NAME

       burst - explode digests into messages

SYNOPSIS

       burst [+folder] [msgs] [-inplace | -noinplace] [-mime | -nomime] [-automime] [-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.

       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 two 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), msh(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 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.

nmh-1.6                                          January 1, 2001                                      BURST(1mh)