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PACKAGE(1)		     General Commands Manual		      PACKAGE(1)

NAME
     package - register package user via mailagent

SYNOPSIS
     package address system version patchlevel [ mailpatches | notifypatches ]

DESCRIPTION
     This  command  is not intended to be run directly by a user, but may appear
     in any mail whose subject is set to Command. Such mail will be processed by
     the mailagent(1), which will extract all lines beginning  with  @SH,  which
     may  specify  this  command. The mailagent first sets environment variables
     that will be used by the command.

     Package is used to notify the author of a package about its users.   It  is
     normally  generated  automatically  by  the MailAuthor.U unit when the user
     runs Configure.

     If the patchlevel specified is not the latest for that system and	version,
     mail is immediately sent suggesting that they upgrade and remindng them how
     to request the latest patches.

     The  final parameter, if included may be set to mailpatches to specify that
     the user would like to have future patches mailed to them, or notifypatches
     to specify that a mail notification  of  future  patches  should  be  sent,
     rather than the entire patch.

     The  user's address and notification request are saved in the file users in
     the package's directory.

     Package performs an approximate address match in order to	avoid  duplicate
     entries.	Whenever this elimination occurs, a warning message is issued in
     the logfile.  Two addresses will be said equivalent if one of them  has  an
     added  machine  name  or if they are really equal. Therefore, the following
     addresses are equivalent:

	  ram@acri.fr
	  ram@main.acri.fr

     whereas the following two are not equivalent, unfortunately:

	  ram@acri.acri.fr
	  ram@main.acri.fr

     When a user is asking to be left alone, it is important to let him know  if
     the request failed, because he will be annoyed when the next set of patches
     is  issued  and he still gets them despite his previous request. Therefore,
     if no approximate match occurs, a warning message is sent back, with a list
     of addresses that are close to his own e-mail address, but not  equivalent.
     Fortunately, the following addresses are considered close:

	  ram@acri.fr
	  ram@somewhere.com
	  raphael@main.acri.fr
	  manfredi@acri.acri.fr

     because  they  either  have  the same login (important when someone changes
     company) or share the same domain or sub-domain part.

     In order to edit the users file, the edusers script should be used. For one
     thing, it will let you edit the users file from whatever package  you  name
     in  the  command  line, but it will also properly lock the file so that the
     execution of package will stall for the  duration	of  the  manual  edition
     (provided	you  have  a  strict locking policy defined in your ~/.mailagent
     configuration file).

FORWARDING
     Package supports command forwarding as described in the mailhelp(1) page.

FILES
     ~/.mailagent	 configuration file for mailagent.
     System/users	 list of users of that system.
			 This file consists of single line records, one for each
			 registered user.  Each record consists  of  three  tab-
			 separated fields.

			 The  first  field  indicates  the  level of updates re-
			 quested by the user by a single letter as follows:
			 M	Mail future patches directly to  the  user  when
				they are issued.
			 N	Notify the user of future patches.
			 U	The users chose to let the author know that they
				have  tried  the  program,  but does not wish to
				know about future updates.
			 L	The user is no longer interested in the  program
				and wants to be left alone.

			 The second field is their last notified patch level, or
			 a dash (-) if it is not known.

			 The third field is the user's Email address.
     Log/agentlog	 mailagent's log file

AUTHORS
     Graham Stoney <greyham@research.canon.oz.au>
     Raphael Manfredi <Raphael_Manfredi@pobox.com> (minor enhancements)

SEE ALSO
     edusers(1), mailagent(1), metaconfig(1).

								      PACKAGE(1)

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