Newsgroups: vmsnet.networks.tcp-ip.multinet
Subject: <No Subject Given>
From: "Ned Freed, Postmaster" <NED@HMCVAX.CLAREMONT.EDU>
Date: 08 APR 92 20:44:59 GMT
Organization: The INFO-MULTINET Community
X-Gateway-Source-Info: INTERNET
X-Return-path: <info-multinet-relay@TGV.COM>
X-New-From: WORK_FROM_LINE
X-Gateway-Source-Info: INTERNET
X-VMS-To: IN%"service@TGV.COM"
X-VMS-Cc: IN%"info-multinet@tgv.com"

> Is it possible to use logical names in the To: field using MM? Defining a
> name or equating it a symbol doesn't work. Is there something like a
> .mmrc file or something like that which lets me define aliases for users?

Although I do not recommend using logical names for this purpose, PMDF does
support it, and it works in conjunction with MM.

Logical names are not a good place to store mail alias information. This
information tends to clash against other uses of logical names. Neverthless,
PMDF does allow you to pick a logical name table (or search list of logical
name tables) to contain alias information. You can, of course, pick
LMN$FILE_DEV if you like.

The preferred way to do aliases at a system level is to use the facilities that
are intended to handle aliases. Multinet has facilities of this sort. PMDF has
facilities like what Multinet has (a system alias file). PMDF also provides
support for distribution lists as a special type of system alias. It also
provides for per-user, or personal, aliases.

PMDF's personal aliases do not work correctly at present with MM -- the
expansion of aliases into header lines is not handled properly. So, while the
mail does end up where it is supposed to, the To:, Cc: and Bcc: headers may
contain invalid information. This is a problem in the MM interface to PMDF that
is corrected in Multinet V3.1.

> Is there a way to set forward all mail you get in MM? MAIL does this, but I
> am just curious.

PMDF provides the equivalent of SET FORWARD at a system level with a special
utility. This has to be configured to work by the system manager; it is not
enabled by default. Users can also forward subaddresses under their addresses;
in effect maintaining multiple system-wide forwarding addresses (the namespace
is limited, of course).

> Is there any way you can change the directory MAIL.TXT, and MM.INIT reside
> in? (like set mail_dir in MAIL).

It is not possible to directly change the location of these files in either
plain Multinet or Multinet plus PMDF. This is mostly because MM has to know
where the files are, and MM does not have a mechanism to support redirection
of these files.

If you're willing to have to tell MM to use different files, there is an
alternative to standard delivery that has been introduced in PMDF V4.1
(currently undergoing testing prior to release). You can direct delivery to a
pair of files in MM format. Since MM uses different files as what amount to
folders, this is not as bad as you might think. The programmable DELIVER
subsystem has also been extended to deliver messages directly to MM files
(please note that this only applies to the version of DELIVER that ships with
PMDF; the public domain version has not been extended in this way).

Multinet itself may also support direct file delivery; I don't know if it does
or not.

> Is there a way to start up the editor (like EDT or TPU) without having the
> message mm-send-edit, etc. be inserted??

This definitely should be possible to do, but I'm not an MM user so I don't
know the necessary commands.

> Finally, When I stay in MM for a long time, and I get several
> messages while I am in MM and I don't read them, it notifies me of all the
> new mail that has arrived (a auto-check I guess). When I try to read these
> messages, it blows up on me and gives me a stack dump. Does anyone know why
> this happens?

This sounds like something you should report to service@tgv.com.

				Ned