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VMS Beginner's FAQUse the MAIL command in a terminal. If you have DECwindows, there is a similar MAIL tool available on the Session Manager's Applications menu. Additional mail tools may have been installed, notably PINE.
In all cases, you start the appropriate mail tool, and then do all mail manipulations from within it: create, read, send, delete, etc.
Examples:
$ MAIL Start mail for interactive use.
$ PINE Start pine for interactive use.
$ run sys$system:decw$mail
Requires DECwindows. Or start it from the session manager.
The TCP/IP transport on an OpenVMS system may be provided by one of several different vendors. To send SMTP (internet) mail through these, use an address like:
PREFIX%"username@what.where.com"
where prefix is usually one of: SMTP, IN, ST, MX, or MM. The Pine mailer is usually configured to know the local SMTP transport's PREFIX and to use it automatically, so the destinations used within that program are usually just the unadorned internet addresses.
Here is a very brief example of how to use MAIL to send an internet message.
$ MAIL
MAIL> send
TO: IN%"username@what.where.com" Locally correct transport
Subj: this is a test
Enter your message below. Press CTRL/Z when complete, or CTRL/C to quit:
This is a test message
bye
{^Z}
MAIL> exit
$
Here is a somewhat longer example which demonstrates some of the typical operations in MAIL:
$ MAIL Start mail for interactive use.
You have 10 new messages.
MAIL> DIR List messages in the NEWMAIL folder.
MAIL> 5 Read message 5.
MAIL> EXTRACT/NOHEADER sys$login:fromjane.txt
Copy it into a text file in the login directory.
MAIL> REPLY/EXTRACT
Starts an editor and copies the message into
it. On exit the reply is sent back to the
original sender. Use the SET and SHOW commands
to customize operations like this, here, to
choose a different editor.
MAIL> DEL 1-4,6-10 Move all other messages to the WASTEBASKET folder.
MAIL> DIR/FOLDER List names of all folders.
MAIL> SET FOLDER MAIL Move to another mail folder.
MAIL> DIR/FROM=jane/subject=project/since=1-JUN-1995
Select a subset of all messages in this folder.
MAIL> EXTRACT/ALL/NOHEADER sys$login:fromjane_project.txt
Copy all of these, each separated by a form
feed character into a text file in the login
directory.
MAIL> SET FOLDER WASTEBASKET
Move to the WASTEBASKET folder.
MAIL> DIR List messages in the WASTEBASKET folder.
MAIL> SELECT/from=john Not going to delete those from john after all.
MAIL> MOVE MAIL Move them WASTEBASKET -> MAIL
MAIL> SEND/EDIT
TO: IN%"username@what.where.com" Internet mail, see below
SUBJECT: Test
An editor is started, a text file is edited,
on exit it is mailed to the address shown. To
mail to somebody onthe same system just put
their username on the TO line.
MAIL> EXIT Leave mail, delete anything left in WASTEBASKET
$
Note 1: After entering MAIL, use HELP to figure out what it does.
Note 2: Send/edit and reply/extract are how you generally want to send and reply to mail.
Here's why. The SEND command in interactive mail, if invoked with no qualifiers, puts up a simple text entry window. You must type a {RETURN} at the end of each line (even though the screen usually appears to be wrapping text as in a word processor) or any but the shortest message will fail with this error:
Error reading SYS$INPUT xxx byte record too large for user's buffer No message sent
Using SEND/EDIT avoids this problem.
REPLY always puts you into an editor so the above problem doesn't occur. However, you likely want to use REPLY/EXTRACT instead of REPLY, since the former starts the editor with the text of the message that you are replying to already loaded.
Note 3: Mail messages by default go into your SYS$LOGIN directory. To put them elsewhere (a very good idea), do the following ONCE:
$ MAIL MAIL> set mail [.MAIL] This might take a while to complete. MAIL> exit
Note 4: It sometimes happens that the new mail counter maintained elsewhere in the OpenVMS operating system gets out of synchronization with the actual number of unread mail messages. Most notably, it will say that you have N new mail messages when you enter mail, there are none in the NEWMAIL folder. If you ever observe this, simply issue these commands:
$ MAIL You have 2 new messages. MAIL> read/new MAIL> exit
Note 5: On rare occasions you may need to email binary files to somebody on another machine. The best way to do this is to use PINE, which can send these as MIME (Multimedia Internet Mail Extensions) attachments. This transfers the data, but all RMS attributes will be lost.
Most of the time this doesn't matter, as when transferring a GIF or PICT file, for instance. However, it DOES matter for BACKUP files and others. The easist thing to do for them is to use ZIP or some other utility to put them into an archived form from which they can be extracted with their file attributes intact. ZIP is not part of OpenVMS, but is available from a variety of FTP. Try FTP.WKU.EDU first.
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Use PHONE.
Examples:
$ phone username
$ phone answer Answer the phone when it is ringing.
$ set term/[no]broadcast
Enable/disable messages.
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Use PHONE or, if you have it, TALK.
Examples:
$ phone nodename::username
$ phone answer Answer the phone when it is ringing.
$ set term/[no]broadcast
Enable/disable messages.
$ talk username@what.where.com
Same command to answer a call.
Note 1: To get out of PHONE, use {^Z}, then EXIT. For more information you can type HELP after {^Z}.
Note 2: To get out of TALK, use {^C}.
Note 3: TALK may not work to some machines due to byte swapping issues.
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Use COPY, or if you have them RCP or FTP.
Examples:
$ COPY filename NODE::DISK:[DIRECTORY]filename
Over DECNET, requires proxy access.
$ COPY filename NODE"username password"::DISK:[DIRECTORY]filename
Over DECNET, no proxy required, but you
have to have an account there that is valid.
$ RCP filename "node::/path1/path2/filename"
To a Unix machine, MULTINET syntax shown.
$ FTP what.where.com
To a Unix machine, MULTINET syntax shown.
Note 1: COPY, RCP, and FTP can be used in either direction.
Note 2: Unless all nets are secure between the two machines in question, putting the username,password pair into one of these programs is a security risk. Network sniffers can easily retrieve them and then your account may be compromised.
Note 3: Unless all nets are secure between the two machines in question, the contents of the files transferred may end up in the hands of third parties.
Note 4: If your site uses PATHWORKS you may be able to use COPY to move files directly to/from a PC or Macintosh that is running DECNET:
$ define desktop macname::disk:[DESKTOP_FOLDER]
$ COPY filename desktop:
The file appears on the Mac's desktop.
$ DIR desktop:
Files on the Mac's desktop are listed.
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You can either use a combinatin of COPY and TYPE commands, or use RSH if that is installed.
Examples:
$ COPY procedure.com NODE::DISK:[DIRECTORY]
Over DECNET, requires proxy access.
$ TYPE NODE::"task=DISK:[DIRECTORY]procedure.com"
Over DECNET, requires proxy access.
Note 1: This copies a procedure to another node and then executes it. If proxy access is not available an explicit "username password" string can follow the NODE name.
$ RSH what.where.com "command"
Note 2: Generally RSH is used to talk to Unix machines. These are case sensitive, so double quoting the command is often required. If no .rhosts file or hosts.equiv provides access you may be prompted for username and password.
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Details vary from system to system - there is no standard news reader. Ask your system manage what is installed on your system.
Example:
$ NEWSRDR
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Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is not generally installed on OpenVMS systems. If it happens to be on your system, then the following command is usually the one that start it:
$ IRC
Note 1: To get started with IRC, issue the command: /HELP.
Note 2: IRC use may pose a security risk, at the very least, do not type in a command that somebody tells you to type!
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Author: David
Mathog
Credits: Rich Lafferty
Maintained by:
helpline@alcor.concordia.ca
Last update: $Date: 1999/05/18 16:16:23 $ -- Rich Lafferty