Previous: How to use Switches, Up: Switches [Index]
The following switches are available:
AdaptiveCase
The AdaptiveCase
switch is only relevant if you are running the
Unix/Linux version of Msged. It should be turned on if you are accessing
DOSish file systems (via Samba, NFS or the FAT or HPFS file system drivers),
from Msged running on Unix, or if DOS programs have access to your Unix file
system. DOSish fidonet programs usually create a really messed up message base
with mixed case spelling (i.E. it might contain both .MSG
,
.msg
and .Msg
file name extensions in a single netmail
directory). If the AdaptiveCase
switch is turned on, each time that
Msged tries to open or create a file, it will first do a search over the
directory to determine the correct spelling of a file. This enables Msged
to cope with such mixed spelling as it is often found in DOSish message
base directories. - On the other hand, if only Unix programs have access to
your message base and the message base is stored on a Unix file system, you can turn this
switch off. This will give you a little performance improvement and save you
about 200 kilobytes of memory (which is otherwise used for directory
caching). Default: Off.
ArealistExactMatch
When the area list is displayed, you can search a message area by entering the
first few characters of this name. This is the default. If you turn off the
ArealistExactMatch
switch, any substring is matched in an area
search; you don’t have to type an area name from the beginning. Default: On.
ChopQuote
When set to on, and you are quoting a message for reply, this switch will cause all quoted lines at the end of the message to be removed (chopped) when the message is saved. This works only when using the internal editor. If you are using an external editor, ChopQuote has no effect. When set to off, all quoted lines are saved, regardless of their location in the message. Note that you can also manually chop quotes by pressing Alt-L. Default: Off.
BS127
Most UNIX consoles (xterm, syscons, and many others) return the ASCII code 8
(Ctrl+H) if you press the backspace key, and ASCII code 127 or an
extended escape sequence if you press the Del key. However, there are
some exceptions, notably the Linux system console. The Linux console returns
ASCII code 127 if you press the backspace key. The result is that the
backspace key behaves like Del in MsgEd TE, i.E. it deletes the
character under the cursor instead of the character on the left. As this is
probably not what you want, you can change this behaviour by switching the
BS127
switch on. You will probably want to enclose the Switch
BS127 On
statement in a Conditional that tests if the TERM
environment variable is set to Linux
. See Conditional
Statements in the Configuration File, for more information. Default: Off:
Carthy
This switch fine-tunes the behaviour of the delete_line
function of
the internal message editor, which is usually bound to Alt-D and
Ctrl-Y, for the special case that you delete the very last line
of a message. If the switch is on (default behaviour), the last line will be
cleared, but the cursor will remain there. This way, if you are in the middle
of a message and press Ctrl-Y multiple times intending to zap the
rest of the message, you will never delete anything that is above the line
where you started to press Ctrl-Y. If you turn the switch off
(behaviour of older versions of Msged TE), the last line will be deleted
completely, and the cursor will be moved to the previous line. The switch
name ‘Carthy’ is an appreviation for the function description,
“Cut And Remain THere when pressing
Alt+Y on the very last line”. Or well … the true reason is
that there was a user named Matt Mc_Carthy who really got mad about the old
behaviour of the editor, so I implemented the switch and the new behaviour
for him. Default: On
Colors
This switch is only relevant for the Unix versions of MsgEd TE. If it is
disabled, MsgEd TE will not send any ANSI color codes to the terminal,
but will restrict itself to the most basic monochrome text styles “normal”,
“bright” and “inverted”. This allows you to use MsgEd TE on
terminals like the standard xterm, hardware VT100 terminals, and others that
do not understand color codes. Note that you’d better not use the Color
configuration keyword, nor include any color scheme file, as long as this
switch is disabled. See Colors in the Unix version, for more
information. Default: Off for Unix, On for all other versions.
Confirm
By disabling this switch, you will put MsgEd TE into the “You asked for it, you got it!”-mode, that is, you will disable any kind of confirmation dialog boxes on critical actions like deleting messages, aborting message entry, and the like. Default: On. (That is, by default, MsgEd TE will display confirmation requests).
DateArvd
If this switch is set to on, the date/time when a message arrived on your system will be displayed on the right side of the header information block below the date written information. You might want to turn this off if your tosser should not fill in this date field correctly. Default: On.
DirectList
If you turn this switch on, you will directly drop into the message listing mode when entering a message area, instead of the individual message reading mode. Default: Off.
DMore
When set to on, this will display the message number of the message currently being read on the top line of the header after the area description in the form: ‘(currentmsg# of maxmsg#)’. Default: Off.
DomainMsgid
Controls if the address in a MSGID control line will be printed in 5D with the domain identifier (On) or in 4D without. When you are using an internet gateway which runs the Soupgate software by Tom Torfs, you should turn this switch to off in order to enable reply linking to self-written messages in newsgroups (Soupgate does not properly handles MSGID’s with domain identifier, unfortunately). Default: On.
DomainOrigin
If turned on, MsgEd TE will generate five dimensional origin lines (i.E., it will append the domain string to the address in the origin line). It is suggested that you turn this switch off, but is is turned on by default. Default: On.
EchoFlags
When this switch is set to on, MsgEd TE will append a FLAGS control kludge line to messages entered in echomail areas whenever there are message attributes other than Loc, Snt and Rcv, and it will recognise FLAGS control lines in echomail areas. (Note that Msged always writes FLAGS control lines in netmail areas when necessary and always recognises these lines for netmail messages). Setting this switch to on allows the transportation of all sorts of message flags in echomail areas. These flags, however, do not make too much sense in echomail areas (or why would you want to set a Pvt flag in an echo area for example?). However, the default is On.
EditCROnly
If turned on, the internal message editor will mark hard carriage returns with an ampersand sign. Default: Off.
EditTearLines
EditOriginLines
When these switches are turned off, the tearline and the origin line will be appended to an echomail message after you have entered and saved it. When they are turned on, tearline and/or origin line will be appended to the message before you start to edit it, so that you have for example the chance to modify the origin text or similar. Default: Both On.
ExtFormat
Indicates if text created in an external editor should be reformatted by MsgEd TE. It is a good idea to leave this on when using an external editor. Default: On.
GroupSeparators
When this switch is turned on, MsgEd TE will draw horizontal bars
between different area groups in the area list. However, this will only work
if the first area sort criterion is sort by group. Otherwise, this
switch will have no efect. See The SortAreas
Keyword,
for information on how to make MsgEd TE sort your area list by area
groups. See Configuring and Using Message Area Groups, for an
introduction on how to use groups with MsgEd TE. Default: On.
HardQuote
When switched on, this option causes the column formatting to be preserved when quoting, i.e. it doesn’t reformat quotes. Default: On.
ImportFN
When using the built-in editor to import a text file into a message, this
text file will be bracketet by some horizontal dashes and the name of the
file like this one: ‘"------ test.txt begins -----"’ before and
‘"----- test.txt ends -----"’ after the file. You can disable these two
lines by turning the ImportFN
switch off. Default: On.
LowerCase
If you turn the LowerCase
switch on, MsgEd TE will convert all
file names that it reads from the configuration file or from any areafile to
lower case before it attempts to read to, write from, or create any
file. This switch is not very helpful - if you think you need it, you should
probably use AdaptiveCase
instead.
MSGIDs
MSGIDs are used to uniquely identify a message coming from your system. Unfortunately no two message editors use the same MSGID-generating algorithm, so you cannot guarantee that you conform to the MSGID specs unless you have used a specific message editor (only) for a particular address in a 3-year period. Most people just ignore this potential problem and use them anyway. Leaving MSGIDs ON will help mail tossers in duplicate message checking and/or reply linking. Default: On.
NetmailVia
If this switch is turned on, MsgEd TE will append a Via control line to each netmail entered. You should turn this switch on, if your tosser does not append Via lines to netmail that originates from your system (like Squish does), but you should switch it off if your tosser does append via lines to netmail even if the mail originates from your own system (like Fastecho does).
OpusDate
The old MsgEd documentation states differently, but judging from the source code, turning this flag on would stop MsgEd TE from reading the Opus date_written and date_arrived date fields of Fido *.MSG messages. MsgEd TE will, however, always fill in those fields (in the worst case with the current timestamp). Probably you should leave this flag as is. Default: Off.
Origins
This switch controls if echomail messages will be appended with an origin line. You absolutely must leave this switch turned on, because origin lines are technically necessary for a smooth operation of the network. Default: On.
PseudoGraphics
This switch is currently only of interest for the Unix version. If turned on, MsgEd TE will query your termcap database to see if your terminal can draw nice pseudgraphics characters for frames around windows and dialog boxes, and if so, use them instead of the default "minus, plus, pipe" - style frames. However, on a lot of Unix configurations the termcap database contains false information about this capability, or the TERM variable is not properly set. Turning on the switch may or may not work on your system. Therfore, the default is: Off.
QQuotes
This switch controls how MsgEd TE will modify the quote string when quoting text that already is quoted. When turned on, MsgEd TE will try to add another ‘>’ character to the existing quote strings. If turned off, MsgEd TE will not modify existing quote strings and thus behave much like Maximus 2.0 or TimEd do. Default: On.
RawCC
This switch is only of relevance if the SaveCC
switch is turned on.
Then, if RawCC
is on, the raw cc: msg is saved (along with the cc:
header that you typed in, so that if you re-edit the message, also all carbon
copies will be re-generated). Otherwise, the first formatted cc: will NOT be
marked kill/sent and will therefore remain as a future reference, but the
original raw message will not be saved. Default: On.
RealMsgN
If this switch is turned on, the message list screen (Alt-L) will display the actual message number of each message instead of displaying the messages in sequential order, starting with 1. Default: Off.
ReceiveAllNames and ReceiveAllAddresses
These switches control under which circumstances the Rvd
flag of a
netmail is turned on, indicating that the mail has been received (read) by
you. When these switches are turned on, the flag is set whenever the
destination address of the mail matches any of your AKAs, and whenever the
destination user name of the mail mathes any of the user names that you have
configured with the Name
keyword. Default: Both On.
You should turn off ReceiveAllNames
if you have configured multiple
user names that belong to different persons (i.E. you and your girl friend /
boy friend <g>). In this case, only the user name that currently is active
will count when determining if the message is addressed to you or not. You
can switch the active user name by pressing Ctrl-U.
RightNextUnreadArea
When in message reading mode, and this switch is set to on, and there are no more unread messages in the current message area, pressing the right arrow key will go to the next area with unread messages. Default: Off.
SaveCC
When generating carbon copies, and if this switch is turned on, a duplicate of the original message is saved with no kill/sent flag set for future reference, and possible re-editing and/or resending (along with the normal copied messages that are sent out and flagged kill/sent). Default: On.
Seen-Bys
This switch is a synonym for the ShowSeenBys
switch. See below.
Shadows
If this switch is enabled, MsgEd TE will draw nice shadows round dialog boxes and other popup windows. You might want to disable this switch if you use the Unix version of MsgEd TE, because on a VT100 compatible terminal, drawing those borders can slow down the program considerably. Default: On.
ShowAddr
If this switch is enabled, the FTN address that you are currently using for the current area will be displayed on the left-hand side of the line that separates the message header from the message text. Default: On.
ShowCR
If turned on, MsgEd TE will mark the location of hard carriage returns with ASCII code 20, as known from common word processors. This might not work on a VT100 terminal. Default: Off.
ShowEOL
If turned on, MsgEd TE will mark the location of each end-of-line
character with ASCII code 29. This will only work if the ShowCR
switch
is also turned on. Default: Off.
ShowNotes
If turned on, MsgEd TE will display kludge line information in message reading mode. You can also toggle this switch during program execution by pressing Alt-V. Unlike in older MsgEd versions, this switch does not pertain to origin and/or tear lines. Default: Off.
ShowOrigins
This switch toggles the display of origin lines in message reading mode. Default: On.
ShowSystem
This enables the lookup and display of a system name in your compiled version 7 nodelists. If set to on, the nodelisted system name will appear in the header, after the sender’s name and address, in netmail and echomail message areas. If switched off, the lookup will not be performed. Default: On.
ShowTearlines
This switch toggles the display of tearlines in message reading mode. Default: On.
ShowSeenBys
If this switch is turned on, MsgEd TE will display SEEN-BY lines in message reading mode. This is probably only useful for echomail routing debugging purposes. Default: Off.
ShowTime
Shows the current time. This isn’t a real time clock; it simply shows what the current date and time were when the screen was last refreshed with a new message, or when other keyboard hits were detected. Default: Off.
SOTEOT
If this is set to on, MsgEd TE will add SOT and EOT (Start Of Text/End
Of Text) kludge lines to bracket the text in the message body. Please note
that Paul Edwards’ SOT/EOT specification does not permit domains in echomail
origin lines. If both the DomainOrigin
and SOTEOT
configuration switches are enabled, MsgEd TE will exit and suggest to
disable one or the other. Default: Off.
SquishLock
If the SquishLock
switch is turned on, MsgEd TE will lock every
message area that is entered (and of course unlock it when it is left), thus
effectively denying access to this area to any other program. This will
result in a considerable speed increase when browsing message areas, but it
has the drawback that the tosser will not be able to toss to an message area
as long as it is open in MsgEd TE. Also, some other problems have been
observed with this switch in network environments. So you’d best leave this
switch off unless you are running your Fido system on a non-networked, single
tasking DOS machine.
Note that this switch has nothing to do with data integrity concerns. MsgEd will of course lock the Squish Message Base when writing a message in order to insure data integrity even if the SquishLock switch is turned off.
The default value of the SquishLock switch is Off (in contrast to the mainstream MsgEd 4.30, where it is turned on by default).
StatBar
Shows a status bar along the bottom of the screen. Default: On.
Tearlines
This switch controls if echomail messages will be appended with a tear line (three consecutive dashes) or not. You should leave this switch on. Default: On.
TZUTC
Msged generates a TZUTC kludge line according to FSP-1001 by default. This
kludge line gives the recipients of your mail a hint as to in which timezone
you are living. This is important because message timestamps in fido
messages always show local time, so they are useless for the recipient
without this kludge line information. Msged automatically detects your
timezone. In case it is doing this wrong, please send a bug report and
disable generation of this kludge line by setting the TZUTC
switch to
off. Default: On.
UseLastr
You should leave this switch turned on. It instructs MsgEd TE to use the lastread pointer for Fido *.MSG style areas. On the other hand, turning this switch off probably does not disable all lastread pointer handling code in MsgEd TE … Older MsgEd TE versions had this switch turned off by default and it was undocumented. Hence a lot of problems with lastread pointers in those versions … Default: On.
UseMouse
Some features of MsgEd TE can be controlled through the use of a mouse. This switch tells Msged whether or not you’re using one. Note that the Windows NT and the Unix versions of MsgEd TE presently do not support a mouse at all. - Default: On.
UsePID
If this switch is turned on, MsgEd TE will put its version information in a @PID kludge line, and leave the tearline blank. If turned off, MsgEd TE will not generate a @PID kludge, but put its version information in the tear line. Default: Off.
UseTosserGroups
This switch controls if MsgEd TE will read any avialable group
information from an Areafile
or not. If turned on, and if the areafile
contains group information that can be read by MsgEd TE (currently this
is the case for Fastecho and Fidoconfig type area files), then each group
defined in your areafile (tosser configuration) will become a MsgEd TE
group, and all areas that according to the tosser configuration are member of
this group will also be members of this group in
MsgEd TE. See Configuring and Using Message Area
Groups. Default: On.
XXLTearline
If you set this, you can have a tearline of up to 79 characters (instead of 35), and the Unix version of MsgEd TE will print system information in the tearline. But be aware that this violates FTSC rules, so using this is discouraged. Default: Off.
Previous: How to use Switches, Up: Switches [Index]