xdgmail(1) X Version 11 (Release 5) xdgmail(1)
NAME
xdgmail - a Motif-based electronic mail interface
SYNOPSIS
xdgmail [ options ]
DESCRIPTION
xdgmail is a graphical mail tool consisting of five main
components:
menubar The menubar contains pulldown menus which can be
used to invoke any xdgmail operation. See the
OPERATIONS section for the list of available
operations.
Certain menu selections may not be available if
there are no messages selected. These de-
sensitized menu selections will appear faded, and
cannot be selected.
status The status window displays the current mailbox
name and the number of messages in the current
mailbox. In addition to the total number of
messages, this window shows the number of new,
deleted, and selected messages.
inbox The inbox window contains a summary line for each
of the messages in the mailbox. Double click the
pointer on one of the summary lines to select that
message and display it in the view window.
Multiple selections can be accomplished by
dragging the pointer or by holding the Crtl key
and selecting the individual message summaries.
Selecting a summary with the Crtl key pressed will
toggle the message selection on and off.
control The control component contains a set of buttons
that provide convenient access to most selections
available through the pulldown menus. The buttons
that are displayed can be set using the buttons
resource.
Certain buttons may not be available if there are
no messages selected. These de-sensitized buttons
will appear faded, and cannot be selected if they
are displayed.
view The view window contains the header and body of a
message. It is only filled when a message is
selected for viewing by double clicking on a
message summary in the inbox window or by
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indicating that the message is not to be displayed
in a separate window and then choosing the
Selected button in the View menu.
In addition to these windows, a number of popup dialog boxes
are used to exchange information with the user. These
dialog boxes are described in the OPERATIONS section.
The xdgmail icon will raise the mailbox flag and optionally
ring the bell when new mail arrives.
Message Selection
xdgmail allows a single message or group of messages to be
selected to perform actions on. Messages can be selected by
using the pointer, entering a message number into the
message number dialog box, or by using the Search operation
from the View menu.
The Search operation can be used to follow the thread of a
discussion (select by subject), look at all mail from a
particular person (select by sender), read all mail sent to
a mailing list (select by recipient), or find messages based
on when they were received (select by date). The Search
operation also allows selection of messages by their current
status.
OPERATIONS
The following operations are available within xdgmail from
the menubar. These operations can be selected by using the
pointer or the keyboard mnemonics. The mnemonic key is the
underlined character in each menu entry.
The following operations are available from the File menu:
Change Mailbox...
A file selection dialog box is displayed
when the Change Mailbox operation is
invoked. Use this dialog box to choose the
mailbox from which to select messages. The
default mailbox is automatically selected
when this dialog is displayed. The current
mailbox will be written before reading in
the new mailbox.
Update/Save Mailbox
Saves the current mailbox, removes all
deleted messages and updates the messages
that have been read.
Save Mailbox As...
A file selection dialog box is displayed
when the Save Mailbox As operation is
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invoked. The mailbox is saved to the file
selected in the dialog box.
Edit Message Displays the currently selected message in a
separate window for editing. If the Save
button is pressed after editing, the
original message will be overwritten. If the
Save As Is button is pressed after editing,
the original message remains unchanged and
the edited copy is saved to the designated
file. Pressing Cancel aborts the edit
operation.
Save Message(s)...
A file selection dialog box is displayed.
The selected message(s) will be saved to the
file indicated in the dialog box. If the
file does not exist the file is created and
the message is copied into the file. If the
file exists the message is appended to the
file.
Print Message(s)
Sends the selected message(s) to the line
printer. The message(s) are piped to the
standard input of the command specified by
the printCmd resource.
Pass Message(s) to Command...
A command dialog box is displayed when the
Pass Message(s) to Command operation is
invoked. xdgmail sends the selected
message(s) to the standard input of the
command entered at the text prompt. If the
command begins with a '-', the header will
not be piped to the command. If the command
begins with a '+' or has no prefix, the
complete message (headers and text) will be
piped to the command.
Exit... Displays a dialog box prompting to save the
mailbox before exiting.
The following operations are available from the Edit menu:
Delete Mark the selected message(s) as deleted.
Undelete Unmark the selected message(s) as deleted.
Mark Read Mark the selected message(s) as read.
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Unmark Read Unmark the selected message(s) as read.
The following operations are available from the View menu:
Selected Displays the selected message in the
location specified by the user; either in
the main view area or in a separate window.
Mode Toggles the method of display for a selected
message. If set to View Area, xdgmail
displays the selected message in the view
area. Otherwise, a separate window is opened
to display the selected message.
Message Number...
Displays the message corresponding to the
number entered in the message number dialog
box.
Newest Selects and displays the newest message in
the current mailbox.
Oldest Selects and displays the oldest message in
the current mailbox.
Next Displays the next message in the list if one
message is selected. If more than one
message is selected, displays the next
selected message.
Previous Displays the previous message in the list if
one message is selected. If more than one
message is selected, displays the previous
selected message.
Search... The search dialog box is displayed. Use the
Search... dialog to select messages which
match certain criteria. A text prompt is at
the top where Search Text is entered.
Controls for specifying the type of search
and the fields to search are also included.
The messages may be searched by sender
(From:), recipient (To:), subject
(Subject:), date (Date:), delete state
(Delete), new state (New), read state
(Read). The default is to search the entire
message and header.
The following operations are available from the Options
menu:
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Mailcheck Timer...
The Mailcheck timer dialog box is displayed.
Use the scale to set the time interval when
checking for incoming mail. The maximum time
limit can be reset using the OSF/Motif
maximum resource for the mailcheckScale
object.
Include Message->
The include message cascading menu displays
On and Off buttons. Use the buttons to
toggle inclusion/exclusion of the original
message in a reply.
Object Name Select this menu item and then click with
the question mark cursor on any object in
the application to display its name. Find
the corresponding Motif object type listed
in the resource file (/usr/lib/X11/app-
defaults/XdgMail). The man page for this
Motif object type describes the behavior of
the object and lists all of its resources.
The following operations are available from the Compose
menu:
New Display a separate window to generate a new
message. The To: field must be filled in
with the mail recipient(s). All other fields
are optional and can be added or deleted in
the Message Header area in the Compose
Window. Initial message text can be
specified using the *msgText resource. Press
the Send button when the message is complete
to send the message to the recipient(s).
Press the Cancel button to abort the
message. The Compose window will be removed
after either button press. The editCmd
resource allows an alternate editor to be
specified. The msgHeader and msgText
resources determine the initial contents of
the message. The file designated by the
signatureFile resource will be appended to
the end of the message.
Reply Display a separate window to generate a
reply to the sender of the currently
selected message. By default, the original
message is included in the reply with each
line from the original message prefixed by
the character(s) specified in the
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includePrefix resource. Setting the
includeInReply resource to false will
prevent the original message from being
included. The To: field and the Subject:
field are pre-filled. Press the Send button
when the reply is complete to send it to the
recipient(s). Press the Cancel button to
abort the message. The Reply window will be
removed after either button press. The file
designated by the signatureFile resource
will be appended to the end of the message.
Reply to Group Display a separate window to generate a
reply to the sender and all other recipients
of the currently selected message. By
default, the original message is included in
the reply with each line prefixed by the
character(s) specified in the includePrefix
resource. Setting the includeInReply
resource to false will prevent the original
message from being included. The To: field
and the Subject: field are pre-filled.
Press the Send button when the reply is
complete to send it to the sender and all
recipient(s). Press the Cancel button to
abort the message. The Reply to Group
window will be removed after either button
press. The file designated by the
signatureFile resource will be appended to
the end of the message.
Forward Forward the currently viewed or first
selected message. The To: field must be
filled in with the mail recipient(s). Press
the Send button when the message is complete
to forward the message to the recipient(s).
Press the Cancel button to abort the
message. The Forward window will be removed
after either button press.
The following operations are available from the Help menu:
on Xdgmail This help topic contains a brief description
of xdgmail and its components. The reader
can move to other help topics by clicking on
highlighted text, called links.
on Resources The xdgmail application-specific resources
are listed with their default settings.
on Options The xdgmail command-line options are listed.
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on Usage Displays detailed information about how to
use xdgmail.
on Help Displays detailed information on using the
help system.
on Version Displays the name and version of the
application.
A complete discussion of how to use OSF/Motif applications
is documented in the OSF/Motif User's Guide.
CUSTOMIZATION
The behavior of xdgmail can be customized by using
resources, command line options, and environment variables.
Resources
The class name of xdgmail is XdgMail. There are a number of
xdgmail-specific resources:
biffBeep When set to true, causes the bell to ring
when new mail arrives. The default value is
true.
buttons List the buttons to display on the control
menu. In addition to the individual button
names, all can be specified to display all
buttons and none can be specified to display
no buttons. The default value is
saveMailboxControlButton
saveMessageControlButton printControlButton
pipeControlButton deleteControlButton
undeleteControlButton nextControlButton
previousControlButton replyControlButton
forwardControlButton newControlButton
exitControlButton.
contentAudio Directs all messages of audio content type
to the command specified. If the command
begins with a '-', excludes headers; if the
command begins with a '+' or has no prefix,
pipes the complete message. If this resource
is unset and contentTypeWarn is set to True,
the content dialog box will appear with a
warning message and several options for
processing the message. If this resource is
unset and contentTypeWarn is set to False,
the message will automatically be displayed
as raw data.
contentBinary Directs all messages of binary content type
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to the command specified. See contentAudio
for a more detailed description of
contentTYPE resources.
contentImageGif Directs all messages of image (subtype gif)
content type to the command specified. See
contentAudio for a more detailed description
of contentTYPE resources.
contentImageJpeg
Directs all messages of image (subtype jpeg)
content type to the command specified. See
contentAudio for a more detailed description
of contentTYPE resources.
contentMessage Directs all messages of message content type
to the command specified. See contentAudio
for a more detailed description of
contentTYPE resources.
contentMultipart
Directs all messages of multipart content
type to the command specified. See
contentAudio for a more detailed description
of contentTYPE resources.
contentOda Directs all messages of application (subtype
oda) content type to the command specified.
See contentAudio for a more detailed
description of contentTYPE resources.
contentPostscript
Directs all messages of postscript content
type to the command specified. See
contentAudio for a more detailed description
of contentTYPE resources.
contentRichtext Directs all messages of richtext content
type to the command specified. If this
resource is unset, the message will be
displayed with all richtext directives
stripped out.
contentVideo Directs all messages of video content type
to the command specified. See contentAudio
for a more detailed description of
contentTYPE resources.
contentTypeWarn If this resource is not set or is set to
true, a warning is issued when non-text
messages are selected for display and the
appropriate contentTYPE resource is unset.
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The user can elect to view the message
anyway, save the message to a file, type in
a command to pipe the message to, or cancel
the selection. If set to false, the message
is displayed as raw data and without any
warning message. The default is true.
displayHeaders When set to false, xdgmail displays the
selected message(s) without any headers
showing. The headers can still be viewed by
moving the scroll bar.
editCmd If this resource is not set or is set to the
string builtin (the default), xdgmail will
use a built in editor in a popup window.
Diskless workstation users may wish to
experiment with this built in editor, as it
should be much faster than external editors.
If this resource is set the command line
string must end with %s. xdgmail will
substitute the name of the file for the
mandatory %s and invoke the command line.
When the command completes xdgmail will
display a dialog window allowing the user to
select the disposition of the message.
includeInReply When set to true, causes the original
message to be included in any reply. The
default value is true.
includePrefix Used to prefix each line of the original
message when replying to that message. The
default is ">".
mailBox Specifies an alternate mailbox to use when
starting xdgmail. When this resource is
unset (the default), xdgmail uses the user's
system default mailbox. This resource
overrides the MAIL environment variable.
mailIcon Specifies the icon bitmap used to indicate
the arrival of new mail. The default is the
flagup bitmap.
msgLog Allows all messages sent to be recorded into
a file. This resource is unset by default.
msgHeader This string is used to determine the initial
header field(s) for a new message. If the
To: field is not included xdgmail will
automatically add it to the user's headers.
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The default is To: Subject: Cc: .
msgText The string specified by this resource is
used as the initial text when composing new
mail messages. This resource is unset by
default.
noMailIcon Specifies the icon bitmap used to indicate
that no new mail has arrived. The default
is the flagdown bitmap.
printCmd Allows the command used when the print
operation is selected to be changed. The
default is lp -s -txdgmail-msg
saveInbox When xdgmail writes the mailbox to disk it
renames the mailbox to usernamesavedinbox
and creates a new mailbox. This operation
is performed to prevent losing mail in the
event of a catastrophe.
If the saveInbox resource is set to false,
xdgmail will delete username_saved_inbox
after the mailbox is successfully written.
If saveInbox is set to true the file will be
preserved. The default is true.
signatureFile The contents of the file specified by this
resource will be appended to all messages
sent. This is useful for specifying name,
e-mail address, title, company, etc. without
constantly retyping them. This resource is
unset by default.
spellCmd Specifies the spelling checker to be used
when the spell operation for newly composed
messages is selected. The default is spell.
viewInWindow If this resource is set to true, selected
messages will be viewed in a separate
window. Otherwise, the message is displayed
in the view area of the main window.
In addition to the above resources, each of the xdgmail
objects can be configured using the OSF/Motif resources for
the object classes. The object name dialog displays the
name of an object which corresponds to a Motif widget type
listed in the resource file. Consult the man pages on the
widget type for a discussion of its resources or see the
OSF/Motif Programmer's Reference for a complete listing of
resources for each OSF/Motif widget type. All resources can
be set through various mechanisms. See the Xdefaults man
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page for a complete description of these mechanisms.
Options
Each of the resources listed in the Resources section can be
specified on the command line, although there is not a
corresponding command line option for every resource. Any
resource without a corresponding command line option can be
set on the command line with the xrm option. For boolean
options, +resourcename is equivalent to setting the resource
to true, and -resourcename is equivalent to setting the
resource to false. For string options, -resourcename value
is equivalent to setting the resource to value.
Environment Variables
xdgmail uses the following environment variables:
MAIL Default location of mailbox. This variable
is typically set by the login shell. If this
variable is unset, xdgmail uses
/var/mail/user_name.
WARNINGS
It is important that other mail reading programs not be run
(e.g. mailx, elm ) while xdgmail is running, as xdgmail
needs exclusive access to the mailbox. Running other mail
readers will cause inconsistencies between the mailbox on
disk and the internal version kept by xdgmail and may result
in a corrupted mailbox.
The default editor for composing messages is subject to the
limitations of the Motif text widget. For example, it does
not handle inserting files with embedded NULL characters.
See the XmText man page for more information.
Any pathnames specified in the resource file must be
complete; X does not recognize shell variables such as ~ or
$HOME.
If /tmp or the directory containing the user's mailbox are
full, messages may be truncated.
After an abnormal exit, some xdgmail files may be left in
/tmp. System managers may want to set up a cron job to
delete all /tmp files more than a few days old.
Any message summaries prepended by a question mark have been
corrupted since receipt. The user should read them carefully
since they are usually a combination of 2 or more messages.
In some cases, they may be a single message with missing
text.
FILES
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/usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/XdgMail
Contains the default resources for xdgmail
and the on line help system.
/usr/lib/xhelp/C/XdgMail/helpfile
Contains the text for the on line help.
/usr/bin/X11/xdgmail
BUGS
There is currently a conflict between some of the menu
button mnemonics and default accelerators. If you use a menu
button mnemonic that is the same as an accelerator for
another operation, you will get both selections. For
example, if you press "h" while in the menu bar, the help
window AND the search dialog box will pop up. This problem
will be corrected in a later release of xdgmail.
Occasionally, on initial start-up of xdgmail the application
will come up without a view area. This is due to a bug in
one of the underlying libraries and should be fixed in the
next release. The user can correct the situation in this
release by resizing the panes inside the main window.
SEE ALSO
sendmail (1c), mailx (1), Xdefaults (5).
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) Data General Corporation, 1991, 1992, 1993.
All Rights Reserved. Licensed Material-Property of Data
General Corporation. This software is made available solely
pursuant to the terms of a DGC license agreement which
governs its use.
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