Category : UNIX Files
Archive   : PC-MAIL2.ZIP
Filename : GNUUCP.INS

@(#) GNUUCP.ins 2.1 90/01/22 13:01:07

This document describes how to install the PC-mail software in an
environment that uses GNUUCP as the message transport mechanism. GNUUCP
runs under more operating systems than just UNIX and MS-DOS, and offers
far more features than the rather minimal "cico" program for dial-up
and file transfer. The programs that interface between GNUUCP and PC-mail
have undergone only little testing.

In order to use PC-mail in combination with GNUUCP, edit the makefile
according to the directions given in that file (or execute the commands
in the GNUUCP.bat file if you are using MS-DOS and do not have a decent
make program). This disables several features in the user interface
program that are not needed when GNUUCP takes care of message transport.
Under MS-DOS, make sure that the large memory model is selected.

Saying `make' should produce the following programs:

- mail, the menu-driven user interface
- cmail, a program that checks if there is new mail
- smail, a program that queues messages for transmission after
doing alias substitution on mail addresses
- nmail, extracts "From" and "Subject" info from new mail
- gmail, searches the PC-mail messade data base for unsent mail,
and gives it to GNUUCP for delivery. This program should
be invoked upon exit from the "mail" program (see the
description of the MAILCMD enverionment variable lateron).
- lmail, installs mail received via GNUUCP into the PC-mail data base
Since this program is to invoked by the GNUUCP "rmail" program,
instead of the name "lmail" the program will probably have
to be given a different name; this depends on how the GNUUCP
"rmail" is configured.

The programs access a common data base in the form of a spool directory
with a setup file and message files. Optionally there may be an alias
file, and header and trailer files to generate template messages. There
should be no other files in the spool directory, to avoid confusion.
The spool directory should be created by hand; the PC-mail programs will
not do that.

You will have to set some environment variables before running the mail
programs.

- MAILDIR, the location of your mail data base directory
- EDITOR, the name of your favourite editor program
- PATH, in order locate the PC-mail executables, and your editor

It is advised to use absolute path names that include the drive name.
The editor command may be an MS-DOS batch file; in that case you should
include the '.bat' suffix in the command name.

The following two environment variables are optional.

- MAILPRN, the name of a file, if printer output should not go to
the default printer.
- MAILCMD, a command that is executed on exit from the mail
program. If this is an MS-DOS batch file you should
include the `.bat' suffix in the command name.

At our site, these two variables are used to collect printer output in
one file, and to send it to a networked printer upon exit from the
program. The MAILCMD feature can also be used to invoke the gmail
program described above.

Make sure that the limit on the number of open files is large enough (20
or so). On MS-DOS, this is handled by a line with `files=20' in the
CONFIG.SYS file.

On MS-DOS, the mail user interface requires the ANSI.SYS driver. The
CONFIG.SYS file should specify a line with "device=ansi.sys".

ALIAS DATABASE

The user can define aliases for (groups of) mail addresses. The alias
data base is a text file with on each line:

alias replacement_part

The alias should be a single word; words are separated by blanks, tabs
or commas. The replacement part may be one or more words. Whenever the
smail (mail spooler) program recognizes an alias, it is replaced by the
`replacement part'. Aliases may be defined in terms of other aliases;
the order in which they appear in the alias data base is not important
(except when an alias is defined more than once; the program remembers
only the last definition of an alias). The alias expansion software is
smart enough to detect infinite loops and to eliminate multiple
occurrances of the same recipient. Alias substitution is not case
sensitive.

BATCH-MODE OPERATION

The cmail program can be run from a batch file (say, each time the PC is
turned on), to report if there is new mail. On multi-tasking machines,
you may want to auto-execute the cmail command when exiting from the
interactive mail shell (using the MAILCMD environment variable described
above).

TEMPLATE FILES

The user can provide message templates with standard header and trailer
lines. If the file "header" is present in the mail directory, its
contents will be included at the beginning of every mail message created
by the user. Similarly, the contents of a file "trailer" will be
included at the end of mail messages. The "header" and "trailer" files
should be ordinary text files.