07/27/83  The Mail Table

The mail table is a system-wide database which provides a translation
between an arbitrary character string and a mail system address.  The
mail table contains an entry for each person registered on the system
using their Person_id (and alias) as the name of their mail table
entry.  Thus, the mail table allows a user to send mail to another user
without having to know on which projects that user is registered.  In
addition, the mail table may contain entries for system-wide mailing
lists and/or users whose mail is to be forwarded to other systems.

For more information on addresses, type:
     help addresses.gi


Changing your mail table entry:
By default, a user's entry in the mail table specifies that mail be
delivered to that user's default mailbox on their default project.  In
other words, if a user's Person_id is Jones and their default project
is RESOLUTE, then the mail table entry named Jones would specify that
mail be delivered to the mailbox
     >udd>RESOLUTE>Jones>Jones.mbx

If a user changes default projects via the "-cdp" control argument of
the login preaccess request, the system will automatically change the
value of their mail table entry provided that the previous value was
also the default value.


A user may change the value of his mail table entry through the use of
the set_mailing_address command.  For example, a user who is about to
go on vacation might change his mail table entry to automatically send
his mail to a colleague.  Eg: the command line that Jones would use to
have his mail sent to Smith would be

     set_mailing_address Smith

When Jones returned from vacation, he would restore his mail table to
its default setting with the command line

     set_mailing_address -default_project

For more information, type:
     help set_mailing_address


Displaying mail table entries:
The display_mailing_address command may be used to display the content
of any user's entry in the mail table.  For example, the user Jones
would ask to see the mail table entries of Smith and JQPublic with the
command line

     display_mailing_address Smith JQPublic

For more information, type:
     help display_mailing_address


Command/request line format:
The -user control argument is used on command/request lines to specify
that mail should be delivered to the address specified for an entry in
the mail table.  The syntax of this control argument is:


-user STR
   specifies either a user's default mailbox or an entry in the system
   mail table.  If STR contains exactly one period and no whitespace,
   it is interpreted as a User_id which specifies a user's default
   mailbox; otherwise, it is interpreted as the name of an entry in the
   mail table.  When interpreted as a User_id, STR may not contain any
   angle brackets (<>) and must have the form Person_id.Project where
   Person_id may not exceed 28 characters in length and Project_id may
   not exceed 32 characters in length.  In this case, this control
   argument is equivalent to:
      -mailbox >udd>Project_id>Person_id>Person_id.mbx
   When interpreted as the name of a mail table entry, STR may not
   contain any commas, colons, semi-colons, backslashes (\),
   parentheses, angle brackets (<>), braces ({}), quotes ("),
   commercial at-signs (@), or whitespace other than spaces.  The query
   of the mail table is performed in a case insensitive manner.  The
   display_mailing_address command may be used to determine the actual
   address corresponding to the STR.


Printed representation:
The following printed representation is used by the mail system when
displaying a mail table address in a message:

STR
   identifies an entry in the system's mail table.  STR is the name of
   the mail table entry.  The display_mailing_address command may be
   used to display the actual address corresponding to STR.


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Historical Background

This edition of the Multics software materials and documentation is provided and donated
to Massachusetts Institute of Technology by Group BULL including BULL HN Information Systems Inc. 
as a contribution to computer science knowledge.  
This donation is made also to give evidence of the common contributions of Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Bell Laboratories, General Electric, Honeywell Information Systems Inc., Honeywell BULL Inc., Groupe BULL
and BULL HN Information Systems Inc. to the development of this operating system. 
Multics development was initiated by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Project MAC (1963-1970),
renamed the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence in the mid 1970s, under the leadership
of Professor Fernando Jose Corbato. Users consider that Multics provided the best software architecture 
for managing computer hardware properly and for executing programs. Many subsequent operating systems 
incorporated Multics principles.
Multics was distributed in 1975 to 2000 by Group Bull in Europe , and in the U.S. by Bull HN Information Systems Inc., 
as successor in interest by change in name only to Honeywell Bull Inc. and Honeywell Information Systems Inc. .

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Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute these programs and their documentation for any purpose and without
fee is hereby granted,provided that the below copyright notice and historical background appear in all copies
and that both the copyright notice and historical background and this permission notice appear in supporting
documentation, and that the names of MIT, HIS, BULL or BULL HN not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining
to distribution of the programs without specific prior written permission.
    Copyright 1972 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Honeywell Information Systems Inc.
    Copyright 2006 by BULL HN Information Systems Inc.
    Copyright 2006 by Bull SAS
    All Rights Reserved