HYPERMAIL(1)               OpenBSD Reference Manual               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 option tells Hypermail to add message(s) to the end of the
              existing HTML file archive and integrate them into it by links
              and cross-references. All archive index files will be
              regenerated to include the new message.
               Hypermail used to require that you only send it one message at
              a time when using the -u option, but it should now work
              reasonably when given mailboxes containing multiple messages.
               When using the -u option, don't send any messages that
              Hypermail has already processed. If you want Hypermail to
              recognize that some messages are old messages that shouldn't be
              added to the archive again, send it a mailbox with a complete
              set of messages and avoid the -u option.

       -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 RFC2822-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 0, 1, or 2
              Define as 1 to show the articles in a proportionally-spaced font
              rather than a fixed-width (monospace) font. Setting this option
              to 1 also tells Hypermail to attempt to italicize quoted
              passages in articles.  Define as 2 for more complex conversion
              to html similar to that in txt2html.pl.  Showhtml = 2 will
              normally produce nicer looking results than showhtml = 1, and
              showhtml = 0 will look pretty dull, but 1 and 2 run risks of
              altering the appearance in undesired ways.

       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 RFC2822 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_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

       HM_LINKQUOTES boolean_number
              Set this to On to create fine-grained links from quoted
              text to the text where the quote originated. It also improves
              the threads index file by more accurately matching messages
              with replies. Note that this may be rather cpu intensive (see
              the searchbackmsgnum option to alter the performance).

       HM_SEARCHBACKMSGNUM postive integer
              If the linkquotes option is on and an incremental update is being
              done (-u option), this controls the tradeoff between speed and
              the reliability of finding the right source for quoted text.
              Try to set it to the largest number of messages between a
              message and the final direct reply to that message.

       HM_LINK_TO_REPLIES text used to indicate links to replies
              If the linkquotes option is on, specifying a string here
              causes it to generate links from original quoted text the
              location(s) in replies which quote them. The string
              is used to display the link.

       HM_QUOTE_HIDE_THRESHOLD percent (integer)
              If the linkquotes option is on, setting this to an
              integer less than 100 will cause it to replace quoted
              text with one-line links if the percent of lines in the
              message body (exluding the signature) consisting of
              quoted text exceeds the number indicated by this option.

       HM_QUOTE_LINK_STRING text to appear in place of quoted text
              If the quote_hide_threshold option is being used, the
              quote_link_string will be used if available to display the
              link that replaces the quoted text. If no string is specified
              here, the first line of each section of quoted text will used.

       HM_MONTHLY_INDEX = boolean_number
              Set this to On to create additional index files broken up
              by month. A summary.html file will provide links to all the
              monthly indices.

       HM_YEARLY_INDEX = boolean_number
              Set this to On to create additional index files broken up
              by year. A summary.html file will provide links to all the
              yearly indices.

       HM_THREAD_FILE_DEPTH = 0 or 1
              If nonzero, break the threads index file into multiple files,
              with the initial message of each thread in the main index file
              along with links to files containing the replies. Setting this
              to 1 creates one file for each thread that has replies, and is
              recommended for archives with over a few hundred messages.
              Setting this greater than 1 will produce multiple levels of files
              for each thread whose replies are nested by more than 1 level,
              but that is rarely useful. This option is currently disabled
              if the indextable option is turned on, and probably needs to
              be less than thrdlevels.


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.org/

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>
       Ashley M. Kirchner <ashley@pcraft.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>
       Jose Kahan <jose@w3.org>
       Bjarni R. Einarsson <bre@netverjar.is>
       Francisco Iacobelli <fiacobelli@ibersis.cl>
       Nicolas Noble <pixels@chez.com>
       Scott Rose <srose@direct.ca>
       Greg Shenaut <greg@bogslab.ucdavis.edu>
       W. Tasin <tasin@fhm.edu>
       Darryl Lee <lee@darryl.com>
       Paul Haldane <Paul.Haldane@newcastle.ac.uk>
       Andreas Fuchs <asf@ycom.at>
       David D Kilzer <ddkilzer@ti.com>
       Tim Witham <twitham@pcocd2.intel.com>
       Jyrki Kuoppala <jkp@kaapeli.fi>
       Bernhard Reiter <bernhard@climate2.geog.uwm.edu>
       Hisashi Gotoh <gotoh@horae.dti.ne.jp>
       David Eisner <cradle@glue.umd.edu>
       Andy Yoder <ayoder@heisenbug.org>
       Peter Karlsson <peter@softwolves.pp.se>
       Moritz Willers <Moritz.Willers@ubsw.com>
       David Bau <davidbau@hotmail.com>
       Brian Kirkby <bkirkby@Concentrico.net>
       William King <William.King@dadaboom.com>



                                 June 24, 2000                    HYPERMAIL(1)
