University Computing Services

Elm

Elm is the preferred electronic mail program on Garnet, Mailer, and other UCS Unix systems. It allows you to read, send, forward, and reply to messages. You can use it communicate with other users on the same computer, with users of other computers at FSU, and with Internet users all around the world. Electronic mail messages usually arrive at the recipient's computer within seconds.

Basic Use

Starting Elm. You can start Elm by choosing the elm option from the 'Services' menu. The display will look something like this:
________________________________________________________

 Mailbox is '/usr/spool/mail/me' with 4 messages [ELM 2.4 PL17]

   N  1   Feb 4  John Smith      (20)    Re: Gopher broke!
   N  2   Feb 4  Robert Brown    (19)    elm question
   N  3   Feb 3  student 8       (27)    backspace key?
      4   Feb 2  to John Smith   (19)    Gopher broke!

 You can use any of the following commands by pressing the first character;
 d)elete or u)ndelete mail, m)ail a message, r)eply or f)orward mail, q)uit
 To read a message, press . j = move down, k = move up, ? = help

Command:

________________________________________________________

The lines numbered 1 through 4 are the index of messages in the mailbox. The ones marked 'N' are newly received and have not been read. The index also shows the date the message was received, the name of the sender (not the e-mail address!), the length of the message, and the subject line.

Reading a Message. The first message will be highlighted. You can read it by pressing the Return key or the space bar. You can move around between messages with the up or down arrow keys or with the 'k' and 'j' keys. While reading a message, you can go to the next one with 'n' and return to the index with 'i'.

Sending a Message. To send a message, press 'm' (for 'Mail'). (Note that you don't have to press Return after typing 'm' and many other Elm commands.) Elm will say:

        Send the message to:

Type the e-mail address(es) of the recipient(s).

If the recipient's address is on the same computer you are on, you only need to type his or her username (e.g., jsmith, if that is John Smith's username).
If the recipient's address is on a different computer, use an address of the form username@host.domain. For example, Gold users have addresses of the form username@gold.UCS.fsu.edu. Those on Garnet have addresses username@garnet.acns.fsu.edu.
Users of computers in departments other than UCS will have addresses in other domains, e.g., met.fsu.edu for the department of Meteorology or cob.fsu.edu for the College of Business.
Users of computers outside FSU will have addresses in domains other than fsu.edu (e.g., ufl.edu for the University of Florida).
A complete discussion of Internet domain names is beyond the scope of this guide.

Elm will next prompt for a subject:

        Subject of message:

So type a subject and press Return. When Elm says

        Copies to:

you can add a list of other addresses you want the message to go to.

Elm will start up an editor, usually Pico, so you can type in the body of the message. To use Pico, just follow the instructions at the bottom of the screen. (Note that ^K means that you hold down the Control key while pressing the letter 'k'.)

After exiting Pico with ^X (Control-x), you will be presented these options:

    e   Go back to the editor
    h   Edit the header information (subject line, recipients, etc.)
    s   Send the message
    f   Abort the message (forget it)

The default option, which is 's', will be highlighted. Press one of the letters.

Replying to a Message. Press 'r', while the message is highlighted in the index or while reading the message. Elm will ask:

        Copy message? (y/n)

If you type 'y', the original message will be included in the body of your reply (but you will be able to edit it if you wish). You can then type the text of your reply. The procedure will then be the same as sending a message.

Forwarding a Message. Press 'f' while the message is highlighted in the index or while reading it. The procedure is then similar to a Reply.

Deleting a Message. You can mark messages to be deleted by pressing 'd' while they are highlighted in the index. You can also type 'd' while reading a message. The messages will be deleted when you exit from Elm.

Exiting Elm. To return to the main menu (index), press 'i'. To exit, press 'q' (quit). Elm may ask:

        Delete messages? (y/n)

If you type 'y', any messages you have marked for deletion will be deleted when you exit. Elm may also ask:

        Move read messages to 'received' folder? (y/n)

If you type 'y', the messages you have read will be put in the 'received' folder and will not be listed the next time you use Elm.

Retrieving Messages from the Received Folder. To retrieve messages from the received folder, press 'c' and then type the character '>' at the prompt. Elm will respond with the same questions it asks when you exit the program, but will then put you in the archive of previously read messages. The '>' character is a shorthand notation for the folder '=received' -- see below for more about Elm folders. To return to the incoming mailbox, press 'c' and specify '!' as the folder.

Advanced Use

Saving a Message to a File or Folder. Press 's' while the message is highlighted in the index or while reading it. You can either save the message to an ordinary file or to a mail folder. To save to a file, just type the file name or file path to which the message should be saved. To save to a folder, use the folder name, pre ceded by an '=' sign (by default, Elm will want to save the message to a folder named =sender, where sender is the username of the originator of the message).

Changing Folders. To change folders, press the 'c' key and then type the folder name. For example, to read old messages that have been stored in the 'Received' folder, type '=received'. To return to 'new mail' after reading another folder, press 'c' and request the folder '!' (exclamation mark). Before changing to the new folder, Elm will ask you if you want to move read messages to the received folder and delete marked messages.

For More Information

The directory /usr/local/doc/elm contains both plain text and PostScript versions of Elm reference manuals.

If you need additional help, contact the
Helpdesk
(850) 644-HELP (644-4357).

Contact the Technology Services Help Desk.