NAME

  ec - UNIX GUI E-mail reader and composer.

SYNOPSIS

  ec [-f filename][-hkvdo]

Command Line Options

-f filename

Use <filename> instead of the default server authentication file.

-h

Print help message and exit.

-k

Don't delete messages from POP server.

-v

Print verbose transcript of dialogs with servers.

-d

Print debugging information on the terminal.

-o

Offline - don't fetch mail from server.

CONTENTS

DESCRIPTION

USING EC

Sorting Messages

Entering Messages

MIME Attachments

CONFIGURATION

Configuration Files

Mail Directories and Folders

Filters

Mail Transport Agents

Editing the Library Path Names in the Source File

PRINTING THE DOCUMENTATION IN DIFFERENT FORMATS

LICENSE

VERSION INFO

CREDITS

DESCRIPTION

EC is an Internet email reader and composer that can download incoming messages from one or more POP3 servers, and send mail directly to a SMTP server, or via sendmail or qmail if either is installed.

EC provides options for configuring user defined mail folders and mail filtering by matching text patterns in incoming messages. The program stores the incoming messages in folders that you configure, or sends them directly to the Trash folder for deletion. With no additional configuration, however, EC displays incoming messages in, naturally, the "Incoming" folder. (EC capitalizes the first letter of directory names when creating folder names.) EC displays the number of unread and total messages in each folder on the "Folder" menu. Messages can be moved from folder to folder, including the Trash folder, so you can retrieve messages that you accidentally delete.

EC permanently deletes messages stored in the Trash folder after a user-configurable period of time (two days is the default). Refer to the section, "Configuration Files," below.

EC also supports encoding and decoding of Base64 MIME attachments, using an external filter program included in the distribution package.

USING EC

EC uses two windows for email processing: the main window where you can read, sort, save, or delete incoming messages, and a composer window where you can enter new messages and reply to messages in the main window.

If you installed EC and its supporting files correctly (as well as Perl and the Perl/Tk library modules), typing at the shell prompt in an xterm:

   # ./ec

should start up the program and display the main window with the Incoming mail folder. If you receive an error message that the program cannot connect to the POP mail server, use the -v command line switch to produce a transcript of the dialog with the server:

  # ./ec -v

If EC pops up an error message, or refuses to start at all, or spews a bunch of Perl error messages all over the xterm, consult the INSTALL file once again. If you need assistance with the installation, please contact the author of the program. The email address is given in the section: "CREDITS," below.

The functions on the menu bar should be fairly self-explanatory. You can view different mail folders by selecting them from the "Folder" menu, and move messages from one folder to another by selecting the destination folder from the "Message -> Move To" submenu. If you have Motif installed, you can "tear off" the menus so they are displayed in a separate window.

The "File -> Browse URL" function pops up a dialog box with the URL under the text cursor. If you click "OK," EC opens the browser that is named in the .eccconfig file, and loads the URL. If the browser is already open or iconified, EC will use that browser window to view the URL. EC supports Netscape 4.5-4.7, Opera 5.0, and Lynx in an xterm. If you select Lynx, you will probably also need to set the xterm option in the .ecconfig file.

The "File -> Attachments" function opens a dialog window to save attachments to disk in the main window. When you select "File -> Attachments" from in the composer window, the dialog allows you to select files that will be attached to the outgoing message. Refer also to the section, "MIME Attachments," below.

There are a number of options for quoting original messages when composing a reply. Refer to the .ecconfig file for information about these options.

EC also uses the X clipboard, so you can cut and paste between windows in EC as well as other applications. If a program does not have "Cut," "Copy," or "Paste" menu options, you can select text in the original application by holding down the left mouse button and dragging it across the text to highlight it, then changing to the destination text window, and pressing the middle mouse button (or the left and right buttons simultaneously on mice with only two buttons).

Sorting Messages

You can select whether to sort messages by Date (the default), the sender, or the subject, either newest first or oldest first, by selecting the sort field from the "Options -> Sort by" submenu and the "Options -> Sort Order" submenu, or by clicking on the headings of the message listing.

Entering Messages

When you click on the "New" button on the function bar below the incoming message listing, or select "Message -> Compose New Message" from the menu, a window opens with a new message form with header lines for the addressee, the subject, and the name of the FCC (File Carbon Copy) file to save a copy of the message in. If you have a ~/.signature file (refer to the .ecconfig file to configure this option), EC will insert that at the end of the text. You can enter the message below the separator line.

Clicking on the function bar's "Reply" button, or selecting "Message -> Reply" from the menu bar, will open a compose window with the address and subject of the original message filled in, and the message quoted in the text area. There are several options that determine how EC fills in reply addresses and quotes original messages. Again, refer to the .ecconfig file for information about these options.

Each message contains header information and body text, separated by a boundary line:

  --- Enter the message text below this line. ---

This line must exist for EC to process the message, but it is not included in the outgoing message.

Outgoing messages require at least the valid email address of a recipient to be entered on the "To:" header line.

You can use the optional fields Cc:, Bcc:, and Reply-To:, either by adding them manually above the separator line, or selecting them from the "Message -> Insert Field" menu selection.

EC supports a limited form of address "unfolding," so you can enter more than one email address on a To:, Cc:, Reply-To:, or Bcc: line, separated by commas. EC will include the multiple addresses in the outgoing message's header or will process the message to route it to all recipients.

MIME Attachments

You can attach Base64 binary encoded MIME attachments to outgoing messages by selecting the "File -> Attachments..." menu item in the compose window, then selecting the file or files to attach. If you select "File -> Attachments" from the main window, EC will show you a list of file attachments for the current message, which you can then save in their original format.

When attachments are selected, EC also encloses the text portion of the message as a MIME "text/plain" section, and sets the header's Content-Type: field to "multipart/mixed." All messages contain the required MIME-Version:, Content-Type:, and Content-Transfer-Encoding: headers, whether or not the message contains any attachments.

CONFIGURATION

Configuration Files

The email client uses two configuration files, .ecconfig and .servers. They reside in the ~/.ec directory by default, although you can change their names and locations by editing their path names in the "ec" and ~/.ec/EC/Config.pm files directly . The files and directory are not visible in normal directory listings. Use the "-a" option to ls to view them:

  # ls -a ~/.ec

The .ecconfig file contains user-settable defaults for the program's operating parameters using <option> <value> statements on each line. The function of each setting is explained in the .ecconfig file's comments.

You can also edit the .ecconfig file by selecting 'Sample .ecconfig File...' from the Help menu. Pressing mouse button 3 (the right button on many systems), pops up a menu over the text area. where you can save your changes. You must exit and restart EC for the changes to take effect.

The .servers file contains the user login name, host name, port and password for each POP3 and SMTP server. EC allows incoming mail retrieval from multiple POP3 servers, but only allows one SMTP server for sending outgoing mail. The format of each line is:

  <server-name> <port> <user-login-name> <password>

If there is a hyphen, '-', in the password field, then EC will prompt you for the server's password when the program logs on to the server.

In standard configurations, POP3 servers use port 110, and the single SMTP server uses port 25.

The .servers file must have only user read-write permissions (0600), otherwise the program complains. The correct permissions can be set with the command:

  # chmod 0600 .ec/.servers

You must be the file's owner, of course, in order to be able to reset the file's permissions.

The '.servers' file is not editable from the Help menu.

Mail Directories and Folders

EC can save messages in any number of user-configurable "folders," or directories, and it can move messages between the directories with the Message -> Move To submenu. By default, the mail folders are subdirectories of the <maildir> setting.

Assuming that a user's HOME directory is /home/bill, the directories that correspond to mail folders would are:

  Option     Value      Path
  ------     -----      ----
  maildir    ~/Mail     /home/bill/Mail
  incoming   incoming   /home/bill/Mail/incoming
  trash      trash      /home/bill/Mail/trash

The 'Incoming' and 'Trash' folders are required. These directories must exist before using EC. The program will not create them on its own.

EC makes the first letter of folder names uppercase, regardless of whether the directory name starts with a capital or small letter.

All other directories can be configured in the .ecconfig file, using the 'folder' directive. You must create the directories before EC can move messages into them.

Filters

You can sort incoming mail by matching the text in an incoming message with a specified pattern. Each "filter" line in the .ecconfig file is composed of a text pattern, a double equals sign, and the folder the mail is to be saved in. The format of a filter line in the configuration file is:

  filter <text-pattern>==<folder-directory>

Because the text pattern is used "raw" by Perl, you can use whatever metacharacters Perl recognizes (refer to the perlre man page). Pattern matches are not case sensitive, and the folder-directory that the pattern matches must exist.

Because of Perl's pattern matching, you must quote some characters that are common in email addresses which Perl recognizes as metacharacters, by preceding them with a backslash. These characters include '@', '['. ']', '<', and '>'. Refer to the example filter definitions in the .ecconfig file.

Mail Transport Agents

In additon to an ISP's SMTP server, EC can send outgoing messages to sendmail or qmail, if either is installed. In the .ecconfig file, the "usesendmail" and "useqmail" options determine which program is used. If the value of either is non-zero, then outgoing mail is routed to the MTA; otherwise, the default is to send mail directly to the ISP's SMTP server, using the information in the ~/.ec/.servers file.

In most sendmail configurations, either the local sendmail must be configured to relay messages, or have a "smart host" defined. The comments in the .ecconfig file describe only a few possible settings. Refer to the sendmail documentation for further information.

If the "useqmail" option is set, make sure that you can execute the qmail-inject program, which is /var/qmail/bin/qmail-inject in qmail's default configuration. EC still connects directly to an ISP's POP3 server, and uses the system UNIX mailbox, usually /var/spool/mail/<user>, for incoming messages.

The qmail-inject -f option is not implemented. The format of the sender's return address can be set using environment variables. Refer to the qmail-inject manual page for information.

Editing the Library Path Names in the Source File

If you would like to change the path names of library files, use a text editor to edit the values of $iconpath, $cfgfilename, $serverfilename, and $base64enc at the beginning of the main source file, "ec," and ~/.ec/EC/Config.pm.

The expand_path function expands leading tildes ('~') in file and path names to the value of the $HOME environment variable, following the convention of the UNIX Bourne shell. Directory separators are forward slashes ('/'), so compatibility with non-UNIX file systems depends on the Perl environment to perform the path name translation.

PRINTING THE DOCUMENTATION IN DIFFERENT FORMATS

It is possible produce this documentation in various formats using Perl's POD formatting utilities:

  pod2html <ec >doc.html
  pod2latex <ec >doc.tex
  pod2man <ec >doc.man
  pod2text <ec >doc.txt
  pod2usage <ec >doc.hlp

Refer to your system's manual pages for instructions of how to use these utilities.

LICENSE

EC is licensed using the same terms as Perl. Please refer to the file "Artistic" in the distribution archive.

VERSION INFO

  $Id: ec,v 1.0 2001/10/06 11:29:17 kiesling Exp $

CREDITS

  Written by Robert Kiesling, rkiesling@mainmatter.com

  Perl/Tk by Nick Ing-Simmons.

  The MessageList widget is a slight modification of 
  Tk::MListbox by Hans Jorgen Helgesen.

  The POP server interface is based on:
  POPMail Version 1.6 (RFC1081) Interface for Perl,
      Written by:
      Kevin Everets <flynn@engsoc.queensu.ca>
      Abhijit Kalamkar <abhijitk@india.com>
      Nathan Mahon <vaevictus@socket.net>
      Steve McCarthy <sjm@halcyon.com>
      Sven Neuhaus <sven@ping.de>
      Bill Reynolds <bill@goshawk.lanl.gov>
      Hongjiang Wang <whj@cs-air.com>

  The encdec Base64 filter was written by Jörgen Hägg and posted
  to the comp.mail.mime Usenet News group.  Please refer to the
  source file, .ec/encdec.c, for licensing information.

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