Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!ncc!alberta!att-ih!pacbell!ames!lll-lcc!well!dhawk
From: dhawk@well.UUCP (David Hawkins)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.elm
Subject: Elm Questions
Message-ID: <5718@well.UUCP>
Date: 16 Apr 88 16:30:11 GMT
Reply-To: dhawk@well.UUCP (David Hawkins)
Distribution: na
Organization: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA
Lines: 33

Setting: the WELL is a public access teleconferencing system with
a wide range of users, from experts/wizards to complete telecom
novices.  We're running 4.3 BSD on a VAX 750.

I just installed elm 1.7 here.  Several users, including myself,
love it.  I have a few questions though.  By the way, I can't make
elm the default because of the wide range of termcap entries needed,
plus not everyone uses software that can do emulation.  Sigh.

First, it doesn't use 'flock' for locking the mailbox.  Has this 
caused any problems on other systems?  Do you lose mail?  Has anyone
changed it to use 'flock'??  I tested it with several pieces of mail
coming from different programs and it seemed to handle everything 
correctly, but I'd like to know if anyone had had a problem.

Second, when I use elm to answer questions from new users some of them
have various reactions to the X-mailer line.  Anything that looks
different throws some people.  And I get tired of explaining that I
use a different mailer.  So, is there a way I can keep that line from
appearing in outgoing mail?

Third, is there a way to delete a range of messages from a mailbox
file?  I've re-read the docs a few times and didn't find it.  Do I
have to go through and type  d   for each message?  This is only a
problem when I want to clean out old folders and see a bunch of
items together that I want to get rid of.

Thanks.  I might have more questions when I tackle aliases.  8-)

later, david
-- 
David Hawkins       {pacbell,hplabs,ucbvax}!well!dhawk
Faith is never identical with piety.   -- Karl Barth