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 Page 1 Plan 9 (printed 10/31/24) 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) Page 2 Plan 9 (printed 10/31/24)