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 simple  curses-based  inter‐
       face.

       SOUP  is used for Internet email and Usenet. The other formats are pri‐
       marily 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 0.48.

USAGE
       On most screens, a summary of the available keystroke commands is  dis‐
       played  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  avail‐
       able  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 com‐
       mands 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 program, consist of
       the standard cursor and keypad keys, with <Enter> to select. For termi‐
       nals  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 "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 navigation
       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, however, necessary for packet names.)

       Packet names may be specified on the command line, bypassing the packet
       menu. If multiple packets are named, they’ll be opened sequentially. If
       a directory is specified 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 clarification: it  stamps
       the highlighted file with the current date and time.

       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 MultiMail 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 versions; 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 selection 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  mes‐
       sage text, or down (and on to the next message) by clicking in the bot‐
       tom 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 net‐
       mail; 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 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 manually, 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 functions are dif‐
       ficult to explain, but easy to use.

FILTERING
       A new twist on searching, as of version 0.43,  is  filtering.  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 fil‐
       ter  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 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 unsub‐
       scribe (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 high‐
       lighted area. To subscribe to a new conference, first expand  the  list
       (’L’),  then  highlight  the  appropriate  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 automatic 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 "encryption" 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 bul‐
       letins, 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 ’@’.

       As  of  version 0.46, the ANSI viewer also includes limited support for
       AVATAR (level 0) and BSAVE (text only) screens. These  can  be  toggled
       via ^V and ^B, respectively.

CHARACTER SETS
       MultiMail  supports  automatic  translation between two character 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
       present. OMEN packets indicate their character set  in  the  INFOxy.BBS
       file.  MultiMail  translates  when  displaying  messages  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 tempo‐
       rary 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 MultiMail puts into the MIME iden‐
       tifier 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  con‐
       verts  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
       "UseQPNewsHead"  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 "UseQPMail" 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 hid‐
       den 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 sup‐
       port  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  let‐
       ter  window,  you  can grab the current "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  splitting  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  con‐
       figuration  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.

       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 correctly. On many
       systems,  that  means  setting  the  TZ environment 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  Multi‐
       Mail’s  other  files,  and the command lines for external programs (the
       editor and the archivers).

       By default, the other files are placed in the MultiMail home  directory
       ($HOME/mmail or $MMAIL). Directories specified in the .mmailrc are cre‐
       ated automatically; the default Unix 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.

CONFIG FILE
       The  config file (see above) is a plain text file with a series of val‐
       ues, one per line, in the form "KeyWord: Value". The case of  the  key‐
       words  is  not  signifigant.  Additional, 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 example.

       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  pre‐
              served when the file is updated; the update merely adds any key‐
              words 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 create a default "From:"  line  for
              SOUP replies. Note that if neither value is specified, and noth‐
              ing 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 programs, like UQWK.

       QuoteHead, InetQuote
              These strings are placed at the beginning  of  the  quoted  text
              when  replying in normal or Internet/Usenet areas, respectively.
              (The distinction 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 config parser), but you can get
              around that by putting a newline first.

       mmHomeDir
              MultiMail’s home directory.

       TempDir
              This is the directory where MultiMail puts its  temporary  files
              --  by default, as of 0.45, the same as mmHomeDir. The files are
              actually created within a subdirectory of  this  directory;  the
              subdirectory  is named "workNNNN", where NNNN is a random number
              (checked against any existing files or directories before  being
              created).

       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 "EDITOR" envi‐
              ronment 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 different  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 characters.

       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 terminal’s default foreground and back‐
              ground  colors  are  used.  It’s  also  a crude way to implement
              transparency (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  background color set in the "Main_Back" line, in the colors
              file, are instead set to the default background color, and  thus
              become  transparent areas in those terminal programs, like Eterm
              and Gnome Terminal, that support this.

       BackFill
              Yes/No. Normally the background area is filled with  a  checker‐
              board  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  pre‐
              vious two, it’s available in PDCurses.)

       *UncompressCommand, *CompressCommand
              Command  lines  (program name, options, and optionally 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 lat‐
              ter. (Actually 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 toggled from the packet window by pressing ’$’.

       AreaMode
              The default mode for the  area  list:  "All",  "Subscribed",  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 com‐
              pare), "Number" (sorted by  message  number),  "From"  or  "To".
              (This can be overridden, 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 cannot 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. standard 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
              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 automatically -- the
              equivalent of pressing F2, but without a confirmation prompt  --
              whenever 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).

       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 temporarily 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 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 encoding in outgo‐
              ing mail.

       UseQPNews
              Yes/No. Controls the use of quoted-printable encoding in  outgo‐
              ing 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" index‐
              ing  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.  Multi‐
              Mail 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  executable  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,  comments  are
       lost.)  Some notes on specific upgrades:

       Version  0.48  adds  the  .mmailrc  option "Mouse", which allows you to
       enable or disable mouse input (for instance, if you don’t want  to  see
       the mouse cursor).

       Version 0.45 adds "TempDir". Note that temporary files are handled dif‐
       ferently in this version, and the TEMP and  TMP  environment  variables
       are ignored. "homeDir" has been removed.

       Version  0.43  adds "ClockMode", and makes "UseColors" available in all
       ports. Also note that CPU usage while idle may be higher in  some  con‐
       figurations.

       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.

       Version 0.38 adds "ExpertMode", "Transparency", "UseColors", and "Back‐
       Fill", while removing  the  options  "BuildPersArea",  "UseScrollBars",
       "MakeOldFlags", and "AutoSaveRead".

       Version 0.37 adds "tarUncompressCommand" and "tarCompressCommand".

       Version 0.36 adds "LetterMode" and "AreaMode".

       Version 0.33 adds "ReOnReplies", "outCharset", "UseQPMailHead", "UseQP‐
       NewsHead", "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 "BeepOnPers".

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

       Version  0.25  adds  "Charset",  "PacketSort",  and  "LetterSort".  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 cus‐
       tomized 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 overridden 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 upper‐
       case, 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 session.)

       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 sup‐
       plied 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 signature,
       and does not actually verify that the gzipped file is a tar file.

       OPX  reply packets are always created with a .rep extension, which dif‐
       fers from the behavior of some other readers. 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 termi‐
       nate with "Error opening reply packet".)

       SOUP  reply  packets  are  created  with the name "basename.rep", where
       basename is the part of the  original  packet  name  before  the  first
       period.   (Unlike other formats, there’s no actual standard for this in
       SOUP, but this seems to be the most common form among the SOUP  readers
       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 destination 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 MultiMail’s  "editor"  keyword
       to  "xterm  -e filename" (instead of just "filename"). I decided not to
       do this automatically because someone might actually use it with  an  X
       editor.

       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,  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 Kolossvary Tamas and
       Toth Istvan. John Zero was the maintainer for versions 0.2 through 0.6;
       since    version    0.7,    the    maintainer    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
       The  RSX/NT  version is reported to be incompatible with 4DOS: shelling
       to external programs (archivers or editors) fails. Thanks to Tony  Sum‐
       merfelt 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  defective  installa‐
       tion  of  ncurses. When linked to this, MultiMail 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  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.



                                 April 4, 2007                    MultiMail(1)
