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                     The  Rand  MH  Message  Handling  System:



                                   The  UCI  BBoards  Facility


                                           Marshall T. Rosey

                                  Wed May 21 21:03:57 PDT 1986



                                                Abstract


               This document discusses how to process BBoards using the

               Rand MH system.  In particular, this guide discusses:  check-

               ing  the  status  of  a  BBoard,  viewing  new  messages,  archive

               handling, composing mail destined for a BBoard, and reply-

               ing to a message posted to a BBoard.


                      Although this document is based on the standard MH

               user manual[MH], this document is meant to supplement, not

               supersede, that lengthier work.


                      Comments concerning this documentation should be ad-

               dressed to the Internet mailbox Bug-MH@ICS.UCI.EDU.



_____________________________________
y Computer Mail: MRose@NRTC.NORTHROP.COM.
\f



                     The  Rand  MH  Message  Handling  System:



                                   The  UCI  BBoards  Facility



Acknowledgements

        The MH system described herein is based on the original Rand MH system.

It has been extensively developed (perhaps too much so) by Marshall Rose and

John Romine at the University of California, Irvine.  Einar Stefferud, Jerry Sweet,

and Terry Domae provided numerous suggestions to improve the UCI version of

MH.


        In  particular,  the  UCI  BBoards  facility,  which  was  suggested  by  Einar

Stefferud, has been in place at the University of California, Irvine (in one form or

another) for the last two and one-half years.  The UCI BBoards facilities runs under

both MMDF and SendMail, and, in a more restricted form, under stand-alone MH.



Disclaimer

        The Regents of the University of California wish to make it known that:



       "Although each program has been tested by its contributor, no warranty, express or
        implied, is made by the contributor or the University of California, as to the accuracy
        and functioning of the program and related program material, nor shall the fact of
        distribution constitute any such warranty, and no responsibility is assumed by the
        contributor or the University of California in connection herewith."



Scope

        This  document  explains  how  to  use  the  UCI  BBoards  facility  to  a  user

familiar with MH and the UNIX1  operating system in general.  A large degree of

expertise is not assumed.  This document does not attempt to introduce MH to the

novice user (for that task, consult the MH tutorial known as [MH.TUT]). Additional

information on the programs discussed here (particularly bbc) is to be found in

[MH].



_____________________________________
1  UNIX is a trademark of AT&T Bell Laboratories.



                                                       1
\f

                                                                                                              2


Conventions

        In this document, certain TEX-formatting conventions are adhered to:


           1.  The  names  of  UNIX  commands,  such  as  comp,  are  presented  in  text

               italics.


           2.  Arguments to programs, such as `msgs'    , are presented in typewriter

               style and delimited by single-quotes.


           3.  UNIX pathnames and envariables, such as /usr/uci/     and $ SIGNATURE         ,

               are presented in slanted roman.


           4.  Text presenting an example, such as


                   comp -editor zz


               is presented in typewriter  style.



Introduction

        MH is a very powerful message handling system that runs under the UNIX

operating system.  One of the many features which MH offers is an interface to

the UCI BBoards facility.  This facility permits the efficient distribution of interest

group messages on a single host, a group of hosts under a single administration,

and the ARPA Internet community.


        Described simply, a interest group is composed of a number of subscribers

with a common interest.  These subscribers post mail to a single address, known

as a distribution address.  From this distribution address, a copy of the message

is sent to each subscriber.  Each group has a moderator, which is the person that

runs the the group.  This moderator can usually be reached at a special address,

known as a request address.  Usually, the responsibilities of the moderator are quite

simple, since the mail system handles the distribution to subscribers automatically.

In  some  cases,  the  interest  group,  instead  of  being  distributed  directly  to  its

subscribers,  is put into a digest format by the moderator and then sent to the

subscribers.  Although this requires more work on the part of the moderator, such

groups tend to be better organized.


        Unfortunately,  there  are  a  few  problems  with  the  scheme  outlined  above.

First, if two users on the same host subscribe to the same interest group, two copies

of the message get delivered.  This is wasteful of both processor and disk resources.


        Second,  some of these groups carry a lot of traffic.  Although subscription

to an group does indicate interest on the part of a subscriber,  it is usually not

interesting to get 50 messages or so delivered to the user's private maildrop each

day, interspersed with personal mail, that is likely to be of a much more important

and timely nature.
\f

                                                                                                              3


        Third,  if  a  subscriber  on  the  distribution  list  for  a  group  becomes  "bad"

somehow,  the originator of the message and not the moderator of the group is

notified.  It  is  not  uncommon  for  a  large  list  to  have  10  or  so  bogus  addresses

present.  This results in the originator being flooded with "error messages" from

mailers across the ARPA Internet stating that a given address on the list was bad.

Needless to say, the originator usually could not care less if the bogus addresses

got a copy of the message or not.  The originator is merely interested in posting a

message to the group at large.  Furthermore, the moderator of the group does care

if there are bogus addresses on the list, but ironically does not receive notification.


        To solve all of these problems, the UCI BBoards facility introduces a new

entity into the picture:  all interest group mail is handled by a special component of

the mail system.  The distribution address maps to a special channel that performs

several  actions.  First,  if  local  delivery  is  to  be  performed,  then  a  copy  of  the

message is placed in a global maildrop for the interest group with a timestamp

and a unique number.  Local users can read messages posted for the interest group

by  reading  the  file.   Second,  if  further  distribution  is  to  take  place,  a  copy  of

the message is sent to the distribution address in such a way that if any of the

addresses are bogus, the failure notice is sent to the maintainer of the group and

not the originator.


        This scheme has several advantages:  First,  messages delivered to the host

are  processed  and  saved  once  in  a  globally  accessible  area.  The  UCI  BBoards

facility  supports  software  which  allows  a  user  to  query  the  interest  group  for

new messages and to read those messages in the MH-style.  Second, once a host

subscribes to an interest group, a user can add or remove him/herself from the list

without contacting the moderator.  Third, a hierarchical distribution scheme can

be constructed to further reduce the amount of message traffic.  Fourth, errors are

prevented from propagating.  When an address on the distribution list goes bad,

the request address immediately responsible for the address is notified.  Usually,

this is the local PostMaster and not the group moderator.


        In addition to solving the problems outlined above, the UCI BBoards facility

supports several other capabilities.  BBoards may be automatically archived in

order to conserve disk space and reduce processing time when reading them.


        Special  alias  files  may  be  generated  which  allow  the  MH  user  to  shorten

address  type-in.  For  example,  instead  of  sending  to  ``SF-Lovers@Rutgers''            ,

a  user  of  MH  usually  sends  to  ``SF-Lovers''         and  the  MH  aliasing  facility

automatically  makes  the  appropriate  expansion  in  the  headers  of  the  outgoing

message.  Hence,  one need only know the name of a interest group and not its

address.
\f

                                                                                                              4


        Finally, the UCI BBoards facility supports private interest groups using the

UNIX  group  access  mechanism.  This  allows  a  group  of  people  on  the  same  or

different machines to conduct a private discussion.


        The practical upshot of all this is that the UCI BBoards facility automates the

vast majority of BBoards handling from the point of view of both the PostMaster

and the user.



BBoard Handling

        Usually the term BBoard is used interchangeably with the terms discussion

group and interest group.  This is true of the discussion that follows.


        The messages for a BBoard delivered locally are kept in the same format as a

maildrop.2  Unlike the user's private maildrop however, the inc program is not run

to incorporate new BBoard messages into the user's MH ``+inbox''        folder.  The

programs which are used will be discussed momentarily.


        Each message in a BBoard maildrop has a unique number and a timestamp.

The  number,  called  the  BBoard-ID,  is  always  ascending.  The  BBoard-ID  of  a

message should NOT be confused with the message number of a message, which

can change as messages are removed from the BBoard.  The BBoard-ID is a value

which is unique for every message delivered locally to the BBoard.


        To read BBoards,  the MH user invokes bbc.  The bbc program has several

switches to direct it's action.  The `-topics'       switch to bbc tells the MH user about

the status of a BBoard.  The `-check'      switch to bbc lets the MH user check on the

activity of a BBoard.  The `-read'      switch to bbc invokes the msh program on the

BBoard.  msh is a monolithic program which contains most of the functionality of

MH in a single program.  These commands are now discussed in greater detail.


BBoard status

        The `-topics'       option to the bbc program can be used to report information

about a BBoard that does not pertain to the user's reading habits.  If the MH users

types


           bbc -topics


then bbc will list the following information for all BBoards received on the host:


            -  the official name of the BBoard


            -  the number of messages delivered to the BBoard (but not necessarily

               present)


_____________________________________
2  Actually, your site might be running with all BBoards kept on a single host.  MH supports the

remote access of BBoards using a modified version of the ARPA Post Office Protocol (POP). This
has the advantage that it saves a lot of disk space, and incurs only a modest performance penalty.
\f

                                                                                                              5


            -  the date and time of the last message delivered to the BBoard



In addition to `-topics'      ,  if the `-verbose'        option is given to bbc,  then more

information is listed:


            -  any aliases the BBoard is known as


            -  the local leaders of the BBoard


            -  the file that the BBoard is locally delivered to


            -  the "global" distribution address


            -  the "global" request address


            -  the host that distributes the BBoard to the local host


            -  the addresses to which this host distributes


            -  miscellaneous information (presently only archiving status)



Naturally, bbc can be invoked with the `-topics'       option and one or more BBoard

names listed on its command line.  For example


           bbc -topics unix-wizards


is  completely  acceptable  _  it  tells  bbc  to  report  the  status  of  the  BBoard

``unix-wizards''          .


BBoard checking

        The `-check'      option to the bbc program can be used to check for new BBoard

messages in a synchronous fashion (i.e., when you specifically ask for it).  The MH

users types


           bbc -check


and bbc consults the profile entry for ``bboards:''         in the user's .mh_profile     file.

For each BBoard listed, bbc prints one of several messages depending on the status

of both the BBoard and the user's reading habits (for example, in the case of the

mythical BBoard ``foo''     ):


           1.  ``foo  --  n  items  unseen''

               This message indicates items in the BBoard have not been seen by the

               user.  When bbc is invoked with the ``quiet''       switch, this is the only

               informative message that bbc will print out.  Users of MH usually put


                   bbc -check -quiet


               in their $ HOME/.login        file.
\f

                                                                                                              6


           2.  ``foo  --  empty''

               The BBoard is empty.


           3.  ``foo  --  n  items  (none  seen)''

               The BBoard has n items in it, but the user hasn't seen any.


           4.  ``foo  --  n  items  (all  seen)''

               The BBoard is non-empty, and the user has seen everything in it.


           5.  ``foo  --  n  items  seen  out  of  m''

               The BBoard has at most m  n items that the user has not seen.



It is important to note that bbc performs its calculations on BBoard-ID:s and not

the messages actually present in a BBoard.  This means that the numbers given by

bbc are maximal end-points.  When bbc says n, bbc means "at most n".


        Naturally,  bbc can be invoked with the `-check'       option and one or more

BBoards listed on its command line.  For example


           bbc -check info-c poli-sci


is completely acceptable _ it tells bbc to check on the BBoards ``info-c''        and

``poli-sci''         only.


        There are two ways to check for new BBoard messages in an asynchronous

fashion:  using the CShell variable $ mail   and running the useto program.


Asynchronous Checking with the CShell

        The CShell has a variable called $ mail  .  This variable can contain one or more

words.  Each word should be a filename where the shell should check for new mail.

The check is performed after a specified time interval has elapsed just before the

shell would prompt the user.


        If the first word of $ mail   is a number, then this number specifies a different

checking interval, in seconds, than the default, which is 10 minutes.


        Whenever the time interval elapses and the shell is ready to prompt the user,

the shell looks at the file and decides if new messages have arrived.  If so, it says


           You  have  new  mail.


if only one file is present in $ mail  .  Otherwise, if more than one file is present in

$ mail  , then the shell says


           New  mail  in  foo.


whenever there is new mail in the file called ``foo''     .
\f

                                                                                                              7


        To find out what file is associated with a BBoard, say ``info-unix''        , the

MH user types


           bbc -topics -verbose info-unix


Usually the local file for a BBoard has an extension of .mbox   .


Asynchronous Checking with Useto

        In  contrast  to  using  the  $mail   variable  in  the  CShell,  the  MH  user  might

employ useto instead.3   The useto program is a continuous update display that

prints  information  on  the  status  line  of  your  terminal.   Needless  to  say,  your

terminal must support a status line in order to run useto.  Not all terminals have

this capability, but for those that do it's usually well worth the effort to run useto.


        For example, users of MH could put


           useto -bepf tcp-ip sftp % D % M % d % h:% m% z% b % n.tty% t:% l1


in their $ HOME/.login        file.  This command line to useto says to inform the user of


            -  the current date and time


            -  new mail for the user


            -  new messages for the BBoards ``tcp-ip''       and ``sftp''


            -  the name of the host and tty that the user is logged in on


            -  the 5-minute load average of that host


        The useto program is really quite amusing and useful.4


BBoard reading

        If bbc is not given either the `-check'      or `-topics'       option, the bbc program

reads BBoard messages.  For each BBoard listed in the MH user's profile entry for

``bboards:''        , bbc checks to see if there is unread mail.  If so, bbc starts msh on

the BBoard, telling msh which messages haven't been seen.5


        When msh starts it identifies the BBoard being read and indicates how many

messages are present and how many the user has read.  Usually, in the user's MH

profile, the user has the entry


           msh: -scan



_____________________________________
3  Not all sites have useto; contact the same people who supplied MH to get a copy.
4  To  be  honest,  the  author  considers  computing  environments  without  useto  to  be  less  than

adequate.
5  If the `-verbose'     option is given to bbc, then bbc will start msh on the BBoard regardless of

whether there are unseen messages there.
\f

                                                                                                                         8


           This says that when msh starts, it should print a scan listing of the messages which

           the user hasn't seen yet.


                   The msh program now prompts the user for MH commands.  The user may

           type most of the normal MH command.  The syntax and semantics of the commands

           typed to msh are identical to their MH counterparts.  For example,  to reply to

           a  message  on  the  BBoard,  the  MH  user  types  ``repl''    ;  other  MH  commands

           likewise may be applied to BBoard messages.  In cases where the nature of msh

           would be inconsistent (e.g., specifying a `+folder'       with some commands), msh

           will duly inform the user.  In addition to supporting most MH commands, msh also

           has a ``help''      command which gives a brief overview.


                   The only command that behaves entirely differently in msh is the ``mark''

           command  when  given  no  arguments.   The  msh  program  maintains  a  special

           sequence, ``unseen''      , which it uses to keep track of the messages you've seen.  If

           the ``mark''      command is given without any arguments, then msh will interpret it

           as


                      mark -sequence unseen -delete -nozero all


           Hence, to discard all of the messages in the current BBoard being read, the MH

           user  types  ``mark''      which  says  to  remove  all  messages  from  sequence  called

           ``unseen''       .


                   To leave msh use the ``quit''      command.  This tells msh to terminate and

           bbc to go to the next BBoard.  Instead, if the user types EOT (usually CTRL-D),

           then bbc will exit as well, updating whatever information was appropriate.



           Current BBoards

                   There are many,  many active interest groups.  Consult the BBoard called

           ``list-of-lists''            for a comprehensive description.  Here are a few of the more

           popular:


               system     Important announcements for the local system are posted here.


            mh-users      A discussion group for users of MH.


arpanet-bboards           Redistribution address for all known BBoards on the ARPAnet.


   editor-people          Discussion  of  topics  related  to  computerized  text  editing,  display

                          editors, and human factors in man/machine interaction.  The theoretical

                          discussion is catholic, but practical discussion focuses particularly on

                          Tops206  and UNIX.


   franz-friends          Discusses the Franz Lisp language.


           _____________________________________
           6  Tops20 is a trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation.
\f

                                                                                                                      9


header-people          Interest specifically in the format of message headers and related issues

                       such as inter-network mail formats/standards, etc.


     human-nets        Human-Nets  has  discussed  many  topics,  all  of  them  related  in  some

                       way to the theme of a world-wide computer and telecommunications

                       network usually called WorldNet.  The topics have ranged very widely,

                       from something like tutorials, to state of the art discussions, to rampant

                       speculation about technology and its impact.


     info-micro        Information/discussion list on the general interest topic of microcom-

                       puters.


       info-unix       Info-UNIX is intended for question/answer discussion, where "novice"

                       system administrators can pose questions.


         msggroup      Interest in electronic mail, message formats, message systems, and the

                       sociological implications of the above.


         poli-sci      A permanent distributed political "bull" session.


       sf-lovers       Science Fiction lovers.  SF-Lovers has discussed many topics, all of them

                       related in some way to the theme of science fiction or fantasy.


             space     Discussions (daily digest) on space-related topics.


          telecom      A broad spectrum moderated-digest-format discussion on telecommu-

                       nictions technology:  the telephone system,  modems,  and other more

                       technical aspects of telecommunications systems.


     unix-emacs        Used for new release announcements and general discussions of Gosling's

                       EMACS.


  unix-wizards         Distribution  list  for  people  maintaining  machines  running  the  UNIX

                       operating system.



        As  discussed  earlier,  to  find  out  about  all  of  the  BBoards  that  the  local  host

        subscribes to, the MH users types


                   bbc -topics



        More on BBoards

                Finally, here are a few more operational details:


        Creating a BBoard

                Contact the PostMaster at your host to have a BBoard created.  Be sure to

        indicate its status (public or private) and scope (where distribution should occur).
\f

                                                                                                                          10


              Subscribing to a BBoard

                      If your local host already receives an interest group,  then simply add the

              name of the BBoard to the ``bboards:''        entry in your MH profile.  If not, ask the

              PostMaster to create the BBoard and contact the global request address for you.


              BBoard Archives

                      BBoard messages are automatically archived on a weekly basis.  Usually, this

              results in messages older than 12 days being moved to an archive area.  To read

              the archives for a BBoard, the `-archive'       option is used.  For example,


                         bbc -archive telecom


              tells bbc to invoke msh on the archives for the ``telecom''        BBoard.


                      Note that the archives may not be present for all BBoards on a given host;

              also note that the archives may be periodically moved to tape and expunged from

              the system.  Contact your local PostMaster for the details.


              BBoard Addresses

                      Each BBoard has associated with it 4 addresses (for example, in the case of

              the mythical BBoard ``foo''     ):


                       foo   The global distribution list

                             If you post a message addressed to foo then the message is distributed

                             to everyone who subscribes to ``foo''     .


               dist-foo      The local distribution list

                             If  you  post  a  message  addressed  to  dist-foo  then  the  message  is

                             distributed to the local BBoard for ``foo''      and to any sites which the

                             local system distributes to.


         foo-request         The global moderator

                             If you post a message addressed to foo-request then the message is

                             sent to the moderator for the entire interest group called ``foo''     .


local-foo-request            The local moderator

                             If  you  post  a  message  addressed  to  local-foo-request  then  the

                             message is sent to the person responsible for the BBoard ``foo''      on

                             the local system.



              These addresses are defined by the MH alias facility.  Users of the BBoards facility

              who do not use MH may not be able to make use of them.


              Leading a BBoard

                      Except for special circumstances, this task is wholly automated.  For more

              information though, see the manual entries for bbl (1) and bbleaders (8).
\f

                                                                                                            11


Extra for Experts

        Some clever MH users might ask why BBoards aren't kept as folders instead

of pack'd files.  This is a good question.  Perhaps some future release of MH and the

UCI BBoards facility will treat BBoards as a variant of read-only folders.


        The  problem  with  msh,  of  course,  is  that  it's  a  monolithic  program,  and

although  it  does  support  input/output  redirection  and  a  few  other  primitive

shell-like properties, it's still not the CShell.
\f

                                                                                                            12


                                               References



[MH]           M.T. Rose,  J.L. Romine.  The Rand MH Message Handling System:

               User's Manual. UCI Version. Department of Information and Computer

               Science, University of California, Irvine (July, 1984).



[MH.TUT]       M.T.  Rose.   The  Rand  MH  Message  Handling  System:  Tutorial.

               Department  of  Computer  and  Information  Sciences,  University  of

               Delaware (October, 1984).
\f





                                                 Contents



                                                                                                          Page

 Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .       1

 Disclaimer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .       1

 Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .       1

 Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .       2

 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .       2

 BBoard Handling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .       4

         BBoard status  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .       4

         BBoard checking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .       5

                Asynchronous Checking with the CShell. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .       6

                Asynchronous Checking with Useto. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .       7

         BBoard reading  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .       7

 Current BBoards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .       8

 More on BBoards  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .       9

         Creating a BBoard  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .       9

         Subscribing to a BBoard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .      10

         BBoard Archives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .      10

         BBoard Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .      10

         Leading a BBoard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .      10

 Extra for Experts  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .      11

 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .      12



 _____________________________________
This document (version #2.6) was TEXset April 12, 1990 with DISS.STY v103.



                                                        i