BURST(1) [nmh-1.0.4] (MH.6.8) BURST(1)
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
Proposed Standard for Message Encapsulation (RFC-934),
inc(1), msh(1), pack(1)
DEFAULTS
`+folder' defaults to the current folder
`msgs' defaults to cur
`-noinplace'
`-noquiet'
`-noverbose'
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BURST(1) [nmh-1.0.4] (MH.6.8) BURST(1)
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.
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