PMDF System Manager's Guide

Simply put, the contents of a header option file are formatted as a set of message header lines. Note, however, that the bodies of the header lines do not conform to RFC 822.

The general structure of a line from a header options file is then:

Header-name: OPTION=VALUE, OPTION=VALUE, OPTION=VALUE, ...

where Header-name is the name of a header line that PMDF recognizes (any of the header lines described in this manual may be specified, plus any of the header lines standardized in RFC 822, RFC 987, RFC 1049, RFC 1421, RFC 1422, RFC 1423, RFC 1424, RFC 2156, and RFC 2045).

Header lines not recognized by PMDF are controlled by the special header line name Other:. A set of options to be applied to all header lines not named in the header option file can also be given on a special Defaults: line. Use of Defaults: guards against the inevitable expansion of PMDF's known header line table in future releases.

Various options may then be specified to control the retention of the corresponding header lines. The available options are:

ADD (quoted string)

The ADD option creates a completely new header line of the given type. The new header line contains the specified string. The header line created by ADD will appear after any existing header lines of the same type. The ADD option cannot be used in conjunction with the Defaults: header line type; it will be ignored if it is specified as part of an Other: option list.

CUTLINES (integer)

This option controls the maximum number of lines all header lines of a given type may occupy. It complements the MAXIMUM option in that it pays no attention to how many header lines are involved, only to how many lines of text they collectively occupy. As with the MAXIMUM option, headers are trimmed from the bottom to meet the specified requirement. CUTLINES is similar to the MAXLINES option, but it will cut off a header instance in the middle. For that reason, MAXLINES is recommended over CUTLINES. CUTLINES is really only useful for the PMDF MAIL header trimming option file because it controls the display to the screen instead of actual headers contained in mail messages.

Note CUTLINES is not recommended for use in channel header option files. It is recommended for use only in the PMDF MAIL header option file.

EMPHASIS (integer)

This option adds emphasis to the display of the header label. It is only useful for use by PMDF MAIL, when displaying headers on the screen. It is a bit mask with the bits defined as follows: 1=bold, 2=underline, 4=reverse.

Note EMPHASIS is not recommended for use in channel header option files. It is recommended for use only in the PMDF MAIL header option file.

FILL (quoted string)

The FILL option creates a completely new header line of the given type if and only if there are no existing header lines of the same type. The new header line contains the specified string. The FILL option cannot be used in conjunction with the header line type; it will be ignored if it is specified as part of an Other: option list.

GROUP (integer 0 or 1)

This option controls grouping of header lines of the same type at a particular precedence level. A GROUP value of 0 is the default, and indicates that all header lines of a particular type should appear together. A value of 1 indicates that only one header line of the respective type should be output and the scan over all header lines at the associated level should resume, leaving any header lines of the same type unprocessed. Once the scan is complete it is then repeated in order to pick up any remaining header lines. This header option is primarily intended to accomodate Privacy Enhanced Mail (PEM) header processing.

LINELENGTH (integer)

This option controls the length at which to fold headers. See also the discussion of the headerlinelength channel keyword in Section 2.3.4.75.

MAXCHARS (integer)

This option controls the maximum number of characters which may appear in a single header line of the specified type. Any header line exceeding that length is truncated to a length of MAXCHARS. This option pays no attention to the syntax of the header line and should never be applied to header lines containing addresses and other sorts of structured information. The length of structured header lines should be controlled with the maxheaderchars and maxheaderaddrs channel keywords.

MAXIMUM (integer)

This option controls the maximum number of header lines of this type that may appear. This has no effect on the number of lines, after wrapping, each individual header line might consume. A value of -1 is interpreted as a request to suppress this header line type completely.

MAXLINES (integer)

This option controls the maximum number of lines all header lines of a given type may occupy. It complements the MAXIMUM option in that it pays no attention to how many header lines are involved, only to how many lines of text they collectively occupy. As with the MAXIMUM option, headers are trimmed from the bottom to meet the specified requirement. MAXLINES is similar to the CUTLINES option, but MAXLINES will not stop in the middle of an instance of a header. It will output all lines of that instance of the header, even if it goes a few lines beyond MAXLINES lines. This option is recommended for use over CUTLINES for that reason.

PRECEDENCE (integer)

This option controls the order in which header lines are output. All header lines have a default precedence of zero. The smaller the value, the higher the precedence. Thus, positive PRECEDENCE values will push header lines towards the bottom of the header while negative values will push them towards the top. Equal precedence ties are broken using PMDF's internal rules for header line output ordering.

RELABEL (header name)

This option changes a header line to another header line; that is, the name of the header is changed, but the value remains the same. For instance,

X-MSMail-Priority: RELABEL="Priority" X-Priority: RELABEL="Importance"