Re: lynx-dev Question about "Information about the current document"

[pg]

In a recent note, Klaus Weide said:

> Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1999 09:01:30 -0600 (CST)
> 
> On Wed, 3 Mar 1999 address@hidden wrote:
> > For another reason (compatibility with metamail interface), I'd like to have
> > the complete, raw MIME headers.  I've never had the energy to make the mods
> > to preserve these.  These might be displayed by a button on the info page.
> 
> Why is "compatibility with metamail" important, do you use it for
> anything automatic?
> 
From "man metamail":

INTERPRETER ENVIRONMENT
     When metamail calls an interpreter specified  in  a  mailcap
     file,  it  sets  several  environment variables which can be
     used by the interpreter if desired:
 
     MM_HEADERS
             This variable is set  to  the  full  set  of  RFC822
             headers, if any.
 
     MM_MAILER
             This variable is set to the name of the mailer  that
             called metamail, if the -m option was used.
 
     MM_CONTENTTYPE
             This variable is set to the content type,  as  named
             by  the  Content-type header or passed in via the -c
             option.  If  the  content-type  has  a  subtype  and
             parameters,    these    are    also    included   in
             MM_CONTENTTYPE,        e.g.        "multipart/mixed;
             boundary=foobar".
 
     MM_SUMMARY
             This variable is set to an efficient one-line  "cap-
             tion" of the message, typically including its sender
             and subject.
 
     MM_USEPAGER
             This variable is set to a non-zero if the use  of  a
             pager  has  been requested for long output (e.g. the
             -p switch was given.)  If -p is  given,  MM_USEPAGER
             is  set  for  spawned processes, allowing -p to work
             recursively.  This option cannot be used with -B.
 
     TERMINAL_CMD
             This variable may be set to a string that is used to
             start  a new terminal window if necessary.  The com-
             mand to be executed in that window will be  APPENDED
             to  this  command.  By default, this is set to some-
             thing   like  "xterm  -e"  if  DISPLAY  is  set,  or
             "shelltool" if WINDOW_PARENT is set.  Users of Sun's
             OpenWindows  may  wish  to   set   TERMINAL_CMD   to
             "shelltool" if they prefer shelltool over xterm.
 
     MM_RUNASROOT
             If set to a non-zero variable, this will  allow  the
             metamail  program to be run by root, the same effect
             as the "-r" switch to metamail.

I had come to rely on some of these in my .mailcap entries until I
discovered that Lynx does not provide them.  I've adapted, but
with some restrictions on things I'd like to do.

In the spirit of "Il faut tenir son jardin", I'd consider the
best solution merely to let Lynx pipe the entire message,
_including_ the MIME headers, to metamail.  This is how tin and
elm operate.  Can I do this with EXTERNAL?

> And how about HEAD (']'), or -head, -mime_header ?
> 
They work in their context; I don't see that that they're relevant
to this issue.

Thanks,
gil