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scomail(XC)


scomail -- sends and receives electronic mail

Command syntax

scomail

Desktop syntax

To read or send mail messages, double-click on the Mail icon on the Desktop or in the Accessories window.

Or to mail the contents of a file to another user, drag a file icon from either the Desktop or a directory and drop it on the Mail icon or in the open Mail window.

Description

When you start scomail, the Mailbox window displays the messages in your mailbox. Read any message by highlighting the message's heading information. To highlight a message, point to it and click mouse button 1. If several messages are highlighted, the window displays the first message. To highlight more than one message, press and hold mouse button 1 and drag the pointer over the messages you want to read.

The Mailbox window provides options to create, forward, reply to, and edit messages and attachments that you receive. Create a response to a message by clicking on the Reply button (fourth from the left on the tool bar). This option opens the Message window, which provides options for creating and editing your own messages and attachments.

New, unread mail is indicated by a letter icon next to the message.

The default location for user mailboxes is determined by the delivery agent being used, such as mmdf(ADM). When MMDF is used, the /usr/mmdf/mmdftailor file determines the location of the mail spool files (whether they are in the user's home directory). When there is no mmdftailor file, the default mailbox is /usr/spool/mail/username. If you set the environment variable MAIL, its value is used as the location of your mailbox. This overrides the setting in mmdftailor.

Messages can have associated attachments, whose content can be ASCII text, non-ASCII text, data from an application such as a spreadsheet or a word processor, a graphical image, or even audio or video information. The recipient's system must include the appropriate software or the attachment cannot be viewed. For information on defining how local viewers and players should handle different mail types, see mailcap(F).

Mail folders are put in $HOME/mailfolders by default. If the mail delivery agent is MMDF, the location of the default mailbox is specified in /usr/mmdf/mmdftailor; by default it is /usr/spool/mail/username. When there is no mmdftailor file (as when you use sendmail or another mail delivery agent), the default mailbox is /usr/spool/mail/username.

Resources

You can customize the characteristics of scomail using your personal X resource file, $HOME/.Xdefaults-hostname, where hostname is the name of the machine on which the client is running. If this file does not exist in your home directory, you will need to create it. Changes made to this file take effect the next time you run scomail.

The class name for scomail is ScoMail. In addition to recognizing the core resource names and classes, scomail defines the following application-specific resources:


includeDir
specifies directory to list when file selection screen opens. You can use environment variables. The default is $HOME.

saveDir
specifies directory to save files in. You can use environment variables. The default is $HOME.

folderDir
specifies directory to save mail folders in. You can use environment variables. The default is $HOME/mailfolders.

startUpFolder
specifies folder to open when scomail starts. The default is $HOME/.mailbox.

folderList
describes folders displayed in the message window folder hot list. Each comma-separated entry has two parts: the hot list label for the folder and the folder pathname. The two parts of each entry are separated by commas. For example:
*folderList:	Outgoing,$HOME/Outgoing,MailBox,$HOME/mbox
The default is no entry.

pass8bits
specifies how 8-bit text is handled. scomail can pass 8-bit text as is (TRUE) or can include it in quoted printable form (FALSE). The default is FALSE.

pointHelpDelay
specifies delay (microseconds) between cursor positioning on a toolbar icon and display of point help for the icon. The default is half a second (500).

msgUrgentForeground
specifies the color to use for urgent messages. If you have a 16-color video adapter, be careful when setting this to an absolute color; you may get an error if you use too many colors.

msgExpandLevel
specifies the number of levels of nested attachments to display in message list. Default is two (2) levels. Valid values are 1 to 99.

pixmapPath
specifies directory paths to search for pixmap files. Separate pathnames with a colon and append the string ``%N%S'' to each pathname. For example:
*pixmapPath: /usr/mary/pixmaps/%N%S

mimeIconPath
specifies directory path to search for MIME type icons.

attachTypeList
describes supported MIME types. Each comma-separated entry has two parts: the actual MIME type and the description of that type as displayed to the user. The two parts of each entry are separated by commas. For example:
*attachTypeList:  text/plain,Text,image/gif,GIF (picture)
This definition describes two MIME types: text/plain and image/gif.

charsetMapping
describes MIME character sets. Any text that does not have a charset specified is assumed to use the US ASCII (us-ascii) set. This includes all non-MIME messages.

Each comma-separated entry has two parts: the name of the MIME character set and the font assignment. The two parts of each entry are separated by commas. For example:

*charsetMapping: iso-8859-1,-*-helvetica-medium-r-*--12-*-p-*, \
       us-ascii,-*-helvetica-bold-r-*--12-*-p-*
This entry describes the fonts to display with the MIME US ASCII character set (the default) and the ISO 8859-1 character set, It says to use helvetica medium for text marked as iso-8859-1 and helvetica bold for text marked as us-ascii. For more information on font descriptions, see the X(X) manual page.

textW*scrollHorizontal
defines whether the horizontal scroll bar is present (True) when reading messages in the Mailbox window or not present (False). To use word wrap for received messages, this entry must be set to False (the default) and must be used with textW*wordWrap set to True.

textW*wordWrap
defines whether word wrap is on (True) for reading messages in the Mailbox window or off (False). To use word wrap for received messages, this entry must be set to True (the default) and must be used with textW*scrollHorizontal set to False.
Changes made to the resource file automatically appear in the scomail window the next time you access the client. Use caution when modifying resources; incorrect settings can cause problems with scomail.

See also

mail(C), mailcap(F), mmdftailor(F), scoedit(XC)
© 2003 Caldera International, Inc. All rights reserved.
SCO OpenServer Release 5.0.7 -- 11 February 2003