Using Elm with ``editor = none''

The Elm program also supports a builtin editor for simple message composition that is very (very) similar to the simple line editor available from the Berkeley Mail system.

To access it, you need merely to specify ``editor=none'' in your .elm/elmrc file. With that, any messages to be composed that don't already have text in the buffer (e.g. no reply with the text included, etc), will use this editor.

From the builtin editor, the following options are available for use. Each command here is prefixed with a `~'. You can specify a different ``escape'' character in your .elm/elmrc file, if you desire.

~?

Print a brief help menu.

~b

Change the Blind-Carbon-Copy list.

~c

Change the Carbon-Copy list.

~e

Invoke the Emacs editor on the message, if possible.

~f

Add the specified message or current message.

~h

Change all the available headers (To, Cc, Bcc, and Subject).

~m

Same as `~f', but with the current `prefix'.

~o

Invoke a user specified editor on the message.

~p

Print out the message as typed in so far.

~r

Include (read in) the contents of the specified file.

~s

Change the Subject line.

~t

Change the To list.

~v

Invoke the Vi visual editor on the message.

~<

Execute the specified unix command, entering the output of the command into the editor buffer upon completion. (For example ``~< who'' will include the output of the who command in your message.)

~!

Execute a unix command if one is given (as in ``~!ls'') or give the user a shell (either from their shell setting in their .elm/elmrc file or the default).

~~

Add a line prefixed by a single `~' character.

A useful note is that the `~f' and `~m' commands invoke the readmsg command, so you can pass parameters along too. For example, if we wanted to include a message from Joe, without any headers, prefixed, we could use:

  • ~m -n Joe
    • to accomplish the task.

    To learn more about how they work, try 'em!