PMDF User's Guide
OpenVMS Edition


Previous Contents Index


SET & SHOW CONTROL_CHARS

Controls the handling of control and escape characters in message text.

restrictions

Requires SYSPRV privilege to set information for users other than yourself; requires SYSPRV or SYSNAM privilege to show information about users other than yourself.

Syntax

SET CONTROL_CHARS handling

SHOW CONTROL_CHARS

Qualifiers Defaults
/LOG /NOLOG
/UIC="[g,m]" None
/SYSTEM_DEFAULT None
/USER=username None

Parameters

None.

Description

By default, control characters and escape sequences in message headers and text are passed through to your terminal thereby allowing the display of non-ASCII character sets requiring such sequences. However, there is the potential for harm to be done by such characters and sequences. By issuing the command


EMAIL> SET CONTROL_CHARS DISABLE
PMDF MAIL will disable and convert to printable text any control characters or escape sequences in message headers and text which it displays upon your terminal. Be warned, however, that the actual content of the message is not changed. Should you extract the message to a file and then type it out, then any control characters and escape sequences will be passed through to your terminal. What may have seemed to be a safe message when you read it from PMDF MAIL, may in fact be unsafe to extract and type out while at DCL.

Use the command


EMAIL> SET CONTROL_CHARS ALLOW
to allow control and escape characters to be passed through to your terminal.

Note that certain control characters such as CTRL/S (XOFF) are never passed through to your terminal by PMDF MAIL.


Examples

In this example, control and escape sequences are disabled as shown with the SHOW command.


EMAIL> SHOW CONTROL_CHARS
Control and escape sequences are passed through to the terminal. 
EMAIL> SET CONTROL_CHARACTERS DISABLE
EMAIL> SHOW CONTROL_CHARS
Control and escape sequences are not passed through to the terminal. 
EMAIL> 


Previous Next Contents Index