Provided by: multimail_0.49-2build4_amd64 bug

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 interface.

       SOUP is used for Internet email and Usenet. The other  formats  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 0.49.

USAGE

       On most screens, a summary of the available keystroke commands 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 program, 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 "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  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 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 difficult 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 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 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 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-subscribed areas
       are marked with an asterisk ('*'). (This and also applies to the little area  list.   With
       plain  QWK  packets,  the  asterisk  should  not  be  relied upon; other areas may also be
       subscribed.) Added or dropped areas are highlighted in the "Area_Reply" color. Yeah,  I'll
       have to change that name now. ;-)

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

       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  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 '@'.

       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 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 MultiMail puts into the MIME identifier lines in  SOUP  replies  if  the
       text  includes  8-bit  characters.   It's  also  used  for the pseudo-QP headers which are
       generated under the same conditions; and when  displaying  such  headers,  MultiMail  only
       converts text back to 8-bit if the character set matches. The default is "iso-8859-1".

       By  default,  if  a  header  line in a SOUP reply contains 8-bit characters, MultiMail now
       writes it out with RFC 2047 (pseudo-QP) encoding. You can disable  this  for  mail  and/or
       news replies via the "UseQPMailHead" and "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 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 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  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.

       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 MultiMail'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 created 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 values, one per line, in
       the  form  "KeyWord:  Value".  The  case  of  the keywords is not signifigant. Additional,
       comment lines may be present, starting with replaced by the defaults when you upgrade to a
       new version.) 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 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
              personal 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 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 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"  environment  variable  is
              checked first), and is in no way a preferred editor; you can and should change it.

       PacketDir
              Default packet directory.

       ReplyDir
              Default reply packet directory.

       SaveDir
              Default directory for saved messages.

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

       TaglineFile
              Path and filename of the tagline file. This could be altered from a batch  file  to
              swap  between 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 background 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  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  effective, 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 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 latter. (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  compare),  "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
              character 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 outgoing mail.

       UseQPNews
              Yes/No. Controls the use of quoted-printable encoding 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 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 differently 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 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.

       Version  0.38  adds  "ExpertMode",  "Transparency",  "UseColors",  and  "BackFill",  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",   "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 "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  customized  ColorFile,  be
       sure to note the new options.

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

       As  of  0.16,  the  HOME  environment  variable  can  be 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 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 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 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  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 differs 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 terminate 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 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 defective installation 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.

                                          July 19, 2007                              MultiMail(1)