At the top of this screen, known as an index screen, Elm displays the name of your mailbox and how many messages it contains. Next, it lists your messages -- ten are displayed at a time. To the left of each message are codes that give you status information. Some possible codes are:
Mailbox is '/usr/spool/mail/jones' with 18 messages [ELM 2.4 PL23-upenn2.9] >N 1 Aug 15 Dawn Clarke (29) New Elm version released! N 2 Aug 15 Jackie Smith (10) Truckload sale NU 3 Aug 14 Bob Pallone (22) Re: Elm question O 4 Aug 10 Noam Arzt (45) E-mail task force update 5 Aug 8 Alex Garthwaite (37) Re: MIME question NM 6 Aug 7 Peter Patton ( 9) ENIAC celebration 7 Aug 1 Lila Shapiro (15) Elm documentation 8 Jul 10 Kendall Whitehouse (12) Acrobat WIN config for Mosaic 9 Jul 9 crc@isc.upenn.edu (24) Re: Word 5.1 problem 10 Jul 9 Mail Postmaster ( 3) Message Delivery Report |=pipe, !=shell, ?=help, /=search pattern, M=read MIME message, I=directory, a)lias, C)opy, c)hange folder, d)elete, e)dit, f)orward, g)roup reply, m)ail, n)ext, o)ptions, p)rint, q)uit, r)eply, s)ave, t)ag, u)ndelete, or e(x)it Command:
N message is new -- you haven't read it yet O message is old -- you didn't read it the last time you used Elm D message is marked for deletion + message was tagged for further action U message was marked "urgent" by the sender M message is MIME compliant (see "Advanced Topics")Each message entry shows a consecutive message number. You can use this number to jump to specific messages quickly. Also shown is the date the message was sent, the name of the sender (or the sender's address if Elm cannot determine the name), the number of lines in the message, and the subject of the message.
up-arrow or j move current message down one down-arrow or k move current message up one left-arrow scroll forward one page (then enter a message number) right-arrow scroll backward one page (then enter a message number)The menu below the mail queue lists common commands used to process your mail. You initiate these tasks by typing a letter from one of the menu selections at the command prompt.
Command: <enter>
Elm will display the text of the current message. If the message is too long to fit on one screen, Elm will prompt you to press a key to display more of the text. Your choices are:
Command: i
This returns you to the index screen and re-displays your message queue.
To display another message, use the arrow keys to move to the message you wish to read and then press the enter key. Alternately, you may specify a particular message that you want to display by typing the number of the message. For example, to display the seventh message, type the following:
Command: 7 <enter> <enter>
The "7 <enter>" moves the current message indicator to message number 7 and the second "<enter>" displays the seventh message.
If you are currently reading the text of a message and you come to the end of that message, you can move to the next message in the queue by pressing the spacebar -- you do not have to return to the index screen each time to read the next message.
In fact, you can enter some commands directly from the screen on which you are displaying a message. This reduces the need to switch back to the index screen often. To enter a command on the message display screen, enter a command at the prompt at the bottom of the screen. Among the commands you may enter are: (m)ail, (f)orward, (r)eply, and (d)elete.
Tip: You may quickly scan multiple messages by pressing the down arrow key when you are reading a message. By successively pressing the down arrow key you can easily move through your message queue. While this method only displays the first page of message text, it is useful when you wish to get an idea of the content of each message without having to read the entire text of the message. Of course, the up arrow key works similarly, moving you backward through your message queue.
Command: m
Elm will ask you whom you wish to send the message to.
Send the message to:
To practice creating messages, address the message to yourself. Otherwise, type your correspondent's e-mail address (see "Elm Directory Service" for information about Penn's e-mail directory service), then press the enter key. You can send a message to more than one person by entering multiple addresses; separate each address with a space.
Elm will next ask you to fill in the following items:
Subject: enter a one-line summary of your message
Copies to: enter the addresses of people who are to get a copy
If you do not want to send copies to anyone, simply press the enter key at the copies prompt. Elm will make the Pico text editor available.
Each character that you type is inserted under the cursor. Pico's lines are 80 characters long and text automatically moves to a new line when the 80th character is reached -- there is no need to enter a return at the end of a line.
>PICO 2.3-upenn-1.0 File: /tmp/snd.13053 [ Read 0 line ] ^G Get Help ^O WriteOut ^R Read File ^Y Prev Pg ^K Del Line ^C Cur Pos ^X Finish ^J Justify ^W Where is ^V Next Pg ^U UnDel Lin ^T To Spell
To enter editing or cursor movement commands (other than arrow keys) you must type in special control-key sequences. A caret, (^), is used to indicate the control-key. Thus, the CONTROL-q key combination is written as "^Q" and means that you hold down the control key while pressing the letter q. For a complete list of Pico commands see the "Pico command reference".
When you are finished composing your message, exit the Pico editor by typing "^X". Elm will ask what you want to do next.
And now: s
e)dit message, h)eaders, i)spell, !)shell, a)ttachment, s)end, or f)orget
Elm assumes you want to send the message and puts the "s" into the prompt for you automatically. Press the enter key to send the message. Alternatively, you may change the response by replacing the "s" with one of the following commands.
e return to Pico and continue editing the message
h modify the headers of the message (see below)
i check the spelling of a word (use ^D when finished)
! enter a UNIX shell command
a attach (upload) a formatted (MIME) document
(see "Advanced Topics")
f forget the message (i.e., do not send)
If you decide that you do not want to send the message, replace the "s" by typing an "f" at the "And now:" prompt; the message will be canceled.
The header edit screen is shown below. Enter the indicated letter from one of the header items to revise or add to your original header choices. For example, if you wanted to change the "To:" header, you would type a "t" at the choice prompt. The choice prompt would be replaced by a "To:" prompt and you could either change the name of the recipient or add additional recipients.
After you finish editing the header information, press the enter key at the choice prompt. Elm will re-display the prompt for sending a message. If you press enter again, Elm will send the message and return to the screen you were on when you initiated the mail message command.
Message Header Edit Screen T)o: smith (William Smith) C)c: B)cc: S)ubject: Need to set up meeting R)eply-to: A)ction: E)xpires: P)riority: Precede(n)ce I)n-reply-to: Choose header, u)ser defined header, d)omainize, !)shell, or {return}. Choice:
The user-defined header (u), domainize (d), and shell (!) choices provide you with additional capabilities. Typing " u" allows you to create your own header for a particular message. For example, you might want to add the header "Reply-Requested-By: 08/22/94" for a particular message you are sending. If you type d, Elm attempts to transform a non-Internet style address into the correct Internet format. The shell choice is selected by typing "!". This causes Elm to display the shell command prompt. At this point you are able to enter an operating system command -- normally only used by experienced UNIX users.
No subject - Continue with message? (y/n) n
Elm assumes you do not want to continue editing the message and so puts the "n" into the prompt for you automatically. Press the enter key to cancel the message.
Command: x
Abandon changes to mailbox? (y/n) n
and then type "y" at the abandon changes prompt.
Command: r
Elm will ask you if you want to include the original message in your reply.
Copy message? (y/n) n
If you press return at the copy message prompt, Elm will address the message, add a subject, wait for you to press enter to confirm the suggested subject, prompt you for copy recipients, and then invoke the Pico editor. If you answer "y" to this prompt, Elm will also place a copy of the message into your reply -- each line of the copied message will be prefixed by a greater-than sign (>).
After the Pico editor is invoked, the cursor is placed at the top of the screen. If you have included (copied) the text of the original message into your reply, you may need to move the cursor to an appropriate position before beginning your reply. The example below illustrates a reply that included the text of the original message:
The advantage of copying the original text into your reply is that you can respond "point-by-point" to someone's message.
> Can we get together to talk about institutional addresses > in the alumni/development database? Good idea. I'd like to discuss field definitions and data collection. > I'm free from 10-11 and 3-5. > -Bill Lets do it Tuesday at 10 am, in my office. Thanks -Dan
Command: g
Elm will prompt you exactly as it does for an individual reply (r); but copies of your reply will be sent to all recipients of the original message.
Tip: You may make additions and deletions to the original list of recipients after you finish editing the text of your message. Refer to "The header edit screen" section for more information.
Command: f
Elm responds by asking if you want to edit the message first. As with the reply command, if you chose to edit the forwarded message, Elm distinguishes the original text from your inserted text by adding the ">" symbol in front of each line of the original message. After you respond to the edit message prompt, Elm continues with its standard prompts for sending messages -- "Send the message to," "Subject of message," and "Copies to."
Command: d
Elm responds by placing a "D" in front of the current message. This marks the message for deletion.
After a message is marked for deletion it is ignored when you enter the standard commands for moving the highlighted cursor bar -- Elm simply skips over any messages marked for deletion. When you quit (q) your Elm session, Elm will delete all marked messages.
Mailbox is '/usr/spool/mail/jones' with 18 messages [ELM 2.4 PL23-upenn2.9] N 1 Aug 15 Dawn Clarke (29) New Elm version released! N 2 Aug 15 Jackie Smith (10) Truckload sale NU 3 Aug 14 Bob Pallone (22) Re: Elm question O 4 Aug 10 Noam Arzt (45) E-mail task force update 5 Aug 8 Alex Garthwaite (37) Re: MIME question NM 6 Aug 7 Peter Patton ( 9) ENIAC celebration 7 Aug 1 Lila Shapiro (15) Elm documentation >D 8 Jul 10 Kendall Whitehouse (12) Acrobat WIN config for Mosaic 9 Jul 9 crc@isc.upenn.edu (24) Re: Word 5.1 problem 10 Jul 9 Mail Postmaster ( 3) Message Delivery Report
Elm allows you to create any number of additional folders. For example, you might want to collect all mail from a particular person and store it in a folder named after him or her. Or, you may want to create a folder that stores all mail related to a particular subject.
Elm allows you to save a message to an existing folder. It also allows you to create new folders. Both can be accomplished using the save command or the copy command. The save command copies the message to the folder you specify and marks the original for deletion. The copy command copies the message to the folder but leaves the original in your mailbox.
Command: s
Save message to: ~/Mail/myers
Notice that Elm automatically suggests a folder name. The suggested name consists of an abbreviation for your mail directory (~/Mail/) and the user-ID of the person that sent you the message. You can erase Elm's suggested name if it doesn't appeal to you. However, unless you are an experienced Elm/UNIX user, please do not erase the "~/Mail/" part of the suggested name. If you accidentally delete the abbreviation, you can type it in again or you can use an even shorter notation for your mail directory -- the equal sign (=). Thus, it does not matter if you type "~/Mail/myers" or "=myers" since both refer to the same folder. Press the enter key to copy the message to the named folder. If the folder doesn't already exist, Elm will create it before saving the message.
You should note two things about the save command. First, saving the message to a folder also automatically marks it for removal from your incoming mailbox -- thus minimizing the amount of mail maintenance that you need to do manually. Second, upper and lowercase distinctions are important in folder names. Thus, if you create a folder called "=Projects" you must use the capital "P" when accessing the folder with the change folder (c) command.
Command: c
Change to which folder:
Enter the name of the folder that you want to access. For example, to access the folder containing copies of mail you've saved from "myers", type
Change to which folder: =myers <enter>
Notice that you preface the folder name with an equal sign (=) and you need to press the enter key after typing the name of the folder. Also notice that there is no space between the equal sign and the folder name. If you don't remember the names of the folders you have created, you can always get a list by entering an asterisk (*) at the prompt:
Change to which folder: * <enter>
Elm will respond with a listing similar to the sample shown below:
The folders listed below "Mail:" are Elm mail folders that you have created. You can access any of them by prefixing the folder name with an equal sign (=) as illustrated above. For help, type "?". To return to your incoming mailbox, type an exclamation mark (!) and then press the enter key.
Files which match '*' letter.wp image.gif ascii.txt program.bin Mail: dawn dsouza ellen elmStuff helen murphy pennprintout News: Change to which folder:
The aliases you create are local to your e-mail account. Other people cannot use the same alias, even if they are on the same host computer as you. To create an alias enter the alias (a) command at the command prompt.
At the alias prompt you can type any of the commands listed in the menu above. If you type the help (?) command Elm will prompt you either to enter the alias command that you want a brief description of, or to enter another "?" to get a descriptive list of all available help commands. A few of the commands available from the alias menu are described below.
Alias mode: 5 aliases [ELM 2.4 PL23-upenn2.9] 1 Thomas Angelon Person tom 2 Benjamin Contrary Person scooter 3 D. M. Steward Person stewy 4 Edward Tater Person taylo 5 office staff Group mygroup Alias commands: ?=help, {n}=set current to n, /=search pattern a)lias current message, c)hange, d)elete, e)dit aliases.text, f)ully expand, l)imit display, m)ail, n)ew alias, r)eturn, t)ag, u)ndelete, or e(x)it Alias:
Command: a
Alias: a
Elm will ask you to supply an alias for your correspondent. In the example below an alias is being created for Thomas Angelon, based on a message in the incoming mailbox that is from him:
Current message address aliased to: tom
Type in a short name (e.g., tom) that you want to use to refer to your correspondent. You may only type one word for the alias. If you want to use two or more words put an underline character (_) between each word. Elm will then ask you for the last name of the person you are aliasing:
Enter last name for tom: angelon
Press the enter key to use Elm's suggested last name or type in an alternative.
Now Elm will ask you to enter the first name. Press the enter key to accept the suggested first name or type in an alternative. Finally, you will be asked to enter an optional comment for the person. Elm will then display the alias, the address it assigned to the alias, and ask you to confirm the information.
Alias: Add address from current message... Accept new alias? (y/n) y
New alias: tom is "Tom Angelon".
Messages addressed as: angelon@wharton.upenn.edu (Thomas Angelon)
Entering "y" tells Elm to accept the new alias. Entering "n" will abort the adding of this alias. Elm then returns you to the alias prompt, where you can enter another alias command or type "x" to exit the alias function and return to the command prompt. When you type "x" Elm updates its alias list and returns you to the command prompt.
Command: a
Alias: n
Elm will ask you to enter an alias name. In the example below an alias is being created for Benjamin Contrary.
Enter alias name: scooter <enter>
Enter last name for scooter: contrary <enter>
Enter first name for scooter: benjamin <enter>
Enter optional comment for scooter: <enter>
Enter address for scooter: scooter@mscf.upenn.edu <enter>
At the final prompt you should carefully enter the full address for the person you are aliasing, including all special characters. Elm will then ask you to confirm your entry. Answering "y" will accept the alias and return you to the alias prompt. Answering "n" will abort creation of the alias and return you to the alias prompt.
Alias: n
Elm will then prompt you for the alias name. In this example, we'll create "mygroup" as the alias for an office staff distribution list:
Enter alias name: mygroup <enter>
Enter last name for mygroup: office staff <enter>
Enter first name for mygroup: <enter>
Enter optional comment for mygroup: <enter>
Enter address for mygroup: abe@pobox, sarah@pobox, izzy@pobox, jake@pobox
<enter>
Note that you need to type a comma between addresses. If you use more than one line as you type in the e-mail address for your group, then you should not press the enter key as you near the end of a line -- keep typing until you've finished entering all of the group's addresses and then press the enter key.
After pressing the enter key you will be asked to confirm the alias information that you entered. The alias "mygroup" can then be used in the To, and Cc fields when you create mail messages. Each person will receive a copy of any messages sent to the group.
Tip: There is an easy way to create group aliases from existing aliases that you have created. Simply move through your alias list and type the tag (t) command next to each entry that you want in your new group. The tag command will create a "+" sign next to each tagged entry (to remove a tag, type "t" again). When you have finished tagging aliases, type the new alias command (n). You will be asked if you want to create a group alias -- press the enter key to confirm that you do and then respond to the first three prompts detailed above. Elm will supply the e-mail addresses for the group.
To initiate a search, type the limit (l) command at the command prompt.
Command: l Here you should type the name of the header and the pattern. For example, you
might want to search all messages from a person named "Jones". In this case,
you would enter "from" as the header and "jones" as the pattern.
Enter criteria or "?" for help: from jones <enter>
If there are matches, Elm displays the results. All other message headers are
left out of the display while the limit function is in effect.
In the following example, the limit is set to all messages having the word
"budget" in the subject line. Note that the limit command ignores upper
and lowercase distinctions -- both "Budget" and "budget"
are included in matches.
You may further limit an already limited message queue display by typing the
limit (l) command a second time. Elm will inform you that limit
criteria are in effect and ask if you wish to add more restrictions to further
limit the display of messages.
Already have selection criteria - add more? (y/n)
If you enter "y", Elm will prompt you for the additional header and pattern to
use.
Command: l Elm will then re-display your full message queue.
To tag a message, first be sure that it is the current message. Then type the
tag (t) command at the command prompt.
Command: t
Elm will respond by placing a plus sign (+) next to the current
message. You can continue tagging other messages in this fashion. You can
"untag" a tagged message by typing a "t" again while it is the current message.
When you are ready to execute an operation on the tagged messages, simply
enter the command as you would normally. Elm will process all tagged messages
with the command you enter.
Command: ? Elm will display a list of all commands. (A similar listing has been included
in the "References" chapter.) Use the spacebar
key to scroll the listing. Type "q" to exit from the help function.
If you want help for a particular command without getting the entire listing,
enter the letter for the command at the help prompt. To exit the help
function, enter a period (.) at the help prompt.
As an example, let's say you want to send a message to "Arno Smith"
but do not know his address. If you initiate a message with the mail (m)
command Elm, will respond with a "Send the message to" prompt.
Type a question mark (?) and press the return key at this prompt --
the "Elm Directory Service" form will appear on your screen.
From this point, you may add additional selection criteria (see below) or tell
Elm to execute your search. To execute the search, type the greater-than (>)
symbol. Elm will then display all people in the database with the requested
last name -- as shown below.
You may initiate any command with a limited message queue (read, delete,
reply, etc.) that you ordinarily initiate with a full message queue.
Mailbox is '/usr/spool/mail/jones' with 15 shown out of 78 [ELM 2.4 upenn2.9]
11 Nov 11 George Christie (33) new version of budget available
15 Nov 12 Noam T. Jensen (45) Cancellation of budget training
19 Nov 19 William Smith (67) Re: Confirmation of budget
20 Nov 20 Noam T. Jensen (10) Re: Budget consulting (fwd)
36 Dec 1 Linda Green ( 7) Budget consulting
53 Dec 10 Linda Green ( 9) Budget support
55 Dec 13 Noam T. Jensen (35) Budget FY95
67 Dec 18 George Christie (22) Re: Budget FY95
70 Dec 20 Noam T. Jensen (60) New budget distribution
75 Dec 22 Ann Newburger ( 3) Question on Budget
Exiting the limit function
You can end the limited display at any time and return to the full display of
your message queue by typing the following sequence of commands:
Already have selection criteria - add more? (y/n) n
Enter criteria or "?" for help: all <enter>
Tagging messages for group actions
You may tag a number of messages in your mail queue and then process them all
together with one command. For example, if you want to save a number of
messages to a folder, you can first tag them and then execute the save command
just once. Elm will save the tagged messages in the specified folder. Tagging
cuts down on the amount of time and effort you need to spend with Elm
maintenance activities.
Accessing Help
You may get a listing of all available commands by typing the help (?)
command at the following two prompts:
Help for key: ?
Elm Directory Service
Elm can search "whois", Penn's e-mail directory database. To use the
address lookup feature from within Elm:
The second step is to place search criteria in the form. You may enter as much
(or as little) information as you desire. In this example, although we know
both first and last name, we will only use the last name as our search
criterion. To search using the last name, type "l" at the command prompt.
Elm will move the cursor up to the "L)ast name" field. Type "
smith" and then press the return key. (Please note that the whois database
fields are not case sensitive.)
- ELM Directory Service -
F)irst name :
M)iddle name :
L)ast name :
D)epartment :
E)mail address :
Select first letter of query field, '>' to query, 'c' to clear query fields
or 'r' to return to the prompt.
Command:
In this example there are 64 matches in the database. Use the cursor movement
keys (or the index number to the left of the names in the list) to move
through the listing (note only a few entries are shown at a time) to the third
entry. With Arno Smith's name highlighted, press return. You will then be back
at the "Send the message to" prompt but the address of Arno Smith
"smith@pobox.upenn.edu" -- will be placed after the prompt.
Press the return key to tell Elm to accept the address and continue with your
message.
- ELM Directory Service -
F)irst name :
M)iddle name :
L)ast name : smith
D)epartment :
E)mail address :
------------------------------------------------------------
64 addresses found.
1 Amelia T Smith smith@MSCF.MED.UPENN.EDU
2 Angela Marie Smith asmith@A1.BENHUR.UPENN.EDU
3 Arno Smith smith@POBOX.UPENN.EDU
4 David M Smith barbersmith@A1.BENHUR.UPENN.EDU
5 Doerte R Smith smithd@A1.MSCF.UPENN.EDU
Select a)lias selection, c)lear tags, m)ore info on address, t)ag address,
r)eturn to the prompt, or press {return} to select the address(es).
Command:
Search criteria
You may search the whois database using any combination of fields listed in
the directory form: first name, middle name, last name, department, and/or e-
mail address. In the above example, we used only the last name to find Arno
Smith -- but this resulted in 64 matches. To narrow your search you can also
place the first name in the form (by typing "f") before executing your
search. In addition, you can broaden your search. If you don't know whether the
proper spelling is Smith or Smythe, just enter 'sm' into the last name field and
then execute the search.
Other options
Once you have found an address you may simply select it for insertion in an
address field, or you may use one of the other options listed at the bottom of
the directory screen. These include: