Network Services Guide for UNIX Users (Jan. 1998)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

        Chapter One     INTRODUCTION
        1.1     Background
        1.2     Services on UNIX servers

        Chapter Two     ELECTRONIC MAIL SERVICE
        2.1     Scope of Communication
        2.2     E-mail Addresses        
        2.3     Your E-mail Addresses on Centre's Computers     
        2.4     Addresses of HARNET Nodes 
        2.5     Email packages on the UNIX systems
        2.6     Starting the MAIL utility
        2.7     Exiting from the MAIL utility
        2.8     Reading mail 
        2.9     Reading old mail
        2.10    Saving mail
        2.11    Deleting mail
        2.12    Sending mail to a person
        2.13    Sending a text (ascii) file through e-mail
        2.14    Sending and receiving a binary file through e-mail
        2.15    Sending mail to a group of recipients
        2.16    Sending mail with carbon copy
        2.17    Using folders
        2.18    Replying a mail 
        2.19    Including mail mesage as part of sent mail message
        2.20    Forwarding mail
        2.21    Special functions

        Chapter Three   TELNET SERVICE
        3.1     Starting a Telnet session
        3.2     Ending a Telnet session
        3.3     Getting On-line Help of Telnet Command
        3.4     Other Commands

        Chapter Four    FILE TRANSFER SERVICE   
        4.1     Using FTP
        4.2     Summary of FTP commands

        Chapter Five    MENU SERVICE

        Chapter Six     ACCESS TO HKU ON-LINE LIBRARY SERVICES
        6.1     On-line HKU library services    
        6.2     Hytelnet for Internet Access

        Chapter Seven   ELECTRONIC BULLETIN BOARDS
        7.1 Starting the program for reading news       
        7.2     Exiting the program
        7.3     Screen Format
        7.4     Reading articles
        7.5     Posting new articles or followup articles

        Chapter Eight   THE HKUJOBS BULLETIN BOARDS
        8.1     Invoking the service
        8.2     Exiting the program
        8.3     Screen Format
        8.4     Reading and Printing jobs

        Chapter Nine    SENDING FAX
        9.1     The SENDFAX Program
        9.2     Specifying Sender's Information
        9.3     Running SENDFAX
        9.4     Group Distribution      

        Appendix A - PC-LANs
        Appendix B - USE OF ELM
        Appendix C - USE OF PINE
        Appendix D - USE OF PICO
        Appendix E - USE OF NETSCAPE/XMOSAIC

Reader's Comment Form

1.1 Background

The Campus Network of the University of Hong Kong provides staff and students with a convenient and efficient
vehicle to gain access to the computer and network resources both within the University campus as well as on the
global Internet.  The Computer Centre is maintaining a number of UNIX host computers (servers) to serve the different computing needs of members of the University.  Each UNIX system is identified by a nodename, e.g., HKUSUA, HKUSUB, HKURSC, etc.

This user guide describes the network services available on the UNIX host computers operated and managed by the Computer Centre.  
 

1.2 Services on UNIX servers

The following network services are available on the Centre's Unix systems:

        - Electronic Mail service
        - Remote Logon service (Telnet)
        - File Transfer service (FTP)
        - HKUMENU
        - Access to On-line Library Services
        - Electronic Bulletin Board service (BBS)
        - JOBS BBS service
        - SendFax service 
        - Public Domain Software and Shareware Distribution

In the examples which follow, the system prompt "%" will be substituted with the system name, for example, the prompt "%" will be substituted by "hkusua>" for HKUSUA or "hkursc>" for HKURSC.
 

Electronic mail (e-mail) is a facility for sending and receiving electronic messages and documents between users connected to a computer network. It provides fast and efficient electronic communication for users in different parts of the world.  At the University of Hong Kong, all registered staff and students are eligible for e-mail service available on our UNIX systems.

2.1 Scope of Communication

Through the HARNET (Hong Kong Academic and Research Network), you can exchange e-mail with other users at any of the eight tertiary institutions in Hong Kong.  The HARNET is also our gateway to the Internet, thus, you can communicate with anyone who is connected to the Internet.

2.2 E-mail Addresses

In order to communicate with others using e-mail, a user must have an account on a computer which can be reached over the global  Internet. Most e-mail addresses are in the form:

            user@d₁.d₂...d_n

where d_n , the top-level domain, is usually a country code representing the country of the addressee; and d₁ is usually the computer node on which the addressee has an account.  For example, abc@ukc.ac.uk is a user in the United Kingdom and xyz@munnari.oz.au is a user in Australia.

2.3 Your E-mail Addresses on HKU's Host Computers

If you have an account named username on a computer with a nodename of hkusua, your e-mail address will be

        username@hkusua.hku.hk

All nodes on the HARNET follow the standard domain-style address format as follows:

        user@node.cuhk.hk       (Chinese University of Hong Kong)
        user@cityu.edu.hk       (City University of Hong Kong)          
        user@hkbu.edu.hk        (Hong Kong Baptist University)
        user@polyu.edu.hk       (Hong Kong Polytechnic University)
        user@node.ust.hk        (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)        
        user@node.lnc.hk        (Lingnan College of Hong Kong)
        user@node.hku.hk        (University of Hong Kong)

Some of the e-mail addresses for the various international networks are as follows:

        user@node.oz.au         (ACSNET, Australia)
        user@node.site.net      (ARPANET, Internet)
        user@node.bitnet        (BITNET, EARN, NETNORTH)
        user@node.site.cdn      (CDN, Canada)
        user@node.site.cn       (China)
        user@node.csnet         (CSNET)
        user@node.ac.uk         (JANET, UK)
        user@node.site.kr       (SDN, Korea)
        user@node.uucp          (UUCP, international)

        where   site            is the domain or sub-domain name of the host; and
                net             is one of the domains EDU, COM, GOV, ARPA, MIL, NET

If the message " You have mail." is displayed on the screen when you log on a UNIX system, that means there are mail messages stored in the system spool area. These messages may be newly received or unopened mail, or those which have been read.

For reading mail, start the mail utility with the mail command. The mail program will check for new mail. If there is no new mail, the message "no mail for username", where username is your login name, will be displayed and a mail session will not be started. Otherwise, a summary of the mail messages will be displayed on the screen. For example:

% mail <Enter>
Mail version x.yy mm/dd/yy.             Type ? for help.
"/usr/spool/mail/user1":                2 messages 1 new 1 unread
 U  1  user2    Wed Jul 10 11:37 20/788 "Memo"
>N  2  user3    Wed Jul 10 14:20 14/367 "Schedule"
&

Displaying a summary of available mail commands

To list the commands of the mail program, type ? (for help) at the '&' prompt, as follows:

& ? <Enter>

To display a summary of the header lines of the mail messages, type h at the '&' prompt, as follows:

& h <Enter>

To display the next or previous page of mail message headers, type z or z- at the '&' prompt, as follows:

& z <Enter>     or      & z- <Enter>

To leave a mail session, issue the command 'q' (quit with preserving unread messages) at the '&' prompt, as follows:

& q <Enter>

2.8 Reading mail

In a mail session, you can read any mail message by issuing the command 'type' (or t) followed by the message number. For example, to read message number 2: 

& t 2 <Enter>

Note: The message number can be obtained by the h, z, z- commands

To read messages in the mbox folder file, issue the following command from the shell:

% mail -f <Enter>

% mail -f savedmail <Enter>

Messages can be saved in a specified mail folder by using the s command. If the specified folder already exists, messages will be appended to that file. Otherwise, the new mail folder will be created and messages will be saved in it. To save an individual message in a specified folder, issue the command s followed by the message number and the name of specified folder. For example, to save message number 3 in a mail folder file called john, type:

& s 3 john <Enter>

& s 2 4 6 mary <Enter>

& s 4-7 hku.law <Enter>

Messages which have been read can be deleted by using the d command. To delete a message, issue the command d followed by the message number. For example, to delete message number 3, type:

& d 3 <Enter>

& d 2 4 6 <Enter>

& d 4-7 <Enter>

You can send a message to one or more user(s) by issuing the mail command from the shell with the address(es) of the recipient(s) as the command argument. For example:

% mail user1@hkusua.hku.hk <Enter>      (for sending a mail to 1 user)
% mail user1@hkucc.hku.hk user2@hkusub.hku.hk ... <Enter>       
                                        (for sending a mail to a list of users)

The mail program will then prompt you to give the subject of the message. For example:

Subject: Test message <Enter>

Subject: Meeting <Enter>
The meeting will start at 10 a.m. <Enter>
Please attend on time. <Enter>
. <Enter>
% _

(Interrupt -- one more to kill letter)

% rm dead.letter <Enter>

& m user1@hkusub.hku.hk user2@hkuxb.hku.hk <Enter>

The mail program allows you to use text editors for preparing a message. This approach is generally more preferable than that of entering the text line by line as discussed earlier. The following example shows how an editor can be invoked for the preparation of a mail message.

& m user1@hkusub.hku.hk <Enter>
Subject: using editor within mail <Enter>
The following paragraph is prepared by using text editor. <Enter>
~e <Enter>

set EDITOR=/usr/ucb/ex  (this line has to be included in the .mailrc file)

(continue)

It is also possible to invoke the visual editor (vi) by issuing the ~v command when a message is being prepared. The functions of the ~v and ~e commands are similar. The ~v command will invoke the visual editor implicitly. For example:

& m user1@hkursc.hku.hk <Enter>
Subject: using editor within mail <Enter>
The following paragraph is prepared by using the vi text editor. <Enter>
~v <Enter>

set VISUAL=/usr/ucb/vi  (this line has to be included in the .mailrc file)

Sending a text file is similar to sending a mail message. You can start a mail with the mail (or m) command at the shell prompt (or within a mail session), and then use the ~r command to include the file into the body of the message. For example, to send the file sched to user3@hkusua.hku.hk:

% mail user3@hkusua.hku.hk <Enter>      or      
& m user3@hkusua.hku.hk <Enter>
Subject: sending a file <Enter>
The following is the topic for discussion. <Enter>

~r sched <Enter>

                (additional lines of text can be appended here)
. <Enter>

A binary file should be converted into an ASCII-encoded file before sending. Users can use the uuencode command (found under the path /usr/bin) to convert a binary file. An ASCII-encoded file has to be reverted to its original binary format using the uudecode command (also found under the path /usr/bin).

The example below shows how to send a binary file sourcefile. You first use the uuencode command to convert the binary file sourcefile into an ASCII-encoded file sendfile with its header specifying the binary decoded file name as remotefile, and then mail the file sendfile to user4@hkusua.hku.hk:

% uuencode sourcefile remotefile >! sendfile <Enter>
% mail user4@hkusua.hku.hk <Enter>
Subject: sending an ASCII-encoded file <Enter>
The following is an ASCII-encoded file with its header specifying the binary <Enter>
decoded file name as remotefile. <Enter>
<Enter>
~r sendfile <Enter>
. <Enter>

For example, to receive a mail sent by the previous example, save the mail message in a file receivefile, delete the first few lines of receivefile by using vi editor, and recreate the binary file remotefile with ownership and permission mode 600 (i.e. rw-------, with only the user having read and write permissions):

% mail <Enter>
Mail version x.yy mm/dd/yy.     Type ? for help
"/usr/spool/mail/user4":        1 message 1 new
>N  1 user3     Wed Mar 29 14:39 1143/70212
& s 1 receivefile <Enter>
"receivefile" [New file] 1137/69994
& d 1 <Enter>
& q <Enter>
% vi receivefile <Enter>
  ( Press <d>, <d> keys until the header line "begin 600 remotefile" 
    becomes the first line;
    Press <:> and then <w>, <q>, <Return>)
% uudecode receivefile <Enter>
% rm receivefile <Enter>
% ls -l remotefile <Enter>
-rw-------  1 user4     50715 Mar 29 14:58 remotefile

E-mail aliases are secondary names for users or groups of users. This feature is especially useful in cases where mail messages are often addressed to groups of users. By means of aliases, user groups with different memberships can easily be defined.

To define a mail alias, include the alias command in the mail set up file .mailrc. The first argument of the alias command is the alias name. What follows is a list of e-mail addresses which are separated by commas or space. For example, adding the following two lines in the file .mailrc will create two mail aliases marketing and sales:

alias marketing sam@hkucc.hku.hk, tom@csd.hku.hk
alias sales ann@hkusua.hku.hk, gary@cs.ust.hk, may@sheffield.ac.uk

alias marketing \
sam@hkucc.hku.hk tom@csd.hku.hk

Example :       Send a mail to John and all members of the marketing group.

% mail john marketing <Enter>

2.16 Sending a mail with carbon copy

Like carbon copies of a letter, an e-mail message can be copied to other person(s) for their information at the same time when the message is sent to the designated recipient(s).

The mail variable askcc can be modified to enable the carbon copy feature. You can customize this variable by including the following line in the mail set up file .mailrc.

set askcc

After setting the askcc variable, the mail program will prompt you to specify the recipients of the carbon copies every time when a mail is to be sent.

2.17 Using folders

In order to organise and classify your messages, folders can be used. The folder mbox is the default folder for storing mail messages that have been read.  To use any folder other than the mbox,  you must first create the new folder directory. For example:

% mkdir letters <Enter>

set folder=letters      (this line is included in the .mailrc file)

When a new folder is used for the first time, it will be created automatically. When more messages are saved, they will be appended to the end of the folder.  To put a message in a folder, issue the command s (save) followed by the symbol '+' and the folder name. For example, if you are reading a message, and want to save it in the folder user1, issue the command:

& s +user1 <Enter>

& s 3 4 6-8 +user1 <Enter>

To read messages in a particular folder other than the mbox, issue the mail command with the -f option followed by the symbol '+' and the name of the folder. For example, to read messages kept in folder user1, issue the following command:

% mail -f +user1 <Enter>

& folder +memo <Enter>

2.18 Replying a mail

To reply to a particular message, you can issue the command R at the mail prompt followed by the message number of the mail message to be replied. For example:

Message 2:
From user3      Wed Ded 10 12:11:32 1997
Date:  Wed,  10 Dec 97  12:10:02 edt
To:  user1
Subject: Meeting schedule
Cc:
Status: R

The meeting starts at 10 a.m. tomorrow.

& R 2 <Enter>
To: user3
Subject: Re: Meeting schedule
Is it convenient at 11 a.m.? <Enter>
. <Enter>
&

2.19 Including mail message as part of sent mail message

You can use the command ~m to include a received mail message as part of your current mail message.

Example: To include received message 3 as part of mail message sent to
             user4@hkucc.hku.hk,

& m user4@hkucc.hku.hk <Enter>
Subject: Include a received message 3 <Enter>
The following is the content of received message 3. <Enter>
<Enter>
~m 3 <Enter>
        (additional lines of text can be appened here)
. <Enter>

To forward a message, you have to know its message number and then issue the m command with the e-mail addresses of the recipients who should receive your forwarded message.

Example: To forward a message to user4@hkursc.hku.hk, 

& m user4@hkursc.hku.hk <Enter>
Subject: Forwarding a message <Enter>

For example:

& m user4@hkursc.hku.hk <Enter>
Subject: Forwarding a message <Enter>
I received this message. Please help... <Enter>

~f 2 <Enter>                    (message #2 is to be forwarded)

2.21 Special functions

Modifying mail headers

In the process of composing a message, the ~t command can be invoked to add more entries to the list of message recipients. For example:

~t name1 name2 ... <Enter>

~c name1 name2 ... <Enter>

~s String of text <Enter>

You can obtain the list of ~ commands with the following command:

~? <Enter>

A set of mail variables is available in the mail program for controlling its operations. You can customize the mail program by setting these variables in the file .mailrc. The followings are descriptions of some of the common variables:

set ask  or  set asksub set the mail program to prompt for the subject line.

set askcc               set the mail program to prompt for carbon-copy recipients.

set msgprompt           set the mail program to prompt for the message text and

                        display instructions for terminating the message.

set metoo               set the mail program to include the sender in the distribution

                        group receiving a mail message.

set crt=[number]        pipe messages having more than number lines through the

                        command specified by the value PAGER variable ( pg or more by

                        default ). If number is not specified, the current window

                        size is used. Disabled by default.

unset hold              disable the default function of holding messages in the system

                        mailbox.

unset dot               disable the default function of ending a message by means of a

                        line containing only the period '.' (i.e. typing a period "."

                        and then <Return> at the start of a line will no longer end a

                        message).

set ignoreeof           set the mail program to ignore <Ctrl/d> which is normally an

                        indication of the end of a message, (i.e. typing <Ctrl/d> will

                        not end a message).

The Telnet service allows you to establish interactive terminal sessions with any host computers connected to  the network.  As long as your computer is connected to the HKU Campus Network, you can use Telnet to connect to any of the UNIX servers including HKUSUA, HKUSUB, HKURSC, and UNIX workstations.

After you connect to any of the Centre's UNIX servers, you can establish further logon sessions remotely to other hosts (both local or overseas) by using the Telnet program. With this facility, you can gain access to many computers on the global network from the PC in your office, provided you have a valid account and password for each of the remote systems.

3.1 Starting a Telnet session

After you login any of the Centre's UNIX servers, you can login other host computers on the Internet by using the telnet command:

% telnet nodename <Enter>

        where nodename is the name of a Unix server e.g. hkusua or hkusub.

% telnet cica.indiana.edu <Enter>

3.2 Ending a Telnet session

Normally, a telnet session with a host computer finishes when you logout from the system. In case something happens and you cannot continue to work on the remote host (e.g. due to failure of the network or the remote computer), you can end a Telnet session explicitly with the following quit commands:

<Ctrl/]>

telnet> quit  <Enter>

You can obtain on-line help about the telnet command as follows:

% man telnet <Enter >       or       % telnet <Enter>

                                   telnet> help <Enter>

You can call up the telnet program and then connect to a specific remote host.

% telnet  <Enter>                                    - call up the telnet program

telnet> open cica.indiana.edu  <Enter>   - connect to cica.indiana.edu
 
login: tom  <Enter>                                   - login as tom
         .  .  .
       <Ctrl/]>                                              - return to the telnet prompt

telnet> close  <Enter>                               - disconnect from cica.indiana.edu

telnet> quit  <Enter>                                 - terminate the telnet session

The FTP (File Transfer Protocol) provides you with a fast and convenient way of transferring files between computer systems over the network.  Files can be copied from your local PC to any of the host computers on the Campus Network, the HARNET or the Internet.  You must have a valid computer account and password on the remote computer before you can copy files onto it.

Once the FTP program is initiated, you will be asked to supply the username and password of the remote computer to login the remote system. If the login is successful, you can then issue the appropriate FTP commands to carry out the file-transfer process. A summary of  the general FTP commands is given in section 4.2. However, some FTP commands may vary slightly for different versions of the FTP program. To find out the list of FTP commands supported on your host computer, issue the "?" or "HELP" command during an FTP session.

You can also use FTP to access the anonymous FTP sites on the Internet. To do so, you should type anonymous as the login name and your email address as the password when prompted by the remote ftp site.

4.1 Using FTP

After you have established a terminal session with a UNIX system, the following command can be issued at the system prompt to start an FTP session:

% ftp nodename <Enter>

        where nodename is the internet address of the remote system.

Example :       If you are working on a terminal session with HKUSUA, an FTP session

                with vmsnode.ny.edu as the remote computer could be started as

                follows:

% ftp vmsnode.ny.edu <Enter>

Connected to vmsnode.ny.edu
220 ......
Name (vmsnode.ny.edu:hcxcvax): hcxcvax <Enter>
                                        (your username on vmsnode.ny.edu)
331 User name (hcxcvax) ok. Password, please.
Password:                               (Password not echoed)
230 User HCXCVAX logged in .....
ftp> prompt <Enter>                     (Set interactive prompting mode off)
Interactive mode off.
ftp> dir <Enter>                        (List the remote default directory)
group.dis;1     48/48   4-AUG-1994      [HCXCVAX]       (RW,RW,,)
.....
ftp> ascii <Enter>                      (Set the file transfer mode to ASCII)
200 TYPE set to ASCII.
ftp> type <Enter>                       (Check the current mode of file transfer)
Using ascii mode to transfer files.
ftp> get group.dis;1 <Enter>            (Get the remote file "group.dis;1")
.....
ftp> mput *.txt <Enter>                 (Put all local text files with filenames 
                                         ended by ".txt")
.....
ftp> bin <Enter>                        (Set the file transfer mode to BINARY)
200 TYPE set to IMAGE.
ftp> mget *.gif* <Enter>                (Get all remote binary files with filename 
                                         containing the sub-string ".gif")
.....
ftp> put jurassic.jpg <Enter>           (Put the local file "jurassic.jpg")
.....
ftp> quit <Enter>

4.2 Summary of FTP commands

The following is a summary of the FTP commands.  Words in italics are parameters to be supplied by you and those enclosed in the square brackets [ ] are optional parameters:

1)      type  file-transfer type
        ascii/binary
                specify the file-transfer type e.g. ASCII(default), BINARY.
 
2)      get  remote-file [local-file]
                retrieve a specified file from the remote system.

3)      mget  remote-files
                retrieve a collection of files from the system. Wildcard characters
                are permitted, e.g. mget *.com.

4)      put  local-file [remote-file]
                transmit a local file to the remote system.

5)      mput  local-files
                transmit a group of local files to the remote system. Wildcard
                characters are permitted.

6)      cd  directory
                change the remote default directory.

7)      lcd  directory
                change the local default directory.
 

8)      dir  [directory]
                list the remote default directory or the remote directory specified.

9)      prompt
                set the interactive prompting mode on/off.

10)     quit
                exit FTP.

11)     ? / help
                list the available FTP commands.

To facilitate easy access to network services and other common system utilities, a menu system, called HKUMENU, has been developed on our UNIX systems. The HKUMENU for the UNIX systems has the same look as the HKUMENU on the PC LAN systems. The ESCAPE key used on the UNIX systems is <Ctrl/C>.  To invoke the HKUMENU, you can type:

% hkumenu <Enter>

When HKUMENU is invoked, the following screen will be displayed. The HKUMENU may vary slightly
between different computer systems using different application software, and the selectable items may be revised from time to time. The menu usually comprises of selections of the common network services such as Mail, News Bulletin Board, Jobs Bulletin Board, Library System , SendFax etc. Besides network services, there are some other system specific items which would assist you in using the various system utilities without having to memorize the related commands.

Full screen mode of operation is supported by HKUMENU. The menu screen is designed with one selection item per line. You can select a particular item by entering the option number beside the "Please enter your option ?" prompt .  Another version of the HKUMENU allows you to select a particular item by moving the up and down arrow keys and then press the <Return> key or by typing the first letter of the menu item followed by the <Return> key. Each menu item is either a specific command or a sub-menu. Sub-menus are pre-fixed by a pound sign (#). Choosing a sub-menu item will bring you to another menu screen. Each menu or sub-menu contains an item called QUIT. Selecting it will bring you back to the previous menu screen or end the HKUMENU program.
 

On-line library services are provided by the libraries of the University of Hong Kong and many other institutions all over the world.  If you have an account on one of the Centre's UNIX systems, you can make use of the on-line library services at any of the networked computers and PC's.

6.1 On-line HKU library services

The libraries of the University of Hong Kong offer the following on-line services:

1. Access to the HKU Library Bibliographic Database which allows you to search book 
   catalogue of the University libraries systematically and efficiently. 

2. Access to the Environmental Sciences & Pollution Management database. 

3. Access to the Library Information which includes the location charts, library
   news etc. 

4. Access to the HARNET Libraries which allows you to gain access to the library
   services of other UPCC institutions on HARNET.

5. Access to the Article Indexes & Electronic Journals.

6. Access to some other library services such as MELVYL(University of california),
   OhioLink(Ohio Statewide System),URSUS(University of Maine System Libraries) and
   so on.

6.1.1 The HKU Libraries OPAC service - Dragon

The HKU Libraries Online Public Access Catalogue, Dragon, is a very useful facility for our staff and students. It allows you to search the book catalogue of the University Libraries systematically and efficiently.

6.1.2 Connecting to Dragon

Once you login to a UNIX system (HKUSUA, HKUSUB, or HKURSC), the following command can then be used to connect to Dragon:

% hkulibrary <Enter>

Alternatively, you can gain access to Dragon through HKUMENU.

6.1.3 Disconnecting from Dragon

To disconnect from Dragon, type q (Quit)at the Public Access Catalogue menu. Then type d (Disconnect) at the HKU Libraries System Main Menu.

6.1.4 Searching the library catalogue

Searching is basically menu-driven. Commands are invoked by hot keys, i.e. you press a key (e.g. A for searching by author's name) to invoke a command without having to press the Enter key.

You can search by any of the parameters shown below:

6.2 Hytelnet for Internet Access

Hytelnet, from the University of Saskatchewan, is a program which allows you to reach practically all of the Internet-accessible libraries, Freenets, CWISs (Campus Wide Information Systems), Library BBSs, and other information sites with a menu-driven interface. It is installed on our UNIX systems. To invoke hytelnet, issue the following command:

% hytelnet <Enter>

The following screen will appear:

Using the arrow keys, you can make menu selections and establish connections with the desired systems on the Internet. You need to login the remote system with a valid username and password.  To exit from the system connected, you have to enter the Telnet or TN3270 Escape keys as follows:

Telnet Escape keys: <Ctrl/>] q
(press the <Ctrl> and ] keys simultaneously, and then press the q key)
TN3270 Escape keys: <Ctrl/C> q

Both E-mail and Electronic Bulletin Boards are popular means of communication of information.  However, they differ in the following ways:  

- E-mail is typically a person-to-person communication. A sender can send an e-mail to one or many recipients using a mailing list.  However, privacy is maintained as only designated recipients can receive the mail and view the contents. Users who are not on the mailing list will not be able to view the information.

- Bulletin boards however, is for public display of information as anyone can view and respond to the postings in a discussion group or forum.  Bulletin board are discussion groups where interested users can share information or make public announcements.

The bulletin boards can be held on a single central system (acting as a server for client systems) or on each system in a network.  The central bulletin board model has limitations in that a high number of users would  place a load on the central system capacity and the geographic distribution of users would imply high costs for establishing interactive network links. A better solution is to use a distributed system where a copy of the bulletin's database is maintained on each participating system. Users can then  access the data on the local system with no network overheads. To maintain the local databases a system of "flooding" is used. Each posting into the local bulletin board propagates through the network of systems going from each node to all its adjacent network neighbours until all nodes have received a copy.

For many years the Internet community has supported the electronic distribution of bulletins, information and data to thousands of participants using the distributed bulletin board model. Such information is referred to collectively as "news", and the network of nodes supporting news is referred to as the "USENET".

USENET News covers an extremely large area of topics, practically anything under the sun, and News is read by a large (and constantly increasing) population world wide, which makes the USENET the largest interactive forum in the world.

The Bulletin Boards have been set up in both of our OpenVMS (HKUCC) and UNIX (e.g. HKUSUA, HKUSUB, HKURSC) systems.

News items on the bulletin boards (called 'articles') are grouped into 'newsgroups'. The large number of newsgroups on our system can be categorized into three streams, the local newsgroups, network newsgroups, and the mailing lists.

The local newsgroups includes those items related to our University only. All articles of local newsgroups are posted internally and will not be broadcasted to other places. These posted articles will be cross-fed between our OpenVMS and UNIX systems automatically. The names of all of the local newsgroups start with "hku", for example,

Newsgroups              Descriptions

hku.cc.forum            one of the communication channel with Computer 
                        Centre for facilities and services
hku.advertisement       the general advertisements posted by public
hku.open-forum          the questions/answers/suggestions/ comments 
                        posted by public
hku.netinfo             the information/news about the Internet network

For the UNIX system, a program called tin (Tass & Iain's Newsreader) is installed for reading and posting news efficiently. Tin runs in full screen mode, but only supports VT-type terminals. If you are unsure about the kind of terminal you are using or emulating, you are advised to set the terminal type to VT100 by issuing

% setenv TERM vt100

The subsequent sections will describe the ways to invoke and exit the tin program, its screen formats, and the steps to read and post articles. For details on using rn (another program for reading news), please refer to  Appendix B.

7.1 Starting the program for reading news

To invoke the program for reading news, first try to log into one of our UNIX hosts (e.g. HKUSUA, HKUSUB, HKURSC) successfully. Under the system prompt, issue the command to invoke the hkumenu

% hkumenu <Enter>

For the first time you access the NEWS system, a new file .newsrc will be created in your home directory. This file will keep a list of subscribed/unsubscribed newsgroups and articles that you have read so far. It will be examined and updated each time you run the program.

7.2 Exiting the program

To exit the program, you can type q in the screen of the Group Selection level.

7.3 Screen Format

The program has three main levels of operation: Group Selection level, Group level and Article level.

At the Group Selection level, the number of the subscribed groups is displayed at the top of the screen as the title line. The rest of the screen is divided into four columns:

<Sel no> <Unread art. no> <Newsgroup> <Description>

where
        Sel no                  is the selection number of the newsgroup
        Unread articles no      is the number of unread articles in the newsgroup
        Newsgroup               is the name of the newsgroup
        Description             is the description of the newsgroup

<Selection Num> <Unread> <Responses> <Subject>
<Author>

where
        Selection Num   is the selection number of the article
        Unread          is the symbol to indicate whether the article had
                         been read (+ means unread)
        Responses       is the number of responses in the article
        Subject         is the subject of the article
        Author          is the author of the article

<Date posted> <Newsgroup> <Article x of n>
<Article Num> <Subject>   <Num of responses in article>
<Author>                  <Organization>
<Article body>


where
        Date posted                     is the date of article posted
        Newsgroup                       is the name of newsgroup
        Article x of n                  means the xth of the n (total number)
                                        articles in the newsgroup
        Article Num                     is the article number 
        Subject                         is the subject of the article
        Num of responses in article     is the number of responses to the
                                        corresponding article
        Author                          is the name of author
        Organisation                    is the organisation name

Description                     keys/commands

Beginning of list/article       1 (g at article level)
End of list/article             $ (G at article level)
Scroll up                       <Ctrl/U>, <Ctrl/B>,
                                <Page Up>
                                (by screen)
Scroll down                     <Ctrl/D>, <Ctrl/F>, 
                                <Page Down>, <SPACE>
                                (by screen)
Line up                         Up arrow or k (not at article level)
Line down                       Down arrow or j (not at article level)
On-line help (at each level)    h

After invoking the "tin" news reading program, you will get to the Group Selection level. You can highlight a specific newsgroup using the upper and lower arrow keys or the special keys described above and then press <Return> to select the group. After that, you can select a specific article of the newsgroup in a similar fashion.

The selected article will then be displayed page by page with a pause between them. Pressing of <SPACE> will scroll to the next page. If you want to skip a current article and read the next one, you have to press <Return>. You can always press the key q to go back to the previous level, i.e. from the Article level to the Group level or from the Group level to the Group Selection level.

7.5 Posting new articles or followup articles

You can only post new articles or followup articles to the local and the network newsgroups. Posting either new or followup articles to the mailing lists which start with "mailing-list" are not allowed.

To post new or followup articles to the bulletin boards, you should first invoke the "hkumenu" by typing the following command:

% hkumenu <Enter>

To post a new article, use the upper and lower arrow keys or the special keys mentioned above to highlight a newsgroup to which your article is to be posted. Afterwards, you should enter the "w" command, type the subject of the article and press <Return> twice.

To post a followup article, use the upper and lower arrow keys or the special keys mentioned above not only to highlight a newsgroup, but also select and read the article to which your followup article is to be posted. Next, you should enter the "f" command.

A session with the standard editor, normally vi, will be started and you can edit your article using vi commands. (Note: For the use of the vi editor, please refer to the UNIX user guide: e.g. typing <i> in the command mode of vi to start input). For posting a followup article, you should press a <Return> to separate the header and the content of your  followup article (i.e. pressing a <Return> before editing the article's content). After you finish the editing, you can exit from the editor with the appropriate command (e.g. pressing <Esc> and typing <Z><Z> to save the file or <:><w><q> to write and quit the file). Finally, the following prompt will be displayed:

q)uit, e)dit, p)ost:

HKUJOBS provides up-to-date information about job vacancies for students (e.g. part-time and summer jobs for undergraduates, jobs for graduates, etc.) and is continuously updated and managed by the University's Careers Education & Placement Centre.  It is a news bulletin board maintained on the OpenVMS system on the HKUCC computer. You can access this service easily if you have an account on any of Centre's UNIX systems, from any network-PC or workstations in the University campus.

8.1 Invoking the service

To invoke the HKUJOBS bulletin board, type the hkumenu command from the system prompt.

% hkumenu <Enter>

The job vacancies are divided into the following categories: 

a.      General News            -       describing how to use the Bulletin Board
b.      part-time:non-teaching
c.      part-time:teaching
d.      part-time:tuition
e.      summer:archi/qs         -       summer jobs for Architecture or Quantitative 
                                        Survey students
f.      summer:arts             -       summer jobs for Arts students
g.      summer:computer         -       summer jobs for students studying the 
                                        computer related curriculums
h.      summer:general          -       summer jobs for students of any discipline
i.      summer:law              -       summer jobs for Law students
j.      summer:science          -       summer jobs for Science students
k.      summer:soc.sc           -       summer jobs for Social Science students

8.2 Exiting the program

To exit the program, type EXIT at the NEWS>  prompt at the bottom of the screen.

8.3 Screen Format

There are mainly three separate levels of operation: Group Selection level, Group level and Article level.

At the Group Selection Level, the screen is divided into four columns:

<Selection Num> <Newsgroup> <Count> <Unread>

where
        Selection Num   is the selection number of the corresponding newsgroup
        Newsgroup       is the title of the newsgroup
        Count           is the current number of articles in the newsgroup
        Unread          is the current number of unread articles in the newsgroup

<Selection Num> <Title> <Lines> <Date>

where
        Selection Num   is the selection number of the corresponding article
        Title           is the title of the corresponding article
        Lines           is the total number of lines in the article
        Date            is the date of the article posted


At the Article level, the screen is of the following format:

<Group>
<From>
<Subject>
<Date>

<Article body>

where
        Group           is the name of the newsgroup
        Subject         is the subject of the article
        From            is the name of the sender
        Date            is the date of the article posted
        Article body    is the content of the article

Common keys/commands used

Description                                     keys/commands   

Switch to previous outer level                  NEW
Line up                                         Up arrow
Line down                                       Down arrow
Next page or next article                       <Return>
On-line help (at any level)                     HELP
Exit (at any level)                             EXIT
Select n numbered item (except article level)   n

After invoking the program for reading HKUJOBS, the Group Selection screen will be displayed. You can use the upper and lower arrow keys or commands UP and DOWN to highlight a newsgroup. When the highlighted newsgroup is selected by pressing <Return>, the Group level screen will be displayed. You can then highlight and select a specific article in the same way. A selected article is displayed on the screen page by page with a pause between them. You have to press <Return> at the pause to continue reading. Moreover, you can mark the current read article to be printed when you exit the program by issuing the "PRINT" command.  In addition, after issuing the "EXIT" command to leave the system, you should type "Y" beside the question "Print output [Y/N] N?" to confirm printing of all articles marked to be printed. Your printing can be collected at the output bin located outside of Room 108 (the Computer Room) at the Run Run Shaw Building.

If you want to read the next article before the end of the current article is displayed, you can do so by issuing the "NEXT" command. If you wish to jump back to the Group level or Group Selection level, you have to issue the "NEWS" command once or twice respectively.  You can exit the NEWS session at any point by issuing the "EXIT" command.
 

Sending Fax messages normally involves: (1) preparing the message on paper and (2) sending the message out via a fax machine.  With the SENDFAX facility on our Centre's UNIX systems, you can now prepare and send Fax messages directly from your network-PC or workstations without having to go through a Fax machine.

9.1 The SENDFAX Program

The SENDFAX program actually makes use of the Hong Kong Telecom's DATAFAX service to provide the Fax sending function. You can either send out a message which was previously prepared and stored in a text file or first prepare a text message and then send it to the recipient(s) in one step. The SENDFAX program has the following limitations:
 

    .   length of a message is limited to 133,000 characters or 30 pages 
    .   only printable ASCII characters can be sent
    .   message can only be sent to the local Faxlines registered with the 
        Hong Kong Telephone Company

You should have the configuration file 'sendfax.cfg' which contains the sender's information  in your own account. For each SENDFAX session, the program will attach the 'sendfax.cfg' file to the outgoing message as a header. The 'sendfax.cfg' file is created in the your first SENDFAX session. You will be asked to specify the following information:

        . sender's name
        . sender's department
        . sender's Fax number
        . sender's telephone number

To use the SENDFAX program, you should  first login your UNIX account. When your terminal session is established, you can start your SENDFAX session by entering the 'sendfax' command. The system will then prompt you to enter the following information interactively:

        . number of receivers (1 or 2)
        . name and organization of the first receiver
        . Fax number of the first receiver
        . name and organization of the second receiver
            (only for the case of 2 receivers)
        . Fax number of the second receiver
            (only for the case of 2 receivers)
        . the text file to be sent

Below is a sample SENDFAX session sending a text file called 'fax.msg'.  (Lines beginning with the prompt ">" are answers to the corresponding prompts given by the user) :

% sendfax <Enter>

Please specify the number of FAX receiver(s) : (1 or 2)
> 2
Please enter the NAME and ORGANIZATION of receiver #1
> P.T. Ho, Computer Centre, University of Hong Kong
Please enter the Fax number of receiver #1
> 25597904
Please enter the NAME and ORGANIZATION of receiver #2
> Mr. X, Y Department, ABC Company, Ltd.
Please enter the Fax number of receiver #2
> 25594567
Please enter the name of the FILE to be sent
(press the <Return> to use the editor)
> fax.msg

In the example above, it shows that for each SENDFAX session a message can only be sent to at most two receivers. This is a limitation of the Hong Kong Telecom's DATAFAX service. However, you may wish to  distribute messages regularly to a group of people, say, for arranging meetings. This is made possible by using the distribution list option of the SENDFAX program.

A distribution list is a text file storing the information (names, Fax number, etc.) of a group of recipients to receive your Fax message. You can create a distribution list by using an editor (e.g. vi editor).

A distribution list can include up to twenty recipient entries. Each recipient entry has two lines of text. The first line specifies the name and organization of the recipient and the second line must be his Fax number. Blank lines can be inserted anywhere to provide clarity. Lines beginning with a "#" sign are treated as remarks and they can be placed anywhere in the file. Both remarks and blank lines are ignored when the SENDFAX program reads the distribution list file.

Once the distribution list is prepared, Fax messages can be sent to the recipients in the distribution list with the following command:

        %  sendfax  filename  <Enter>

1.1 Background

Over the years the Computer Centre has installed more than 30 PC LAN (Local Area Network) file-servers at various locations in the campus to support departmental network functions and the centrally administered instructional PC laboratories. These PC LANs allow all staff and students to have efficient access to the vast communication and information resources within the university as well as the global Internet.

1.2 Services on PC LANs

The PC LANs set up and managed by the Computer Centre support the following services:

1.      sharing of application software
2.      sharing of database and information resources
3.      sharing the use of expensive peripherals (e.g. laser printers)
4.      campus-wide access to host computers (e.g. HKUCC, HKUSUA, HKURSC, etc.) 
5.      access to the campus-wide information and Internet information 
        (e.g. WWW)

Instead of keeping application software on your own PC, you can now install them on LAN file-servers (network version or multiple licences of the software are required). Sharing the use of software through the network is generally more economical, and will save much of the users' efforts in managing the many software programs that would otherwise be installed on their PC's.

The common application software which can be found on the LAN file-servers fall into two categories:

Software provided by the Computer Centre:
        This category of software include:
             -  Network-OS programs 
                (e.g. Netware, Lan Manager)
             -  Communication software
                (PC TCP/IP programs for accessing to host computers)
             -  Utility programs for supporting the campus-wide network 
                service (e.g. HKUMEMU, HKUWIN)

Software provided by the user departments:
        This category of software are those acquired and installed by user
        departments according to their specific needs, and generally include 
        the following kinds of  applications:
                - Wordprocessing 
                - Database 
                - Spreadsheet
                - Statistics analysis
                - Programming languages

Once your network-PC has established a logon session with the LAN file-server, you can gain access to the information kept on the server. For staff users logged in their departmental LAN file-server, they can have both read and write access to a network-disk which is commonly installed on the U drive, which means you can share and exchange files with your colleagues in the department through the use of the U drive. However, this facility is not available to users of the network-PC's in the Centre's Computer Laboratories.

1.2.3 Printer Sharing

Server-printer(s) can be installed on the network by each department for shared use among the users. This network printer, usually of a high quality (e.g. a laser printer), can be used for printing from all network-PC's of the same department. Thus, the utilization as well as the cost-effectiveness of the printer can be increased.

The laser printing service set up in the open access area in Room 103, Run Run Shaw Building is an example of such a facility. All users of the HKUPC1 and HKUPC3 (the LAN file-servers) can conveniently produce high-quality laser-printer output by submitting their print-files to the server-printers.

1.3 General Services

The following services are set up on the central LAN file-servers which are managed by the Computer Centre:

        - HKUMENU and HKUWIN
        - Remote Logon service (Telnet)
        - File Transfer service (FTP)
        - Email
        - Bulletin board service

1.3.1 HKUMENU

A menu system called HKUMENU is provided as the user interface for access to facilities available on the particular PC LAN server.

The first menu is the Main Menu which provides a list of software/services by topic. You can use the <Up> and <Down> arrow keys (or the first letter) to highlight a particular item and press <Return> to select.

1.3.1.1 Using the HKUMENU menu system

The HKUMENU is automatically invoked once you login the PC LAN server successfully (using the PC login station). If you quit from HKUMENU (i.e. pressing the <Esc> key until the DOS prompt appears), you can re-enter it by typing hkumenu at the DOS prompt.

Example:

        C:\>  hkumenu  <Enter>

The Telnet service allows you to establish interactive terminal sessions with any host computers connected to the network.
Please refer to chapter 3 of this manual for a detailed description of the Telnet service.
 
1.3.3 File transfer Service

File Transfer over the Campus Network is supported by the FTP (File Transfer Protocol) programs provided on the various computers. Please refer to chapter 4 of this manual for a detailed description of the FTP service.
 

1.3.4 Window-based network services

HKUWIN - a GUI (Graphical User Interface) for accessing network services provided by the Computer Centre. The main services are:

1)      NewsXpress provides an easy interface for users to read and post Usenet articles using PCs.

2)      Eudora is a Windows-based electronic mail package.
         Note: Eudora is available on departmental LAN file-server only

3)      Netscape is a WWW (World Wide Web) browser for users to access the information on different WWW servers
         on the Internet

4)     Windows FTP is a program with graphical user interface for transferring files between your PC and the host
        computers on the Internet

5)     Windows Telnet is a terminal emulation program for accessing remote host computers.

For more details about the HKUWIN, please refer to the
 
                  "Network Services Guide For PC Users".

ELM is an interactive screen-oriented mailer program on UNIX systems for computer network users to send and receive e-mail messages and files. You can invoke this software by typing the command elm at the shell prompt as follows:

% elm <Enter>

If this is not the first time you invoke the elm program, the elm mailer session will be started. Otherwise, you will see the following message and should press <y> to allow the directory .elm to be created in your home directory and start the elm mailer session, or press <q> to quit the elm system.

% elm <Enter>

When the elm mailer session is started, you will see the summary of the mail messages (if you have unread mail stored in your system mailbox), the summary of available important commands and the command prompt. For example:

        Mailbox is '/var/mail/user1' with 3 messages [ELM 2.4 PL21]
        N  1   May 19 user2     (12)    "Message 1"                                 
        N  2   May 18 user3     (34)    "Hello!"
        O  3   May 17 user4     (23)    "How are you?"

As shown in the above example, the first column can either be O or N which means that the corresponding unread message is either old or new respectively. The second column is the message number. The remaining columns are the message arrival date, the sender's name, the message size in the terms of "lines", and the subject of the message. The current message which is the next one to be read is highlighted. You can select any one of messages in the list to be the current message by using the upper and lower arrow keys. When the elm program is invoked, the current message will be the last of the newly arrived messages. The " Command: " at the end of the example is the prompt of the elm program.

Obtaining help information

To obtain information about the commands of the elm program, press <?> (for asking help) to go to the help system. Next, you can press <?> to see the command list or <.> to exit help.

Reading a message

To read the current mail message, just press the <Return> key to display the content on the screen. Then you can press <i> to go back to the previous level (i.e. the index screen).

Replying a message

To reply the current mail message, press <r>. If you want to copy the current message in the outgoing message, you must type "y" besides the question "Copy message? (y/n)".  Next, you are required to edit the subject of the message and the address(es) of person(s) who will receive a copy of your message.

Next, an editor (default is the vi editor) will be invoked for you to prepare the outgoing message. If your answer for previous question "Copy message? (y/n)" is "y", the current message will be included in the outgoing message. After you finish preparing the outgoing message, you should quit from the editor (e.g. for vi editor, you can press <Esc>, <:>, <w>, <q> and <Return>).

Finally, you can type "e" to edit the outgoing message again, type "h" to edit the header of the message, type "s" to send the message and type "f" to forget the prepared outgoing message.

Mailing a message

To mail a message, press <m>. Next, you are required to enter the adress(es) of the recipient(s), edit the subject of the message and the address(es) of person(s) who will receive a copy of your message.
The rest of the steps are similar to replying a message.

Forwarding a message

To forward the current mail message, press <f>. If you want to edit the outgoing message, you must type "y" besides the question "Edit outgoing message? (y/n)". Otherwise, you need to type "n". Next, you are required to enter the adress(es) of the recipient(s), edit the subject of the message and the address(es) of person(s) who will receive a copy of your message.

If your answer for previous question "Edit outgoing message? (y/n)" is "y", an editor (default is the vi editor) will be invoked for you to prepare the outgoing message. After finishing preparing the outgoing message, you should quit from the editor (e.g. for vi editor, you can press <Esc>, <:>, <w>, <q> and <Return>).

Finally, you can type "e" to edit the outgoing message again, type "h" to edit the header of the message, type "s" to send the message and type "f" to forget the prepared outgoing message.

Saving a message

To save the current mail message, press <s>. Then you should press <?> and <Return> to see the list of your existing folders. Next, you can type "nothing" to not save the current message, ">" or "=received" to save the current message to folder Mail/received under your home directory, "<" or "=sent" to save the current message to folder Mail/sent under your home directory, a filename (e.g. "abc" or "=abc") to save the current message to folder abc or Mail/abc under your home directory. After this step, the current message will be marked as "deleted" (i.e. a letter D shown in its first column). More information about deleting a mail message will be found in the following session.

Deleting a message

To delete the current mail message, press <d> to mark it. Then you will see a letter D shown in its first column. You can mark other messages which you want to delete in the same way. When you leave the elm mailer session by pressing <q>, you can type "y" besides the question "Delete message? (y/n)" to delete all marked message(s) with D shown in its (their) first column(s) or type "n" to abort all deletion.

Leaving the elm mailer session

To leave the elm mailer session, press <q>. If you have some read messages in your incoming mailbox, you will see the question "Move read messages to "received" folder? (y/n)". Otherwise, you will see the question "Keep unread message in incoming mailbox? (y/n)". Or, you will leave the system successfully if no message is found in your incoming mailbox.

If you want to move all read messages to a folder Mail/received placed under your home directory, you must type "y" besides the question "Move read messages to "received" folder? (y/n)". Otherwise, you should type "n" to keep them in your incoming mailbox.

If you want to keep all unread message in your incoming mailbox, you must type "y". Otherwise, you should type "n" and all unread messages will be moved to the folder Mail/received under your home directory.

Reading messages in other folders

To read messages in other folders than the incoming mailbox, you can do it in either of the following two ways.

The first way is to type the elm command with -f option and specify the folder name (e.g. Mail/received) at the system prompt. 

% elm -f Mail/received <Enter>

Or, you should press <c> to change the current folder (default is the incoming mailbox). Press <?> and <Return> to see the list of existing folders. Next, you can type "nothing" to not change to a new folder, "!" to change to your incoming mailbox (e.g. /var/mail/user1), ">" or "=received" to change to the folder Mail/received under your home directory, "<" or "=sent" to change to the folder Mail/sent under your home directory, a filename (e.g. "abc" or "=abc") to change to the folder abc or Mail/abc under your home directory.
 

Pine is an interactive screen-oriented mailer program on UNIX systems for computer network users to send and receive e-mail messages and files. It is a modifed version of elm. You can invoke this software by typing the command pine at the shell prompt, as follows:

% pine <Enter>

When the pine mailer session is started, a main menu will be displayed. You can now press <?> to see help information or press <q> to quit the pine system. For example:

% pine <Enter>  
  PINE 3.96     MAIN MENU                      Folder: INBOX 3 Messages  

        ?       HELP            - Get help using Pine
        C       COMPOSE MESSAGE - Compose and send a message
        I       FOLDER INDEX    - View messages in current folder
        L       FOLDER LIST     - Select a folder to view                
        A       ADDRESS BOOK    - Update address book
        S       SETUP           - Configure or update Pine
        Q       QUIT            - Exit the Pine program

Copyright 1989-1997. PINE is a trademark of the University of Washington.
? Help                          P PrevCmd       R RelNotes
O OTHER CMDS    L [ListFldrs]   N NextCmd       K KBlock

Now, you can select (highlight) any of the items in the menu of commands using the upper and lower arrow keys and then press <Return>. Or, you can execute any of the commands listed at the bottom by pressing the first character of the command. Pressing "O" will list other available commands to be displayed in the bottom two lines of the screen.

Obtaining help information

To obtain information about the commands of the pine program, press <?> to get to the help system. After reading the help information, you can press <m> to go back to the main menu or <e> to exit help.

Processing a message in the current folder

To process (e.g. read, forward, reply, save, delete, etc.) the mail message(s) in the current folder, press the <i> key, or select the menu item "FOLDER INDEX" and press <Return>. For example:

  PINE 3.96     FOLDER INDEX    Folder: INBOX   Message 1 of 3 NEW

+ N 1   May 25          To: user1       (391) Message 1                        
+ N 2   May 26          user1           (265) Hello!
+ N 3   May 27          To: user1       (393) How are you?

? Help        M Main Menu     P PrevMsg     - PrevPage     D Delete     R Reply
O OTHER CMDS  L [ViewMsg]     N NextMsg   Spc NextPage     U Undelete   F Forward

In the index (list) of mail messages, the first column is either + or blank which means that the message was or was not sent directly to your account. The second column can either be blank, N, A or D which means that the corresponding message is either read, new (unread), answered (by using the Reply command) or deleted (saved) respectively. The third column is the message number. The remaining columns are the message arrival date, the receiver's name, the message size in terms of "characters", and the subject of the messages. The current message which is the next one to be read is highlighted. When the "FOLDER INDEX" screen is shown, the current message will be the first of the newly arrived messages. You can select any one of messages in the index to be the current message by using the upper and lower arrow keys.

Reading a message

To read the current mail message in the "FOLDER INDEX" screen, press the <Return> key or <v> to display the content of the current message on the screen. Then press <i> to go back to the previous level (i.e. the index screen).

Replying a message

To reply the current mail message in the "FOLDER INDEX" screen, press <r>. If you want to copy the current message in the outgoing message, you must type "y" besides the question "Include original message in Reply? (y/n/^C) [n]:". Otherwise, you need to type "n". Then you will see the "COMPOSE MESSAGE REPLY" screen and can press <Ctrl/G> to get help information.

Enter the adress(es) of the recipient(s) (beside To: field), the address(es) of person(s) who will a copy of your message (beside Cc: field), the name of the attached file (beside Attachmnt: field) and the subject of the message (beside Subject: field). Then you can start to prepare the content of the outgoing message (below the line ---- Message Text ----).

After you finish preparing the outgoing message, press <Ctrl/X> to send it or <Ctrl/C> to cancel it.

Forwarding a message

To forward the current mail message in the "FOLDER INDEX" screen, press <f>. Then you will see the "FORWARD MESSAGE" screen and can press <Ctrl/G> to get help information.  The rest of the steps are similar to replying a message.

Saving a message

To save the current mail message in the "FOLDER INDEX" screen, press <s>. Then enter the folder's name for storing the current message and press <Return>. Or, you can press <Ctrl/T> to see the list of existing folders and select one of them by using the left and right arrow keys and pressing <Return> twice.

After this, the current message will be marked for deletion (i.e. a letter D shown in its second column). More information about deleting a mail message will be found in the following session.

Deleting a message

To delete the current mail message in the "FOLDER INDEX" screen, press <d> to mark it. Then you will see a letter D shown in its first column. You can mark other messages which you want to delete in the same way. When you leave the pine mailer session by pressing <q>, you can type "y" besides the question "Expunge the N deleted message(s) from "CURRENT FOLDER"? (y/n) [y]:" to delete all marked message(s) with D shown in its (their) second column(s) or type "n" to abort all deletion this time (i.e. the messages marked for deletion will not be removed yet).

Undeleting a message

To undelete the current mail message in the "FOLDER INDEX" screen, press <u> to unmark it. Then the letter D shown in its first column will disappear. You can unmark other messages which you do not want to delete in the same way.

Mailing a message

To mail a message, select the menu item "COMPOSE MESSAGE" and press <Return> in the "MAIN MENU" screen or you can press <c> first in the "FOLDER INDEX" screen. Then you will see the "COMPOSE MESSAGE" screen and can press <Ctrl/G> to get help information.

Enter the adress(es) of the recipient(s) (beside To: field), the address(es) of person(s) who will a copy of your message (beside Cc: field), the name of the attached file (beside Attachmnt: field) and the subject of the message (beside Subject: field). Then you can start to prepare the content of the outgoing message (below the line ---- Message Text ----).

After you finish preparing the outgoing message, press <Ctrl/X> to send it or <Ctrl/C> to cancel it.

Leaving the pine mailer session

To leave the pine mailer session, you should press <q> first and type <y> beside the question "Really quit pine? (/y/n/^C) [y]:".

Reading messages in other folder

To read messages in other folders than the incoming mailbox, you should change the current folder first. To do this, press the <l> key, or select the menu item "FOLDER LIST" and press <Return> in the "MAIN MENU" screen. You will then see the "FOLDER LIST" screen and you can press <?> to get help information.  Select any folder shown in the screen to be the current folder by using the left and right arrow keys and pressing <Return>.
 

Pico is the Pine composer. It can be used either as an editor for composing mail messages within Pine or as a stand-alone editor. You may invoke this software by typing the command pico with a file name as a parameter at the shell prompt, as follows:

% pico filename <Enter>

  UW PICO(tm) 2.9                                               File: filename 
_

                                [ New file ]
^G Get Help    ^O WriteOut    ^R Read File    ^Y Prev Pg    ^K Cut Text      ^C Cur Pos
^X Exit        ^J Justify     ^W Where Is     ^V Next Pg    ^U UnCut Text    ^T To Spell

Summary of pico commands

The following functions are available in pico.

<Ctrl/G> Display the help text

<Ctrl/F> Move forward a character
<Ctrl/B> Move backward a character
<Ctrl/P> Move to the previous line
<Ctrl/N> Move to the next line
<Ctrl/A> Move to the beginning of the current line
<Ctrl/E> Move to the end of the current line
<Ctrl/V> Move forward a page of text
<Ctrl/Y> Move backward a page of text

<Ctrl/W> Search for (where is) text, neglecting case
<Ctrl/L> Refresh the display

<Ctrl/D> Delete the character at the cursor position
<Ctrl/^> Mark cursor position as beginning of selected text
<Ctrl/K> Cut selected text (displayed in inverse characters)
<Ctrl/U> Uncut (paste) last cut text inserting it at the current cursor position
<Ctrl/I> Insert a tab at the current cursor position

<Ctrl/J> Format (justify) the current paragraph
<Ctrl/T> To invoke the spelling checker
<Ctrl/C> Report current cursor position

<Ctrl/R> Insert an external file at the current cursor position
<Ctrl/O> Output the current buffer to a file, saving it
<Ctrl/X> Exit pico, saving buffer

Mosaic is a distributed hypermedia system which provides a unified interface between different protocols, data formats and information servers for navigating and retrieving information on the Internet. It is the first Internet interface that combines the hypertext browsing of WWW (World Wide Web), the file retrieval of FTP (File Transfer Protocol), numerous image viewers, various audio and video players under one GUI (Graphical User Interface). In brief, Mosaic not only provides the mechanism for linking multi-media such as text, sound, images and animations that are usually stored on WWW servers, but also acts as a hypermedia tool to provide information to local users (by placing information in local files on the workstations).

Netscape is a modified and enhanced version of Mosaic. The improved user interface and performance improvements of Netscape make it both visually more appealing and provides better performance than the original Mosaic.

Both Mosaic and Netscape can be run from UNIX workstations with X-Window/Motif environment. Thus, you can invoke them from a remote machine (e.g. HKUSUA) following the procedure described below:

- Allow the remote machine (e.g. HKUSUA) to make connection to the X server of the local machine by using the command xhost (xhost command can be found under the paths /usr/bin/X11 for IBM machines and /usr/openwin/bin for SUN machines)

% xhost +hkusua <Enter>

% hostname <Enter>
hkursb

% telnet hkusua.hku.hk <Enter>

% setenv DISPLAY hkursb.hku.hk:0.0 <Enter>

% xmosaic <Enter>       
        or
% netscape <Enter>

For more details on functions of the Netscape System, please refer to our User Guides on Netscape 3.0
 

Some important features of Mosaic & Netscape

- display of plain text, rich text, and hypermedia
- inline graphics and images
- a customizable graphical user interface
- global history of information space navigation and tracking with which
  you can have a quick access to the important or frequently used 
  documents via a personal hotlist
- search capabilities within a document and over the Internet
- text and voice annotation for documents anywhere on the Internet
- full TCP/IP-based communications support
- easily extendable to a variety of viewers and data formats