NAME

	Msgs, mail2fs, M, Mg, mspool, mailplumb, msgs, Arch, Spam, Reply, Send, Post, Delmesg, Save – file based mail reader

SYNOPSIS

	mail2fs [ –acDnor ] [ –d mdir ] [ mbox ] msgs [ –aD ] [ –s runes ] [ mdir ] [ monthdir ] M cmd [ dir ... ] Mg [ –h ] [ regexp ] mspool mailplumb [ –dho ] [ mdir ] Msgs [ –a ] [ mdir [ monthdir ] ] Arch [ file ... ] Spam [ file ... ] Reply Send Delmesg [ file ... ] Post Save file mlist

DESCRIPTION

These programs cooperate to provide mail reading and delivering facilities by using files from a shared file server. Msgs are stored in a convenient way to read or process them just by browsing files, using a Plan B mail box format. Mail box format In Plan B, msgs for users are parsed and decoded first, and then stored in a file hierarchy where these and other tools can be used to process them. A mailbox is a directory, usually under /mail/box/$user/, that contains one directory per month (e.g., 200603/ for msgs processed on March 2006). In these diretories there is one directory per message. The convention is that (message directory) names starting with a. correspond to archived messages not to be usually shown to the user. Names starting with s. correspond to messages that seem to be spam (not usually shown either). Names starting with d. correspond to deleted messages not yet removed from the file system. Any other rune can be used instead of a , s or d as a convenience (the meaning would be up to the user). But for this optional prefix, messages use a serial message number as their directory name. The directory for a message contains at least two files: text and raw. The text file has the mail headers and body already processed for reading, and raw has the original mail headers without any processing, including the UNIX header line (for debugging and also for obtaining message ids when replying to msgs). As an option, raw may contain the entire original mail without processing and not just the headers. Any attachment in the mail is kept stored in a separate file (possibly with the file name indicated in the MIME headers) ready to be used, that is, decoded. When the attachment is a mail, the message is stored in a subdirectory following the same conventions stated above. For msgs with attachments, the text file contains additional text indicating the relative path names (from the mail's directory) that can be used to open the attachments. This is convenient to plumb(1) them while reading. Because all these files have been already processed for reading, the usual file handling tools can be used to read, edit, copy, or remove them. The mailbox used by default is /mail/box/$user/msgs, and corresponds to the inbox. A Plan B mail box also contains two files: seq and digest. Messages are given sequence numbers as added to the mail box. The file seq contains the sequence number for the last message (or zero) and is DMEXCL to provide locking for multiple programs using the mail box. The file digest contains digests for msgs added to the mailbox using mail2fs (and not for those added by hand using file tools). When a message has a digest that was already seen in the past the message is silently discarded as a dupplicate. Programs described below are parsimonious enough in the format of the mail box so that they will work even if messages are edited by hand, other files are created, or some of them are removed. Virtual mail folders may be created by storing text files with mail lists that contain a mail description per line starting with the path for each mail. Copying the text shown for some messages in a mail listing into another text file would ``save'' such messages into that file. The program mlist writes to standard output a clean listing for messages with paths found in the standard input. A file (a virtual folder) named like a per–month directory with .l or .la appended is considered a cache of the listing for that directory. But only if the directory has not been modified after the file. For example, a text file named 200909.l (containing a mail listing in the format shown by msgs ) will be used to list msgs on September 2009, instead of the 200909 directory and its contents. This file will be ignored for mailbox listings if the directory is modified after the file and the cache is, therefore, out of date. A file named 200909.la behaves like before, but is known to contain only archived msgs. It is, therefore, ignored when listing non–archived msgs. The msgs program automatically renames .l files to la when the file lists only archived mail. Reading mail Mail is converted from a Plan 9 mailbox into a Plan B mailbox using mail2fs. This program may be run using cron(8) or directly from the pipeto file described in mail(1). It uses upas/fs, described in upasfs(4), to parse the Plan 9 mail box. By default /mail/box/$user/mbox is the source (Plan 9) mail box. Messages found on it are moved into (in Plan B mailbox format). The argument mbox specifies another mail source, to be used instead of the default. Option –d changes the destination to mdir. Messages are deleted from the Plan 9 mailbox unless flag –n is given. The Plan B mailbox is created if it does not exist only if flag –c is given. Flag –a makes mail2fs add new messages as archived to the Plan B mailbox. This is useful to add messages to a mailbox for further reference, not for listing when asking the mail index for the mailbox. For example, to archive outgoing mail in the default mail box. Flag –o asks mail2fs to use the date from the mail to determine where to archive it, instead of using today's. See the examples section. Flag –r asks mail2fs to store the entire original message in the raw file, and not just message headers. Flag –D (accepted by mail2fs and other programs) enables debug diagnostics. The program msgs is a convenience tool for reading mail. It generates a mail index. Flag –a generates a list for all msgs in the mailbox, archived or not. This may take some time if the mailbox is is big enough. Flag –s can be used to include in the list msgs starting with any rune in runes, for example, s for spam. The mailbox is the standard msgs inbox unless a different one is supplied as an argument. As an option, both the mail box path and the name of a per–month directory can be indicated, to ask for a list of msgs for just one month. This is useful to generate per–month mail lists that can be used to quickly browse existing msgs without going through all msgs in the box. See the Month script supplied as an example. As an aid for other programs, msgs places a list of the directories for the msgs listed at /tmp/msgs.$user, which can be useful for retrieve the paths for the msgs the user is working with. Programs just described are the basic toolkit to handle msgs. Other programs described here are a convenience for the user. Users are encouraged to customize them and/or to write their own versions. M is a script that applies the operation indicated by cmd to one or more msgs. It applies cmd to all msgs last listed by msgs, (as described by the paths in /tmp/msgs.$user), when no mail directories are given as arguments. Arguments selecting msgs only need to mention paths to the mail directories, but may refer to particular files within them, as a convenience, to permit using names from somewhere else without editing. Cmd may be any of the following: arch    To archive the msgs as read. spam    To archive the msgs as spam. inbox   To archive the msgs as unread. rm      To print commands to remove the msgs. print   To print the text of the msgs. list    To list the directories for the msgs. mime    To list the attachments for the msgs. reply   To plumb a reply message to the editor. The single letters a, s, i, d, p, l, m, and r can be used instead of the full cmd name (in the same order). Note that the letter is the initial for the command, but for deletion. Mg is not strictly necessary, but is supplied as a convenience script to call grep(1) to locate msgs containing the expression given as an argument. Flag –h makes it search only in headers. Like the previous program, Mg only considers msgs listed in /tmp/msgs.$user. Mailplumb is used to send plumb(1) messages to maintain faces(1) and other programs aware of msgs in the user's Plan B mailbox, or in mdir when supplied. Flag –h makes the program notify existing msgs as new ones. Flag –o makes mailplumb post events for the Octopus, using ports(4) instead of plumber(4). Reading mail in Acme The program Msgs (see /acme/msgs) is an Acme interface for reading mail. Its arguments are the same of msgs . Executing Msgs within Acme displays a window with the default (or indicated) mailbox. It understands both the standard mailbox format (described above) and the virtual folder format (a text file, see above). The program listens to plumber events for mail and tries to maintain the mail list up to date. To read a mail simply click button–3 on the mail file name shown in the mail list. Archiving, marking a spam, replying, and deleting messages is achieved by executing the scripts Arch, Spam, Reply and Delmesg respectivelly. Most of them may be used either from a message window or to process standard input (usually at the mail box directory). Some of them also accept message paths as arguments. For example, to archive a series of msgs, select them in the mail list and execute |Arch in that window. Msgs can be sent using Reply and Post as described later. Save archives one or more messages, adding them to the named file. Reading mail in O/live In general, reading mail in olive(1) is similar to reading mail in Acme. The main difference is that there is no need for a mail listing command. That is, there is no Msgs program. Executing !Msgs at /mail/box/$user/msgs produces an initial list of msgs. This list can be refreshed by executing ,<Msgs for the panel containing the mail list. To read a mail just click (button–3) on the mail path. To select msgs according to text shown in the mail index use the Sam command language. For example, ,x/9fans/+–p produces a mail index for msgs comming from 9fans. To archive a set of msgs send their index text as standard input to Arch. For example, ,>Arch archives all msgs listed in the panel. In the same way, Spam flags msgs as spam. As in Acme, most scripts can be used for a panel showing a single message, for standard input, or for messages given as argument. Sending mail Mspool is a program that takes text files from /mail/box/$user/out reprensenting msgs to be sent, and sends them. It only operates on files whose names are numbers. To send a mail, the user creates a file with a randomized name like /mail/box/$user/out/Out.3452, edits it, and renames the file to just the random number. The file format is similar to that used by the acme(1) mail composition window. It includes one text line per header, a blank line, and the body. Attachments are added by lines starting with Attach: in the header. Inline attachments are added by lines starting with Include: in the header. Replies to other msgs should contain a Replying: header containing the path to the mail being replied to (its raw file in a Plan B mailbox). Messages are sent using marshal(1). The script Reply is available to send messages from either olive(1) or acme(1). Similar to Arch and Spam, it replies to the mail shown when executed in a message window (or panel); it replies to the mail listed in its standard input otherwise. For example, selecting a mail in the index and executing .>Reply in Olive or >Reply in Acme would reply to it. When uncertain regarding the mail to reply to, it creates a window to edit and send a new mail. Mail is delivered by writing the panel created by Reply and then executing either Send or Post. The former spools the message using mspool , the latter attempts to immediatelly deliver the message.

EXAMPLES

Users are expected to customize the scripts supplied to their needs. All of them are to be considered examples of how to use the mail system. Move all msgs from the Plan 9 mailbox to the Plan B one, and creates the later if it does not exist. ; mail2fs –c List msgs: ; msgs omsgs 200712/4/text         Ralph Corderoy    Re: [9fans] Hi 200712/3/text         Juan Manuel Se    Re: reunion 200712/2/text         "Raquel Martin    Re: [Diet] reunion 200712/1/text         "Fco. J. Balle    reunion From now on, /tmp/msgs.$user contains a list of mail directories for M to work with. For example, display them. ; M p /mail/box/nemo/msgs/200712/4 To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu From: Ralph Corderoy <ralph@inputplus.co.uk> Subject: Re: [9fans] Hi together | a few newbie questions Sender: 9fans–admin@cse.psu.edu ... ; List their directories and plumb all PDF attachments: ; M l /mail/box/nemo/msgs/200712/4 /mail/box/nemo/msgs/200712/3 /mail/box/nemo/msgs/200712/2 /mail/box/nemo/msgs/200712/1 ; plumb `{M l}^*.pdf Reply to the second, mark the first as spam, and archive the others. ; M r 200712/3 ; M s 200712/4/text ; M a ; Prepare to use the script M (like above) but only for messages from december 2007 that contain PDF attachments and are kept in the omsgs mailbox: ; ls /mail/box/nemo/omsgs/200712/*/*.pdf >/tmp/msgs.nemo ; Use mailplumb to see in faces messages in the Plan B mailbox: ; plumber ; mailplumb ; faces –m /mail/box/$user/msgs This is a guide for reading mail using olive(1): !Msgs       # ask for mail index !Arch       # archive this mail !Spam       # mark this mail as spam X/text/D    # delete all panels showing msgs , <Msgs     # update mail index , >Arch     # archive all msgs listed , x/9fans/+–p    # list all 9fans messages shown The script /sys/src/cmd/mail2fs/Month is an example of a per–month cleanup script. Usually the directory for the last month is declared as DMTEMP and this permission is cleared when all spam has been dealt with. The script also creates cached listings for all but the current month. Add msgs from the UNIX–format oldmbox to the standard msgs folder, honoring their dates and inserting them as archived, and produce a listing for them kept at newfolder ; mail2fs –aon    oldmbox > /tmp/archived ; mlist </tmp/archived >newfolder Create a cache for September, 2009, to be used by tools listing msgs. ; cd /mail/box/$user/msgs ; msgs –a msgs 200909 > 200909.l

FILES

	/mail/box/$user/mbox       Standard Plan 9 mail box. /mail/box/$user/msgs/      Standard Plan B mail box. /tmp/msgs.$user           List of msgs being processed by the user.

SOURCE

	/sys/src/cmd/upas/mail2fs and /acme/msgs

SEE ALSO

	mail(1).

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