Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!att!cbnewse!danj1 From: Dan_Jacobson@ATT.COM Subject: Re: Using a pager from within 'mail' [now an ad for GNU Emacs' "VM"!] Reply-To: danj1@ihlpa.att.com Organization: AT&T-BL, Naperville IL, USA Date: Sat, 17 Nov 90 21:59:14 GMT Message-ID: In-Reply-To: ramon@skye.mit.edu's message of 17 Nov 90 19:08:06 GMT References: <1990Nov17.190806.15414@athena.mit.edu> Sender: danj1@cbnewse.att.com (Dan Jacobson) Lines: 98 >>>>> On 17 Nov 90 19:08:06 GMT, ramon@skye.mit.edu (Ramon F Herrera) said: Ramon> Is there any way to use 'more' from within the mail program Ramon> to see long messages one page at a time?? well, I think mailx might look for the environment variable "PAGER", ... check the man page. Ramon> The scrolling speeds these days are exceeding the reflexes Ramon> needed to press ^S ans ^Q. No kidding..., when we upgraded to 300 baud from 110 last month, we had to lay off some of the slower-witted staff also. :-) Well, enough for being a wise guy... advertising time! Why not take a quantum leap in the e-mail wold, and check into GNU Emacs' VM mail system? for more info, write Info-VM-request@UUNET.UU.NET, not me; also see gnu.* newsgroups. From GNU Emacs' "info reader": ------------------------------ File: vm Node: Introduction, Prev: Variable Index, Up: Top, Next: Starting Up Introduction ************ VM (View Mail) is an Emacs subsystem that allows UNIX mail to be read and disposed of within Emacs. Commands exist to do the normal things expected of a mail user agent, such as generating replies, saving messages to folders, deleting messages and so on. There are other more advanced commands that do tasks like bursting and creating digests, message forwarding, and organizing message presentation according to various criteria. To invoke VM simply type `M-x vm'. VM gathers any mail that has arrived in your system mailbox and appends it to a file known as your "primary inbox", and visits that file for reading. *Note Starting Up::. A file visited for reading by VM is called the "current folder". If there are any messages in the primary inbox, VM selects the first new or unread message, and previews it. "Previewing" is VM's way of showing you part of message and allowing you to decide whether you want to read it. *Note Previewing::. By default VM shows you the message's sender, recipient, subject and date headers. Typing SPC (`vm-scroll-forward') exposes the body of the message and marks the message as read. Subsequent SPC's scroll forward through the message, `b' scrolls backward. When you reach the end of a message, typing a SPC or `n' moves you forward to preview the next message. If you do not want to read a message that's being previewed, just type `n' and VM will move on to the next message (if there is one). *Note Selecting Messages::. To save a message to a mail folder use `s' (`vm-save-message'). VM will prompt you for the folder name in the minibuffer. *Note Saving Messages::. Messages are deleted by typing `d' (`vm-delete-message') while previewing or reading them. The message is not deleted right away; it is simply marked for deletion. If you change your mind about deleting a message just select it and type `u' (`vm-undelete-message'), and the message will be undeleted. *Note Deleting Messages::. The actual removal of deleted messages from the current folder is called "expunging" and it is accomplished by typing `#' (`vm-expunge-folder'). The message is still present in the on-disk version of the folder until the folder is saved. Typing `h' (`vm-summarize') causes VM to pop up a window containing a summary of contents of the current folder. The summary is presented one line per message, by message number, listing each message's author, date sent, line and byte count, and subject. Also various letters appear beside the message number to indicate that a message is new, unread, marked for deletion, etc. An arrow `->' appears to the left of the line summarizing the current message. The summary format is user configurable, *Note Summaries::. When you are finished reading mail the current folder must be saved, so that the next time the folder is visited VM will know which messages have been already read, replied to and so on. Typing `S' (`vm-save-folder') expunges all deleted messages and saves the folder. `C-x C-s' saves the folder without expunging deleted messages but the messages are still marked deleted. The next time the folder is visited these messages will still be marked for deletion. To quit VM you can type `q' (`vm-quit') or `x' (`vm-quit-no-change'). Typing `q' expunges and saves the current folder before quitting. Also, any messages marked new are changed to be marked unread, before saving. The `x' command quits VM without expunging, saving or otherwise modifying the current folder. Quitting is not required; you can simply switch to another Emacs buffer when you've finished reading mail. At any time while reading mail in the primary inbox you can type `g' (`vm-get-new-mail') to check to see if new mail has arrived. If new mail has arrived it will be merged into the primary inbox. If you are not in the middle of another message, VM will also jump to the first new message. -- Dan_Jacobson@ATT.COM Naperville IL USA +1 708-979-6364