FLAGMAIL(1)

NAME
flagmail - interface to xalert

SYNOPSIS
flagmail [-d] [-e string] [-f format] [-h hostfile] [-p num] [-s size] [-w width] [-x]

DESCRIPTION
Flagmail is an interface to the xalert program, which runs under the X windowing system. It's task is to build up a alert message from a message read from the standard input and pass it to the xalert for display. In actual fact, flagmail is not limited to talking to xalert but can talk to any process that understands the protocol and listens on the appropriate port.

If it can not contact such an X server, then it will attempt to locate the users terminal line and notify that in the same manner as ttyalert.

It has several options to control the format.

-d  Run in debug mode. This stops the process disappearing into the background at the first opportunity.

-e string
    Set the extra variable. This is used in part of the display string and defaults to “NEW: ”.

-f format
    This allows overriding the default format of the message displayed.

-h hostfile
    This changes the file that is read to discover the host xalert is running on.

-p number
    Change the default udp port that is sent to.

-s size
    This sets the size variable which can be set in the .mailfilter delivery script (typically using the “$(size)” variable).

-w width
    This sets the maximum width of the output line. The string is truncated to this width.

-x  Force the use of protocol.

The default display string is the following

%extra(%size) %20from %subject << %50body

FILES
~/.alert    The default alert file.

SEE ALSO
xalert(1), ttyalert(1)
PP Manual - Volume 3: User Manual

BUGS
The formatting string ought to be more general.