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-
-
-
- MMMMAAAAIIIILLLLTTTTOOOO((((1111)))) BBBBeeeellllllllccccoooorrrreeee PPPPrrrroooottttoooottttyyyyppppeeee ((((RRRReeeelllleeeeaaaasssseeee 1111)))) MMMMAAAAIIIILLLLTTTTOOOO((((1111))))
-
-
-
- NNNNAAAAMMMMEEEE
- mailto - Simple mutlimedia mail sending program
-
- SSSSYYYYNNNNOOOOPPPPSSSSIIIISSSS
- mmmmaaaaiiiillllttttoooo [-a] [-c] [-s] [recipient name(s)]
-
- DDDDEEEESSSSCCCCRRRRIIIIPPPPTTTTIIIIOOOONNNN
- The _m_a_i_l_t_o program is a very simple user interface for
- sending multimedia mail in MIME format, the proposed
- standard format for multimedia Internet mail. It is
- modelled very heavily on the Berkeley "mail" program.
- However it shares NO code with that program -- it is a
- completely new implementation.
-
- As its name implies, _m_a_i_l_t_o is for _s_e_n_d_i_n_g mail, not for
- reading it. None of the mail-reading features of the
- Berkeley mail program have been implemented in _m_a_i_l_t_o.
-
- Users who are already familiar with using the Berkeley mail
- command to send mail should skip the following section,
- which explains things that are already familiar to you from
- that program. Subsequent sections focus on the enhanced
- features that make this program different than Berkeley
- mail, notably the ability to include rich text, multimedia
- objects, and text in non-ASCII languages such as Hebrew or
- Russian.
-
- BBBBAAAASSSSIIIICCCC UUUUSSSSEEEE
- [THIS SECTION MAY BE SAFELY SKIPPED BY READERS ALREADY
- FAMILIAR WITH THE BERKELEY MAIL PROGRAM.]
-
- The basic operation of mailto is very simple. If you just
- type "mailto" you will be asked for a list of mail
- recipients ("To:") a mail subject ("Subject:") and possibly
- a list of people to receive a carbon copy of your message
- ("CC:"). Alternately, you can specify all of these things
- on the command line. The "-s" option be used to specify the
- subject, and the "-c" option can be used to specify the
- carbon copy address. All other command line arguments are
- added to the To list. Thus the following command sends mail
- to nsb and jxr, with a subject of "Test message" and a
- carbon copy to kraut:
-
- mailto nsb jxr -s "Test message" -c kraut
-
- For the convenience of users accustomed to mail readers in
- which names are separated by commas, you may optionally
- follow each address with a comma, but this is not required.
-
- After these preliminaries are taken care of, you just type
- in the contents of your message. Everything you type will
- be included in your message UNLESS you type a line that
-
-
-
- Page 1 (printed 6/30/95)
-
-
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-
-
-
- MMMMAAAAIIIILLLLTTTTOOOO((((1111)))) BBBBeeeellllllllccccoooorrrreeee PPPPrrrroooottttoooottttyyyyppppeeee ((((RRRReeeelllleeeeaaaasssseeee 1111)))) MMMMAAAAIIIILLLLTTTTOOOO((((1111))))
-
-
-
- begins with the "~" (tilde) character. Such a line is known
- as a TILDE ESCAPE, and can be used to give special commands
- to the mailto program, as will be discussed shortly.
-
- When you are done composing your message, you can cause it
- to be sent to the intended recipients by simply typing the
- end-of-file character, typically CONTROL-D. Depending on
- your option settings, you may also be able to send the mail
- by typing "." alone on a line, or by typing "~.".
-
- That's all that you really need to know in order to send
- mail with mailto. However, in order to use it to its
- fullest, you will also want to learn about some of the tilde
- escapes. In this section, we describe the most basic ones,
- which the mailto program shares in common with the Berkeley
- mail program. In subsequent sections, we will describe the
- more interesting tilde escapes which are unique to _m_a_i_l_t_o.
-
- If anything in this section seems cryptic, it might be
- helpful to consult the man page for the mail(1) program,
- since the user interfaces are very similar.
-
- Any line that starts with a tilde is a tilde escape. The
- second character on the line -- the one that follows the
- tilde -- is then interpreted as a special command to the
- mailto program. The simple tilde escapes that mailto and
- mail have in common are as follows:
-
- ~? Show help on tilde escapes
- ~! Shell escape (e.g. "~! ls")
- ~~ Enter text line starting with a tilde. The tilde
- "quotes" itself, allowing you to input a line of
- text that starts with a tilde.
- ~. Send the mail and exit
- ~c Add to CC list (e.g. "~c nsb")
- ~d Read in the contents of "~/dead.letter"
- (or a named file, "~d filename")
- ~e Edit the message being composed using the
- editor named by the EDITOR environment variable.
- ~h Edit the To, Subject, and CC headers
- ~p Print out the message so far
- ~q Quit, copying the draft to ~/dead.letter
- ~r Read the named text file into the message
- ~s Reset the subject header
- ~t Add to the To list
- ~v Edit the message being composed using the
- editor named by the VISUAL environment variable
- ~w Write the message being composed to a named file
- (e.g. "~w filename")
-
- You can also control the behavior of the mailto program to a
- limited extent by putting commands in a file in your home
-
-
-
- Page 2 (printed 6/30/95)
-
-
-
-
-
-
- MMMMAAAAIIIILLLLTTTTOOOO((((1111)))) BBBBeeeellllllllccccoooorrrreeee PPPPrrrroooottttoooottttyyyyppppeeee ((((RRRReeeelllleeeeaaaasssseeee 1111)))) MMMMAAAAIIIILLLLTTTTOOOO((((1111))))
-
-
-
- directory called ".mailrc". These commands include the
- ability to define aliases for commonly used mail addresses.
- See the section entitled "SUMMARY OF MAILRC FUNCTIONALITY"
- later in this man page.
-
-
- EEEENNNNHHHHAAAANNNNCCCCEEEEDDDD FFFFEEEEAAAATTTTUUUURRRREEEESSSS NNNNOOOOTTTT FFFFOOOOUUUUNNNNDDDD IIIINNNN BBBBEEEERRRRKKKKEEEELLLLEEEEYYYY
- The main difference between mail and mailto is that the
- latter can be used to generate enhanced mail in MIME format,
- the proposed standard format for Internet multimedia mail.
- However, mailto is intended to be a _v_e_r_y _s_i_m_p_l_e multimedia
- mail generator. There are, accordingly, lots of things it
- can't do. However, it has the virtues of being extremely
- simple, extremely similar to a well-known program (mail),
- and highly configurable, using the "mailcap" file mechanism
- to be described below.
-
- Basically, mailto can include the following things in mail:
-
- 1. Simple formatted text, using the MIME type
- "text/richtext". This allows you to add emphasis to your
- message using underlining, bold text, italic (diaplsyed as
- reverse video), centering, and the like.
-
- 2. Non-text data. Metamail can include pictures, sounds,
- and other non-textual data in the middle of any mail
- message. The mailcap configuration mechanism can even make
- this process reasonably user-friendly, but a knowledgable
- user can include non-textual data even in the absence of a
- proper mailcap entry.
-
- 3. Text including non-ASCII characters, such as Hebrew or
- Russian. Currently, mailto directly supports only the ISO-
- 8859-* family of character sets, which means that it does
- not meet the needs of Asian users, in particular. However,
- languages that can not be expressed in the ISO-8859 family
- can still be included in the same way non-text data can be
- included.
-
- These three mechanisms will be discussed separately in the
- three sections that follow.
-
-
- EEEENNNNRRRRIIIICCCCHHHHEEEEDDDD TTTTEEEEXXXXTTTT
- Mailto lets you modify the formatting of your text in a few
- simple but useful ways. As with everything else, this can
- be done using simple tilde escapes, as described by the
- following list:
-
- ~b Toggle bold mode (turn bold on or off)
- ~i Toggle italic mode (turn italic/reverse-video on or
- off)
-
-
-
- Page 3 (printed 6/30/95)
-
-
-
-
-
-
- MMMMAAAAIIIILLLLTTTTOOOO((((1111)))) BBBBeeeellllllllccccoooorrrreeee PPPPrrrroooottttoooottttyyyyppppeeee ((((RRRReeeelllleeeeaaaasssseeee 1111)))) MMMMAAAAIIIILLLLTTTTOOOO((((1111))))
-
-
-
- ~j Alter Justification, in particular:
- ~jc Center subsequent text
- ~jl Make subsequent text flush-left
- ~jr Make subsequent text flush-right
- ~k Toggles whether or not a "blind" copy of the message
- will be kept.
- ~n Force newline (hard line break)
- ~u Toggle underline mode (turn underline on or off)
- ~> Indent Left Margin
- ~< Unindent Left Margin
- ~<R Indent Right Margin
- ~>R Unindent Right Margin
- ~Q Toggle quotation (excerpt) mode
- ~z Add the contents of ~/.signature as a TEXT signature
-
- Some of these may require a little explanation. Bold,
- italic, and underline modes are toggles in the sense that
- alternate uses of ~b, ~i, and ~u turn bold, italic, or
- underline mode on or off. The justification, on the other
- hand, simply switches between the three justification modes,
- centering, left justified, and right justified.
-
- To understand the "~n" command, it must first be noted that
- rich text is automatically justified, so that the line
- breaks you type have no more significance than space
- characters. This allows the text to be displayed more
- nicely on variable-width windows. (An exception is when you
- type multiple blank lines, in which case the line breaks
- become real.) The "~n" command may be used to foce a line
- break. Remember that you can see what your mail looks like
- at any time using the "~p" command.
-
- Quotation mode, as toggled by "~Q", is useful for formatting
- excerpts. If, for example, you turn on quotation mode,
- insert a file, and then turn off quotation mode, the
- contents of the file will be considered an excerpt. Most
- viewers will show excerpts as indented and/or preceded with
- "> " to set them apart from the rest of the text.
-
- Finally, "~z" simply includes your text signature file, but
- formats it as a "signature", which many richtext viewers
- will display in a smaller font or otherwise set it off from
- the rest of your message.
-
-
- MMMMUUUULLLLTTTTIIIIMMMMEEEEDDDDIIIIAAAA OOOOBBBBJJJJEEEECCCCTTTT IIIINNNNCCCCLLLLUUUUSSSSIIIIOOOONNNN
- The basic command for inserting multimedia objects in a
- mailto message is "~*". When you type this command, you
- will be give a list of options that will vary depending on
- your configuration. (How to configure this list will be
- described below.) For example, it might look something
- like this:
-
-
-
- Page 4 (printed 6/30/95)
-
-
-
-
-
-
- MMMMAAAAIIIILLLLTTTTOOOO((((1111)))) BBBBeeeellllllllccccoooorrrreeee PPPPrrrroooottttoooottttyyyyppppeeee ((((RRRReeeelllleeeeaaaasssseeee 1111)))) MMMMAAAAIIIILLLLTTTTOOOO((((1111))))
-
-
-
- Please choose which kind of data you wish to insert:
-
- 0: A raw file, possibly binary, of no particular data type.
- 1: Raw data from a file, with you specifying the content-
- type by hand.
- 1: An audio clip
- 2: Data in 'application/andrew-inset' format
- 3: An X11 window image dump
- 4: An interactive mail-based survey
-
- Of these options, only the first two, options 0 and 1, will
- appear at all sites and in all configurations.
-
- If you choose options 0 or 1, you will be asked for the name
- of a file containing data you wish to include. If you
- choose option 1, you will also be asked for the correct
- "content-type" name that describes that type of data. The
- content-type values are defined by the MIME standard, and
- are typically type/subtype pairs that describe the general
- data type and its specific format. For example, a picture
- in GIF format has a content-type of "image/gif", and an
- audio clip in basic u-law format has a content-type of
- "audio/basic". For option 0, the type "application/octet-
- stream" will be used. For complete documentation on the
- content-type field, consult the MIME proposed standard, RFC
- 1341.
-
- More commonly, however, at a well-configured site you will
- not need to know anything about content-types, because you
- will choose one of the non-zero options. In these cases, a
- program will run that will allow you to compose data of the
- given type. The user interface to this process cannot be
- described here, because it will necessarily be site-
- dependent, but such programs are generally designed to be
- easy for novice users.
-
- An extra mailto command that is useful for including
- multimedia objects is the "~Z" command. This can be used to
- include a multimedia signature file. The signature file
- should be a complete MIME-format file, with a Content-type
- header field at the top.
-
-
- CCCCOOOONNNNFFFFIIIIGGGGUUUURRRRAAAATTTTIIIIOOOONNNN VVVVIIIIAAAA MMMMAAAAIIIILLLLCCCCAAAAPPPP FFFFIIIILLLLEEEESSSS
- NOTE: This section is intended for those who are interested
- in extending the behavior of mailto to easily include new
- types of mail. Users at well-administered sites are
- unlikely to need to do this very often, as the site
- administrator will have done it for you.
-
- For a more complete explanation of the mailcap mechanism,
- consult the man page for metamail(1). Here we summarize
-
-
-
- Page 5 (printed 6/30/95)
-
-
-
-
-
-
- MMMMAAAAIIIILLLLTTTTOOOO((((1111)))) BBBBeeeellllllllccccoooorrrreeee PPPPrrrroooottttoooottttyyyyppppeeee ((((RRRReeeelllleeeeaaaasssseeee 1111)))) MMMMAAAAIIIILLLLTTTTOOOO((((1111))))
-
-
-
- only those aspects of mailcap files that are relevant to
- configuring the mailto program.
-
- First of all, mailto uses a search path to find the mailcap
- file(s) to consult. Unlike many path searches, mailto will
- always read _a_l_l the mailcap files on its path. That is, it
- will keep reading mailcap files until it runs out of them,
- collecting mailcap entries. The default search path is
- equivalent to
-
- $HOME/.mailcap:/etc/mailcap:/usr/etc/mailcap:/usr/local/etc/mailcap
-
- It can be overridden by setting the MAILCAPS environment
- variable. Note: mailto does not actually interpret
- environment variables such as $HOME or the "~" syntax in
- this path search.
-
- The syntax of a mailcap file is quite simple, at least
- compared to termcap files. Any line that starts with "#" is
- a comment. Blank lines are ignored. Otherwise, each line
- defines a single mailcap entry for a single content type.
- Long lines may be continued by ending them with a backslash
- character, \.
-
- Each individual mailcap entry consists of a content-type
- specification, a command to be executed on reading,
- typically by the metamail(1) program, and (possibly) a set
- of optional "flag" values. The mailto program is only
- interested in mailcap entries that have either or both of
- the optional "compose" or "composetyped" or "edit" flags.
- The compose flag is used to tell mailto about a program that
- can be used to compose data in the given format, while the
- edit flag can be used to tell mailto how to edit data in the
- given format. Thus, for example the following mailcap entry
- describes how to compose and edit audio data:
-
- audio/basic; showaudio %s; compose=audiocompose %s;
- edit=audiocompose %s; description="An audio clip"
-
- The "composetyped" flag is just like compose, except that
- its output is assumed to be in MIME format, including at
- least a content-type and also, if necessary, a content-
- transfer-encoding header field. Composetyped is necessary
- if variable information needs to be conveyed via parameters
- in the content-type field.
-
- The optional "description" field is used in composing the
- prompt that mailto prints in response to the "~*" command.
- The compose program is used to compose data in this format,
- and the edit program is used to edit data in this format.
- In each of these, any occurrence of "%s" will be replaced by
- the name of the file to be composed or edited. If there is
-
-
-
- Page 6 (printed 6/30/95)
-
-
-
-
-
-
- MMMMAAAAIIIILLLLTTTTOOOO((((1111)))) BBBBeeeellllllllccccoooorrrreeee PPPPrrrroooottttoooottttyyyyppppeeee ((((RRRReeeelllleeeeaaaasssseeee 1111)))) MMMMAAAAIIIILLLLTTTTOOOO((((1111))))
-
-
-
- no "%s" in the compose command, it is equivalent to having
- "> %s" appended to the end of the compose command.
-
- Note that the order in which things appear in mailcap files
- is highly critical. The metamail program uses the first
- matching mailcap entry to _d_i_s_p_l_a_y data. Mailto, on the
- other hand, offers the user an alternative for _e_v_e_r_y mailcap
- entry that has a "compose" command. However, it should be
- noted that mailto will use the content-type from the mailcap
- entry in composing content-type headers. Therefore, compose
- and edit commands should NOT be specified on wildcard
- mailcap entries. If you have a program can display lots of
- different subtypes, you should probably make a separate
- entry for displaying and for composing the basic types,
- e.g.:
-
- image/*; showpicture %s
- image/gif; showpicture %s; compose="xwd -frame | xwdtoppm |
- ppmtogif"; description="An X11 window image dump in GIF
- format"
- image/x-xwd; showpicture %s; compose="xwd -frame";
- description="An X11 window image dump in XWD format"
-
- For more information on the mailcap file format and syntax,
- see the metamail(1) man entry.
-
-
- TTTTEEEEXXXXTTTT IIIINNNN NNNNOOOONNNN----AAAASSSSCCCCIIIIIIII LLLLAAAANNNNGGGGUUUUAAAAGGGGEEEESSSS
- Mailto provides rudimentary support for the composition of
- mail in non-ASCII character sets. Currently, it supports
- the ISO-8859 family of character sets. These character sets
- all have the nice property that they are proper supersets of
- ASCII. That is, all ASCII characters are identical in all
- of the ISO-8859 character sets. When you use one of these
- character sets, then, you can still type all ASCII
- characters as normal.
-
- By default, however, mailto assumes that you are using the
- US-ASCII character set, and will not allow the inclusion of
- non-ASCII characters. To tell mailto that you are using a
- terminal or terminal window that supports one of the ISO-
- 8859 character sets, you can use the -a switch or the
- MM_CHARSET environment variable. For example, typing
- "mailto -a ISO-8859-8" tells mailto that your terminal
- understands ISO-8859-8, the ASCII+Hebrew character set.
- This is what you would use if you were on a terminal that
- actually understood this character set. If you're using a
- window system such as X11, you'll also need to be sure that
- your terminal emulator is using the right font. Thus if you
- have a font named "heb6x13", you can start a compatible
- xterm and mailto to send mixed English/Hebrew mail using the
- command "xterm -fn heb6x13 -e mailto -a iso-8859-8". In
-
-
-
- Page 7 (printed 6/30/95)
-
-
-
-
-
-
- MMMMAAAAIIIILLLLTTTTOOOO((((1111)))) BBBBeeeellllllllccccoooorrrreeee PPPPrrrroooottttoooottttyyyyppppeeee ((((RRRReeeelllleeeeaaaasssseeee 1111)))) MMMMAAAAIIIILLLLTTTTOOOO((((1111))))
-
-
-
- general, having an installed font with the same name as the
- character set is a good idea, particularly if you're using
- shownonascii(1).
-
- Once you've got mailto started up using the right character
- sets, there are two ways to enter non-ASCII characters. The
- first, and by far the easiest, is to use the keys as marked,
- if you're on a physical terminal that uses one of these
- character sets. However, if you're using a standard ASCII
- keyboard, as most X11 users do, you need some other way to
- enter non-ASCII characters. To permit this, mailto has an
- "eight bit mode". In eight bit mode, all printable
- characters that you type have the eighth bit turned on, thus
- turning them into non-ASCII characters. You can enter eight
- bit mode using the tilde escape "~+", and you can leave it
- using "~-". To see the mapping from your keyboard to
- eight-bit-mode characters, just give the command "~?+".
-
- Finally, certain languages that can be expressed in the
- ISO-8859 family, notably Hebrew and Arabic, go from right to
- left rather than left to right. To ease the composition of
- text in these languages, mailto has a "right to left" mode.
- This mode is toggled on or off using the "~^" command. For
- added convenience, the right-to-left mode and eight-bit-mode
- can be toggled on and off together using a single command,
- "~S" (Semitic mode).
-
-
- CCCCOOOOMMMMPPPPLLLLEEEETTTTEEEE SSSSUUUUMMMMMMMMAAAARRRRYYYY OOOOFFFF TTTTIIIILLLLDDDDEEEE EEEESSSSCCCCAAAAPPPPEEEESSSS
- For easy reference, here is a complete summary of the tilde
- escapes in the mailto program:
-
- ~? Show help on tilde escapes
- ~! Shell escape
- ~~ Enter text line starting with a tilde
- ~. Send the mail and exit
- ~/ Set maximum size before message is split into
- multiple parts
- ~?+ Show help on extended (eight-bit) characters
- ~> Indent Left Margin
- ~< Unindent Left Margin
- ~<R Indent Right Margin
- ~>R Unindent Right Margin
- ~+ Enter 8-bit mode for non-ASCII characters
- ~- Leave 8-bit mode (return to ASCII)
- ~^ Toggle
- ~* Add non-text data (pictures, sounds, etc.) as a new
- MIME part (try it!)
- ~b Toggle bold mode
- ~c Add to CC list
- ~d Read from dead.letter (or named file, ~d filename)
- ~e Edit message being composed
-
-
-
- Page 8 (printed 6/30/95)
-
-
-
-
-
-
- MMMMAAAAIIIILLLLTTTTOOOO((((1111)))) BBBBeeeellllllllccccoooorrrreeee PPPPrrrroooottttoooottttyyyyppppeeee ((((RRRReeeelllleeeeaaaasssseeee 1111)))) MMMMAAAAIIIILLLLTTTTOOOO((((1111))))
-
-
-
- ~h Edit the headers
- ~i Toggle italic mode
- ~j Alter Justification (~jc = center, ~jl = flushleft,
- ~jr = flushright.)
- ~n Force newline (hard line break)
- ~p Print out the message so far
- ~q Quit, copying to dead.letter
- ~Q Toggle quotation (excerpt) mode
- ~r Read the named text file into the message
- ~s Reset the subject
- ~S Toggle Semitic mode (right-to-left AND eight-bit)
- ~t Add to To list
- ~u Toggle underline mode
- ~v Edit using VISUAL editor
- ~w Write message to named file
- ~z Add the contents of ~/.signature as a TEXT signature.
- ~Z Add the contents of ~/.SIGNATURE as a NON-TEXT
- (MIME-format) signature.
-
-
- SSSSUUUUMMMMMMMMAAAARRRRYYYY OOOOFFFF MMMMAAAAIIIILLLLRRRRCCCC FFFFUUUUNNNNCCCCTTTTIIIIOOOONNNNAAAALLLLIIIITTTTYYYY
- The .mailrc file in your home directory is used to customize
- the Berkeley mail program. The mailto program is sensitive
- to some, though not all, of these customizations. In
- particular, you can use the .mailrc file to set the
- following variables (via "set variablename" or "unset
- variablename") that affect mailto's behavior:
-
- askcc -- controls whether or not you are prompted for a
- CC list.
- dot -- controls whether or not a period alone on a line
- should be interpreted as terminating your mail
- ignore -- controls whether or not interrupts are ignored
- verbose -- controls the verbosity of output from
- /usr/lib/sendmail
- quiet -- controls the verbosity of output from the mailto
- program.
- keepblind -- controls whether or not a 'blind' copy of
- the mail is kept.
- commasonly -- controls whether or not a space character
- is interpreted as separating mail addresses. By
- default,
- for compatibility with BSD mail, space is
- interpreted in this way,
- but the commasonly option makes mailto behave more
- like a modern
- Internet mailer in this regard.
-
- The other functionality implemented by the .mailrc file is
- personal mail aliases. If you have a friend with a long
- horrible mail address, you can put a line in your .mailrc
- file that allows you to refer to him by a more friendly
-
-
-
- Page 9 (printed 6/30/95)
-
-
-
-
-
-
- MMMMAAAAIIIILLLLTTTTOOOO((((1111)))) BBBBeeeellllllllccccoooorrrreeee PPPPrrrroooottttoooottttyyyyppppeeee ((((RRRReeeelllleeeeaaaasssseeee 1111)))) MMMMAAAAIIIILLLLTTTTOOOO((((1111))))
-
-
-
- name:
-
- alias boygeorge George.Herbert.Walker.Bush%white-
- house.uucp@nsf-relay.com
-
- Mailto implements the alias feature in a manner that is
- compatible with Berkeley mail. Moreover, it also knows how
- to read ".AMS_aliases" files as used by CMU's Andrew system,
- so that Andrew users do not need to maintain two different
- alias files in order to use both Andrew and mailto.
-
-
- OOOOTTTTHHHHEEEERRRR KKKKNNNNOOOOWWWWNNNN DDDDIIIIFFFFFFFFEEEERRRREEEENNNNCCCCEEEESSSS FFFFRRRROOOOMMMM BBBBEEEERRRRKKKKEEEELLLLEEEEYYYY MMMMAAAAIIIILLLL
- Although this program was modelled on Berkeley mail, its
- user interface is inevitably not identical with that
- program. What follows is a list of major known
- differences, beyond the multimedia enhancements, that might
- confuse users accustomed to the Berkeley mail program:
-
- _A_d_d_r_e_s_s _s_e_p_a_r_a_t_o_r_s: In Berkeley mail, addresses are
- separated by spaces, which is an abomination to the mail
- gods. For backward compatibility, this also works in
- mailto, but right-thinking people may use commas instead.
-
- _N_e_w_l_i_n_e _s_e_m_a_n_t_i_c_s: Unlike Berkeley mail, in mailto single
- line breaks are generally regarded as "soft". This means
- that your message may be filled and/or justified when it is
- seen by the recipient. Explicit line breaks can be added
- using the "~n" command. Multiple consecutive line breaks
- typed by the user WILL have the desired effect.
- Alternately, any line that starts with a space or tab
- character will be preceded by a line break.
-
- _I_n_c_l_u_s_i_o_n _o_f _d_e_a_d._l_e_t_t_e_r _f_i_l_e_s: The "~d" command is used to
- include the contents of the file "dead.letter" in the
- current message. Mailto's implementation of this feature
- differs from Mail's in two ways: First, the message is
- included as an encapsulated message rather than as plain
- text. While this may sometimes be inconvenient, it allows
- multimedia dead.letter files to be retrieved properly.
- Second, the "~d" command in mailto can take an argument,
- which is the name of a file to use instead of the default
- "~/dead.letter".
-
- _I_n_c_o_m_p_a_t_i_b_i_l_i_t_i_e_s _w_i_t_h _S_u_n'_s _v_e_r_s_i_o_n: Sun Microsystems (and
- no doubt many other vendors with whom the author is less
- familiar) have enhanced the Berkeley mail command in several
- ways, a few of which are not compatible with mailto. In
- particular, the "~b," "~i, and "~<" commands, at least, are
- different in mailto than in Sun's version.
-
- _P_o_t_e_n_t_i_a_l _f_o_r _f_a_i_l_u_r_e _i_n ~_p: In the standard Berkeley mail
-
-
-
- Page 10 (printed 6/30/95)
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- MMMMAAAAIIIILLLLTTTTOOOO((((1111)))) BBBBeeeellllllllccccoooorrrreeee PPPPrrrroooottttoooottttyyyyppppeeee ((((RRRReeeelllleeeeaaaasssseeee 1111)))) MMMMAAAAIIIILLLLTTTTOOOO((((1111))))
-
-
-
- program, it is inconceivable that "~p" would ever fail. In
- mailto, ~p works by calling the metamail(1) program. If
- metamail is not on the user's search path, ~p will not work.
-
- _E_x_t_e_n_d_e_d _a_l_i_a_s _s_e_a_r_c_h_i_n_g: The mailto program reads both the
- aliases in the .mailrc file, as does Berkeley mail, and
- those in the .AMS_aliases file, as used by CMU's Andrew
- Message System.
-
- _A_l_t_e_r_e_d _e_d_i_t_i_n_g _b_e_h_a_v_i_o_r: The ~e and ~v commands, which are
- used to edit the message being composed, will behave
- differently in mailto if the mail includes non-text
- portions. In such cases, each part will be edited
- separately, in sequence, which makes it impossble for the
- user to accidentally mess up the inter-part boundaries.
- Moreover, if the mailcap entry for a given data type
- includes an "edit" field, the user will be given the choice
- of editing with the program named there or editing with his
- usual (text) editor. In most cases, this will be a choice
- between using a structured editor or editing the raw data
- stream.
-
- _A_l_t_e_r_e_d _b_e_h_a_v_i_o_r _f_o_r _l_a_r_g_e _m_e_s_s_a_g_e_s: Mailto delivers your
- message using the splitmail(1) program. This is done so
- that large messages will be split into a set of smaller
- parts in a MIME-compliant way, so that MIME readers can
- automatically reassemble them upon receipt. By default all
- messages over 100Kbytes are split, but this can be
- controlled using the SPLITSIZE environment variable. See
- the splitmail(1) man page for more information.
-
- _N_e_w -_r _c_o_m_m_a_n_d-_l_i_n_e _o_p_t_i_o_n The -r comand-line option is not
- found in standard Berkeley mail.
-
-
- SSSSUUUUMMMMMMMMAAAARRRRYYYY OOOOFFFF OOOOPPPPTTTTIIIIOOOONNNNSSSS
- -a <charset> -- specifies an alternate character set in use.
- This had better be the one your terminal is actually using.
- Currently it must be in the iso-8859 character set family.
-
- -c name -- specifies a name for the CC field. If you want
- to include multiple values, you'll need to quote the name,
- as in -c "name1, name2, name3"
-
- -r message-id -- specifies a message-id to be used in
- constructing an In-Reply-To header field.
-
- -s subject -- specifies the subject for the mail. If it
- includes spaces, it will need to be surrounded by double
- quotes as well.
-
-
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- Page 11 (printed 6/30/95)
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- MMMMAAAAIIIILLLLTTTTOOOO((((1111)))) BBBBeeeellllllllccccoooorrrreeee PPPPrrrroooottttoooottttyyyyppppeeee ((((RRRReeeelllleeeeaaaasssseeee 1111)))) MMMMAAAAIIIILLLLTTTTOOOO((((1111))))
-
-
-
- EEEENNNNVVVVIIIIRRRROOOONNNNMMMMEEEENNNNTTTT VVVVAAAARRRRIIIIAAAABBBBLLLLEEEESSSS
- MMMMAAAAIIIILLLLCCCCAAAAPPPPSSSS
- This variable can be used to override the default
- path search for mailcap files.
-
- PPPPAAAAGGGGEEEERRRR If set, this variable overrides "more" as the name
- of the program to run to paginate output from an
- interpreter, when pagination has been requested.
-
- MMMMMMMM____CCCCHHHHAAAARRRRSSSSEEEETTTT
- This variable can be used instead of the -a switch
- to tell mailto that your terminal (or terminal
- emulator) implements a character set other than US-
- ASCII.
-
- TTTTEEEERRRRMMMM This variable tells mailto what your terminal type
- is. This is used in conjunction with the termcap(5)
- facility to figure out how to do bold characters,
- reverse video, underlining, or other neat stuff on
- your terminal.
-
- EEEEDDDDIIIITTTTOOOORRRR This variable names the editor mailto will use when
- you ask (with ~e) to edit the message you are
- composing.
-
- VVVVIIIISSSSUUUUAAAALLLL This variable names the visual editor mailto will
- use when you ask (with ~v) to edit the message you
- are composing.
-
- SSSSEEEEEEEE AAAALLLLSSSSOOOO
- metamail(1), mmencode(1), richtext(1), audiocompose(1),
- getfilename(1), mailto-hebrew(1), splitmail(1),
- shownonasci(1)
-
- BBBBUUUUGGGGSSSS
- Currently, fgets is used to get each line of input. An
- intelligent replacement, in which the effects of right-to-
- left mode, eight-bit-mode, and the margin- and
- justification-related commands were immediately evident,
- would be a big improvement.
-
- Although this program was modelled on Berkeley mail, its
- user interface is inevitably not identical with that
- program. The section entitled "OTHER KNOWN DIFFERENCES FROM
- BERKELEY MAIL," above, might be considered by some to be an
- extension of this "BUGS" section.
-
-
- CCCCOOOOPPPPYYYYRRRRIIIIGGGGHHHHTTTT
- Copyright (c) 1992 Bell Communications Research, Inc.
- (Bellcore)
-
-
-
-
- Page 12 (printed 6/30/95)
-
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- MMMMAAAAIIIILLLLTTTTOOOO((((1111)))) BBBBeeeellllllllccccoooorrrreeee PPPPrrrroooottttoooottttyyyyppppeeee ((((RRRReeeelllleeeeaaaasssseeee 1111)))) MMMMAAAAIIIILLLLTTTTOOOO((((1111))))
-
-
-
- Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this
- material for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted,
- provided that the above copyright notice and this permission
- notice appear in all copies, and that the name of Bellcore
- not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to this
- material without the specific, prior written permission of
- an authorized representative of Bellcore. BELLCORE MAKES NO
- REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE ACCURACY OR SUITABILITY OF THIS
- MATERIAL FOR ANY PURPOSE. IT IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT
- ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES.
-
- AAAAUUUUTTTTHHHHOOOORRRR
- Nathaniel S. Borenstein
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