ARCHIVED: What is Elm?

Elm is a menu-driven email utility for Unix.

Elm organizes your messages into three directories, or folders: incoming, received, and sent. When you first invoke Elm, it displays a directory of the new, unread messages waiting in your incoming folder. As you read messages, they are marked for transfer to the received folder.

You can create other Elm folders to organize your messages as you see fit. When you press s to save a selected message to a new folder, Elm suggests a new folder name based on the message's return address.

You can try Elm yourself by logging into a Unix host and entering:

  elm

First-time users may be asked to approve the creation of certain Elm-related directories. Press y to accept the new directories.

When Elm displays a directory of incoming messages, you can:

• Read: Use the arrow keys to highlight the message you want to read, then press Enter.
• Reply: To reply to a displayed/highlighted message, press r.
• Forward: To forward a displayed/highlighted message, press f.
• Delete: To delete a displayed/highlighted message, press d. This marks the message for deletion. When you exit Elm or the current Elm folder, Elm asks you to confirm the deletion.
• Send: From any Elm menu, press m. Elm prompts you for subject and address information. Your editor will start and you can compose your message. When you are finished, save and exit the editor. Then press s to send your message.