SYSTEM VARIABLES AT COLUMBIA

The MM User Guide assumes that the user starts out with certain variables set in the systemwide .mmrc file or personal .mminit file. These files will vary at different sites, so for the record these are the standard settings used for accounts at Columbia.

A STANDARD mm.conf FILE

This is the contents of a possible /usr/local/lib/mm/mm.conf. This file sets certain variables for all users on the system. Any user can override these values by setting the same variables to any desired value in the user's own .mminit file or an rc file.

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set mail-file ~/mbox
set mail-directory ~
set suspend-on-quit yes
set suspend-on-exit yes
set autowrap-column -7
set fast-init-file yes
set crt-filter /usr/ucb/more -d
set read-prompt "R>"
set send-prompt "S>"
set print-filter /usr/local/bin/print

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• The main mail file is named mbox and is in the home directory, and mail-related files are in the home directory.
• The exit and quit commands suspend MM (rather than kill the process).
• MM's text mode wraps lines leaving 7 columns empty on the right side.
• MM writes an .mmfast file based on the .mminit file.
• Long output to screen is piped through the more command using the -d option (which displays the words Hit space to continue, q to quit).
• The read and send prompts are set to R> and S> rather than the built-in R> and S>. (At Columbia, we actually set the read and send prompts in the standard .mminit instead of mm.conf. The reasoning is given below.)
• The print-filter is set to a local command named print. This is the setting most likely to vary at different sites.

A STANDARD .mminit FILE

Each user account can be given a standard .mminit file when it is created.

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set crt-filter /usr/ucb/more.mm -x      # use "right" more, with novice switch
set use-crt-filter-always yes
set user-level novice

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• The crt-filter is set to a modified version of more written at Columbia, which is not distributed with MM because of software license restrictions; it tells the user to press any key to continue, and setting use-crt-filter-always to yes makes this happen even at the end of a message. The use-crt-filter-always setting makes no difference with regular more.
• The user-level is set to show the hints line above each prompt.

At Columbia, we originally used the built-in read and send prompts R> and S>, and later decided to use R> and S> instead. To avoid changing it for existing users, we did not put the set commands in the .mmconf as shown here, but rather put them in the standard .mminit we give to new users. Admittedly it's not much of a change and, with a system announcement, it could have been set in mm.conf and made applicable to all users.