PMDF System Manager's Guide

PMDF supports the SEND/FOREIGN facility of VMS MAIL. A command of the form

MAIL> SEND/FOREIGN file-spec

will send the file file-spec in foreign format. The file parameter file-spec is required. Note that this command is not documented in the VMS MAIL documentation.

PMDF detects the /FOREIGN format request and acts accordingly --- the file is read using block mode I/O and encoded in a printable form for transmission. The resulting message preserves all file attributes and can be used to send any kind of OpenVMS file, including indexed files, without losing any information.

Upon reception of such messages, PMDF will detect the use of foreign encoding and will undo the encoding used prior to delivering the message to VMS MAIL in foreign format. The resulting message cannot be read in VMS MAIL (unless the file sent was a DDIF, DTIF, or DOTS file); it must be extracted with the VMS MAIL EXTRACT command to a file before it can be used. A DDIF, DTIF, or DOTS file will be displayed to the maximum extent possible --- DECwindows MAIL will use the CDA viewer to display the document while regular VMS MAIL will only display the text components of the file content.

There is no place to store additional header information for such messages, so PMDF delivers the headers for these messages in a separate message after the foreign format message. This delivery mechanism can be disabled with the noforeign channel keyword; the noforeign channel keyword is the default.