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RCFILE


Syntax

Envariable

M2H_RCFILE=filename

Element

N/A

Command-line Option

-rcfile filename


Description

RCFILE tells MHonArc what resource files to load. A resource file allows you to specify most of the resources set by environment variables and command-line options along with other resources to control MHonArc's behavior.

The -rcfile command-line option can be specified multiple times. For example,

prompt> mhonarc -rcfile file1.mrc -rcfile file2.mrc ...

Each resource file specified will be loaded in the order specified on the command-line.

Resource file syntax

Resources are set in the file by using elements similiar in style to HTML/XML markup. However, MHonArc uses simpler parsing rules for the resource file than standard XML:

Resource variables

Many resources are allowed to have resource variables as part of there content. Resource variables represent data that defined during run-time: resource variables will get expanded to the appropriate value during the execution of MHonArc. For more information on resource variables, see Resource Variables.

Localized resource file variations

MHonArc supports the ability to define locale specific variations of a resource file based upon the LANG resource setting. For example:

prompt> mhonarc -lang en_US -rcfile settings.mrc ...

MHonArc will check for and read the following resource files, in order:

  1. settings.mrc
  2. settings.mrc.en
  3. settings.mrc.en_us
NOTE:

MHonArc will quietly ignore any locale-specific files that do not exist.

NOTE:

Setting LANG via a resource file element will only affect subsequent resource file resolution: subsequent resource files loaded via multiple -rcfile options and resource files loaded via the INCLUDE and OTHERINDEXES resources.

Continuing with the previous example, the following specifies a French-Canadian archive:

prompt> mhonarc -lang fr_CA -rcfile settings.mrc ...

Causing the following resource files to be examined:

  1. settings.mrc
  2. settings.mrc.fr
  3. settings.mrc.fr_ca

The following is the list of files examined given a resource file file.mrc and the generic locale setting language_country.codeset:

  1. file.mrc
  2. file.mrc.language
  3. file.mrc.language.codeset
  4. file.mrc.language_country
  5. file.mrc.language_country.codeset

If you manage multiple archives comprising multiple languages, you can define generic settings in a shared resource file and define language-specific overrides and/or variations in locale-specific resource files. For example, by leveraging the use of custom resource variables, you can parameterize textual labels so the locale-specific resource files only need to define variable values instead of redefining layout. For example, the following is the default value of the NEXTBUTTON resource:

<NextButton chop>
[<a href="$MSG(NEXT)$">Date Next</a>]
</NextButton>

To facilitate the the localization of your archives, change the resource so the button label becomes a custom resource variable reference:

<NextButton chop>
[<a href="$MSG(NEXT)$">$BUTTON-DATE-NEXT-LABEL$</a>]
</NextButton>

Notice that "Date Next" has been changed to "$BUTTON-DATE-NEXT-LABEL$". In the locale specific resource file, all you need to do is define $BUTTON-DATE-NEXT-LABEL$. Continuing with the settings.mrc example, the following would be defined in settings.mrc.en to set the English version of the label:

<DefineVar chop>
$BUTTON-DATE-NEXT-LABEL$
Date Next
</DefineVar>

Default Setting

Nil.


Resource Variables

N/A


Examples

The following illustrates what a resource file looks like. For more examples of resource files, see Appendix: Resource File Examples.

<!-- MHonArc resource file
  -->
<SORT>
<TITLE>
MHonArc test
</TITLE>
 
<TTITLE>
MHonArc test (by thread)
</TTITLE>
 
<!--=== Index Page Customizations =========================================-->
 
<!-- Have LISTBEGIN contain last updated information
  -->
<LISTBEGIN>
<address>
Last updated: $LOCALDATE$<br>
$NUMOFMSG$ messages in chronological order<br>
</address>
<ul>
<li><a href="$TIDXFNAME$">Thread Index</a></li>
</ul>
<p>
Listing format is the following:
<p>
<ul><li> 
<strong>Subject</strong>
(# of follow-ups)
<em>From</em><br>
</ul>
<p>
<hr>
<ul>
</LISTBEGIN>
 
 
<!-- A compact listing template
  -->
<LITEMPLATE>
<li> 
<strong>$SUBJECT:40$</strong>
($NUMFOLUP$) <em>$FROMNAME$</em><br>
</LITEMPLATE>
 
<LISTEND>
</ul>
<p>
<hr>
<strong>
<a href="http://example.com/">Home</a>
</strong>
<p>
</LISTEND>
 
<!--=== Thread Index Page Customizations ==================================-->
<THEAD>
<address>
Thread index<br>
Last updated: $LOCALDATE$<br>
$NUMOFMSG$ messages<br>
</address>
<ul>
<li><a href="$IDXFNAME$">Main Index</a></li>
</ul>
<hr>
</THEAD>
 
<!--=== Message Customizations ============================================-->
<EXCS override>
apparently
errors-to 
followup
forward 
lines 
message-id
mime- 
nntp- 
originator 
path 
precedence 
received 
replied 
return-path 
status 
via 
x- 
</EXCS>

<LABELSTYLES>
-default-
subject:strong
from:strong
to:strong
</LABELSTYLES>
 
<FIELDSTYLES>
-default-
subject:strong
from:strong
to:strong
keywords:em
newsgroups:strong
</FIELDSTYLES>
 
<MSGHEAD>
<address>
MHonArc test archive
</address>
</MSGHEAD>
 
<MSGFOOT>
<strong>
<a href="http://example.com/">Home</a> |
<a href="$IDXFNAME$">Main Index</a> |
<a href="$TIDXFNAME$">Thread Index</a>
</strong>
</MSGFOOT>
 
<!--=== Icons =============================================================-->
<ICONS>
application/*;[20x22]/icons/generic.gif
application/msword;[20x22]/icons/layout.gif
application/postscript;[20x22]/icons/ps.gif
application/rtf;[20x22]/icons/layout.gif
application/x-csh;[20x22]/icons/script.gif
application/x-dvi;[20x22]/icons/dvi.gif
application/x-gtar;[20x22]/icons/tar.gif
application/x-gzip;[20x22]/icons/compressed.gif
application/x-ksh;[20x22]/icons/script.gif
application/x-latex;[20x22]/icons/tex.gif
application/octet-stream;[20x22]/icons/binary.gif
application/x-patch;[20x22]/icons/patch.gif
application/pdf;[20x22]/icons/pdf.gif
application/x-script;[20x22]/icons/script.gif
application/x-sh;[20x22]/icons/script.gif
application/x-tar;[20x22]/icons/tar.gif
application/x-tex;[20x22]/icons/tex.gif
application/x-zip-compressed;[20x22]/icons/compressed.gif
application/zip;[20x22]/icons/compressed.gif
audio/*;[20x22]/icons/sound1.gif
chemical/*;[20x22]/icons/sphere2.gif
image/*;[20x22]/icons/image2.gif
message/external-body;[20x22]/icons/link.gif
multipart/*;[20x22]/icons/layout.gif
text/*;[20x22]/icons/text.gif
video/*;[20x22]/icons/movie.gif
*/*;[20x22]/icons/generic.gif
</ICONS>

Version

1.0


See Also

LANG


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$Date: 2005/06/07 19:15:44 $
MHonArc
Copyright © 1997-1999,2003, Earl Hood, mhonarc@mhonarc.org