READMSG(1L)         USENET Community Trust(Elm Version 2.3)         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 functionality of the
      mailx "~r" command from the editor of their choice.  There are three
      different ways of using the program;

      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 specified 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, you could use the command:

            :r !readmsg

      (as you hit the ':' the editor will put you at the bottom of the screen


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      with the ':' prompt).  The space following ':r' is required.


      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)



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

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

COPYRIGHTS
      © Copyright 1986, 1987 by Dave Taylor
      © Copyright 1988, 1989, 1990 by The USENET Community Trust












































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