'help TOPIC' for more information on a command. Many commands take message numbers or message lists: [msg] is an optionaly specified message number (usually the operation is on the current message if no number is specified) is an optionaly specified message list. Message lists consists of number ranges of the form N -N N- or N-N, and keywords (help keywords) OTHER HELP AVAILABLE (in addition to the commands): pager sendmail tilde header signature newmail keywords environment DMAIL written by Matthew Dillon, U.C. Berkeley -UCF (C)Copyright 1985-1989 by Matthew Dillon .pager set page [rows/command] 'page' is a SET variable which determines the type of paging list and display commands will use. If not defined, no filter is used. If a numerical value (i.e. 24) is specified, the page length will be set to that value and a rather stupid, simple internal paging routine will be used. If the variable is set to an alpha-numeric string, output will be piped through that filter. For instance: unset page -no paging set page more -use more filter set page page -use 'page' filter set page > x -redirect to a file (be careful) set page 24 -use internal paging, page length 24 rows. For internal paging, use to continue, or your INTR character to break out. Note that if you have paging set to a program, response time may be slower because dmail must execute that program. .sendmail set sendmail sendmail-path Inform DMAIL as to where the sendmail program is. The default (variable unset) is /usr/lib/sendmail. This variable is useful only for those of us who like to hack-up our own sendmail. .tilde ~ ~user directory expansion In all expressions except those within double quotes, the tilde `~` will be expanded to either your home directory, or the directory of a specified user, depending. Note that '*' and '?' are not expanded by DMAIL, though they will be by any shell commands you execute. It is probably a good idea to use ~ in any aliases, etc... in case you change directories using the 'cd' command. alias resource source ~/.dmailrc -example using ~ .header .headfile .signature .sigfile set headfile filepath set sigfile filepath The headfile variable, if it exists, causes dmail to include headers found in the specified file in any mail you send out (it shows up in the editor). The sigfile variable, if it exists, causes dmail to post-pend the contents of the specified file in any mail you send out (again, it shows up in the editor so you can modify it). Generally these are set in your .dmailrc, usage is as follows: set headfile $user$.header set sigfile $user$.signature .newmail When new mail comes in: Whenever newmail arrives, it will be automatically incorporated into a running DMAIL. However, to see it, you must 'select all' (or select on anything that would include it). .keywords .range .message KEYWORDS, MESSAGE LISTS Many commands in DMAIL require a range of messages be given. A Range consists of message numbers (3 4 5), message ranges (1-45 -9 9-), and keywords. Keywords select certain messages from the entire SELECTED list: all -All messages tag -All TAGGED messages mark -All MARKED (read) messages deleted -All DELETED messages written -All WRITTEN messages untag -All messages NOT TAGGED unmark -All messages NOT MARKED (i.e. read) undeleted -All messages NOT DELETED unwritten -All messages NOT WRITTEN Only the first three letters need be specified. For instance, the 'all' keyword selects all the messages currently selected. You could select on some subject, say, and then 'delete all'. The message number 0 refers to the last message. the 'undeleted' keyword exists only for completeness; you will probably never use it. .ver .version VER returns the version number. .if .else .endif IF [!]variable ELSE ENDIF Conditionals. Example: if verbose .... do stuff if the variable exists else ... do stuff if the variable does not exist endif if !page; echo no page variable; endif .nobreak .breakok NOBREAK BREAKOK Disable or Enable your INTR key. This command is stackable, thus there is no problem with recursive aliases which use it. Be careful that you match any NOBREAK to a BREAKOK, or you may accidently put yourself into NOBREAK mode (and a single BREAKOK may not fix it because it's stackable). A good example would be a command which needs the page variable set for the duration... say an alias to TYPE to a file: alias file "%_a nobreak; set _b $page; set page cat > $_a; type; set page $_b; unset _b; breakok" You can see that if the user were to hit his INTR character at the wrong time, the page variable would be incorrectly set. The nobreak/breakok commands fix this problem. For simplicity, most people don't bother with break/nobreak, as it clutter's aliases up. .delete DELETE Mark the specified messages for deletion. They will no longer show up on LISTings, (gaps will appear in message numbering). However, you can still TYPE them, if you remember the message number, and you can always UNDELETE them. Remember that the particular message # you've deleted may be different if you change the SELECT parameters. For example, message #3 selecting 'To' & 'foo' may actually be message #45 when you are selecting ALL (see SELECT). Upon a QUIT, messages marked for deletion are actually deleted from the mail file. .undelete UNDELETE UNDELETES messages. Without arguments, UNDELETE will restore the last message you deleted. Specifying 'all' (undelete all), will undelete any deleted messages in the currently selected message list. .header HEADER [message] Display the entire header of a message. This does not cause the message to be marked 'read'. TYPE, on the other hand, only displays header information specified by SETLIST. .type TYPE [message] Type the text of a message. Only header fields defined by SETLIST are displayed. Otherwise, only the text is displayed. This marks the particular message as 'read', and also makes that message the current message. .echo ECHO [string] Echo the given string onto the screen. .go GO # go to a message, don't type it out or anything. Remember that you can go to the last message by using the message # 0. By placing a keyword (help range), you can go to the first TAGGED message, etc... .reply .Reply REPLY Reply to the current letter. There are two forms of 'reply'. The first does not include the senders original letter, the second does. In both cases, Dmail will place you in VI, with the To:, Cc:, and subject lines filled out. The second form is 'Reply', with an upper case 'R'. This form includes the sender's message shifted to the right with '>'s on the left hand side. See FORWARD for another method of replying to mail. In any case, you may get the sender's letter by reading the file '#' from VI. That sequence would be ':r\\#' See MAIL for more information on VI .forward FORWARD [user user user....] Forward the current message to a list of users. The sender's entire message is placed in the text portion. The To: field will contain the user's named above, and the Subject: field will contain a 'Fo:' (you append your own subject) See MAIL for more information on VI .mail MAIL [user user user user...] Mail to [users]. You are given a VI to work from, and may modify any of the header fields. the From: field is inserted automatically by SENDMAIL, but you can overide it if you wish. Quitting out of VI without writing the output file will cause an abort, and no mail will be sent. Additionaly, you may use the 'vibreak' variable to enable your INTR character (usually CTL-C) to break you out of VI. When modifying the users list in To and Cc fields, remember that they should be all comma delimited, or none comma delimited. .select SELECT ALL SELECT Field match match match match... SELECT Field !match SELECT Field match match match , Field match , ..... Select what you want to look at. Select will take the field header you supply and attempt to match arguments with that field in the mail file. You can then work on the selected material as if the rest of your mail didn't exist. For instance, 'select To dillon', will select all messages addressed to you. Note that case is checked for the FIELD-HEADER, but not for arguments, so the latter will also find anything addressed to Dillon or DILLON. You only have to give a partial match, so 'select To di' would work just as well. Select then, allows you to quickly find what you want even though you may have 12000 messages (though it may take a while with that many) You may also specify what you DON'T want to select on: select To !foo will select all letters not addressed to 'foo'. You may select on any field you wish. At any time, you may say 'select ALL' to select the entire message list. Use RESELECT to select on the current message list. SELECT always selects from the entire message-list select Cc hack , To hack will select any mail with Cc or To fields containing hack. You may have as many comma operators as you wish. The comma must be a field of its own (spaces on either side... will be fixed in a later version) .reselect RESELECT ALL RESELECT Field match match match match... RESELECT Field !match SEE SELECT. Reselect allows you to CONTINUE to narrow down a topic or whatever. It will select on the current message list (which you have already narrowed down with SELECT or RESELECT). .defer DEFER Deselects any marked messages .. messages marked as 'read'. This is as if you did a RESELECT on all unread messages in the current select field. Thus, the messages will be renumbered. To see these messages again, you must use SELECT. .rlist RLIST - > 0 (next N), < 0 (prev N). RLIST -Lists next 20 (or previous 20 if near the end) Relative list. See LIST for details of the list command. This command will display the next messages beginning at the current message. If is negative, it displays the previous 20 ending at the current message. If there are not enough messages remaining in the forward or reverse direction, it lists in the opposite direction to try to bring the total messages listed to .list LIST LIST -Lists all selected messages Display header information on a message as specified by SETLIST, in a one line per message format. The default lists ALL messages. Leftword flags: r -indicates message has been read. Message will be moved to the destination file on QUIT > -indicates message is the current message w -indicates message has been written to a file. Message will be deleted from source file on QUIT T -indicates message has been taged by the user .next NEXT Execute TYPE or HEADER for the next message, depending on which of TYPE or HEADER was last executed by you ._next _NEXT Go to next message, do not print it out. .back BACK Execute TYPE or HEADER for the previous message, depending on which of TYPE or HEADER was last executed by you ._back _BACK Go to previous message, do not print it out. .db DB Delete the current message, type (or header) the previous message. This command could not be implemented with "del;prev" due to a special case when one is on the last message. .dt DT Delete current message, type (or header) next message. This command will warn you when you reach the end of the message list. References: DELETE and NEXT .environment ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE ACCESS Access may be gained to environment variables by using $$ instead of a single $. For example: echo $$USER 'help dmail' for command line options, 'help set' for description of special variables .set SET [variable [string]] see 'environment' for environment variables With no arguments, SET prints out all currently active variables. Note that this variable list is a different list than the ALIAS list. With one argument, the specified variable is displayed if it exists, or created if it doesn't. With more than one argument, the specified variable is set to the specified string. Variables may be references on the command line by $variable . The variable's contents will replace the reference. Unlike aliases, however, variable substitutions may take place anywhere on the command line rather than substitute just the command name. Note also that if you use a $ substitution for an argument of a command, the entire variable's contents is ONE argument (i.e. if a = "b c d", and you say something like: 'unset $a', it would attempt to unset a single variable whos name is "b c d". There are several reserved SET variables, which define options in DMAIL. Changing these will modify the option: page set paging on or to a specific command (i.e. more) sendmail set the path to the sendmail program vibreak enable your INTR character even when in VI. verbose reflects verbose option to sendmail comlinemail set when dmail executed w/ command line mailing list headfile header file containing additional mail headers sigfile signature file post pended to messages you send ask ask what to do after vi'ing mail archive file to archive any mail you send out in. _headchar string used to precede included text, default ">" replyfields fields to search to find the reply path page This variable determines what kind of paging is used for LIST, TYPE, and HEADER commands. If the variable does not exist, paging is turned off. If set to null (no string), an internal paging routine is used. If set to a value, an internal paging routine is used using the value as the page length. the 'page' variable can also be set to a command, such as 'more' or 'page', in which case, the output is piped through those commands: set page Turn paging on (internal page routine) set page 25 Internal page routine... 25 rows/screen set page more Use 'more' command to pipe output through set page page Use 'page' command to pipe output through you could also conceviably say: 'set page cat > x', or 'set page cat | lpr', but be very careful. sendmail This variable will redirect DMAIL as to where the mailer program is. The mailer program must be compatible with /usr/lib/sendmail which is the default used if the 'sendmail' variable isn't set to anything: set sendmail bin/mysendmail vibreak This variable, when set, allows the INTR character to abort a reply, mail, or forward command. Otherwise, if this variable is not present, INTR will not abort the above commands. verbose This variable, when set, causes the -v flag to be sent to sendmail. In addition, DMAIL will wait for sendmail to complete before returning your prompt. comlinemail This variable is set when dmail is invoked with a command line user list (e.g. dmail charlie mary mark). Usually, one uses this variable in an IF construct. A good example would be that you may usually CD to a mail directory, but you don't want to CD when dmail is run with a command line user-list: if !comlinemail cd ... alternate definition: The comlinemail variable will NOT be set if dmail is in interactive mode. headfile The file specified by this variable will be appended to the header list for your outgoing mail messages and generally contains only headers such as 'Reply-To: ' sigfile The file specified by this variable will be appended onto the temp vi files in reply and mail. The file is appended before you go into vi, so when you do, what you see is still what you get. ask If set, dmail will ask you what to to (quit, send, re-edit) after you leave the editor when sending mail. If not set, the mail is sent as soon as you leave the editor (unless you didn't write anything). archive If set (to a file name), any mail you send out (mail/reply/etc...) will be archived to this file. Usually, you provide a fully specified path so cd's won't effect the file location. _headchar This string is prepend to any included text when you do an upper-case reply (R) command. replyfields This string holds a list of fields which are searched for to determine which one to use in the To: field of your reply. If this variable does not exist or none of the specified fields could be found, the 'From ' (not From:) mail header will be used. The search ends at the first field found. Example: set replyfields "Reply-To: From:" .replyfields SET replyfields "field1 field2 ..." This string holds a list of fields which are searched for to determine which one to use in the To: field of your reply. If this variable does not exist or none of the specified fields could be found, the 'From ' (not From:) mail header will be used. The search ends at the first field found. Example: set replyfields "Reply-To: From:" .> SET _HEADCHAR "string" see SET. The _headchar variable determines the string prepending all included text when you do an upper-case reply (R) command. .archive SET ARCHIVE file if the archive variable is set to a file path, any mail you send out will automatically be appended to that file. Dmail pre-pends a "From ", so it is compatible with /bin/mail and so that you can dmail -f your archive file. Additionaly, a "Date: " field is pre-pended so you know when you sent the message. example: set archive ~/Dmail/arch since your .dmailrc is sourced even when you "dmail user .." from your csh, putting the above line in your .dmailrc will turn on archiving whenever you use dmail to send mail, command line or dmail prompt. if unset or set to nothing, no archive is made. .ask SET ASK if the 'ask' variable is set (set ask), dmail will ask you what to do when you are finished editing mail rather than send it immediately. (see 'help set') .alias ALIAS [variable [string]] Create an alias for a command. With no arguments, ALIAS will display all active aliases. With one argument, a particular alias is displayed (if it exists), or defined (if it did not previously exist). With more than one argument, the particular alias is set to the string list specified. alias alias hack "select From hacker , To hacker , Cc hacker" alias bye quit alias stuff "setlist 60 To ; list" Usually, any arguments following the alias are appended to the expansion. However, you can place such arguments inside the alias somewhere by using the following construction: alias myecho "%var echo $var ; list" myecho hello there ---> echo hello there ; list to unalias an alias, use the UNALIAS command. .unset .unalias UNSET var var var... UNALIAS var var var... Eradicate variables or aliases from memory. .setlist SETLIST [-s] [columns] Field [columns] Field ... -s prevents display of the list. Set the list format used for LIST and TYPE. The optional [columns] indicates how many columns to allocate for the Field specified. The Field can be a partial match. However, case is observed: setlist 18 Fro 38 Sub 10 To 0 Dat 18 columns for the From: field, etc... when TYPEing messages, the [columns] is ignored, and each field is printed in its entirety. Note that 0 columns have been allocated for the Date: field. Therefore, the Date: field will not show up on the LIST command, but will show up in the TYPE command. .cd CD PATH cd, as in csh. Changes your base directory. You can use the shell escape '! pwd' to get your current working directory. .source SOURCE file Source a file. The file is read in an executed in sequence. .preserve PRE PRESERVE messages. A message is MARKED if it has been read (has an 'r' flag from the LIST command). Marked messages are moved from your readfile into your outfile upon a QUIT. If you are reading and writing to the same file (i.e. from your mbox to your mbox), the 'r' flag has no effect. However, if you are reading from your spool file, and want to keep read messages in your spool (that is, not move them to your mbox), you want to PRESERVE them. This command simply unmarks them, so they appear not to have been read. .mark MARK Mark messages specified as being already 'read'. Remember that if you executed DMAIL without a -f option, any message 'read' at the time you quit will be moved to MBOX (or file specified by -o) .tag .untag TAG UNTAG The TAG command allow you to flag any message. You can tag a set of messages, then reference them all at once. For instance, if you tag interesting messages as you glance at them, you may then write them all to a file by 'write filename tag', or list them with 'list tag'. Alternately, you could delete all your taged messages with a single delete command 'delete tag'. The 'tag' operand works in the same way as the 'all' operand, except it works only on taged messages. UNTAG will untag a particular message in your message list. For instance, to untag any taged messages in the entire message list, you would: select all untag all OR untag tag Note that 'untag all' and 'untag tag' have the same effect. .write WRITE file Write the given messages or the current message to a file. The file file is appended to. Remember that you may specify 'all' to write all messages in the current select field to the file. Messages will be marked as having been writen, and will be deleted from the mail file when you 'quit'. However, you may cause them to be kept in the mail file by UNdeleting the messages (i.e. undelete all) You can also TAG the messages you want to write, and say 'write file tag' to write to the file all taged messages. .! ! [shell command] Give yourself a shell or execute a shell command. The shell forked is that specified by your SHELL environment variable, or /bin/sh if there is no SHELL environment variable. .x .exit X (EXIT) EXIT out of DMAIL without changing any files. Usually, one exits with QUIT, which would cause deleted messages to disappear, and TYPEd messages to go to MBOX (if you did not use the -f option with DMAIL). If your outfile is the same as your infile, reading a message does not effect anything. .quit QUIT Quit out of DMAIL. Delete any messages that were marked for deletion and if you executed DMAIL on /usr/spool/mail/ (default), any mail marked 'read' will be placed in MBOX in your home directory .xswitch .qswitch XSWITCH fromfile [tofile] QSWITCH fromfile [tofile] Switch to a different set of files. XSWITCH doesn't modify your old from and to files before switching, QSWITCH works as if you had QUIT stuff before switching to another set of files. If no [tofile] is specified, the new tofile will be the same as the fromfile you specify. .help .? HELP [topic] Give me help on a topic .dmail COMMAND LINE OPTIONS FOR DMAIL dmail -O [-l rcfile] -f [file] -o [file] -F field -F field -F field ... Default conditions: Home directory gotten from password entry User gotten from password entry Visual editor set to /usr/ucb/vi VI BREAKOUT enabled READ file is /usr/spool/mail/$USER WRITE file is $HOME/mbox From:, To:, and Subject: fields will be loaded into memory. HOME environment variable becomes home directory USER environment variable becomes user name VISUAL environment variable becomes editor used -O Go into interactive mode, even if there is no mail to read. -f [from file] Specify spool file to get mail from. If no file Argument is given, $HOME/MBOX is used. -o [to file] Specify file to write to, If no Argument is given, $HOME/.MBOX is used. Note that the default without -o is $HOME/MBOX -f -o With no file arguments causes both READ and WRITE files to be $HOME/.MBOX -F field Append this field to those which will be used on initial load. If, During usage of the program you specify a field which is not in memory, DMAIL will be forced to re-load the entire spool file, which can take a long time if you have more than 64K in the file -l rcfile Use this as the rc file rather than .dmailrc -L Do not source the rc file on boot