comments
and information about each name in the directory.  This gadget operates
like a multi-line string gadget and somewhat like an editor.  You can cut
and paste into it and a variety of editing commands are available.  For
more information see the Text Field document.


MAIL FILES

GDMail can maintain many mail files. Each mail file can be created by
the user to represent a person or topic that is frequently seen in the
users mail.  This helps to organize messages so that if you want to
look up an old message you can more easily find it.

On top of allowing mail messages to be directed to a particular mail file,
GDMail also allows the user to load any of the mail files as though it
was a the original (UUMail:$user$ mail file.  When loaded the user can
reply to any messages or perform housekeeping on the mail file, deleting
those messages that are no longer needed or moving them to permanent
storage.

I reccomend that you use these features as follows.  Create empty files
in UUMail: that describe either people, projects or topics that you
commonly discuss.  Keep the UUMail:mbox file. When you read new
messages from UUMail:$user$ that belong in these files, you can
transfer them.  Now if you ever have a question about who said what,
you can quickly go to that mail file and read the trail of messages.
Periodically you will want to go to these mail files and either delete
old messages or move them to permanent long term storage in UUMail:mbox

The gadgets and menus thta control this are two buttons "-->" and a
cycle gadget and a menu.  The buttons control the sending and destination
mail file for messages; the menus control mail file loading.  The "-->"
button copies the currently selected message to the mail file displayed
in the cycle gadget.  All of the file names that exist in the UUMail:
directory will appear in the cycle gadget.  You can multi-select as many
messages as you like to be transfered when the "-->" button is pressed.
The menus actually select which mail file to load and use.

GDMail can't update the list of mail files in the menus or gadget while
in GDMail.  Therefore it doesn't allow creation of new mail files in the
UUMail: directory.  This is a limitation of the GUI handler.

Read messages from your UUMail:$user$ file no longer are automatically
transferred to your UUMail:mbox file.


FILE ATTACHMENTS (UUdecode / UUencode)

GDMail supports mailing and receiving of uuencoded files.  If GDMail
finds the header for a uuencoded file in the message that you are
currently reading, it will enable the "Decode Files" button.  If you
activate this button, a file containing all uuencoded sections from the
message will be created and your uudecode program will be executed on it.
The decoded file(s) will appear in the current directory.

If you wish to send a file or files, this is done by specifying binary or
ASCII attachments to go with your message.  The binary attachments will
be uuencoded before they are sent.


MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) SUPPORT

GDMail supports mailing and receiving of MIME formated messages.  If GDMail
finds a Content-Type header in the message that you are currently reading,
it will ask what you want to do with it.  You can choose to view it or
ignore it.  If you choose to view it, all of the contents will be displayed
as you have configured your mailcap file.

For this feature to work metamail and its associated utilities must be in
your path, and the mailcap file must be properly configured.  GDMail
supports MetaMail2.3a for the Amiga, the latest release for Amiga that I
have seen.  Also, due to some limitations in the MetaMail programs, the
compose functions as specified in the mailcap file are not invoked.  Thus
8SVX audio and IFF ILBM image types have hardcoded conversions: 8SVXtoUlaw,
and ILBMtoGIF.  Worse yet, the 8SVXtoUlaw program provided will not work
and an ILBMtoGIF converter is not supplied.  In both cases the program must
accept two arguments: first the name of the source file and second the name
of the destination file.

To fix a number of problems, I have produced a special version of mailto
(mailtogd) that MUST be used in place of the metamail mailto.  Therefore
this program must be in the path.  I reccommend copying it to the metamail
bin directory.

If you wish to send a MIME message, this is done by specifying attachments
to go with your message and activating the MIME button in the MailSend
window.  Make sure the types of the attachments are set correctly.  Your
message and the attachments will be formed into a MIME message.

There are two options that can be applied to the MIME feature of GDMail.
These options are set in the .dmailrc file.  Normally GDMail will not
use the metamail MIME functions if the Content-Type is text/plain and it
will always query before invoking metamail. You can set GDMail to treat
text/plain like any other Content-Type by placing the line
  set text_plain_is_mime TRUE
in the .dmailrc file.  You can also have GDMail automatically skip the
query before invoking the MIME functions.  This line would set this mode.
  set mime_automatic TRUE
If you do not want either of these options, I recommend that you place
the following lines in your .dmailrc file.
  set mime_automatic (TRUE)
  set text_plain_is_mime (TRUE)


PGP DECRYPTION

If GDMail finds the header for a PGP message or signature in the message
that you are currently reading, it will ask what you want to do with it.
You can choose to decrypt it and read it or ignore it.  If you choose to
decrypt it, the PGP program will prompt for the pass phrase (if you have
one) for your PGP private key.

For this feature to work PGP must be in the path.  I've tested GDMail
with PGP 2.3a.3 .

If you wish to send a PGP encrypted message or signature, currently you
will have to use the PGPSendMail utility that comes with PGP.


APP WINDOW

The Mail Send window (do not confuse this with the larger Mail Read
window) is an App Window.  You may drag and drop any file icons onto
this window that you wish to have attached to the message that you are
going to send.  Any dropped icons are assumed to be binary files, if they
are ASCII you can change them as you would any other attachment.


RECEIPT REQUEST

Receipt Requests are somewhat like registered mail for paper mail.
GDMail implements both sides of the Return-Receipt-To: field.  By
selecting the Request Receipt button in the Send window, you can
request that a receipt be sent to you when the recipient reads the mail
you sent.  But, not all mail readers support this field and many, like
GDMail, allow the recipient to stop the receipt from being sent.

The path GDMail places in this field will not be correct for all
situations, and my situation is one of those, so you can expect that
this is going to be fixed.  My node name is stan and my domain name is
dres.dnd.ca, but the powers that be have determined (they do have their
reasons) that my mail address is [e-mail] (the node name is
dropped).  GDMail sets the field to be [e-mail] which is
incorrect.

If you receive mail that contains this field, a requester will appear
that asks if you want to send the requested receipt.

This method of requesting receipts cannot work with MIME mail currently
due to the problem with extra fields mentioned in the MIME section.


AUTOMATIC NEW MAIL HANDLING

GDMail supports automatic handling of mail that arrives while the GDMail
MailRead window is displayed, it will be automatically incorporated into
the GDMail message list.  This is done by setting a file notification on
your UUMAIL:$user$ file which alerts GDMail of any size changes.

Some filesystems (NFS, CDROM and some others) do not or cannot handle
file notification.  If this is the case with the filesystem of the
device where UUMAIL: is assigned, then GDMail will not be able to set
the notification and this feature will not function.


OTHER FEATURES

One other small feature should probably be mentioned.  When printing
messages containing uuencoded files, the uuencoded data will be removed
for the print out.  A notice will appear in its place.


ADDRESSES

GDMail attempts to pick the proper return path when you reply to a
message and place that path into the To: field for you.

GDMail does not always get it right.  Sometimes it is not possible to
get it right.  Generally, bang (!) only paths are safe.  A bang path
lists the machines the message to reach through with the last field
being the user on the destination machine.  For example:

    To: fubar!uunet.uu.net!overload!dillon

Assuming Matt Dillon talks UUCP to fubar directly, my message will be
sent first to the machine fubar, then the machine uunet, then the user
'dillon' on overload.

When at all possible finding a fully domained machine in a path makes
email all the more reliable.  For example,

    To: uunet.uu.net!overload!dillon

This is the path to Matt Dillons Amiga.  Note that the first element in
the path is a fully domain'd machine (an address with dots in it).  If
your Amiga talks to a machine that understands domains (say you connect
to a university machine), and assuming you set your 'DefaultNode' entry
in UULIB:Config to this machine, a message addressed as above will get
to Matt Dillon.


                BADLY FORMED ADDRESSES

Unfortunately, USENET and INTERNET addresses do not mix well. On the
INTERNET an address like this:

        a!b![e-mail]    maps to        foo.com!a!b!user

Whereas the same address in USENET format:

        a!b![e-mail]    maps to        a!b!foo.com!user

If confusion occurs, your best bet is to look at the 'Received:' fields
in the mail header (the HEADER command in GDMail, but read the online
help for the HEADER command before using it).  These fields tell you
exactly which machines the message got routed through and the order in
which it was routed.  Try your best to construct a bang (!) only path
to the destination.

Sending mail directly to an arbitrary address usually doesn't work
unless it is fully domained.  For example, mail to [e-mail]
(Fred Fish) will fail utterly unless the machine you connect to has a
smart mailer and runs the UUCP Pathalias. On the otherhand, using the
path:

    <adjacent-big-machine>!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!mcdphx!estinc!fnf

will work assuming <adjacent-big-machine> understands domains. P.S. if
your DefaultNode entry in your UULIB:Config file is set properly and
assuming the later about your connection to the outside world, you can
just email directly through an arbitrary domained name:

    cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!mcdphx!estinc!fnf

Of course, if you have UUCP setup in a small network between a few
friends and none of you have access to a major USENET node then you
cannot email outside your little group.

Refer to the Domains manual page for information on using the
UULIB:Domain file to simplify addressing and to automatically route
email.


ENVIROMENT VARIABLES

USERNAME    user name to use, else uses UserName config entry
REALNAME    real name to use, else uses RealName config entry

Note that under 2.0 local variables may be used and will overide both
enviroment variables and config entries.


.DMAILRC

Due to its similarities and heritage, GDMail also uses the Dmail
.dmailrc file in uulib:.  It can be modified to configure GDMail to
operate the way that you like.  This is done by setting the value
of internal variables.
  Set <variable name> <value string>
The specified variable is set to the specified string.

There are several reserved variables, which define options in GDMail.
Changing these will modify the option:

sendmail        set the path/file to the sendmail program
verbose         reflects verbose option to sendmail
headfile        header file containing additional mail headers
sigfile         signature file post pended to messages you send
archive         file to archive any mail you send out in.
_headchar       string used to precede included text, default ">"
replyfields     fields to search to find the reply path
mime_automatic    when TRUE do not ask before decoding MIME
text_plain_is_mime  when TRUE text/plain MIME messages are to be fed to
          the MIME handler too.
uuencode    set the path/file and options to the uuencoder program
uudecode    set the path/file and options to the uudecoder program
view_by_name    when TRUE mail messages are displayed with the senders
          name rather than the senders email address.
uufile        DO NOT SET THIS VARIABLE


  sendmail

This variable will redirect GDMail as to where the mailer program
is.  The mailer program must be compatible with /usr/lib/sendmail
which is the default used if the 'sendmail' variable isn't set
to anything:
  set sendmail bin/mysendmail


  verbose

This variable, when set, causes the -v flag to be sent to
sendmail.  In addition, GDMail will wait for sendmail to complete
before returning your prompt.


  headfile

The headfile variable, if it exists, causes GDMail to include headers
found in the specified file into any mail you send out (it shows up in
the editor).  The file specified by this variable will be appended to
the header list for your outgoing mail messages and generally contains
only headers such as 'Reply-To: <your return address>'

Generally this is set in your .dmailrc as follows:
  set headfile $user$.header


  sigfile

The sigfile variable, if it exists, causes GDMail to post-pend the
contents of the specified file in any mail you send out (it does NOT
show up in the editor).  The file specified by this variable will be
appended to the temporary file that is passed to the sendmail program
following any included files.

Generally this is set in your .dmailrc as follows:
  set sigfile  $user$.signature


  archive

If set (to a file name), any mail you send out (mail/reply/etc...)
will be archived to this file.  Usually, you provide a fully
specified path so cd's won't affect the file location.
If the archive variable is set to a file path/name, any mail you send
out will automatically be appended to that file.  GDMail pre-pends a
"From ", so it is compatible with /bin/mail and so that you can
GDMail -f your archive file.  Additionaly, a "Date: " field is
pre-pended so you know when you sent the message.  example:
  set archive ~/GDMail/arch
since your .dmailrc is sourced even when you "GDMail user .." from your
shell, putting the above line in your .dmailrc will turn on archiving
whenever you use GDMail to send mail.

If unset or set to nothing, no archive is made.


  _headchar

This string is prepended to any included text when you do an upper-case
reply (R) command.


  replyfields

This string holds a list of fields which are searched for to
determine which one to use in the To: field of your reply.  If
this variable does not exist or none of the specified fields could
be found, the 'From ' (not From:) mail header will be used.  The
search ends at the first field found.        Example:
  set replyfields "Reply-To: From:"


  uuencode / uudecode

These two variables specify the instructions that must be executed to
uuencode and uudecode files.  Another variable "uufile" is available to
indicate where the filename goes in the uuencode instruction.  I use UUxT,
which operates like an archiver, so these lines in my .dmailrc file look
as shown below.

  set uuencode "hd1:pd/uuxt/uuxt a t:gd_tmp $uufile$"
  set uudecode "hd1:pd/uuxt/uuxt x t:gd_tmp"

Note that the resulting file from a uuencode must be be called t:gd_tmp.
Note also that uudecode does not require a filename since this
information is part of the uuencoded file.


  ILBMtoGIF

This variable specifies the instruction that must be executed to convert
an ILBM file into a GIF file before it can be sent as a MIME message.
Another variable "uufile" is available to indicate where the filename
goes in the ILBMtoGIF instruction.  I use ILBMtoGIF, which takes a source
argument then a destination argument, so this line in my .dmailrc file
looks as shown below.

  set ILBMtoGIF "hd1:pd/metamail/bin/ILBMtoGIF $uufile$ t:gd_tmp"

Note that the resulting file from a conversion must be be called t:gd_tmp.

If this variable is not defined, the command "ILBMtoGIF $uufile$ t:gd_tmp"
will be executed.


  8SVXtoUlaw

This variable specifies the instruction that must be executed to convert
an 8SVX file into a Ulaw file before it can be sent as a MIME message.
Another variable "uufile" is available to indicate where the filename
goes in the 8SVXtoUlaw instruction.  I use 8SVXtoUlaw, which takes a source
argument then a destination argument, so this line in my .dmailrc file
looks as shown below.

  set 8SVXtoUlaw "hd1:pd/metamail/bin/8SVXtoUlaw $uufile$ t:gd_tmp"

Note that the resulting file from a conversion must be be called t:gd_tmp.

If this variable is not defined, the command "8SVXtoUlaw $uufile$ t:gd_tmp"
will be executed.


  uufile

The uufile variable is very special and must not be set by the user.
Just before certain external (.dmailrc configurable) programs are
called, GDMail sets this variable to the name of the file the program is
to operate on.  In this way the name of the file will be substituted
into the .dmailrc variable.  See uuencode / uudecode, ILBMtoGIF and
8SVXtoUlaw.


  view_by_name

It is possible to choose how names are displayed in the mail messages
list.  The view_by_name variable, if set TRUE, tries to display the
senders full name rather than the senders address.  If the users name is
part of the From: header line in any of the approved formats, it will be
used in the list, otherwise the senders address will be used.  The
boolean variable that enables this feature is set as shown
  set view_by_name TRUE
To turn off this feature, I recommend the the line
  set view_by_name (TRUE)
rather than cutting the line from the .dmailrc file.


DEFAULT CONDITIONS
  Home directory gotten from password entry
  User gotten from password entry
  Visual editor gotten from EDITOR default set to "dme"

  READ file is UUMail:$USER
  WRITE file is UUMail:mbox
  From:,        To:, and Subject: fields will be loaded into memory.

  USER        enviroment variable becomes user name


EDITOR

The editor used by GDMail is obtained in this order from the MAILEDITOR
enviroment variable if it exists, the EDITOR environment variable if it
exists, the Config file MAILEDITOR entry or failing that the editor "dme"
is invoked.

The editor should not separate from the shell.  Most editors do that to
free the shell for other use, but most have an option to stop this.  If
it does separate from the shell you wil see the Send window come up on
top of the editor window rather than waiting for you to close the editor.


BUGS

If you use GDMail to send mail to yourself directly (via To:, Cc: or
Bcc:) such that your sendmail writes directly into your UUMAIL:$username$
file rather than mailing it to another host, this file may become
corrupted since GDMail is still using the file for its mail reading
operation.


FUTURE

I may integrate PGP mail send into GDMail rather than relying on the
PGP sendmail, although to do so sounds like work without benefit.

If there are other features that you think GDMail needs, let me know.


SPECIAL THANKS

Special thanks go to Alan Kramer for beta testing GDMail.  He is a tireless
nit-picking bug finder and GDMail is better for it.

Special thanks also go to Mark Thomas for his excellent Text Field BOOPSI
gadget.


CONTACT

If you have problems or suggestions for improvements, in order of
preference, I can be reached at;

  [e-mail]
  [e-mail]
  [e-mail]

  Stan Burton
  1978 26 St. SE
  Medicine Hat, AB
  T1A 2G8

  [phone]  (evenings)


OPTIONS

GDMail supports ReadArgs scanning of command line options.  It also
supports most of the original dmail -<char> style options as well as
Amiga keyword style options.  The dmail options not supported are (-O
and -F) since ReadArgs is not case sensitive, these would clash with
the more commonly used lower case options.

Open
                        Go into interactive mode, even if there is no
                        mail to read.

Spool | -f [from file]  Specify spool file to get mail from. If no file
                        Argument is given, UUMail:.mbox is used.

Output | -o [to file]   Specify file to write to, If no Argument
                        is given, UUMail:.mbox is used.  Note that
                        the default without -o is UUMail:mbox

Field                   Append this field to those which will be
                        used on initial load.  If, during usage of the
                        program you specify a field which is not in
                        memory, GDMail will be forced to re-load the
                        entire spool file, which can take a long time
                        if you have more than 64K in the file

rcFile | -l <rcfile>    Use this file as the rc file rather than .dmailrc

rcNone                  Do not source the rc file on boot

Verbose | -v

Debug                   Turn on debugging information