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