Removed documentation of obsolete WHATNOW configuration option and

[mmh] / docs / historical / mh-6.8.5 / papers / mh6.5 / mh6.tex

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\title{Changes to\\ The Rand MH Message Handling System:\\
        MH \#6.5 for 4.3BSD UNIX}
\author{Marshall T.~Rose\\
        Northrop Research and Technology Center\\
        One~Research Park\\
        Palos Verdes Peninsula, CA  90274}
\date{\ifdraft \versiondate/\\ Version \versiontag/\else \today\fi}
\maketitle
\footnotetext[0]{\hskip -\parindent
This document (version \versiontag/)
was \LaTeX set \today\ with \fmtname\ v\fmtversion.}

\begin{abstract}
This document describes the user-visible change to the
UCI version of the Rand \MH/ system that were made from \mh5 to \MH/ \#6.5.
It is based on the \mh6 changes document,
but has been updated to accurately reflect the \MH/ distributed with
4.3\bsd/~\unix/.
This document does not describe bug-fixes, per se,
or internal changes,
unless these activities resulted in a visible change for the \MH/ user.

This document is meant to supplement,
not supersede, the standard \MH/ User's manual\cite{MH.USR}.

Comments concerning this documentation should be addressed to the Internet
mailbox {\sf Bug-MH@ICS.UCI.EDU}.
\end{abstract}

\newpage
\f\section*      {Acknowledgements}
The \MH/ system described herein is based on the original Rand \MH/ system.
It has been extensively developed (perhaps too much so) by Marshall T.~Rose
and John L.~Romine at the University of California, Irvine.
Einar A.~Stefferud, Jerry N.~Sweet,
and Terry P.~Domae provided numerous suggestions
to improve the UCI version of \MH/.
Of course,
a large number of people have helped \MH/ along.
The list of ``\MH/~immortals'' is too long to list here.
However, Van Jacobson deserves a special acknowledgement for his tireless
work in improving the performance of \MH/.
Some programs have been speeded-up by a factor of 10 or 20.
All of users of \MH/, everywhere, owe a special thanks to Van.

\f\section*      {Disclaimer}
The Regents of the University of California wish to make it known that:
\begin{quote}
Although each program has been tested by its contributor,
no warranty, express or implied,
is made by the contributor or the University of California,
as to the accuracy and functioning of the program
and related program material,
nor shall the fact of distribution constitute any such warranty,
and no responsibility is assumed by the contributor
or the University of California in connection herewith.
\end{quote}

\newpage
\f\section*      {Conventions}
In this document,
certain \LaTeX -formatting conventions are adhered to:
\begin{enumerate}
\item   The names of \unix/ commands, such as \pgm{comp},
are presented in {\it text italics}.

\item   Arguments to programs, such as \arg"msgs",
are presented in {\tt typewriter style} and delimited by single-quotes.

\item   \unix/ pathnames and envariables,
such as $$\file{/usr/uci/}\hbox{\qquad and\qquad}\file{\$SIGNATURE},$$
are presented in {\sl slanted roman}.

\item   Text presenting an example, such as
\begin{verbatim}
    comp -editor zz
\end{verbatim}
is presented in {\tt typewriter style}.
\end{enumerate}

\newpage
\f\section*      {General Changes}
Unlike the changes between \mh4 and \mh5,
a large number of user-visible changes have been made in \mh6.
These changes have been in the form of bug fixes and several generalizations.
The majority of these will not affect novice users.
In addition, \mh6 is a great deal faster than \mh5:
all programs have been speeded-up significantly,
thanks to work done by Van Jacobson as part of the process of including \mh6
in the 4.3\bsd/~\unix/ distribution.

This document describes all user-visible changes to \mh5 from it's initial
release to the intermediate release of \MH/ \#6.5.

\subsection*    {System-5 Support}
In addition to support for \bsd/~\unix/, V7~\unix/ and \xenix/ variants of
\unix/,
\MH/ finally has support for the AT\&T variant of \unix/, System~5.
Hopefully this will greatly expand the number of system which can run \MH/.
Ironically,
it appears that five ports of earlier versions of \MH/ (including \mh5)
were done,
but news of the work was not widespread.%
\footnote{In fact,
three groups in one large organization ported \MH/ independently,
each without knowledge of the others' work.}

\subsection*    {Documentation}
Several new documents have been included in the \mh6 distribution:
The paper {\em MH.5: How to process 200 messages a day and still get some
real work done}
was presented at the 1985 Summer Usenix Conference and Exhibition in
Portland, Orgeon.
Another paper, {\em MH: A Multifarious User Agent},
has been accepted for publication by Computer Networks.
Both describe \MH/,
the former from a more technical and somewhat humorous perspective,
the latter from a more serious and research-oriented perspective.
In addition,
a third paper has been included,
{\em Design of the TTI Prototype Trusted Mail Agent},
which describes a so-called ``trusted'' mail agent built on top of \MH/.
This paper was presented at the Second International Symposium on
Computer Message Systems in Washington, D.C.
A fourth paper,
{\em MZnet: Mail Service for Personal Micro-Computer Systems},
is also included.
This paper,
which was presented at the First International Symposium on Computer Message
Systems in Nottingham, U.K.,
describes a \cpm/-based version of \MH/.

In addition,
the \MH/ tutorial, {\em The Rand MH Message Handling System: Tutorial},
and,
{\em The Rand MH Message Handling System: The UCI BBoards Facility},
have both been updated by Jerry N.~Sweet.

For \MH/ administrators (PostMasters and the like),
there's an entirely new document,
{\em The Rand MH Message Handling System: Administrator's Guide}.
It explains most of the ``ins and outs'' of maintaining an \MH/ system.

Finally, all of the manual entries and the \MH/ manual have had a thorough
working over.
The documentation is expanded, more accurate, and more detailed.

\subsection*    {Help Listings}
When any \MH/ command is invoked with the \switch"help" switch,
in addition to listing the syntax of the command and version information,
the \MH/ configuration options will be listed.
\MH/ has so many configuration options,
that when debugging problems, this information is invaluable.

\subsection*    {The \MH/ Profile}
There are two new profile entries worth noting:
\verb"MH-Sequences" tells \MH/ the name of the file to record public
sequences in.
Users of \pgm{vm}, a proprietary, visual front-end to \MH/,
make use of this to disable the public sequences feature of \MH/.

The profile entry \verb"Unseen-Sequence" names those sequences which should be
defined as those messages recently incorporated by \pgm{inc}.
The \pgm{show} program knows to remove messages from this sequence once it
thinks they have been seen.
If this profile entry is not present, or is empty, then no sequences are
defined.
Otherwise, for each name given, the sequence is first zero'd and then each
message incorporated is added to the sequence.
As such, this profile entry is rather analogous to the
\verb"Previous-Sequence" entry in the user's \MH/ profile.

In addition, the \verb"Alternate-Mailboxes" entry in the profile has been
expanded to support simple wild-carding.
Also, the default for this profile entry is now the user's mail-id at any host.
This change was made since \MH/ can no longer reliably figure out what
the user's real outgoing address looks like.

Finally,
when the \pgm{install-mh} program is automatically invoked by \MH/,
it won't prompt the user for information.
Instead, it notes that it's setting up the default environment.
In addition,
the \MH/ administrator may set-up a file called \file{mh.profile} in the \MH/
library area which is consulted by \pgm{install-mh} when initializing the
user's \profile/.

\subsection*    {The \MH/ Context}
The \pgm{folder}, \pgm{scan}, and \pgm{show} programs have been modified to
update the user's \MH/ context prior to writing to the user's terminal.
This allows the \MH/ user interrupt output to the terminal and still have the
expected context.
This is especially useful to interrupt long \pgm{scan} listings.
This change also introduces a subtle bug between \pgm{show} and messages
denoted by the \verb"Unseen-Sequence".
See \man show(1) for the details.

\subsection*    {Addresses and 822 support}
\MH/ now fully supports the RFC-822 routing syntax for addresses
(it used to recognize the syntax, but ignore the information present).
In addition,
there are three major modes for support of non-822 addressing in \MH/:
\begin{itemize}
\item   BERK\\
This is useful on sites running \SendMail/.
It doesn't support full 822--style addressing,
in favor of recognizing such formats as ACSnet, and so on.
For sites that can't run in an 822--compliant environment,
this is the option to use
(at the price of sacrificing some of the power of 822--style addressing).
This also drastically reduces the address formatting facilities described
below.

\item   DUMB\\
Although not as liberal as BERK,
the DUMB option is useful on sites in which the message transport system
conforms to the 822 standard,
but wants to do all the defaulting itself.

\item   BANG\\
From out in left field,
the BANG option favors \UUCP/-style addressing over 822--style addressing.
Hopefully when all the \UUCP/ sites around get around to adopting domain-style
addresses, this option won't be needed.
\end{itemize}

The \pgm{ap} program (mentioned momentarily) and the \pgm{ali} program
both support a \switch"normalize" switch indicate if addresses should be
resolved to their ``official'' hostnames.

\subsection*    {New Programs}
There are five new programs available:
The \pgm{ap} program is the \MH/ stand-alone address parser.
It's useful for printing address in various formats
(and for debugging address strings).
The \pgm{dp} program is similar, but works on dates instead of addresses.

The \pgm{msgchk} program checks for new mail,
possibly using the Post Office Protocol, POP, described below.

A new receive mail hook,
the \pgm{rcvstore} program,
which was written by Julian L.~Onions is available.

Finally, a visual front-end to \pgm{msh} called \pgm{vmh} has been included.
(This program is discussed in greater detail later on.)

\subsection*    {Message Numbering}
\MH/ now no longer restricts the number of messages which may reside in a
folder
(beyond that of system memory constraints).
This means that message numbers larger than 2000 are permissible.
Hopefully this will make life easier for people reading the network news
using \MH/.

\f\section*      {The WhatNow Shell}
In \mh6,
there is now the concept of a unified \whatnow/ processor that
the four composition programs, \pgm{comp}, \pgm{dist}, \pgm{forw},
and \pgm{repl} all invoke.
This permits a greater flexibility in building mail applications with \MH/.
As a result, there's a new program, \pgm{whatnow}, which acts as the default
\whatnow/ program.
Consult the \man whatnow(1) manual entry for all the details.
The only important user-visible change is the \verb"headers" option went away,
which wasn't used that much anyway.


The only other thing worth noting is that unless \MH/ has been compiled with
the UCI option,
the user's \file{\$HOME/.signature} file is not consulted for the user's
personal name.

\f\section*      {Format Strings}
A general format string facility has been added to allow \MH/ users to tailor
the output of certain commands.

The \pgm{inc}, \pgm{scan}, \pgm{ap}, and \pgm{dp} programs all consult a
file containing format strings.
Format strings,
which look a lot like \man printf(3) strings,
give these \MH/ commands precise instructions on how to format their output.

As a result,
the \pgm{inc} and \pgm{scan} programs no longer have the
\switch"size", \switch"nosize",
\switch"time", \switch"notime",
\switch"numdate", and \switch"nonumdate"
switches.
These switches have been replaced with the
\switch"form formatfile" switch and the \switch"format string" switch.
The former directs the program to consult the named file for the format
strings.
The latter directs the program to use the named string as the format.
To get the behavior of the old \switch"time" option,
use the \switch"form scan.time" option.
Similarly,
to get the effect of \switch"size",
use \switch"form scan.size".

A fun form to use is \switch"form scan.timely" with \pgm{scan}.
Try it sometime.


The \pgm{repl} command uses a file containing format files to
indicate how the reply draft should be constructed.
Note that reply templates prior to \mh6 are incompatible with \mh5.%
\footnote{In fact, reply templates between \mh6 and \MH/ \#6.5 are
imcompatible.}
Don't worry though,
it's quite easy to convert the templates by hand.
(Those clever enough to have written a reply template to begin with won't
have {\em any\/} problem.)

Similarly, when the \pgm{forw} program is constructing a digest,
it uses a file containing format strings to indicate how to build the
encapsulating draft.

Finally, you can use these facilities in \pgm{mhl} as well.

\f\section*      {News}
The depreciated \MH/ news system (from \mh1) is now de-supported.
Use the ``hoopy'' BBoards facility instead.

\f\section*      {BBoards}
\MH/ maintainers take note:
the default home directory for the bboards login has changed from
\file{/usr/bboards/} to \file{/usr/spool/bboards/}.
Use the \verb"bbhome" directive in your \MH/ configuration file to set
it back to the old value if you wish.

In addition, the aliases field for a BBoard in the BBoards file is now
deemed useful only for addressing, not for user input to \pgm{bbc}.
This means when giving the name of a BBoard to \pgm{bbc},
only the official name should be used.

A final note for mailsystem maintainers:
the \MMDFII/ BBoards channel and the \SendMail/ BBoards mailer have been
modified to use the standard message encapsulation format when returning
failed messages to the list maintainer.
This means that the failure notices that the maintainer receives can
simply be \pgm{burst}.

\subsection*    {New Switches in bbc}
The \pgm{bbc} program permits you to specify the \verb"mshproc" to use on the
command line by using the \switch"mshproc program" option.
There's also a \switch"rcfile file" option which does ``the obvious thing''.
In addition, options which aren't understood by \pgm{bbc} are passed along to
the \verb"mshproc".

In addition, the following commands
pass any unrecognized switches on to the program that they invoke:
\pgm{bbc}, \pgm{next}, \pgm{show}, \pgm{prev}, and \pgm{vmh}.

\subsection*    {Distributed BBoards}
If both BBoards and POP (see the next section) are enabled,
then distributed BBoards can be supported on top of the POP service.
This allows the \MH/ user to read BBoards on a server machine
instead of the local host
(which saves a lot of wasted disk space when the same BBoards are replicated
several times at a site with several hosts).
See the {\em Administrator's Guide\/} for information on how this can be made
completely transparent to the \MH/ user.

If you have several machines at your site running 4.2\bsd/~\unix/
and connected by an \ethernet/ (or other high-speed LAN),
you {\em want\/} this software.

\subsection*    {Visual Front-End to msh}
A simple window management protocol has been implemented for \MH/ programs
that might wish to act as a back-end to a sophisticated visual front-end.

The first implementation of a server side (front-end) program is \pgm{vmh},
which uses \man curses(3) to maintain a split-screen interface.
Perhaps look for a \pgm{mhtool} program for the SUN next!

The \pgm{msh} program has been modified to speak the client side (back-end)
of this protocol, if so directed.
At present, \pgm{msh} is the only program in the \MH/ distribution which
implements the client side of the window management protocol.

\subsection*    {Updates in msh}
Prior to quitting,
the \pgm{msh} command now asks if the \pgm{packf\/}'d file you've been
perusing should be updated if you've modified it and the file is writable by
you.
The file can be modified by using \pgm{burst}, \pgm{rmm}, \pgm{rmm},
or \pgm{sortm} commands.
The file can also be modified by using the \pgm{refile} command without the
\switch"link" option.
(Or course,
the \switch"link" option doesn't actually link anything to the file.)

\f\section*      {Distributed Mail}
\MH/ now contains a powerful facility for doing distributed mail
(having \MH/ reside on a host different than the message transport agent).
For general information,
consult either the 
{\em MH.5: How to process 200 messages a day and still get some real work
done} paper,
or the {\em MH: A Multifarious User Agent} paper.
For specific information,
consult the {\em Administrator's Guide}.
Here's a brief synopsis:

This POP facility in \MH/ is based on a modification of the ARPA Post
Office Protocol (POP).
A POP {\em subscriber\/} is a remote user,
on a POP {\em client host},
that wishes to pick-up mail on a POP {\em service host}.

There are two ways to administer POP:
\begin{itemize}
\item   Naive Mode\\
Each user-id in the \man passwd(5) file is considered a POP subscriber.
No changes are required for the mailsystem on the POP service host.
However,
this method requires that each POP subscriber have an entry in the password
file.
The POP server will fetch the user's mail from wherever maildrops are kept on
the POP service host.
This means that if maildrops are kept in the user's home directory,
then each POP subscriber must have a home directory.

\item   Smart Mode\\
This is based on the notion that the list of POP subscribers and the list of
login users are completely separate name spaces.
A separate database (similar to the \man BBoards(5) file)
is used to record information about each POP subscriber.
Unfortunately,
the local mailsystem must be changed to reflect this.
This requires two changes (both of which are simple):
\begin{enumerate}
\item   Aliasing\\
        The aliasing mechanism is augmented so that POP subscriber addresses
        are diverted to a special delivery mechanism.
        \MH/ comes with a program, \man popaka(8), which generates the
        additional information to be put in the mailsystem's alias file.
\item   Delivery\\
        A special POP delivery channel (for \MMDFII/)
        or POP mailer (for \SendMail/) performs the actual delivery (\mh6
        supplies both).
        All it really does is just place the mail in the POP spool area.
\end{enumerate}
Clever mailsystem people will note that
the POP mechanism is really a special case of the more general
BBoards mechanism.
\end{itemize}
These two different philosophies are not compatible on the same POP service
host: one or the other, but not both, may be run.

In addition, there is one user-visible difference,
which the administrator controls the availability of.
The difference is whether the POP subscriber must supply a password to the POP
server:
\begin{itemize}
\item   ARPA standard method\\
This uses the standard ARPA technique of sending a username and a password.
The appropriate programs (\pgm{inc}, \pgm{msgchk}, and possibly \pgm{bbc\/})
will prompt the user for this information.

\item   \unix/ remote method\\
This uses the Berkeley \unix/ reserved port method for authentication.
This requires that the two or three mentioned above programs be {\em setuid\/}
to root.
(There are no known holes in any of these programs.)
\end{itemize}
These two different philosophies are compatible on the same POP service host:
to selectively disable RPOP for hosts which aren't trusted,
either modify the \file{.rhosts} file in the case of POP subscribers being
\unix/ logins,
or zero the contents of network address field of the \man pop(5) file for the
desired POP subscribers.

The \pgm{inc} command also has two other switches when \MH/ is enabled for
POP:
\switch"pack file" and \switch"nopack".
Normally,
\pgm{inc} will use the POP to incorporate mail from a POP service host into
an \MH/ folder (\verb"+inbox").
However,
there are some misguided individuals who prefer to \pgm{msh} to read their
maildrop.
By using the \switch"pack file" option,
these individuals can direct \pgm{inc} to fetch their maildrop from the POP
service host and store it locally in the named file.
As expected, \pgm{inc} will treat the local file as a maildrop,
performing the appropriate locking protocols.
And,
if the file doesn't exist,
the user is now asked for confirmation.

\f\section*      {Rcvmail hooks}
In order to offer users of \MH/ increased rcvmail hook functionality,
the \pgm{slocal} program has been upgraded to support the semantics of
the \MMDFII/ mail-delivery mechanism.
This means that users of \mh6 can maintain identical \file{.maildelivery}
files regardless of the underlying transport system.
See \man mhook(1) for all the details.

\subsection*    {Change in rcvdist}
The \pgm{rcvdist} rcvmail hook now uses the \MH/ formatting facility when
redistributing a message.

\subsection*    {Field change in rcvpack}
The \pgm{rcvpack} rcvmail hook now adds the field name \verb"Delivery-Date:"
instead of \verb"Cron-Date:" to messages it \pgm{pack\/}s.

\f\section*      {GNU Emacs Support}
James Larus' \pgm{mh-e} macro package for GNU Emacs (version~17) is included
in the distribution.
When loaded in Emacs, this provides a handy front-end.

\f\section*      {Other Changes}
Here's the miscellany:

\subsection*    {Continuation Lines}
Alias files used by \MH/,
display templates used by \pgm{mhl},
and format files used by \pgm{forw}, \pgm{repl}, and \pgm{scan} all support
a standard continuation line syntax.
To continue a line in one of these files,
simply end the line with the backslash character (`$\backslash$').
All the other files used by \MH/ are in 822--format,
so the 822--continuation mechanism is used.%
\footnote{Looking back,
it would have been best had all files in \MH/ used the 822--format.}

\subsection*    {Default Date Format}
\MH/ now uses numeric timezones instead of locally-meaningful alpha timezones
when generating mail.
This change was made to encourage the use of unambiguous, globally-meaningful
timezone strings.
A local configuration option can disable this correct behavior.
All of the \pgm{mhl} templates have been modified to use locally-meaningful
alpha timezones when displaying messages.

\subsection*    {New switch in ali}
The \pgm{ali} command now has a \switch"noalias" switch to prevent
system-wide aliases from being interpreted.

\subsection*    {Modifications to show}
The \switch"format", \switch"noformat", \switch"pr", and \switch"nopr"
options to \pgm{show} have gone away in favor of a more general mechanism.
The \switch"showproc program" option tells \pgm{show}
(or \pgm{next} or \pgm{prev\/}) to use the named program as the \verb"showproc".
The \switch"noshowproc" option tells \pgm{show}, et. al.,
to use the \man cat(1) program instead of a \verb"showproc".
As a result, the profile entry \verb"prproc" is no longer used.

\subsection*    {Switch change in inc}
The \switch"ms ms-file" switch in \pgm{inc} has been changed to
\switch"file name" to be more consistent.

\subsection*    {Front-End to mhl}
When outputting to a terminal,
the \pgm{mhl} program now runs the program denoted by the profile entry
\verb"moreproc".
If this entry is not present,
the default is the UCB \pgm{more} program.
If the entry is non-empty,
then that program is spliced between \pgm{mhl} and the user's terminal.
The author uses the \pgm{less} program as his \verb"moreproc".

Of course,
if \pgm{mhl} isn't outputting to a terminal,
then \verb"moreproc" is not invoked.

Finally,
to aid in the construction of replies,
a prefix string may be specified for the \verb"body" component of the message
being replied-to.
Simply use the \verb"component=" construct in \pgm{mhl} for \verb"body:".

\subsection*    {Confirmation in packf}
If the file specified by the \switch"file name" switch doesn't exist,
the user is now asked for confirmation.

\subsection*    {Complex Expressions in pick}
The \pgm{pick} command now handles complex boolean expressions.

\subsection*    {Defaults change in prompter and burst}
The \switch"prepend" option is now the default in \pgm{prompter}.
The \switch"noinplace" option is now the default in \pgm{burst}.

\subsection*    {Fcc:s and post}
If multiple Fcc:s for a message are specified during posting,
\pgm{post} will try much harder to preserve links.

\subsection*    {Interactive option in rmf}
The \pgm{rmf} program has been changed to support an \switch"interactive"
switch.
If given,
then the user is prompted regarding whether the folder should be deleted.
If the folder to be removed is not given by the user,
this switch is defaulted to on.

\subsection*    {Trusted Mail Interface}
\MH/ now has an interface for so-called ``trusted mail'' applications.
Although the modifications to \MH/ to support this are in the public domain,
the actual library that \MH/ uses is not.
Contact Professor David J.~Farber ({\sf Farber@UDel\/}) for more information.

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