ISHMAIL(1) ISHMAIL(1)
Electronic Mail Electronic Mail
25 October 1994
Name
ishmail - Information SuperHighway Mail
Synopsis
ishmail [standard_X11_flags] [name1 [name2 . . . nameN]] [ & ]
Description
Ishmail is a graphical user interface (GUI) to the sendmail mail
delivery subsystem. You can use Ishmail to receive, read, compose, and
organize electronic mail messages containing standard 7-bit ASCII text
information, as well as the specially formatted information provided
by MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension), including Rich Text,
audio, video, image (facsimile) and application information.
Ishmail has three primary window interfaces, the Main Window, the
Composition Window, and the Reading Window. Each window contains
pull-down, tear-off, and cascading menus from which you select options
that perform various command functions in the window.
The Main Window is displayed upon startup. From the Main Window, you
choose options to manage your mail folders and files, read and compose
mail messages, reply to, forward, and resend messages, and customize
your mail environment.
Interacting with mail objects in the Main Window is simple and
intuitive. In general, you select an object or multiple objects (mail
folder, mail message, alias name, and so forth), then select a command
from one of the menus to perform some action on the selected object.
The Composition Window is displayed when you select the compose,
reply, forward, or resend command from the Main Window or from a
Reading Window. The Composition Window menus contain options for
specifying an alternate editor, previewing the formatted output of
messages containing Rich Text attributes, and including and attaching
external files to messages. You can have multiple Composition Windows
open simultaneously.
The Reading Window is displayed when you select the read command from
the Main Window. The Reading Window menus contain options for reading
the next or previous message, saving a message, printing a message,
deleting a message, and other functions. While in the Reading Window,
you can also display and print MIME-encoded inclusions and attachments
via external viewing and printing software that Ishmail launches when
you select a MIME-encoded body part. You can "pin" multiple Reading
Windows to the screen.
Each of Ishmail's primary windows contains an Options menu in which
you specify parameters for customizing the "look and feel" of the
particular window. Customization options include changing display
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ISHMAIL(1) ISHMAIL(1)
Electronic Mail Electronic Mail
25 October 1994
fonts and font sizes, adding shortcut buttons for commonly performed
functions, specifying sort parameters, word-wrap, and so forth.
Folder Formats
Ishmail supports two basic types of mail folder formats. One is the
unix-mail format, common to programs such as mailx, elm, etc. The
other is mh format, common to programs such as mh, xmh, and exmh. You
can read, create, and append to folder formats of either type.
Flags
Ishmail accepts the standard X client command line arguments. Warning
messages are displayed on the command line if unrecognized option
flags are used.
X client option flags
The standard X client option flags as described in Using
Command-line Options in the X User's Guide. (See also X
User's Reference for additional information about X command
line options.)
name1, name2 ... nameN
The names of the mail folders you wish to open during
Ishmail startup. These names are relative to the directory
in which the command is being run. To make Ishmail look for
them in your folder directory, add `+' or `=' before the
name.
When the program starts, these folders and the default In-
box, or "system folder," are opened and presented in
Ishmail's main window.
& The standard flag to the UNIX shell indicating that the
program should run in the background.
Caution: Ishmail catches and ignores all signals, except
SIGKILL(9) and SIGTERM(15). If a SIGTERM is caught the
program attempts to clean up and exit gracefully. If a
SIGKILL is caught the program exits immediately, potentially
leaving lock files around and losing un-saved changes to
mail folders. SIGKILL should be used only as a last resort
for termination.
Files
The mailcap file in the lib subdirectory of where the program is
installed contains specifications for handling creation, display, and
printing of various MIME data types.
Users can override the system mailcap file by creating a .mailcap file
in their home directory.
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ISHMAIL(1) ISHMAIL(1)
Electronic Mail Electronic Mail
25 October 1994
See Also
X11(7), sendmail(8), mail(1)
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