Requirements: perl 4.0 or later and MH with MIME (MH 6.7.2+MIME, MH 6.7.3, or later).
Mail.weather.ext generates an mhn(1) composition template based on the time of day, then invokes the helper program mhnsend to create a MIME message and to send the message to the specified addresses.
The -debug option prints out the mhn composition template and uses the default whatnowproc, typically whatnow(1). When -debug is used, appropriate responses to the "What now?" prompt may include "edit mhn" in addition to the usual responses.
The -help option prints out a help message and exits.
The -key option permits a local file to be specified for the weather key. The -key option is provided because the "WXKEY.GIF" file, which provides a nicely done key to the surface analysis and radar summary image, is invariant, so there's not much point in retrieving it from the remote system every time. Don't use -key if you send messages to non-local addresses.
The -verbose option prints information about what's going on as the draft is being built.
Mhnsend is a helper program used by mail.weather.ext as a "whatnowproc". It's in charge of running mhn and then sending the resulting MIME message. Mhnsend isn't intended for direct use by humans.
The external files aren't always there, sometimes even hours after they're supposed to be there. If the files aren't there, you'll see an error about a missing file when mhn tries to retrieve the files.
The files expire off the remote system within a day or so, but as of MH 6.7.2 with MH-MIME upgrade #10, mhn doesn't pay any attention to "expiration" fields in external body parts, although mail.weather.ext provides them in anticipation of future implementations.
I could've had this program emit MIME information directly, but using MH-MIME abstracts things nicely. Besides, I wrote this mostly to help myself understand mhn composition files and different kinds of body parts; use the -debug option to see what I mean.
Jerry Sweet <jsweet@irvine.com>.
The author provides this package free of charge and without warranty of any kind. If you use the software, you agree to hold harmless the author.