readmsg
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NAME
readmsg - extract messages from a mail folder
SYNOPSIS
readmsg [-anhp] [-f folder] [selection ...]
DESCRIPTION
Readmsg extracts selected mail messages from a mail folder.
One helpful use of the program is when you are composing a
response to a mail message in an external editor. In this
case, you can run readmsg to pull a copy of the original
message into the editing buffer.
When you run readmsg from within elm (e.g. from a subshell
escape or in an external editor while composing a mail
reply) it behaves a bit differently from when you run it
directly (e.g. from a shell command line). We will first
describe its normal behavior, and then describe how it is
different when you run it under elm.
You tell readmsg which messages to extract with the
selection argument. There are a couple of possible
different ways to specify the selection.
1. A lone ``*'' means select all messages in the mailbox.
2. A list of message numbers may be specified. Values of
``0'' and ``$'' in the list both mean the last message
in the mailbox. For example:
readmsg 1 3 0
extracts three messages from the folder: the first,
the third, and the last.
3. Finally, the selection may be some text to match. This
will select a mail message which exactly matches the
specified text. For example,
readmsg staff meeting
extracts the message which contains the words ``staff
meeting.'' Note that it will not match a message
containing ``Staff Meeting'' the matching is case
sensitive. Normally only the first message which
matches the pattern will be printed. The -a option
discussed in a moment changes this.
The -f flag indicates that you'd rather use the folder
specified rather than the default incoming mailbox. The
specified folder can be a filename or a specification such
as ``=sentmail''.
The -h flag instructs the program to include the entire
header of the matched message or messages when displaying
their text. (default is to display the From: Date: and
Subject: lines only)
The -n flag instructs the program to exclude all headers.
This is used mostly for extracting files mailed and such.
The -p flag indicates that the program should put form-feeds
(control-L) between message headers.
The -a flag indicates that all messages which match the
pattern specified on the command line should be printed, not
just the first. If a pattern was not specified on the
command line then this flag has no effect.
When you run readmsg under elm (once again, say in the
context of an external editor) the behavior will be
different from that described above as follows.
1. The default mail folder will be the folder you are
currently examining in elm and not necessarily your
incoming mail folder.
2. You do not need to specify a selection on the command
line. If you omit the selection then readmsg will
extract the message(s) you have selected in Elm. If
you have tagged any messages then this would be all of
the tagged messages, otherwise it would be the message
you are currently examining.
3. Normally the message numbers readmsg uses are in
mailbox order. When you call readmsg under elm and do
not override the folder selection with the -f option,
then message numbers will be sorted as they are
displayed on the elm message index screen.
EXAMPLES
First off, to use this from within vi to include the text of
the current message, you could use the command:
:r !readmsg
(as you hit the ':' the editor will put you at the bottom of
the screen with the ':' prompt). The space following ':r'
is required.
Let's look at something more interesting, however;
Suppose you have the mail file;
From joe Jun 3 1986 4:45:30 MST
Subject: hello
Hey Guy! Wanta go out and have a milk this evening?
Joe
From john Jun 3 1986 4:48:20 MST
Subject: Dinner at Eight
From: John Dinley
Remember you should show up about eight, okay?
- John D -
From xxzyz!cron Jun 3 1986 5:02:43 MST
Cannot connect to server: blob
Job 43243 deleted from queue.
The following commands will result in;
$ readmsg 2
[ display the second message, from John ]
$ readmsg
[ an error, unless we're calling from elm ]
$ readmsg BLOB
[ no match - case sensitive! ]
$ readmsg -h connect to server
[ displays third message, including headers ]
FILES
/usr/mail/ The incoming mail
$ELMSTATE Status information from elm
AUTHOR
Elm Development Group
SEE ALSO
newmail(1L), elm(1L)
BUGS
The '*' metacharacter doesn't always work as expected!
Perhaps the pattern matching should be case insensitive?
It might be confusing that messages are sorted when running
under elm with the current folder, and in mailbox order for
all other cases.
BUG REPORTS TO
Syd Weinstein elm@DSI.COM (dsinc!elm)
COPYRIGHTS
Copyright 1988-1992 by The USENET Community Trust
Derived from Elm 2.0, Copyright 1986, 1987 by Dave Taylor