MAILS(1) MAILS(1)
NAME
Mails, mail2fs, Arch, Save, Reply - reading and processing
mail
SYNOPSIS
mail2fs [ -D ] [ -n ] [ -d dir ] [ mbox ]
Mails [ -alsA ] [ mbox ]
Save mbox
Arch
Reply [ addr ]
DESCRIPTION
These programs cooperate to provide mail processing and
reading facilities for Plan B users. They are an alternative
to programs mentioned in mail(1).
In Plan B, mails 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, usu-
ally under /mail/box/$user/, that contains one directory per
month (e.g., 200603/ for mails processed on March 2006). In
these diretories, there is one directory per message. The
convention is that (message directory) names starting with
a. correspond to archived messages not to be usually shown
to the user. Names starting with s. correspond to messages
that seem to be spam (not usually shown either). Other mes-
sages use a serial message number as their directory name.
The directory for a message contains a text file (with the
mail headers and body already processed for reading) and one
extra file for each (file) attachment found in the original
message (when a mail is attached, a directory is created for
it following the same conventions mentioned here). Because
all these files have been already processed for reading, the
usual file handling tools can be used to operate on them
(e.g., editors, file search tools, etc.).
Mails is an rc(1) script that provides the primary user
interface. Option -l lists message paths and sender
addresses in a format suitable for use with ofaces(1).
In general Mails relies on mails to perform its job and
extract from the text of the messages in mbox (by default,
/mail/box/$user/mails ) a summary of messages including
their relative path, their subject, and their sender. This
text summary is plumbed to the user's editor. The mails
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MAILS(1) MAILS(1)
program is the underlying tool. The description below
applies to either programs.
Flag -a shows archived messages also. Flag -s shows spam
messages also. Flag -A shows all of them.
The program that actually performs the conversion from
UNIX/Plan9 mailbox format into plan B mail folders is
mail2fs. It reads mbox (or /mail/box/$user/mbox by default)
and updates /mail/box/$user/mails (or dir when given) with
messages found in the Plan 9 mailbox. Once the conversion
finishes, the original mailbox is emptied, unless flag -n is
supplied. The program computes the SHA1 digest of subjects
and bodies, to silently discard duplicate mails.
Save, and Arch are rc(1) scripts that can be used when read-
ing mail with ox(1) to save a mail to a different folder and
to archive the mail. They must be executed from the ox panel
that shows the mail file.
Reply is another script used both to compose new mails and
to reply. It starts omail(1) to compose a new mail, using
the optional destination mail addr when given. The snarf
buffer is set to the context of the ox window used to exe-
cute the command, which is useful to paste the original mes-
sage when replying.
FILES
/mail/box/$user/mbox Standard Plan 9 mail box for the user.
/mail/box/$user/mails/
Standard Plan B mail box for the user
SOURCE
/sys/src/cmd/mail2fs
SEE ALSO
ox(1)
mail(1)
omail(1)
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