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Text File | 1993-05-21 | 9KB | 197 lines

Using Eudora As An Offline UNIX Mail Reader

by Ken Kirksey
([e-mail])



INTRODUCTION

    The first time I saw Eudora, I thought it was the neatest thing since
    sliced bread.  One of my friends worked for the academic computing
    department at the university I was attending (Auburn U., for those who
    care), and he had Eudora running on the Mac in his office.  I though to
    myself, "Now this is the way to read my Internet mail!"  Unfortunately, I
    found out that to use Eudora you had to have a TCP/IP connection to the
    network (which my friend had) or access to a SLIP server (which we didn't
    have).  So, I resigned myself to using "mail."

    Then I graduated and moved, and all of the sudden I had to make a long
    distance call to get my mail (New Horrors! New Horrors!).  Needless to say,
    interative reading with "mail" wouldn't cut it.  So I took to compressing
    and downloading my mail spool file so I could read all my mail offline.
    A great idea, except that all I had was a raw spool file that I could
    peruse with a text editor.  Not very pretty.

    Then I remembered Eudora.  As fate would have it, Eudora could read the
    raw mail spool files.  So I could read my message in a nice way.  But
    replying to messages, or sending new ones, was a pain.  So I wrote a
    little C program that automated the process.  Now I was back up to speed.

    So here I am, sharing my experience and that program with ya'll (southern
    for you all :)  I've tried everything I'll cover in here, so it's all been
    play-tested, so to speak.  If you have any problems with the program, or
    these instructions, feel free to drop me a note at [e-mail].

    Note that throughout this document "Eudora" refers to the Mac program,
    while "udora" (unix Eudora) refers to the UNIX side program.


GETTING EUDORA

    The first thing you need to do is get a copy of Eudora.  The program
    itself is available at info-mac in the comm directory.  This archive
    doesn't include the documentation, however.  You don't NEED the
    documentation to get up and running with Eudora, but I highly recommend
    getting it.  The full Eudora release used to be available at
    ux1.cso.uiuc.edu in the mac/eudora directory, but it's gone now.  A quick
    archie search told me that it was available at orion.oac.uci.edu in the
    directory /ntslib/mac/mail/eudora.1.2/NTS.dist.  If anyone out there
    knows where Eudora's new official home is, please drop me a note and I'll
    include it in a later version of these here docs.


SETTING UP EUDORA

    Once you've installed Eudora, you need to set it up so that it will work
    using it as an offline reader.

    First go to the "Configuration..." option under the "Special" menu.  Make
    sure that the "Communications Toolbox" radio button is checked.  If
    "MacTCP" is checked, it will scream at you since you don't have MacTCP
    installed.  If you do, why are you reading this? :)

    Then go to the "Switches..." option under the "Special" menu.  Under
    "Composition:" make sure that the "Immediate Send" checkbox is NOT
    checked.  This lets you queue up outgoing messages.  Under "When
    Quitting:" make sure that "Compact Mailboxes" is checked.

    Composing and replying to messages is pretty straightforward.  Consult
    the Eudora documentation if you have any problems.  I'd advise reading
    through it in any event.


GETTING YOUR MAIL TO YOUR MAC

    Under UNIX, your mail is usually stored in the /usr/spool/mail directory
    in a file that is named the same as your login.  For instance, mine is
    stored in /usr/spool/mail/kkirksey.  You want to move this file out of
    the /usr/spool/mail directory and on to your mac.  Basically, here's what
    you do:

    1) Move the spool file to your home directory with

           mv /usr/spool/mail/<username> .

       You want to move it rather than copy it, because if you copy it, you
       aren't removing the messages you read from the spool file.  It'll just
       keep growing, and growing, and growing....

       If your mail isn't kept in /usr/spool/mail, check with your sysadmin
       to see where it is located.

    2) Transfer your mail file to your mac via your favorite file transfer
       protocol.

    If your communication program supports scripting, you can write a short
    script to automate this procedure.

    As an option, you may want to compress the file with the UNIX "compress"
    command.  This gives you a .Z file that you can uncompress on your Mac
    using the MacCompress program (avaliable at info-mac).  If you call long
    distance to get your mail, this step will save you mucho $.


IMPORTING YOUR MAIL INTO EUDORA

    Now that you've got your mail to your mac, you've got two options.  The
    first is just to drop the file into the Eudora Folder in your System
    Folder.  Eudora can read it just like one of it's own files.  There's a
    problem with doing it this way.  What if you haven't finished reading
    all your messages in you spool file (kkirksey for me) ?  Well, you could
    give your new spool file another name (kkirksey1 for instance).  But now
    you've got a couple of mail files where you could have only one.

    A better solution (what I do) is to concatenate your new mail on to the "In"
    file in the Eudora Folder.  That way, all your mail is kept in one place, and
    you don't have to worry about what you have and haven't read. t.  I use
    Unity (available on info-mac) to concatenate the files together.

    To read your mail, just select "In" from the "Mailbox" menu in Eudora.
    Since you've modified the "In" file, it will ask you if you want to
    create a new table of contents for that file.  Tell it Ok.


SENDING NEW MESSAGES OR REPLIES

    First of all, you need to have a copy of the udora.c program in your UNIX
    account.  To compile the program, just type

          cc udora.c -o udora

    at the prompt.  You can remove the udora.c file after you've compiled it.

    I'm assuming that you've read the Eudora docs and have already composed
    some new messages or replies.  All outgoing messages are stored in the
    "Out" file in the Eudora Folder.  Upload this file to your UNIX account.
    Be sure that you have compacted the mailboxes before you do this.
    Eudora inserts some redundant header information in the Out file that
    seems to disappear when you compact your mailboxes.  udora won't crash
    if you don't do this, but you will get some strange messages.

    Once you've uploaded "Out" to your account, just type

          udora Out

    at the prompt to mail your messages.  It's as simple as that.  After
    you've successfully mailed your outgoing messages, be sure to empty
    the "Out" mailbox in Eudora so you don't send them again.

    If you quit Eudora while you have messages in the Out mailbox, it will
    ask you if you want to send the messages now or just quit.  Always click
    "Just Quit."  It will get very confused if you tell it to send them.


SIGNATURES

    Even if you chose the signature option in Eudora, it doesn't include it
    with your message in the "Out" file, so it doesn't work for our
    purposes.  I've included a signature option in udora to make up for
    this.  Keep your signature in a file named ".signature" in your home
    directory.  If you want udora to append your signature to a message,
    just put ~s on a line by itself at the end of a message.  Don't put
    any spaces in front of ~s, or udora won't recoginze it as a signature
    command.


SOME THINGS WORK, SOME DON'T

    Another Eudora feature that doesn't work for our purposes.  Eudora
    attaches the files as it's sending the message via TCP/IP, so I doesn't
    include the attached file in the "Out" file.  I'm thinking about adding
    a file attach feature to udora.

    The Eudora nicknames feature doesn't work either, since it doesn't
    expand the nicknames in the Out file.  This is another possible
    enhancement to udora.

    udora currently doesn't recognize the cc: and bcc: lines in the header,
    so you bcc and cc's will be ignored.  Yet another possible new feature.

    If you want to see any or all of these features added to udora, drop me
    a note.  If there's enough interest, I'll probably do it.

TIPS

    If you subscribe to bunches of internet digests like I do, and like to
    save your messages to text files, go to the "Switches..." option under
    the "Special" menu and make sure that "Guess Paragraphs" is NOT
    checked.  If it is, it will sometimes munge your documents when you save
    them.


COMMMENTS, BUG REPORTS, etc.

    All welcome.  Tell me what you think of this doc and udora.  Just drop
    me a note at [e-mail].