Introduction
************

VM (View Mail) is an Emacs subsystem that allows UNIX mail to be read
and disposed of within Emacs.  Commands exist to do the normal things
expected of a mail user agent, such as generating replies, saving
messages to folders, deleting messages and so on.  There are other
more advanced commands that do tasks like bursting and creating
digests, message forwarding, and organizing message presentation
according to various criteria.

To invoke VM, type `M-x vm'.  VM gathers any mail that has arrived in
your system mailbox and appends it to a file known as your "primary
inbox", and visits that file for reading.  See Starting Up.  A
file visited for reading by VM is called the "current folder".

If there are any messages in the primary inbox, VM selects the first
new or unread message, and previews it.  "Previewing" is VM's way of
showing you part of message and allowing you to decide whether you
want to read it.  See Previewing.  By default VM shows you the
message's sender, recipient, subject and date headers.  Typing SPC
(`vm-scroll-forward') exposes the body of the message and flags the
message as read.  Subsequent SPC's scroll forward through the message,
`b' or DEL scrolls backward.  When you reach the end of a message,
typing SPC or `n' moves you forward to preview the next message.
See Paging.

If you do not want to read a message that's being previewed, type
`n' and VM will move to the next message (if there is one).
See Selecting Messages.

To save a message to a mail folder use `s' (`vm-save-message').  VM
will prompt you for the folder name in the minibuffer.  *Note Saving
Messages::.

Messages are deleted by typing `d' (`vm-delete-message') while
previewing or reading them.  The message is not removed right away; VM
makes a note that you want the message to be removed later.  If you
change your mind about deleting a message, select it and type `u'
(`vm-undelete-message'), and the message will be undeleted.
See Deleting Messages.  The actual removal of deleted messages from
the current folder is called "expunging" and it is accomplished by
typing `#' (`vm-expunge-folder').  The message is still present in the
on-disk version of the folder until the folder is saved.

Typing `h' (`vm-summarize') causes VM to display a window containing a
summary of the contents of the current folder.  The summary is
presented one line per message, by message number, listing each
message's author, date sent, line and byte count, and subject.  Also,
various letters appear beside the message number to indicate that a
message is new, unread, flagged for deletion, etc.  An arrow `->'
appears to the left of the line summarizing the current message.  The
summary format is user configurable, See Summaries.

When you are finished reading mail the current folder must be saved,
so that the next time the folder is visited VM will know which
messages have been already read, replied to and so on.  Typing `S'
(`vm-save-folder') saves the folder.  Note that deleted message are
not expunged automatically when you save a folder; this is a change
from version 4 of VM.  The next time you visit the folder any deleted
messages will still be flagged for deleted.

If the folder is empty and the variable `vm-delete-empty-folders' is
non-`nil', VM will remove the zero length folder after saving it.

To quit visiting a folder you can type `q' (`vm-quit') or `x'
(`vm-quit-no-change').  Typing `q' saves the current folder before
quitting.  Also, any messages flagged new are changed to be flagged as
old and unread, before saving.  The `x' command quits a folder without
changing the status of new messages, saving or otherwise modifying the
current folder.

If the variable `vm-confirm-quit' is set to `t' VM will always ask for
confirmation before ending a VM visit of a folder.  A `nil' value
means VM will ask only when messages will be lost unwittingly by
quitting, i.e. not removed by intentional delete and expunge.  A value
that is neither `nil' nor `t' causes VM to ask only when there are
unsaved changes to message attributes or when messages will be lost.

You do not have to quit a folder to continue using Emacs for other
purposes.  (`vm-quit-just-bury') buries the buffers associated with
the current folder deep in Emacs' stack of buffers, but otherwise
leaves the folder visited so that you can resume reading messages
quickly.  You can locate the folder's buffers again by using
(`list-buffers'), which is normally bound to `C-x C-b'.

Another command you can use if you are using a window system like X
Windows is (`vm-quit-just-iconify').  This command buries the folder's
buffers like (`vm-quit-just-bury') and also iconifies the current
frame.

At any time while reading mail in any folder you can type `g'
(`vm-get-new-mail') to check to see if new mail for that folder has
arrived.  If new mail has arrived it will be moved from the spool file
or spool files assocaited with the current folder and merged into the
folder.  If you are not in the middle of another message, VM will also
move to the first new or unread message.

If `vm-get-new-mail' is given a prefix argument, it will prompt for
another file from which to gather messages instead of the usual spool
files.  In this case the source folder is copied but no messages are
deleted from it as they would be for a spool file.

By default your primary inbox has your system mailbox associated with
it, e.g. `/var/spool/mail/kyle', and so typing `g' will retrieve mail
from this file.  Your system mailbox is one example of a "spool file",
a file that the mail transport system delivers messages into.  You can
associate other spool files with your primary inbox and spool files
with other folders by setting the variable (`vm-spool-files').  *Note
Spool Files::.