NAME

       burst - explode digests into messages

SYNOPSIS

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

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 the “table of contents” for  the  digest  (the  original
       digest  is removed).  Burst then renumbers all of the messages following the digest in the folder to make
       room for each of the messages contained within the digest.  These messages are placed  immediately  after
       the digest.

       If  -noinplace  is  given,  each  digest is preserved, no table of contents is produced, and the messages
       contained within the digest are placed at the end of the folder.  Other messages are not tampered with in
       any way.

       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 two were generated by forw or send.

FILES

       $HOME/.mh_profile          The user 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), msh(1), pack(1), Proposed Standard for Message Encapsulation (RFC-934)

DEFAULTS

       `+folder' defaults to the current folder
       `msgs' defaults to cur
       `-noinplace'
       `-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 on the number of messages which may be burst from  a  single  message.
       This  number is on the order of 1000 messages.  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  un-friendly 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.

MH.6.8                                            11 June 2012                                        BURST(1mh)