Shareware Grab Bag/Shareware Grab Bag.iso/007/tcp_ip.arc/BM.DOC

Text File | 1987-08-26 | 7.4 KB | 169 lines

User Manual for BM, Bdale's MS-Dos Mailer
by Bdale Garbee, N3EUA - last revised 870525

* BM is Copyright 1986 by Bdale Garbee.
* Released for non-commercial distribution and use only, as long as all
* copyright and author notices are retained.

Many thanks to Gerard PA0GRI who is primarily responsible for the addition
of features to version 2.

Setup:

In order to make use of BM, you must first follow the installation
instructions in the file SMTP.DOC to provide minimal SMTP support.  Then,
you should:

    - copy the file SEQUENCE.SEQ to the mqueue directory.

    - copy the files BM.RC and HOSTS.NET to the root directory of the
      default drive used when NET.EXE is running.

    - edit HOSTS.NET to reflect the hosts you will exchange mail with.
      the format of each line of this file is:

          IP_address <tab> hostname <newline>

      The IP address should be of the form 0.0.0.0, and the hostname can
      be any token you wish to use to represent that host.  In
      particular, it does NOT need to be the full legal name of the
      host.

    - edit the file \BM.RC to correctly identify your hostname, username,
      and the IP address of the system you wish to punt mail to when you
      don't know the correct IP address.  The format lines in this file
      is:

          token <space> value <newline>

      where the currently defined tokens are 'host' for this system's
      hostname, 'user' for your username, and 'gate' for the ip address
      of the nearest 'smart mailer'.  More on this below.  Additonal tokens
      exist for setting your local timezone, and mailbox directory, and
      editor to be used in message creation.


Operation:

BM is designed to serve as the mail user-interface for users of the KA9Q
internetworking software package.  The purpose of BM is to provide a full
set of electronic mail services to the user.  These include sending messages,
listing and reading received messages, and so forth.

BM reads mailbox files created by the SMTP server in NET.EXE, which are
stored in a directory (usually \spool\mail) that is specified in the config
file \bm.rc.  Incoming mail is stored by the server in mailbox files, one
per username.  These mailbox files may also be referred to as "notesfiles".
The default mailbox to read is specified with the 'user' option in the \bm.rc
file.  This username is also used on all outgoing messages.

The \bm.rc file also defines a timezone stamp, which in conjunction with the
DOS date and time is used to provide the required RFC822 Date: header.

Commands are generally one character long and followed by a space, and
parameter if needed:

   s  Send a message.  The user is prompted for a destination address and
      subject.  BM then creates appropriate RFC822 headers in a temporary
      file, and either invokes the user's favorite editor (specified with
      the 'edit' paramater in \bm.rc) to enter the message text, or uses
      a simple/stupid text entry routine if no editor is defined.  Note that
      if you are using an editor, you should start by jumping to the end of
      the file.  RFC822 requires that the headers be first and be separated
      from the text of a message by at least one blank line.

      In this release, Phil KA9Q has modified BM slightly to be more like
      the Berkeley Unix mail program.  When the message entry routine first
      starts, you will be in the silly text editor.  If you want to use
      your editor on the message, type '~e<ret>'... not obvious to most
      folks, but very obvious to 4bsd fans... [sigh].

   t  Transmits an already created file as a message.  RFC822 headers are
      prepended.  This is useful if you don't have an editor that will work
      with the 's' command.

          *** NOTE ***  RFC822 only allows 7bit data.  If you want to send a
                      binary file, use BSQ, or UUENCODE, or something similar
              to convert it to a text file first!  Better yet, use
              FTP...

   r  Read all messages in the current notefile.

   u  Updates you with new messages in the notesfile, shows them to you
      and updates the read marker to the last one read.  If no new mes-
      sages came in, you will be notified.

   f  Forward a message to someone else.  A temporary copy is made of
      the message specified and that is handed over to the send message
      routine, which treats it as a file ala the 't' command.

   d  Delete a message.  Parameter is the message number.  If the number
      of the to be deleted message is higher than the last read message
      an "are you sure" message is printed. 'Y' or 'y' will delete it...

   h  Displays message headers, a message number, received date, from
      whom and the subject fields on an single line.  An star is put
      in front of the last read message.

   p  Sets the printer on or off so messages to the screen also go to
      the printer.  ** This will be implemented in a future release. **

   l  Lists the file names of messages waiting to be sent that are in the
      queue directory, usually \spool\mqueue.  Primarily useful for debugging.

   n   Shows the notefiles in the mail directory, the location of which is
       specified by the 'smtp' parameter in the \bm.rc file.  If this command
       is followed with a parameter, the current notesfile will be changed
       to the specified notesfile.  If it does not exist you will be notified
       if you try something with it.

   #   Substitute # with a number (1..whatever) and it will show you the
       message in the current active notesfile with that number. If
       the message is the one next to the last read one the * will be
       moved.

   ?   Prints a short command summary to the screen.

   q   Quit.

The program's prompt will always show the current notesfile name.


Additional Information:

BM will prompt you for a To: address.  This should be in the form user@host,
where user will be the name of the mailbox file on the destination KA9Q
system, or the username of the intended recipient on other SMTP-equipped
systems.  The host field should exactly match a host token in the HOSTS.NET
file.  If it does not, the SMTP client in NET.EXE will insert the IP address
of the nearest "smart mail agent" in the workfile instead of the destination
IP address (since it is unknown).  The rationale behind
this is that many SMTP equipped systems include the ability to forward mail
that is not addressed to them.  If you have a system of this type nearby,
you may be able to "punt" mail to them for handling.

Note that if there is such a smart mailer on a system near you, you can
replace the simple 'user' field with a full address that the smart mailer
can understand, since BM will scan from the right taking everything after
the rightmost '@' to be the host token, and will not mangle the address.
For example, from my PC clone I can easily mail to:
    bellcore!karn@winfree           (to get to Phil, KA9Q)
where winfree is my Unix system, which talks to system bellcore via UUCP.
BM really doesn't care what you put for an address as long as there is
a system within range that it can punt to when it doesn't understand what
you mean.  Note that this implies you should be extra careful when typing
addresses!

Read the SMTP.DOC file for specification of the queue and mailbox files, and
limitations of the SMTP client that affect BM's capabilities.