XLBIFF(1)XLBIFF(1)NAMExlbiff - mailbox message previewer for X
SYNOPSISxlbiff [ -option ... ]
DESCRIPTION
The xlbiff program lurks in the background, watching your
mailbox file, waiting for new mail. When mail arrives, it
invokes the MH scan(1) command and pops up a window with
the results. Clicking the left mouse button anywhere in
this window makes it go away. The window will also disap-
pear if iconified or if the mailbox size drops to zero.
OPTIONS
Xlbiff accepts all of the standard X Toolkit command line
options along with the additional options listed below:
-help This option indicates that a brief summary of the
allowed options should be printed on standard out-
put.
-bottom This option tells xlbiff to realize/unrealize()
the output window instead of using XtPopup/down().
This has the effect of causing the window manager
to reposition the window each time it pops up, and
is useful for when you specify negative Y coordi-
nates, ie, at the bottom of the screen. Running
xlbiff in this situation without -bottom would
cause new lines to run off the bottom edge of the
screen.
+bottom Opposite of -bottom.
-file filename
This option specifies the name of the file which
should be monitored. By default, it watches
/usr/spool/mail/username, where username is your
login name.
-rows height
This option specifies the maximum height, in lines
of text, of the xlbiff window. The default is 20.
-columns width
This option specifies the maximum width, in char-
acters, of the xlbiff window. The default is 80.
-resetSaver
If this option is set, xlbiff will reset the
screen saver when new mail comes in. This is use-
ful if you're doing something near your worksta-
tion but not on it.
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+resetSaver
Opposite of -resetSaver.
-update seconds
This option specifies the frequency in seconds at
which xlbiff should update its display. The
default is 15 seconds.
-fade seconds
Number of seconds to wait before popping window
back down. This option can be used to monitor
events of non-lasting importance, such as syslog
or UUCP queues. The default value of 0 disables
the fade option.
-led ledNum
This option specifies a keyboard LED to light up
when there is mail waiting in the file. The
default is zero (do not light a LED).
-ledPopdown
This option indicates that the LED should be
turned off when xlbiff is popped down. Ordinarily
the LED stays lit to remind one of awaiting mail.
This option has no effect if the -led option is
disabled.
+ledPopdown
Opposite of -ledPopdown.
-refresh seconds
This option specifies the number of seconds to
wait before re-posting the mail window after you
acknowledge it, and it still contains the same
mail. The default is 0 (no refresh). A useful
value for this is 1800 (30 minutes).
-mailerCommand command
Specifies the command to invoke when the the
mailer() action is activated, eg, "xterm -e elm"
or "inc". By default this is bound to the second
mouse button. Invoking this action will pop down
the main window. When the command exits, it will
pop up again. Due to mailbox consistency consid-
erations, the mailerCommand should not exit before
it is finished with the mailbox, i.e. it should
not be run in the background.
There is no default mailerCommand.
-scanCommand command
Specifies a shell command to be executed to list
the contents of mailbox file. The specified
string value is used as the argument to a
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XLBIFF(1)XLBIFF(1)system(3) call and may therefore contain i/o redi-
rection. The command's stdout is used to generate
the window. Internally, the command is generated
as
sprintf(buf, scanCommand, file, columns)
so a %s and %d respectively in scanCommand will
generate the values of file and columns. The
default scanCommand is
scan -file %s -width %d
-checkCommand command
Specifies a shell command to be executed to check
for new mail (or some other condition) rather than
simply examining the size of the mail file. The
specified string value is used as the argument to
a popen(3) call, and the output generated is
important. Like xbiff, an exit status of 0 indi-
cates that a change in condition demands a new
evaluation of scanCommand and subsequent popup, 1
indicates no change in status, and 2 indicates
that the condition has been cleared and the xlbiff
window should pop down. By default, no shell com-
mand is provided.
This option may be useful to monitor logins (by
checking update times of /etc/utmp), when using
POP or other custom maildrop mechanisms, and so
forth.
Similarly to scanCommand, the checkCommand is gen-
erated internally as
sprintf(buf, checkCommand, file, previous)
previous is the numeric value output by the last
time checkCommand was run, or zero the first time.
This is useful for allowing the checkCommand to
maintain state in a primitive fashion. For
instance, a checkCommand such as
compare_size %s %d
would "do the right thing" if compare_size were a
script such as:
#!/bin/sh
NEWSIZE=`wc -c <$1`
echo $NEWSIZE
if [ $NEWSIZE -ne $2 ]; then
if [ $NEWSIZE -eq 0 ]; then
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exit 2
else
exit 0
fi
fi
exit 1
The author of xlbiff uses this facility to keep
track of several maildrops with one command. See
the Bcheck and Bscan scripts, included.
-volume percentage
This option specifies how loud the bell should be
rung when new mail comes in.
The following standard X Toolkit command line arguments
are commonly used with xlbiff:
-display display
This option specifies the X server to contact.
-geometry +x+y
This option specifies the preferred position of
the scan window.
-bg color
This option specifies the color to use for the
background of the window.
-fg color
This option specifies the color to use for the
foreground of the window.
-xrm resourcestring
This option specifies a resource string to be
used. This is especially useful for setting
resources that do not have separate command line
options.
RESOURCES
The application class name is XLbiff. It understands all
of the core resource names and classes as well as:
bottom (class Bottom)
Same as the -bottom option.
file (class File)
Same as the -file option.
mailerCommand (class MailerCommand)
Same as the -mailerCommand option.
scanCommand (class ScanCommand)
Same as the -scanCommand option.
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XLBIFF(1)XLBIFF(1)
checkCommand (class CheckCommand)
Same as the -checkCommand option.
resetSaver (class ResetSaver)
Same as the -resetSaver option.
update (class Interval)
Same as the -update option.
fade (class Fade)
Same as the -fade option.
columns (class Columns)
Same as the -columns option.
rows (class Rows)
Specifies the maximum height, in lines, of the
xlbiff window. The default is 20.
led (class Led)
Same as the -led option.
ledPopdown (class LedPopdown)
Same as the -ledPopdown option.
refresh (class Refresh)
Same as the -refresh option.
sound (class Sound)
Specify a command to be run in place of a bell
when new mail arrives. For example, on a Sun
Sparc you might use:
*sound: /usr/demo/SOUND/play -v %d /usr/demo/SOUND/sounds/doorbell.au
The command is generated internally with sprintf,
so the characters ``%d'' will be replaced with the
numeric value of the volume resource.
volume (class Volume)
Same as the -volume option.
ACTIONS
Xlbiff provides the following actions for use in event
translations:
popdown()
This action causes the window to vanish.
exit() This action causes xlbiff to exit.
The default translations are
<Button1Press>: popdown()
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<Button3Press>: exit()ENVIRONMENT
DISPLAY is used to get the default host and display num-
ber.
FILES
/usr/spool/mail/username
default mail file to check.
SEE ALSOX(1), scan(1)BUGS
specifying dimensions in -geometry causes badness.
The led option does not work on Suns before SunOS
4.1/X11R5.
AUTHOR
Ed Santiago, santiago@vix.com
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Xlbiff took shape around the xgoodbye sample program in
the O'Reilly X Toolkit Intrinsics Programming Manual. A
lot of code was stolen from xbiff, including this man
page. Thanks also to Stephen Gildea
(gildea@expo.lcs.mit.edu) for the many, many contributions
that made xlbiff grow from a midnight hack to a more
mature product.
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