Comet Electronic Mail

Reference

Information for System Managers Information for Programmers

The Comet Electronic Mail system consists of the following four programs:

Program Description
CEMM Maintenance program for mailboxes and groups. Can be password-protected, so only the system manager can create, edit, or delete mailboxes and groups.
CEMAIL Main program (used to send and read messages).
CEMPRT Print program. Activated in a background partition when the user chooses one of the print options. If no background partition is available, the program executes in the user's foreground partition and returns to the CEMAIL program when done.
CEMRMDR Reminder program. Activated in a background partition when the CEMAIL program is run by any user. (Does not activate if this program is already running in background.) If no reminders are pending, the program terminates itself. If reminders are pending, this program sends messages to users with new, unread messages every five minutes. When the program is not sending messages, it "sleeps" for five minutes (to conserve system resources).
Note: If you need to free up a background partition, you may terminate this program at any time without adverse impact. Later, this program can be restarted simply by running CEMAIL - pending reminders would resume at that point.

Program	Description
CEMM	Maintenance program for mailboxes and groups. Can be password-protected, so only the system manager can create, edit, or delete mailboxes and groups.
CEMAIL	Main program (used to send and read messages).
CEMPRT	Print program. Activated in a background partition when the user chooses one of the print options. If no background partition is available, the program executes in the user's foreground partition and returns to the CEMAIL program when done.
CEMRMDR	Reminder program. Activated in a background partition when the CEMAIL program is run by any user. (Does not activate if this program is already running in background.) If no reminders are pending, the program terminates itself. If reminders are pending, this program sends messages to users with new, unread messages every five minutes. When the program is not sending messages, it "sleeps" for five minutes (to conserve system resources). Note: If you need to free up a background partition, you may terminate this program at any time without adverse impact. Later, this program can be restarted simply by running CEMAIL - pending reminders would resume at that point.

The Comet Electronic Mail system also contains two MoreThanBasic (MTB) subroutines that may be used by your custom application programs. See Information for Programmers for a full description of these subroutines. The subroutine files are:

Subroutine Description
UFCEMDEC The declarative and format statements necessary for sending messages to the Comet Electronic Mail system from an MTB program.
UFCEMEXE The executable statements necessary for sending messages to the Comet Electronic Mail system from an MTB program.

Subroutine	Description
UFCEMDEC	The declarative and format statements necessary for sending messages to the Comet Electronic Mail system from an MTB program.
UFCEMEXE	The executable statements necessary for sending messages to the Comet Electronic Mail system from an MTB program.

The Comet Electronic Mail system creates a number of data files. Because of the potentially large number of these files, we suggest that a separate Comet directory be established prior to running the CEMM program for the first time. The following files are created:

Filename Description
CEMM1 Master list of mailboxes and group names. Includes user name, mailbox number, password for reading private messages, default printer name, default terminal number, and list of reminder terminals.
CEMG1 Group definitions. Includes the names of all users in each group.
CEMD1 Default terminal assignments. Includes user name and default terminal number.
CEMHnnnn Message header file, where nnnn is the mailbox number assigned by the CEMM program (e.g., 0001, 0002, 0003). Includes message header data for all messages in a user's mailbox.
CEMLnnnn Message detail file, where nnnn is the mailbox number assigned by the CEMM program (e.g., 0001, 0002, 0003). Includes message detail lines for all messages in a user's mailbox.
CEMPnnnn Message pointer file, where nnnn is the mailbox number assigned by the CEMM program (e.g., 0001, 0002, 0003). Includes internal pointers to messages in each mailbox.
CEMR1 Message reminder file. Includes list of mailboxes with new, unread messages (i.e., mailboxes to be reminded of active messages).
CEMRACT1 "Flag" file. Used to determine if the CEMRMDR program should remain active or not. This file will be created and erased as necessary during the course of operating the Comet Electronic Mail system.

Filename	Description
CEMM1	Master list of mailboxes and group names. Includes user name, mailbox number, password for reading private messages, default printer name, default terminal number, and list of reminder terminals.
CEMG1	Group definitions. Includes the names of all users in each group.
CEMD1	Default terminal assignments. Includes user name and default terminal number.
CEMHnnnn	Message header file, where nnnn is the mailbox number assigned by the CEMM program (e.g., 0001, 0002, 0003). Includes message header data for all messages in a user's mailbox.
CEMLnnnn	Message detail file, where nnnn is the mailbox number assigned by the CEMM program (e.g., 0001, 0002, 0003). Includes message detail lines for all messages in a user's mailbox.
CEMPnnnn	Message pointer file, where nnnn is the mailbox number assigned by the CEMM program (e.g., 0001, 0002, 0003). Includes internal pointers to messages in each mailbox.
CEMR1	Message reminder file. Includes list of mailboxes with new, unread messages (i.e., mailboxes to be reminded of active messages).
CEMRACT1	"Flag" file. Used to determine if the CEMRMDR program should remain active or not. This file will be created and erased as necessary during the course of operating the Comet Electronic Mail system.