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.PH ""
\"
\"  A guide to the configuration of the Elm mail system
\"  format with 'troff -mm Config.guide > Config.format'
\"  or something similar.
\"  (C) Copyright 1986 Dave Taylor
\"
\"  Last modification: January 19th, 1987
\"
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\fBElm Configuration Guide\fR
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\fIHow to install and customize the Elm mail system\fR
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Dave Taylor
.sp
Hewlett-Packard Laboratories
1501 Page Mill Road
Palo Alto CA
94304
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email: taylor@hplabs.HPL.HP.COM or hplabs!taylor
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\fB\(co\fR\s12 Copyright 1986,1987 by Dave Taylor
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.SK
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\fBElm Configuration Guide\fR
.PH "'Elm Configuration Guide''version 1.5'
.PF "''Page \\\\nP''"
.nr P 1
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(version 1.5)
.sp 2
Dave Taylor
.sp
Hewlett-Packard Laboratories
1501 Page Mill Road
Palo Alto CA
94304
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email: taylor@hplabs.HPL.HP.COM or hplabs!taylor
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\*(DT
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.P
This document is intended as a supplement to the \fIElm Users Guide\fR
and is only of interest to those people at a site either installing
or maintaining the source code to the \fBElm\fR mail system.
.sp 2
.P
It's \fIhighly\fR recommended that installation be done by using the
\fIConfigure.sh\fR script supplied with the system.  Please see the
file \fIInstructions\fR for further information.
.sp 2
The remainder of this document will discuss the 
options available via direct editing of various files and
parameters.  As indicated above, 99.9% of the sites that install
\fBElm\fR should find the \fIConfigure.sh\fR script sufficient.
.sp 2
.P
The first thing that needs to be decided when you're ready to install
the program is what sort of operating system you're running on...
currently the choices are;
.VL 14 3
.LI "System V"
This is the default configuration, and should work on all Bell 
System V Unix
.FS ' '
.br
Unix is a Trademark of AT&T Bell Laboratories.
.br
HP-UX and Spectrum are Trademarks of Hewlett-Packard Company.
.br
UTS is a Trademark of Amdahl Corporation.
.FE
systems, including HP-UX (and the \fISpectrum\fR series!) or 
simulations thereof.
.LI "BSD"
This is for the Berkeley breed of Unix.
.LI "UTS"
This is for the Amdahl version of Unix.
.LI "SUN"
This is for the Sun workstations (This is a superset of the BSD
definition as the Sun appears to have some major crises when it
is asked to perform string functions and handed \fInull\fR addresses,
as opposed to a \fIpointer\fR to a \fInull\fR...)
.LI "PYRAMID"
This is for the Pyramid 90x machines (This is the same as the
BSD definition)
.LE
.sp
Once you've decided which is appropriate, edit the Makefile file
in the top level directory and alter the "DEFINE" there (about
line 33 or so) accordingly.  (Note: also use the associated
"LIB2" define that's associated with each of the systems to ensure
that the program uses the correct libraries when linking together!)
.sp
An analogous change should be made in the Makefile in 'src' and 'utils'
too if you're planning on actually working on the programs rather than
just installing them...
.sp
While you're at it, if you happen to be running \fIACSNET\fR, then
you need to add the relevent define in the main Makefile and the
Makefile in directory `src' too!
.sp 2
Once that's done, all of the other installation dependent definitions
are contained in the file \fIhdrs/sysdefs.h\fR and are;
.sp
.VL 15 0
.LI "USE_EMBEDDED_ADDRESSES"
This controls the mailers response to messages that contain 
"Reply-To:" or "From:" lines that actually contain a return
address.  If it's defined, the mailer will attempt to use
the address specified (overriding the return address built from the path that
the mail took).  It will look the address up in the pathalias
database (see the documentation on the alias system) for 
incomplete paths, but it is still recommended that this be left
undefined.  
.P
This will, of course, make the mailer not be a standard 'RFC-822' 
mailer, since the mail system is defined to use the reply-to
if included rather than the return address, but, at least for
addresses on the Internet, it ain't going to work a lot of the time!
.LI "FIND_DELTA"
This is the delta that the binary search of the pathalias database
will use to determine when it's slicing up a single line, rather than
a multitude of lines.   Ideally, this should be set to 1 byte less
than the shortest line in the file...the default is 10 bytes.
.LI MAX_SALIASES        
The number of system aliases allowed.  (It is recommended that
this be a prime number to improve the performance of the 
hashing function (it's a complicated proof!))
.LI MAX_UALIASES
The number of user aliases allowed.  (should be a prime number -
see the comment above)
.LI MAX_IN_WEEDLIST 
The maximum number of headers that can be specified in the weedout
list of the .elmrc file.  A suggested alternative approach if this
number is too small is to specify initial substrings in the file
rather than increasing the number.  For example, say you want to 
weedout the headers "Latitude:" and "Latitudinal-Coords:", you
could simply specify "Latitud" and match them both!  Furthermore
you could also specify headers like "X-" and remove all the user
defined headers!
.LI MAX_HOPS
When replying to a G)roup, this is the maximum number of hops that
a message can have taken.  This is used to try to optimize the 
return address (remove cyclic loops and so on) and regular use
should show that the default of 35 is plenty more than you'll
ever need!
.LI MAX_ATTEMPTS
When reading in the default mailbox (\fI/usr/mail/$username\fR) the mailer
creates a file called \fI/usr/mail/$username.lock\fR to ensure that no
mail is added to the file while it's being either read, or replaced
(ie written to).  Occasionally, this lock file will already be in
place since someone is currently sending you mail.  If this occurs,
the mailer will wait a few seconds and try to create the lock file
again.  This parameter defines the number of tries the mailer should
take before giving up.
.LI REMOVE_AT_LAST
When it does decide to give up after trying to create the lock file,
(see MAX_ATTEMPTS, above) this will define how to act.  If it's 
defined, the mailer will attempt to remove the lock file after the
MAX_ATTEMPTS timeout.  On the other hand, if it's not defined (the
recommended state) it'll simply quit the mailer, telling the user
to try again in a few minutes.
.LI DEFAULT_BATCH_SUBJECT
What the subject should be on messages that are from redirected input
but don't have a subject specified...
.LI NOCHECK_VALIDNAME
This disables the checking of validnames on the existing machine.
On machines that run a system such as \fIsendmail\fR and use the
sendmail alias feature, this should be defined.  On other systems
this should be left as the default (not defined) to avoid users
generating \fIdead.letter\fR files...
.LI NO_VM
This disables the calls to "vfork()" and replaces them will calls
to "fork()".  On machines where vfork() is available, this should
be left undefined, as the virtual call is considerably faster (and
is only used when the spawned process doesn't need ALL the stuff
from the calling process!)
.LI ALLOW_BCC
If you are running a mail transport agent that can properly deal 
with the "Bcc" header in messages, you should define this variable.
Otherwise you'll end up with strange stuff like people \fIknowing\fR
who got "bcc"s of their mail...
.LI LOOK_CLOSE_AFTER_SEARCH
Some systems are set up in such a way as to have direct connections
to machines, but to have multi-machine hops be preferable for
routing messages to/through that machine (an example is a connection
to "nbires" for the monthly mod.map information, but only connected
to once a month!).  If this option is defined, then the system will
try to find a suitable path to the machine \fIbefore\fR it checks
against the \fIL.sys/uuname\fR list of systems that it can connect to.
.LI USE_UUNAME
The mailer tries to get the list of machines that's its connected
to by looking in the \fIL.sys\fR file.  If it fails usually, it will
then try to do a \fIuuname\fR command and then read the output of
that command.  If this is defined, however, it will skip the \fIL.sys\fR
reading and immediately try the \fIuuname\fR call.
.LI DONT_OPTIMIZE_RETURN
When saving the return address of a current message, the program will
attempt to store the minimum possible path.  Oftentimes, however, this
isn't the ideal behaviour.  If you don't want the program to do this,
then you should define this.
.LI DONT_TOUCH_ADDRESSES
With the slow entrance of various delivery agents that can dynamically
route things it becomes important that the mailer \fInot\fR touch 
addresses as entered by the user.  If this is the case at your
site (for example, if you're running \fIsmail\fR and \fIsendmail\fR as
a package) then you need to define this.
.LI AUTO_BACKGROUND
If this is defined then the \fInewmail\fR program automatically puts 
itself into background as soon as it's invoked.  Otherwise, the
user needs to have a trailing ampersand (as in \fBnewmail &\fR) to
get the same functionality.  (it seems reasonable to assume that
no-one would ever run the utility as a \fIforeground\fR process!!!)
.LI DONT_ADD_FROM
Some mail systems (like my own) add From: lines that are
actually different than the "default".  That is, the machine
I send mail from is "hpldat" so my From: line would normally
be "hpldat!taylor" but it should actually be "taylor@hplabs".
My sendmail will add this correctly, so this allows \fBElm\fR
to defer the addition until then.  This should only be used
if your system is running sendmail in such a way that it will
add this header as needed ONLY!
.LI INTERNET_ADDRESS_FORMAT
For systems that prefer the Internet addressing notation in the 
From: line, defining this will force that.  The default is
to use Usenet notation (\fIhostname!username\fR) - this will change
it to Internet notation (\fIusername@hostname\fR).
.LI PREFER_UUCP
On some mail systems, the local host automatically appends their
identification \fIin Internet format\fR to the addresses you
receive (e.g. ``ihnp4!snsvax!joe@hplabs.HP.COM'' is an address
form I see, being directly connection to HPLABS, all too often).
This will simple ensure that when displaying the return address 
of the message it will ignore the Internet part if there's also 
a UUCP part.  (This is a kludge.  One should never have to 
deal with this in a mail system... *sigh*)
.LI BOGUS_INTERNET
After some serious thought, I came to the conclusion that the
easiest way to deal with the dumb configuration here is to 
simply strip off the local address part entirely whenever 
possible.  Hence, this field defines the local address that
is added to the message addresses needlessly.  This is probably
the single worst solution imaginable, but it works...
.LI USE_DOMAIN
Define if you want to have the \fIDOMAIN\fR field added to the
\fIhostname\fR in the From: field on outbound mail (note that this
only makes sense on Internet mail...)
.LI DOMAIN
If you choose to have the USE_DOMAIN define set, you
\fIMUST DEFINE THIS ACCORDINGLY!!!\fR
A typical entry would be;
.DS
#define DOMAINS        ".HP.COM"
.DE
.LI SAVE_GROUP_MAILBOX_ID
If you're running the mailer set group id (usually "setgid mail") then
this'll ensure that the users mailbox, when altered, will always retain
its group id (obtained by the "getegid()" call, for those gurus out
there who care).  
.LI ENABLE_CALENDAR"
If you want to have users able to scan their mail for calendar entries
(see the \fIElm Reference Guide\fR) then define this and the following
too.  (There is no reason not to have this, but power corrupts, right?)
.LI "dflt_calendar_file"
The name of the default "calendar" file if the user doesn't specify
one in their \fI.elmrc\fR file.
.LI NOTES_HEADER
This defines the first "word" of the line that a \fInotes\fR file entry
would contain.
.LI NOTES_FOOTER
This defines the footer line (in it's entirety).
.LI system_hash_file
This is the file that contains the hashed version of the system 
aliases.  It is also used in the \fInewalias\fR command.  (note that
it is defined differently if you're running on a Berkeley system)
.LI system_data_file
This is the other file the \fInewalias\fR command installs in the system
alias area.  (Note this is defined differently if you're runnnig
a bsd system)
.LI pathfile
This defines the location of the pathalias datafile.  This file is in
the format that \fIpathalias\fR generates, that is;
.nf
   
    machine <tab> address

.fi
For further information, please see the \fIElm Alias System\fR documentation.
.LI domains
This defines the location of the the domains database file.  The format
for this file and so on are fully discussed in the \fIElm Alias System\fR
document.
.LI Lsys
This defines where the system \fIL.sys\fR file is kept.  This is used for the
mailer to quickly know what machines the current machine can talk to
directly (to avoid trying to search the pathalias database to route mail
to these machines).  
.LI DEBUG
The name of the file to put in the users home directory if they choose to
use the `-d' debug option. 
.LI temp_file
Temporary file for sending outbound messages.
.LI temp_mbox
Place to keep copy of incoming mailbox to avoid collisions with newer
mail.
.LI temp_print 
File to use when creating a printout of a message.
.LI mailtime_file
File to compare date to to determine if a given message is New
since the last time the mail was read or not.
.LI readmsg_file
File to use when communicating with the \fIreadmsg\fR program (see
that program for more information)
.LI signature_file
The name of the file to search for in the users home directory
if they have \fIsignature\fR enabled in their \fI.elmrc\fR file.
.LI default_editor
If no editor is specified in the users .elmrc file, this is which
editor to use.  \s12 Ensure it is a valid editor on this machine!!\s10
(Note that the default home for \fIvi\fR is different on BSD machines)
.LI mailhome
Where all the incoming mailboxes are, and also where the 'lock'
files have to be put for the mailer to know not to add new
mail while we're reading/writing the mailfile.
(note that mail is kept in a different directory on Berkeley 
systems)
.LI default_pager
This is the standard pager to use for reading messages.
.LI sendmail
Defines where \fIsendmail\fR is (if you have it on your system).
.LI smflags 
Defines the flags to hand to \fIsendmail\fR if and when the program
chooses to use it.
.LI mailer
If you don't have \fIsendmail\fR, this is the mailer that'll be used.
.LI mailx
If all else fails, this mailer can be used in a rather dumb way.
.LI helphome
Where the help file is kept (soon to be help files!)
.LI helpfile
The name of the main helpfile (kept in \fIhelphome\fR).
.LI elmrcfile
The name of the automatic control file (currently \fI.elmrc\fR)
.LI mailheaders 
The name of the optional file that users may have that will be
included in the headers of each outbound message.
.LI unedited_mail
In the strange case when the mailer suddenly finds all the directories
it uses shut off (like \fI/usr/mail\fR and \fI/tmp\fR) 
then it'll put the current
mailbox into this file in the users home directory.
.LI newalias
How to install new aliases..(note: you MUST have the '-q' flag!)
.LI remove
How to remove a file.
.LI cat
How to display a file to stdout.
.LI uuname
How to get a \fIuuname\fR listing (ie a listing of the machines that this
machine connects to)
.LE
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