From:	CRDGW2::CRDGW2::MRGATE::"SMTP::CRVAX.SRI.COM::RELAY-INFO-VAX" 30-JAN-1991 07:51:36.82
To:	MRGATE::"ARISIA::EVERHART"
CC:	
Subj:	RE: Internal formats of VMS Mail .MAI files?

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Date: Wed, 30 Jan 91 06:22:42 CST
From: brydon@asl.SINet.SLB.COM (Eschew Obfuscation)
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X-Vms-To: ASLVX6::PSI%SJOSU1::fsdec4.wtp.contel.com::masonj
Subject: RE: Internal formats of VMS Mail .MAI files?

In a reply to my message about mail formats,  Jeff Mason says:

>     But, why not just "mail" the messages to yourself or others. If they
>are just "text" files, you can say $ mail file.txt joeblow and that will
>mail it to the user AND put it in VMS mail format.

to which the reply is of course that the messages will all have an extra
header on them; the 'To:', 'From:' information will be according to who
forwarded the messages, not the original sender.   Plus the timestamps for all
the messages will be the time when the messages were forwarded rather than the
time when the messages were initially created.  And of course we all know that
mail is stored in chronological order in the mail file.  If you read my
original message carefully, you will see how to create a message with a
timestamp of 1-JAN-1892 (that's 1892, not 1982), which is a little before VMS
and any EMAIl messages existed.

Also, in my original message I said:

>                                      ...   You can extract an initial message
>(like this one you are reading, if on a VMS system) to use as a 'seed' or to
>examine the format, ...

but somehow I entered, then deleted the instructions on how to do this.  To
create a pre-VMS V4.0 format (sequential) mail file, you have to use the /MAIL
qualifier on the extract command:

MAIL> read 1
MAIL> extract /MAIL sys$login:mailtemp.tmp [/append]
              ^^^^^
                |
                +----- all-important qualifier

See "MAIL> help extract" for a few more details.

Hope this helps.

____________________________________________________________________________
Harvey Brydon         | SLB DECnet: ASL::BRYDON
Schlumberger Anadrill | Internet:   brydon@asl.sinet.slb.com
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