HP OpenVMS Systems Documentation
OpenVMS User's Manual
6.16.2 Initializing the MIME Utility
When a user starts the MIME utility, the initialization process performs the following steps:
6.16.3 Creating Optional MIME Utility Files
Table 6-1 lists and describes files you might want to create to customize the MIME utility on your system.
Place these files in the
The format of the MIME$MAILCAP file originated in RFC 1524, A User Agent Configuration Mechanism for Multimedia Mail Format Information, by N. Borenstein, September, 1993. The MIME utility uses instructions in this file to interpret and display messages and attachments. By following these instructions, the MIME user agent calls external programs to display the content types found in MIME messages.
You can customize the MIME$MAILCAP.DAT file to specify a File Descriptor Language (FDL) for a specific content type to extract message parts on your system. Example 6-1 contains an example of a MIME$MAILCAP.DAT file.
220.127.116.11 MIME$FILETYPES.DAT File Processing
The optional MIME$FILE_TYPES.DAT file contains lists of OpenVMS file extensions and the MIME content type associated with each one. ADD command processing uses the FILETYPE structure to designate the content type of an OpenVMS file to be attached to a composed message.
The syntax of the file format is similar to that of the MIME$MAILCAP.DAT file, with the "#" character indicating comments. Each line in the file contains a single file extension (without the leading '.'), followed by the content type and subtype to be associated with files that use that extension.
Optionally, the line can include the Content-Transfer-Encoding string
(7bit, 8bit, Base64 or Quoted-printable), which is used to encode the
contents of the file for transmission in the message. 7bit, 8bit,
Base64 or Quoted-printable are the standard MIME encodings and the only
ones accepted. If no encoding is specified, the MIME utility uses 7bit.
To extract a MIME-encoded file using the MIME utility, first, open the file you want to decode. You can open the file in one of two ways: by invoking the MIME utility specifying the file name or by opening the file in the MIME utility. EXTRACT extracts the specified attachment to a file in its native file format or in another format specified by the /FDL qualifier.
The following are typical MIME utility commands used to open a message file, display the message in readable text, and list the message attributes:
To extract the attachment, enter the following command:
You can specify a single attachment by appending the /ATTACHMENT=n qualifier, which specifies the number of the attachment to be extracted. You can also use /FDL=filename, which specifies a File Descriptor Language (FDL) definition file to use when converting the specified attachment into an output file. The numbers for the individual attachments are displayed with the LIST command.
To encode files to be sent as attachments, you must first create a new file by invoking the MIME utility and specifying the NEW command. If the file name is not specified, NEW will prompt for a file name:
Or you can use the OPEN command in the MIME utility to open a draft message file:
To open a file that you created in a previous session, specify the qualifier /DRAFT in the command.
To add attachments to the file, enter the command:
For a complete list of optional qualifiers for this command, see Section 6.16.6.
To write the current information to the file, use the SAVE command. Once saved, the MIME-encoded file can be sent as a file by the OpenVMS Mail utility.
To exit the MIME utility, enter the QUIT or EXIT command.
The following list contains descriptions of the commands, parameters, and qualifiers available in the MIME utility. Examples follow each description.
ADD --- Adds a new body part or attachment to the message being edited. The ADD command requires the name of the file you want to attach as a parameter. The optional qualifiers are:
CLOSE --- Closes the current message file. If you have not saved your most recent changes, the MIME utility will prompt you to save before closing. If the file is /READ_ONLY, the file is left unchanged.
EDIT --- Invokes the user's default text editor for the specified attachment.
EXIT --- Exits the MIME editor, saving any work in process.
EXTRACT --- Extracts the specified attachment to a file in its native file format.
HELP --- Displays a help file for the MIME utility.
LIST --- Displays information about the current message including a list of body parts and attributes, such as the attachment number.
NEW --- Creates a new message.
OPEN --- Opens the message with the specified file name. The qualifiers available are:
QUIT --- Aborts the current MIME editing session without saving the current message.
READ --- Displays the current message as readable text. Displays the attachment, if applicable.
REMOVE --- Deletes a specified attachment from the current message.
SHOW --- Displays information about the MIME environment, depending upon what option is specified. Possible options are CONTENT_TYPE, FILE_TYPES, and VERSION.
SAVE --- Writes the current message to a file. If a file name is specified, it will be used.
6.16.7 Error Handling
Error conditions are reported using the OpenVMS signaling subsystem, specifically lib$signal() and lib$stop(). Three levels of severity exist for error conditions: Fatal, Error, and Warning. These levels indicate what results you can expect from a condition. The severities and corresponding results are described in the following list:
The fields on the viewport are as follows:
The viewport contains information regarding the user's name, the text
of the conversation, and various status indicators, such as who is on
hold. User names of people that you have on hold can be temporarily
eliminated from the screen to make room for new participants.
7.1.1 Help on Phone
You can obtain information about Phone by invoking the HELP command at the DCL prompt as follows:
$ HELP Topic? PHONE
To enter Phone commands, you must first press the switchhook character (%). If you are using the Phone utility but are not currently engaged in a conversation, the switchhook character is optional because there is no ambiguity between a command and conversation.
When you are engaged in a conversation, most of the characters that you
type are considered part of that conversation and are sent to each
participant. The exception is the percent sign (%), which signals that
you want to enter a Phone utility command. You can enter any Phone
utility command during a conversation. See Section 7.4 for a list of
available Phone commands.
7.3 Customizing Your Phone Viewport
When entering the DCL command PHONE, you can supply the following qualifiers that modify the characteristics of the simulated telephone:
|/SCROLL||Determines how new lines of text are displayed on the screen when the viewport becomes full.|
|/SWITCH_HOOK||Specifies the character to be used for the switchhook prompt. The switchhook character must be entered before each Phone utility command that is entered during a conversation.|
|/VIEWPORT_SIZE||Specifies the maximum number of lines in a viewport, including the heading line and the bottom line of dashes.|
For complete descriptions of Phone qualifiers, enter HELP PHONE at the
7.4 Summary of Phone Commands
The following table summarizes all of the Phone commands available. There are no qualifiers associated with the commands in this table.
|ANSWER||Answers the phone when you receive a call.|
|DIAL||Places a call to another user.|
|DIRECTORY||Displays a list of those users with whom you can talk on your system or on any other system in the network.|
|EXIT||Exits from the Phone utility.|
|FACSIMILE||Allows you to include the contents of a file in your conversation.|
|HANGUP||Hangs up your phone. This disconnects all current links---the current conversation, anyone you have on hold, and anyone who has you on hold.|
|HELP||Enables you to obtain online information about the Phone utility.|
|HOLD||Enables you to put on hold other users who are currently participating in a conversation with you.|
|Allows you to send a brief message to another person.|
|PHONE||Is synonymous with the DIAL command.|
|REJECT||Allows you to reject a call from another user while you are using Phone.|
|UNHOLD||Reverses the most recently entered HOLD command.|