


MultiMail(1)                                         MultiMail(1)


NAME
       mm - offline mail reader for Blue Wave, QWK, OMEN and SOUP
       packets

SYNOPSIS
       mm [filename1] [filename2] [...]

DESCRIPTION
       MultiMail is an offline mail packet reader, supporting the
       Blue  Wave,  QWK,  OMEN and SOUP formats. It uses a simple
       curses-based interface.

       SOUP is used for Internet email and Usenet. The others are
       used  primarily  by dialup (or telnet) BBSes, to save con-
       nect time, and to provide a better interface to  the  mes-
       sage base.

       Not  all packet formats may be available, depending on how
       the program was compiled.

       This manpage is for version 0.37.

USAGE
       On most screens, the available keystroke commands are dis-
       played  in  the  lower  part  of  the screen. In the mail-
       reading window, pressing F1 or '?'  will show the commands
       available there.

       The  navigation  keys,  most  of which work throughout the
       program, are briefly summarized only on the packet screen,
       for  lack  of  space.  :-)  Basically, they consist of the
       standard cursor and keypad keys, with <Enter>  to  select.
       For terminals without full support for these keys, aliases
       are available for some of them:

       ESC   = Q
       PgDn  = B
       PgUp  = F
       Right = +
       Left  = -

       (Although  shown  in  capitals,  these  may   be   entered
       unshifted.)

       With  "Lynx-style  navigation", activated by the "UseLynx-
       Nav" option, the Left arrow key backs out from any screen,
       while  the  Right  arrow  key  selects. It also makes Left
       equivalent to selecting ".." in the packet list, except at
       the  top  level  (where it's equivalent to Quit). The plus
       and minus keys are no longer aliases for Right  and  Left,
       but perform the same functions as in the traditional navi-
       gation system.

       Of special note is the space bar. In  most  areas  of  the



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MultiMail(1)                                         MultiMail(1)


       program,  it  functions  as  an alias for PgDn; but in the
       mail-reading window, it works as a combination  PgDn/Enter
       key, allowing you to page through an area with one key.

       In  the  area  list,  the  default view (selectable in the
       .mmailrc) is of Subscribed areas only. By pressing L,  you
       can  toggle  first  to a view of Active areas (i.e., those
       with messages), and then to All areas. (Some formats, like
       plain  QWK,  don't  have  any  way  to indicate subscribed
       areas, so the Active and  Subscribed  views  will  be  the
       same. In other cases, you may have received an abbreviated
       area list, so that the Subscribed and All  views  are  the
       same.)  In  all  modes,  areas with replies always appear,
       flagged with an 'R' in the leftmost column.

       In the letter list, only unread messages are displayed, by
       default;  but  you can toggle this by pressing L. If there
       are any marked messages, L first switches to a marked-only
       mode,  then  to  all  messages,  then back to unread-only.
       Also, the default mode -- unread or all -- can be  set  in
       the .mmailrc.

       Multiple sort modes are available in the packet and letter
       lists; you can cycle through them  by  pressing  '$'.  The
       default sort modes are set in the .mmailrc.

       Packet names may be specified on the command line, bypass-
       ing the  packet  menu.  If  multiple  packets  are  named,
       they'll  be  opened sequentially. If a directory is speci-
       fied instead of a file, the packet window will  by  opened
       on  that directory, and no further items will be read from
       the command line.

       You can abort the program immediately from any screen with
       CTRL-X. You won't be prompted to confirm the exit, but you
       will still  be  prompted  to  save  replies  and  pointers
       (unless  autosaving is set). Note that if you've specified
       multiple packets on the command line, this is the only way
       to terminate the sequence prematurely.

       You  can  obtain  a  temporary  command  shell anywhere by
       pressing  CTRL-Z.  In  the  DOSish  ports  (MS-DOS,  OS/2,
       Win32),  it spawns a command shell, and you return to Mul-
       tiMail via the "exit" command. In Unix, it relies  on  the
       shell  to put MultiMail in the background; you return with
       "fg". (This has always been available  in  the  Unix  ver-
       sions; however, it won't work if MultiMail wasn't launched
       from an interactive shell, or if the shell doesn't support
       it.)

SEARCHING
       A  case-insensitive  search  function  is available on all
       screens. Press '/' to specify the text to look for, or '>'
       or '.' to repeat the last search.



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MultiMail(1)                                         MultiMail(1)


       New  searches  (specified  with  '/')  always start at the
       beginning of the list or message.  Repeat  searches  (with
       '>' or '.') start with the line below the current one. You
       can take advantage of this to manually adjust the starting
       point for the next search.

       Searches started in the letter, area or packet lists allow
       the searches to extend below the current list. "Full text"
       searches  all  the  way  through the text of each message;
       "Headers" searches only the message  headers  (the  letter
       list), "Areas" only the area list, and "Pkt list" only the
       packet list. So, a "Full text"  search  started  from  the
       packet list will search every message in every packet (but
       only in the current directory).

       When scanning "Full text", the automatic  setting  of  the
       "Read"  marker  is disabled. However, if you find a search
       string in the header of a message and then select it manu-
       ally,  the  marker  will be set. But if you start scanning
       from the packet list, and exit the  packet  via  a  repeat
       search, the last-read markers won't be saved.

       Scans of "Headers" or "Full text" that start from the area
       list or packet list will automatically expand  the  letter
       lists  they  descend into.  Similarly, scans that start at
       the packet list will expand the area lists.  Otherwise, if
       you're  viewing  the  short  list, that's all that will be
       searched.

       I hope the above makes some sense. :-) The searching func-
       tions are difficult to explain, but easy to use.

OFFLINE CONFIGURATION
       At  present,  offline config is limited to subscribe (add)
       and unsubscribe (drop) functions.  The  Blue  Wave,  OMEN,
       QWKE,  and  QWK  Add/Drop  (with DOOR.ID) methods are sup-
       ported. (The QMAIL "CONFIG" method is not supported  yet.)
       Offline config is not yet available in SOUP mode.

       In  the  area list, press 'U' or 'Del' to unsubscribe from
       the highlighted area. To subscribe to  a  new  conference,
       first  expand the list ('L'), then highlight the appropri-
       ate area and press 'S' or 'Ins'. Dropped areas are  marked
       with  a  minus sign ('-') in the first column; added areas
       with a plus ('+'). In the  expanded  area  list,  already-
       subscribed  areas are marked with an asterisk ('*'). (This
       and also applies to the little area list.  With plain  QWK
       packets,  the  asterisk  should  not be relied upon; other
       areas may also be subscribed.) Added or dropped areas  are
       highlighted  in the "Area_Reply" color. Yeah, I'll have to
       change that name now. ;-)

       Pressing 'S' on an area marked with '-', or 'U' on an area
       marked '+' turns the flag off again.



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MultiMail(1)                                         MultiMail(1)


       In  Blue  Wave,  OMEN  or QWKE mode, the list of added and
       dropped areas is read back in when  the  reply  packet  is
       reopened.  If  the reply packet has already been uploaded,
       and you're reading a packet with the  altered  area  list,
       this is benign. If it's an older packet, you can alter the
       list before uploading, as  with  reply  messages.  In  QWK
       Add/Drop  mode,  the  changed  area flags are converted to
       reply messages when  the  reply  packet  is  saved.  Note:
       Adding  or dropping areas sets the "unsaved replies" flag,
       like entering a reply message, but does not  invoke  auto-
       matic reply packet saving until you exit the packet.

       Unfortunately, the OMEN mode has not actually been tested;
       but I believe it conforms to the specs. Reports welcome.

HIDDEN LINES AND ROT13
       In the letter window, you can toggle  viewing  of  Fidonet
       "hidden" lines (marked with a ^A in the first position) by
       pressing 'x'. The lines are shown as part of the text, but
       in  a different color. In Internet email and Usenet areas,
       the full headers of the messages are available in the same
       way  (if provided in the packet -- generally, full headers
       are available in SOUP, and partial extra headers  in  Blue
       Wave).

       Pressing  'd'  toggles  rot13 encoding, the crude "encryp-
       tion" method used for spoiler warnings and such, primarily
       on Usenet.

ANSI VIEWER
       If a message contains ANSI color codes, you may be able to
       view it as originally  intended  by  activating  the  ANSI
       viewer.  Press  'v'  to  start it.  Press 'q' to leave the
       ANSI viewer; the navigation keys are the same  as  in  the
       mail-reading window.

       The  ANSI  viewer  includes  support  for animation. While
       within the ANSI viewer, press 'v'  again  to  animate  the
       picture. Press any key to abort the animation.

       The ANSI viewer is also used to display the new files list
       and bulletins, if any are present.

CHARACTER SETS
       MultiMail supports automatic translation between two char-
       acter  sets:  the  IBM PC set (Code Page 437), and Latin-1
       (ISO 8859-1). Messages can be in either character set; the
       set  is  determined by the area attributes -- Internet and
       Usenet areas default to Latin-1, while all others  default
       to  IBM -- and by a CHRS or CHARSET kludge, if one is pre-
       sent. OMEN packets indicate their  character  set  in  the
       INFOxy.BBS file. MultiMail translates when displaying mes-
       sages and creating replies.




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MultiMail(1)                                         MultiMail(1)


       The Unix versions of MultiMail  assume  that  the  console
       uses  Latin-1,  while  the DOSish versions (DOS, OS/2, and
       Win32) assume the IBM PC set. You can  override  this  via
       the  .mmailrc option "Charset", or on a temporary basis by
       pressing 'c'.

       You can also use a different character  set  by  disabling
       the  conversion  in  MultiMail,  and letting your terminal
       handle it. For SOUP packets, and for  Internet  or  Usenet
       areas  in other packets, everything will be passed through
       unchanged if you set  MultiMail  to  "Latin-1".  For  most
       other packet types, setting MultiMail to "CP437" will have
       the same effect.

       Beginning with version 0.33, a new character set  variable
       is  available: "outCharset". This is a string which Multi-
       Mail puts into the MIME identifier lines in  SOUP  replies
       if the text includes 8-bit characters.  It's also used for
       the pseudo-QP headers which are generated under  the  same
       conditions;  and  when  displaying such headers, MultiMail
       only converts text back to  8-bit  if  the  character  set
       matches. The default is "iso-8859-1".

       By  default,  if  a  header  line in a SOUP reply contains
       8-bit characters, MultiMail now writes  it  out  with  RFC
       2047  (pseudo-QP)  encoding. You can disable this for mail
       and/or news replies via the "UseQPMailHead" and "UseQPNew-
       sHead"  options,  though  I don't recommend it. The bodies
       can also be encoded in quoted-printable; this is now on by
       default  for  mail,  and off for news. The options "UseQP-
       Mail" and "UseQPNews" toggle QP encoding. (The headers and
       bodies  of  received  messages  will still be converted to
       8-bit.)

       QP decoding is temporarily disabled when  you  toggle  the
       display  of  hidden  lines  ('x') in the letter window, so
       that you can see the raw text of the message.

REPLY SPLITTING
       Replies may be split, either  automatically,  or  manually
       via CTRL-B in the reply area. For automatic splitting, the
       default maximum number of lines per part  is  set  in  the
       .mmailrc.  The  split  occurs whenever the reply packet is
       saved. This allows you to defer the split  and  still  re-
       edit  the  whole  reply as one. However, with autosave on,
       the split will occur immediately after  entering  a  reply
       (because  the  save  does,  too).  Setting MaxLines in the
       .mmailrc to 0 disables automatic splitting; manual  split-
       ting  is  still allowed. Attempts to split at less than 20
       lines are assumed to be mistakes and are ignored.

ENVIRONMENT
       MultiMail uses the HOME or MMAIL environment  variable  to
       find  its configuration file, .mmailrc; and EDITOR for the



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MultiMail(1)                                         MultiMail(1)


       default editor. MMAIL takes precedence over HOME  if  it's
       defined.  If  neither is defined, the startup directory is
       used.

       Depending on the implementation, TMP and/or TEMP may  also
       be  used to specify the directory for temporary files. The
       use of EDITOR can  be  overridden  in  .mmailrc;  however,
       environment variables can't be used within .mmailrc.

       You  should also make sure that your time zone is set cor-
       rectly. On many systems, that means setting the  TZ  envi-
       ronment  variable. A typical value for this variable is of
       the form "EST5EDT" (that one's for the east coast  of  the
       U.S.A.).

FILES
       The   only  hardwired  file  is  the  configuration  file:
       .mmailrc (mmail.rc in DOS, OS/2 or Win32).  It's  used  to
       specify  the pathnames to MultiMail's other files, and the
       command lines for external programs (the  editor  and  the
       archivers).

       By  default,  the  other permanent files are placed in the
       MultiMail home directory  ($HOME/mmail  or  $MMAIL/mmail).
       For  temporary  directories  and files, MultiMail uses the
       tmpnam()  function  (the  location  is  system-dependent).
       Directories specified in the .mmailrc are created automat-
       ically; the default values are shown here:


       ~/mmail
              To store the  tagline  file,  netmail  addressbook,
              etc.

       taglines
              A plain text file, one tagline per line.

       addressbook (address.bk in DOS, OS/2 or Win32)
              A  list  of names and corresponding Fido netmail or
              Internet  email  addresses.  Note   that   Internet
              addresses are prefaced with an 'I'.

       colors Specifies the colors to use. (See README.col.)

       ~/mmail/down
              To store the packets as they came from the bbs.

       ~/mmail/up
              To  store  the  reply  packet(s)  which you have to
              upload to the bbs.

       ~/mmail/save
              The default directory for saving messages.




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MultiMail(1)                                         MultiMail(1)


CONFIG FILE
       The config file (see above) is a plain text  file  with  a
       series  of  values,  one  per  line, in the form "KeyWord:
       Value". The case of the keywords is not signifigant. Addi-
       tional,  comment  lines  may  be  present,  starting  with
       replaced by the defaults when you upgrade to  a  new  ver-
       sion.)  If any of the keywords are missing, default values
       will be used. Here are the keywords and their functions:


       Version
              Specifies  the  version  of  MultiMail  which  last
              updated the file. This is used to check whether the
              file should be updated and the "new version" prompt
              displayed.  Note that old values are preserved when
              the file is updated; the  update  merely  adds  any
              keywords that are new. This keyword is also used in
              the colors file.

       UserName
              Your name in plain text, e.g.,  "UserName:  William
              McBrine".  This  is  used together with InetAddr to
              create a default "From:" line for SOUP replies; and
              by  itself in OMEN for display purposes (the actual
              From name is set on upload), and for matching  per-
              sonal messages.

       InetAddr
              Your   Internet  email  address,  e.g.,  "InetAddr:
              wmcbrine@users.sourceforge.net". This  is  combined
              with the UserName in the form "UserName <InetAddr>"
              ("William                                   McBrine
              <wmcbrine@users.sourceforge.net>")   to   create  a
              default "From:" line for SOUP replies. Note that if
              neither  value  is  specified, and nothing is typed
              manually into the From: field when creating a  mes-
              sage,  no  From: line will be generated -- which is
              perfectly acceptable to at  least  some  SOUP  pro-
              grams, like UQWK.

       QuoteHead, InetQuote
              These  strings  are  placed at the beginning of the
              quoted text  when  replying  in  normal  or  Inter-
              net/Usenet areas, respectively. (The distinction is
              made because the quoting conventions for BBSes  and
              the  Internet  are different.)  Replaceable parame-
              ters are indicated with a '%'  character,  as  fol-
              lows:

              %f = "From" in original message
              %t = To
              %d = Date (of original message)
              %s = Subject
              %a = Area



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MultiMail(1)                                         MultiMail(1)


              %n = newline (for multi-line headers)
              %% = insert an actual percent character

              Note that you can't put white space at the start of
              one of these strings (it will be eaten by the  con-
              fig parser), but you can get around that by putting
              a newline first.

       homeDir
              User's home directory.

       mmHomeDir
              MultiMail's home directory.

       signature
              Path to optional signature file, which should be  a
              simple text file. If specified, it will be appended
              to every message you write.  You  should  give  the
              full path, not just the name.

       editor The  editor  MultiMail uses for replies, along with
              any command-line options. This may also be  a  good
              place to insert spell-checkers, etc., by specifying
              a batch file here. Note that the default  value  is
              just  the  editor  that's (almost) guaranteed to be
              available, for a given OS (although the Unix  "EDI-
              TOR" environment variable is checked first), and is
              in no way a preferred editor; you  can  and  should
              change it.

       PacketDir
              Default packet directory.

       ReplyDir
              Default reply packet directory.

       SaveDir
              Default directory for saved messages.

       AddressBook
              Path  and  filename of the address book. (You might
              change this to share it with another  installation,
              but basically this keyword isn't too useful.)

       TaglineFile
              Path  and  filename of the tagline file. This could
              be altered from a batch file to swap  between  dif-
              ferent  sets of taglines. (But note that this value
              is only read at  startup.)  You  could  also  share
              taglines  with another program, but be careful with
              that; MultiMail truncates the lines at  76  charac-
              ters.





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MultiMail(1)                                         MultiMail(1)


       ColorFile
              Path   and   filename   of  the  colors  file.  See
              README.col.

       *UncompressCommand, *CompressCommand
              Command lines (program name, options,  and  option-
              ally  the  path)  for the archivers to compress and
              uncompress packets and  reply  packets.  ZIP,  ARJ,
              RAR, LHA and tar/gzip are recognized. The "unknown"
              values are a catch-  all,  attempted  for  anything
              that's  not  recognized  as  one  of the other four
              types; if you have to deal with ARC or  ZOO  files,
              you might define the archiver for them here.

       PacketSort
              The  packet  list  can  be sorted either in inverse
              order of packet date and time (the  newest  at  the
              top), or in alphabetical order by filename.  "Time"
              specifies the former, and "Name" the latter. (Actu-
              ally  only the first letter is checked, and case is
              not signifigant. This applies to the other keywords
              of  this  type  (the  kind that have a fixed set of
              values to choose from)  as  well.)  The  sort  type
              specified here is only the default, and can be tog-
              gled from the packet window by pressing '$'.

       AreaMode
              The default mode for the area  list:  "All",  "Sub-
              scribed",  or  "Active". This is the mode that will
              be used on first opening a packet, but  it  can  be
              changed  by  pressing  L  while in the area list or
              little area list. For a description of  the  modes,
              see USAGE.

       LetterSort
              The sort used by default in the letter list. Can be
              "Subject" (subjects sorted alphabetically,  with  a
              case-insensitive compare), "Number" (sorted by mes-
              sage number), "From" or "To". (This can be overrid-
              den, as in the packet list.)

       LetterMode
              The  default  mode  for  the  letter list: "All" or
              "Unread". This is the mode used on first opening an
              area;  it can be toggled by pressing L. (The Marked
              view is also available in the letter list, but can-
              not be set as the default here.)

       Charset
              The  character  set  that the console is assumed to
              use. Either "CP437" (code page 437, the U.S.  stan-
              dard  for  the IBM PC and clones) or "Latin-1" (aka
              ISO-8859-1, the standard for most  other  systems).
              Note   that   the  character  set  of  messages  is



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MultiMail(1)                                         MultiMail(1)


              determined separately (q.v.).

       UseTaglines
              Yes/No. If no, the tagline window is not  displayed
              at all when composing a message.

       AutoSaveReplies
              Yes/No. If yes, the reply packet is saved automati-
              cally -- the equivalent of pressing F2, but without
              a  confirmation  prompt  -- whenver the contents of
              the reply area are changed. This can be convenient,
              and  even  a safety feature if your power supply is
              irregular, but it provides less opportunity to take
              back  a  change  (like  deleting a message). If no,
              you're prompted whether  to  save  the  changes  on
              exiting the packet. Note that if you say no to that
              prompt, nothing that you wrote during that  session
              will  be  saved  (unless you saved it manually with
              F2).

       AutoSaveRead
              Yes/No. If yes, the read/marked/etc. indicators are
              saved  automatically  when exiting a packet. If no,
              you'll be prompted whether to save them; if you say
              no,  the indicators will remain as they were before
              you opened the packet.

       StripSoftCR
              Yes/No. Some messages on Fido-type networks contain
              spurious  instances of character 141, which appears
              as an accented 'i' in  code  page  437.  These  are
              really  so-called "soft returns", where the message
              was wrapped when composing it, but not indicating a
              paragraph  break.  Unfortunately, the character can
              also appear legitimately as that accented  'i',  so
              this  option defaults to no. It can be toggled tem-
              porarily via the 'I' key in the letter window,  and
              it doesn't apply to messages in the Latin-1 charac-
              ter set. This is now  applied  only  in  Blue  Wave
              mode.

       BeepOnPers
              Yes/No.  If  yes,  MultiMail  beeps when you open a
              message addressed to or from yourself in the letter
              window.  (These  are  the  same  messages which are
              highlighted in the letter list.)

       UseLynxNav
              Yes/No. See the description under USAGE.

       UseScrollBars
              Yes/No. In list windows, when the number  of  items
              in the list exceeds the number of lines in the win-
              dow, MultiMail puts a "scroll  bar"  on  the  right



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MultiMail(1)                                         MultiMail(1)


              border  of  the window, showing the highlight bar's
              position relative to the entire  list.  Older  ver-
              sions of MultiMail (pre-0.29) didn't do this, and I
              figure some people may not like it, so you can dis-
              able it here.

       BuildPersArea
              Yes/No.  By  default,  MultiMail now builds a "per-
              sonal" area automatically, consisting  of  messages
              addressed  to  you,  for every packet format except
              SOUP. But there's  some  overhead  associated  with
              this,  so if you have a very slow computer -- or if
              you just don't want to see this  area  --  you  can
              disable  it  here.  Note  that  this option doesn't
              apply to QWK  packets  with  .NDX  files  in  them;
              there,  the  area  only  appears  if "personal.ndx"
              exists in the packet.

       MakeOldFlags
              Yes/No. With Blue Wave packets, this  makes  Multi-
              Mail  store  its last-read flags in the ".xti" file
              format rather  than  in  its  native  ".red".  This
              allows  interoperation  with some other readers and
              utilities, but it takes  slightly  longer  to  read
              back  in.  Also  note  that the old-style flags can
              take precedence  over  a  .RED  file  in  the  same
              packet, if the packet is future-dated (as, e.g., if
              you're in the U.S., and DL'ing from a  BBS  in  the
              U.K.),  resulting in lost markers. You can fix this
              by extracting the packet and setting the  files  to
              the  current  time. But if you always use "MakeOld-
              Flags: Yes", this won't be a problem.

       ReOnReplies
              Yes/No. By popular demand. :-) Setting this to "No"
              will  disable  the automatic prefixing of "Re: " to
              the  Subject  when  replying  --  except  in  areas
              flagged  as Internet email or Usenet, where this is
              the standard, and is still upheld.

       QuoteWrapCols
              Numeric. The right margin for  quoted  material  in
              replies (including the quote indicator).

       MaxLines
              Numeric. See the description under REPLY SPLITTING.

       outCharset
              String. See the description under CHARACTER SETS.

       UseQPMailHead
              Yes/No. Controls the use of RFC  2047  encoding  in
              outgoing mail headers.




                          June 28, 2000                        11





MultiMail(1)                                         MultiMail(1)


       UseQPNewsHead
              Yes/No.  Controls  the  use of RFC 2047 encoding in
              outgoing news headers.

       UseQPMail
              Yes/No. Controls the use of quoted-printable encod-
              ing in outgoing mail.

       UseQPNews
              Yes/No. Controls the use of quoted-printable encod-
              ing in outgoing news.

UPGRADING
       When you run a new version of MultiMail  (0.19  or  later)
       for the first time, it automatically updates your .mmailrc
       and ColorFile with any new keywords.  (Old  keywords,  and
       the  values  you've  set for them, are preserved. However,
       comments are lost.) Some notes on specific upgrades:

       Version 0.37 adds the .mmailrc options  "tarUncompressCom-
       mand" and "tarCompressCommand".

       Version 0.36 adds the options "LetterMode" and "AreaMode".

       Version 0.33 adds "ReOnReplies", "outCharset", "UseQPMail-
       Head",  "UseQPNewsHead",  "UseQPMail" and "UseQPNews", and
       changes some default values.

       Version 0.32 adds "BuildPersArea" and "MakeOldFlags".

       Version 0.30  adds  "UserName",  "InetAddr",  "QuoteHead",
       "InetQuote", and "QuoteWrapCols".

       Version 0.29 adds "UseScrollBars" and "UseLynxNav".

       Version  0.28 adds "MaxLines", "StripSoftCR", and "BeepOn-
       Pers".

       Version 0.26 adds "AutoSaveReplies",  "AutoSaveRead",  and
       "UseTaglines".

       Version  0.25  adds  "Charset", "PacketSort", and "Letter-
       Sort". The default packet sort is now by time  instead  of
       name.

       If  you're  upgrading  from 0.19 to 0.20 or later, and you
       have a customized ColorFile,  be  sure  to  note  the  new
       options.

       The   ColorFile   is   new   in   0.19.   Check   it   out
       (~/mmail/colors, by default).

       As of 0.16, the HOME environment variable can be  overrid-
       den with MMAIL, or omitted altogether.



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MultiMail(1)                                         MultiMail(1)


       If  you're  upgrading  from  a version before 0.9, and you
       have existing reply packets (.rep or .new) whose names are
       partly  or  wholly  in  uppercase, you must rename them to
       lowercase before version  0.9  or  higher  will  recognize
       them. (Downloaded packets are not at issue.)

       If you're upgrading from a version below 0.8, you may want
       to manually delete the /tmp/$LOGNAME directory created  by
       previous  versions.  (0.8  and  higher clean out their own
       temp directories, and use different names  for  each  ses-
       sion.)

       If  you're  upgrading  from a version prior to 0.7, please
       note the changes in the  default  directories;  previously
       they were "~/mmail/bwdown", etc.

NOTES
       Unlike  the other archive types, tar/gzip recompresses the
       entire packet when updating the .red flags, so it can be a
       bit slow. Also, the supplied command lines assume GNU tar,
       which has gzip built-in. Seperated gunzip/tar and tar/gzip
       command  lines  are possible, but would require a (simple)
       external script. MultiMail only checks for the gzip signa-
       ture,  and  does not actually verify that the gzipped file
       is a tar file.

       SOUP reply  packets  are  created  with  the  name  "base-
       name.rep",  where  basename  is  the  part of the original
       packet name before the first period.  (Unlike  other  for-
       mats,  there's  no  actual  standard for this in SOUP, but
       this seems to be the most common form among the SOUP read-
       ers  I  surveyed.)   Also, not that I expect anyone to try
       this, but currently MultiMail is only able to  read  reply
       packets generated by other SOUP readers if the replies are
       in 'b' or 'B' mode, and are  one  to  a  file  within  the
       packet.   Most  readers meet the first criterion, but some
       of them batch all mail and news replies into a single file
       for  each type. A future version of MultiMail will be able
       to read these, too.

       When re-editing a reply, it gets pushed to end of the list
       of replies.

       The R)ename function in the packet window can also be used
       to move files between directories; however,  the  destina-
       tion filename must still be specified along with the path.

       If you're using the XCurses (PDCurses) version,  and  your
       editor isn't an X app, it will work better if you set Mul-
       tiMail's "editor" keyword to "xterm -e filename"  (instead
       of  just  "filename").  I decided not to do this automati-
       cally because someone might actually use it with an X edi-
       tor.




                          June 28, 2000                        13





MultiMail(1)                                         MultiMail(1)


       Editing  and deletion of old replies are available through
       the REPLY area, which always appears at  the  top  of  the
       area  list.  This  differs  from  Blue Wave and some other
       readers.

       The Escape key works to back out from  most  screens,  but
       after you press it, you'll have to wait a bit for it to be
       sensed (with ncurses; not true with PDCurses).

       Only Blue Wave style taglines (beginning with  "...")  are
       recognized  by  the  tagline  stealer. The tagline must be
       visible on the screen to be taken.

       Netmail only works in Blue Wave and  OMEN  modes,  and  is
       still  slightly  limited. Netmail from points includes the
       point address. Internet email is available  in  Blue  Wave
       mode,  for  those doors that support it, and in SOUP mode,
       using the same interface as Fido netmail.

AUTHORS
       MultiMail was originally developed under Linux by  Koloss-
       vary  Tamas  and Toth Istvan. John Zero was the maintainer
       for versions 0.2 through 0.6; since version 0.7, the main-
       tainer            is            William            McBrine
       <wmcbrine@users.sourceforge.net>.

       Additional code has been  contribued  by  Peter  Karlsson,
       Mark D. Rejhon, Ingo Brueckl, and Robert Vukovic.

BUGS AND KNOWN PROBLEMS
       If your editor produces automatic backup files, you should
       disable this feature, if possible, or wrap it with a batch
       file  to  delete  them when done. MultiMail will erase the
       temporary files it creates itself, but it doesn't know  to
       erase the backup files from an editor.

       The  RSX/NT  version  is  reported to be incompatible with
       4DOS: shelling to external programs (archivers or editors)
       fails.  Thanks  to  Tony  Summerfelt for figuring this one
       out. You can set the MultiMail session to use  COMMAND.COM
       while retaining 4DOS elsewhere.

       On some platforms, specifying a packet on the command line
       fails if the filename  is  exactly  10  characters.  (Both
       shorter  and longer names are OK.)  This appears to be due
       to strange bugs in the standard  library,  and  I  haven't
       found  a  satisfactory  solution. I noticed it now because
       all OMEN packets fit this description. :-( Packets  chosen
       from the packet menu are unaffected.

       Red  Hat  Linux 6.0 (and possibly 6.x) comes with a defec-
       tive installation of ncurses. When linked to this,  Multi-
       Mail  mostly works, but odd effects appear when scrolling.
       (Users describe it as double-spaced.) The problem  can  be



                          June 28, 2000                        14





MultiMail(1)                                         MultiMail(1)


       fixed  by  reinstalling ncurses from the source -- not the
       source RPM that comes  with  Red  Hat,  but  the  original
       source from the ncurses site (see INSTALL).

       SOUP  area type 'M' is not recognized yet. First I have to
       find a program that can generate one. :-)

       The ANSI viewer eats a lot less memory than  it  used  to,
       though   it   can   still  be  a  problem.  (Each  charac-
       ter/attribute pair takes up  four  bytes  in  memory.  But
       lines  which have the same attribute throughout are stored
       as plain text.)

       The new file list and bulletin viewer is, as yet, a  hack.
       A  better  means  of  selecting which ones to view will be
       forthcoming, if I can ever decide just how it should look.
       (Your opinion is welcome.)

       If  you  find  any  bugs,  or  have ideas for improvement,
       please write to me.





































                          June 28, 2000                        15


