Annotation of hypermess/hypermail/README, revision 1.3
1.1 kahan 1: Hypermail
2:
1.3 ! kahan 3: Version: 2.0
1.1 kahan 4:
5: This is a beta release of the 2.0 version of hypermail. It is expected
6: that this will go through a beta period before being officially released
7: as Hypermail 2.0.
8:
9: Please refer to Changelog for the list of changes made to this release.
10:
11: Hypermail Background:
12: =====================
13:
14: Hypermail was originally designed and developed by Tom Gruber for
15: Enterprise Integration Technologies (EIT) using Common Lisp.
16:
17: It was later rewritten in C by Kevin Hughes in 1994 while Kevin
18: worked at EIT.
19:
20: License Evolution:
21: ------------------
22:
23: In the spring of 1997, Kevin Hughes heavily pressed Hewlett-Packard
24: (who was now the legal owner of Hypermail, since EIT was bought by
25: VeriFone, which was bought by Hewlett-Packard) into placing a free
26: software license onto his old EIT software. They officially put the
27: GNU license on *all* of Kevin's old EIT software, opening it up to
28: more open methods of development and distribution. So now Hypermail
29: is under GNU.
30:
31: EIT's net.disappearance:
32: ------------------------
33:
34: A very old and established government contractor company called
35: Electronic Instrumentation and Technology Inc. made legal moves to
36: obtain the eit.com domain. Since VeriFone/HP had no interest in keeping
37: EIT, dissolved it completely. As this company had a trademark on EIT,
38: the domain name was given to them. Elizabeth Batson of EIT/VeriFone/HP
39: informed Kevin he could maintain all his old software himself wherever
40: he wished to put it.
41:
42: Kevin and ongoing Hypermail Development:
43: ----------------------------------------
44:
45: Kevin left Hewlett-Packard in 1997 and helped form a new company
46: called Veo Systems (www.veosystems.com) with his old boss Marty
47: Tenenbaum, who founded EIT. Kevin did not have the time to maintain
48: any of his old software, so he was looking for different parties to
49: help maintain it and take over different pieces. For instance, Getstats
50: has been obsoleted by Analog (http://www.statslab.cam.ac.uk/~sret1/analog/).
51: SWISH has been taken over by the SWISH-E project
52: (http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/SWISH-E/) and many people have been doing
53: good things with it. April 17, 1998 Kevin passed hypermail development
54: to Kent Landfield (http://www.landfield.com/hypermail/). Kent had been
55: supporting an enhanced version of hypermail he had been using for the
56: last few years.
57:
58: General:
59: ========
60:
61: Hypermail 1.02 was the last supported version of hypermail until recently.
62: This is the start of its rebirth as a supported, publically available tool.
63:
64: This version has been tested on the platforms listed below. If you would
65: like to send portability patches or confirmation that it works on a certain
66: platform, please do. There should not be toooo many changes that need to be
67: made.
68:
69: This version of hypermail allows an administrator to customize the header
70: and footers to match their local needs. This allows you to have hypermail
71: facilities better integrated into your web site.
72:
73: This version is an integration of patches that Kevin had received through
74: the years, and new features through the individual efforts many people.
75: This has been run through lint, Insight and Purify and has been cleaned up
76: accordingly. There are still some minor issues that will be cleaned up
77: shortly.
78:
79: * archive - general archive utilites that are useful in managing
80: list archives. It is expected that some of the functionality
81: in msg2archive.c will find it's way into future versions of
82: hypermail,
83: * configs - sample hypermail configuration files,
84: * docs - documentation and documentation support files,
85: * libcgi - support library for the mail utility,
86: * src - here's the beef,
87: * tests - directory for supporting local testing,
88:
89: Before Building Hypermail:
90: ==========================
91:
92: * Hypermail now uses "configure" to generate the Makefiles. In the
93: top level directory, type "configure" to create the Makefiles.
94: It is not quite right but it is close. If it does not work on your
1.3 ! kahan 95: system, please let me know.
1.1 kahan 96:
97: * Additional utilities have been added to support maintaining hypermail
98: and Unix mailbox archives side-by-side. The tools can be very useful.
99: See the archive/README for additional information. It is expected that
100: the functionality of msg2archive.c will be merged into hypermail in
101: the future.
102:
103: Building Hypermail:
104: ===================
105:
1.3 ! kahan 106: Hypermail has been normally compiled and run on Unix-based systems
! 107: in the past. Today it can be configured and built using Cygwin software.
! 108: For more information on Cygwin and build hypermail on a Windows-based
! 109: system, see the file docs/Install-win32.txt.
! 110:
! 111: Generic Build:
! 112:
! 113: 1) Type "./configure". This creates the makefiles and the
! 114: config.h file needed to build the software.
1.1 kahan 115:
116: 2) Type "make". This will build the software. You can test
117: it locally and when you are ready to install it ...
118:
119: Testing Hypermail:
120: ==================
121:
122: If you wish to test the new hypermail before installing it
123:
124: - chdir to tests/
125:
126: - copy a mailbox you have to a local file named "testmail"
127:
128: - type "testhm"
129:
130: This will generate an archive under a newly created "testdir/"
131: directory. Check it out with your favorite browser.
132:
133: When you are done testing,
134:
135: - remove the testdir directory,
136:
137: - remove the testmail file.
138:
139: (See the README in tests/ for more information.)
140:
141: Installing Hypermail:
142: =====================
143:
144: Now that you are ready to install Hypermail,
145:
1.2 kahan 146: - chdir to the src/ directory
1.1 kahan 147:
148: - Type "make install".
149:
150: Building cgi-bin/mail:
151: ======================
152:
153: A small CGI program, "mail", is included with this source
154: for you to use with Hypermail. To compile and install it:
155:
156: 1) Edit the Makefile and change the variable "cgidir" to
157: point to the directory that holds your site's CGI programs.
158:
159: 2) Type "make mail" to compile the mail program.
160:
161: 3) Type "make mail.install" to install the program in your
162: CGI directory.
163:
164: Documentation:
165: ==============
166:
167: To install the HTML documentation:
168:
169: 1) Edit the Makefile and change "htmldir" to point to the
170: directory in which you want the documentation.
171:
172: 2) Type "make html.install". You should be able to view the
173: HTML documentation using any World-Wide Web browser.
174:
175: The latest, most up-to-date Hypermail documentation can be found at:
176:
177: http://www.landfield.com/hypermail/
178:
179: Supported Platforms:
180: ====================
181:
182: I have either compiled this code successfully on the following
183: platforms or others have told me of their success.
184:
185: * Solaris 2.5.x
186: * SunOS 4.1.3
187: * FreeBSD 2.2.5
188: * BSDI/3.x
189: * Linux kernel 2.0.18 and 2.0.30
1.3 ! kahan 190: * Redhat 5.x && 6.x
1.1 kahan 191: * NT using CygWin-b19 <http://www.cygnus.com/misc/gnu-win32>
1.2 kahan 192: * HP-UX 10.20
1.1 kahan 193:
194: If you have been able to compile Hypermail on different systems,
195: *PLEASE* let me know so I can list them here.
196:
197: Warning:
198: ========
199:
200: Take the time to read the KNOWN_BUGS file so that you are aware of
201: things that might affect your use of hypermail.
202:
1.2 kahan 203: CVS Server:
204: ===========
205:
206: Thanks to Ashley M. Kirchner <ashley@pcraft.com>, we have a CVS
207: server with the most recent sources at all times. Study the file
208: README.CVS for details in how to use it.
209:
1.1 kahan 210: Getting Help:
211: =============
212:
213: Please send all bug reports, feature requests, patches, and other
214: program-related things to
215:
216: hypermail-bugs@landfield.com.
217:
218: The Hypermail Development mailing list (hypermail@landfield.com) is
219: a good place to ask questions about usage, potential bugs, or to talk
220: about features you'd like to see. The list is a majordomo-based list.
221: To subscribe send a message to majordomo@landfield.com with
222:
223: "subscribe hypermail"
224:
225: (minus the quotes) as the body of the message. The Subject: line
226: is ignored. The list's submission address is hypermail@landfield.com.
227:
228: If you would simply like to be alerted to important Hypermail
229: announcements and don't wish to follow the development list's
230: traffic you can subscribe to the Hypermail Announcements list.
231: That is a very low traffic moderated list intended for announcements
232: only (concerning new releases or patches). This too is a majordomo
233: based list so to subscribe, send a message to majordomo@landfield.com
234: with
235: "subscribe hypermail-announce"
236:
237: as the body of the message.
238:
239: Additionally:
240: =============
241:
242: You'll find the image "hypermail.gif" included with the source;
243: this icon is for your use in your Hypermail-related pages and links
244: to them. If you are talented with graphics and would like to donate
245: new icons and images to the hypermail effort, please feel free.
246:
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