🚀 go-pugleaf

kgk@CS.BROWN.EDU (Keiji Kanazawa) writes:
 > Thanks, everybody, for pointers or copies of the rfc describing mail
 > digest format.  It has become clear that what I need is an English
 > version of the specs, since I am only fronting for people who will
 > take one look at the rfc and throw it out the window.  [That's not to
 > imply that people who sent me the rfc wouldn't be similarly inclined]
 > 
 > Anyhow, request #2: does anybody have a succinct English description
 > of the digest format, or better yet, know where to get an automatic
 > mail digester?

The format is simple--- the RFC is just longwinded about it,
although it isn't as nearly as bad as some of the other RFCs.

A digest contains an optional prologue, a message separator, one
or more RFC 822 messages followed by message separators, and an
optional epilogue.

The prologue and epilogue can be any text as long as they don't
contain a message separator.  A message separator is any line
whose first character is a '-' and whose second character in not
a space (ASCII character 32).  If a message to be included in the
digest contains lines that begins with a '-', each such line should
be prepended with a '-' and a space before being included in the
digest.  (This allows a digest to be included in another digest).

That's all you really need to know.

This script will take a UNIX mailbox on stdin and output
an RFC 934 digest on stdout.

#!/bin/sh

sed -e '/^$/{' -e 'n' -e 's/^From .*$/-----/' -e '}' \
    -e '1s/^From .*$/----- start of digest -----/' -e 't' -e 's/^-/- -/'

echo "----- end of digest -----"