What is Melon? -------------- Melon is a simple utility that notifies user for newly received e-mails, through a nice couple of configurable icons. In short, it is an xbiff replacement. When a mailbox has received new e-mails, the icon changes and an acoustic warning is played. Features -------- Melon supports multiple mailboxes handling, acoustic warnings, execution of external application on request. By default, melon checks only the modification time of a file, so you can monitor every kind of files with it, not just mailboxes. If you prefer, melon is able to scan the mailbox looking for the status flag for each message. Moreover, melon support the maildir format too [ thanks to Yachar Tajahmady ]. When adding a mailbox to the file list, you can specify the check's method depending of your requirements (see "Set Mailboxes"). Download -------- Latest version of melon is always available here: http://www.entropika.net/melon/packages/melon_current.tar.gz Changelog: http://www.entropika.net/melon/packages/Changelog Readme file: http://www.entropika.net/melon/packages/README Installation ------------ See the INSTALL file. Upgrading from Melon-1.0 ------------------------ The name of install dir is changed. Now the format is 'melon-x'. If you added your own pixmaps and audio files to the old install dir, you need to move them to the new location. Upgrading from Melon-1.1, Melon-1.2 ----------------------------------- The configuration file melon.cfg and the status file melon.status are now stored in ~/.melon directory. In order to use your old ~/.melon.cfg file, you have to move it to the new location. Note that ~/.melon directory is created when you launchs melon, if it don't already exists. Upgrading from Melon-1.3 ------------------------ Your already set mailboxes/files will be treated as mailbox by Melon (see "Set Mailboxes"). In order to avoid the check based upon the status flag, you have to reset the type to file into the "Set Mailboxes" pupup. Upgrading from Melon-1.4 ------------------------ Since on X11 popup windows are not controlled by the window manager, the melon root window has changed to 'toplevel' type. Modify your windows manager configuration in order to hide melon window's decoration. Start with Melon ---------------- Probably the more confortable way to start melon is to put it in your .xinitrc file to get it executed every time X starts. Of course you can start it by hand if you like it. If all goes right, you will see a melon icon (the default one) in the top/left part of your desktop. Since the melon's window is a toplevel type window, its behaviour can be controlled by your windows manager preferences setting. Certainly you'll be able to hide windows decoration and set a few other peculiarities. For example I added this line to my .fvwm2rc: Style "melon" NoTitle, StaysOnTop, Sticky TIP: to add melon in the .xinitrc you need to add a line like the following *before* the line that starts your window manager: melon & For example this is my .xinitrc: --- .xinitrc --- melon & exec fvwm2 ---------------- Needless to say you can execute melon using some feature of your window manager. Command line options -------------------- Usage: melon [OPTIONS] -p ignore pidfile -g, -geometry specify windows coordinates example: melon -geometry -1+10 -v show version and paths -h print this help Description -p Normally, melon saves its pid on the file ~/.melon/melon.pid at start time. In this way, you are able to perform some action using a preexistent melon instance (see "Control Commands" for more information). The -p switch allows multiple instances of melon to be executed simultaneously, loosing however the use of control commands. -g, -geometry +/-x+/-y You can specify the coordinates of melon icon. Examples: melon -g -0-0 The icon appears at right-bottom corner of the screen. melon -g -0+0 The icon appears at right-top corner of the screen. All values into the range of your screen width/height are allowed. Control Commands ---------------- If a melon instance is already running, the following commands are recognized: open melon executes the program defined as "mailer command" in melon configuration. For example, my mailer command is "/usr/bin/X11/xterm -vb -bg black -fg gray90 \ -fn -*-clean-medium-r-*-*-17-*-*-*-*-*-*-* -e /usr/bin/mutt -f %M" I have defined a keyboard shortcut in my windows manager configuration, so I can open mutt with the active mailbox by pressing a couple of keys. reset causes melon to reset the status of all mailbox to inactive. stop surprisingly melon quits! Configuration ------------- Melon provides a GUI to configure icons, sound, position and so on, so you don't need to edit by hand any configuration file. By clicking with the right button of your mouse on melon icon, you'll see a little menu that shows all the configurable items. "Set Mailboxes" When adding a mailbox, you can specify what kind of check melon will perform on this file. There is three icons into the buttons bar at the bottom of the mailboxes popup. The first one is for setting "mbox" type, i.e. melon will scan the file, looking for the status flag for each message. The second is for "file" type and force melon to check only the modification time of the file. Finally, the third icon is for setting "maildir" type. "Configure Mailer" You can put into this entry field the command line of the program you mean to start every time you clicks with the left button on the icon. Note that the FULL filepath is required. By default, no external program is called when you clicks on icon: if the mailbox is active (i.e. have received new e-mails), you'll simply unset its active status by clicking. This is, for example, the command line I'm using with mutt: /usr/bin/X11/xterm -geometry 100x40+120+20 -e /usr/local/bin/mutt -f %M An other example, using pine: /usr/bin/X11/xterm -e /usr/local/bin/pine -i -f %M Note that '%M' is a special keyword that melon will substitute with the mailbox path to open, useful if you have configured more than one mailbox. "Set Beep -> Set beep mode" There is two ways to notify newly received e-mails with acoustic warnings. With the first one ("Play once for mailbox"), melon beeps only when a mailbox receives new e-mail the first time and stays silent until you reset mailbox status by clicking on icon or on active mailbox menu. With "Play for each new e-mail", melon beeps each time a new e-mail is received. "Set Beep -> Set audio device" Melon can play its acoustic warnings on /dev/dsp or /dev/audio. Through this submenu you can select the appropriate audio device for melon. The package provides a set of au and voc files. "Check Options -> Save Status" Melon can save the status of your mailboxes before quitting. Next time you'll launch it, Melon will be able to notify if new mails was received since it was off. Note that the status is based only on the modification time and size of the file, so melon will be confused if you access a mailbox when it is shut down. "Check Options -> Set Interval" It is recommended to set it to a low value, about 2000/3000 ms. Since melon performs his operations only if the modification time of the file has changed, you should not worry about resources wasting. Adding pixmaps and audio files ------------------------------ How to add a new pixmap set? Melon uses two pixmaps to display mailbox status. One is for the "no new mail status" and its filename is 1.xpm, the other is for "new mail status" with filename 2.xpm. All the pixmaps are organized as follows: Every set (i.e. a couple of pixmap) is put inside the "root pixmap directory" with the name of the set. So if you need to add a new set called "foo" you need to create a directory with this name inside /usr/local/share/melon-1/pix/ (with mkdir /usr/local/share/melon-1/pix/foo) and copy the two .xpm files inside. The /usr/local/share/melon-1/pix path is only the default. Maybe you changed it at istall time so to obtain the right root pixmap directory use the '-v' switch of melon. To see the new set in the configuration menu you need to restart melon, so it will rescan the sets. How to add a new audio file? The audio files are all inside a directory (/usr/local/share/melon-1/au and /usr/local/share/melon-1/voc by default). In order to add a new audio file just copy the audio file here. If Melon plays on /dev/dsp, you have to add a .voc file to the voc directory. If it's plays on /dev/audio, add a .au file to the au directory. As stated for the pixmap the audio file root directory may be configured at install time. Try `melon -v' to see the right path for your binary. Authors ------- Melon is written by Elisa Manara Maildir support added by Yachar Tajahmady Feedbacks --------- For problems, bug reports and suggestions, feel free to contact Elisa Manara License ------- Melon is Copyright(C) 2001-2002 Elisa Manara ; This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.