HYPERMAIL(1)

NAME
hypermail - convert mail archives in UNIX box format to HTML pages

SYNOPSIS
hypermail [-ipuvVx] [-m mailbox] [-d directory] [-l label] [-a URL] [-b URL] [-c file]

DESCRIPTION
hypermail is a program that takes a file of mail messages in UNIX mailbox format and generates a set of cross-referenced HTML documents. Each file that is created represents a separate message in the mail archive and contains links to other articles, so that the entire archive can be browsed in a number of ways by following links. Archives generated by Hypermail can be incrementally updated, and Hypermail is set by default to only update archives when changes are detected.

Each HTML file that is generated for a message contains (where applicable): the subject of the article, the name and email address of the sender, the date the article was sent, links to the next and previous messages in the archive, a link to the message the article is in reply to, and a link to the message next in the current thread.

In addition, Hypermail will convert references in each message to email addresses and URLs to hyperlinks so they can be selected. Email addresses will be converted to mailto: URLs, or links to a CGI mail program.

To complement each set of HTML messages, four index files are created which sort the articles by date received, thread, subject, and author. Each entry in these index files are links to the individual articles and provide a bird's-eye view of every archived message:

date.html
    The index of articles sorted by the date they were received by the mail daemon.

thread.html
    The index of articles sorted by thread first, then the date they were received.

subject.html
    The index of articles sorted by subject. Any Re: prefixes in front of subjects will have been stripped out.

author.html
    is the index of articles sorted by the first word of the author's name. If the author's name can't be determined, their email address will be substituted.

One of the index files will be called index.html and is the default index that users can go to when entering the archive. In the specified directory, articles will be read out in the order that they were read from a mailbox or standard input. Filenames start at zero and increase in this fashion: 0000.html, 0001.html, 0002.html, etc.

OPTIONS

-a URL
    This option includes a link labelled Other mail archives in the index pages to the specified URL. This way users who are looking at the Hypermail archive have the opportunity to go to pointers to other mail archives. By default, this is a link to the parent directory which holds the archive files.

-b URL
    This option includes a link labelled About this archive in the index pages to the specified URL. This way users who are looking at the Hypermail archive have the opportunity to go to information about the archive.

-c file
    This option specifies a configuration file to read settings from. By default, Hypermail will look for a file called .hmrc in the user's home directory.

-d directory
    Specifies the directory to put the HTML files and index files that are created. If the directory doesn't exist, a new one will be created with the name that is specified. If the -d option isn't used, Hypermail will look for a directory with the same name as the input mailbox or will create one if needed.

-i  Reads in articles from standard input.

-l label
    This option tells Hypermail what to call the archive - the name that is specified will be in the title of the index pages so users know what sort of messages are being archived.

-m mailbox
    Specifies the mailbox to read articles in from. By default, Hypermail will look for a file called mbox.

-n submission-address
    This is the list's submission address. In this manner people will be able to submit new messages to the list the hypermail archive serves.

-p  This shows a progress report as Hypermail reads in and writes out messages - the number of files that Hypermail is reading and writing and the file names of the directory and files created are shown.

-v  This shows a the variables and their values that Hypermail will use when

-V  This shows the version information for the executing Hypermail. Once displayed, Hypermail exits without doing any processing.

-u  This updates archives by one message only. With this option, only one email message will be read in from a file or standard input. This message will be added to the end of the existing HTML file archive and will be integrated into it by links and cross-references. All archive index files will be regenerated to include the new message.

-x  This tells Hypermail to explicitly overwrite any previous HTML files that may exist. Use this option only when it is desirable to completely rewrite the entire archive.

  GENERAL EXECUTION NOTES

Note: No matter what options are specified, the index files are always rewritten. The date when Hypermail was last run is included in index pages, so it's easy to tell when the archive was last updated.

Note: The -i and -m options cannot be used together. Only archives in UNIX mailbox format can be read in - mailboxes of this kind are usually appended RFC 822-compliant articles separated by lines such as "\nFrom person@site Mon Jan 10 12:34:56 1994".

Note: If the mailbox that is being read from is an archive that new messages are always being added to, don't use the -u or -x options. Hypermail will then read in all the messages given it but will only write new messages that have been appended to the mailbox.

Note: If the -u option is used and articles are read in from a mailbox file, Hypermail will assume that the file contains only one article, no matter how many files the mailbox may actually contain. Make sure that Hypermail is given only one article when using this option.

  CONFIGURATION OPTIONS

The following settings can be read in as environment variables or from the specified configuration file. Environment settings are in uppercase. For instance, in the C shell, variables can be set as:

    setenv HM_MBOX /home/john/my_mailbox
    setenv HM_FILEMODE 0600

In the configuration file, blank lines and lines beginning with a hash mark (#) are ignored. Variables must be in lowercase and separated by values with an equals (=) sign, such as:

    mbox = /home/john/my_mailbox
    filemode = 0600

Settings are read in this order: from the program's hard-wired internal defaults, from environment variables, from command-line options, from the configuration file.

See hmrc.5 for more information on configuration file usage.

Below is a list of variables that Hypermail understands. Boolean numbers can have the value of 0 or 1.

HM_CONFIGFILE filename
    This is the default configuration file to read settings in from. This can only be specified as an environment variable. If the first character is "~", Hypermail will look for the file under the current user's home directory.

HM_MBOX filename
    This is the default mailbox to read messages in from. Define this with a value of NONE to read from standard input as the default.

HM_ARCHIVES URL
    This will create a link in the archived index pages labelled Other mail archives to the specified URL. Define as NONE to omit such a link.

HM_ABOUT URL
    This will create a link in the archived index pages labelled About this archive to the specified URL. Define as NONE to omit such a link.

HM_USETABLE boolean_number
    Defining this causes Hypermail to generate an index menu in HTML table format at the top and bottom of each page.

HM_REVERSE boolean_number
    Defining this variable as 1 will reverse-sort the article entries in the date and thread index files by the date they were received. That is, the most recent messages will appear at the top of the index rather than the other way around.

HM_SHOWHEADERS boolean_number
    Define this as 1
     to show the article header lines in the archived HTML files. These lines typically include the To:, From: and Subject: information found in most email messages.

HM_SHOWHTML boolean_number
    Define as 1 to show the articles in a proportionally-spaced font rather than a fixed-width (monospace) font.

HM_SHOWBR boolean_number
    Define as 1 to place <br> tags at the end of article lines. Otherwise, all non-quoted article lines will word wrap. This only takes effect if HM_SHOWHTML is defined.

HM_IQUOTES boolean_number
    Define as 1 to italicize quoted lines.

HM_SHOWHR boolean_number
    Define as 1 to place horizontal rules before and after articles.

HM_SHOW_MSG_LINKS boolean_number
    Define as 1 to put the individual message links at the top of the individual message pages. Define as 0 to produce pages without the Next, Previous, Reply, In reply to, etc. links.

HM_EURODATE boolean_number
    Define as 1 to display article received dates with days before months instead of months before days.

HM_SHOWREPLIES boolean_number
    Define as 1 to show all replies to a message as links in article files.

HM_MAILTO address
    The address of the contact point that is put in the HTML header line
       <LINK REV=made HREF=mailto:MAILTO>
     The <LINK...> header can be disabled by default by setting HM_MAILTO to "NONE".

HM_MAILCOMMAND command
    This specifies the mail command to use when converting email addresses to links. The variables $TO, $SUBJECT, and $ID can be used in constructing the command string. $TO represents the address to send mail to, $SUBJECT represents the subject that is being replied to, and $ID represents the message ID of the article that is being replied to. If defined as NONE , email addresses will not be converted to links in articles. A possible command one could use is mailto:$TO , but this could easily be changed to specify a CGI program such as /cgi-bin/mail?to=$TO . A CGI mail program is included with the source which can be used for this purpose.

HM_DOMAINADDR domainname
    Set this to the domainname you want added to a mail address appearing in the RFC822 field which lack a hostname. When the list resides on the same host as the user sending the message, it is often not required of the MTA to domain-ize these addresses for delivery. In such cases, Hypermail will add the DOMAINADDR to the email address. If defined as NONE , this feature is turned off.

HM_LABEL label name
    Define this as the default label to put in archives.

HM_DIR directory
    This is the default directory that Hypermail will look for when creating and updating archives. If defined as NONE the directory will have the same name as the input mailbox.

HM_DIRMODE octal_number
    This is an octal number that new directories are set to when they are created. If the archives will be made publically available, it's a good idea to define this as 0755. If files will be updated incrementally with sendmail, this will have to be 0777.

HM_FILEMODE octal_number
    This is an octal number that new files are set to when they are created. If the archives will be made publically available, it's a good idea to define this as 0644.

HM_OVERWRITE boolean_number
    Define as 1 to make Hypermail overwrite existing archives by default.

HM_INCREMENT boolean_number
    Define as 1 to read one article only and append it to existing archives by default.

HM_PROGRESS boolean_number
    Define as 1 or as 2 to always show a progress report as Hypermail works. Defined as 2 shows more information about the attachment files created. This is written to stdout.

HM_THRDLEVELS number
    This specifies the number of thread levels to outline in the thread index. For instance, if HM_THRDLEVELS is 2, replies to messages will be indented once in the index, but replies to replies, etc., will only be indented once as well.

HM_DEFAULTINDEX type
    This specifies the default index that users can view when entering the archive. Valid types are date, thread, author, and subject.

HM_BODY <BODY>
    This is the <BODY> line to use when generating the HTML pages. Define as "NONE" to use the builtin <BODY> line by default.

HM_HMAIL submission-address
    This is the email address used to send a new message to a hypermail archive. "NONE" means don't use it. Since this is different for each hypermail archive, you should probably leave it set to "NONE" here, and let it be specified at runtime by command-line parameters in the list specific configfile.

HM_IHTMLHEADERFILE path
    Define path as the path to a file containing valid HTML formatting statements that you wish to included at the top of every index page. Hypermail will print this file as the header of the index so make sure it contains <HTML>, <HEAD>, <BODY> and other statements that suit your local customized needs.

HM_IHTMLFOOTERFILE path
    Define path as the path to a file containing valid HTML formatting statements that you wish to included at the bottom of every index page. Hypermail will print this file as the trailer of the index so make sure it contains at a minimum a </BODY> and </HTML> statement.

HM_MHTMLHEADERFILE path
    Define path as the path to a file containing valid HTML formatting statements that you wish to included at the top of every message page. Hypermail will print this file as the header of the message so make sure it contains <HTML>, <HEAD>, <BODY> and other statements that suit your local customized needs.

HM_MHTMLFOOTERFILE path
    Define path as the path to a file containing valid HTML formatting statements that you wish to included at the bottom of every message page. Hypermail will print this file as the trailer of the message so make sure it contains at a minimum a </BODY> and </HTML> statement.

HM_SHOW_HEADERS list of headers to display
    Define the list of headers to be displayed if the variable HM_SHOWHEADERS is set to 1 (ON). This is a comma or space separated all on a single line such as
      show_headers = From,Subject,Date,Message-ID
     or they can be listed individually or any combination of.
      show_headers = From
      show_headers = Subject
      show_headers = Date
      show_headers = Message-ID
    As a special case you can use the identifier ``*'' as header to tell
    hypermail
    to display all header lines.

HM_INLINE_TYPES image data types to inline
    This is the list of MIME types that you want inlined as opposed to
    simply linked into the message.  They can be listed individually on
    multiple lines or comma or space separated on a single line.
      inline_types = image/gif image/jpeg
     or
      inline_types = image/gif inline_types = image/jpeg

HM_IGNORE_TYPES indicate attachment types to ignore
    This is the list of MIME attachment types that you do not want to do
    anything with.  They are quietly ignored.  They can be listed individually
    on multiple lines or comma or space separated on a single line.
      ignore_types = text/x-vcard application/x-msdownload
     or
      ignore_types = text/x-vcard
      ignore_types = application/x-msdownload

BUGS

Sorting: In the date and thread index files, note that these lists are sorted by the date the articles were received by the system's mail daemon, not by the date they were written on. The order of articles in the date index may not necessarily match the order in which the article files are written and linked together. Because of this, it is a good idea to make sure the mailbox is sorted by date with the most recent messages towards the bottom.

Forwarded messages with bad headers may be incorrectly handled.

AUTHORS

Hypermail was originally designed and developed by Tom Gruber <gruber@intraspect.com> for Enterprise Integration Technologies (EIT) in Common Lisp. It was later rewritten in C by Kevin Hughes <kev@kevcom.com> while at EIT. Kevin passed on-going development and support for Hypermail to Kent Landfield <kent@landfield.com>.

The latest documentation can be found at http://www.hypermail.com/

CREDITS

I'd like to thank the members of the Hypermail Development list for their continued encouragement, ideas, bug fixes and participation. Additionally, following people should be noted for their work and contributions to the hypermail development. This list is far from complete ...

Bob Crispen <bob.crispen@boeing.com>
Darci Chapman <minerva@phix.com>
Byron C. Darrah <bdarr@sse.FU.HAC.COM>
Dave Kopper <dave@birman.com>
Daniel Stenberg <Daniel.Stenberg@haxx.nu>
I.Ioannou <roryt@hol.gr>
Elliot Lee <sopwith@redhat.com>
Martin Schulze <joey@infodrom.north.de>
Jay Soffian <jay@cimedia.com>
Jared Reisinger <feety@hhhh.org>
Peter C. McCluskey <pcm@rahul.net>
Roy T. Fielding <fielding@kiwi.ics.uci.edu>
Roy Tennant <rtennant@library.berkeley.edu>