


MultiMail(1)                                         MultiMail(1)


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

SYNOPSIS
       mm [-option1 value]  [-option2  value]  [...]  [filename1]
       [filename2] [...]

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

       SOUP is used for Internet email and Usenet. The other for
       mats are primarily used with dialup (or telnet) BBSes,  to
       save connect time and to provide a better interface to the
       message base.

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

       This manpage is for version 0.44.

USAGE
       On most screens, a summary of the available keystroke com
       mands is displayed in the lower part of the  screen.  (You
       can  disable this, and reclaim some screen real estate, by
       turning on "ExpertMode".) Note that for lack of space, not
       all  commands  are  listed  on  every screen where they're
       available. For example, the search  functions,  which  are
       available  everywhere,  are  summarized only in the packet
       list and address  book.  The  principle,  albeit  not  one
       that's  consistently implemented, is that the summary need
       appear only on the first screen  where  the  commands  are
       available. When in doubt, try one and see if it works. :-)

       In the letter window or ANSI viewer, pressing  F1  or  '?'
       will bring up a window listing the available commands.

       The  basic  navigation keys, available throughout the pro
       gram, 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



                           May  7, 2003                         1





MultiMail(1)                                         MultiMail(1)


       "UseLynxNav" option, the Left arrow key backs out from any
       screen,  while  the  Right arrow key selects. The plus and
       minus keys are no longer aliases for Right and  Left,  but
       perform  the  same functions as in the traditional naviga
       tion system.

       Of special note is the space  bar.  In  most  screens,  it
       functions  as an alias for PgDn; but in the letter 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, or of Active  areas
       (i.e.,  those  with  messages) if the Subscribed areas are
       unknown. By pressing L, you  can  toggle  between  Active,
       All,  and Subscribed views. (Some formats, like plain QWK,
       don't have any way to indicate subscribed areas. 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.

       Options can be specified on the command line as well as in
       the .mmailrc.  Option names are the same  as  those  which
       appear  there,  though they must be prefaced by one or two
       dashes, and should not be followed by a colon.  There must
       be  a  space between the option name and the value; values
       which include spaces must be quoted. All options  must  be
       specified  before  any  packet names or directories on the
       line. Finally, options  which  take  a  filename  or  path
       should  always  include  the full path. (This is not, how
       ever, necessary for packet names.)

       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. 'T' in the packet menu may need clarifi
       cation: it stamps the highlighted file  with  the  current
       date and time.

       You can abort the program immediately from any screen with



                           May  7, 2003                         2





MultiMail(1)                                         MultiMail(1)


       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.)

MOUSING
       MultiMail is mousable on certain platforms: X,  the  Linux
       console  (with  gpm), and Win32. (You can still use selec
       tion with X and gpm, too; to select or  paste,  hold  down
       the shift key.)

       In  each  list  window,  button  1  highlights  a line, or
       selects it (the same as pressing Enter)  if  it's  already
       highlighted.  Double-click to select it immediately. Click
       on the scrollbar to page up or down, or on the  line  just
       above  or  below  it  to  scroll  a line at a time. In the
       packet, area, and letter lists, click on  the  appropriate
       part  of the window title to change the sort or list type.

       In the letter window, page up by clicking in the top  half
       of  the message text, or down (and on to the next message)
       by clicking in the bottom half (equivalent  to  the  space
       bar).  Scroll  the  message  a  single  line up or down by
       clicking on the status bars at top and bottom. The  status
       flags  "Read"  and  "Marked" can be toggled by clicking on
       them; clicking on "Save" saves, clicking on "Repl"  starts
       a  reply  (followup;  i.e.,  the  same  as 'R'), and "Pvt"
       starts a private reply (email or netmail;  i.e.,  same  as
       'N').

       In  text-entry  windows,  button  1  works the same as the
       Enter key; and the dialog boxes work in the obvious way.

       Button 3 backs out of any screen, equivalent to ESC.

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.

       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



                           May  7, 2003                         3





MultiMail(1)                                         MultiMail(1)


       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.

FILTERING
       A new twist on searching, as of version 0.43,  is  filter
       ing. This is available in all of the list windows, but not
       the letter or ANSI viewer.  Unlike  searching,  it  always
       applies only to the current list.

       Press  '|'  to bring up the filter prompt, and specify the
       text to filter on. To clear a filter, press '|', and  then
       press  return  at  a blank filter prompt. (A string that's
       not found in the list will have the same  effect.)   Press
       ESC to leave the filter as it was.

       The  list  will now be limited to those items that contain
       the text you entered, and that text will appear at the end
       of  the  window's  title as a reminder. The filter will be
       retained through lower levels,  but  will  be  cleared  by
       exiting  to  a  higher level. Note that a search in, e.g.,
       the letter list will search only the message headers  (and
       only  those  which  are  visible in the list), and not the
       bodies.

       When the filter is active in the letter  list,  the  "All"
       option  in  the  Save  menu  will save only the items that
       match the filter. This can be used as a quick  alternative
       to  marking and saving. You can also combine filtering and



                           May  7, 2003                         4





MultiMail(1)                                         MultiMail(1)


       marking.

       Changing modes and sort types will not clear the filter. A
       search  in a filtered list will search only the items that
       match the filter.

OFFLINE CONFIGURATION
       At present, offline config is limited to  subscribe  (add)
       and  unsubscribe  (drop)  functions.  The  Blue Wave, OPX,
       OMEN, QWKE, and QWK Add/Drop (with  DOOR.ID)  methods  are
       supported.  (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-sub
       scribed 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.

       In Blue Wave, OPX, 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).




                           May  7, 2003                         5





MultiMail(1)                                         MultiMail(1)


       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.

       New  in  version  0.43  is support for the '@' color codes
       used by PCBoard and Wildcat. This is on by default in  the
       ANSI  viewer, but it can be toggled to strip the codes, or
       pass them through untranslated, by pressing '@'.

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.

       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



                           May  7, 2003                         6





MultiMail(1)                                         MultiMail(1)


       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.

ADDRESS BOOK
       The address book in MultiMail is  intended  primarily  for
       use  with  Fido-style  Netmail or Internet email areas, in
       those packet types which support these.  When  entering  a
       message  (other  than  a  reply)  into  such  an area, the
       address book comes up automatically. It's also possible to
       use  the  name portion of an address from the address book
       even when Fido/Internet  addressing  isn't  available,  by
       starting a new message via CTRL-E instead of 'E'.

       You  can  pull  up  the  address book from most screens by
       pressing 'A', which allows you to browse or edit the list.
       While  reading in the letter window, you can grab the cur
       rent "From:" address by  invoking  the  address  book  and
       pressing 'L'.

TAGLINE WINDOW
       From  most  screens, you can pull up the tagline window to
       browse or edit the list by pressing CTRL-T. As of  version
       0.43,  you  can toggle sorting of the taglines by pressing
       '$' or 'S'.

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.





                           May  7, 2003                         7





MultiMail(1)                                         MultiMail(1)


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




                           May  7, 2003                         8





MultiMail(1)                                         MultiMail(1)


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

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.

       As of version 0.41, any of these keywords except "Version"
       may  also  be  specified on the command line. Command-line
       options take precedence over those in the config file, but
       their  effect is not guaranteed -- some internal pathnames
       are initialized before the command line is read, for exam
       ple.

       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.sf.net".  This  is combined with the
              UserName  in   the   form   "UserName   <InetAddr>"
              ("William McBrine <wmcbrine@users.sf.net>") to cre
              ate 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
              message,  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



                           May  7, 2003                         9





MultiMail(1)                                         MultiMail(1)


              Internet/Usenet  areas, respectively. (The distinc
              tion is made because the  quoting  conventions  for
              BBSes and the Internet are different.)  Replaceable
              parameters are indicated with a '%'  character,  as
              follows:

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



                           May  7, 2003                        10





MultiMail(1)                                         MultiMail(1)


       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.

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

       UseColors
              Yes/No. This governs  whether  color  is  used,  or
              monochrome.  When  colors  are disabled, the termi
              nal's default foreground and background colors  are
              used.  It's  also  a  crude way to implement trans
              parency (the only way, if you're not using ncurses)
              --  the  entire background will be transparent when
              using an appropriate terminal.

       Transparency
              Yes/No. Only available in ncurses. (The option will
              appear,  but not work, in non-ncurses, non-PDCurses
              platforms.) When this is  set  to  Yes,  all  areas
              where the background color is the same as the back
              ground color set in the "Main_Back"  line,  in  the
              colors  file,  are instead set to the default back
              ground color, and thus become transparent areas  in
              those  terminal programs, like Eterm and Gnome Ter
              minal, that support this.

       BackFill
              Yes/No. Normally the background area is filled with
              a  checkerboard  pattern  (ACS_BOARD characters, in
              curses terms). You can disable that  here,  leaving
              those  areas  as flat background color. This option
              is intended mostly to make transparency more effec
              tive,  but  it  might  help  with any color scheme.
              (Unlike  the  previous  two,  it's   available   in
              PDCurses.)

       *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.





                           May  7, 2003                        11





MultiMail(1)                                         MultiMail(1)


       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.)

       ClockMode
              The display mode for the clock in the  upper  right
              corner  of  the  letter  window:  "Time"  (of day),
              "Elapsed" (since  MultiMail  started  running),  or
              "Off".

       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 deter
              mined 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



                           May  7, 2003                        12





MultiMail(1)                                         MultiMail(1)


              automatically -- the equivalent of pressing F2, but
              without  a confirmation prompt -- whenever the con
              tents 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  opportu
              nity  to  take  back a change (like deleting a mes
              sage). 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).

       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.

       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



                           May  7, 2003                        13





MultiMail(1)                                         MultiMail(1)


              outgoing mail headers.

       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.

       ExpertMode
              Yes/No. If set to No, the onscreen help  menus  are
              not shown; instead, the space is used to extend the
              size of info windows by a few lines.

       IgnoreNDX
              Yes/No. This option applies only to QWK packets. If
              set  to yes, the *.NDX files are always ignored, in
              favor of the "new"  indexing  method  that  depends
              only  on  MESSAGES.DAT.  This  method  is  slightly
              slower than the *.NDX-based indexing method (though
              the delay is dwarfed by packet decompression time),
              but the most common problem  with  QWK  packets  is
              corrupt  *.NDX files. MultiMail now recognizes some
              cases  where  the  *.NDX  files  are  corrupt   and
              switches  automatically,  but it doesn't catch them
              all.

UPGRADING
       The basic upgrade procedure is to simply copy the new exe
       cutable  over the old one. No other files are needed. 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, com
       ments are lost.)  Some notes on specific upgrades:

       Version 0.43 adds the  .mmailrc  option  "ClockMode",  and
       makes  "UseColors"  available in all ports. Also note that
       CPU usage while idle may be higher in some configurations.

       Version 0.41 adds the option "IgnoreNDX".

       Version  0.39  changes  the function of the "Transparency"
       option slightly.  It now operates  on  the  color  set  in
       "Main_Back", rather than Black. Also, if you're accustomed
       to using the mouse to cut and paste under X or  gpm,  note
       that  you  now have to hold down the shift key while doing
       this.




                           May  7, 2003                        14





MultiMail(1)                                         MultiMail(1)


       Version 0.38 adds "ExpertMode",  "Transparency",  "UseCol
       ors",  and  "BackFill", while removing the options "Build
       PersArea",    "UseScrollBars",     "MakeOldFlags",     and
       "AutoSaveRead".

       Version 0.37 adds "tarUncompressCommand" and "tarCompress
       Command".

       Version 0.36 adds "LetterMode" and "AreaMode".

       Version 0.33 adds "ReOnReplies", "outCharset", "UseQPMail
       Head",   "UseQPNewsHead",   "UseQPMail"  and  "UseQPNews";
       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/col
       ors, by default).

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

       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



                           May  7, 2003                        15





MultiMail(1)                                         MultiMail(1)


       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.

       OPX reply packets are always created with  a  .rep  exten
       sion,  which differs from the behavior of some other read
       ers. If you switch from QWK packets to OPX packets on  the
       same  board,  MultiMail will _not_ open an old QWK .rep in
       OPX mode, nor vice versa. (It will try, and will terminate
       with "Error opening reply packet".)

       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.

       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



                           May  7, 2003                        16





MultiMail(1)                                         MultiMail(1)


       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, OMEN and OPX modes, and
       is still slightly limited. Netmail  from  points  includes
       the  point  address.  Internet  email is available in Blue
       Wave and OPX modes, 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.sf.net>.

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

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.

       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
       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,
       but it can still be a problem.  (Each  character/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



                           May  7, 2003                        17





MultiMail(1)                                         MultiMail(1)


       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.




















































                           May  7, 2003                        18


