Generally, PMDF MAIL strives to be 100% functionally compatible with VMS MAIL. Many obscure, esoteric features are emulated. There are, however, some notable differences which are discussed below. It is possible, however, that you might notice other differences which might very well be things overlooked by Process.

Commands

The basic command set in PMDF MAIL is compatible with VMS MAIL. Only one command and one qualifier from VMS MAIL are not implemented: the SHOW KEY command, and the /MAIL qualifier of the EXTRACT command. In regards to the /MAIL qualifier, if you need to extract messages to a .MAI file, then use VMS MAIL to do so.

Directory listings

In directory listings of your messages, any IN%" " wrappers will be removed from the displayed From: addresses. PMDF MAIL will also indicate if a message has been moved with the phrase "(moved)" in the directory listing.

Reading mail

When a message is displayed, you no longer see the VMS MAIL header lines followed by the RFC 822 header lines. All you will see are the RFC 822 header lines. If a message does not have an RFC 822 header in it (e.g., is a message delivered to your mailbox by some mailer other than PMDF), then PMDF MAIL will construct a very basic RFC 822 header from the VMS MAIL header and display that. You can use the SET HEADER_TRIMMING commands to control which header lines are or are not displayed when you read your mail.

Also, when a message is displayed, a slightly different line giving the message number, folder, and date appears at the top of the screen. The difference is fairly minor.

Addressing

Whereas in VMS MAIL you need to specify IN%"address", you need only specify address in PMDF MAIL. That is, you can omit the IN%" " wrapper from the addresses you specify. For example, to specify the VMS MAIL address IN%"bob@example.com" in PMDF MAIL, just specify bob@example.com.

While @DIS-style mailing lists are supported, only one list name can be specified per address prompt. If you need to specify multiple @DIS filenames, use the /MULTIPLE qualifier to the SEND, FORWARD, REPLY, etc. commands. That qualifier will cause multiple To:, Cc:, and Bcc: prompts to be presented until a blank line is entered.

Logical names used as the recipient address are not supported in PMDF MAIL, unless the system manager explicitly enables PMDF, and hence PMDF MAIL, to use logical names as a source of recipient address information with the NAME_TABLE_NAME option described in the PMDF System Manager's Guide. Users are strongly encouraged to use the PMDF DB utility to manage their personal "phone books" of addresses.

Editing

When you use the /EDIT qualifier with the ANSWER, FORWARD, MAIL, REPLY, and SEND commands, you will find that the initial header of the message which you are composing also appears in the editor. That is the actual header. You can edit it if you want; your changes will be incorporated into the final message when it is sent. For instance, you might want to add or remove some addresses from the To:, Cc:, or Bcc: header lines, or add some other header lines. PMDF will take the necessary steps to insure that the final message header is legal, correct, and has authenticated originator addresses in it.

To prevent the header from appearing in the editor either invoke PMDF MAIL with the command

$ PMDF MAIL/EDIT=NOHEADER

or use the /NOHEADER qualifier when issuing commands within PMDF MAIL.

Replying to mail

Both VMS MAIL and PMDF MAIL preferentially use the From: header as the address to send replies to. However, you must keep in mind that VMS MAIL uses the VMS MAIL From: address and PMDF MAIL uses the RFC 822 From: address. These two addresses are not always the same; see Section 2.1.2.

Automatically purging mail files

PMDF MAIL does not emulate VMS MAIL's behavior of automatically purging any mail file it closes when you have selected AUTO_PURGE. The reason for this is simple: you cannot be closing your own mail file in which case you probably do not want to purge it. PMDF MAIL will only automatically purge your default mail file.

Extracting, forwarding, or replying to multipart messages

When you extract, forward, print, or reply to a multipart message, you should be aware of the following:

• When you extract or print a multipart message, only the last part read is extracted.
• When you forward or reply to a multipart message, then PMDF MAIL starts with the last message part read and works its way up the message nestings until it reaches the message part containing the last part read. (MIME messages can contain messages.) It is then this message part, with any of its subparts, which is forwarded or replied to.

The /PART, /MESSAGE, and /ENTIRE command qualifiers can be used to override this behavior. Specifically, the /ENTIRE qualifier produces the standard VMS MAIL behavior. With qualifiers to the PMDF MAIL DCL command, these defaults can be controlled.

Output

PMDF MAIL output is directed to SYS$ERROR, unlike VMS MAIL output which is directed to SYS$OUTPUT. This distinction is not normally evident in interactive usage, but can be relevant if you want to redirect output.