Manual page for TKPOSTAGE(1)
tkpostage - fancy mailbox message counter (like xbiff)
SYNOPSIS
tkpostage
[-toolkitoption ...] [-option ...]
DESCRIPTION
tkpostage
is a replacement for
xbiff
and similar programs. It shows a picture similar to a U.S.A. metered stamp
with a count of how many messages are in your mail spool. Clicking on
this window will bring up a window with one line per mail message, containing
the subject and author.
OPTIONS
tkpostage
accepts all of the standard Tk Toolkit command line options along with the
additional options listed below:
- -help
-
This option gives the usual wish help summary which isn't really what you want.
To get detailed help on tkpostage, use some other unused option, like -foo.
This message is printed to standard error.
- -delay seconds
-
This option specifies the frequency in seconds at which tkpostage
should check if you have new mail.
The default is 2 seconds.
- -mailDrop filename
-
This option specifies the name of the file which should be monitored. By
default, it watches /usr/spool/mail/username, where username
is your login name, or a number of other typical directories if it can't
find /usr/spool/mail.
tkpostage will also try your MAILDROP environment variable, if set.
- -fg color
-
This option specifies the foreground color of the postage window. The
color is specified in the usual X syntax.
- -bg color
-
This option specifies the background color of the postage window.
- +/-flip
-
This option tells tkpostage to invert its colors when new mail arrives.
This is the default behavior. -flip disables flipping, and +flip
forces flipping.
- +/-beep
-
This option tells tkpostage to beep when new mail arrives. By
default, it's quiet. +beep enables beeping, and -beep disables it.
This won't always work, though. See the BUGS section for more details.
- +/-paranoid
-
This option tells tkpostage to watch the file access time on the mail
spool, which it normally ignores. +paranoid enables file access time
checking, and -paranoid disables it.
For most people, this is unnecessary,
but if you think tkpostage isn't rescanning when things change, try
this flag out. If you're running more than one copy of tkpostage
or other application which accesses your mail spool, and you use the
+paranoid option, you may notice a substantial slowdown, or a full rescan
every so many seconds. This isn't so much a bug as a problem with checking
the file access times.
The following options are intended more for the tinkerer than for general
usage. They're included for completeness:
- -bitmap bitmap-file
-
This option specifies the path a different bitmap, if you don't want to use
the usual postage meter.
- -numberFont font-specification
-
This option specifies the font to use for the counter.
- -numberAnchor anchor-direction
-
This option specifies the corner from which the following offsets are relative.
anchor-direction may be one of c, sw, s, se, e, ne, n,
nw, or w.
- -numberXOffset integer
-
This option specifies the x-offset of the counter in the bitmap, relative
to the anchor.
- -numberYOffset integer
-
This option specifies the y-offset of the counter in the bitmap, relative
to the anchor.
- -detailFont font-specification
-
This option specifies the font to use for the message details window.
- -postageGeometry geometry-spec
-
This option specifies the geometry of the main postage window.
- -detailGeometry geometry-spec
-
This option specifies the geometry of the message details window. The
width and height are specified as numbers of characters rather than pixels,
in the same way as xterm's geometry specification.
X DEFAULTS
The application class is the same as the program name (usually "tkpostage").
Setting a resource like "tkpostage.beep: true" is equivalent to running
"tkpostage +beep". Command line options will override any X resources set.
For convincing your window manager what borders you want on each toplevel
window, use tkpostage to refer to the small postage window, and
TkPostageDetails to refer to the message details window.
For more information about this, see the BUGS section below.
tkpostage
understands all of the core resource names and classes that Tk supports
as well as resources corresponding to all of the above flags.
X Resource Command Line Option
paranoid +/-paranoid
beep +/-beep
flip +/-flip
bitmap -bitmap
delay -delay
mailDrop -mailDrop
foreground -fg (or) -foreground
background -bg (or) -background
numberXOffset -numberXOffset
numberYOffset -numberYOffset
numberAnchor -numberAnchor
numberFont -numberFont
detailFont -detailFont
postageGeometry -postageGeometry
detailGeometry -detailGeometry
ENVIRONMENT
- DISPLAY
-
to get the default host and display number.
- MAILDROP
-
if set, this overrides the usual checks of /usr/spool/mail/username
and /usr/mail/username.
- XENVIRONMENT
-
to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources
stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property.
SEE ALSO
X(1),
xterm(1),
xbiff(1),
wish(1),
Tcl(n),
xrdb(1),
stat(2)
BUGS
Tk3.3 has a bug with setting the application class of the top-level
window. Although Tk3.4 fixed this bug, I'm not going to "fix" tkpostage
in a way that breaks it under Tk3.3. You can always use the program
name ("tkpostage") as the class, and this works fine.
Tk3.6 and earlier versions don't directly support ringing the X bell. The
+beep option is currently a hack which sends a control-G to
standard output. If you ran tkpostage from a session manager, or
some other program not attached to a tty, you won't hear the beep.
Ousterhout says Tk4.0 will directly support beeping. It is also fairly
easy to add a command to call XBell into your own wish
interpreter. Since current wish interpreters don't support
XBell, tkpostage doesn't either.
AUTHOR
Dan Wallach <dwallach@cs.princeton.edu>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 1994 Dan Wallach
The X Consortium, and any party obtaining a copy of these files from
the X Consortium, directly or indirectly, is granted, free of charge, a
full and unrestricted irrevocable, world-wide, paid up, royalty-free,
nonexclusive right and license to deal in this software and
documentation files (the "Software"), including without limitation the
rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense,
and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons who receive
copies from any such party to do so. This license includes without
limitation a license to do the foregoing actions under any patents of
the party supplying this software to the X Consortium.
INSPIRATION
xpostage, by Cliff Herod, Convex Computer Corp, 1989.
128x64 bitmap image (Postage.xbm) used with permission.
Created by unroff & hp-tools.
© by Hans-Peter Bischof. All Rights Reserved (1997).
Last modified 21/April/97