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annotate ch03.roff @ 36:13bcab8d4b6f
Added hgignore file.
author | markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> |
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date | Tue, 15 May 2012 19:21:27 +0200 |
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1 .H0 "Work Report |
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2 .P |
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3 foo |
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4 .P |
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5 bar |
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6 |
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7 .H1 "Removal of Code Relicts |
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8 .P |
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9 The code base of mmh originates from the late 70s, had been extensively |
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10 worked on in the mid 80s, and had been partly reorganized and extended |
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11 in the 90s. Relicts of all those times had gathered in the code base. |
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12 My goal was to remove any ancient code parts. One part of the task was |
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13 converting obsolete code constructs to standard constructs, the other part |
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14 was dropping obsolete functions. |
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15 .P |
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16 As I'm not even thirty years old and have no more than seven years of |
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17 Unix experience, I needed to learn about the history in retroperspective. |
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18 Older people likely have used those ancient constructs themself |
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19 and have suffered from their incompatiblities and have longed for |
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20 standardization. Unfortunately, I have only read that others had done so. |
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21 This put me in a much more difficult positions when working on the old |
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22 code. I needed to recherche what other would have known by heart from |
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23 experience. All my programming experience comes from a time past ANSI C |
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24 and past POSIX. Although I knew about the times before, I took the |
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25 current state implicitely for granted most of the time. |
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26 .P |
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27 Being aware of |
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28 these facts, I rather let people with more historic experience solve the |
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29 task of converting the ancient code constructs to standardized ones. |
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30 Luckily, Lyndon Nerenberg focused on this task at the nmh project. |
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31 He converted large parts of the code to POSIX constructs, removing |
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32 the conditionals compilation for now standardized features. |
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33 I'm thankful for this task being solved. I only pulled the changes into |
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34 mmh. |
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35 .P |
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36 The other task \(en dropping ancient functionality to remove old code \(en |
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37 I did myself, though. My position to strip mmh to the bare minimum of |
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38 frequently used features is much more revolutional than the nmh community |
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39 likes it. Without the need to justify my decisions, I was able to quickly |
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40 remove functionality I considered ancient. |
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41 The need to discuss my decisions with |
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42 peers likely would have slowed this process down. Of course, I researched |
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43 if a particular feature really should be dropped. Having not had any |
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44 contact to this feature within my computer life was a first indicator to |
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45 drop it, but I also asked others and searched the literature for modern |
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46 usage of the feature. If it appeared to be truly ancient, I dropped it. |
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47 The reason for dropping is always part of the commit message in the |
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48 version control system. Thus, it is easy for others to check their |
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49 view on the topic with mine and possibly to argue for reinclusion. |
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50 |
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51 .U2 "MMDF maildrop support |
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52 .P |
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53 I did drop any support for the MMDF maildrop format. This type of format |
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54 is conceptionally similar to the mbox format, but uses four bytes with |
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55 value 1 (\fL^A^A^A^A\fP) as message delimiter, |
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56 instead of the string ``\fLFrom\ \fP''. |
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57 Due to the similarity and mbox being the de-facto standard maildrop |
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58 format on Unix, but also due to the larger influence of Sendmail than MMDF, |
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59 the MMDF maildrop format had vanished. |
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60 .P |
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61 The simplifications within the code were only moderate. Switches could |
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62 be removed from tools like |
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63 .L packf , |
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64 which generate packed mailboxes. Only one packed mailbox format remained: |
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65 mbox. |
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66 The most important changes affect the equally named mail parsing routine in |
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67 .L sbr/m_getfld.c . |
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68 The direct MMDF code had been removed, but as now only one packed mailbox |
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69 format is left, code structure simplifications are likely possible. |
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70 The reason why they are still outstanding is the heavily optimized code |
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71 of |
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72 .Fu m_getfld() . |
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73 Changes beyond a small local scope \(en |
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74 which restructuring in its core is \(en cause a high risk of damaging |
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75 the intricate workings of the optimized code. This problem is know |
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76 to the developers of nmh, too. They also avoid touching this minefield |
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77 if possible. |
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78 |
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79 .U2 "UUCP Bang Paths |
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80 .P |
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81 More questionably than the former topic is the removal of support for the |
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82 UUCP bang path address style. However, the user may translate the bang |
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83 paths on retrieval to Internet addresses and the other way on posting |
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84 messages. The former can be done my an MDA like procmail; the latter |
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85 by a sendmail wrapper. This would ensure that any address handling would |
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86 work as expected. However, it might just work well without any |
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87 such modifications, as mmh does not touch addresses much, in general. |
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88 But I can't ensure as I have never used an environment with bang paths. |
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89 Also, the behavior might break at any point in further development. |
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90 |
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91 .U2 "Hardcopy terminal support |
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92 .P |
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93 More of a funny anecdote is the remaining of a check for printing to a |
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94 hardcopy terminal until Spring 2012, when I finally removed it. |
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95 I surely would be very happy to see such a terminal in action, maybe |
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96 actually being able to work on it, but I fear my chances are null. |
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97 .P |
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98 The check only prevented a pager to be placed between the outputting |
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99 program (\c |
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100 .Pn mhl ) |
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101 and the terminal. This could have been ensured with |
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102 the |
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103 .Sw \-nomoreproc |
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104 at the command line statically, too. |
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105 |
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106 .U2 "Removed support for header fields |
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107 .P |
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108 The `Encrypted' header had been introduced by RFC\^822, but already |
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109 marked legacy in RFC 2822. It was superseded by FIXME. |
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110 Mmh does no more support this header. |
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111 .P |
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112 Native support for `Face' headers |
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113 had been removed, as well. |
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114 The feature is similar to the `X-Face' header in its intent, |
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115 but takes a different approach to store the image. |
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116 Instead of encoding the image data directly into the header, |
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117 the the header contains the hostname and UDP port where the image |
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118 date could be retrieved. |
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119 Neither `X-Face' nor the here described `Face' system |
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120 \** |
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121 .FS |
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122 There is also a newer but different system, invented 2005, |
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123 using `Face' headers. |
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124 It is the successor of `X-Face' providing colored PNG images. |
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125 .FE |
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126 became well used in the large scale. |
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127 It's still possible to use a Face systems, |
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128 although mmh does not provide support for any of the different systems |
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129 anymore. It's fairly easy to write a small shell script to |
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130 extract the embedded or fetch the external Face data and display the image. |
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131 Own Face headers can be added into the draft template files. |
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132 .P |
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133 `Content-MD5' headers were introduced by RFC\^1864. They provide only |
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134 a verification of data corruption during the transfer. By no means can |
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135 they ensure verbatim end-to-end delivery of the contents. This is clearly |
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136 stated in the RFC. The proper approach to provide verificationability |
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137 of content in an end-to-end relationship is the use of digital cryptography |
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138 (RFCs FIXME). On the other hand, transfer protocols should ensure the |
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139 integrity of the transmission. In combinations these two approaches |
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140 make the `Content-MD5' header field useless. In consequence, I removed |
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141 the support for it. By this removal, MD5 computation is not needed |
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142 anywhere in mmh. Hence, over 500 lines of code were removed by this one |
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143 change. Even if the `Content-MD5' header field is useful sometimes, |
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144 I value its usefulnes less than the improvement in maintainability, caused |
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145 by the removal. |
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146 |
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147 .U2 "Prompter's Control Keys |
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148 .P |
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149 The program |
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150 .Pn prompter |
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151 queries the user to fill in a message form. When used by |
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152 .Pn comp |
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153 as: |
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154 .DS |
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155 comp \-editor prompter |
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156 .DE |
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157 the resulting behavior is similar to |
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158 .Pn mailx . |
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159 Appearently, |
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160 .Pn prompter |
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161 hadn't been touched lately. Otherwise it's hardly explainable why it |
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162 still offered the switches |
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163 .Sn \-erase \fUchr\fP |
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164 and |
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165 .Sn \-kill \fUchr\fP |
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166 to name the characters for command line editing. |
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167 The times when this had been necessary are long time gone. |
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168 Today these things work out-of-the-box, and if not, are configured |
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169 with the standard tool |
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170 .Pn stty . |
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171 |
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172 .U2 "Vfork and Retry Loops |
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173 .P |
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174 MH creates many processes, which is a concequence of the toolchest approach. |
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175 In earlier times |
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176 .Fu fork() |
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177 had been an expensive system call, as the process's whole image needed |
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178 to be duplicated. One common case is replacing the image with |
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179 .Fu exec() |
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180 right after having forked the child process. |
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181 To speed up this case, the |
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182 .Fu vfork() |
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183 system call was invented at Berkeley. It completely omits copying the |
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184 image. If the image gets replaced right afterwards then unnecessary |
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185 work is omited. On old systems this results in large speed ups. |
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186 MH uses |
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187 .Fu vfork() |
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188 whenever possible. |
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189 .P |
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190 Memory management units that support copy-on-write semantics make |
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191 .Fu fork() |
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192 almost as fast as |
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193 .Fu vfork() |
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194 in the cases when they can be exchanged. |
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195 With |
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196 .Fu vfork() |
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197 being more errorprone and hardly faster, it's preferable to simply |
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198 use |
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199 .Fu fork() |
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200 instead. |
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201 .P |
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202 Related to the costs of |
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203 .Fu fork() |
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204 is the probability of its success. |
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205 Today on modern systems, the system call will succeed almost always. |
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206 In the 80s on heavy loaded systems, as they were common at |
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207 universities, this had been different. Thus, many of the |
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208 .Fu fork() |
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209 calls were wrapped into loops to retry to fork several times in |
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210 short intervals, in case of previous failure. |
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211 In mmh, the program aborts at once if the fork failed. |
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212 The user can reexecute the command then. This is expected to be a |
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213 very rare case on modern systems, especially personal ones, which are |
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214 common today. |
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215 |
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216 |
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217 .H1 "Removal of Tools |
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218 .P |
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219 MH had been considered an all-in-one system for mail handling. |
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220 The community around nmh has a similar understanding. |
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221 In fundamental difference, I believe that mmh should be a MUA but |
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222 nothing more. I believe that all-in-one mail systems are not the way |
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223 to go. There are excellent specialized MTAs, like Postfix; |
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224 there are specialized MDAs, like Procmail; there are specialized |
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225 MRAs, like Fetchmail. I believe it's best to use them instead of |
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226 providing the same function ourself. Doing something well requires to |
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227 focus on this particular aspect or a small set of aspects. The more |
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228 it is possible to focus, the better the result in this particular |
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229 area will be. The limiting resource in Free Software community development |
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230 usually is human power. If the low development power is even parted |
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231 into multiple development areas, it will hardly be possible to |
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232 compete with the specialists in the various fields. This is even |
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233 increased, given the small community \(en developers and users \(en |
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234 that MH-based mail systems have. In consequence, I believe that the |
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235 available resources should be concentrated at the point where MH is |
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236 most unique. This is clearly the MUA part. |
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237 .P |
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238 Several of nmh's tools were removed from mmh because they didn't |
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239 match the main focus of adding to the MUA's task. |
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240 .P |
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241 .Pn conflict |
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242 was removed because it is a mail system maintenance tool. |
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243 Besides, it also checks the |
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244 .Fn /etc/passwd |
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245 and |
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246 .Fn /etc/group |
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247 files. |
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248 The tool might be useful, but it should not be shipped with mmh. |
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249 .P |
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250 .Pn rcvtty |
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251 was removed because its usecase of writing to the user's terminal |
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252 on receival of mail is hardly wanted today. If users like to be |
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253 informed of new mail, then using the shell's |
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254 .Ev MAILPATH |
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255 variable or different (graphical) notifications are likely more |
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256 appealing. Writing directly to other terminals is hardly ever wanted |
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257 today. If though one wants to have it this way, the standard tool |
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258 .Pn write |
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259 can be used in a way similar to: |
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260 .DS |
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261 scan -file - | write `id -un` |
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262 .DE |
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263 .P |
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264 When the new attachment system was introduced, |
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265 .Pn viamail |
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266 was removed because then |
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267 .Pn forw |
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268 could cover the task itself. |
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269 The wrapper program |
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270 .Pn sendfiles |
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271 was rewritten as a shell script to use |
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272 .Pn forw . |
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273 .P |
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274 .Pn msgchk |
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275 was removed as it became hardly useful when POP support was removed. |
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276 It is questionable if |
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277 .Pn msgchk |
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278 provides more information than: |
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279 .DS |
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280 ls -l /var/mail/meillo |
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281 .DE |
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282 It does separate between old and new mail, but that's not very |
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283 useful and can be found out with |
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284 .Pn stat (1) |
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285 too. A very small shell script could care for the form of output. |
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286 As mmh's inc only incorporates mail from the user's local maildrop |
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287 and thus no long data transfers are involved, |
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288 there's no need to check for new mail before incorporating it. |
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289 .P |
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290 .Pn msh |
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291 was removed because the tool was in conflict with the original |
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292 philosophy of MH. It provided an interactive shell to access the |
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293 features of MH. One major feature of MH is being a toolchest. |
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294 .Pn msh |
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295 wouldn't be just another shell, taylored to the needs of mail |
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296 handling, but one large program to have the MH tools built in. |
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297 It's main use was for accessing Bulletin Boards, which have seized to |
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298 be popular. Removing |
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299 .Pn msh , |
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300 together with the truly obsolete programs |
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301 .Pn vmh |
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302 and |
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303 .Pn wmh , |
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304 saved more than 7\|000 lines of C code \(en a major achievement. |
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305 |
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306 |
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307 .H1 "Draft and Trash Folders |
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308 .U2 "Draft Folder |
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309 .P |
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310 Historically, MH provided exactly one draft message, named |
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311 .Fn draft |
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312 and |
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313 being located in the MH directory. When starting to compose another message |
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314 before the former one was sent, the user had been questioned wether to use, |
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315 refile or replace the old draft. Working on multiple drafts at the same time |
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316 was impossible. One could only work on them in alteration by refiling the |
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317 previous one to some directory and fetching some other one for reediting. |
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318 This manual draft management needed to be done each time the user wanted |
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319 to switch between editing one draft to editing another. |
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320 .P |
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321 To allow true parallel editing of drafts, in a straight forward way, the |
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322 draft folder facility exists. It had been introduced already in July 1984 |
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323 by Marshall T. Rose. The facility was deactivated by default. |
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324 Even in nmh, the draft folder facility remained deactivated by default. |
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325 At least, Richard Coleman added the man page |
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326 .Mp mh-draft(5) |
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327 to document |
14
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328 the feature well. |
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329 .P |
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330 The only advantage of not using the draft folder facility is the static |
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331 name of the draft file. This could be an issue for MH frontends like mh-e. |
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332 But as they likely want to provide working on multiple drafts in parallel, |
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333 the issue is only concerning compatibility. The aim of nmh to stay compatible |
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334 prevented the default activation of the draft folder facility. |
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335 .P |
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336 On the other hand, a draft folder is the much more natural concept than |
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337 a draft message. MH's mail storage consists of folders and messages, |
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338 the messages named with ascending numbers. A draft message breaks with this |
18
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339 concept by introducing a message in a file named |
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340 .Fn draft . |
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341 This draft |
14
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342 message is special. It can not be simply listed with the available tools, |
17
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Several minor text improvements.
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343 but instead requires special switches. I.e. corner-cases were |
14
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344 introduced. A draft folder, in contrast, does not introduce such |
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345 corner-cases. The available tools can operate on the messages within that |
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346 folder like on any messages within any mail folders. The only difference |
18
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347 is the fact that the default folder for |
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348 .Pn send |
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349 is the draft folder, |
14
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350 instead of the current folder, like for all other tools. |
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351 .P |
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352 The trivial part of the change was activating the draft folder facility |
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353 by default and setting a default name for this folder. Obviously, I chose |
18
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354 the name |
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355 .Fn +drafts . |
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356 This made the |
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357 .Sw \-draftfolder |
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358 and |
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359 .Sw \-draftmessage |
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360 switches useless, and I could remove them. |
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361 The more difficult but also the part that showed the real improvement, |
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362 was updating the tools to the new concept. |
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363 .Sw \-draft |
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364 switches could |
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365 be dropped, as operating on a draft message became indistinguishable to |
18
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366 operating on any other message for the tools. |
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367 .Pn comp |
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368 still has its |
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369 .Sw \-use |
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370 switch for switching between its two modes: (1) Compose a new |
14
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371 draft, possibly by taking some existing message as a form. (2) Modify |
18
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372 an existing draft. In either case, the behavior of |
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373 .Pn comp is |
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374 deterministic. There is no more need to query the user. I consider this |
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375 a major improvement. By making |
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376 .Pn send |
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377 simply operate on the current |
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378 message in the draft folder by default, with message and folder both |
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379 overridable by specifying them on the command line, it is now possible |
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380 to send a draft anywhere within the storage by simply specifying its folder |
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381 and name. |
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382 .P |
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383 All theses changes converted special cases to regular cases, thus |
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384 simplifying the tools and increasing the flexibility. |
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385 |
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386 .U2 "Trash Folder |
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387 .P |
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388 Similar to the situation for drafts is the situation for removed messages. |
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389 Historically, a message was deleted by renaming. A specific |
18
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390 \fIbackup prefix\fP, often comma (\c |
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391 .Fn , ) |
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392 or hash (\c |
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393 .Fn # ), |
16
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394 being prepended to the file name. Thus, MH wouldn't recognize the file |
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395 as a message anymore, as only files whose name consists of digits only |
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396 are treated as messages. The removed messages remained as files in the |
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397 same directory and needed some maintenance job to truly delete them after |
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398 some grace time. Usually, by running a command similar to |
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399 .DS |
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400 find /home/user/Mail \-ctime +7 \-name ',*' | xargs rm |
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401 .DE |
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402 in a cron job. Within the grace time interval |
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403 the original message could be restored by stripping the |
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404 the backup prefix from the file name. If however, the last message of |
18
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405 a folder is been removed \(en say message |
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406 .Fn 6 |
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407 becomes file |
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408 .Fn ,6 |
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409 \(en and a new message enters the same folder, thus the same |
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410 numbered being given again \(en in our case |
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411 .Fn 6 |
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412 \(en, if that one |
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413 is removed too, then the backup of the former message gets overwritten. |
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414 Thus, the ability to restore removed messages does not only depend on |
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415 the ``sweeping cron job'' but also on the removing of further messages. |
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416 This is undesireable, because the real mechanism is hidden from the user |
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417 and the concequences of further removals are not always obvious. |
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418 Further more, the backup files are scattered within the whole mail |
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419 storage, instead of being collected at one place. |
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420 .P |
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421 To improve the situation, the profile entry |
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422 .Pe rmmproc |
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423 (previously named |
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424 .Pe Delete-Prog ) |
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425 was introduced, very early. |
16
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426 It could be set to any command, which would care for the mail removal |
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427 instead of taking the default action, described above. |
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428 Refiling the to-be-removed files to some wastebin folder was a common |
18
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429 example. Nmh's man page |
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430 .Mp rmm(1) |
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431 proposes |
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432 .Cl "refile +d |
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433 to move messages to the wastebin and |
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434 .Cl "rm `mhpath +d all` |
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435 the empty the wastebin. |
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436 Managing the message removal this way is a sane approach. It keeps |
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437 the removed messages in one place, makes it easy to remove the backup |
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438 files, and, most important, enables the user to use the tools of MH |
18
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439 itself to operate on the removed messages. One can |
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440 .Pn scan |
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441 them, |
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442 .Pn show |
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443 them, and restore them with |
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444 .Pn refile . |
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445 There's no more |
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446 need to use |
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447 .Pn mhpath |
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448 to switch over from MH tools to Unix tools \(en MH can do it all itself. |
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449 .P |
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450 This apporach matches perfect with the concepts of MH, thus making |
16
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451 it powerful. Hence, I made it the default. And even more, I also |
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452 removed the old backup prefix approach, as it is clearly less powerful. |
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453 Keeping unused alternative in the code is a bad choice as they likely |
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454 gather bugs, by not being constantly tested. Also, the increased code |
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455 size and more conditions crease the maintenance costs. By strictly |
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456 converting to the trash folder approach, I simplified the code base. |
18
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457 .Pn rmm |
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458 calls |
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459 .Pn refile |
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460 internally to move the to-be-removed |
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461 message to the trash folder (\c |
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462 .Fn +trash |
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463 by default). Messages |
16
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464 there can be operated on like on any other message in the storage. |
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465 The sweep clean, one can use |
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466 .Cl "rmm \-unlink +trash a" , |
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467 where the |
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468 .Sw \-unlink |
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469 switch causes the files to be truly unliked instead |
16
81f703140554
Wrote about the trash folder.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
14
diff
changeset
|
470 of moved to the trash folder. |
81f703140554
Wrote about the trash folder.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
14
diff
changeset
|
471 |
0
dc2bfef4cda7
Initial commit: Basic structure, macros and fonts.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
diff
changeset
|
472 |
17
b3c37947764e
Several minor text improvements.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
16
diff
changeset
|
473 .H1 "MH Directory Split |
0
dc2bfef4cda7
Initial commit: Basic structure, macros and fonts.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
diff
changeset
|
474 .P |
19
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
475 In MH and nmh, a personal setup had consisted of two parts: |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
476 The MH profile, named |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
477 .Fn \&.mh_profile |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
478 and being located directly in the user's home directory. |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
479 And the MH directory, where all his mail messages and also his personal |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
480 forms, scan formats, other configuration files are stored. The location |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
481 of this directory could be user-chosen. The default was to name it |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
482 .Fn Mail |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
483 and have it directly in the home directory. |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
484 .P |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
485 I've never liked the data storage and the configuration to be intermixed. |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
486 They are different kinds of data. One part, are the messages, |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
487 which are the data to operate on. The other part, are the personal |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
488 configuration files, which are able to change the behavior of the operations. |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
489 The actual operations are defined in the profile, however. |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
490 .P |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
491 When storing data, one should try to group data by its type. |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
492 There's sense in the Unix file system hierarchy, where configuration |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
493 file are stored separate (\c |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
494 .Fn /etc ) |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
495 to the programs (\c |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
496 .Fn /bin |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
497 and |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
498 .Fn /usr/bin ) |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
499 to their sources (\c |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
500 .Fn /usr/src ). |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
501 Such separation eases the backup management, for instance. |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
502 .P |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
503 In mmh, I've reorganized the file locations. |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
504 Still there are two places: |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
505 There's the mail storage directory, which, like in MH, contains all the |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
506 messages, but, unlike in MH, nothing else. |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
507 Its location still is user-chosen, with the default name |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
508 .Fn Mail , |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
509 in the user's home directory. This is much similar to the case in nmh. |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
510 The configuration files, however, are grouped together in the new directory |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
511 .Fn \&.mmh |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
512 in the user's home directory. |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
513 The user's profile now is a file, named |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
514 .Fn profile , |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
515 in this mmh directory. |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
516 Consistently, the context file and all the personal forms, scan formats, |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
517 and the like, are also there. |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
518 .P |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
519 The naming changed with the relocation. |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
520 The directory where everything, except the profile, had been stored (\c |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
521 .Fn $HOME/Mail ), |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
522 used to be called \fIMH directory\fP. Now, this directory is called the |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
523 user's \fImail storage\fP. The name \fImmh directory\fP is now given to |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
524 the new directory |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
525 (\c |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
526 .Fn $HOME/.mmh ), |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
527 containing all the personal configuration files. |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
528 .P |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
529 The separation of the files by type of content is logical and convenient. |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
530 There are no functional differences as any possible setup known to me |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
531 can be implemented with both approaches, although likely a bit easier |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
532 with the new approach. The main goal of the change had been to provide |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
533 sensible storage locations for any type of personal mmh file. |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
534 .P |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
535 In order for one user to have multiple MH setups, he can use the |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
536 environment variable |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
537 .Ev MH |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
538 the point to a different profile file. |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
539 The MH directory (mail storage plus personal configuration files) is |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
540 defined by the |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
541 .Pe Path |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
542 profile entry. |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
543 The context file could be defined by the |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
544 .Pe context |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
545 profile entry or by the |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
546 .Ev MHCONTEXT |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
547 environment variable. |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
548 The latter is useful to have a distinct context (e.g. current folders) |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
549 in each terminal window, for instance. |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
550 In mmh, there are three environment variables now. |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
551 .Ev MMH |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
552 may be used to change the location of the mmh directory. |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
553 .Ev MMHP |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
554 and |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
555 .Ev MMHC |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
556 change the profile and context files, respectively. |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
557 Besides providing a more consistent feel (which simply is the result |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
558 of being designed anew), the set of personal configuration files can |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
559 be chosen independently from the profile (including mail storage location) |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
560 and context, now. Being it relevant for practical use or not, it |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
561 de-facto is an improvement. However, the main achievement is the |
ab5253e48c74
Wrote about the directory split.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
18
diff
changeset
|
562 split between mail storage and personal configuration files. |
17
b3c37947764e
Several minor text improvements.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
16
diff
changeset
|
563 |
0
dc2bfef4cda7
Initial commit: Basic structure, macros and fonts.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
diff
changeset
|
564 |
dc2bfef4cda7
Initial commit: Basic structure, macros and fonts.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
diff
changeset
|
565 .H1 "Path Notations |
dc2bfef4cda7
Initial commit: Basic structure, macros and fonts.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
diff
changeset
|
566 .P |
dc2bfef4cda7
Initial commit: Basic structure, macros and fonts.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
diff
changeset
|
567 foo |
dc2bfef4cda7
Initial commit: Basic structure, macros and fonts.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
diff
changeset
|
568 |
dc2bfef4cda7
Initial commit: Basic structure, macros and fonts.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
diff
changeset
|
569 .H1 "Attachments |
dc2bfef4cda7
Initial commit: Basic structure, macros and fonts.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
diff
changeset
|
570 .P |
dc2bfef4cda7
Initial commit: Basic structure, macros and fonts.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
diff
changeset
|
571 foo |
dc2bfef4cda7
Initial commit: Basic structure, macros and fonts.
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
diff
changeset
|
572 |
20
7a100c80fa91
Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter).
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
19
diff
changeset
|
573 .H1 "mhshow to show Transition |
7a100c80fa91
Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter).
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
19
diff
changeset
|
574 .P |
7a100c80fa91
Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter).
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
19
diff
changeset
|
575 Since the very beginning, already in the first concept paper, |
7a100c80fa91
Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter).
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
19
diff
changeset
|
576 .Pn show |
7a100c80fa91
Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter).
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
19
diff
changeset
|
577 had been MH's mail display program. |
7a100c80fa91
Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter).
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
19
diff
changeset
|
578 .Pn show |
7a100c80fa91
Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter).
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
19
diff
changeset
|
579 found out which pathnames the relevant messages had and invoked |
7a100c80fa91
Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter).
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
19
diff
changeset
|
580 .Pn mhl |
7a100c80fa91
Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter).
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
19
diff
changeset
|
581 then to let it render the content. |
7a100c80fa91
Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter).
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
19
diff
changeset
|
582 With the advent of MIME, this approach wasn't sufficient anymore. |
7a100c80fa91
Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter).
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
19
diff
changeset
|
583 MIME messages can consist of multiple parts, some of which aren't |
7a100c80fa91
Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter).
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
19
diff
changeset
|
584 directly displayable, and text content can be encoded in |
7a100c80fa91
Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter).
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
19
diff
changeset
|
585 foreign charsets. |
7a100c80fa91
Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter).
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
19
diff
changeset
|
586 .Pn show 's |
7a100c80fa91
Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter).
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
19
diff
changeset
|
587 simple approach and |
7a100c80fa91
Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter).
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
19
diff
changeset
|
588 .Pn mhl 's |
7a100c80fa91
Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter).
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
19
diff
changeset
|
589 limited display facilities couldn't cope with the task any longer. |
7a100c80fa91
Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter).
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
19
diff
changeset
|
590 Instead of extending these tools, new ones were written from scratch |
7a100c80fa91
Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter).
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
19
diff
changeset
|
591 and then added to the MH toolchest. Doing so is encouraged by the |
23 | 592 toolchest approach. The new tools could be added without interfering |
20
7a100c80fa91
Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter).
markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
parents:
19
diff
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593 with the existing ones. This is great. It allowed MH to be the |
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594 first MUA to implement MIME. |
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595 .P |
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596 The new MIME features were added in form of the single program |
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597 .Pn mhn . |
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598 The command |
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599 .DS |
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600 mhn \-show 42 |
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601 .DE |
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602 would show the MIME message numbered 42. |
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603 With the 1.0 release of nmh in February 1999, Richard Coleman finished |
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604 the split of |
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605 .Pn mhn |
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606 into a set of specialized programs, which together covered the |
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607 aspects of MIME. One of these resulting tools was |
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608 .Pn mhshow . |
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609 |
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610 |
0
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611 .H1 "Blind Carbon Copies |
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612 .P |
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613 foo |
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614 |
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615 .H1 "Good Defaults |
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616 .P |
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617 foo |
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618 |
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619 .H1 "Modularization |
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620 .P |
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621 foo |
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622 |
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623 .H1 "Code style |
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624 .P |
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625 foo |