The Z-Mail Handbook

3 Interfaces for E-mail

Publisher: O'Reilly, 1991, 434 pages

ISBN: 0-937175-76-5

Last modified: May 12, 2021, 5:43 p.m.

Synopsis

Z-Mail is a new program for sending and reading mail on a UNIX system.

You may already be familiar with Z-Mail and its basic command set. It is backwards-compatible with System V mail and Berkeley mailx, that means anything that you can do with those mail programs you can do with Z-Mail. What's more, Z-Mail is a superset of the features and commands of a widely-used, public-domain program named Mush (Mail User's Shell), originally developed by Dan Heller. With Z-Mail, Dan along with Bart Schaefer, has added a new Motif interface for users of the X Window System.

In Z-Mail, you can do even more than in Mush to customize how you compose messages and read your mail, using aliases, commands and macros. Z-Mail allows you to write scripts that automate tasks such as cleaning up old mail files, re-directing bounced mail messages or collecting a set of messages on a related subject. Additionally, in the GUI mode, you can attach any script to a button so that you can execute it with a single click of a mouse button. The same script can also be executed while using either of the other two modes as well.

Z-Mail also supports multimedia attachments, so you can mail text, graphics, voice (and other sound), desktop publishing documents, spreadsheets, or anything you can store on disk.

The Z-Mail Handbook is the complete, authoritative guide to using this powerful mail program. This handbook will help you learn Z-Mail and explain all the commands and features that distinguish Z-Mail from other mail programs. You will learn how to customize the behavior of Z-Mail to your liking. And you will see how some of Z-Mail's more advanced features such as aliases, functions, and macros make you even more productive.

This book is for anyone that uses (or plans to use) Z-Mail or Mush.

Introduction to Z-Mail

Communicating with E-mail

Evolution of Z-Mail

What is Z-Mail?

The Line-mode Interface
The Fullscreen Interface
The Graphical User Interface

Getting Started

Basic Concepts
Sending Mail

Composing a Message
Canceling a Message
Sending a Message
Sending a File

Reading Mail

Header Summaries

When New Mail Arrives

Reading a Message
Replying to a Message
Saving a Message
Deleting a Message
Recovering a Deleted Message

Exiting Z-Mail
Getting Help with Z-Mail

Common Errors

Reading and Managing Mail

Z-Mail Command-line Syntax

What is a Message List?

Getting Help with Z-Mail Commands
Modifying Commands with Variables

Syntax for Setting Variables

Displaying Current Variable Settings
Displaying Available Z-Mail Variables
Unsetting Variables

Reading Messages

Displaying the Next or Previous Message
Deleting and Displaying Messages
Paging Through Messages
Displaying the Tops of Messages

Redisplaying Header Summaries

Listing Specific Header Summaries
Displaying Header Summaries by Status

Displaying Deleted Messages

Printing Messages
Picking Messages from the Display

Matching Patterns in Headers
Picking Messages by Date

Specifying the Date Format

Suppressing pick Descriptions

Marking Messages

Temporary Marks
Marking a Message with a Priority
Picking Messages by Priority
Removing Marks

Organizing Your Messages

What Are Filename Metacharacters?
Saving Messages to Folders
Saving Messages to Files

Changing and Listing Directories
Keeping Saved Messages
Organizing Messages by Subject
Organizing Messages by Author

Organizing Folders
Listing the Folders in the Folder Directory
Changing the Name of the Folder Directory

Sorting Folders

Ordering Messages at Startup Time

Exiting Z-Mail

Ignoring the End-if-file Character
Updating the Current Folder

Updating Folders Automatically Before Exiting

Customizing with Variables

Displaying Warning Messages
Changing the Header Summary Format
Setting Your Prompt
Reviewing the Variables

Test Your Z-Mail Skills

Review Quiz Answers

Sending Mail

Sending and Replying to Mail

Compose-mode Escapes
Changing or Adding Recipients
Changing the Subject
Sending Copies to Other People

Creating Blind Carbon Copies

Editing All the Header Fields
Tips for Editing Your Message

Wrapping Up Lines Automatically
Editing the Previous Line
Starting Up a Text Editor
Editing Headers with the Message Text

Canceling the Message
Including a Message
Forwarding Messages to Other People
Including a File
Previewing the Message
Saving the Outgoing Message to a File
Suspending a Message Composition
Running Z-Mail Commands from Within Compose mode
Piping Message Compositions Through UNIX Commands
Sending the Message

Sending Files

Draft Files
Form Letters

Changing the Templates Directory

Sending Attachments

Listing the Current Attachments
Removing Attachments
Detaching Attachments

Sending Large Files

Mail Aliases

Creating Mail Aliases
Displaying Mail Aliases

Checking Aliases from Within Compose Mode

Unsetting Mail Aliases

Customizing Your Outgoing Mail

Setting Your Real Name
Introducing the Included Message
Setting the In-Reply-To Header
Creating Message Headers

Creating Reply-To Headers
Requesting a Return-Receipt
Removing Personal Headers

Signing Your Name

Including an Alternate Signature File

Including a Fortune

Specifying Who Gets a Fortune

Saving Copies of Your Outgoing Messages
Creating a Message Header Log
Specifying the Dead Letter Folder
Changing the Tilde-escape Character
Reviewing the Variables

Reviewing the Commands

Review Quiz Answers

Z-Mail Shortcuts, Bells, and Whistles

Additional Z-Mail Command-line Syntax

Z-Mail Variable Types
Referring to Variables

Variable Substitution Modifiers

Read-only Variables

Current Working Directory
Output of Last Command
Status of Last Command
Current Folder Name
Current Version Nymber

Combining Z-Mail Commands

Using Command History

Displaying Command-line History
Re-executing Previous Commands
Turning Off History Referencing

Ignoring History-reference Errors

Creating Command-line Aliases

Setting Up Command-line Aliases
Displaying Command-line Aliases
Unsetting Command-line Aliases

Using Filename Completion

Excluding Patterns from Completions
Changing the Completion Character

More About Folders

Reading Folders at Startup Time
Switching Folders
Editing Messages in Folders
Combining Folders
Closing Open Folders

Saving Empty Folders

Suppressing Message Header Display

Specifying Message Headers to Display
Suppressing Headers in Other Situations

Reading Mail Digests
Accessing the Shell from Z-Mail

Using UNIX Commands from Within Z-Mail
Sending Messages to UNIX Commands
Suspending the Z-Mail Process

Reviewing the Shortcuts, Bells, and Whistles

Review Quiz
Review Quiz Answers

Using the Fullscreen Mode

Starting Fullscreen Mode

Fullscreen-mode Display
Entering Commands in Fullscreen Mode
Moving the Cursor
Continue Mode
Changing the Screen Display
Getting Help in Fullscreen Mode
Setting Variables in Fullscreen Mode

Removing Variable Settings
Listing Current Variable Settings
getting Help on Variables

Displaying a Menu of Key Bindings on the Screen

Sending Mail

Suspending and Resuming a Message Composition
Setting Mail Aliases
Creating Your Own Message Headers

Reading Messages

When New Mail Arrives

Replying to Messages
Manipulating Messages

Saving Messages to Folders and Files

Changing Directories

Deleting Messages

Restoring Deleted Messages

Preserving Messages
Sending Messages to the Printer
Marking Messages
Searching for Patterns
Sorting Folders

Sorting by Date
Sorting by Author
Sorting by Status

Using Folders

Switching Between Folders

Listing Open Folders
Closing Open Folders

Updating the Folder

Using Line-mode Commands from Fullscreen Mode
Accessing the UNIX Shell
Exiting Fullscreen Mode

Turning off Fullscreen Mode
Exiting Z-Mail from the Top Level
Exiting from Continue Mode

Binding Keystrokes to Fullscreen Commands

Displaying Current Bindings
Chaning a Key Binding
Unsetting a Key Binding
Making Key Bindings Permanent

Other Fullscreen Commands

Creating Macros in Fullscreen Mode
Reading and Saving to the Initialization File
Executing Functions in Fullscreen Mode
What is the Version Number?

Reviewing Fullscreen Mode

Using the Graphical User Interface

Starting the GUI
The Main Z-Mail Window

Using Menus
Using Scrollbars
The Action Area

Using the Toolbox
Getting Help

The Help Index Window

Selecting a Message

Selecting Multiple Messages

Reading a Message

Activating Another Window
Viewing the Next Message
Reading a Message with an Attachment
Deleting Messages

Restoring Deleted Messages

Saving the Message

Canceling the Save Request

Printing the Message
Replying to the Message

Composing a Message

Including a Message
Forwarding the Message to Another Person
Including a File
Saving the Current Message
Editing the Message Headers
Using Templates
Cutting and Pasting Text
Searching and Replacing Text
Using an Editor to Compose the Message
Sending the Message
Wrapping Text Automatically
Signing Your Message
Requesting a Return Receipt
Sending an Attachment
Composing a New Message
Canceling the Message
Closing the Compose Message Window
Replying to Multiple Messages

When New Mail Arrives
Using Folders

Switching Folders

Opening a Folder in Read-only Mode
Opening More than One Folder at a Time

Displaying the List of Open Folders

Activating a Different Folder
Closing the Find Folders Window
Closing an Open Folder

Updating the Current Folder
Exiting Z-Mail

Manipulating Messages

Preserving Messages

Unpreserving Messages

Marking Messages

Removing Marks

Specifying Priorities for Messages

Removing Priority Settings

Picking Messages to Display

Searching for a Pattern

Searching All the Open Folders
Searching for Messages That Don't Match
Manipulating the Results of the Search

Picking Messages by Date

Searching for an Exact Date
Searching for a Relative Date

Sorting the Message Headers

The Custom Sort Window

Customizing Z-Mail

Setting Z-Mail Variables

Changing the Value of a Variable
Saving the New Value
Closing the Variables Window

Specifying Headers to Suppress

Unsetting Ignored Headers
Specifying Headers to Show
Unsetting Headers
Saving Header Settings

Creating Personal Headers

Removing Personal Headers
Saving Header Settings

Setting Mail Aliases

Removing Alias Settings
Saving Alias Settings

Creating a Z-Mail Function

Moving and Resizing Windows

Moving a Window
Resizing a Window

Changing Window Colors
Reviewing the GUI Mode

Customizing Z-Mail

Modifying Z-Mail Initialization

Specifying an Initialization File

Initialization File Format

Putting Comments in the Initialization File
Conditional Statements
Using the Mode-testing Variables

The is_sending Variable
The is_shell Variable
The redirect Variable

Negating an Expression
Evaluating a String Expression
Using File Test Operations
Specifying an Alternate Action

The exit Command

Z-Mail Commands in the Initialization File

Mail Aliases
Suppressed and Retained Headers
Command-line Aliases
Fullscreen-mode Bindings
Macro Definitions

Customizing Z-Mail with Variables

Setting Variables in the Initialization File
Setting Environment Variables
Basic Customization Settings
Sample Initialization Files

Additional Z-Mail Variables

Wrapping the Message Pointer
Specifying Alternate Home or Temporary Directories
Setting the Search Path for cd
Suppressing Z-Mail Messages
GUI Specific Variables

Removing GUI-mode Dialogs automatically
Changing the Z-Mail Icon

Emulating Other Mailers and Editors

BSD UNIX Mail
UNIX System V mailx
emacs Editor

Filtering Messages

Removing Filter Definitions
Filtering in a .forward File
Filtering in a .maildelivery Files
Using the Vacation Filter

Creating Customized Help Files

Help File Format
Changing the Location of Help Files

Adding Attachment Types

Attachment Types Description File Format

The PATH Keyword
The TYPE Keyword
The CODE Keyword
The ENCODE Keyword
The DEFAULT Keyword

Summary

Writing Scripts and Functions

Special variables

Using the eval Command

Creating Your Own Variables
Z-Mail Scripts

Running Scripts
Sample Scripts

Running the cleanrecord Script
A MUSH Script

Using the #! Syntax in Scripts

Running Scripts Non-interactively

Building Functions

The function Command

Creating Help for Functions
Function Naming Conventions
Creating a Simple Function

Turning Script into Functions
The return Command
Argument Variables
The ask Command

Yes, No, or Cancel?
Prompting for a String
Providing a Selection
Forcing a Selection

Manipulating Function Arguments with the shift Command
The msg_list Command
The each Command
The foreach Command
Recursive Functions

Listing Your Functions
Removing Function Definitions
Binding Functions to Buttons

Calling a Dialog Box
Listing Buttons
Removing Buttons

Reviewing Scripts and Functions

Creating and Using Macros

Macro Types
Macro Key-sequence Restrictions
Creating Line-mode Macros

Using Control Characters in Key-sequences and Expansion
Using Special Functions in Macro Expansion
Nesting Macros
Preventing Macros from Expanding
Literal-next Characters
Listing the Current Line-mode Macros

Creating Compose-mode Macros

Listing the Current Compose-mode Macros

Mixing Line- and Compose-mode Macros
Creating Fullscreen-mode Macros

Creating Macros with bind
Using Functions in Fullscreen Macro Expansion
Creating Macros with bind-macro
Using Macros to Run Line-mode Commands
Creating Line-mode Macros from Fullscreen-mode
Creating Compose-mode Macros from Fullscreen-mode
Listing the Current Fullscreen-mode Macros

Removing Macro Definitions
Making Macros Permanent

Z-Mail Addressing

Addressing Outgoing Messages

Comments in Mail Addresses

Sending Mail to Other Computers

Using UUCP Addresses

Sending Mail Using Backbone Computers
Figuring Out Your UUCP EMail Address
Setting the Name of Your Machine

Using Internet (Domain) Addresses

How Z-Mail Creates a Return Address

Telling Z-Mail About UUCP Connections
How Z-Mail Creates Addresses with replyall

Specifying the Return Path

Shortening Internet Addresses
Telling Z-Mail About Your Alternate Addresses

Useful tips and Hints
Z-Mail Commands
Z-Mail Variables
Tilde-escape Commands
Fullscreen-mode Bindings
Command-line Options
Important Z-Mail Files

Reviews