NAME

       burst - explode digests into nmh messages

SYNOPSIS

       burst [-help] [-version] [+folder] [msgs] [-inplace | -noinplace] [-mime | -nomime] [-automime] [-quiet |
            -noquiet] [-verbose | -noverbose]

DESCRIPTION

       burst  considers  the specified messages in the named folder to be Internet digests, and explodes them in
       that folder.

       If -inplace is given, each digest is replaced by its “table of  contents”  and  the  digest  is  removed.
       burst  then  renumbers  the  messages which follow the digest, in the folder, making room for each of the
       exploded messages, which are placed immediately after the “table of contents”.

       If -noinplace is given, each digest is preserved, no table of contents  is  produced,  and  the  exploded
       messages are placed at the end of the folder.  Other messages in the folder are not affected.

       If  -automime  is  given,  burst will try to determine if the message is formatted with MIME and contains
       MIME parts of type “message/rfc822”.  If it does, it will burst the message using MIME formatting  rules.
       The  -mime switch can be used to enforce the use of MIME formatting.  The -nomime switch will force burst
       to use RFC 934 rules.

       The -quiet switch directs burst to be silent about reporting messages that are not in digest format.

       The -verbose switch directs burst to tell the user the general actions that it is taking to  explode  the
       digest.

       It  turns  out that burst works equally well on forwarded messages and blind-carbon-copies as on Internet
       digests, provided that the former were generated by forw or send.

FILES

       $HOME/.mh_profile   The user's profile.

PROFILE COMPONENTS

       Path:               To determine the user's nmh directory.
       Current-Folder:     To find the default current folder.
       Msg-Protect:        To set mode when creating a new message.

SEE ALSO

       inc(1), pack(1)

       Proposed Standard for Message Encapsulation (RFC 934)

DEFAULTS

       +folder             The current folder.
       msgs                The current message.
       -noinplace
       -automime
       -noquiet
       -noverbose

CONTEXT

       If a folder is given, it will become the current folder.  If -inplace is given, then  the  first  message
       burst  becomes the current message.  This leaves the context ready for a show of the table of contents of
       the digest, and a next to see the first message of the digest.  If -noinplace is given,  then  the  first
       message  extracted from the first digest burst becomes the current message.  This leaves the context in a
       similar, but not identical, state to the context achieved when using -inplace.

BUGS

       The burst program enforces a limit of approximately 1,000 on the number of messages which  may  be  burst
       from a single message. There is usually no limit on the number of messages which may reside in the folder
       after the bursting.

       Although  burst  uses  a  sophisticated  algorithm  to  determine where one encapsulated message ends and
       another begins, not all digest creators use  an  encapsulation  algorithm.   In  degenerate  cases,  this
       usually  results  in  burst  finding  an  encapsulation  boundary  prematurely  and  splitting  a  single
       encapsulated message into two or more messages.  These erroneous digest creators should be fixed.

       Furthermore, any text which appears after the last encapsulated message  is  not  placed  in  a  separate
       message  by  burst.   This  text  is  usually  an  “End  of digest” string.  As a result of this possibly
       unfriendly behavior on the part of burst, note that when the  -inplace  option  is  used,  this  trailing
       information  is  lost.   In practice, this is not a problem since correspondents usually place remarks in
       text prior to the first encapsulated message, and this information is not lost.

nmh-1.8                                            2013-02-08                                         BURST(1mh)