@c This is part of the Emacs manual.
-@c Copyright (C) 1985, 86, 87, 93, 94, 95, 1997 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+@c Copyright (C) 1985,86,87,93,94,95,1997,2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
@c See file emacs.texi for copying conditions.
@node Rmail, Dired, Sending Mail, Top
@chapter Reading Mail with Rmail
@section Scrolling Within a Message
When Rmail displays a message that does not fit on the screen, you
-must scroll through it to read the rest. You could do this with
+must scroll through it to read the rest. You could do this with
@kbd{C-v}, @kbd{M-v} and @kbd{M-<}, but in Rmail scrolling is so
frequent that it deserves to be easier to type.
@section Rmail and Coding Systems
@cindex decoding mail messages (Rmail)
- Rmail automatically decodes messages which contain non-ASCII
+ Rmail automatically decodes messages which contain non-@acronym{ASCII}
characters, just as Emacs does with files you visit and with subprocess
output. Rmail uses the standard @samp{charset=@var{charset}} header in
the message, if any, to determine how the message was encoded by the
When you receive a digest message, the most convenient way to read it is
to @dfn{undigestify} it: to turn it back into many individual messages.
Then you can read and delete the individual messages as it suits you.
-
- To do this, select the digest message and type the command @kbd{M-x
+To do this, select the digest message and type the command @kbd{M-x
undigestify-rmail-message}. This extracts the submessages as separate
Rmail messages, and inserts them following the digest. The digest
message itself is flagged as deleted.
@node Out of Rmail
@section Converting an Rmail File to Inbox Format
+@cindex Babyl format to Inbox format
+@cindex converting Rmail file to mailbox format
@findex unrmail
The command @kbd{M-x unrmail} converts a file in Rmail format to inbox
-format (also known as the system mailbox format), so that you can use it
-with other mail-editing tools. You must specify two arguments, the name
-of the Rmail file and the name to use for the converted file. @kbd{M-x
-unrmail} does not alter the Rmail file itself.
+format (also known as the system mailbox, or mbox, format), so that
+you can use it with other mail-editing tools. You must specify two
+arguments, the name of the Rmail file and the name to use for the
+converted file. @kbd{M-x unrmail} does not alter the Rmail file itself.
+
+@pindex b2m
+ @kbd{M-x unrmail} is useful if you can run Emacs on the machine
+where the Rmail file resides, or can access the Rmail file remotely
+(@pxref{Remote Files}) from a machine where Emacs is installed. If
+accessing Rmail files from Emacs is impossible, you can use the
+@command{b2m} program instead. @command{b2m} is part of the Emacs
+distribution, it is installed into the same directory where all the
+other auxiliary programs (@command{etags} etc.) are installed, and its
+source is available in the Emacs source distribution, so that you
+could copy the source to the target machine and compile it there.
+
+ To convert a file @file{@var{babyl-file}} into @file{@var{mbox-file}},
+invoke @command{b2m} like this:
+
+@example
+ b2m < @var{babyl-file} > @var{mbox-file}
+@end example
@node Rmail Rot13
@section Reading Rot13 Messages
received, you can tell @code{movemail} to reverse the order of
downloaded messages by adding the @samp{-r} flag to
@code{rmail-movemail-flags}.
+
+@ignore
+ arch-tag: 034965f6-38df-47a2-a9f1-b8bc8ab37e23
+@end ignore