Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!chinet!les
From: les@chinet.chi.il.us (Leslie Mikesell)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.elm
Subject: Re: Problems with elm 'print' command
Keywords: print command calendar , calendar entries
Message-ID: <1989Dec16.050243.4930@chinet.chi.il.us>
Date: 16 Dec 89 05:02:43 GMT
References: <6572@pbhyf.PacBell.COM>
Reply-To: les@chinet.chi.il.us (Leslie Mikesell)
Organization: Chinet - Chicago Public Access UNIX
Lines: 24

In article <6572@pbhyf.PacBell.COM> jrt@PacBell.COM (John Trinterud) writes:

>Now, type 'p' for print, and I get two lines:

>From: root
>Date: Thu Dec 14 01:00 PST 1989
>
>and no message!!
>

I complained about this a long time ago, and I'm sure everyone who tries
to print things sent from stock sysV mail has had the same thing happen
to them.  The problem is that (a) standard sysV mail doesn't use or
require any header lines, and (b) Elm and readmsg (which is used to
print) use a different method to determine the end of the headers.
Thus, readmsg decides that there is nothing below the headers that
it is supposed to remove (i.e. no blank line separating header an
body), and tosses the whole thing.  Of course by the time you notice
that there is nothing on the printout, you have deleted the message.
Personally, I think Elm should generate the printout directly, so that
you would be assured of getting the same thing as the screen display.

Les Mikesell
  les@chinet.chi.il.us