DP(8)               RISC/os Reference Manual                DP(8)



NAME
     dp - parse dates 822-style

SYNOPSIS
     /usr/new/lib/mh/dp [-form formatfile] [-format string]
          [-width columns] dates ...  [-help]

DESCRIPTION
     Dp is a program that parses dates according to the ARPA
     Internet standard.  It also understands many non-standard
     formats, such as those produced by TOPS-20 sites and some
     UNIX sites using ctime (3).  It is useful for seeing how MH
     will interpret a date.

     The dp program treats each argument as a single date, and
     prints the date out in the official 822-format.  Hence, it
     is usually best to enclose each argument in double-quotes
     for the shell.

     To override the output format used by dp, the
     `-format string' or `-format file' switches are used.  This
     permits individual fields of the address to be extracted
     with ease.  The string is simply a format stringand thefile
     is simply a format file.  See mh-format (5) for the details.

     Here is the default format string used by dp:

          %<(nodate{text})error:
     %{text}%|%(putstr(pretty{text}))%>

     which says that if an error was detected, print the error, a
     `:', and the date in error.  Otherwise, output the
     822-proper format of the date.

FILES
     $HOME/.mh_profile                 The user profile

PROFILE COMPONENTS
     None

SEE ALSO
     ap(8)
     Standard for the Format of ARPA Internet Text Messages (aka
     RFC-822)

DEFAULTS
     `-format' default as described above
     `-width' default to the width of the terminal

CONTEXT
     None




                         Printed 1/15/91                MH Page 1

DP(8)               RISC/os Reference Manual                DP(8)



BUGS
     The argument to the `-format' switch must be interpreted as
     a single token by the shell that invokes dp.  Therefore, one
     must usually place the argument to this switch inside
     double-quotes.


















































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