![[BACK]](/cvsweb/icons/back.gif){kind=icon}
Return to mh6.tex CVS log ![[TXT]](/cvsweb/icons/text.gif){kind=icon}
![[DIR]](/cvsweb/icons/dir.gif){kind=icon}
Up to [CSRG BSD Unix] / 43BSDReno / contrib / mh / papers / mh6.5|
Return to mh6.tex CVS log | Up to [CSRG BSD Unix] / 43BSDReno / contrib / mh / papers / mh6.5 |
1.1 root 1: % run this through LaTeX
2:
3: \input lcustom
4:
5: \documentstyle[12pt,sfwmac]{article}
6:
7: \begin{document}
8:
9: \title{Changes to\\ The Rand MH Message Handling System:\\
10: MH \#6.5 for 4.3BSD UNIX}
11: \author{Marshall T.~Rose\\
12: Northrop Research and Technology Center\\
13: One~Research Park\\
14: Palos Verdes Peninsula, CA 90274}
15: \date{\ifdraft \versiondate/\\ Version \versiontag/\else \today\fi}
16: \maketitle
17: \footnotetext[0]{\hskip -\parindent
18: This document (version \versiontag/)
19: was \LaTeX set \today\ with \fmtname\ v\fmtversion.}
20:
21: \begin{abstract}
22: This document describes the user-visible change to the
23: UCI version of the Rand \MH/ system that were made from \mh5 to \MH/ \#6.5.
24: It is based on the \mh6 changes document,
25: but has been updated to accurately reflect the \MH/ distributed with
26: 4.3\bsd/~\unix/.
27: This document does not describe bug-fixes, per se,
28: or internal changes,
29: unless these activities resulted in a visible change for the \MH/ user.
30:
31: This document is meant to supplement,
32: not supersede, the standard \MH/ User's manual\cite{MH.USR}.
33:
34: Comments concerning this documentation should be addressed to the Internet
35: mailbox {\sf [email protected]}.
36: \end{abstract}
37:
38: \newpage
39: \section* {Acknowledgements}
40: The \MH/ system described herein is based on the original Rand \MH/ system.
41: It has been extensively developed (perhaps too much so) by Marshall T.~Rose
42: and John L.~Romine at the University of California, Irvine.
43: Einar A.~Stefferud, Jerry N.~Sweet,
44: and Terry P.~Domae provided numerous suggestions
45: to improve the UCI version of \MH/.
46: Of course,
47: a large number of people have helped \MH/ along.
48: The list of ``\MH/~immortals'' is too long to list here.
49: However, Van Jacobson deserves a special acknowledgement for his tireless
50: work in improving the performance of \MH/.
51: Some programs have been speeded-up by a factor of 10 or 20.
52: All of users of \MH/, everywhere, owe a special thanks to Van.
53:
54: \section* {Disclaimer}
55: The Regents of the University of California wish to make it known that:
56: \begin{quote}
57: Although each program has been tested by its contributor,
58: no warranty, express or implied,
59: is made by the contributor or the University of California,
60: as to the accuracy and functioning of the program
61: and related program material,
62: nor shall the fact of distribution constitute any such warranty,
63: and no responsibility is assumed by the contributor
64: or the University of California in connection herewith.
65: \end{quote}
66:
67: \newpage
68: \section* {Conventions}
69: In this document,
70: certain \LaTeX -formatting conventions are adhered to:
71: \begin{enumerate}
72: \item The names of \unix/ commands, such as \pgm{comp},
73: are presented in {\it text italics}.
74:
75: \item Arguments to programs, such as \arg"msgs",
76: are presented in {\tt typewriter style} and delimited by single-quotes.
77:
78: \item \unix/ pathnames and envariables,
79: such as $$\file{/usr/uci/}\hbox{\qquad and\qquad}\file{\$SIGNATURE},$$
80: are presented in {\sl slanted roman}.
81:
82: \item Text presenting an example, such as
83: \begin{verbatim}
84: comp -editor zz
85: \end{verbatim}
86: is presented in {\tt typewriter style}.
87: \end{enumerate}
88:
89: \newpage
90: \section* {General Changes}
91: Unlike the changes between \mh4 and \mh5,
92: a large number of user-visible changes have been made in \mh6.
93: These changes have been in the form of bug fixes and several generalizations.
94: The majority of these will not affect novice users.
95: In addition, \mh6 is a great deal faster than \mh5:
96: all programs have been speeded-up significantly,
97: thanks to work done by Van Jacobson as part of the process of including \mh6
98: in the 4.3\bsd/~\unix/ distribution.
99:
100: This document describes all user-visible changes to \mh5 from it's initial
101: release to the intermediate release of \MH/ \#6.5.
102:
103: \subsection* {System-5 Support}
104: In addition to support for \bsd/~\unix/, V7~\unix/ and \xenix/ variants of
105: \unix/,
106: \MH/ finally has support for the AT\&T variant of \unix/, System~5.
107: Hopefully this will greatly expand the number of system which can run \MH/.
108: Ironically,
109: it appears that five ports of earlier versions of \MH/ (including \mh5)
110: were done,
111: but news of the work was not widespread.%
112: \footnote{In fact,
113: three groups in one large organization ported \MH/ independently,
114: each without knowledge of the others' work.}
115:
116: \subsection* {Documentation}
117: Several new documents have been included in the \mh6 distribution:
118: The paper {\em MH.5: How to process 200 messages a day and still get some
119: real work done}
120: was presented at the 1985 Summer Usenix Conference and Exhibition in
121: Portland, Orgeon.
122: Another paper, {\em MH: A Multifarious User Agent},
123: has been accepted for publication by Computer Networks.
124: Both describe \MH/,
125: the former from a more technical and somewhat humorous perspective,
126: the latter from a more serious and research-oriented perspective.
127: In addition,
128: a third paper has been included,
129: {\em Design of the TTI Prototype Trusted Mail Agent},
130: which describes a so-called ``trusted'' mail agent built on top of \MH/.
131: This paper was presented at the Second International Symposium on
132: Computer Message Systems in Washington, D.C.
133: A fourth paper,
134: {\em MZnet: Mail Service for Personal Micro-Computer Systems},
135: is also included.
136: This paper,
137: which was presented at the First International Symposium on Computer Message
138: Systems in Nottingham, U.K.,
139: describes a \cpm/-based version of \MH/.
140:
141: In addition,
142: the \MH/ tutorial, {\em The Rand MH Message Handling System: Tutorial},
143: and,
144: {\em The Rand MH Message Handling System: The UCI BBoards Facility},
145: have both been updated by Jerry N.~Sweet.
146:
147: For \MH/ administrators (PostMasters and the like),
148: there's an entirely new document,
149: {\em The Rand MH Message Handling System: Administrator's Guide}.
150: It explains most of the ``ins and outs'' of maintaining an \MH/ system.
151:
152: Finally, all of the manual entries and the \MH/ manual have had a thorough
153: working over.
154: The documentation is expanded, more accurate, and more detailed.
155:
156: \subsection* {Help Listings}
157: When any \MH/ command is invoked with the \switch"help" switch,
158: in addition to listing the syntax of the command and version information,
159: the \MH/ configuration options will be listed.
160: \MH/ has so many configuration options,
161: that when debugging problems, this information is invaluable.
162:
163: \subsection* {The \MH/ Profile}
164: There are two new profile entries worth noting:
165: \verb"MH-Sequences" tells \MH/ the name of the file to record public
166: sequences in.
167: Users of \pgm{vm}, a proprietary, visual front-end to \MH/,
168: make use of this to disable the public sequences feature of \MH/.
169:
170: The profile entry \verb"Unseen-Sequence" names those sequences which should be
171: defined as those messages recently incorporated by \pgm{inc}.
172: The \pgm{show} program knows to remove messages from this sequence once it
173: thinks they have been seen.
174: If this profile entry is not present, or is empty, then no sequences are
175: defined.
176: Otherwise, for each name given, the sequence is first zero'd and then each
177: message incorporated is added to the sequence.
178: As such, this profile entry is rather analogous to the
179: \verb"Previous-Sequence" entry in the user's \MH/ profile.
180:
181: In addition, the \verb"Alternate-Mailboxes" entry in the profile has been
182: expanded to support simple wild-carding.
183: Also, the default for this profile entry is now the user's mail-id at any host.
184: This change was made since \MH/ can no longer reliably figure out what
185: the user's real outgoing address looks like.
186:
187: Finally,
188: when the \pgm{install-mh} program is automatically invoked by \MH/,
189: it won't prompt the user for information.
190: Instead, it notes that it's setting up the default environment.
191: In addition,
192: the \MH/ administrator may set-up a file called \file{mh.profile} in the \MH/
193: library area which is consulted by \pgm{install-mh} when initializing the
194: user's \profile/.
195:
196: \subsection* {The \MH/ Context}
197: The \pgm{folder}, \pgm{scan}, and \pgm{show} programs have been modified to
198: update the user's \MH/ context prior to writing to the user's terminal.
199: This allows the \MH/ user interrupt output to the terminal and still have the
200: expected context.
201: This is especially useful to interrupt long \pgm{scan} listings.
202: This change also introduces a subtle bug between \pgm{show} and messages
203: denoted by the \verb"Unseen-Sequence".
204: See \man show(1) for the details.
205:
206: \subsection* {Addresses and 822 support}
207: \MH/ now fully supports the RFC-822 routing syntax for addresses
208: (it used to recognize the syntax, but ignore the information present).
209: In addition,
210: there are three major modes for support of non-822 addressing in \MH/:
211: \begin{itemize}
212: \item BERK\\
213: This is useful on sites running \SendMail/.
214: It doesn't support full 822--style addressing,
215: in favor of recognizing such formats as ACSnet, and so on.
216: For sites that can't run in an 822--compliant environment,
217: this is the option to use
218: (at the price of sacrificing some of the power of 822--style addressing).
219: This also drastically reduces the address formatting facilities described
220: below.
221:
222: \item DUMB\\
223: Although not as liberal as BERK,
224: the DUMB option is useful on sites in which the message transport system
225: conforms to the 822 standard,
226: but wants to do all the defaulting itself.
227:
228: \item BANG\\
229: From out in left field,
230: the BANG option favors \UUCP/-style addressing over 822--style addressing.
231: Hopefully when all the \UUCP/ sites around get around to adopting domain-style
232: addresses, this option won't be needed.
233: \end{itemize}
234:
235: The \pgm{ap} program (mentioned momentarily) and the \pgm{ali} program
236: both support a \switch"normalize" switch indicate if addresses should be
237: resolved to their ``official'' hostnames.
238:
239: \subsection* {New Programs}
240: There are five new programs available:
241: The \pgm{ap} program is the \MH/ stand-alone address parser.
242: It's useful for printing address in various formats
243: (and for debugging address strings).
244: The \pgm{dp} program is similar, but works on dates instead of addresses.
245:
246: The \pgm{msgchk} program checks for new mail,
247: possibly using the Post Office Protocol, POP, described below.
248:
249: A new receive mail hook,
250: the \pgm{rcvstore} program,
251: which was written by Julian L.~Onions is available.
252:
253: Finally, a visual front-end to \pgm{msh} called \pgm{vmh} has been included.
254: (This program is discussed in greater detail later on.)
255:
256: \subsection* {Message Numbering}
257: \MH/ now no longer restricts the number of messages which may reside in a
258: folder
259: (beyond that of system memory constraints).
260: This means that message numbers larger than 2000 are permissible.
261: Hopefully this will make life easier for people reading the network news
262: using \MH/.
263:
264: \section* {The WhatNow Shell}
265: In \mh6,
266: there is now the concept of a unified \whatnow/ processor that
267: the four composition programs, \pgm{comp}, \pgm{dist}, \pgm{forw},
268: and \pgm{repl} all invoke.
269: This permits a greater flexibility in building mail applications with \MH/.
270: As a result, there's a new program, \pgm{whatnow}, which acts as the default
271: \whatnow/ program.
272: Consult the \man whatnow(1) manual entry for all the details.
273: The only important user-visible change is the \verb"headers" option went away,
274: which wasn't used that much anyway.
275:
276:
277: The only other thing worth noting is that unless \MH/ has been compiled with
278: the UCI option,
279: the user's \file{\$HOME/.signature} file is not consulted for the user's
280: personal name.
281:
282: \section* {Format Strings}
283: A general format string facility has been added to allow \MH/ users to tailor
284: the output of certain commands.
285:
286: The \pgm{inc}, \pgm{scan}, \pgm{ap}, and \pgm{dp} programs all consult a
287: file containing format strings.
288: Format strings,
289: which look a lot like \man printf(3) strings,
290: give these \MH/ commands precise instructions on how to format their output.
291:
292: As a result,
293: the \pgm{inc} and \pgm{scan} programs no longer have the
294: \switch"size", \switch"nosize",
295: \switch"time", \switch"notime",
296: \switch"numdate", and \switch"nonumdate"
297: switches.
298: These switches have been replaced with the
299: \switch"form formatfile" switch and the \switch"format string" switch.
300: The former directs the program to consult the named file for the format
301: strings.
302: The latter directs the program to use the named string as the format.
303: To get the behavior of the old \switch"time" option,
304: use the \switch"form scan.time" option.
305: Similarly,
306: to get the effect of \switch"size",
307: use \switch"form scan.size".
308:
309: A fun form to use is \switch"form scan.timely" with \pgm{scan}.
310: Try it sometime.
311:
312:
313: The \pgm{repl} command uses a file containing format files to
314: indicate how the reply draft should be constructed.
315: Note that reply templates prior to \mh6 are incompatible with \mh5.%
316: \footnote{In fact, reply templates between \mh6 and \MH/ \#6.5 are
317: imcompatible.}
318: Don't worry though,
319: it's quite easy to convert the templates by hand.
320: (Those clever enough to have written a reply template to begin with won't
321: have {\em any\/} problem.)
322:
323: Similarly, when the \pgm{forw} program is constructing a digest,
324: it uses a file containing format strings to indicate how to build the
325: encapsulating draft.
326:
327: Finally, you can use these facilities in \pgm{mhl} as well.
328:
329: \section* {News}
330: The depreciated \MH/ news system (from \mh1) is now de-supported.
331: Use the ``hoopy'' BBoards facility instead.
332:
333: \section* {BBoards}
334: \MH/ maintainers take note:
335: the default home directory for the bboards login has changed from
336: \file{/usr/bboards/} to \file{/usr/spool/bboards/}.
337: Use the \verb"bbhome" directive in your \MH/ configuration file to set
338: it back to the old value if you wish.
339:
340: In addition, the aliases field for a BBoard in the BBoards file is now
341: deemed useful only for addressing, not for user input to \pgm{bbc}.
342: This means when giving the name of a BBoard to \pgm{bbc},
343: only the official name should be used.
344:
345: A final note for mailsystem maintainers:
346: the \MMDFII/ BBoards channel and the \SendMail/ BBoards mailer have been
347: modified to use the standard message encapsulation format when returning
348: failed messages to the list maintainer.
349: This means that the failure notices that the maintainer receives can
350: simply be \pgm{burst}.
351:
352: \subsection* {New Switches in bbc}
353: The \pgm{bbc} program permits you to specify the \verb"mshproc" to use on the
354: command line by using the \switch"mshproc program" option.
355: There's also a \switch"rcfile file" option which does ``the obvious thing''.
356: In addition, options which aren't understood by \pgm{bbc} are passed along to
357: the \verb"mshproc".
358:
359: In addition, the following commands
360: pass any unrecognized switches on to the program that they invoke:
361: \pgm{bbc}, \pgm{next}, \pgm{show}, \pgm{prev}, and \pgm{vmh}.
362:
363: \subsection* {Distributed BBoards}
364: If both BBoards and POP (see the next section) are enabled,
365: then distributed BBoards can be supported on top of the POP service.
366: This allows the \MH/ user to read BBoards on a server machine
367: instead of the local host
368: (which saves a lot of wasted disk space when the same BBoards are replicated
369: several times at a site with several hosts).
370: See the {\em Administrator's Guide\/} for information on how this can be made
371: completely transparent to the \MH/ user.
372:
373: If you have several machines at your site running 4.2\bsd/~\unix/
374: and connected by an \ethernet/ (or other high-speed LAN),
375: you {\em want\/} this software.
376:
377: \subsection* {Visual Front-End to msh}
378: A simple window management protocol has been implemented for \MH/ programs
379: that might wish to act as a back-end to a sophisticated visual front-end.
380:
381: The first implementation of a server side (front-end) program is \pgm{vmh},
382: which uses \man curses(3) to maintain a split-screen interface.
383: Perhaps look for a \pgm{mhtool} program for the SUN next!
384:
385: The \pgm{msh} program has been modified to speak the client side (back-end)
386: of this protocol, if so directed.
387: At present, \pgm{msh} is the only program in the \MH/ distribution which
388: implements the client side of the window management protocol.
389:
390: \subsection* {Updates in msh}
391: Prior to quitting,
392: the \pgm{msh} command now asks if the \pgm{packf\/}'d file you've been
393: perusing should be updated if you've modified it and the file is writable by
394: you.
395: The file can be modified by using \pgm{burst}, \pgm{rmm}, \pgm{rmm},
396: or \pgm{sortm} commands.
397: The file can also be modified by using the \pgm{refile} command without the
398: \switch"link" option.
399: (Or course,
400: the \switch"link" option doesn't actually link anything to the file.)
401:
402: \section* {Distributed Mail}
403: \MH/ now contains a powerful facility for doing distributed mail
404: (having \MH/ reside on a host different than the message transport agent).
405: For general information,
406: consult either the
407: {\em MH.5: How to process 200 messages a day and still get some real work
408: done} paper,
409: or the {\em MH: A Multifarious User Agent} paper.
410: For specific information,
411: consult the {\em Administrator's Guide}.
412: Here's a brief synopsis:
413:
414: This POP facility in \MH/ is based on a modification of the ARPA Post
415: Office Protocol (POP).
416: A POP {\em subscriber\/} is a remote user,
417: on a POP {\em client host},
418: that wishes to pick-up mail on a POP {\em service host}.
419:
420: There are two ways to administer POP:
421: \begin{itemize}
422: \item Naive Mode\\
423: Each user-id in the \man passwd(5) file is considered a POP subscriber.
424: No changes are required for the mailsystem on the POP service host.
425: However,
426: this method requires that each POP subscriber have an entry in the password
427: file.
428: The POP server will fetch the user's mail from wherever maildrops are kept on
429: the POP service host.
430: This means that if maildrops are kept in the user's home directory,
431: then each POP subscriber must have a home directory.
432:
433: \item Smart Mode\\
434: This is based on the notion that the list of POP subscribers and the list of
435: login users are completely separate name spaces.
436: A separate database (similar to the \man BBoards(5) file)
437: is used to record information about each POP subscriber.
438: Unfortunately,
439: the local mailsystem must be changed to reflect this.
440: This requires two changes (both of which are simple):
441: \begin{enumerate}
442: \item Aliasing\\
443: The aliasing mechanism is augmented so that POP subscriber addresses
444: are diverted to a special delivery mechanism.
445: \MH/ comes with a program, \man popaka(8), which generates the
446: additional information to be put in the mailsystem's alias file.
447: \item Delivery\\
448: A special POP delivery channel (for \MMDFII/)
449: or POP mailer (for \SendMail/) performs the actual delivery (\mh6
450: supplies both).
451: All it really does is just place the mail in the POP spool area.
452: \end{enumerate}
453: Clever mailsystem people will note that
454: the POP mechanism is really a special case of the more general
455: BBoards mechanism.
456: \end{itemize}
457: These two different philosophies are not compatible on the same POP service
458: host: one or the other, but not both, may be run.
459:
460: In addition, there is one user-visible difference,
461: which the administrator controls the availability of.
462: The difference is whether the POP subscriber must supply a password to the POP
463: server:
464: \begin{itemize}
465: \item ARPA standard method\\
466: This uses the standard ARPA technique of sending a username and a password.
467: The appropriate programs (\pgm{inc}, \pgm{msgchk}, and possibly \pgm{bbc\/})
468: will prompt the user for this information.
469:
470: \item \unix/ remote method\\
471: This uses the Berkeley \unix/ reserved port method for authentication.
472: This requires that the two or three mentioned above programs be {\em setuid\/}
473: to root.
474: (There are no known holes in any of these programs.)
475: \end{itemize}
476: These two different philosophies are compatible on the same POP service host:
477: to selectively disable RPOP for hosts which aren't trusted,
478: either modify the \file{.rhosts} file in the case of POP subscribers being
479: \unix/ logins,
480: or zero the contents of network address field of the \man pop(5) file for the
481: desired POP subscribers.
482:
483: The \pgm{inc} command also has two other switches when \MH/ is enabled for
484: POP:
485: \switch"pack file" and \switch"nopack".
486: Normally,
487: \pgm{inc} will use the POP to incorporate mail from a POP service host into
488: an \MH/ folder (\verb"+inbox").
489: However,
490: there are some misguided individuals who prefer to \pgm{msh} to read their
491: maildrop.
492: By using the \switch"pack file" option,
493: these individuals can direct \pgm{inc} to fetch their maildrop from the POP
494: service host and store it locally in the named file.
495: As expected, \pgm{inc} will treat the local file as a maildrop,
496: performing the appropriate locking protocols.
497: And,
498: if the file doesn't exist,
499: the user is now asked for confirmation.
500:
501: \section* {Rcvmail hooks}
502: In order to offer users of \MH/ increased rcvmail hook functionality,
503: the \pgm{slocal} program has been upgraded to support the semantics of
504: the \MMDFII/ mail-delivery mechanism.
505: This means that users of \mh6 can maintain identical \file{.maildelivery}
506: files regardless of the underlying transport system.
507: See \man mhook(1) for all the details.
508:
509: \subsection* {Change in rcvdist}
510: The \pgm{rcvdist} rcvmail hook now uses the \MH/ formatting facility when
511: redistributing a message.
512:
513: \subsection* {Field change in rcvpack}
514: The \pgm{rcvpack} rcvmail hook now adds the field name \verb"Delivery-Date:"
515: instead of \verb"Cron-Date:" to messages it \pgm{pack\/}s.
516:
517: \section* {GNU Emacs Support}
518: James Larus' \pgm{mh-e} macro package for GNU Emacs (version~17) is included
519: in the distribution.
520: When loaded in Emacs, this provides a handy front-end.
521:
522: \section* {Other Changes}
523: Here's the miscellany:
524:
525: \subsection* {Continuation Lines}
526: Alias files used by \MH/,
527: display templates used by \pgm{mhl},
528: and format files used by \pgm{forw}, \pgm{repl}, and \pgm{scan} all support
529: a standard continuation line syntax.
530: To continue a line in one of these files,
531: simply end the line with the backslash character (`$\backslash$').
532: All the other files used by \MH/ are in 822--format,
533: so the 822--continuation mechanism is used.%
534: \footnote{Looking back,
535: it would have been best had all files in \MH/ used the 822--format.}
536:
537: \subsection* {Default Date Format}
538: \MH/ now uses numeric timezones instead of locally-meaningful alpha timezones
539: when generating mail.
540: This change was made to encourage the use of unambiguous, globally-meaningful
541: timezone strings.
542: A local configuration option can disable this correct behavior.
543: All of the \pgm{mhl} templates have been modified to use locally-meaningful
544: alpha timezones when displaying messages.
545:
546: \subsection* {New switch in ali}
547: The \pgm{ali} command now has a \switch"noalias" switch to prevent
548: system-wide aliases from being interpreted.
549:
550: \subsection* {Modifications to show}
551: The \switch"format", \switch"noformat", \switch"pr", and \switch"nopr"
552: options to \pgm{show} have gone away in favor of a more general mechanism.
553: The \switch"showproc program" option tells \pgm{show}
554: (or \pgm{next} or \pgm{prev\/}) to use the named program as the \verb"showproc".
555: The \switch"noshowproc" option tells \pgm{show}, et. al.,
556: to use the \man cat(1) program instead of a \verb"showproc".
557: As a result, the profile entry \verb"prproc" is no longer used.
558:
559: \subsection* {Switch change in inc}
560: The \switch"ms ms-file" switch in \pgm{inc} has been changed to
561: \switch"file name" to be more consistent.
562:
563: \subsection* {Front-End to mhl}
564: When outputting to a terminal,
565: the \pgm{mhl} program now runs the program denoted by the profile entry
566: \verb"moreproc".
567: If this entry is not present,
568: the default is the UCB \pgm{more} program.
569: If the entry is non-empty,
570: then that program is spliced between \pgm{mhl} and the user's terminal.
571: The author uses the \pgm{less} program as his \verb"moreproc".
572:
573: Of course,
574: if \pgm{mhl} isn't outputting to a terminal,
575: then \verb"moreproc" is not invoked.
576:
577: Finally,
578: to aid in the construction of replies,
579: a prefix string may be specified for the \verb"body" component of the message
580: being replied-to.
581: Simply use the \verb"component=" construct in \pgm{mhl} for \verb"body:".
582:
583: \subsection* {Confirmation in packf}
584: If the file specified by the \switch"file name" switch doesn't exist,
585: the user is now asked for confirmation.
586:
587: \subsection* {Complex Expressions in pick}
588: The \pgm{pick} command now handles complex boolean expressions.
589:
590: \subsection* {Defaults change in prompter and burst}
591: The \switch"prepend" option is now the default in \pgm{prompter}.
592: The \switch"noinplace" option is now the default in \pgm{burst}.
593:
594: \subsection* {Fcc:s and post}
595: If multiple Fcc:s for a message are specified during posting,
596: \pgm{post} will try much harder to preserve links.
597:
598: \subsection* {Interactive option in rmf}
599: The \pgm{rmf} program has been changed to support an \switch"interactive"
600: switch.
601: If given,
602: then the user is prompted regarding whether the folder should be deleted.
603: If the folder to be removed is not given by the user,
604: this switch is defaulted to on.
605:
606: \subsection* {Trusted Mail Interface}
607: \MH/ now has an interface for so-called ``trusted mail'' applications.
608: Although the modifications to \MH/ to support this are in the public domain,
609: the actual library that \MH/ uses is not.
610: Contact Professor David J.~Farber ({\sf Farber@UDel\/}) for more information.
611:
612: \bibliography{bcustom,sfwdoc}
613: \bibliographystyle{alpha}
614:
615: \showsummary
616:
617: \end{document}
This archive runs on limited infrastructure. Preserving old code on modern bandwidth. Automated agents are requested to crawl responsibly.