Columbia MM
MM Manual

CREATING AND USING YOUR OWN HEADER FIELDS

Besides the standard header fields like From, To, cc and so on, you can also make up your own header fields for your messages.

Strictly speaking, nonstandard headers should begin with X-, according to RFC822, the standard for Internet mail. In rare cases, a nonstandard header not beginning X- may create a problem on some mail system. Remember this if you run into a problem.


CREATING YOUR OWN HEADER FIELDS

Use the command user-header to create new header fields for messages. Like other header fields, yours must consist of a one-word label and then whatever text you want. Type user-header, then the one-word label, and then the text.



S>d h
From: Joseph Brennan <jb51@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>
To: fb2
Cc: mm33, hk12
Subject: Meeting on Sept 21
S>user-header Telephone 854-0000
S>d h
From: Joseph Brennan <jb51@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>
To: fb2
Cc: mm33, hk12
Subject: Meeting on Sept 21
Telephone: 854-0000
S>


Note that MM supplies the colon after the label, so you should not type it in the command. If you need a label of multiple words, you can use hyphens to make the label seem like one word.

You can have more than one user-header in a message. Each use of user-header creates a new header field (even if you use the same label).

Eliminate a user-header field by typing the command erase user-header and the label.


TAB COMPLETION FOR USER-HEADERS

If you use a user-header repeatedly, you can save typing out the label by storing it in a variable called user-headers. For example, store Telephone in the variable by typing set user-headers Telephone and then save-init.



MM>set user-headers Telephone
MM>save-init


You can now type just the beginning of the user-header label and press the TAB key to complete it. In the following example, the label Telephone is entered by typing just letter T and the TAB key. The user-header command itself is abbreviated to us, the shortest version that MM can recognize.



S>us Telephone 854-0000



PLACING YOUR OWN HEADER FIELD IN ALL OUTGOING MESSAGES

You might want to put a user-header into all your messages. For example, if you want people to telephone you, you might want to include the Telephone header field in all messages. To do so, create a file of your standard user-headers, and tell MM to insert them into all messages.

The format of the file is fairly strict. Each line must contain one user-header, and must be in the format label: text, that is, a label, a colon, a space, and the text. A sample with two user-headers follows.



Telephone: 854-0000
Address: 800 Watson


Suppose you call the file myheaders. Now set the variable header-options-file to myheaders by typing set header-options-file myheaders and then save-init. The user-headers in myfile will then be placed into all your outgoing mail.



MM>set header-options-file myheaders
MM>save-init


If you don't want to use a header-options-file any more, set it to the filename /dev/null, the standard empty file.



MM>set header-options-file /dev/null
MM>save-init



[ Columbia MM Manual ]