Using a pager from within 'mail' [now an ad for GNU Emacs' "VM"!]

[Dan_Jacobson at ATT.COM]

>>>>> On 17 Nov 90 19:08:06 GMT, ramon at skye.mit.edu (Ramon F Herrera) said:

Ramon> Is there any way to use 'more' from within the mail program
Ramon> to see long messages one page at a time??

well, I think mailx might look for the environment variable "PAGER",
... check the man page.

Ramon> The scrolling speeds these days are exceeding the reflexes
Ramon> needed to press ^S ans ^Q.

No kidding..., when we upgraded to 300 baud from 110 last month, we
had to lay off some of the slower-witted staff also.  :-)

Well, enough for being a wise guy... advertising time!  Why not take a
quantum leap in the e-mail wold, and check into GNU Emacs' VM mail
system?

for more info, write Info-VM-request at UUNET.UU.NET, not me; also see
gnu.* newsgroups.  From GNU Emacs' "info reader":
------------------------------
File: vm  Node: Introduction, Prev: Variable Index, Up: Top, Next: Starting Up

Introduction
************

VM (View Mail) is an Emacs subsystem that allows UNIX mail to be read
and disposed of within Emacs.  Commands exist to do the normal things
expected of a mail user agent, such as generating replies, saving
messages to folders, deleting messages and so on.  There are other more
advanced commands that do tasks like bursting and creating digests,
message forwarding, and organizing message presentation according to
various criteria.

To invoke VM simply type `M-x vm'.  VM gathers any mail that has arrived
in your system mailbox and appends it to a file known as your "primary
inbox", and visits that file for reading.  *Note Starting Up::.  A file
visited for reading by VM is called the "current folder".

If there are any messages in the primary inbox, VM selects the first new
or unread message, and previews it.  "Previewing" is VM's way of showing
you part of message and allowing you to decide whether you want to read
it.  *Note Previewing::.  By default VM shows you the message's sender,
recipient, subject and date headers.  Typing SPC (`vm-scroll-forward')
exposes the body of the message and marks the message as read.
Subsequent SPC's scroll forward through the message, `b' scrolls
backward.  When you reach the end of a message, typing a SPC or `n'
moves you forward to preview the next message.

If you do not want to read a message that's being previewed, just type
`n' and VM will move on to the next message (if there is one).  *Note
Selecting Messages::.

To save a message to a mail folder use `s' (`vm-save-message').  VM will
prompt you for the folder name in the minibuffer.  *Note Saving
Messages::.

Messages are deleted by typing `d' (`vm-delete-message') while
previewing or reading them.  The message is not deleted right away; it
is simply marked for deletion.  If you change your mind about deleting a
message just select it and type `u' (`vm-undelete-message'), and the
message will be undeleted.  *Note Deleting Messages::.  The actual
removal of deleted messages from the current folder is called
"expunging" and it is accomplished by typing `#' (`vm-expunge-folder').
The message is still present in the on-disk version of the folder until
the folder is saved.

Typing `h' (`vm-summarize') causes VM to pop up a window containing a
summary of contents of the current folder.  The summary is presented one
line per message, by message number, listing each message's author, date
sent, line and byte count, and subject.  Also various letters appear
beside the message number to indicate that a message is new, unread,
marked for deletion, etc.  An arrow `->' appears to the left of the line
summarizing the current message.  The summary format is user
configurable, *Note Summaries::.

When you are finished reading mail the current folder must be saved, so
that the next time the folder is visited VM will know which messages
have been already read, replied to and so on.  Typing `S'
(`vm-save-folder') expunges all deleted messages and saves the folder.
`C-x C-s' saves the folder without expunging deleted messages but the
messages are still marked deleted.  The next time the folder is visited
these messages will still be marked for deletion.

To quit VM you can type `q' (`vm-quit') or `x' (`vm-quit-no-change').
Typing `q' expunges and saves the current folder before quitting.  Also,
any messages marked new are changed to be marked unread, before saving.
The `x' command quits VM without expunging, saving or otherwise
modifying the current folder.  Quitting is not required; you can simply
switch to another Emacs buffer when you've finished reading mail.

At any time while reading mail in the primary inbox you can type `g'
(`vm-get-new-mail') to check to see if new mail has arrived.  If
new mail has arrived it will be merged into the primary inbox.  If you
are not in the middle of another message, VM will also jump to the first
new message.
-- 
Dan_Jacobson at ATT.COM  Naperville IL USA  +1 708-979-6364