BURST(1)                      [mh.6]                     BURST(1)


NAME
       burst - explode digests into messages

SYNOPSIS
       burst  [+folder]  [msgs]  [-inplace] [-noinplace] [-quiet]
            [-noquiet] [-verbose] [-noverbose] [-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  fol-
       lowing  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 MH directory
       Current-Folder:      To find the default current folder
       Msg-Protect:         To set mode when creating a new message

SEE ALSO
       Proposed Standard for Message Encapsulation (aka RFC-934),
       inc(1), msh(1), pack(1)

DEFAULTS
       `+folder' defaults to the current folder
       `msgs' defaults to cur
       `-noinplace'
       `-noquiet'
       `-noverbose'





MH                        April 22, 1986                        1

BURST(1)                      [mh.6]                     BURST(1)


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  mes-
       sages which may be burst from a single message.  This num-
       ber 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  algo-
       rithm.  In degenerate cases, this usually results in burst
       finding an encapsulation boundary prematurely  and  split-
       ting  a  single encapsulated message into two or more mes-
       sages.  These erroneous digestifying  programs  should  be
       fixed.

       Furthermore,  any text which appears after the last encap-
       sulated message is not placed in  a  seperate  message  by
       burst.   In the case of digestified messages, this text is
       usally an End of digest string.  As a result of this  pos-
       sibly un-friendly behavior on the part of burst, note that
       when the `-inplace' option is used, this trailing informa-
       tion  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                        April 22, 1986                        2