EC Installation


CAUTIONS

1. As of Version 1.16, ec stores its library modules in the site_perl
   library directory.  If you try to run an earlier version, you'll
   likely receive, "module not found," errors, at least, due to version 
   incompatibilities. The safest course, after installing the new version, 
   is to remove the library modules of the old version with the commands:

     $ rm -rf ~/.ec/EC
     $ rm -rf ~/.ec/Tk

2. Remember to make backups of the .ecconfig and .servers files before
   upgrading.


CONTENTS

  SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

  INSTALLING AND CONFIGURING

    X Fonts

  PRINTING THE DOCUMENTATION

  TROUBLESHOOTING


SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

1. Perl, at least version 5.004.  If the version of Perl that is 
   installed on the system is earlier than 5.004, you probably 
   can't run much of anything else, either.
2. Perl/Tk version 800.022 or later. You can download Perl/Tk
   from http://www.cpan.org/.  There are also Perl/Tk binary
   packages for many different systems.
3. MIME::Base64, if you want to send and receive MIME mail 
   attachments.  If you have Perl 5.8, it should already be 
   installed.  Otherwise, you can download MIME::Base64 from 
   http://www.cpan.org/.
3. An Internet connection to a POP3 and SMTP server, or 
   a local Mail Transfer Agent - either sendmail, exim, or 
   qmail.


INSTALLING AND CONFIGURING

1.  Unpack the tar archive, preferably in your home directory 
    (which you've already done it you're reading this).

      tar zxvf ec-<version>.tar.gz

2.  Install the program, library, and documentation files.  You can 
    build the files while logged in as a normal user.  The actual 
    installation requires system administrator privileges.

      $ cd ec-<version>
      $ perl Makefile.PL
      $ make

    Then log in as the system administrator and install:

      # make install

3.  Install the configuration files for each user.  They reside in
    a subdirectory of each user's $HOME directory.  The default 
    configuration files are located in the configs/ subdirectory: 
    configs/dot-ecconfig and configs/dot-servers.  

    While logged in as a normal user, install the configuration
    files with the following commands:

      # mkdir ~/.ec
      # cp configs/dot-ecconfig ~/.ec/.ecconfig
      # cp configs/dot-servers ~/.ec/.servers
      # chmod 0600 ~/.ec/.servers

    If you are upgrading you may not need to re-install the 
    configuration files, although you should check carefully
    that the upgrade is compatible with the old configuration
    files.

    By default, the program looks for the configuration files
    as $HOME/.ec/.ecconfig and $HOME/.ec/.servers.  The 
    subdirectory and files are hidden.  Use the -a command
    line option to ls to view them:

      # ls -la ~/.ec

    For security, the .servers file has limited permissions, so 
    that only the files owner can view them.  The program prints
    an error message if the permissions are not correct.

4.  Edit the .ec/.ecconfig file with the program options of 
    your choice.  You can read and edit the file with a text editor
    or from the Help -> Sample .ecconfig File... menu option.  
    The comments in the .ecconfig file explain the function of each 
    option and the possible values for them.  The help file, the 
    Help -> Help menu option, provides additional information.

5.  On Solaris systems, make sure that the value of, "mailspooldir,"
    in the ~/.ec/.ecconfig file is set to the system's mail spool
    directory, normally /var/mail.

    You may also need to change the value of $SOCK_STREAM line 102 of
    the ec program to '2' to communicate directly with SMTP and 
    POP3 servers.  

6.  EC requires, at the very least, a top-level mail subdirectory, 
    and two sub-sub-directories, one for incoming mail and another 
    for deleted messages.  Create the directories defined in the
    configuration file with the following commands:

      $ mkdir ~/Mail
      $ mkdir ~/Mail/incoming
      $ mkdir ~/Mail/trash

    These are the path names used in the standard configuration.
    If you change them. make sure also to edit the options in ec and
    $HOME/.ec/.ecconfig.


X Fonts

    Ec can use fonts specified in ~/.Xresources, ~/.Xdefaults, ~/Ec, 
    or ~/.ec/.ecconfig.  Ec uses resources of the, "Ec," class.  Here 
    are some sample font resource entries.

      !! Default font
      Ec*font: *-helvetica-medium-r-*-*-12-*
      !! Fonts for widget classes
      Ec*Dialog*font: *-helvetica-medium-r-*-*-12-*
      Ec*TextUndo*font: *-courier-medium-r-*-*-12-*
      Ec*Listbox*font: *-courier-medium-r-*-*-12-*
      Ec*Menu*font: *-helvetica-medium-r-*-*-12-*
      Ec*Button*font: *-helvetica-medium-r-*-*-12-*

    Fonts specified in .ecconfig override the X resource settings.
    Refer to the comments in the .ecconfig file.


PRINTING THE DOCUMENTATION

Perl's POD formatting utilities can generate documentation in various
formats.

  pod2html <ec >doc.html
  pod2latex <ec >doc.tex
  pod2man <ec >doc.man
  pod2text <ec >doc.txt
  pod2usage <ec >doc.msg

Refer to your system's manual pages for these utilities.


TROUBLESHOOTING

1. The installation should copy the executable programs to the same 
   directory as the perl interpreter.  If the ec program is in your 
   $HOME directory, typing simply, "ec," should produce a response 
   like this:

     bash: ec: command not found

   Standard practice on Unix systems is *not* to include the
   current directory in the search path for programs, as a 
   security measure.  So, you need to specify the directory
   explicitly.  Here are two ways to do it:

     # The dot is a synonym for the current directory.
     $ ./ec   
     # A tilde is a synonym for your home directory.  
     $ ~/ec

   Refer to the documentation for the shell (man bash, man csh, man ksh,
   etc.),  or almost any book about Unix.


2. Finding the Perl Interpreter

   Solaris 8

   The standard configuration of Solaris 8 uses Version 5.005 of Perl 
   and installs the interpreter in /usr/perl5/bin.  The installation 
   also makes a symlink, /usr/bin/perl.  However, ec still gets installed 
   in /usr/perl5/bin, which is not listed in the default $PATH.  If you 
   get an error message like this:

     bash: ec: command not found

   You must:

     1. Make a symlink to ec in /usr/bin (you must have administrator 
        privileges to do this):

        # ln -s /usr/perl5/bin/ec /usr/bin/ec

     2. Or, add /usr/perl5/bin to your $PATH variable.  How to do
        that depends on the shell and the desktop environment.  The 
        command for the Bourne shell sh is:

        $ PATH="/usr/perl5/bin:"$PATH ; export $PATH

     3. If neither of the above are possible, type the full
        pathname of ec:

        $ /usr/perl5/bin/ec

   Other Operating Systems

   On other systems, if you try to run ec and get an error message like 
   this:

    bash: ec: No such file or directory

   Then you need to edit the first line of the ec program file to 
   the path to the system's perl interpreter.  Usually this is 
   /usr/bin/perl (the default in the distributed program), or 
   /usr/local/bin/perl.  If neither of these work, try using the 
   output of the command: "which perl."

3. Diagnosing Server Problems

   The -v command line option prints a transcript of the dialog with 
   the mail servers:

     $ ec -v &

   If the output scrolls off the screen, you can also redirect
   the transcript to a file:

     $ ec -v >ec.transcript &

   The transcript should provide enough information to help 
   pinpoint configuration or authentication errors.


If the program doesn't work for some reason that isn't covered in the
TROUBLESHOOTING section, please let the author know.  Send bug
reports, suggestions, and other feedback to rkies@cpan.org.

Copyright © 2001-2004 Robert Kiesling, rkies@cpan.org.

Ec is licensed under the same terms as Perl. Please refer to the file,
"Artistic."

$Id: README,v 1.4 2004/03/03 00:48:19 kiesling Exp $