MAILS(1) MAILS(1) NAME Mails, mail2fs, M, Mg, mspool, mailplumb, mails, Arch, Spam, Reply, Send - file based mail reader SYNOPSIS mail2fs [ -acDn ] [ -d mdir ] [ mbox ] mails [ -aAs ] [ mdir ] [ monthdir ] M cmd [ dir ... ] Mg [ -h ] [ regexp ] mspool mailplumb [ -dho ] [ mdir ] Mails Arch Spam Reply Send DESCRIPTION These programs cooperate to provide mail reading and deliv- ering facilities by using files from a shared file server. Mails 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, 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/$user/, that contains one directory per month (e.g., 200603/ for mails processed on March 2006). In these diretories there is one directory per message. The convention is that (message directory) names starting with `a.' correspond to archived messages not to be usually shown to the user. Names starting with `s.' correspond to messages that seem to be spam (not usually shown either). Other messages use a serial message number as their direc- tory name. The directory for a message contains at least two files: text and raw. The text file has the mail headers and body already processed for reading, and raw has the original mail MAILS(1) MAILS(1) headers without any processing, including the UNIX header line (for debugging and also for obtaining message ids when replying to mails). Any attachment in the mail is kept stored in a separate file (possibly with the file name indi- cated in the MIME headers) ready to be used, that is, decoded. When the attachment is a mail, the message is stored in a subdirectory following the same conventions stated above. For mails with attachments, the text file contains additional text indicating the relative path names (from the mail's directory) that can be used to open the attachments. This is convenient to plumb(1) them while read- ing. There is no provision for storing mail flags in the Plan B mailbox format. However, the convention is that messages with the same last modification time for both the text file and the directory are not yet read. Using touch(1) on the text file ``flags'' the message as read. Because all these files have been already processed for reading, the usual file handling tools can be used to read, edit, copy, or remove them. The mailbox used by default is /mail/box/$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 mul- tiple programs using the mail box. The file digest contains digests for mails added to the mailbox using mail2fs (and not for those added by hand using file tools). When a mes- sage has a digest that was already seen in the past the mes- sage is silently discarded as a dupplicate. Programs described below are parsimonious enough in the for- mat 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. Reading mail Mail is converted from a Plan 9 mailbox into a Plan B mail- box 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(1), to parse the Plan 9 mail box. Without arguments it uses /mail/box/$user/mbox as the source (Plan 9) mail box and moves all messages from there to /mail/box/$user/msgs (in Plan B mailbox format). Supplying mbox as an argument would use that file as the source MAILS(1) MAILS(1) instead. Using option -d permits to use mdir as the desti- nation instead. 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 the messages as archived to the Plan B mailbox. This is useful to add messages to a mailbox for further reference and not for listing when asking the mail index for the mailbox. For example, to archive outgoing mail in the default mail box. The program mails is a convenience tool for reading mail. It generates a mail index. Flag -a generates a list for all mails in the mailbox, archived or not. Unread mails are flagged by an initial `N' character (new) in the mail index. Flag -A includes spam as well. The mailbox is the standard msgs inbox unless a different one is supplied as an argu- ment. As an option, both the mail box path and the name of a per-month directory can be indicated to ask mails for a list of mails for just that month. As an aid for other programs, mails places a list of the directories for the mails listed at /tmp/mails.$user, which can be useful for retrieve the paths for the mails the user is working with. M is a script that applies the operation indicated by cmd to one or more mails. It applies cmd to all mails last listed by mails, (as described by the paths in /tmp/mails.$user), when no mail directories are given as arguments. Arguments selecting mails only need to mention the path to the mail directories, but may refer to particular files within them, as a convenience to permit pasting names from somewhere else without editing. Cmd may be any of the following: arch To archive the mails as read. spam To archive the mails as spam. inbox To archive the mails as unread. rm To print commands to remove the mails. print To print the text of the mails. list To list the directories for the mails. mime To list the attachments for the mails. 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 conve- nience script to call grep(1) to locate mails containing the expression given as an argument. Flag -h makes it search only in headers. Like the previous program, Mg considers MAILS(1) MAILS(1) just the mails listed in /tmp/mails.$user. Mailplumb is used to send plumb(1) messages to maintain faces(1) and other programs aware of the mails in the user's Plan B mailbox, or in mdir when supplied. Flag -h makes the program notify existing mails as new ones. Flag -o makes mailplumb post events for the Octopus, using ports(4) instead of plumber(4). Reading mail in O/live Several scripts are provided which, used from olive(1), implement a user interface for reading and sending mail. Executing !Mails at /mail/box/$user/msgs produces an initial list of mails. This list can be refreshed by executing ,<Mails in the panel containing the mail list. To read a mail just click (button-3) on the mail path. To select mails according to text shown in the mail index use the Sam command language. For example, ,x/9fans/+-p pro- duces a mail index for mails comming from `9fans'. To archive a set of mails send their index text as standard input to Arch. For example, ,>Arch archives all mails listed in the panel. In the same way, Spam flags mails as spam. Both Arch and Spam can be executed at the panel showing a single mail to archive and to flag as spam the mail shown. Sending mail Mspool is a program that takes text files from /mail/box/$user/out reprensenting mails to be sent, and sends them. It only operates on files whose names are num- bers. To send a mail, the user creates a file with a random- ized name like /mail/box/$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 mails should contain a Replying: header containing the path to the mail being replied to (its raw file in a Plan B mailbox). Using multiple addresses (separated by white space) within a single To header causes the mail to sent to each different address as a different message (each receiver will not see others). This header line may be repeated to cause the message to be sent to a group of users (so that any of them gets all the recipient list). Messages are sent using marshal(1). MAILS(1) MAILS(1) The script Reply is available to send messages from olive(1). Similar to Arch and Spam, it replies to the mail shown in a panel when executed for that panel (e.g., !Reply) and to the mail listed in its standard input otherwise. For example, selecting a mail in the index and executing .>Reply would reply to it. When uncertain regarding the mail to reply, it would simple open an empty panel to create a new mail. Mail is delivered by writing the panel created by Reply and then executing !Send on that panel. EXAMPLES Move all mails from the Plan 9 mailbox to the Plan B one, and creates the later if it does not exist. ; mail2fs -c List mails: ; mails 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/mails.$user contains a list of mail direc- tories for M to work with. For example, display them. ; M p /mail/box/nemo/msgs/200712/4 To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu From: Ralph Corderoy <ralph@inputplus.co.uk> Subject: Re: [9fans] Hi together | a few newbie questions Sender: 9fans-admin@cse.psu.edu ... ; List their directories and plumb all PDF attachments: ; M l /mail/box/nemo/msgs/200712/4 /mail/box/nemo/msgs/200712/3 /mail/box/nemo/msgs/200712/2 /mail/box/nemo/msgs/200712/1 ; plumb `{M l}^*.pdf Reply to the second, mark the first as spam, and archive the others. ; M r 200712/3 ; M s 200712/4/text ; M a ; Prepare to use the script M (like above) but only for mes- sages from december 2007 that contain PDF attachments and MAILS(1) MAILS(1) are kept in the omsgs mailbox: ; ls /mail/box/nemo/omsgs/200712/*/*.pdf >/tmp/mails.nemo ; Use mailplumb to see in faces messages in the Plan B mail- box: ; plumber ; mailplumb ; faces -m /mail/box/$user/msgs This is a guide for reading mail using olive(1): !Mails # ask for mail index !Arch # archive this mail !Spam # mark this mail as spam X/text/D # delete all panels showing mails , <Mails # update mail index , >Arch # archive all mails listed , x/9fans/+-p # list all 9fans messages shown FILES /mail/box/$user/mbox Standard Plan 9 mail box for the user. /mail/box/$user/msgs/ Standard Plan B mail box for the user /tmp/mails.$user List of mails being processed by the user. SOURCE /sys/src/cmd/mail2fs SEE ALSO mail(1).