NAME
burst - explode digests into messages
SYNOPSIS
burst [+folder] [msgs] [-inplace | -noinplace] [-quiet | -noquiet]
[-verbose | -noverbose] [-version] [-help]
DESCRIPTION
Burst considers the specified messages in the named folder to be
Internet digests, and explodes them in that folder.
If -inplace is given, each digest is replaced by the “table of
contents” for the digest (the original digest is removed). Burst then
renumbers all of the messages following the digest in the folder to
make room for each of the messages contained within the digest. These
messages are placed immediately after the digest.
If -noinplace is given, each digest is preserved, no table of contents
is produced, and the messages contained within the digest are placed at
the end of the folder. Other messages are not tampered with in any
way.
The -quiet switch directs burst to be silent about reporting messages
that are not in digest format.
The -verbose switch directs burst to tell the user the general actions
that it is taking to explode the digest.
It turns out that burst works equally well on forwarded messages and
blind-carbon-copies as on Internet digests, provided that the former
two were generated by forw or send.
FILES
$HOME/.mh_profile The user profile
PROFILE COMPONENTS
Path: To determine the user’s nmh directory
Current-Folder: To find the default current folder
Msg-Protect: To set mode when creating a new message
SEE ALSO
inc(1), msh(1), pack(1), Proposed Standard for Message Encapsulation
(RFC-934)
DEFAULTS
‘+folder’ defaults to the current folder
‘msgs’ defaults to cur
‘-noinplace’
‘-noquiet’
‘-noverbose’
CONTEXT
If a folder is given, it will become the current folder. If -inplace
is given, then the first message burst becomes the current message.
This leaves the context ready for a show of the table of contents of
the digest, and a next to see the first message of the digest. If
-noinplace is given, then the first message extracted from the first
digest burst becomes the current message. This leaves the context in a
similar, but not identical, state to the context achieved when using
-inplace.
BUGS
The burst program enforces a limit on the number of messages which may
be burst from a single message. This number is on the order of 1000
messages. There is usually no limit on the number of messages which
may reside in the folder after the bursting.
Although burst uses a sophisticated algorithm to determine where one
encapsulated message ends and another begins, not all digestifying
programs use an encapsulation algorithm. In degenerate cases, this
usually results in burst finding an encapsulation boundary prematurely
and splitting a single encapsulated message into two or more messages.
These erroneous digestifying programs should be fixed.
Furthermore, any text which appears after the last encapsulated message
is not placed in a separate message by burst. In the case of
digestified messages, this text is usually an “End of digest” string.
As a result of this possibly un-friendly behavior on the part of burst,
note that when the -inplace option is used, this trailing information
is lost. In practice, this is not a problem since correspondents
usually place remarks in text prior to the first encapsulated message,
and this information is not lost.