SUMMARY: MIME format e-mail

From: Fred Berns (fhb@kestnbaum.com)
Date: Sat Jun 24 1995 - 07:21:57 CDT


ORIGINAL QUESTION:

Is anyone familiar with software that can easily read MIME-encoded
e-mail?

RESPONSES:
Well, you've disappointed me. I only received 37 responses...

Most Recommended programs include:
        mh (and its gui exmh)
                mh ftp.ics.uci.edu:/pub/mh
                exmh parcftp.xerox.com:/pub/exmh
        pine ftp://ftp.cac.washington.edu/pine/pine.tar.Z
                        ftp.cac.washington.edu.
        metamail ftp://thumper.bellcore.com/pub/nsb.
        elm ftp.uu.net

Others include:
        mpack/munpack ftp.andrew.cmu.edu
        eudura (MS-Windows)
        Z mail (commerical)
        emil ftp.uu.se:/pub/unix/networking/mail
        Ishmail

Some said mailtool can read MIME, as can CC:Mail on the PC. Is this in
Solaris 2.x?

Comments about the packages are below.

Thanks to all the repsonders, including:
From: Ted Nolan SRI Ft Gordon <ted@ags.ga.erg.sri.com>
From: Mike Fletcher <fletch@ain.bls.com>
From: leclerc@austin.asc.slb.com
From: dmh@mozart.att.com (Dave Hughes)
From: Boyd Fletcher <boyd@ccpo.odu.edu>
From: Bill Morrow <morrow@cns.ucalgary.ca>
From: Gerhard den Hollander <gerhard@jason.nl>
From: rupf@dnt.dialog.com (Werner Rupf (SOURCE1))
From: Ian MacPhedran <Ian_MacPhedran@engr.USask.Ca>
From: ju@compwr.com Janet Ulrich
From: Laurel Arthur <Laurel.Arthur@dwe.csiro.au>
From: Mark Ferraretto <mferrare@physics.adelaide.edu.au>
From: Gregory Bond <gnb@bby.com.au>
From: Leif Hedstrom <leif@infoseek.com>
From: Dave Fetrow <fetrow@orac.biostat.washington.edu>
From: Chris Zanelli <chrisz@ind.tansu.com.au>
From: Bob Corbett <bob@singapore.geco-prakla.slb.com>
From: AZC10@MF.jrc.it
From: "Tim Cuckston" <cuckston@camalot.ebrd.com>
From: johnh@gerbil.umds.ac.uk (John Hearns - System Manager)
From: "Mario Battu'" <battu@cselt.stet.it>
From: bern@TI.Uni-Trier.DE (Jochen Bern)
From: "Daniel E. Zegarac" <zegarac@gdls.com>
From: oberoc@nynexst.com (Tino Dai)
From: Mike Mathewson <mom@skio.peachnet.edu>
From: kalpeshd@daffy.netrex.com (Kalpesh Dharia)
From: "GARY L 'GARY' SWOFFORD" <G.L.SWOFFORD@LaRC.NASA.GOV>
From: poffen@San-Jose.ate.slb.com (Russ Poffenberger)
From: Tom Mornini <tmornini@parallaxinc.com>
From: sunlist@mendel.ucsc.edu
From: Gustavo Vegas <gustavo@Microchip.COM>
From: David Fan <david@magma.COM>
From: Bob Ogden <ogden@mako.cp.tybrin.com>

Their comments:
--------------

MH, available from ftp.uci.edu (I think, archie knows). There's
also an X frontend called exmh that's pretty nice.

"exmh" is supposed to be pretty good. Of course you have to install MH
and
TCL/TK first. Exmh should be in ftp.parc.xerox.com in
/pub/exmh/exmh-1.6.1.tar.Z

exmh - still a bit rough around the edges, I think

munpack is a command line program which will decode
mime files.

pine is a unix-based mailer which deals with mime.

eudura is a windows-based mailer which deals with mime.
try pine or elm. you should be able to get both from ftp.uu.net or
get pine from ftp.cac.washington.edu

then get the metamail package from thumper.bellcore.com

Get pine (I am running 3.91) which handles MIME attachments very well.

Well, I'm an "mh" die hard, so the obvious choise would be exmh by
Brent Welch. It's a TCL/TK fronted for the "standard" mh commands.
It's a
very nice package. O'Reilley has a big book about mh, xmh and exmh,
which I guess could be useful.

In any case, in order to use exmh, you need these packages, at least:

   mh ftp.ics.uci.edu:/pub/mh
   exmh parcftp.xerox.com:/pub/exmh
   tcl ftp.cs.berkeley.edu:/ucb/tcl
   tk - " -
   metamail thumper.bellcore.com:/pub/nsb [mm2.7]

I would also recommend having a look at "emil", which can convert
between different kind of "multi-media" mail. I use it to automagically
convert any Sun/Mailtool messsage to MIME message, very useful! Find
it at:

   emil ftp.uu.se:/pub/unix/networking/mail

I know of mpack.
I have used a PC version of the stuff, but the Unix version should
be available too at:

ftp.andrew.cmu.edu
under the directory:
/pub/mpack

The following package works very well with MIME.

Product Information About Z-Mail 3.2

Z-Mail and the Z logo are registered trademarks, and Z-Script, Z-Mail
Lite, and MediaMail are trademarks of Network Computing Devices, Inc.,
Z-Code Software Division.

Copyright 1990-1994, Network Computing Devices. All rights reserved.

For Z-Mail Technical Support, contact:

                  support@z-code.com
                   +1 415-898-8649

For more information about Z-Code products, or for additional licenses,
contact:

                   sales@z-code.com
                   +1 415-898-8649

I have no connection with the company other than being a satisfied
user.

Another tool is EXMH (but it requires MH and XMH), available at:
parcftp.xerox.com:/pub/exmh

Sure; MH, XMH, EXMH, MHE come to Mind. (No, that Expert's not
*myself*.)
The big Problem that made me NOT install these yet is that they use
different Folder Formats than OW mailtool does: Mail=File, Folder=Dir,
Mails from Spool File /usr/spool/mail/$USER get moved to User's mbox;
mailtool uses Folder=File, Mails stay in Spool File. In Addition, they
don't allow *sending* (but, in newer Versions, *receiving*) SUN
Attachment
Mails.

PINE is a good mail reader that understands MIME. I also have
notices that the mailtool in Solaris2.3 seems to work well too. I know
PINE is available on the net at ftp.wustl.edu in /packages/mail/pine
(at
least that is were it was when I got it).

Use pine, a bitch to compile (at least on my system) but has a lot
of nice features

There are plenty of mail readers supporting MIME, so I don't know which
one would help you best. For one, you can use elm (it's available
through
ftp from various places - you might have to use archie or something for
exact locations; I don't remember where I had got it from).

Yes! There is a program we use at NASA called PINE. MIME capability was
added to version 3 (I use version 3.05). Here are the pertinent
addresses:
FTP: ftp.cac.washington.edu
Questions about PINE: pine-bugs@cac.washington.edu

The reader I am using to reply to this (Ishmail) is MIME compliant. See
the mail header for info on how to obtain a demo copy.

Zmail from NCD. Check www.ncd.com for a sample copy.

I believe the programs are called: metamail, etc.

Try going to 'telnet archie.sura.net"

and do a search on metamail.

Stephen Hauskins
UCSC

Try the following:

        Commercial: Z-mail
        Free: MetaMail & exmh

        Zmail is marketed by NCD . Exmh is found in ftp.parc.xerox.com
and requires a number of things:
(From their README file)
RELATED PACKAGES
Find TCL and TK on
    ftp.aud.alcatel.com:/tcl
    ftp.cs.berkeley.edu:/ucb/tcl
Find MH on
    ftp.ics.uci.edu:/pub/mh
Find Metamail (for MIME support, including 8-bit charsets) on
    thumper.bellcore.com:/pub/nsb
(optionally)
Find Faces on
    cs.indiana.edu:/pub/faces
Expect is available as
    pub/expect/expect.tar.Z from ftp.cme.nist.gov
Japanization patch for Tcl and Tk
    srawgw.sra.co.jp:/pub/lang/tcl/jp
    tcl7.3jp-patch.gz, tcl7.3jp-update1.gz, tcl7.3jp-update2.gz,
    tk3.6jp-patch.gz, tk3.6jp-update1.gz, tk3.6jp-update2.gz.
    It seems that they will move the archives to ftp.sra.co.jp near
    future.
Find Glimpse, the full text search engine, at University of Arizona:
    http://glimpse.cs.arizona.edu:1994/

we use ELM with extensions provided by metamail. The latter basically
supports MIME... ELM is aware of metamail so getting the two to work
together is not bad.

Fred H. Berns, Systems Manager
Kestnbaum & Company Chicago, Illinois
Database Marketing Consultants

Email: fhb@kestnbaum.com
Voice: (312) 782-1360 x220
  Fax: (312) 782-1362

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A fool does not ask questions for fear of exposing his ignorance.



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