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  fol­
       lowing  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'

       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 mes­
       sages which may be burst from a single message.  This num­
       ber 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 algo­
       rithm.  In degenerate cases, this usually results in burst
       finding  an  encapsulation boundary prematurely and split­
       ting a single encapsulated message into two or  more  mes­
       sages.   These  erroneous  digestifying programs should be
       fixed.

       Furthermore, any text which appears after the last  encap­
       sulated  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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