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Archive-name: elm/FAQ
Last-modified: 1995/09/22
Version: $Id: Elm-FAQ.ftp,v 4.9 1995/09/21 22:47:33 piero Exp $


                        Frequently Asked Questions
                               Elm 2.4 [24]


                       Piero Serini - [e-mail]

         $Id: Elm-FAQ.ftp,v 4.9 1995/09/21 22:47:33 piero Exp $
             (C) Piero Serini 1993,1994,1995 - All Rights Reserved

    This  is  an  unofficial   Frequently  Asked  Questions (with an-
    swers) list about Elm. Syd Weinstein kindly checked this, but  he
    is  not responsible for the errors  in the answers,  which are my
    fault,  unless  otherwise specified.  I do NOT claim to be a mem-
    ber of the Elm Development Group.

    *WARNING*: delete arepdaem and autoreply from  your systems NOW !
    Those  programs  represent a security hole, giving root access to
    people on your own system. They've been dropped from the  distri-
    bution.

0.0     Organization and availability

    This FAQ is posted monthly, around the 15th,  on  news.answers,
    comp.answers and comp.mail.elm.

    It is available:
    - from the above USENET groups
    - from all the USENET archives

    - ftp://ftp.free.it/pub/elm/Elm-FAQ.Z

    - ftp://ftp.cs.ruu.nl/pub/NEWS.ANSWERS/elm/FAQ

    - mail request from cs.ruu.nl: send mail to [e-mail]
      with the following commands in the message body:
        send NEWS.ANSWERS/elm/FAQ
        end

    A file containing instructions on how to buid and install Elm un-
    der Next is on the same sites in .../Next.Z.

    A  context  diff file containing the differences between this FAQ
    and the previous release is posted on comp.mail.elm and is avail-
    able from the same sites in the file Elm-FAQ.diffs.Z.

    This  FAQ is NOT reposted if modified, until the next issue date.
    I will modify the ftp file only.  I suggest using ftp to get  the
    latest version of this document.

    This  FAQ  refers  to latest patchlevel I put my hands on.  Ques-
    tions about a specific patchlevel are kept if of common interest.
    Actually,  all  relevant  questions  concerning PL 21 are kept in
    this file, as many users still run PL 21.

    I'm considering going multipart. There will be other changes, and
    I'm recovering from being without the Net for 4 months. So,  this
    FAQ  is  almost  identical  to the last posted version. I know it
    contains errors, but I choose to post it as is to help you  help-
    ing me. I desperately need your comments both on the contents and
    the organization.

    This FAQ consists of six parts:
    0.*     Organization.
        (0.1    Copyright)
        1.*     Operational Questions (and answers).
        2.*     Installation Questions (and answers).
    3.*    Filter Questions (and answers).
        This part is maintained by Jan Djarv ([e-mail])
    4.*    Bugs list.
        5.*     Archivers, what they archive, how to download.

    At the end of this file you can also find:
    - Copyright Notice
    - Warranty Disclaimer
    - Publishing Notes

0.1    Copyright

    This FAQ is Copyright (C) 1993,1994,1995 by Piero Serini.
    All Rights are reserved.
    Please check the full Copyright notice, Warranty disclaimer and
    Publishing notes at the end of this document.


1.a    Questions

    Here  is  an  (incomplete) questions list, followed by an (incom-
    plete) answers part. This list (and answers) are now divided into
    three major groups:

    - The  "Operational" group  is dedicated to those having any pro-
      blem running Elm. This part also contains a few  general  ques-
      tions, like "What is Elm?"

    - The  "Installation" group is dedicated to those who want to in-
      stall Elm and don't succeed in.

    - The  "Filter"  group  is  dedicated  to filter, a great utility
      which appears in the 70% of the users' questions.

    Please, mail me any comment, suggestion, correction to any of the
    addresses above, with Subject: Elm-FAQ

    Answers  are  from the "Elm montly posting" or from comp.mail.elm
    and proper credit is given before each answer.

1.0     Operational Questions

1.01    What is Elm?
1.02    Which is Elm current version?
1.03    Where can I find the distribution?
1.04    Where do I get the "Elm Reference Guide" and the other docs ?
1.05    How to get frm(1L) to only show new mail?
1.06    How do I get ELM to read a mailbox other than /usr/mail/<me> ?
1.07    How do I save a message without deleting it?
1.08    How do I attach a `signature' to the bottom of outgoing messages?
1.09    Why do I get the remote signature on replies to local mail?
1.10    How can I get elm to NOT expand the alias list on outgoing msgs?
1.11    How does one mark a message as urgent?
1.12    How can I get a line like "Quoting foo:" before a replied-to mail?
1.13    How do i customize the ">" sign ??
1.14    Can I tag uuecoded files in the order I want and then uudecode them?
1.15    Is there any way to bounce all the tagged messages with ONE command ?
1.16    Does ELM have MIME (metamail) support?
1.17    How not to include headers in outward bound mail?
1.18    Is it possible to save mail messages without the headers?
1.19    How do I upgrade my ELM aliases from 2.3 to 2.4PL23 ?
1.20    Elm seems to ignore HOME environment variable. Why?
1.21    Sometimes Elm (PL < 21) seems to join two messages in one. Why?
1.22    How can ELM be used for an automatic reply?
1.23    How to list your mail from the oldest to the newest?
1.24    How to use elmheaders file?
1.25    How to change the fullname in sent mail ?
1.26    "Alias too long" or string too long errors.
1.27    How to crypt mail in elm ?
1.28    How can I enable 8-bit characters configuration?
1.29    Sun mailtool attachments and elm?
1.30    How can I save outgoing mail ?
1.31    Can I get an automatic receipt when my message is actually read?
1.32    Get a copy of message(s) into the edit buffer when composing a reply?
1.33    How can I print in Elm ?
1.34    How can I get a complete elmrc file ?
1.35    How can I change a configuration setting for all of my users?
1.36    What do `Priority, Expires and Action' headers mean?
1.37    What does the `Precedence' header mean?
1.38    How can I get a `Reply-To' header in all of my messages?
1.39    ti/te strings for the xterm in termcap are wrong.
1.40    Can I edit and forward without having the prefix (>) added
1.41    Can I take an addres from a message and put it in the aliases list?
1.42    sendmail 565c+IDA + Elm = SEGV. Why ?
1.43    Can ELM use MH-style inboxes?
1.44    How can I enter a message that is in a folder into a message ?
1.45    I get my NIS/YP domainname appended to local mails. Why?
1.46    How can I include a file in a header ? And a quote ?
1.47    How can I build an alias containig "=" ?
1.48    What's aliases limit ? # of aliases ? total length ?
1.49    How can I change the editor ?
1.50    How do I include a file in a mail message ?
1.51    Which are the (s)ave abbreviations ?
1.52    Why do I get "folder corrupt" messages ?
1.53    How to know how may news messages arrived, without entering Elm ?
1.54    How not to display header when reading mail ?
1.55    Does Elm support headers within message body ?
1.56    How can I do <.....> with vi / my editor under Elm ?
1.57    How can I scroll backwards w/ builtin editor ?
1.58    How can I send the same message to a list of people ?
1.59    How can I resynchronize folder (deleting, etc) w/out exiting Elm ?
1.60    error: Couldn't malloc 1769480335 bytes!!
1.61    Can I handle mailing to lists of people with Elm ?
1.62    How can I put my folder in cronological order ?
1.63    Can I bounce e-mail from outside Elm ?
1.64    Can I associate a folder to an alias or to multiple senders ?
1.65    Is there a way to forward more than 1 mails in the same mail body ?
1.66    Can I know the path a mail took to reach destination ?
1.67    How do I import my unix mail aliases from .mailrc to Elm ?
1.68    Is there anything to make Elm work with SGI's Workspace ?

2.0    Installation Questions

2.01    On SCO Xenix, all mail is from user anonymous. Why?
2.02    Elm doesn't work on Next. Why?
2.03    Compiling with Microsoft UNIX C Compilers won't work. Why?
2.04    Various problems on Unix 286.
2.05    Configure won't run on HP-UX. Why?
2.06    Configure won't run on SCO XENIX 2.2.1. Why?
2.07    Will Elm work on SGI Indigo?
2.08    I have problems compiling elm2.4 on HP/Apollo
2.09    I have problems compiling elm2.4 on IBM AIX
2.10    Compiling elm 2.4 under NS 3.0
2.11    Elm sends 'empty mail' on 386BSD: why?
2.12    Why can't I get SGI to work for non ROOT?
2.13    I have problems p)rinting messages in 2.4PL20
2.14    Elm2.4 PL20 - 'x' key causes segmentation violation
2.15    readmsg:illegal option -- I. Why?
2.16    Forms don't work. Why?
2.17    ELM does not recognize VMS mail. Why?
2.18    Huge headers cause Memory Fault. Why?
2.19    Can I use elm for posting and replying to news?
2.20    Compile fails on lib/strftime.c [PL23].
2.21    Compile error on SGI Crimson.
2.22    Problem compiling elm on DEC Alpha, OSF/1 v.1.2
2.23    I can't build Elm 2.4PL23 on Sun 386i SunOS 4.0.2
2.24    How can I override a Configure's setup ?
2.25    How to solve hdrs/mcprt.h problems with Sequent/PTX 2 ?

3.0    Filter Questions
    This part is maintained by Jan Djarv <[e-mail]>

3.01    What documentation exists for filter?
3.02    What do I need to get filter working?
3.03    How can I tell if my system understands .forward files?
3.04    What do I put in my .forward file?
3.05    What is the simples filter-rules file I can write to test filter?
3.06    How do I check my filter-rules for typos and other errors?
3.07    Why doesn't the output from filter -r match my filter-rules file?
3.08    Can I have 'or' in my filter-rules?
3.09    Can I make filter execute more than one rule for a message?
3.10    How do I do multiple actions for one rule?
3.11    What headers are available in the filter-rules?
3.12    How do I forward mail to an elm alias from filter?
3.13    Filter executes my script but the script doesn't work.
3.14    How do I capture the message fed to a script by execute/executec
3.15    Both execute and executec feeds the message as standard input to
3.16    What if I what to do something based on the contents of a message
3.17    How can I make filter operate on all messages in a folder?
3.18    Can I use filter to automatically answer my mail (like vacation)?
3.19    My filter doesn't recognize executec/matches.
3.20    Filter sometimes munges up my folders, or looses messages. Why?
3.21    Why doesn't elm mark mail I saved in a folder with filter as new (N)?
3.22    Why does filter join adjacent messages together?
3.23    What other mail filter programs exists?
3.24    554 "|/usr/local/bin/filter"... unknown mailer error
3.25    My filter doesn't work. I set it up correctly, but nothing happens.
3.26    How to (b)ounce from filter, instead of (f)orwarding ?
3.27    If I use filter, all incoming mail disappears. Why ?
3.28    I use filter and MMDF and have some problems.


1.0    Operational Answers
---------------------------

1.01    What is Elm?

    * From Elm documentation:
    Currently  on  Unix,  there  seems to be a preponderence of line-
    oriented software.  This is most unfortunate as most of the soft-
    ware on Unix tends to be pretty darn hard to use!  I believe that
    there is more than a slight correlation  between  the  two,  and,
    since I was myself having problems using "mailx" with high-volume
    mail, I created a new mail system.

    In the lingo of the mail guru, Elm is a "User Agent" system, it's
    designed to run with "sendmail" or "/bin/rmail" or any other UNIX
    Mail Transport Agent (according to what's on your system) and  is
    a full replacement of programs like "/bin/mail" and "mailx".  The
    system is more than just a single program, however, and  includes
    programs  like  "frm"  to list a 'table of contents' of your mail
    and "printmail" to quickly paginate mail files (to allow  'clean'
    printouts).

1.02    Which is Elm current version?

    Elm current version is 2.4 PatchLevel (PL) 24.
    New release should be 3.0, scheduled some time in 1995.

    If  you are on an HP machine, you can find strange (high) version
    numbers, like 60.25 or 70.85. These are HP versions, derived from
    Elm,  maintained  by  HP  who added some feature.  If the version
    number is < 70 you can consider upgrading  to  2.4.23,  otherwise
    it's a matter of choice.

1.03    Where can I find the distribution?

    There's  a  list  of sites distributing Elm  in section 5 of this
    file (5.*     Archivers, what they archive,  how  to  download.).
    In  addition,  new  releases will be posted to comp.sources.unix,
    patches will be posted to comp.sources.bugs.  After patches  have
    been  proven  and  out  for  a  while,  they  will  be  posted to
    comp.sources.unix.

    Elm portings or clones for DOS, Windows and OS/2 are available as
    listed below:

    DOS/WINDOWS:
    * Peter Churchyard <[e-mail]>:
    Elm-PC, a version I ported, is available by anon ftp:
    ftp://lister.cc.ic.ac.uk/pub/elm-pc

    A Windows version is available, too, in:
    ftp://lister.cc.ic.ac.uk/pub/winelm

    * Mike O'Connor <[e-mail]>:
    There is a package called PC-Elm that's an imitation of Elm (i.e.
    it didn't come from Elm's source tree). It's supposed to interop-
    erate with UUPC and possibly other  common  PC UUCP mailers.

    * Gerry Belanger <[e-mail]>:
    Simtel has it available in the ka9q directory as pcelm31.zip

    ftp://ftp.coast.net/SimTel/msdos/ka9q/pcelm31.zip
    ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/systems/ibmpc/simtel/msdos/ka9q/pcelm31.zip
    ftp://ftp.uu.net/systems/ibmpc/msdos/simtel/ka9q/pcelm31.zip

    OS/2:
    * Richard j. Wyble <[e-mail]>:
    Elm version 3.11 for OS/2 is available by anon ftp:
    ftp://ftp.os2.nmsu.edu:/pub/os2/2.x/network/elm23exe.zip
    ftp://ftp.os2.nmsu.edu:/pub/os2/2.x/network/elm23src.zip

    No other version is available for OS/2 (Yet. Maybe someone wants
    to make a port?).

1.04    Where do I get the "Elm Reference Guide" and the other docs ?

    * From the monthly posting:
    Elm has several documents (over 100 pages worth of doc) that were
    written to help users install, support and use Elm.  These are in
    the  doc directory of the source distribution.  Contact your sys-
    tems administrator for a copy of the documents.  For those  sites
    that  do  not have troff (either di-troff or o-troff) and do have
    postscript printers, dsinc (dsinc.Myxa.com) has  a  copy  of  the
    docs already in postscript format available for anonymous uucp or
    ftp.

    * David W. Tamkin ([e-mail]):
    Plain text  copies are available for FTP:
        ftp://ftp.wwa.com/pub/elmguides/2.4pl24/

    * Paul Kramer ([e-mail]):
    At  UNL,  I  have  put together documentation on 'elm'.  You will
    find it in two  different  servers:  gopher  and  ftp.   In  both
    places, you should find MSWord, postscript, ASCII, and rich-text-
    format versions of the local documentation.   Plus  there  are  1
    page  helpsheets  in  Aldus Pagemaker, postscript, and ASCII ver-
    sions. For FTP, the URLs are:
        ftp://ftp.unl.edu/pub/crc/docs/UNLINFO.GUIDE/*elm*
        ftp://unlinfo2.unl.edu/pub/crc.docs/UNLINFO.HELPSHEETS/elm.*

1.05    How to get frm(1L) to only show new mail?

    * Alan Thew ([e-mail]):
    Try  the fromwho program which IMHO is better tham frm and allows
    you to type  "fromwho -n"  to show who has sent you new mail  amd
    what  the  subject  line  is.   Availabe  from  comp.sources.unix
    archives and needs an ANSI C compiler (but  will  build  on  Suns
    with "unproto" software).

    * Syd Weinstein ([e-mail]):
    Better answer:
    use  nfrm,  it  will  only show new mail.  nfrm is a link to frm.
    There are other command line options to show various restrictions
    see the frm(1) manual page.  possible status limitations are new,
    unread and old or  any  combination  of  these.   typing  frm  -h
    yields:

    frm -- list from and subject lines of messages in mailbox or folder
    Usage: frm [-n] [-v] [-s {new|old|read}] [filename | username] ...

    option summary:
    -h      print this help message.
    -n      display the message number of each message printed.
    -Q      very quiet -- no output is produced.  This option allows shell
        scripts to check frm's return status without having output.
    -q      quiet -- only print summaries for each mailbox or folder.
    -S      summarize the number of messages in each mailbox or folder.
    -s    status only select messages with the specified status.
        'status' is one of "new", "old", "unread" (same as "old"),
        or "read".  The first letter need only be specified.
    -v      print a verbose header.

1.06    How do I get ELM to read a mailbox other than /usr/mail/<me> ?

    Elm  uses the MAIL environment variable to read the correct mail-
    box.

1.07    How do I save a message without deleting it?

    C)opy it instead of s)aving.

1.08    How do I attach a `signature' to the bottom of outgoing messages?

    1) look for "localsignature" and "remotesignature" in  your elmrc
       file ( ~/.elm/elmrc );  if they're present, uncomment them and
       be sure they look like:

        localsignature = ~/.signature
        remotesignature = ~/.signature

    2) if they're not present, add them;
    3) be sure there's also "sigdashes = ON";

    4) Create the  corresponding file(s) in your home directory, with
       your signature.

    You  can  have  2  different signatures for local and remote mes-
    sages: in this case you need to change one og the names in  elmrc
    (like localsignature = ~/.signature.loc , for example).

    Please  note that .signature files should contain useful informa-
    tion and not exceed 4 lines in length.

1.09    Why do I get the remote signature on replies to local mail?

        * From the monthly posting:
    In  Elm  2.4,  any address with an ! or @ in it is considered re-
    mote, without those characters, its local.  Any reply  is  quali-
    fied  to  prevent  alias  expansion.  If you had an alias in your
    private Elm aliases that matched the name of a user on your  sys-
    tem, but that alias did not point to that user, there would be no
    way to reply to the message.  It would end up going to the  alias
    name,  not  the user that mailed you.  To prevent this, Elm fully
    qualifies (adds the site name) to a reply  address.   This  makes
    the  simplistic signature detector think that the message is 're-
    mote'. This is not slated to change until 3.0.

1.10    How can I get elm to NOT expand the alias list on outgoing msgs?

        * From the monthly posting:
    Problem  is  if  a list has, say, 100 names in it then sending to
    the list expands every single one of the 100 names. I would  like
    the  message  to have the "To" line = the name of the list itself
    and have the actual recipients' names not appear.  You can't  and
    don't  want to. (and yet you can also) An alias is a mechanism of
    making Elm address a message to multiple people.   However,  when
    the  message  gets to its destination, Elm also has to allow that
    person do a group reply.  If the message only has your local pri-
    vate  elm  alias  in  it, the group reply will try and go to that
    alias name.  Unfortunately, that name is meaningless to that oth-
    er person (its private to both Elm and you).

        There are two solutions:

        1) The preferred if replies are desired:
    Have  your mail administrator create a file-include-alias for you
    in your MTA (sendmail, et al). This is usually of the type:

        alias   :include:/some/path/to/a/file

    where the file would be in a place you control and you have write
    access to the file.  Then you can add/drop members of  the  list,
    and  the  mail  just  goes  to the alias, and, someone sending to
    [e-mail] will be able to send to all members. (group re-
    ply works correctly)

        2) The less preferred method: (no group reply is possible)
    Send  the  message  to yourself, with a bcc to the Elm alias.  Of
    course, the Bcc: won't be expanded by the  MTA  internal  to  the
    message, so it won't appear in the message.

1.11    How does one mark a message as urgent?

    * David W. Tamkin ([e-mail]):
    Having  an Action: header sets the recipient's A flag (if the re-
    cipient uses Elm); in 2.3 have a Priority: header set the U  flag
    no  matter  what  it  said  (even  "Priority:  none" or "junk" or
    "low").  In 2.4 there are certain precoded Priority: values  that
    do  not  turn on the U flag ["normal" and "non-urgent"], but any-
    thing else will.

    * Jan Djarv <[e-mail]>:
    Normal  or  non-urgent  (case independent) does not turn on the U
    flag.  Also 'Importance: 2' turns on the U flag (exactly  2).   I
    dont  know  if this is an old artifact. I have never seen any Im-
    portance header.

1.12    How can I get a line like "Quoting foo:" before a replied-to mail?

    * Joshua A. Laff ([e-mail]):
    from $HOME/.elm/elmrc:
    # attribution string for replies ('%s' is the author of original
    # message)
    attribution = In our previous episode, %s said:

    * (me) :
    I also wrote a little patch,  since it seemed everyone was look-
    ing for something like "In the mail about ..., on ..., you (...)
    said ...". It was posted on comp.mail.elm, sent to [e-mail],
    and it is available on mail request from [e-mail].






























































1.13    How do i customize the ">" sign ??

    * Sven Guckes ([e-mail]):
    You   can   edit  the  "quote  prefix"  by  editing  the  "elmrc"
    ($HOME/.elm/elmrc). Just change the value of the  variable  "pre-
    fix".

    # prefix sequence for indenting included message text
    prefix = >_

    Note:  The '_' stands for a <space>.

1.14    Can I tag uuecoded files in the order I want and then uudecode them?

    * Alan Edmonds ([e-mail]):
    I save all of the items into a single folder, order not important
    (yet).  Bring up elm on the single folder.   Go  to  the  options
    screen and select "Sort by Subject."  Go back to the main screen.
    All of the items are (usually) in the proper order.  I  can  then
    tag  related messages and save them (in order) to another folder.
    I then run I can go back to the original folder if something gets
    messed  up.   I  don't  have to trim the headers out of each part
    (uucat does this), and elm figures out the order for me.
    (Ask Alan Edmonds for uucat source.)

    * Steve Faiwiszewski ([e-mail]):
    UUdecode  expects  to  decode  a  single uuencoded file. It knows
    nothing about multiple parts, and certainly has no  knowledge  of
    the  correct sequencing.  Here's what I do:  Typically, I receive
    a multipart uuencoded file with the subject line of each msg con-
    taining  the part number, so I can get the parts ordered properly
    by telling Elm to sort by Msg Subject.  I then save all the parts
    to  a folder, and run it through this program I found a long time
    ago, called unpack (source follows).  The neat thing  about  this
    program,  is that you can append many uuencoded files to the same
    folder, and unpack will do the right thing - as long as  all  the
    parts  are ordered correctly, and the "begin" line of each part 1
    contains a unique file name.
    Invoke it like this: "unpack < foldername"
    I guess tagging and piping should work with it too.
    (Ask Steve Faiwiszewski for unpack source.)

1.15    Is there any way to bounce all the tagged messages with ONE command ?

    * Chip Rosenthal ([e-mail]):
    Save  the  following  to a script in your personal bin directory,
    say `bounce':

        : use /bin/sh
        : ${ELMSTATE?} ${1?}
        sed -n -e 's/^S//p' $ELMSTATE | while read mssgno ; do
                echo "Bouncing message $mssgno to $@ . . ."
                readmsg -a $mssgno | rmail $@
        done

    When you run:  !bounce addr ...

    then  all of the tagged messages will be bounced to the indicated
    address(es). If no messages are tagged, then  the  currently  se-
    lected message will be bounced.

1.16    Does ELM have MIME (metamail) support?

    MIME  allows  for  sending and receiving of messages compliant to
    the Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (RFC 1341).   MIME  pro-
    vides  a  way to attach binary, graphic, audio, video, postscript
    and other files. It doesn't necessarily need  graphics  capabili-
    ties on your display, but its useful.

    If you have installed Nathaniel Borenstein's metamail package for
    displaying MIME messages, Elm can make use of it.  If you  didn't
    have  metamail  installed  you might want to obtain a copy of it.
    The most recent version is on thumper.bellcore.com [128.96.41.1]:
    /pub/nsb/mm2.6.tar.Z .

    Compiling  of Elm even with MIME support enabled would not depend
    on the metamail package. But you would not be able to use  nearly
    all  of  the MIME features as long as you don't have metamail in-
    stalled. Metamail with its companion programs (mmencode) must  be
    installed somewhere in the search path, usually /usr/local/bin.

1.17    How not to include headers in outward bound mail?

    Problem:
    all outward bound mail still includes the following lines,
    even if I have the "noheader = ON" line in my .elmrc:

    X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL21]
    MIME-Version: 1.0
    Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
    Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
    Content-Length: 67

    * Syd Weinstein ([e-mail]):
    "noheader  = ON" means when the message is copied into the buffer
    for a reply or forward.  The "X-Mailer:" header is controlled  at
    Configure time.  There is a compile time option to produce or not
    produce it.  The three "Content-*" headers are always going to be
    produced by 2.4.

1.18    Is it possible to save mail messages without the headers?

    * Chip Rosenthal ([e-mail]):
    Use: !readmsg -n >filename

    If you want to save a few keystrokes, you can encapsulate this in
    a shell script to go in your personal bin directory.

    * Syd Weinstein ([e-mail]):
    Note  that  some of the newer features of readmsg are only avail-
    able in later 2.4 releases

1.19    How do I upgrade my ELM aliases from 2.3 to 2.4PL23 ?

        * Syd Weinstein ([e-mail]):
    All I did, was make sure 2.4 as installed, and then had each user
    run newalias and I ran newalias -g.  The aliases.text file is up-
    wards  compatible.   The  old  newalias converted aliases.text to
    aliases.data and aliases.hash the 2.4  newalias  converts  alias-
    es.text  to  aliases,  aliases.dir and aliases.pag.  If you don't
    have those three new files, you didn't install 2.4 correctly  and
    are still running 2.3's newalias.

1.20    Elm seems to ignore HOME environment variable. Why?

        * Syd Weinstein ([e-mail]):
    This is a feature.  Elm ignores $HOME, so that when su'd you read
    the right mail file.  Its a choice of one or  the  other  and  we
    chose to allow su over $HOME.

1.21    Sometimes Elm (PL < 21) seems to join two messages in one. Why?

        * Syd Weinstein ([e-mail]):
    Early  versions  of  Elm 2.4 had a problem with messages with bad
    content length headers. I'd update to a more recent version  when
    21 comes out in a bit.

    Note:  now PL 23 is out. I chose to report this Question as it is
    so a strange behaviour (mail still reads the  mailbox  correctly)
    a person can get mad about it :)

1.22    How can ELM be used for an automatic reply?

    It  cannot. Autoreply is no longer supprorted and MUST be removed
    from you system. You can try and  use  filter,  but  it's  better
    looking for some other utility.

1.23    How to list your mail from the oldest to the newest?

    * Arnaud Girsch ([e-mail]):
    You  can change the sortby= in your .elm/elmrc file, or change in
    menu (O)ption, and then (S)orting criteria.  It  allows  you   to
    choose   lots   of  different order, and  you can choose whatever
    you want.

1.24    How to use elmheaders file?

    * Arnaud Girsch ([e-mail]):
    Under  your  .elmrc  directory, create a file named elmheaders, a
    text file where you put all the lines you want to be seen in  the
    header.   If  you  redefine  an existing header, it will take its
    place.

    Example:  if  you  want  to redefine your Reply-To: header,  just
    create the file and put the following into it:

        Reply-To: [e-mail]

    * (me):
    Please  also note that elmheaders file is NOT processed. It's ap-
    pended as it is, with the  exception  of  quoted  shell  escapes.
    Hence,  a  Bcc: will not work, but a Return-Reply-To will, as the
    latter is processed by the *receiving* MTA.

1.25    How to change the fullname in sent mail ?

    1) use the "fullname" option into the elmrc file;
    2) set the NAME environment variable.

    Method  2)  is  useful if you want to change your name for a mail
    only, without editing your elmrc file.

    Note  that  you  might  not be able to change fulname at all.  If
    your Elm is configured with DONT_ADD_FROM enabled (run  `elm  -v'
    to  see  if it is), then Elm is *not* adding the From: line.  The
    low-level mail transport is.  If this is the case (and it common-
    ly  is) you'll have to ask your local administrator how to do it.
    (If you have a `chfn' command that might do it.)

1.26    "Alias too long" or string too long errors.

    Errors  are to be expected when trying to expand very long alias-
    es, mailing lists, and so on. This error  is  due  to  the  fixed
    length  strings  in Elm 2.xx, and will not be fixed until 3.xx is
    released.

1.27    How to crypt mail in elm ?

    * Sven Guckes ([e-mail]):
    You need these two "keylines":

    [encode]
    and
    [clear]

    Just  put  your  top  secret messages in between these two lines.
    See the "ELM Reference Guide", "5. Special Outgoing Mail Process-
    ing" for an example.

    For  all folks outside the US I might quote that little footnote:
    "Unfortunately, at many non-US sites, it's  quite  probable  that
    you  won't  be  able to use this feature since you won't have the
    crypt() library available due to USA Government restrictions."

1.28    How can I enable 8-bit characters configuration?

    * Hakan Sjogren ([e-mail])
    PROBLEM:  When receiving mails having swedish characters the dis-
    play of these national characters on the terminal are wrong  when
    using   ELM.    If   I  add  the  line  Content-type:  text/plain
    charset=iso-8859-1 into this received mail, ELM displays correct-
    ly.   Since this is a normal situation I would assume ELM to dis-
    play full 8bit characters if the mail bandwith is set to 8bit.

    SOLUTION: The solution to this problem was to set the environment
    variable LC_CTYPE=iso_8859_1 .

    * Juergen Schroeder ([e-mail]):
    For  displaying incoming letters no changes are  neccessary.  You
    have to set the environment:

        stty -istrip pass8
        LC_TYPE=iso_8859_1

    For outgoing mail you must specify when running Configure:

        charset: ISO-8859-1
        content-transfer-encoding: 8bit

1.29    Sun mailtool attachments and elm?

    * Kurt Swanson ([e-mail]):
    > Has anyone hacked elm to support the Sun attachment
    > style in the Openwindow's Mailtool?
    This is handled by metamail, not well, unfortunately, but handled
    that way in any case...

1.30    How can I save outgoing mail ?

    Set the following in your elmrc file:

    # save a copy of all outbound messages?
    copy = ON

    # save outbound messages by login name of sender/recipient even if
    # the associated folder doesn't already exist?
    forcename = OFF

    # save messages, incoming and outbound, by login name of
    # sender/recipient?
    savename = ON

    # where to save copies of outgoing mail to, default file is "=sent"
    sentmail = /path/to/the/file

1.31    Can I get an automatic receipt when my message is actually read?

    * Chip Rosenthal ([e-mail]):
    With  Elm, you cannot.  Many people consider this an intrusion of
    privacy, not a feature.

1.32    Get a copy of message(s) into the edit buffer when composing a reply?

    * Chip Rosenthal ([e-mail]):
    Use the `readmsg' command.

1.33    How can I print in Elm ?

    * Chip Rosenthal ([e-mail]):
    First  thing  you  need to do is change the default print command
    Elm gives you.  The compiled-in default of "cat %s | lp" is obso-
    lete.  Simply use "lp" (or whatever) as your print command.  This
    will pipe the message directly into the  print  command,  and  it
    will  leave  stdout/stderr  of the print command attached to your
    terminal.  That means that pass-through printing will work.  That
    means problems and error messages will be displayed.  Making this
    change might fix the problems you are having.  Even if it doesn't
    fix  them,  at least now you'll be able to see the error diagnos-
    tics rather than the mysterious `Printout failed' message.

1.34    How can I get a complete elmrc file ?

    From inside ELm, type 'o' (Options) then '>' (Save).
    This will create a complete elmrc file, with all options and lots
    of comments. Remember that a leading "#" on a line denotes a com-
    ment. Hence a line with leadin "###" is ALSO a comment.

1.35    How can I change a configuration setting for all of my users?

    * Chip Rosenthal ([e-mail]):
    By  creating  a global elmrc file.  Copy your personal elmrc file
    to $libdir/elm.rc, where $libdir is  the  Elm  library  directory
    that holds the help files and other such things.  Edit that file.
    The values it provides will override the compiled-in defaults.

1.36    What do `Priority, Expires and Action' headers mean?

    * Chip Rosenthal ([e-mail]):

    Not a whole hell of a lot.  These are Elm-isms.
    Priority: If you put a value in this header, *any* value other
        than `normal' or `non-urgent', then Elm will put a `U' on
        the index screen to note the message as urgent.
    Expires: You can specify an interval up to 8 weeks from now
        (e.g. `7 days').  When that date has been passed, Elm will
        put a `E' on the index screen to note the message as expired.
    Action: You can use this header to specify some action for the
        recipient to take, and Elm will do absolutely nothing with it.

1.37    What does the `Precedence' header mean?

    * Chip Rosenthal ([e-mail]):
    This  is  *not* an Elm-ism.  It is a sendmail-ism. :-)  It allows
    you to specify handling instructions for the mail transport.   If
    you  have to ask this question -- you don't want to mess with it.

1.38    How can I get a `Reply-To' header in all of my messages?

    * Chip Rosenthal ([e-mail]):
    Create a file called ~/.elm/elmheaders that contains the single
    line:

    Reply-To: [e-mail]

    The contents of this file are slapped onto the end of the headers
    that Elm generates for an outgoing message.

1.39    ti/te strings for the xterm in termcap are wrong.

    * David W Sanderson ([e-mail]):
    Whoever wrote the default termcap and/or terminfo descriptions
    for xterm included in the ti/te strings the special escape sequences
    to make xterm switch between the normal and alternate screen buffers.
     These sequences are:

        \E[?47h        - use alternate screen buffer
        \E[?47l        - use normal screen buffer

    The elm code is just fine as it is.  If you change it so that it
    doesn't ever send ti/te, you'll just break elm for somebody else.
    Fix your termcap/terminfo definition instead.

    If this won't work,
    * Neil Weisenfeld ([e-mail]):
    change usetite in your .elmrc file to:
        usetite = OFF

1.40    Can I edit and forward without having the prefix (>) added
    to the mail body?

    Forward the mail, answering NO at the edit? question.
    Then, in the send menu, instead of s)ending it, e)dit it.

1.41    Can I take an addres from a message and put it in the aliases list?

    David W. Tamkin ([e-mail]):
    Return to the index screen, make sure the pointer or bar is on a
    letter from that person, and press "a" twice.  The first "a" puts
    you into the alias subsystem and the second says to create an alias
    for the sender of the current letter.

1.42    sendmail 565c+IDA + Elm = SEGV. Why ?

    * Paul Pomes ([e-mail]):
    Either fix your Elm to use correct GMT offsets or apply the following
    patch from Mike Park <[e-mail]>.

    *** 5.11.0.16   1992/08/26 22:06:32
    --- arpadate.c  1993/03/10 21:38:23
    ***************
    *** 423,428 ****
    --- 423,440 ----
      #endif /* LOG */
            return(NULL);
        }
    +
    +    /*
    +     * Some buggy mailers (ie elm 2.4.p13) can produce huge incorrect
    +     * offsets.  Applying these offsets can cause the static array
    +     * used by gmtime to be overrun on a NeXT OS3.0 causing sendmail
    +     * to SEGV.
    +     * Limit offsets to be +- 24 hours.
    +     */
    +    if (h_offset < -24)
    +        h_offset = -24;
    +    if (h_offset > 24)
    +        h_offset = 24;

            /* is the year a leap year? */
            if ((tm.tm_year % 4 == 0) &&

1.43    Can ELM use MH-style inboxes?

    * Steve Simmons ([e-mail]):
    Elm does not currently do this.  It has been suggsted for Elm 3.0, but
    3.0 is off in the mists of the far future.

1.44    How can I enter a message that is in a folder into a message ?

    * Syd Weinstein ([e-mail]):
    Just use the readmsg command.  It is the external command that does
    the same thing as ~m, and it understands the current mailbox sort
    order, just like ~m.  From vi, I would put the cursor on the line
    I want to repalce with the message and say "!!readmsg".

1.45    I get my NIS/YP domainname appended to local mails. Why?

    * Dave Wolfe ([e-mail]):
    You have to run Configure again, and say NO to the question:
    Should getdomainname() be used to obtain the mail domain?

    This is because when the getdomainname() system call is found, and
    you run NIS, getdomainname() usually returns the NIS domain and not
    the mail domain. The domain name should be compiled into the code.
    If the getdomainname call does return the correct mail domain, it
    can be used.

1.46    How can I include a file in a header ? And a quote ?

    The elmheaders file allows the inclusion of the output of a command
    which is run each time Elm reads elmheaders. This is useful for a
    header which changes its contents, like a fortune output.
    Unfortunately, if a header cointains "`", Elm tryes to execute what
    follows. The workaround is: save the offending text in a file, then
    include it like follows:
        X-Foo: `cat /path/to/file`

1.47    How can I build an alias containig "=" ?

    Quote it.  i.e. : "foo=bar"@net.org

1.48    What's aliases limit ? # of aliases ? total length ?

    Aliases are limited by length. It's 5120 chars.
1.49    How can I change the editor ?

    In your elmrc file set editor=/path/to/editor

1.50    How do I include a file in a mail message ?

    1) Normal plain text file:
       see your editor's man page. In vi, :r /path/to/file

    2) executable or non-printable file:
       see man uuencode. Then as 1)

    3) MIME-recognized file (gif, Postscript, ...):
       [include /path/to/file type encoding]. Examples:
           [include /path/to/file.gif image/gif base64]
           [include /path/to/file.ps application/postscript]
       See also MIME documentation.

1.51    Which are the (s)ave abbreviations ?

    * David W. Tamkin ([e-mail]):
    For saving to a folder, Copying to a folder, or changing folders
    [or naming a folder on the command line as an argument to Elm's -f
    option], Elm accepts several abbreviations:

    !        folder named in your $MAIL variable;
            default: your mail spool
    >        receivedmail folder named in your .elm/elmrc;
            default: $maildir/received
    <        sentmail folder named in your .elm/elmrc;
            default: $maildir/sent
    =filename    $maildir/filename
    +filename    $maildir/filename [useful on the shell command line,
            where an equal sign could confuse the shell]
    @aliasname    folder in your $maildir directory named for the real
            logname behind alias "aliasname"


1.52    Why do I get "folder corrupt" messages ?

    * Peter Churchyard ([e-mail]):
    If your folder (/usr/spool/mail/<login>) starts with a line of
    ^A^A^A^A  and not 'From username', then you need to configure
    Elm to use MMDF style message seperator lines.

1.53    How to know how may news messages arrived, without entering Elm ?

    * Chip Rosenthal ([e-mail]):
    frm -S -q -s new

1.54    How not to display header when reading mail ?

    Use the weedout option in the elmrc file.
    You should find a line like this:
        ### weedout = "*end-of-user-headers*"
    Change it to:
        weedout = "Header-to-elimitate"
    To eliminate more than one header, add weedout lines as
    appropriate. In my elmrc file I have, for example:
        weedout = "X400-Received"
        weedout = "X400-Originator"
        weedout = "X400-Recipients"
        weedout = "X400-Mts-Identifier"
        weedout = "X400-Content-Type"
        weedout = "X-Vms-From"
        weedout = "X-Vms-To"

1.55    Does Elm support headers within message body ?

    No, it doesn't.For example, you still need to specify
    "-s <subject> even if you're calling it with "-i <file>"
    and <file> contains the Subject header.

1.56    How can I do <.....> with vi / my editor under Elm ?

    This is not an Elm question. Please refer to the appropriate
    manual / doc / FAQ / whatever.  I'm sorry, but should I give
    you answers on your editor, I'd end up writing a bad FAQ for
    your editor and a bad FAQ for Elm.

1.57    How can I scroll backwards w/ builtin editor ?

    You can't.
    You can specify your favourite pager in your elmrc file
    ( ~/.elm/elmrc ) by adding a line like:
        pager = /usr/local/bin/less

    Should you choose "less", you can yse one of the following
    lines, from John Sturgeon <[e-mail]>:

    pager = less -cEw
    pager = less -C -e +Gg -P%f' ['%T'] ('%pb'\% ln '%lb/%L')'
    pager = less -cEw -e +Gg -P%f' ['%T'] ('%pb'\% ln '%lb/%L')'

    or these from Andrew Duchowski ([e-mail]):

    pager = less -C -e +Gg -M
    pager = less
    -C -e +Gg -P?f%f:'stdin'.'--('?pb%pb:'0'.'\%'?lb' line '%lb.')--'

    (You will put this on a single line: I split it for formatting
    reasons).

    Remember to specify the full path to "less".

1.58    How can I send the same message to a list of people ?

    There are 3 possible cases:

    1) You need to send a message to a huge list once in your life;
    2) You sometimes send to a huge list;
    3) You often / regularly send messages to a lot of people;

    1) type recipients' addresses by hand. If the list is really a
       long one, you can consider 2).
    2) if the list is static (i.e. you haven't to modify it each
       time), you can create aliases: simply press 'a' from the
       main menu, then follow the alias submenu help (really easy).
       Or you can use the 3rd method, which gives you more
       flexibility and (inmy opinion) ease-of-use;
    3) use the following script by John Woodburn ([e-mail]):
        #!/bin/sh
        file=/path/to/message

        read address
        while [ -n "${address}" ] ; do
            cat ${file} | /usr/bin/sendmail -oi -odb ${address}
            read address
        done
       The addresses' list is read from stdin, so you can store it in
       a file and run this srcipt, say "snd_msg" this way:
        snd_msg < /path/to/addresses/file

       If you want to use elm aliases in the file, you can substitute
       the line with "sendmail" in the script with:
        cat ${file} | /path/to/elm -s "subject" ${address}

    Another way to handle such mailings is to convince your system
    administrator to put a line like:
        foo    :include:/path/to/a/file
    in sendmail's system-wide aliases file, and give you write
    permission to this file. You can then use whatever mail program
    to mail to the list, and anybody sending a message to [e-mail]
    will reach the list.

1.59    How can I resynchronize folder (deleting, etc) w/out exiting Elm ?

    From main menu, press '$'.

1.60    error: Couldn't malloc 1769480335 bytes!!

    This  error  occurs  when  Elm tries to open $lib/aliases and the
    sytem-wide aliases file is not in the expected format.  For exam-
    ple,  if  you  installed  sendmail in /usr/local, its aliases are
    then kept in usr/locla/lib/aliases, the same path that's  default
    for Elm.

    * John Warburton <[e-mail]>:
    I  fixed  the  problem  here by renaming the elm aliases files in
    hdrs/sysdefs.SH to have elm_ prefixed before the aliases:

    * Syd Weinstein <[e-mail]>:
    (referred  to the above soution) ... that or just use a different
    $lib than /usr/local/lib, make it /usr/local/lib/elm.   In  addi-
    tion,  Elm 3.0 will rename the aliases file to avoid conflicts.

1.61    Can I handle mailing to lists of people with Elm ?

    * Roman Czyborra <[e-mail]>:
    Let's  say  the you have a file named `recipients' that lists the
    email addresses of your recipients and  a  file  named  `message'
    that contains the text you want to send out.

    The  Elm  tool  to  handle that is Fastmail and you would call it
    like this:

    $ fastmail -b "`cat recipients`" -s subject message ""

1.62    How can I put my folder in cronological order ?

    * John G Dobnick <[e-mail]>:
    If you simply want to *see* your messages in chronological order,
    then go to the O)ptions menu, select S)orting criteria, then  hit
    spacebar  until you see "Date Mail Rec'vd" or "Date Mail Sent" as
    you like.

    If  you also want to write your mailbox so that your messages ac-
    tually are in order, rather than appearing  to  be,  perform  the
    same steps as above, then tag all messages ('t') and save them to
    another file.  The contents of this new file will be in  the  de-
    sired order.

1.63    Can I bounce e-mail from outside Elm ?

    * Chip Rosenthal <[e-mail]>:
    Something like:
        $ readmsg <message_number> | rmail <recipient>

    might be what you are looking for.

1.64    Can I associate a folder to an alias or to multiple senders ?

    * Chip Rosenthal <[e-mail]>:
    The  canonical  trick to do this is to use a Unix link (the ln(1)
    command) and link the name Elm wants to use to the name you want.

    Be  forewarned  --  if  you  use this trick there is one thing to
    watch out for.  If you delete all  messages  from  one  of  these
    folders,  it might or might not work properly.  (On some systems,
    it leaves a zero-sized folder under all the names.  Under  others
    it simply deletes one of the links to the folder.  It depends up-
    on how Elm is configured.)

    * Sven Guckes <[e-mail]>:
    Example:

    You  get  mail  from  "Joe  Miller" but he's using two accounts -
    "[e-mail]" and "[e-mail]".

    Now make the folder "miller" be a link to "john":

    $ ln -s john miller

    Now  "miller" should point to "john".  Any mail saved to "miller"
    actually goes into "john".

    Disadvantages:   Any  other  guy  with  a  login  name  "john" or
    "miller" will be saved in that folder, too.  But that's an  over-
    all drawback, anyway.

1.65    Is there a way to forward more than 1 mails in the same mail body ?

    * Sven Guckes <[e-mail]>:
    Short answer:
    Send all mail to a folder, read them in from the editor.

    Longer answer:
    Save  all  mails to be forwarded to a file ("folder"), say "fwd".
    Start sending a mail to the person.  When in the editor, read  in
    that  folder  "fwd" to your temporary file.  Exit editor and send
    the whole thing as *one* mail.

1.66    Can I know the path a mail took to reach destination ?

    This isn't an Elm question, but here is the answer:

    If  you're  receiving the message you want to trace, just hit 'h'
    to see all the headers, then look for 'Received:' headers. That's
    the path.

    If  you're sending a mail and you want to know what route it fol-
    lows, ask the recipient to mail your messages back to you.

1.67    How do I import my unix mail aliases from .mailrc to Elm ?

    * Balaji <[e-mail]>:
    cat .mailrc | awk '{print $2 " = " $2 " = " $3}' > .elm/aliases.text

    ought  to  do it. You may want to edit the 2nd column by hand be-
    fore running newalias.

1.68    Is there anything to make Elm work with SGI's Workspace ?

    * Dave Schweisguth <[e-mail]>:
    There  is  a  package  that  makes  Elm  work  nicely  with SGI's
    Workspace (graphical file manager) at:

    ftp://neutron.chem.yale.edu/pub/elm-ws-support.shar.

    People  FTP  it on a regular basis, and no-one has complained, so
    it must be more or less OK.


2.0    Installation Answers
----------------------------

2.01    On SCO Xenix, all mail is from user anonymous. Why?

    From Elm README:
        On SCO Xenix, if you are all mail is from user anonymous,
    this is because the mail delivery agent should be
    /usr/lib/mail/execmail instead of /usr/bin/rmail or /bin/rmail.

2.02    Elm doesn't work on Next. Why?

    The complete NeXT document by [e-mail] is
    available via anon ftp from: yak.macc.wisc.edu [144.92.30.18]
    and ghost.dsi.unimi.it:/pub/Elm/Next.Z

2.03    Compiling with Microsoft UNIX C Compilers won't work. Why?

    Thomas Bullinger ([e-mail]):
    On many systems with the Microsoft UNIX C Compilers (such as SCO),
    compiling with optimization breaks the code.  One symptom is
    that aliases do not work.
    On those machines do not compile any of Elm with optimizations.
    To accomplish that, set all occurences of "OPTIMZE" in the
    makefiles to "-Od" - then it works.

    Another possibility is to use gcc instead (my current version [PL23]
    is compiled with gcc [2.4.5] on SCO Unix [3.2.2] without
    modifications and runs perfectly).
2.04    Various problems on Unix 286.

    From Elm README:
        On some systems, especially those based on the AT&T Port to
    286's the -O flag of the compiler produces improper code causing
    segmentation violations.  If this happens, recompile the code without
    the -O flag.  This has been seen with Microport SysV/AT type systems.

        The Configuration script has been known to exceed the default
    stack size in Unix 286 sh's.  If Configure does not run correctly on
    this type of machine increase the stack size and rerun it.  On
    Microport SysV/AT machines, Configure might run correctly under ksh.
    Obtain ksh from Microport (available to current version owners without
    additional charge) and rerun Configure using it.

        Also on Microport SysV/AT Machines, the C compiler produces
    improper code for one of the arithmetic calls.  To fix this
    problem it is necessary to reduce the complexity of the
    statement, as reported by one of our testers here is the
    symptom and his patch.  Being this is a compiler bug on only
    one system, we make the information available, but not incorporate
    it in the main release.  Note, this may effect other areas
    of Elm, and in the future, Microport may even fix this problem.
    [Read the README file for the patches]

2.05    Configure won't run on HP-UX. Why?

        From Elm README:
        The Configuration script has been known to exercise an old bug
    on HP-UX's version of /bin/sh.  This shows up as part of the variable
    setting section showing up on your screen, and configure aborting
    on errors.  If this happens, try using ksh instead of sh as in:
        ksh Configure
    this will usually solve the problem.

2.06    Configure won't run on SCO XENIX 2.2.1. Why?

    Keith Brazington ([e-mail]):
    The solution is simple, up the stack size for /bin/sh. I used

    # mv /bin/sh /bin/sh.old
    # cp /bin/sh.old /bin/sh
    # fixhdr -F 8000 /bin/sh

    This may seem a bit over the top, but I put it back after!

2.07    Will Elm work on SGI Indigo?

        Syd Weinstein ([e-mail]):
    Well, I had no problems at all configuring and running Elm
    on my SGI Iris under 4.0.5.
    The biggie for SGI is to say Elm is a non ansi application,
    so you need to  list -cckr as an additional compilation flag.
    I took all the defaults from configure and it ran just fine.

2.08    I have problems compiling elm2.4 on HP/Apollo

    * Gordon D. Berkley ([e-mail]):
    As of ELM2.4pl17, The system compiles cleanly (?) for Apollo.
    This patch level includes many "fixes" that I submitted to ensure
    this.  There *are* many compilor warnings, but they can safely
    be ignored.

    I would suggest discarding any config.sh from a previous Configure,
    though, as this will cause the corrections to NOT work.

    In order to ensure compilation, please be sure to compile
    with SYSTYPE set to "sys5" rather than "bsd".

2.09    I have problems compiling elm2.4 on IBM AIX

    * Steve Adams ([e-mail]):
    >I am trying to compile the latest and greatest version of ELM on my
    >RS/6000 running 3.2.? (exact level unclear). I received the following
    >error messages about setgid being redefined:
    >
    >"init.c", line 128.16: 1506-132 (S) Function getgid cannot be
    >redeclared.
    >"init.c", line 128.26: 1506-132 (S) Function getuid cannot be
    >redeclared.

    You can get around the problem defining -U__STR__ during 'Configure'
    It will be fixed in PL22.

    * From the monthly posting:
        This version of Elm 2.4 should not require any changes
        to the configure run to link under AIX 3.2 or newer.
    On IBM RISC 6000 AIX, prior to 3.2, you might get string
        function errors on the compile.
    The solution is to do the following:

    Look at /usr/lpp/bos/bsdsport. It tells you to add
    following lines to /etc/xlc.cfg:
        * BSD 4.3 c compiler stanza
        bsdcc:  use        = DEFLT
            crt        = /lib/crt0.o
            mcrt       = /lib/mcrt0.o
            gcrt       = /lib/gcrt0.o
            libraries  = -lbsd, -lc
            proflibs   = -L/lib/profiled,-L/usr/lib/profiled
            options    = -H512,-T512, -qlanglvl=extended, -qnoro,
                     -D_BSD, -D_NONSTD_TYPES, -D_NO

        And then link bsdcc to xlc and use bsdcc instead of cc.

    In addition, Elm should be linked with the curses lib
    and not termcap lib if /etc/termcap is not there.
    (You can always copy the termcap database to etc
    (or make a symlink)).

2.10    Compiling elm 2.4 under NS 3.0

    Paul Terray ([e-mail]):
    Check if fcntl.h is included somewhere (as it probably is).
    It contains most of the declaration the program are looking for.
    If not, include it. Then, just comment the include line for unistd.h.

2.11    Elm sends 'empty mail' on 386BSD: why?

    * From the monthly posting:
    On 386bsd, the shell that is shipped with the system,
    ash, does not work for sending messages within Elm.  Mail
    messages have headers only and no body.  Replacing the shell
    with bash (from GNU) seems to solve the problem.  The bash
    shell is in the 'etc' distribution of 386BSD.

    * If you upgrade to current version, this should happen no more.

2.12    Why can't I get SGI to work for non ROOT?

        From the monthly posting:
        SGI, at 3.3, doesn't have vfork, but instead a stub that does
        not work.  Make sure vfork is undef in the configuration.

2.13    I have problems p)rinting messages in 2.4PL20

    When I try and print a message, I get
    "readmsg: Cannot find start of selected message". Why?

    Chip Rosenthal ([e-mail]):
    Please take a look at the From_ line of the message you are trying to
    print.  I'm going to guess that it has a complex address, maybe with
    some quoting or special characters, or maybe a strange date syntax.

    The utilities in the current Elm release (including `readmsg') use
    very simpleminded routines to crack the From_ lines.  Some headers
    that Elm handles fine confuse these utilities.  One of the larger
    changes in the next Elm update will be moving all of the From_ and
    ~Date: processing out of the main Elm code and into the library, so
    the utilities (including `readmsg') will use the same algorithms as
    Elm.

    If you look at the From_ line and it doesn't seem particularly
    unusual, feel free to drop me a line.  Most of the changes to
    readmsg and Elm printing came from my hands, and I'm working on
    the aforementioned changes too.  If there is something else broke
    in there, I'd be glad to look at it.

2.14    Elm2.4 PL20 - 'x' key causes segmentation violation

    Nigel Metheringham ([e-mail]):
    in the file src/exitprog.c, there is a line
        char *msg, answer;
    replace it with
        char msg[SLEN], answer;

2.15    readmsg:illegal option -- I. Why?

    Chip Rosenthal ([e-mail]):
    It means you installed an updated `elm' binary but continue
    to use an old version of `readmsg'.

2.16    Forms don't work. Why?

    Syd Weinstein ([e-mail]):
    If you have `forms = ON' in elmrc, Forms is there, but
    the menu items to make a form require that user level
    be set off beginner.  (anything but 0 (beginner))

2.17    ELM does not recognize VMS mail. Why?

    * This is fixed in Pl22.

    * Syd Weinstein ([e-mail]):
    Looks to me like you found a bug in Elm's quote parsing routines.
    It just needs to be looked into.

    Reported from: Steen Hammerum ([e-mail])

2.18    Huge headers cause Memory Fault. Why?

    Syd Weinstein ([e-mail]):
    Any part of Elm at the 2.x level will abort if given a header line
    that is too long.  It uses fixed length buffers, and at some point
    they overflow, and none too gracefully.
    3.x will support dynamic strings to solve this problem.

2.19    Can I use elm for posting and replying to news?

        * Andreas Spiegl ([e-mail]):
        In order to set things up so elm is your mailer when you
        respond r or R to a news article in rn or trn, define an
        environment variable RNINIT that points to an initialization
        file for rn/trn. E.g. .rnrc
        Then put the following line in this file (.rnrc):
        -EMAILPOSTER="elm -i %h -s \"Re: %S\" %t"
        This is from now on telling rn to start elm with the appropriate
        parameters whenever you reply to an article and works great.
        But:  --> This is not for followup postings on the usenet! <--
        If you want to use elm in order to post article, you'd need a
        line with -ENEWSPOSTER instead of -EMAILPOSTER. Then you would
        tell elm (once it was evoked by rn/trn) that you want to send
        this to [e-mail],
        for example use "[e-mail]". This will post
        your email message to the usenet.
        This is not very convenient though, as you have to convert the
        address manually. Unless you write a nice script for it, of course.
        Be sure to send me a copy if you do. :-)

        * Mike O'Connor ([e-mail]):
        Of course, the DEC gateway allows one to gateway email to Usenet with
        email addresses of the following format:
        [e-mail]
        and has the additional advantage that they carry a LOT of the regional
        newsgroups.
        I still think piping it to sendmail with a macro for R is the way to
        go.  This allows you to use the mailer of your choice, be it elm or
        pine or Berkeley Mail or Z-Mail or whatever.  This gets it into your
        /usr/spool/mail or /usr/mail or /var/mail or wherever.

    * Robert Nicholson ([e-mail])
    The objective was to be able to use elm for all news contributions,
    reply/followup.  This way I can then store my postings and replies
    in =sent or filter based on Subject: and store them in a separate
    folder.

    For Replies I added the following to .zshenv:
    export MAILPOSTER="elm -i %h -s \"Re: %S\" %t"

    This invokes elm for replies within trn.

    For Followups it's a bit more involved.
    Now I didn't like the idea of relying on mail2news gateways in order
    to post news.  So I chose to set up an alias to handle postings:
    export NEWSPOSTER="elm -i %h -s \"Usenet News Post\n\n\" usenetnews"

    The postings go to the usenetnews (as opposed to usenet) alias.
    This gets processed in procmail thus.

    :0b
    * ^TOusenetnews
    | sed -n '/Newsgroups/,$p' | /usr/local/news/inews -h

2.20    Compile fails on lib/strftime.c [PL23].

    * Chip Rosenthal ([e-mail]):
    A bug was introduced at PL23 that causes the compile to fail on
    pre-ANSI systems.  Change line 114 from "# define P_(x) /**/"
    to "# define P_(x) ()".

2.21    Compile error on SGI Crimson.

    Error:
        cc  -O -I../hdrs    -c opt_utils.c
    accom: Warning 294: opt_utils.c, line 171:
    Function getpwuid has prototyped and non-prototyped declarations.
    Default promotion of non-prototype form of argument 1 does not
    match prototype:
    prototype:  unsigned short is different from actual:  int

    * Spencer Sun ([e-mail]):
    in Configure, tell it to use the -cckr flag for cc.

2.22    Problem compiling elm on DEC Alpha, OSF/1 v.1.2

    Error:
    getarpdate.c, line 110: redeclaration of 'timezone';

    * Eiji Hirai ([e-mail]):
    This is fixed in elm 2.4p23 ; I think By the way, you
    should most definitely upgrade to DEC OSF/1 1.3.
    It fixes a tremendous number of bugs from 1.2.  Do it NOW!  :-)

2.23    I can't build Elm 2.4PL23 on Sun 386i SunOS 4.0.2

    * Sydney Weinstein ([e-mail]):
    known bug, will be fixed in Patch 24, but its an easy one:
    in lib/strftime.c, there is a bug in the prototyping macro, it
    currently reads:
    #if ANSI_C
    # define P_(x) x
    #else
    # define P_(x) /**/
    # define const  /**/
    #endif

    and the relevant line needs to read
    # define P_(x) (/**/)

    thats it.

2.24    How can I override a Configure's setup ?

    If you know what Configure makes wrong before running it, then create
    a file "config.over" with your own choices.
    If you don't know it, manually edit Configure output.

2.25    How to solve hdrs/mcprt.h problems with Sequent/PTX 2 ?

    Alan Thew ([e-mail]) reports the following:
    >PTX 2.0x does not like the code in this header file.
    >
    >       cc -Xo  -O -I../hdrs    -c mcprt.c
    >"../hdrs/mcprt.h", line        52: syntax error
    >"../hdrs/mcprt.h", line        53: syntax error
    >"../hdrs/mcprt.h", line        53: incomplete or misplaced function definition

    >extern int             MCprintf(char *fmt, ...);  <-----

    * Chip Rosenthal ([e-mail]) says:
    The first question is does your system truly support the ANSI
    <stdarg.h> facility, or does it use the traditional Unix <varargs.h>?

    If the first case is true, then your compiler has botched the
    implementation for specifying prototypes for variable-argument
    procedures.  It's possible.  I know of at least one compiler that was
    done while the ANSI spec was still in development, and used an
    unadorned comma at the end of the parameter list to prototype varargs
    routines.

    In this case, you'll need to edit the function declarations in mcprt.h
    Maybe just deleting the "..." ellipses will work.  (It would with the
    aforementioned compiler.)  Maybe you'll have to scrap the prototype
    by removing everything between the parens.

    If the second case is true, then Configure made a boo-boo.  It saw a
    <stdarg.h> file and decided to use that.  If this was the wrong thing
    to do, then you can override Configure by creating a file called
    "config.over" with a single line saying:

        i_stdarg='undef'

    Then run "Configure -d" to rebuild things and re-make.

    * I'll give you the right answer as soon as Alan Thew will tell me
    how did he solve this problem.


3.0    Filter Answers
----------------------

    This part is maintained by Jan Djarv ([e-mail])

3.01    What documentation exists for filter?

    Besides the man-page (which is rather brief) there is the
    `Elm Filter System Guide' (doc/Filter.guid in the elm distribution).
    A PostScript version is available on dsinc.Myxa.com.

3.02    What do I need to get filter working?

    You need a MTA (Mail Transport Agent) that reads .forward files
    AND let's you mail to a program.

    A .forward file is put in your home directory, where it is read
    by your MTA. It is here you tell your MTA to pipe the messages
    to filter instead of putting it in your mailbox.

3.03    How can I tell if my system understands .forward files?

    This usually works:
    Make a .forward file in your home directory with the following
    contents:

    \userid, "|/bin/cat - > /your/home/directory/forward.test 2>&1"

    where userid is your username and /your/home/directory is the
    full path to your home directory. The \ is there to avoid
    infinite recursion (i.e. if it wasn't there, the MTA would read
    your .forward again, and see userid a second time, and read your
    .forward again and on and on ...)

    Then mail yourself a message. If all goes well you should have
    1. A message in your incoming mailbox.
    2. A file forward.test that contains the same message as in 1.

    If you get 1 but not 2, it is possible that your MTA doesn't
    support mailing to programs. Take it up with your system
    administrator.  It might also be the case that your MTA has another
    syntax for mailing to programs.

3.04    What do I put in my .forward file?

    "|/full/path/to/filter -vo /some/unique/file"

    (note the placements of the quotes, this is for sendmail at least,
    there are possibly other MTA:s out there that want's it different.
    Try finding a manual if the above doesn't work).

    Always use the full path to filter. Your MTA probably has a
    different PATH than the one you have.

    Also you should personalize your line by for instance
    redirect the errors of filter (that's what -o does, -v just makes
    the errors a bit more verbose) to a file that is unique on
    your system. /tmp/filter.userid (userid == your user name) usually
    does it.

    * Syd Weinstein ([e-mail])
    explains why your line should be personalized:

    Its not a bug, but a feature of sendmail. Sendmail prevents duplicate
    deliveries to addresses, so a message sent to "a, b, a, b, c"
    would be delivered to "a, b, c", but only one copy to a and b.
    Sendmail does this by sorting and 'uniq'ing the list of addresses.
    If two people's filter invocations in the .forward file match,
    sendmail will gladly coallese these down to one as a duplicate
    delivery address, and the result is exactly what you describe.

    Just get everyone to make their .forward line personal (add a unique
    -o file perhaps) and all will work ok.

    * John Walder ([e-mail] ):

    If you have the source code for sendmail, try the following patch to
    the sameaddr() function in the file src/parseaddr.c.  It still
    eliminates duplicate recipients but not duplicate programs (filters).
    This solution is more elegant than continually fixing .forward files.

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------

    *** parseaddr.c-    Tue May  4 10:55:42 1993
    --- parseaddr.c    Tue May  4 11:42:52 1993
    ***************
    *** 1525,1530 ****
    --- 1525,1538 ----
        if (a->q_mailer != b->q_mailer)
            return (FALSE);

    +    /* -- 05/04/93 jdw  LOCAL CHANGE
    +        Allow recipients to forward to the same program/filter!
    +        Have same mailer, so check for delivery to a program
    +    */
    +    /* fprintf(stderr, "sameaddr(%s,%s)\n", a->q_user, b->q_user); */
    +     if (a->q_mailer == ProgMailer)
    +         return (FALSE);
    +    /* -- End LOCAL CHANGE */
    +
        /* if the user isn't the same, we can drop out */
        if (strcasecmp(a->q_user, b->q_user))
            return (FALSE);

3.05    What is the simples filter-rules file I can write to test filter?

    Well, the simplest is:

    always leave

    which tells filter that it should always put the messages into your
    default mailbox.
    A more interesting example would be:

    if (subject contains "filter-test") then save "~/filter-folder"

    which tells filter to save all messages with a Subject: field that
    contains filter-test into the file filter-folder in your home
    directory.
    All other messages will be put into your normal incoming mailbox,
    since that is filters default rule if no other match.
    You can then look at the messages in filter-folder with elm
    (elm -f ~/filter-folder).

3.06    How do I check my filter-rules for typos and other errors?

    Run 'filter -r'. See also the next question.

3.07    Why doesn't the output from filter -r match my filter-rules file?

    Filter reads the rules and converts them to an internal format. When
    it writes them out again, it writes them in a canonical format.

    This is due to the fact that filter has a loose input syntax.

    Each rule is turned into an 'if (...) then ...'.

    The following words are translated:

    contains    becomes        =
    &&        becomes        and
    then        becomes        ?
    matches        becomes        ~

3.08    Can I have 'or' in my filter-rules?

    No, filter can't deal with that. Or is implemented by writing another
    rule below the one you want to 'or' with.

3.09    Can I make filter execute more than one rule for a message?

    No. As soon filter find's one applicable rule, it executes that one
    and exits.

3.10    How do I do multiple actions for one rule?

    You can't do that directly in the filter-rules file. You have to
    write a shell script or program that does what you want, and then call
    it with the execute or executec action.

3.11    What headers are available in the filter-rules?

    From, To, and Subject.

    If you answered yes to Configure when it asked "Does your site
    receive e-mail with valid "Reply-To:" and "From:" fields?", the
    From field will be the From: header, or the Reply-To: header if
    one is available (Reply-To: supersedes From:).

    If you answered no, the From line is the From_ header.

        The To field is the concatenation of the To:, Apparently-To:
    and the Cc: headers.

3.12    How do I forward mail to an elm alias from filter?

    Let's say you want to do

    if (subject = hello) forward "mail-alias"

    where mail-alias is an alias you have defined in elm.
    The sad part is that filter doesn't know about elm aliases.
    You have to do something like this:

    if (subject = hello) executec "/full/path/to/elm -s '%s' mail-alias"

3.13    Filter executes my script but the script doesn't work.
    It does work if I run it prom my shell prompt. Why?

    Never assume that the script filter executes has the same PATH that
    you have when logged in.

    Always set the PATH explicitly at the beginning of your script.

3.14    How do I capture the message fed to a script by execute/executec
    for later processing?

    At the start of your script:

    /bin/cat - > /tmp/mail$$

    Then you can grep, and examine /tmp/mail$$ as you would an ordinary
    file. Don't forget to remove /tmp/mail$$ if you don't need it
    afterwards.

3.15    Both execute and executec feeds the message as standard input to
    the script. But what if I don't need it?

    Just ignore it.

3.16    What if I what to do something based on the contents of a message
    (i.e not the headers), or based on some header not available in filter?

    Feed the message to a script using execute/executec, save it
    and do your stuff in the script.

3.17    How can I make filter operate on all messages in a folder?

    You  can't  directly,  but you can make a little script that does
    the job:

        #!/bin/sh

        frm -n $1 |
        while read no rest
        do
            no=`echo $no|sed 's/[^0-9]//g'`
            readmsg -h ${1:+"-f$1"} $no        \
                | filter -vo /what/usually/goes/here
        done

    Start the script with the folder name as argument.

    NOTE:  this script is an example, and doesn't work on empty fold-
    ers.  If your filter rules try and put something into the  folder
    the script  is currently operating on, disaster occurs.

3.18    Can I use filter to automatically answer my mail (like vacation)?

    If you are on vacation you might do something like this:
    In your filter-rules:

    always executec "/path/to/vac.script %s %r"

    In vac.script:
    --
    #!/bin/sh
    PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/ucb:/usr/local/bin
    export PATH # Make sure that the PATH above includes elm
    elm -s "Re: $1" $2 <<EOM

    Hi.

    I got your message about "$1". Im not in now but will get
    back to you as soon as I'm back.

    EOM
    --

    You can also execute "vacation" if you have it.

3.19    My filter doesn't recognize executec/matches.

    Executec and matches was added in Elm 2.4 PL11.
    Try getting a newer Elm.

3.20    Filter sometimes munges up my folders, or looses messages. Why?

    If  two instances of filter are running at the same time, and are
    operating on the same folder, you get this effect. Filter doesn't
    lock  your  private folders (i.e not incoming folder), so the two
    instances will never know that there is someone else operating on
    the same folder.

    See also bug: UB13.

3.21    Why doesn't elm mark mail I saved in a folder with filter as new (N)?

    * Elm does only mark new messages as new in your incoming folder.
    Sometimes you want it that way, sometimes you don't.
    If you are sure you want new messages to be marked as such in
    any folder, you need to edit the source for Elm, and recompile.

    Search for these lines in src/newmbox.c:
        if(folder_type == SPOOL)
          current_header->status = VISIBLE | NEW | UNREAD;
        else
          current_header->status = VISIBLE;

    and change them to:
        current_header->status = VISIBLE | NEW | UNREAD;

    * Jennifer Myers ([e-mail]):
    You should also modify the code for 'frm' and 'nfrm', so that those
    utilities will recognize new mail in the users's mail folders.
    In utils/from.c, the following code appears twice:

    if (user_mailbox)
        status = NEW_MSG;
    else
        status = READ_MSG;

    Change both occurrences of the above lines to:

    /* if no Status header, assume NEW_MSG */
    status = NEW_MSG;

    * William Pemberton ([e-mail]) also wrote
    a set of patches to do this.

3.22    Why does filter join adjacent messages together?

    * Aidan M Corey ([e-mail]):
    The  first  line in a piece of mail is a From_ line; this is used
    by Elm to tell where one message in the mailbox ends  and  a  new
    one  starts.   Unfortunately,  on some systems this line is lost.
    If the first message in the mailbox went through filter, Elm will
    refuse to run, saying that the mailbox is corrupt.  If a filtered
    message follows another message, Elm will  interpret  them  as  a
    single message.

    A patch for this is to have a .forward containing:

    "|/full/path/to/mailkludge"

    where mailkludge is a world-executable file containing:

        #!/bin/sh
        (echo From fubar `date`;cat) | /full/path/to/filter
        exit 0

    If  you  have  sendmail it may be that it is configured to remove
    From_ lines. Some sendmails have an f option that can be  set  in
    the sendmail.cf file:

        # Save those UN*X From_ lines
        Of

    Others require you to define a variable called l:

        # UNIX header format
        DlFrom $g  $d

    Then  there  is the mailer flags. There is one flag, n, that when
    set will not insert the From header. I.e. this mailer  spec  will
    keep the From headers:

        Mether, P=[TCP], F=msDFMuCX, S=11, R=21, A=TCP $h

    but this will not:

        Mether, P=[TCP], F=nmsDFMuCX, S=11, R=21, A=TCP $h

    (the diff is in the F= spec).

3.23    What other mail filter programs exists?

    Filter is a very simple program and has limitations.
    If you have something complicated you want to do,
    and it is difficult to do with Filter, you should check out the
    more powerful alternatives: deliver, procmail or mailagent.

    More info on these can be found in the UNIX Email Software Survey FAQ
    (see news.answers or comp.mail.misc).

3.24    554 "|/usr/local/bin/filter"... unknown mailer error

    This happens if your system administrator disabled the pipe
    inside sendmail. It is due to a security hole in sendmail.
    Check CERT advisories to know more on this.
3.25    My filter doesn't work. I set it up correctly, but nothing happens.

    Sendmail has a security hole which fix may cause pipe in .forward
    to be ignored. This isn't the correct fix to the hole, but is the
    most secure. Check with your system administartor.

    * from Jack Moskowitz ([e-mail]):
    Moreover, some versions of sendmail have another bug, which will
    cause mail addresses to be ignored if two addressees have the same
    entries in thier .forward files. This is to inhibit multiple
    delivery to the same address.  The problem is that sendmail makes
    no distinction about addresses and "| program".

    * from David W. Tamkin ([e-mail]):
    The easy solution is to put your own logname as a comment in the
    pipe, like this:
        "| /path/to/filter # jackm"
    sendmail will think that that's different from
        "| /path/to/filter # bigboss"
    and will deliver to both addressees.

3.26    How to (b)ounce from filter, instead of (f)orwarding ?

    When forwarding mail thru filter, the forwarded message appears
    from "Filter of <myself>" instead of the actual sender. How to
    avoid this ?

    * Aidan Corey ([e-mail]):
    After some experimentation, I arrived at:
      if (condition) then execute
              "/usr/lib/sendmail -oi -odq [e-mail]"

    If your system doesn't use sendmail, you would need to modify this.
    If it does, read man sendmail for the meanings of the switches I used.

3.27    If I use filter, all incoming mail disappears. Why ?

    Newer versions of sendmail fix a security hole by not allowing
    piping a message to a program. Sendmail's configuration changed
    a bit, also, and it's possible that your local Postmaster didn't
    configure it properly. If it's so, there's no wy getting sendmail
    using filter. Check with your Postmaster.

3.28    I use filter and MMDF and have some problems.

    Filter  doesn't  know how to handle MMDF style mailboxes. It will
    corrupt the folder.


4.0     Bugs list

    This list is the bug list from the Elm monthly posting.

    Known bugs in Elm 2.4 PL21:
        The following are from the Elm 2.4 "To.Do" list that are
    considered bugs, not enhancements, that have not yet been done.
    Items which are enhancements are not listed here.  It is our
    intention to release changes to 2.4 for some, but not necessarly all
    of these.  Some of these will only be fixed in 3.0.  (It depends on
    how extensive the change is to fix it, and what else it ties into
    in the 3.0 work).

    Items marked fixed will be deleted from the list on the next posting.
    Database last updated on Friday 12-February-93  9:45:34 +0000 (GMT)


    General bugs and configuration bugs
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    GB01  Version:     2.4PL0           Status:     Open
          Open Date:   1-Oct-92         Close Date:
          Reported by: Elm Development Group <[e-mail]>
          Summary:     Configuration questions need rearranging
          Description:
          The ordering of some sets of configuration questions could
          be improved.  In some cases, the answer to a later question
          renders an earlier question moot.  In such cases, the latter
          should proceed the former so that the former would only be
          asked if need be.  This occurs with many of the configuration
          questions that deal with the domain routing and pathalias
          databases, appending the hostname and internet address style,
          etc.

    GB02  Version:     2.4PL0           Status:     Open
          Open Date:   1-Oct-92         Close Date:
          Reported by: Elm Development Group <[e-mail]>
          Summary:     User id & mailbox algorithm should be consistant.
          Description:
          All programs need to use the same algorithm elm(1) and frm(1)
          use in establishing the user's id and the user's incoming
          mailbox.


    Elm(1) bugs
    ~~~~~~~~~~~

    EB02  Version:     2.4PL0           Status:     Open
          Open Date:   1-Oct-92         Close Date:
          Reported by: Elm Development Group <[e-mail]>
          Summary:     Encryption is not fully implemented in ELM.
          Description:
          In elm(1) we have the following problems:

          When `b' (bouncing) a message or `f' (forwarding) a message
          without editing, an encrypted section of text in the original
          message wrongly gets encrypted a second time. The function
          that looks for encryption delimiters needs to know to ignore
          them in these situations.

          When `p' (printing) or `|' (piping) a message, an encrypted
          message does not get decrypted. This is because elm(1)
          invokes readmsg(1) to pull the message out of the folder and
          readmsg(1) does not deal with encryption at all.

          Even if we gave readmsg(1) the ability to decrypt messages,
          we'd still have problems because readmsg itself would have to
          prompt for the decryption key.

          Now if we were printing or piping a set of tagged messages,
          readmsg(1) would have to prompt for decryption keys for each
          message individually. In doing that readmsg(1) would have to
          indicate which message of the set it was working on.

          This would be difficult since readmsg(1) uses actual ordinal
          message position in the folder, and that would be confusing
          if the user has folders sorted in other than mailbox order:
          the message numbers wouldn't match up. The solution therefore
          involves replacing readmsg(1) with a new function in elm(1)
          to handle the `p' or `|' commands, and this function would
          need to detect the encryption delimiters and prompt for the
          decryption key. Furthermore, readmsg(1) should get enhanced
          to deal with encrypted text, or else carry a disclaimer
          that it doesn't work on encrypted text.

          When including the text of an original message for a `r'
          (reply) or `f' (forward), encrypted sections do not get
          decrypted first, resulting in decrypted text inside the
          include text. This means that the elm(1) function that
          includes text of an original message must detect encryption
          delimiters and decrypt encrypted text before including it
          in a reply or forwarded message.

    EB26  Version:     2.4PL0           Status:     Open
          Open Date:   1-Oct-92         Close Date:
          Reported by: Elm Development Group <[e-mail]>
          Summary:     Addresses "node!user@domain" not handled as RFC976
          Description:
          When using an address of the form "node!user@domain" and
          having Elm convert it to an all ! address, RFC976 states that
          the proper address should be domain!node!user, but Elm
          translates that to node!domain!user.

    EB36  Version:     2.4PL0           Status:     Open
          Open Date:   1-Oct-92         Close Date:
          Reported by: Elm Development Group <[e-mail]>
          Summary:     Sometimes user name is added into full name field
          Description:
          When Elm is configured not to look at the password file for
          full name information, it sometimes places the user name in
          ()s as the comment in addition to the full name.

    EB41  Version:     2.3PL11          Status:     Closed
          Open Date:   2-Dec-92         Close Date: 19-Sep-93
          Reported by: [e-mail] (Rob Price)
          Summary:     Incoming mail incorrectly handled in subset mode.
          Description:
          If a subset of mail is displayed using the "l" command, new
          incoming mail is displayed with the subset mail.  However the
          mail count at the top of the screen is not updated, and the
          final few items (ie those numerically after the number of
          messages shown) cannot be selected by the cursor keys.

          We implimented a 'quick' fix to close this one out.  In that
          new mail is added to the subset, and not filtered by the
          current restriction.

    EB45  Version:     2.4devPL65       Status:     Open
          Open Date:   2-Dec-92         Close Date:
          Reported by: [e-mail] (Joe Greco)
          Summary:     Incoming messages can confuse index screen display.
          Description:
          Elm can lose track of incoming (new) messages so that
          although the number of messages at the top of the screen is
          correct, the new messages are not displayed on the index
          page.  However these messages can be accessed in the normal
          way, they just aren't listed in the index.  Redrawing the
          screen restores things to normal.

    EB48  Version:     2.4PL20          Status:     Open
          Open Date:   4-Jan-93         Close Date:
          Reported by: [e-mail]
          Summary:     Empty Reply-To: header prevents reply including
               original text
          Description:
          When the received Mail has an empty "Reply-To: " entry in the
          header, it is not possible to reply to the mail including the
          text,  Elm simply doesn't ask to include the text (or if
          autocopy is set then no text is included).

    EB50  Version:     2.4PL17          Status:     Open
          Open Date:   30-Dec-1992      Close Date:
          Reported by: [e-mail] (Neil Weisenfeld)
          Summary:     Elm incorrectly displays folder name on index page
          Description:
          My main mail directory is "~/Mail", but I also keep some
          stuff in another directory "~/MailDelivery".  The bug that
          I came across is when I change to the folder
          "~/MailDelivery/xxx", it prints the current folder name as
          "=Delivery/xxx"

    EB52  Version:     2.4PL20          Status:     Open
          Open Date:   7-Jan-93         Close Date:
          Reported by: [e-mail] (Steve Campbell)
          Summary:     Suspend/resume does not return you to builtin editor.
          Description:
          If elm is suspended (ie ^Z in csh), when composing a message
          in the builtin editor, a resume (fg in csh) brings you back
          in at the send/edit/forget set of prompts.

    EB53  Version:     2.4PL20          Status:     Closed
          Open Date:   7-Jan-93         Close Date: ?-93
          Reported by: [e-mail]
          Summary:     Change alias can list names incorrectly.
          Description:
          Using the new (C)hange Alias in the alias screen, the first
          name and the last name are displayed as the same thing (the
          entire string).

          [Comment from Dev team] This is a feature not a bug.  This
          occurs for entries that weren't  set up as Howard; Robert in
          the text file (entry was still the  old way, Robert Howard).
          Thus you get the whole thing both times so you can delete
          what you don't want.


    Utilities bugs
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    UB02  Version:     2.4PL0           Status:     Open
          Open Date:   1-Oct-92         Close Date:
          Reported by: Elm Development Group <[e-mail]>
          Summary:     Newmail cannot handle null From: headers.
          Description:
          Newmail(1) displays a null "From" when a message does not
          contain a From: header line. It needs to be able to parse the
          return path and display the "last two words" of it, just like
          elm(1) does  when it encounters a message without a From:

    UB07  Version:     2.4PL0           Status:     Open
          Open Date:   1-Oct-92         Close Date:
          Reported by: Elm Development Group <[e-mail]>
          Summary:     Arepdaemon does not check user permissions.
          Description:
          Arepdaemon has a bad security hole because it does not check
          to see if the user can read the file used for reply.

    UB09  Version:     2.4PL0           Status:     Open
          Open Date:   1-Oct-92         Close Date:
          Reported by: Elm Development Group <[e-mail]>
          Summary:     Arepdeamon does not check status when unlinking data file.
          Description:
          Autoreply.c tries to unlink the file "/etc/autoreply.data"
          when there is only one entry in it and does not check the
          return value of unlink. This can have bad repercussions if
          the unlink fails because the program nevertheless reports
          success.

    UB13  Version:     2.4PL0           Status:     Open
          Open Date:   1-Oct-92         Close Date:
          Reported by: Elm Development Group <[e-mail]>
          Summary:     Filter has no locking against multiple
               instantiations.
          Description:
          If filter is run on a system that allows multiple delivery
          agents, that can start up multiple copies of filter, delivery
          of messages can get intermixed.  Filter needs a complete
          interlocking to prevent this.

    UB15  Version:     2.4PL17          Status:     Closed
          Open Date:   25-Dec-92        Close Date: ?-93
          Reported by: Larry Rosenman <[e-mail]>
          Summary:     readmsg does not honour Content-Length: headers
          Description:
          Readmsg does not honour Content-Length: headers - it uses the
          old standard of marking messages with From_  headers.  This
          makes it inconsistent with elm, and can make it imposible to
          print messages from within elm.
          [Fixed in PL22]

5.0     Archivers, what they archive, how to download

    This is the list of Internet and UUCP sites distributing
    the latest version of Elm, from the Elm monthly posting.

5.0.1   The following sites have agreed to make Elm available
    via anonymous ftp.

    Site            Contact

    In the US/Canada:
    -----------------
    wuarchive.wustl.edu    [e-mail] (Chris Myers)
        (128.252.135.4)
    /packages/mail/elm

    ftp.uu.net
    (137.39.1.9, 192.48.96.9)
    /networking/mail/elm

    In Europe:
    ----------
    ftp.cs.ruu.nl        Edwin Kremer, [e-mail]
    (131.211.80.17)
    /pub/ELM-2.4

    ftp.th-darmstadt.de    [e-mail]
    (130.83.55.75)
    /pub/networking/mail/elm

    In the UK:
    ----------
    uk.ac.soton.ecs        [e-mail] (bitnet)
    (152.78.64.201)            [e-mail] (JANET)

    ftp.demon.co.uk        Cliff Stanford, [e-mail]
    (158.152.1.65)
    /pub/unix/mail/elm

        src.doc.ic.ac.uk    [e-mail]
        (146.169.2.10)
        /computing/mail/elm

        In Australia:
    -------------
        ftp.adelaide.edu.au     Mark Prior, [e-mail]
        (129.127.40.3)
    /pub/mailers

    In Taiwan:
    ----------
    NCTUCCCA.edu.tw        Huang, Chih-Hsien [e-mail]
    (140.111.1.10 and 192.83.166.10)
    /packages/mail/elm

5.0.2    The following sites have agreed to make Elm available
    via anonymous uucp:

        Site                    Contact

    uunet            Elm is /networking/mail/elm

    dsinc            Syd Weinstein
                [e-mail], dsinc!syd
                note: anon uucp info changed 12/16/91
                For further info, send an e-mail
                message to [e-mail] stating:
                send anon how-to dir

    stanton            Steven P. Donegan
                [e-mail], stanton!donegan
                714-894-2246 uucp - nuucp no word
                Elm is /u/public/elm2.3.tar.Z


                =+=+=+=+=+=+

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----------------------
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