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CMAIL(6)						 CMAIL(6)

NAME
       cmail - an email chess helper

SYNOPSIS
       cmail [options]

DESCRIPTION
       The  cmail  program will help you play chess by email with
       opponents of your choice using an X interface.  To use it,
       you will need to be able to run xboard with which cmail is
       distributed, available  by  anonymous  FTP  from	 numerous
       sites  around  the  world.  It has been tested with xboard
       3.2; it may require modification for other versions.

OPTIONS
       You will usually run cmail  without  giving  any	 options.
       See the next section for instructions.

       -h      Displays cmail usage information.

       -c      Shows  the  conditions  of  the GNU General Public
	       License.

       -w      Shows the warranty notice of the GNU General  Pub
	       lic License.

       -[x]v   Provides or inhibits verbose output from cmail and
	       xboard, useful for debugging. The  -xv  form  also
	       inhibits the cmail introduction message.

       -[x]mail
	       Invokes	or inhibits the sending of a mail message
	       containing the move.

       -[x]xboard
	       Invokes or inhibits the running of xboard  on  the
	       game file.

       -[x]reuse
	       Invokes	or  inhibits  the  reuse  of  an existing
	       xboard to display the current game.

       -remail Resends the last mail message for that game.  This
	       inhibits running xboard.

       -game name
	       The name of the game to be processed.

       -(w|b|)games number
	       Number  of games to start as White, as Black or in
	       total. Default is 1 as white and none as black. If
	       only  one  colour  is  specified	 then none of the
	       other colour is assumed. If no colour is specified
	       then  equal  numbers  of White and Black games are

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CMAIL(6)						 CMAIL(6)

	       started, with the extra game being as White if  an
	       odd number of total games is specified.

       -(me|opp) short name
	       A one-word alias for yourself or your opponent.

       -(w|b|my|opp)name full name
	       The  full  name	of White, Black, yourself or your
	       opponent.

       -(w|b|my|opp)na net address
	       The email address of  White,  Black,  yourself  or
	       your opponent.

       -dir directory
	       The directory in which cmail keeps its files. This
	       defaults to the environment variable $CMAIL_DIR or
	       failing	that,  $CHESSDIR, $HOME/Chess or ~/Chess.
	       It will be created if it does not exist.

       -arcdir directory
	       The directory in which  cmail  archives	completed
	       games.	Defaults   to  the  environment	 variable
	       $CMAIL_ARCDIR or, in its absence, the same  direc
	       tory as cmail keeps its working files (above).

       -mailprog mail program
	       The  program used by cmail to send email messages.
	       This  defaults	to   the   environment	 variable
	       $CMAIL_MAILPROG	or  failing that "/usr/ucb/Mail",
	       "/usr/ucb/mail" or "Mail". You will  need  to  set
	       this  variable if none of the above paths fit your
	       system.

       -gamesFile file
	       A file containing  a  list  of  games  with  email
	       addresses.  This defaults to the environment vari
	       able $CMAIL_GAMES or failing that .cmailgames.

       -aliasesFile file
	       A file containing one or more aliases for a set of
	       email  addresses. This defaults to the environment
	       variable	  $CMAIL_ALIASES    or	  failing    that
	       .cmailaliases.

       -logFile file
	       A file in which to dump verbose debugging messages
	       that are invoked with the -v option.

       -event event
	       The PGN Event tag (default  "Email  correspondence
	       game").

								2

CMAIL(6)						 CMAIL(6)

       -site site
	       The PGN Site tag (default "NET").

       -round round
	       The PGN Round tag (default "-", not applicable).

       -mode mode
	       The  PGN Mode tag (default "EM", Electronic Mail).

OTHER OPTIONS
       Any unrecognised flags will be  passed  to  xboard.  Those
       most relevant for use with cmail are:

       -timeDelay (or -td) delay
	       This  sets  the	speed at which the moves are dis
	       played on start-up. It defaults to the environment
	       variable	 $CMAIL_TIME_DELAY  if	set, and 0 other
	       wise.

       -noChessProgram (True | False), or -[x]ncp
	       If this option is False,	 xboard	 starts	 a  chess
	       program	which  can  be used with cmail to suggest
	       moves.  Default: True.

       -searchTime (or -st) minutes[:seconds]
	       Tells GNU Chess to spend at most the given  amount
	       of  time searching for each of its moves.  Without
	       this option, GNU Chess  chooses	its  search  time
	       based  on  the  number of moves and amount of time
	       remaining until the next time control.

       -searchDepth (or -sd) number
	       Tells GNU Chess to look ahead at	 most  the  given
	       number of moves when searching for a move to make.
	       Without this option, GNU Chess chooses its  search
	       depth  based  on the number of moves and amount of
	       time remaining until the next time control.

       -saveGameFile (or -sgf) file
	       If this option is set, xboard appends a record  of
	       the game played to the specified file on exit.

       -autosave or -autoSaveGames
	       If  this	 option is True, at the end of every game
	       xboard prompts you for a filename  and  appends	a
	       record of the game to the file you specify.

       -savePositionFile (or -spf) file
	       If  this	 option	 is set, xboard appends the final
	       position reached to the specified file on exit.

       -boardSize (or -size) (Large | Medium | Small)
	       Determines how large the board will  be	and  what

								3

CMAIL(6)						 CMAIL(6)

	       built-in	 piece	bitmaps will be used.  On a large
	       board (the default), pieces are 80x80 pixels, on a
	       medium  board  64x64  pixels, and on a small board
	       40x40 pixels.

STARTING A GAME
       Type cmail from a shell to start a game as  white.   After
       an  opening message, you will be prompted for a game name,
       which is optional -- if you simply press return, the  game
       name will take the form you-VS-opponent.	 You will next be
       prompted for the short name  of	your  opponent.	  If  you
       haven't	played	this  person  before,  you  will  also be
       prompted for  his/her  email  address.	cmail  will  then
       invoke xboard in the background.	 Make your first move and
       select Mail Move from the File  menu.   If  all	is  well,
       cmail  will  mail  a copy of the move to your opponent. If
       you select Exit without having selected Mail Move then  no
       move will be made.

ANSWERING A MOVE
       When  you  receive a message from an opponent containing a
       move in one of your games, simply pipe the message through
       cmail.	In  some  mailers  this is as simple as typing "|
       cmail" when viewing the message, while in others	 you  may
       have  to	 save the message to a file and do "cmail < file"
       at the command line.  In either case  cmail  will  display
       the  game using xboard. If you didn't exit xboard when you
       made your first move then cmail will do its  best  to  use
       the  existing  xboard  instead  of  starting a new one. As
       before, simply make a move and select Mail Move	from  the
       File  menu. cmail will try to use the xboard that was most
       recently used to display the current game. This means that
       many  games  can	 be in progress simultaneously, each with
       its own active xboard.

       If you want to look at the history or explore a variation,
       go  ahead,  but	you  must  return to the current position
       before xboard will allow you to mail a move. If	you  edit
       the  game's  history you must select Reload Same Game from
       the File menu to get back to the original  position,  then
       make  the  move you want and select Mail Move.  As before,
       if you decide you aren't ready to make a move just yet you
       can  either  select  Exit  without  sending a move or just
       leave xboard running until you are ready.

COMPLETING A GAME
       Because xboard can now  detect  checkmate  and  stalemate,
       cmail  now  handles  game termination sensibly. As well as
       resignation, the	 Action	 menu  now  allows  draws  to  be
       offered and accepted for cmail games.

       For multi-game messages, only unfinished and just-finished
       games will be included in email	messages.  When	 all  the
       games  are  finished,  they  are	 archived  in  the user's

								4

CMAIL(6)						 CMAIL(6)

       archive directory, and similarly in the opponent's when he
       or  she pipes the final message through cmail. The archive
       file name includes the date the game was started.

MULTI-GAME MESSAGES
       It's possible to have a cmail message carry more than  one
       game.  This feature was implemented to handle IECG (Inter
       national Email Chess Group) matches, where  a  match  con
       sists of 1 game as white and 1 as black, with moves trans
       mitted simultaneously. In  case	there  are  more  general
       uses,  cmail  itself  places  no	 limit	on  the number of
       black/white games contained in a message; however,  xboard
       does.

TROUBLE SHOOTING
       It's possible that a strange conjunction of conditions may
       occasionally mean that cmail has trouble	 reactivating  an
       existing	 xboard.  If this should happen, simply trying it
       again should work. If not, remove the file that stores the
       xboard's	 PID  (<game>.pid)  or	use the -xreuse option to
       force cmail to start a new xboard.

       Versions of cmail after 2.16 no longer understand the  old
       file  format that xboard used to use and so cannot be used
       to correspond with anyone using an older version.

       Versions of cmail older than 2.11 do not handle multi-game
       messages,  so  multi-game  correspondence  is not possible
       with opponents using an older version.

FILES
       ".cmailgames" contains a list  of  games	 with  the  email
       addresses of the opponents.

       ".cmailaliases"	contains one or more aliases for a set of
       email addresses.

BUGS
       No known bugs.

BUG REPORTS
       I make no promises but if you send bug reports/suggestions
       to  Evan.Welsh@msdw.com	I'll  do my best to fix/implement
       them.

AUTHOR
       Copyright (C) 1993  Free Software Foundation, Inc.

       cmail is free software; you  can	 redistribute  it  and/or
       modify  it  under  the  terms  of  the  GNU General Public
       License as published  by	 the  Free  Software  Foundation;
       either  version	2 of the License, or (at your option) any
       later version.

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CMAIL(6)						 CMAIL(6)

       cmail is distributed in the hope that it will  be  useful,
       but  WITHOUT  ANY  WARRANTY; without even the implied war
       ranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR  PUR
       POSE.   See  the	 GNU  General  Public  License	for  more
       details.

       You should have received a copy of the GNU General  Public
       License	along with cmail; if not, write to the Free Soft
       ware Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston,
       MA 02111 USA.

       Author:	 Evan Welsh <Evan.Welsh@msdw.com>

CONTRIBUTORS
       Patrick	Surry  helped with design, testing and documenta
       tion.

       Tim Mann helped integrate cmail with xboard.

SEE ALSO
       Mail(1), perl(1), xboard(1)

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