Usenet 1994 October/usenetsourcesnewsgroupsinfomagicoctober1994disk2.iso/misc/volume10/pcmail2/part12/main/tutorial.doc

Text File | 1990-01-24 | 26KB | 859 lines

                      PC-MAIL tutorial


                      Wietse Z. Venema
             Mathematics and Computing Science,
             Eindhoven University of Technology
                 Eindhoven, The Netherlands






1.  What does this software do for you?

This software allows you  to  send  and  receive  electronic
mail.  Once the software has been configured, it can be used
without any knowledge about computer networking.

The following summarizes a few features:

o    Mail messages can be edited, printed, replied to, sent,
     and received, from within the mail program.

o    Messages  can  be  created  with  almost  every   word-
     processing package.

o    Almost every command can be selected by pressing a sin-
     gle  key.  There  is a "help" facility that gives brief
     explanations.

o    You can set up an "alias" data base to avoid the use of
     the  usually cryptical electronic mail addresses.  This
     facility can also be used to  implement  small  mailing
     lists.

o    There is a facility for personalized headers and signa-
     tures.

The mail software does not attempt to solve every problem in
this  world.   It is only fair to mention the most important
limitations here:

o    Any information other than pure text must be  converted
     to  text  format before you can mail it to someone else
     (for example, programs,  pictures  and  so  on).   For-
     tunately, there exists a lot of software to aid in this
     task.  The people  that  installed  the  mail  software
     should be able to help you out.

o    Most electronic mail systems impose an upper  limit  to



                      January 24, 1990





                           - 2 -


     the  size  of  a  mail message.  This limit varies from
     about 60 kilobytes to about 100 kilobytes per  message.
     You  will  have  to  break up larger messages; the mail
     software does not do it for you.  Normally, you  should
     not run into this limit.

Installation of the mail software is  described  in  various
other  documents.   The  remainder of this document gives an
introduction to the use of the mail software. The  following
gives a summary.

Chapter 2, "Starting the program", describes how  to  invoke
the  program,  and  how  to  leave it.  Also gives a general
introduction to the command structure of the program.

Chapter 3, "Reading new mail", describes how to take care of
new mail, and what happens once you have read a new message.

Chapter 4, "Creating a message", describes how to compose  a
message from scratch, and how to specify its destination.

Chapter  5,  "Sending  and   receiving   electronic   mail",
describes  how to exchange messages between your machine and
the rest of the world.  It does not apply if your machine is
connected to a "file server".

Chapter 6, "Alias data base", describes the use of the alias
data base, and gives an example of a tiny mailing list.

Chapter 7, "Replying to a message", describes how to compose
a reply to message.

Chapter 8, "Mailing other files", describes how  to  distri-
bute files via electronic mail.

Chapter 9,  "Receiving  encoded  files",  describes  how  to
decode files that have been encoded with e.g. the "uuencode"
or "btoa" programs.

2.  Starting the program

Starting the mail program is easy;  just  type  the  command
"mail".   You  should  see  a screen that looks like the one
shown here:













                      January 24, 1990





                           - 3 -



Close  File  Setup  Alias  Print  Up  Down  Enter  Help ?
==========================================================
Create       Create a new message
Work       2 Messages in preparation
New        0 Unread messages
In        30 Messages already read
Out        7 Messages not-yet sent
Sent      20 Messages already sent


==========================================================
Select a message category with cursor keys and press ENTER
or select one of the commands in the top line.


The screen is divided into three horizontal regions:

o    The top region shows the commands that can be  selected
     by  pressing  a single key.  Some of these commands are
     selected by pressing a function key with the same  name
     as  the  command;  for example, the Up or Down commands
     are selected by pressing the corresponding  arrow  key.
     Other  commands are selected by typing the first letter
     of that command; for example, the  H  key  selects  the
     "Help"  command;  it  gives a brief description of what
     the other commands do.

o    The middle region shows various categories of mail mes-
     sages.   You might think of it as a collection of boxes
     with letters.  For example, the "New" box is  for  mes-
     sages  that  you haven't read yet, and the "Out" box is
     for messages that you wrote, but that have not yet been
     sent  away.   The  program also shows how many messages
     there are within a message category.

     A special case is the "Create" box; it is for  messages
     you  are  going  to  write.   Think of it as a box with
     blank sheets of paper.

o    The bottom region gives an explanation of what you  are
     supposed  to do when you see this screen.  In this par-
     ticular case, it tells that you can select one  of  the
     message   categories   by  moving  the  cursor  to  the
     appropriate line, and by pressing the "Enter"  key,  or
     that  you can give commands by pressing the appropriate
     key.

You can leave most screens by pressing the "C" key. In  par-
ticular,  pressing  that  key while the program displays the
first screen is the preferred way to leave the mail program.






                      January 24, 1990





                           - 4 -


3.  Reading new mail

Depending on how the mail software  was  installed  on  your
system, you may have seen a message that "You have new mail"
when you started up the machine. This section describes  how
to deal with new mail.

In the display that was described above, move the cursor  to
the  line  with "New" and press the "Enter" key. The program
will present an overview of unread messages that looks  like
the following one:

Close  File  Setup  Alias  Print  PgUp  PgDn  Up  Down  Enter  Help ?
=====================================================================
   90  Dec 15 22:18  Wietse Venema "Re: how do I forward a message?"
   63  Dec 11 23:18  Jan Kalisvaart "File server cleanup"
    .
    .
    .
-- end of display --


=====================================================================
Select a message with the cursor keys and press ENTER
or select one of the commands in the top line.


The top line of the screen shows a few  more  commands  than
the  screen  described  earlier.  New commands, for example,
are the the PgUp and PgDn commands.  They  are  useful  when
information does not fit in the middle screen region.

The middle screen region shows summaries of  mail  messages.
Each  message  is summarized on a single line, and gives the
following information:

o    The message sequence number (e.g. 90).   Normally,  you
     do  not  have to remember message sequence numbers, but
     the mail program needs them in  order  to  keep  things
     apart.

o    The date of arrival (e.g. Dec 15 22:18).  If a  message
     is  very old, the year will be displayed instead of the
     hours and minutes.

o    The sender of the message (e.g. Wietse  Venema).   Usu-
     ally,  the mail program presents a "human" name.  Every
     now and then, however, you may see an  ugly  electronic
     mail address.

o    The subject of the message (e.g. "Re:  how do I forward
     a  message?").   This allows you to decide if a message
     is urgent and has to be dealt with right  away,  or  if
     the message can wait till later.



                      January 24, 1990





                           - 5 -


After you have moved the cursor to the message you  want  to
read, and have pressed the "Enter" key, the program displays
the selected message.  The following example shows what  the
screen might look like.

Close  Delete  Mail  Print  Reply  Save  Work  |  PgUp  PgDn  Up  Down  Help ?
==============================================================================
Subject: Re: how do I forward a message?
Organization: Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
From: [e-mail] (Wietse Venema)
To: you

Select the message that you wish to forward, and press the "M" (Mail)
key.  The program will ask for a destination. As usual, you can enter
an alias or a real address. This command mails a copy of the message;
it does not change or remove the message itself.

                Greetings,
                                Wietse Venema
-- end of display --

==============================================================================
(Reading a mail message)


At this stage you may decide to do nothing with the message;
just  hit  the  "C"  key and the program returns to the last
message-selection screen.  Now that  the  message  has  been
read  it  will no longer show up in an overview of the "New"
category; once a "New" message has been read it goes to  the
"In" category, and remains there until you explicitly delete
it.

Hitting the "C" key once more brings us back to  the  begin-
ning of the program.

4.  Creating a message

In order to compose  a  message,  move  the  cursor  to  the
"Create  a new message" line in the first screen of the mail
program and press the "Enter" key.  After a few seconds  you
should see the first screens of the same word processor that
you probably also use for  other  activities.   Please  note
that  the  mail  program  has not terminated; as soon as you
exit from the word processor you will  return  back  to  the
mail program.

If all is well, your message should begin with a "Subject: "
line.  Depending on how the mail software was set up on your
machine, an "empty" message may already contain one or  more
customized header lines, as well as a customized "signature"
at the end of the message.  The following is an "empty" mes-
sage  as  produced  on  my personal system (the text between
square braces is not part of the  "empty"  message;  I  just



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                           - 6 -


added it to clarify things).

Subject:  [the subject of this message]
Organization:  Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands

[this is where the actual message goes]

                                        Wietse Venema


If your "empty" message contains garbage you should  contact
the people that installed the mail software on your system.

The message text that you are about to enter  will  be  only
part of the message that other people will receive; the mail
software automatically prefixes each message with  your  own
electronic mail address, and the current date-.

Obviously, further details about the entry of  message  text
depend  on  the  word-processing package that you are using.
Suffice to say that upon exit,  the  word  processor  should
produce  an "ASCII document" file; the people that installed
the mail software on your machine should be able to  provide
more details on this topic.

Upon return from the word processor back to  the  mail  pro-
gram,  you  will  see  the  first  few  lines of your newly-
composed message in the middle region of the screen.   There
may be "funny cookies" in your text if you forgot to produce
an "ASCII document"; if that is the case you had better  re-
enter  the  word  processor  (by  pressing  the "E" key) and
correct this mistake.  After this,  your  screen  should  be
something like:


Close  Delete  Edit  Mail  Print  PgUp  PgDn  Up  Down  Help ?
==============================================================
Subject: your subject
optional header lines

your message
-- end of display --


==============================================================
(Reading a message in preparation)

_________________________
- Your message will probably be prefixed  with  several
additional  rude  header  lines while it passes through
other machines on the way to its destination. This hap-
pens  outside  the control of the mail software on your
machine.




                      January 24, 1990





                           - 7 -


What you see on the screen is a close approximation of  what
other  people  will  receive.  If this is the first time you
use electronic mail you may  wish  to  use  the  "PgUp"  and
"PgDn" keys to check things out.

Normally, the next step will be to mail the message  to  its
destination,  but  you  may choose any of the other commands
shown in the upper line of the  screen.   For  example,  you
could choose the put the message "on hold"; the mail program
will ask you to give a one-line description so that you  can
easily  find  it  back at a later time (it will be stored in
the category "Messages in preparation").

If you choose the "Mail" command, the program  will  respond
with:

        Press ESC to cancel. Send message to:
        ?


You should enter one or more electronic  mail  addresses  or
aliases.   If  what you wrote was just a "test" message, you
might want to mail it to yourself.  There is  nothing  crazy
about  sending mail to yourself; many people do that instead
of littering their rooms  with  notes  on  small  pieces  of
paper.   Aliases are described later on, and are more easily
remembered than real electronic mail addresses.  Your  input
should be terminated by pressing the "Enter" key.

After this, the program returns to the  first  screen.   The
message  you  just  "mailed"  will  temporarily  live in the
category "Not-yet sent".  If your machine is connected to  a
"file  server",  it  will  automatically  be  moved  to  the
category "Already sent" within a short period of time.  Oth-
erwise, you should read the next section.

5.  Sending and receiving mail

This section describes how to exchange mail messages between
your  machine  and  the rest of the world. This is automati-
cally taken care of if your machine has a direct  connection
to a "file server".

If you are not connected to a "file  server",  most  of  the
mail-program  screens  will provide a "Network" command (for
example, the first screen).  All messages that  you  produce
will  stay on your machine, in the message category "Not-yet
sent"", until the mail software has sent them  away  through
the  network.   Also, messages, having your machine as their
destination, will not arrive on your machine until the  mail
software has picked them up through the network.

The mail software may have been installed such that  it,  as
soon  as  the  machine  is  turned  on,  automatically makes



                      January 24, 1990





                           - 8 -


contact with the network.  In that case, you do not need  to
invoke  the  "Network" command by hand.  It can, however, be
useful if you are expecting urgent mail, or if you  wrote  a
letter that should be sent away right now.

The "Network" command is activated by pressing the "N"  key.
The  mail  program  will ask for a network password (the one
given to you by the people that installed the mail  software
on  your machine).  Transferring mail across the network may
take a few minutes.  If all goes well, all messages  in  the
message  category  "Out"  will  have  moved  to the category
"Sent"; in addition, you may have  received  new  mail  that
will show up in the "New" message category.

6.  Alias data base

The addresses used in electronic mail are  often  ugly,  and
hard  to remember.  To alleviate this problem, the mail pro-
gram provides an alias data base facility.  This allows  you
to  use  easily-remembered  names instead of mail addresses;
the mail program will automatically replace aliases  by  the
actual  mail  addresses that you have specified in the alias
data base.

The following is an example of an alias data base:

        wietse  [e-mail]
        jan     [e-mail]
        staff   wietse jan


An alias data base has a very  simple  format:   each  alias
definition  consists  of  a  single line of text with two or
more words.  Words may be separated  by  blanks  or  commas.
The  first  word  is  the alias; it will be replaced (by the
words in the remainder of the  line)  if  the  mail  program
finds  the alias in the destination of a mail message.  With
the alias data base shown  above,  the  message  destination
"wietse"  will  be automatically replaced by the destination
"[e-mail]".

An interesting property is that an alias may be  defined  in
terms  of  other  aliases;  an  alias  may,  however, not be
defined in terms of itself!  In the above example, the third
line  illustrates  the  definition  of  an alias in terms of
other aliases.  The same line also is an example of  how  to
implement a small mailing list; all messages sent to "staff"
will   be   sent   to   "[e-mail]"   and   to
"[e-mail]".  Typing the word "staff" certainly is
easier.

The mail program is smart enough to eliminate,  after  alias
replacement,  multiple  occurrances of the same destination.
Thus, you do not have to worry about duplicate  destinations



                      January 24, 1990





                           - 9 -


if you combine several mailing lists into a bigger one.

Most mail-program screens provide the "Alias" command.  This
allows  you to look at the contents of your alias data base,
and to invoke a word processor to make  changes.   The  word
processor  should  save  the alias data base in "ASCII docu-
ment" format, just like ordinary mail messages.

It is worth noting that aliases can be defined in any order.
The above example would have worked just as well if the last
entry had been the first one.  Thus, you may  wish  to  keep
the alias data base in sorted order.

Finally, a few caveats are in order.  If an alias is defined
more  than  once,  only  the  last  definition will be used.
Although the mail program does not care whether an alias  is
defined  in  upper case or in lower case, it is wise to keep
electronic mail addresses in lower case.

7.  Replying to a message

Replying to a mail message is almost the same as creating  a
mail  message  from scratch; the main difference is that you
must specify which message you are replying to.

In order to reply to a message, select it  with  the  cursor
keys  and  the "Enter" key, so that the contents of the mes-
sage become visible on the screen.   Pressing  the  "R"  key
executes the reply command.

The program will ask you if the reply should include a  copy
of  the  message  being replied to.  Including a copy of the
original message is convenient if the sender  asked  several
questions; both you and the recipient of the message can see
what questions you are actually replying to.   In  order  to
distinguish the text that you write from what the other per-
son wrote, the latter text will be prefixed with a ">" char-
acter at the beginning of each line.

After you answered  the  question,  the  mail  program  will
invoke  a  word processing program.  Most of what follows is
the same as when you create an electronic mail message:  the
mail program has not terminated, but is just waiting for you
to finish editing; upon exit, the  word  processing  package
should  produce  an "ASCII document" file; after leaving the
word processing program you will return to the mail program.

At this point, your screen should look like this:









                      January 24, 1990





                           - 10 -



Close  Delete  Edit  Mail  Print  PgUp  PgDn  Up  Down  Help ?
==============================================================
Subject: Re: The subject of the original message
Other customized header lines may go here

>Text taken from the original message is prefixed
>to distinguished it from the text that you wrote.

Your text
-- end of display --


==============================================================
(Reading a message in preparation)


In order to send the message, press the "M" key. The program
will respond with:

        Press ESC to cancel. Send message to:
        ? some-mail-address


The mail address shown by the program  was  taken  from  the
original message and should usually be correct.  If you wish
to use that address, just press the "Enter" key.  Otherwise,
the address can be changed in the usual way; you can specify
one or more aliases or electronic mail addresses.

After this, the message that you wrote will temporarily live
in  the  message category "Not-yet sent"; if your machine is
connected to a "file server" the message will  automatically
be  moved  to  the message category "Already sent".  If your
machine is not connected to a "file server", read  the  sec-
tion "Sending and receiving mail".

8.  Mailing other files

In addition to sending files created with your word  proces-
sor,  the  mail  program  provides  a facility to distribute
copies of other files as well.  This feature is  of  limited
use, however, since it only works well with pure text files;
a file that contains non-textual data, such as a program  or
a  picture, will have to be converted to textual form before
the mail program can handle it.  The mail program can,  how-
ever,  help  you  to find out whether a file is suitable for
mailing.

Most screens of the mail program provide  a  "File"  command
that  can  be executed by pressing the "F" key.  After a few
seconds the middle region of the screen should show a  list-
ing  of the current directory.  The top region of the screen
lists the commands that you can execute; the  bottom  region



                      January 24, 1990





                           - 11 -


of the screen shows the name of the directory being listed.

Close  Print  Save  PgUp  PgDn  Up  Down  Enter  Help ?
===================================================================
.                        <dir> Dec 28 18:10
..                       <dir> Dec 27 16:36
alias.c                   3295 Dec 12 22:41
ascf.c                    5315 Dec 23 21:16
call.c                    2282 Nov 30 22:08
cmail.c                   3748 Dec 17 21:22
create.c                  2176 Dec 27 18:28
desk.c                   12435 Dec 27 14:04
deskutil.c                7180 Dec 27 15:29
 .
 .
 .
===================================================================
To display a file, select it with the cursor keys, then press ENTER
(showing directory: "/usr2/wietse/src/pc-mail/mail")


You can leave the "File" command at any time by pressing the
"C" key once or twice.

With the cursor keys and the PgUP  and  PgDn  keys  you  can
"walk"  through the directory listing.  Pressing the "Enter"
key causes the program to "open" the thing  being  selected.
If you select a directory, the program will display the con-
tents of that directory; if you select a file,  the  program
will display the contents of that file.

In order to mail a copy of a file, select that file with the
cursor  and  "Enter"  keys so that its contents are shown on
the screen.  Only if you see a clean  text,  without  "funny
cookies",  the  file  is suitable for mailing.  Pressing the
"M" key executes the "Mail" command.  It will ask for a des-
tination,  which may be one or more aliases or an electronic
mail addresses.  Pressing "Enter" finishes the  "Mail"  com-
mand.   As  usual,  the message will temporarily live in the
message category "Not-yet sent"; if  your  machine  is  con-
nected  to a "file server" the message will automatically be
moved to the  message  category  "Already  sent".   If  your
machine  is  not connected to a "file server", read the sec-
tion "Sending and receiving mail".

In order to leave the "File" command you may have  to  press
the "C" key once or twice.

9.  Receiving encoded files

Sometimes people send "encoded" files if they  contain  data
that  cannot be sent directly as an electronic mail message.
Encoded files must be processed by a "decoding"  program  in
order to restore the original data.



                      January 24, 1990





                           - 12 -


There exist various encoding methods.  Usually,  the  sender
will  provide  some  information  about  the encoding method
used.  In case of doubt, you will have to consult a  techni-
cal person.

If a message was encoded with the "uuencode" program it usu-
ally looks like

begin 644 tutorial.ms
M7"(@9F]R;6%T('=I=&@@=&AE(&US(&UA8W)O(&QI8G)A<GD*+E1,"E!#+4U!;
M24P@='5T;W)I86P*+D%5"E=I971S92!:+B!696YE;6$*36%T:&5M871I8W,@P
M86YD($-O;7!U=&EN9R!38VEE;F-E+`I%:6YD:&]V96X@56YI=F5R<VET>2!OJ
 .
 .
 .


In order to restore the original file,  select  the  message
such  that  its contents appear on the screen, and press the
"|" key.  The program will ask for the name of a command:

    Press ESC to cancel. Filter through command:
    ?


At this point, specify the "uudecode" command and press  the
"ENTER" key.

    Press ESC to cancel. Filter through command:
    ? uudecode


This produces, in the current working directory,  a  decoded
file  with the same name as shown in the "begin" line in the
message (in this  particular  example,  the  name  would  be
"tutorial.ms").

Another popular encoding program is "btoa". If that  program
has been used, the message looks somewhat like:

xbtoa Begin
>Tt;&DfT]'F<GdAFD)e=BOr<'F!,=.@rcK1Ch[@!@<-W#/lYLO:dZg/5tO`m
qQFE;"9=tUpuASu'r@1#_;FD,6&@<?3nF!+n/A0=6XD/aW>Bl7Q+;e'NQDI[
J=9*EcYr:Gp%$;+B2o^BPqa)DeF>&7;6XMBQ&'*DCco0BOr;]ATVTsEbo0%A
 .
 .
 .


In order to restore the original file,  select  the  message
such  that  its contents appear on the screen, and press the
"|" key.  The program will ask for the name of a command:





                      January 24, 1990





                           - 13 -



    Press ESC to cancel. Filter through command:
    ?


At this point, specify the "atob" command and a  file  name,
and press the "ENTER" key.  For example,

    Press ESC to cancel. Filter through command:
    ? atob >abc.def


The ">" is needed or you will get the decoded data  on  your
screen.   If  all  goes  well, you should now have a decoded
file in your current working directory (in this example, the
name of the file would be "abc.def").









































                      January 24, 1990