The reply command provides a quick way to send a reply to a message. You can just type the reply message and the header fields are created for you.
To send a reply at the R> prompt, type reply or just r.
The header fields are created as follows. The To field is taken from the From or Reply-To field of the original message (the Reply-To field, if present, overrides the From field). The Subject field is that of the original message, preceded by Re:. A field called In-Reply-To is generated, containing the date and time of the original message.
In the example, a display command is used to show how the reply message looks.
MM>r Message 73 (378 chars) Return-Path: <jb51> Received: by cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (5.59/FCB) id AA01344; Monday, 7 Sep 92 10:50:29 EDT Date: Monday, 7 Sep 92 10:50:28 EDT From: Joe Brennan <jb51@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> To: fb2 Cc: mm33, hk12 Subject: Meeting on Sept 21 Message-Id: <CMM.0.90.2.673023028.jb51@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> Let's meet on Sept 21 at 2:00 to go over plans for this semester. Joe R>reply Message (End with CTRL/D or ESC Use CTRL/B to insert a file, CTRL/E to enter editor, CTRL/F to run text through a filter, CTRL/K to redisplay message, CTRL/L to clear screen and redisplay, CTRL/N to abort, CTRL/P to run a program and insert output.): OK, I can meet then. --Fuat [escape] S>d From: Fuat Baran <fb2@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> To: Joseph Brennan <jb51@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> Subject: Re: Meeting on Sept 21 In-Reply-To: Your message of Mon, 7 Sep 92 10:50:28 EDT OK, I can meet then. --Fuat S>
The reply message can be modified just as any other message by commands at the S> prompt. You can go back and work on the message text, and you can change the header fields. The command in-reply-to changes the In-reply-to header field.
At the S> prompt, the display command shows as usual the outgoing message you wrote. The type command shows the current message, which is the message you received.
The reply command takes the option all to send the reply to everyone who got the original message, and the option including to insert the text of the message you received into your reply. At the R> prompt, specify options by typing reply all, reply including, or reply all including. More information is in other sections.
Aside from using display at the S> prompt, you can have the header fields appear when you reply to messages by changing the variable reply-initial-display, normally set to no. Change it by typing set reply-initial-display yes and save the change with the save-init command. When you give a reply command, you will see the header fields of the reply above the prompt for the message text.
You can write a reply at the MM> prompt with the same command, reply, followed by a message number. It is advisable to specify one message at a time rather than a message sequence.
You will be prompted Send reply for message n to: . Type a question mark to see the choices. You can just press the return key if you just want to send a simple message to sender, or you can specify options such as all and including, as explained in other sections.
MM>reply 73 Send reply for message 73 to: ? keyword, one of the following: all none sender or keyword, one of the following: including not-including Send reply for message 73 to: [return]
The choice of sending to none is there to let you skip replying to a message, if you used a message sequence.
When you use the reply command, MM parses (checks the format of) all the addresses in the header fields of the message you received, and reports problem addresses with this wording: Invalid address: [address] Use anyway?. If you want to send the reply to that person, you will probably need to rewrite the address by hand, so answer n and put in a different version of the address at the S> prompt, using the to or cc commands (you can answer y, if you think the address will work). The parsing is controlled by the variable use-invalid-address at its normal setting of ask; you can change it to yes or no but then you won't know about problems until after you send the message.