Provided by: mailagent_3.1-106-1_amd64 bug

NAME

       package - register package user via mailagent

SYNOPSIS

       package address system version patchlevel [ mailpatches | notifypatches ]

DESCRIPTION

       This  command  is  not  intended  to be run directly by a user, but may appear in any mail
       whose subject is set to Command. Such mail will be processed by  the  mailagent(1),  which
       will  extract  all lines beginning with @SH, which may specify this command. The mailagent
       first sets environment variables that will be used by the command.

       Package is used to notify the author of  a  package  about  its  users.   It  is  normally
       generated automatically by the MailAuthor.U unit when the user runs Configure.

       If  the  patchlevel  specified  is  not  the  latest  for that system and version, mail is
       immediately sent suggesting that they upgrade and remindng them how to request the  latest
       patches.

       The  final parameter, if included may be set to mailpatches to specify that the user would
       like to have future patches mailed to them,  or  notifypatches  to  specify  that  a  mail
       notification of future patches should be sent, rather than the entire patch.

       The  user's  address and notification request are saved in the file users in the package's
       directory.

       Package performs an approximate  address  match  in  order  to  avoid  duplicate  entries.
       Whenever  this  elimination  occurs,  a  warning  message  is  issued in the logfile.  Two
       addresses will be said equivalent if one of them has an added machine name or if they  are
       really equal. Therefore, the following addresses are equivalent:

            ram@acri.fr
            ram@main.acri.fr

       whereas the following two are not equivalent, unfortunately:

            ram@acri.acri.fr
            ram@main.acri.fr

       When  a  user  is  asking to be left alone, it is important to let him know if the request
       failed, because he will be annoyed when the next set of patches is  issued  and  he  still
       gets  them  despite  his  previous  request.  Therefore, if no approximate match occurs, a
       warning message is sent back, with a list of addresses that are close to  his  own  e-mail
       address, but not equivalent. Fortunately, the following addresses are considered close:

            ram@acri.fr
            ram@somewhere.com
            raphael@main.acri.fr
            manfredi@acri.acri.fr

       because  they either have the same login (important when someone changes company) or share
       the same domain or sub-domain part.

       In order to edit the users file, the edusers script should be used. For one thing, it will
       let  you  edit  the  users file from whatever package you name in the command line, but it
       will also properly lock the file so that the execution  of  package  will  stall  for  the
       duration  of the manual edition (provided you have a strict locking policy defined in your
       ~/.mailagent configuration file).

FORWARDING

       Package supports command forwarding as described in the mailhelp(1) page.

FILES

       ~/.mailagent        configuration file for mailagent.
       System/users        list of users of that system.
                           This file consists of single line records,  one  for  each  registered
                           user.  Each record consists of three tab-separated fields.

                           The  first  field indicates the level of updates requested by the user
                           by a single letter as follows:
                           M      Mail future patches directly to the user when they are issued.
                           N      Notify the user of future patches.
                           U      The users chose to let the author know that they have tried the
                                  program, but does not wish to know about future updates.
                           L      The user is no longer interested in the program and wants to be
                                  left alone.

                           The second field is their last notified patch level, or a dash (-)  if
                           it is not known.

                           The third field is the user's Email address.
       Log/agentlog        mailagent's log file

AUTHORS

       Graham Stoney <greyham@research.canon.oz.au>
       Raphael Manfredi <Raphael_Manfredi@pobox.com> (minor enhancements)

SEE ALSO

       edusers(1), mailagent(1), metaconfig(1).

                                                                                       PACKAGE(1)