README: update

pull/49/merge
Leah Neukirchen 7 years ago
parent 477ad637b7
commit 8a155059c6

117
README

@ -11,81 +11,86 @@ DESCRIPTION
but it is a complete implementation from scratch.
mblaze consists of these Unix tools that each do one job:
maddr(1) to extract addresses from mail
magrep(1) to find mails matching a pattern
mcom(1) to write and send mail
mdeliver(1) to deliver messages or import mailboxes
mdirs(1) to find Maildir
mexport(1) to export mailboxes
mflag(1) to change flags (marks) of mail
mfwd(1) to forward mail
mgenmid(1) to generate Message-IDs
mhdr(1) to extract mail headers
minc(1) to incorporate new mail
mless(1) to conveniently read mail in less(1)
mlist(1) to list and filter mail messages
mmime(1) to create MIME messages
mmkdir(1) to create new Maildir
mpick(1) to filter mail
mrep(1) to reply to mail
mscan(1) to generate single line summaries of mail
msed(1) to manipulate mail headers
mseq(1) to manipulate mail sequences
mshow(1) to render mail and extract attachments
msort(1) to sort mail
mthread(1) to arrange mail into discussions
maddr(1) extract addresses from mail
magrep(1) find mails matching a pattern
mcom(1) compose and send mail
mdeliver(1) deliver messages or import mailboxes
mdirs(1) find Maildir folders
mexport(1) export Maildir folders as mailboxes
mflag(1) change flags (marks) of mail
mfwd(1) forward mail
mgenmid(1) generate Message-IDs
mhdr(1) extract mail headers
minc(1) incorporate new mail
mless(1) conveniently read mail in less(1)
mlist(1) list and filter mail messages
mmime(1) create MIME messages
mmkdir(1) create new Maildir
mpick(1) advanced mail filter
mrep(1) reply to mail
mscan(1) generate one-line summaries of mail
msed(1) manipulate mail headers
mseq(1) manipulate mail sequences
mshow(1) render mail and extract attachments
msort(1) sort mail
mthread(1) arrange mail into discussions
PRINCIPLES
mblaze is a classic command line MUA and has no features related to
receiving and transferring mail; you are expected to fetch your mail
using offlineimap(1), fdm(1), procmail(1), getmail(1) or similar and send
it using sendmail(8), as provided by OpenSMTPD, Postfix, msmtp(1), dma(8)
or similar. mblaze expects your mail to reside in Maildir folders.
mblaze operates directly on Maildir and doesn't use its own caches or
databases. There is no setup needed for many uses. All tools have been
written with performance in mind. Enumeration of all mails in a Maildir
is avoided unless necessary, and then optimized to limit syscalls.
Parsing mail metadata is optimized to limit I/O requests. Initial
operations on big Maildir may feel slow, but as soon as they are in the
file system cache, everything is blazingly fast. The tools are written
to be memory efficient (i.e. not wasteful), but whole messages are
assumed to fit into RAM easily (one at a time).
mblaze has been written from scratch and tested on a big pile of personal
mail, but is not actually 100% RFC conforming (which is neither worth it
nor desirable). There may be issues with very old, nonconforming,
messages.
mblaze is a classic command line MUA and has no features for receiving or
transferring mail; you are expected to fetch your mail using fdm(1),
getmail(1) offlineimap(1), procmail(1), or similar , and send it using
dma(8), msmtp(1), sendmail(8), as provided by OpenSMTPD, Postfix, or
similar. mblaze expects your mail to reside in Maildir folders.
mblaze operates directly on Maildir folders and doesn't use its own
caches or databases. There is no setup needed for many uses. All tools
have been written with performance in mind. Enumeration of all mails in
a Maildir is avoided unless necessary, and then optimized to limit
syscalls. Parsing mail metadata is optimized to limit I/O requests.
Initial operations on a large Maildir may feel slow, but as soon as they
are in the file system cache, everything is blazingly fast. The tools
are written to be memory efficient (i.e. not wasteful), but whole
messages are assumed to fit into RAM easily (one at a time).
mblaze has been written from scratch and tested on a large corpus of
personal mail, but is not actually 100% RFC-conforming (which is neither
worth it nor desirable). There may be issues with very old,
nonconforming, messages.
mblaze is written in portable C, using only POSIX functions (apart from a
tiny Linux-only optimization), and has no external dependencies. It
supports MIME and more than 7-bit messages (everything the host iconv(3)
can decode). It assumes you work in a UTF-8 environment. mblaze works
well together with other Unix mail tools such as offlineimap(1),
mairix(1), or mu(1).
well together with other Unix mail tools such as mairix(1), mu(1), or
offlineimap(1).
EXAMPLES
mblaze tools are designed to be composed together in a pipe. It is
suitable for interactive use and for scripting. It integrates well into
a Unix workflow.
mblaze tools are designed to be composed together in a pipe. They are
suitable for interactive use and for scripting, and integrate well into a
Unix workflow.
For example, you could decide you want to look at all unseen mail in your
INBOX, oldest first.
mlist -s ~/Maildir/INBOX | msort -d | mscan
To operate on a set of mails in multiple steps, you can save a list of
mail as a sequence. E.g. add a call to mseq -S to the above command:
To operate on a set of mails in multiple steps, you can save it as a
sequence, e.g. add a call to mseq -S to the above command:
mlist -s ~/Maildir/INBOX | msort -d | mseq -S | mscan
Now mscan will show message numbers and you could look at the first five
mails at once, for example:
mshow 1:5
Likewise, you could decide to look at all freshly received mail in all
folders, thread it and look at it interactively:
Likewise, you could decide to incorporate (by moving from new to cur) all
new mail in all folders, thread it and look at it interactively:
mdirs ~/Maildir | xargs minc | mthread | mless
Or you could look at the attachments of the 20 largest mails in your
INBOX:
mlist ~/Maildir/INBOX | msort -s | tail -20 | mshow -t
Or you could list the attachments of the 20 largest mails in your INBOX:
mlist ~/Maildir/INBOX | msort -S | tail -20 | mshow -t
Or apply the patches from the current mail:
mshow -O. '*.diff' | patch
As usual with pipes, the sky is the limit.
CONCEPTS
@ -122,4 +127,4 @@ LICENSE
http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
Void Linux June 20, 2017 Void Linux
Void Linux June 30, 2017 Void Linux

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