NAME

       burst - explode digests into nmh messages

SYNOPSIS

       burst [-help] [-version] [+folder] [msgs] [-inplace | -noinplace] [-mime | -nomime]
            [-automime] [-quiet | -noquiet] [-verbose | -noverbose]

DESCRIPTION

       burst considers the specified messages in the named folder to  be  Internet  digests,  and
       explodes them in that folder.

       If -inplace is given, each digest is replaced by its “table of contents” and the digest is
       removed.  burst then renumbers the messages which follow the digest, in the folder, making
       room  for  each of the exploded messages, which are placed immediately after the “table of
       contents”.

       If -noinplace is given, each digest is preserved, no table of contents  is  produced,  and
       the  exploded  messages are placed at the end of the folder.  Other messages in the folder
       are not affected.

       If -automime is given, burst will try to determine if the message is formatted  with  MIME
       and  contains  MIME parts of type “message/rfc822”.  If it does, it will burst the message
       using MIME formatting rules.  The -mime switch can be used to  enforce  the  use  of  MIME
       formatting.  The -nomime switch will force burst to use RFC 934 rules.

       The  -quiet  switch  directs  burst  to be silent about reporting messages that are not in
       digest format.

       The -verbose switch directs burst to tell the user the general actions that it  is  taking
       to explode the digest.

       It  turns  out that burst works equally well on forwarded messages and blind-carbon-copies
       as on Internet digests, provided that the former were generated by forw or send.

FILES

       $HOME/.mh_profile   The user's profile.

PROFILE COMPONENTS

       Path:               To determine the user's nmh directory.
       Current-Folder:     To find the default current folder.
       Msg-Protect:        To set mode when creating a new message.

SEE ALSO

       inc(1), pack(1)

       Proposed Standard for Message Encapsulation (RFC 934)

DEFAULTS

       +folder             The current folder.
       msgs                The current message.
       -noinplace
       -automime
       -noquiet
       -noverbose

CONTEXT

       If a folder is given, it will become the current folder.  If -inplace is given,  then  the
       first message burst becomes the current message.  This leaves the context ready for a show
       of the table of contents of the digest, and a next to see the first message of the digest.
       If  -noinplace  is  given,  then  the  first message extracted from the first digest burst
       becomes the current message.  This leaves the context in a  similar,  but  not  identical,
       state to the context achieved when using -inplace.

BUGS

       The  burst program enforces a limit of approximately 1,000 on the number of messages which
       may be burst from a single message. There is usually no limit on the  number  of  messages
       which may reside in the folder after the bursting.

       Although  burst uses a sophisticated algorithm to determine where one encapsulated message
       ends and another begins, not all digestifying programs use an encapsulation algorithm.  In
       degenerate  cases,  this  usually  results  in  burst  finding  an  encapsulation boundary
       prematurely and splitting a single encapsulated message into two or more messages.   These
       erroneous digestifying programs should be fixed.

       Furthermore, any text which appears after the last encapsulated message is not placed in a
       separate message by burst.  In the case of digestified messages, this text is  usually  an
       “End  of  digest” string.  As a result of this possibly unfriendly behavior on the part of
       burst, note that when the -inplace option is used, this trailing information is lost.   In
       practice,  this  is not a problem since correspondents usually place remarks in text prior
       to the first encapsulated message, and this information is not lost.