READMSG(1L)       MISC. REFERENCE MANUAL PAGES        READMSG(1L)



NAME
     readmsg - read messages from incoming mail

SYNOPSIS
     readmsg [-p] [-n] [-f filename] [-h]
     readmsg [-p] [-n] [-f filename] [-h] number [number ...]
     readmsg [-p] [-n] [-f filename] [-h] pattern

DESCRIPTION
     Readmsg is a program that gives the elm user the functional-
     ity  of  the  mailx  "~r"  command  from the editor of their
     choice.  There are three different ways of  using  the  pro-
     gram;  First  off,  if you're actually creating a reply to a
     message from within the elm system then readmsg without  any
     arguments will include a summary of the headers and the body
     of the message being replied to.  If  you  aren't  currently
     editing   a  message  the  program  will  return  an  error.
     Secondly, if you want to include certain messages,  you  can
     specify  them by listing their ordinal locations in the mail
     file (that is, their "message numbers") up to 25 at a  time.
     The  meta-number  '$' is understood to mean the last message
     in the mailfile.  Similarly, '*' is understood to  represent
     every  message  in  the file (that is, 1-$) Finally, you can
     also specify a pattern that occurs in one of the messages as
     a  way  of  including  it.   This  pattern  can  be typed in
     directly (no quotes) if the words are separated by a  single
     space  in  the actual message.  The pattern matching is case
     sensitive, so "Hello" and "hello" are NOT the same thing!!

     The -f flag indicates that you'd rather use the file  speci-
     fied  for  the  operations specified rather than the default
     mailbox.  The -h flag instructs the program to  include  the
     entire  header  of  the  matched  message  or  messages when
     displaying their text.  (default is  to  display  the  From:
     Date:  and  Subject:  lines  only) The -n flag instructs the
     program to exclude all headers.  This  is  used  mostly  for
     extracting  files  mailed  and  such.   Finally, the -p flag
     indicates that the program should put form-feeds (control-L)
     between message headers.


EXAMPLES
     First off, to use this from within vi to include the text of
     the  current  message at the end of the current message, you
     could use the command;

          !!readmsg

     (as you hit the 'G' the editor will put you at the bottom of
     the screen with the '!' prompt).





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READMSG(1L)       MISC. REFERENCE MANUAL PAGES        READMSG(1L)



     Let's look at something more interesting, however;

     Suppose you have the mailfile;

        From joe Jun 3 1986 4:45:30 MST
        Subject: hello

        Hey Guy!  Wanta go out and have a milk this evening?

        Joe

        From john Jun 3 1986 4:48:20 MST
        Subject: Dinner at Eight
        From: John Dinley <xyz!john>

        Remember you should show up about eight, okay?

                  - John D -

        From xxzyz!cron Jun 3 1986 5:02:43 MST

        Cannot connect to server: blob
        Job 43243 deleted from queue.

     The following commands will result in;

       $ readmsg 2
       [ display the second message, from John ]

       $ readmsg
       [ an error, unless we're calling from elm ]

       $ readmsg BLOB
       [ no match - case sensitive! ]

       $ readmsg -h connect to server
       [ displays third message, including headers ]


FILES
     /usr/mail/<username>          The incoming mail
     $home/.readmsg           The temp file from elm

AUTHOR
     Dave Taylor, Hewlett-Packard Laboratories

SEE ALSO
     newmail(1L), elm(1L)

BUGS
     The '*' metacharacter doesn't always work as expected!
     Perhaps the pattern matching should be case insensitive?



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READMSG(1L)       MISC. REFERENCE MANUAL PAGES        READMSG(1L)



BUG REPORTS TO
     Syd Weinstein  elm@dsinc.UUCP (dsinc!elm)

COPYRIGHTS
     c Copyright 1986, 1987 by Dave Taylor
     c Copyright 1988, 1989 by The USENET Community Trust

















































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