docs/master: ch03.roff annotate

annotate ch03.roff @ 58:814c33b96d89

Restructured the content in ch03.

author	markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>
date	Fri, 01 Jun 2012 12:33:49 +0200
parents	49cf68506b5d
children	6a92e0208de0

rev	line source
58 814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	1 .H0 "Discussion
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	2 .P
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	3 This main chapter discusses the practical work done in the mmh project.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	4 It is structured along the goals to achieve. The concrete work done
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	5 is described in the examples of how the general goals were achieved.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	6
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	7
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	8
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	9
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	10 .H1 "Stream-lining
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	11
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	12
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	13 .H2 "Removal of non-MUA Tools
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	14 .P
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	15 MH had been considered an all-in-one system for mail handling.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	16 The community around nmh has a similar understanding.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	17 In fundamental difference, I believe that mmh should be a MUA but
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	18 nothing more. I believe that all-in-one mail systems are not the way
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	19 to go. There are excellent specialized MTAs, like Postfix;
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	20 there are specialized MDAs, like Procmail; there are specialized
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	21 MRAs, like Fetchmail. I believe it's best to use them instead of
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	22 providing the same function ourselves. Doing something well requires to
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	23 focus on this particular aspect or a small set of aspects. The more
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	24 it is possible to focus, the better the result in this particular
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	25 area will be. The limiting resource in Free Software community development
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	26 usually is human power. If the low development power is even parted
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	27 into multiple development areas, it will hardly be possible to
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	28 compete with the specialists in the various fields. This is even
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	29 increased, given the small community \(en developers and users \(en
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	30 that MH-based mail systems have. In consequence, I believe that the
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	31 available resources should be concentrated at the point where MH is
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	32 most unique. This is clearly the MUA part.
0 dc2bfef4cda7 Initial commit: Basic structure, macros and fonts. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	33 .P
58 814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	34 Several of nmh's tools were removed from mmh because they didn't
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	35 match the main focus of adding to the MUA's task.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	36 .P
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	37 .Pn conflict
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	38 was removed because it is a mail system maintenance tool.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	39 Besides, it also checks the
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	40 .Fn /etc/passwd
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	41 and
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	42 .Fn /etc/group
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	43 files.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	44 The tool might be useful, but it should not be shipped with mmh.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	45 .P
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	46 .Pn rcvtty
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	47 was removed because its usecase of writing to the user's terminal
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	48 on receiving of mail is hardly wanted today. If users like to be
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	49 informed of new mail, then using the shell's
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	50 .Ev MAILPATH
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	51 variable or different (graphical) notifications are likely more
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	52 appealing. Writing directly to other terminals is hardly ever wanted
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	53 today. If though one wants to have it this way, the standard tool
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	54 .Pn write
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	55 can be used in a way similar to:
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	56 .DS
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	57 scan -file - \| write `id -un`
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	58 .DE
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	59 .P
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	60 When the new attachment system was introduced,
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	61 .Pn viamail
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	62 was removed because then
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	63 .Pn forw
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	64 could cover the task itself.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	65 The wrapper program
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	66 .Pn sendfiles
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	67 was rewritten as a shell script to use
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	68 .Pn forw .
0 dc2bfef4cda7 Initial commit: Basic structure, macros and fonts. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	69 .P
58 814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	70 .Pn msgchk
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	71 was removed as it became hardly useful when POP support was removed.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	72 It is questionable if
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	73 .Pn msgchk
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	74 provides more information than:
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	75 .DS
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	76 ls -l /var/mail/meillo
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	77 .DE
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	78 It does separate between old and new mail, but that's not very
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	79 useful and can be found out with
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	80 .Pn stat (1)
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	81 too. A very small shell script could care for the form of output.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	82 As mmh's inc only incorporates mail from the user's local maildrop
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	83 and thus no long data transfers are involved,
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	84 there's no need to check for new mail before incorporating it.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	85 .P
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	86 .Pn msh
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	87 was removed because the tool was in conflict with the original
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	88 philosophy of MH. It provided an interactive shell to access the
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	89 features of MH. One major feature of MH is being a tool chest.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	90 .Pn msh
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	91 wouldn't be just another shell, tailored to the needs of mail
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	92 handling, but one large program to have the MH tools built in.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	93 It's main use was for accessing Bulletin Boards, which have seized to
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	94 be popular. Removing
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	95 .Pn msh ,
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	96 together with the truly obsolete programs
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	97 .Pn vmh
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	98 and
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	99 .Pn wmh ,
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	100 saved more than 7\\|000 lines of C code \(en a major achievement.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	101
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	102 .U2 "Removal of the MTS
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	103 .P
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	104
0 dc2bfef4cda7 Initial commit: Basic structure, macros and fonts. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	105
58 814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	106 .H2 "mhshow show Merge
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	107 .P
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	108 Since the very beginning, already in the first concept paper,
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	109 .Pn show
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	110 had been MH's mail display program.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	111 .Pn show
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	112 found out which pathnames the relevant messages had and invoked
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	113 .Pn mhl
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	114 then to let it render the content.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	115 With the advent of MIME, this approach wasn't sufficient anymore.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	116 MIME messages can consist of multiple parts, some of which aren't
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	117 directly displayable, and text content can be encoded in
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	118 foreign charsets.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	119 .Pn show 's
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	120 simple approach and
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	121 .Pn mhl 's
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	122 limited display facilities couldn't cope with the task any longer.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	123 Instead of extending these tools, new ones were written from scratch
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	124 and then added to the MH tool chest. Doing so is encouraged by the
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	125 tool chest approach. The new tools could be added without interfering
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	126 with the existing ones. This is great. It allowed MH to be the
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	127 first MUA to implement MIME.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	128 .P
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	129 The new MIME features were added in form of the single program
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	130 .Pn mhn .
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	131 The command
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	132 .DS
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	133 mhn \-show 42
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	134 .DE
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	135 would show the MIME message numbered 42.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	136 With the 1.0 release of nmh in February 1999, Richard Coleman finished
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	137 the split of
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	138 .Pn mhn
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	139 into a set of specialized programs, which together covered the
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	140 aspects of MIME. One of these resulting tools was
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	141 .Pn mhshow .
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	142
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	143
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	144 .H2 "Removal of Configure Options
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	145 .P
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	146
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	147 .H2 "Removal of switches
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	148 .P
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	149
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	150
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	151
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	152
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	153 .H1 "Moderizing
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	154
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	155
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	156 .H2 "Removal of Code Relicts
12 7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	157 .P
51 49cf68506b5d Spell checking. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 49 diff changeset	158 The code base of mmh originates from the late Seventies,
49cf68506b5d Spell checking. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 49 diff changeset	159 had been extensively
49cf68506b5d Spell checking. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 49 diff changeset	160 worked on in the mid Eighties, and had been partly reorganized and extended
49cf68506b5d Spell checking. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 49 diff changeset	161 in the Nineties. Relicts of all those times had gathered in the code base.
12 7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	162 My goal was to remove any ancient code parts. One part of the task was
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	163 converting obsolete code constructs to standard constructs, the other part
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	164 was dropping obsolete functions.
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	165 .P
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	166 As I'm not even thirty years old and have no more than seven years of
51 49cf68506b5d Spell checking. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 49 diff changeset	167 Unix experience, I needed to learn about the history in retrospective.
49cf68506b5d Spell checking. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 49 diff changeset	168 Older people likely have used those ancient constructs themselves
49cf68506b5d Spell checking. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 49 diff changeset	169 and have suffered from their incompatibilities and have longed for
12 7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	170 standardization. Unfortunately, I have only read that others had done so.
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	171 This put me in a much more difficult positions when working on the old
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	172 code. I needed to recherche what other would have known by heart from
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	173 experience. All my programming experience comes from a time past ANSI C
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	174 and past POSIX. Although I knew about the times before, I took the
51 49cf68506b5d Spell checking. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 49 diff changeset	175 current state implicitly for granted most of the time.
12 7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	176 .P
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	177 Being aware of
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	178 these facts, I rather let people with more historic experience solve the
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	179 task of converting the ancient code constructs to standardized ones.
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	180 Luckily, Lyndon Nerenberg focused on this task at the nmh project.
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	181 He converted large parts of the code to POSIX constructs, removing
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	182 the conditionals compilation for now standardized features.
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	183 I'm thankful for this task being solved. I only pulled the changes into
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	184 mmh.
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	185 .P
20 7a100c80fa91 Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 19 diff changeset	186 The other task \(en dropping ancient functionality to remove old code \(en
12 7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	187 I did myself, though. My position to strip mmh to the bare minimum of
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	188 frequently used features is much more revolutional than the nmh community
20 7a100c80fa91 Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 19 diff changeset	189 likes it. Without the need to justify my decisions, I was able to quickly
7a100c80fa91 Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 19 diff changeset	190 remove functionality I considered ancient.
7a100c80fa91 Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 19 diff changeset	191 The need to discuss my decisions with
7a100c80fa91 Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 19 diff changeset	192 peers likely would have slowed this process down. Of course, I researched
12 7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	193 if a particular feature really should be dropped. Having not had any
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	194 contact to this feature within my computer life was a first indicator to
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	195 drop it, but I also asked others and searched the literature for modern
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	196 usage of the feature. If it appeared to be truly ancient, I dropped it.
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	197 The reason for dropping is always part of the commit message in the
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	198 version control system. Thus, it is easy for others to check their
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	199 view on the topic with mine and possibly to argue for reinclusion.
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	200
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	201 .U2 "MMDF maildrop support
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	202 .P
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	203 I did drop any support for the MMDF maildrop format. This type of format
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	204 is conceptionally similar to the mbox format, but uses four bytes with
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	205 value 1 (\fL^A^A^A^A\fP) as message delimiter,
18 db3567c9cc3f style: Added format macros for files, functions, switches, etc. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 17 diff changeset	206 instead of the string ``\fLFrom\ \fP''.
12 7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	207 Due to the similarity and mbox being the de-facto standard maildrop
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	208 format on Unix, but also due to the larger influence of Sendmail than MMDF,
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	209 the MMDF maildrop format had vanished.
0 dc2bfef4cda7 Initial commit: Basic structure, macros and fonts. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	210 .P
12 7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	211 The simplifications within the code were only moderate. Switches could
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	212 be removed from tools like
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	213 .L packf ,
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	214 which generate packed mailboxes. Only one packed mailbox format remained:
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	215 mbox.
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	216 The most important changes affect the equally named mail parsing routine in
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	217 .L sbr/m_getfld.c .
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	218 The direct MMDF code had been removed, but as now only one packed mailbox
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	219 format is left, code structure simplifications are likely possible.
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	220 The reason why they are still outstanding is the heavily optimized code
18 db3567c9cc3f style: Added format macros for files, functions, switches, etc. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 17 diff changeset	221 of
db3567c9cc3f style: Added format macros for files, functions, switches, etc. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 17 diff changeset	222 .Fu m_getfld() .
db3567c9cc3f style: Added format macros for files, functions, switches, etc. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 17 diff changeset	223 Changes beyond a small local scope \(en
12 7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	224 which restructuring in its core is \(en cause a high risk of damaging
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	225 the intricate workings of the optimized code. This problem is know
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	226 to the developers of nmh, too. They also avoid touching this minefield
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	227 if possible.
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	228
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	229 .U2 "UUCP Bang Paths
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	230 .P
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	231 More questionably than the former topic is the removal of support for the
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	232 UUCP bang path address style. However, the user may translate the bang
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	233 paths on retrieval to Internet addresses and the other way on posting
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	234 messages. The former can be done my an MDA like procmail; the latter
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	235 by a sendmail wrapper. This would ensure that any address handling would
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	236 work as expected. However, it might just work well without any
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	237 such modifications, as mmh does not touch addresses much, in general.
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	238 But I can't ensure as I have never used an environment with bang paths.
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	239 Also, the behavior might break at any point in further development.
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	240
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	241 .U2 "Hardcopy terminal support
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	242 .P
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	243 More of a funny anecdote is the remaining of a check for printing to a
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	244 hardcopy terminal until Spring 2012, when I finally removed it.
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	245 I surely would be very happy to see such a terminal in action, maybe
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	246 actually being able to work on it, but I fear my chances are null.
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	247 .P
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	248 The check only prevented a pager to be placed between the outputting
18 db3567c9cc3f style: Added format macros for files, functions, switches, etc. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 17 diff changeset	249 program (\c
db3567c9cc3f style: Added format macros for files, functions, switches, etc. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 17 diff changeset	250 .Pn mhl )
db3567c9cc3f style: Added format macros for files, functions, switches, etc. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 17 diff changeset	251 and the terminal. This could have been ensured with
db3567c9cc3f style: Added format macros for files, functions, switches, etc. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 17 diff changeset	252 the
db3567c9cc3f style: Added format macros for files, functions, switches, etc. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 17 diff changeset	253 .Sw \-nomoreproc
db3567c9cc3f style: Added format macros for files, functions, switches, etc. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 17 diff changeset	254 at the command line statically, too.
12 7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	255
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	256 .U2 "Removed support for header fields
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	257 .P
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	258 The `Encrypted' header had been introduced by RFC\^822, but already
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	259 marked legacy in RFC 2822. It was superseded by FIXME.
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	260 Mmh does no more support this header.
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	261 .P
21 bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	262 Native support for `Face' headers
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	263 had been removed, as well.
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	264 The feature is similar to the `X-Face' header in its intent,
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	265 but takes a different approach to store the image.
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	266 Instead of encoding the image data directly into the header,
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	267 the the header contains the hostname and UDP port where the image
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	268 date could be retrieved.
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	269 Neither `X-Face' nor the here described `Face' system
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	270 \**
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	271 .FS
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	272 There is also a newer but different system, invented 2005,
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	273 using `Face' headers.
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	274 It is the successor of `X-Face' providing colored PNG images.
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	275 .FE
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	276 became well used in the large scale.
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	277 It's still possible to use a Face systems,
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	278 although mmh does not provide support for any of the different systems
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	279 anymore. It's fairly easy to write a small shell script to
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	280 extract the embedded or fetch the external Face data and display the image.
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	281 Own Face headers can be added into the draft template files.
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	282 .P
12 7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	283 `Content-MD5' headers were introduced by RFC\^1864. They provide only
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	284 a verification of data corruption during the transfer. By no means can
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	285 they ensure verbatim end-to-end delivery of the contents. This is clearly
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	286 stated in the RFC. The proper approach to provide verificationability
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	287 of content in an end-to-end relationship is the use of digital cryptography
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	288 (RFCs FIXME). On the other hand, transfer protocols should ensure the
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	289 integrity of the transmission. In combinations these two approaches
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	290 make the `Content-MD5' header field useless. In consequence, I removed
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	291 the support for it. By this removal, MD5 computation is not needed
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	292 anywhere in mmh. Hence, over 500 lines of code were removed by this one
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	293 change. Even if the `Content-MD5' header field is useful sometimes,
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	294 I value its usefulnes less than the improvement in maintainability, caused
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	295 by the removal.
7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	296
20 7a100c80fa91 Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 19 diff changeset	297 .U2 "Prompter's Control Keys
7a100c80fa91 Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 19 diff changeset	298 .P
7a100c80fa91 Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 19 diff changeset	299 The program
7a100c80fa91 Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 19 diff changeset	300 .Pn prompter
7a100c80fa91 Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 19 diff changeset	301 queries the user to fill in a message form. When used by
7a100c80fa91 Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 19 diff changeset	302 .Pn comp
7a100c80fa91 Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 19 diff changeset	303 as:
7a100c80fa91 Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 19 diff changeset	304 .DS
7a100c80fa91 Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 19 diff changeset	305 comp \-editor prompter
7a100c80fa91 Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 19 diff changeset	306 .DE
7a100c80fa91 Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 19 diff changeset	307 the resulting behavior is similar to
7a100c80fa91 Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 19 diff changeset	308 .Pn mailx .
51 49cf68506b5d Spell checking. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 49 diff changeset	309 Apparently,
20 7a100c80fa91 Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 19 diff changeset	310 .Pn prompter
7a100c80fa91 Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 19 diff changeset	311 hadn't been touched lately. Otherwise it's hardly explainable why it
7a100c80fa91 Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 19 diff changeset	312 still offered the switches
7a100c80fa91 Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 19 diff changeset	313 .Sn \-erase \fUchr\fP
7a100c80fa91 Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 19 diff changeset	314 and
7a100c80fa91 Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 19 diff changeset	315 .Sn \-kill \fUchr\fP
7a100c80fa91 Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 19 diff changeset	316 to name the characters for command line editing.
21 bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	317 The times when this had been necessary are long time gone.
20 7a100c80fa91 Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 19 diff changeset	318 Today these things work out-of-the-box, and if not, are configured
7a100c80fa91 Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 19 diff changeset	319 with the standard tool
7a100c80fa91 Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 19 diff changeset	320 .Pn stty .
7a100c80fa91 Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 19 diff changeset	321
21 bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	322 .U2 "Vfork and Retry Loops
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	323 .P
51 49cf68506b5d Spell checking. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 49 diff changeset	324 MH creates many processes, which is a consequence of the tool chest approach.
21 bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	325 In earlier times
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	326 .Fu fork()
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	327 had been an expensive system call, as the process's whole image needed
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	328 to be duplicated. One common case is replacing the image with
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	329 .Fu exec()
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	330 right after having forked the child process.
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	331 To speed up this case, the
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	332 .Fu vfork()
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	333 system call was invented at Berkeley. It completely omits copying the
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	334 image. If the image gets replaced right afterwards then unnecessary
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	335 work is omited. On old systems this results in large speed ups.
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	336 MH uses
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	337 .Fu vfork()
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	338 whenever possible.
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	339 .P
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	340 Memory management units that support copy-on-write semantics make
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	341 .Fu fork()
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	342 almost as fast as
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	343 .Fu vfork()
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	344 in the cases when they can be exchanged.
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	345 With
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	346 .Fu vfork()
51 49cf68506b5d Spell checking. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 49 diff changeset	347 being more error-prone and hardly faster, it's preferable to simply
21 bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	348 use
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	349 .Fu fork()
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	350 instead.
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	351 .P
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	352 Related to the costs of
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	353 .Fu fork()
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	354 is the probability of its success.
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	355 Today on modern systems, the system call will succeed almost always.
51 49cf68506b5d Spell checking. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 49 diff changeset	356 In the Eighties on heavy loaded systems, as they were common at
21 bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	357 universities, this had been different. Thus, many of the
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	358 .Fu fork()
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	359 calls were wrapped into loops to retry to fork several times in
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	360 short intervals, in case of previous failure.
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	361 In mmh, the program aborts at once if the fork failed.
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	362 The user can reexecute the command then. This is expected to be a
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	363 very rare case on modern systems, especially personal ones, which are
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	364 common today.
bb8a8be49024 Wrote about Face support and vfork(). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 20 diff changeset	365
12 7ca384d68edc Wrote some text for removal of old code. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 0 diff changeset	366
58 814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	367 .H2 "Attachments
22 99409e4546d2 Wrote about the removal of tools. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 21 diff changeset	368 .P
58 814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	369 MIME
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	370
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	371
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	372 .H2 "Digital Cryptography
22 99409e4546d2 Wrote about the removal of tools. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 21 diff changeset	373 .P
58 814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	374 Signing and encryption.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	375
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	376
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	377 .H2 "Good Defaults
22 99409e4546d2 Wrote about the removal of tools. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 21 diff changeset	378 .P
58 814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	379 foo
22 99409e4546d2 Wrote about the removal of tools. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 21 diff changeset	380
99409e4546d2 Wrote about the removal of tools. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 21 diff changeset	381
58 814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	382
14 55ec590cfa07 Wrote about the draft folder. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 12 diff changeset	383
58 814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	384 .H1 "Code style
16 81f703140554 Wrote about the trash folder. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 14 diff changeset	385 .P
58 814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	386 foo
16 81f703140554 Wrote about the trash folder. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 14 diff changeset	387
0 dc2bfef4cda7 Initial commit: Basic structure, macros and fonts. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	388
58 814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	389 .H2 "Standard Code
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	390 .P
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	391 POSIX
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	392
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	393
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	394 .H2 "Separation
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	395
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	396 .U2 "MH Directory Split
0 dc2bfef4cda7 Initial commit: Basic structure, macros and fonts. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	397 .P
19 ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	398 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	399 The MH profile, named
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	400 .Fn \&.mh_profile
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	401 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	402 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	403 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	404 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	405 .Fn Mail
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	406 and have it directly in the home directory.
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	407 .P
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	408 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	409 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	410 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	411 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	412 The actual operations are defined in the profile, however.
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	413 .P
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	414 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	415 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	416 file are stored separate (\c
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	417 .Fn /etc )
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	418 to the programs (\c
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	419 .Fn /bin
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	420 and
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	421 .Fn /usr/bin )
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	422 to their sources (\c
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	423 .Fn /usr/src ).
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	424 Such separation eases the backup management, for instance.
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	425 .P
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	426 In mmh, I've reorganized the file locations.
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	427 Still there are two places:
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	428 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	429 messages, but, unlike in MH, nothing else.
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	430 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	431 .Fn Mail ,
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	432 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	433 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	434 .Fn \&.mmh
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	435 in the user's home directory.
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	436 The user's profile now is a file, named
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	437 .Fn profile ,
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	438 in this mmh directory.
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	439 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	440 and the like, are also there.
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	441 .P
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	442 The naming changed with the relocation.
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	443 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	444 .Fn $HOME/Mail ),
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	445 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	446 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	447 the new directory
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	448 (\c
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	449 .Fn $HOME/.mmh ),
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	450 containing all the personal configuration files.
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	451 .P
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	452 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	453 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	454 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	455 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	456 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	457 .P
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	458 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	459 environment variable
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	460 .Ev MH
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	461 the point to a different profile file.
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	462 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	463 defined by the
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	464 .Pe Path
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	465 profile entry.
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	466 The context file could be defined by the
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	467 .Pe context
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	468 profile entry or by the
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	469 .Ev MHCONTEXT
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	470 environment variable.
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	471 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	472 in each terminal window, for instance.
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	473 In mmh, there are three environment variables now.
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	474 .Ev MMH
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	475 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	476 .Ev MMHP
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	477 and
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	478 .Ev MMHC
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	479 change the profile and context files, respectively.
ab5253e48c74 Wrote about the directory split. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 18 diff changeset	480 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	481 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	482 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	483 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	484 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	485 split between mail storage and personal configuration files.
17 b3c37947764e Several minor text improvements. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 16 diff changeset	486
0 dc2bfef4cda7 Initial commit: Basic structure, macros and fonts. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	487
58 814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	488 .H2 "Modularization
20 7a100c80fa91 Some new text (show/mhshow; prompter). markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 19 diff changeset	489 .P
58 814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	490 whatnowproc
0 dc2bfef4cda7 Initial commit: Basic structure, macros and fonts. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: diff changeset	491 .P
49 d3a02f5e63b3 Various rework. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 23 diff changeset	492 The \fIMH library\fP
d3a02f5e63b3 Various rework. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 23 diff changeset	493 .Fn libmh.a
d3a02f5e63b3 Various rework. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 23 diff changeset	494 collects a bunch of standard functions that many of the MH tools need,
d3a02f5e63b3 Various rework. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 23 diff changeset	495 like reading the profile or context files.
d3a02f5e63b3 Various rework. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 23 diff changeset	496 This doesn't hurt the separation.
d3a02f5e63b3 Various rework. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 23 diff changeset	497
58 814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	498
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	499 .H2 "Style
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	500 .P
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	501 Code layout, goto, ...
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	502
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	503
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	504
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	505
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	506 .H1 "Concept Exploitation/Homogeniety
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	507
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	508
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	509 .H2 "Draft Folder
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	510 .P
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	511 Historically, MH provided exactly one draft message, named
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	512 .Fn draft
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	513 and
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	514 being located in the MH directory. When starting to compose another message
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	515 before the former one was sent, the user had been questioned whether to use,
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	516 refile or replace the old draft. Working on multiple drafts at the same time
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	517 was impossible. One could only work on them in alteration by refiling the
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	518 previous one to some directory and fetching some other one for reediting.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	519 This manual draft management needed to be done each time the user wanted
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	520 to switch between editing one draft to editing another.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	521 .P
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	522 To allow true parallel editing of drafts, in a straight forward way, the
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	523 draft folder facility exists. It had been introduced already in July 1984
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	524 by Marshall T. Rose. The facility was deactivated by default.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	525 Even in nmh, the draft folder facility remained deactivated by default.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	526 At least, Richard Coleman added the man page
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	527 .Mp mh-draft(5)
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	528 to document
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	529 the feature well.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	530 .P
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	531 The only advantage of not using the draft folder facility is the static
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	532 name of the draft file. This could be an issue for MH frontends like mh-e.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	533 But as they likely want to provide working on multiple drafts in parallel,
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	534 the issue is only concerning compatibility. The aim of nmh to stay compatible
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	535 prevented the default activation of the draft folder facility.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	536 .P
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	537 On the other hand, a draft folder is the much more natural concept than
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	538 a draft message. MH's mail storage consists of folders and messages,
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	539 the messages named with ascending numbers. A draft message breaks with this
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	540 concept by introducing a message in a file named
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	541 .Fn draft .
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	542 This draft
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	543 message is special. It can not be simply listed with the available tools,
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	544 but instead requires special switches. I.e. corner-cases were
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	545 introduced. A draft folder, in contrast, does not introduce such
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	546 corner-cases. The available tools can operate on the messages within that
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	547 folder like on any messages within any mail folders. The only difference
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	548 is the fact that the default folder for
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	549 .Pn send
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	550 is the draft folder,
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	551 instead of the current folder, like for all other tools.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	552 .P
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	553 The trivial part of the change was activating the draft folder facility
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	554 by default and setting a default name for this folder. Obviously, I chose
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	555 the name
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	556 .Fn +drafts .
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	557 This made the
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	558 .Sw \-draftfolder
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	559 and
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	560 .Sw \-draftmessage
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	561 switches useless, and I could remove them.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	562 The more difficult but also the part that showed the real improvement,
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	563 was updating the tools to the new concept.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	564 .Sw \-draft
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	565 switches could
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	566 be dropped, as operating on a draft message became indistinguishable to
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	567 operating on any other message for the tools.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	568 .Pn comp
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	569 still has its
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	570 .Sw \-use
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	571 switch for switching between its two modes: (1) Compose a new
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	572 draft, possibly by taking some existing message as a form. (2) Modify
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	573 an existing draft. In either case, the behavior of
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	574 .Pn comp is
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	575 deterministic. There is no more need to query the user. I consider this
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	576 a major improvement. By making
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	577 .Pn send
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	578 simply operate on the current
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	579 message in the draft folder by default, with message and folder both
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	580 overridable by specifying them on the command line, it is now possible
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	581 to send a draft anywhere within the storage by simply specifying its folder
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	582 and name.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	583 .P
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	584 All theses changes converted special cases to regular cases, thus
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	585 simplifying the tools and increasing the flexibility.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	586
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	587
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	588 .H2 "Trash Folder
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	589 .P
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	590 Similar to the situation for drafts is the situation for removed messages.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	591 Historically, a message was deleted by renaming. A specific
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	592 \fIbackup prefix\fP, often comma (\c
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	593 .Fn , )
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	594 or hash (\c
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	595 .Fn # ),
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	596 being prepended to the file name. Thus, MH wouldn't recognize the file
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	597 as a message anymore, as only files whose name consists of digits only
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	598 are treated as messages. The removed messages remained as files in the
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	599 same directory and needed some maintenance job to truly delete them after
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	600 some grace time. Usually, by running a command similar to
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	601 .DS
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	602 find /home/user/Mail \-ctime +7 \-name ',*' \| xargs rm
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	603 .DE
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	604 in a cron job. Within the grace time interval
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	605 the original message could be restored by stripping the
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	606 the backup prefix from the file name. If however, the last message of
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	607 a folder is been removed \(en say message
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	608 .Fn 6
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	609 becomes file
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	610 .Fn ,6
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	611 \(en and a new message enters the same folder, thus the same
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	612 numbered being given again \(en in our case
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	613 .Fn 6
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	614 \(en, if that one
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	615 is removed too, then the backup of the former message gets overwritten.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	616 Thus, the ability to restore removed messages does not only depend on
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	617 the ``sweeping cron job'' but also on the removing of further messages.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	618 This is undesirable, because the real mechanism is hidden from the user
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	619 and the consequences of further removals are not always obvious.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	620 Further more, the backup files are scattered within the whole mail
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	621 storage, instead of being collected at one place.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	622 .P
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	623 To improve the situation, the profile entry
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	624 .Pe rmmproc
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	625 (previously named
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	626 .Pe Delete-Prog )
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	627 was introduced, very early.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	628 It could be set to any command, which would care for the mail removal
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	629 instead of taking the default action, described above.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	630 Refiling the to-be-removed files to some garbage folder was a common
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	631 example. Nmh's man page
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	632 .Mp rmm(1)
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	633 proposes
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	634 .Cl "refile +d
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	635 to move messages to the garbage folder and
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	636 .Cl "rm `mhpath +d all`
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	637 the empty the garbage folder.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	638 Managing the message removal this way is a sane approach. It keeps
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	639 the removed messages in one place, makes it easy to remove the backup
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	640 files, and, most important, enables the user to use the tools of MH
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	641 itself to operate on the removed messages. One can
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	642 .Pn scan
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	643 them,
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	644 .Pn show
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	645 them, and restore them with
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	646 .Pn refile .
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	647 There's no more
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	648 need to use
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	649 .Pn mhpath
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	650 to switch over from MH tools to Unix tools \(en MH can do it all itself.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	651 .P
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	652 This approach matches perfect with the concepts of MH, thus making
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	653 it powerful. Hence, I made it the default. And even more, I also
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	654 removed the old backup prefix approach, as it is clearly less powerful.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	655 Keeping unused alternative in the code is a bad choice as they likely
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	656 gather bugs, by not being constantly tested. Also, the increased code
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	657 size and more conditions crease the maintenance costs. By strictly
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	658 converting to the trash folder approach, I simplified the code base.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	659 .Pn rmm
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	660 calls
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	661 .Pn refile
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	662 internally to move the to-be-removed
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	663 message to the trash folder (\c
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	664 .Fn +trash
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	665 by default). Messages
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	666 there can be operated on like on any other message in the storage.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	667 The sweep clean, one can use
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	668 .Cl "rmm \-unlink +trash a" ,
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	669 where the
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	670 .Sw \-unlink
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	671 switch causes the files to be truly unliked instead
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	672 of moved to the trash folder.
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	673
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	674
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	675 .H2 "Path Notations
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	676 .P
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	677 foo
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	678
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	679
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	680 .H2 "MIME Integration
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	681 .P
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	682 user-visible access to whole messages and MIME parts are inherently
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	683 different
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	684
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	685
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	686 .H2 "Of One Cast
814c33b96d89 Restructured the content in ch03. markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> parents: 51 diff changeset	687 .P

Mercurial > docs > master

annotate ch03.roff @ 58:814c33b96d89