back2roots/padua/padua.7z/padua/uucp/duucp-1.17/AU-117b4-man.lha/man/DMail

Text File | 1993-11-13 | 7.8 KB | 179 lines

NAME
        DMail

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

        There are other options.  To get a complete list of options
        enter 'DMail -O' at a CLI prompt, then at the mail prompt
        enter the 'help' command.

        The file MAN:dmail.help must exist for dmail's online help
        to work!  This file exists in the boot floppy's man directory.

        DMail's online help is *EXTENSIVE* and quite flexible.  You need
        only specify a fragment of what you are looking for and the help
        command will do its best to find the appropriate commands.

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

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

        NOTE: As of AmigaUUCP 1.15 your signature file default should be
        UULIB:<username>.signature (where <username> is your user name)
        instead of just UULIB:.signature

DESCRIPTION

        DMail is an interactive mail editor that allows you to
        view and respond to messages in your mail box as well
        as generate new messages from scratch.  DMail has a huge
        number of commands and options ('set' variables) that cannot
        be described in a manual entry like this so I leave those to
        the online help capability.

        The basic dmail commands are (and these may be abbreviated):

            type  [msgno]       type a message
            reply [msgno]       reply to a message
            Reply [msgno]       reply to a message and include original text
            mail  path          send new mail to somebody
            d     [msgno]       delete a message
            dt                  delete current msg and type next one
            db                  delete current msg and type previous one
            list                list available messages

        These are only a few commands out of many.  Commands like
        mail and reply bring up an interactive editor (default is DME
        but you should be able to use your favorite editor... just
        change the defaults in UULIB:Config).

        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 DMail will scan the message and figure
        out who to send it to by extracting addresses out of the
        To:, Cc:, and Bcc: fields.  DMail 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...
        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 using the upper case Reply that includes the original
        text of the message, please prune out as much as you can to
        decrease redundant bandwidth.  The original 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!!!

ADDRESSES

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

        DMail 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 I talk 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 my 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 me.

                        BADLY FORMED ADDRESSES

        Unfortunately, USENET and INTERNET addresses do not mix well. On
        the INTERNET and 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 DMail, 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.

ENVIRONMENT 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 environment variables and config entries.