Linux Network Administrator's Guide, Second Edition

Configuring elm

elm stands for “electronic mail” and is one of the more reasonably named Unix tools. It provides a full-screen interface with a good help feature. We won’t discuss how to use elm here, but only dwell on its configuration options.

Theoretically, you can run elm unconfigured, and everything works well—if you are lucky. But there are a few options that must be set, although they are required only on occasion.

When it starts, elm reads a set of configuration variables from the elm.rc file in /etc/elm. Then it attempts to read the file .elm/elmrc in your home directory. You don’t usually write this file yourself. It is created when you choose “Save new options” from elm’s options menu.

The set of options for the private elmrc file is also available in the global elm.rc file. Most settings in your private elmrc file override those of the global file.

Global elm Options

In the global elm.rc file, you must set the options that pertain to your host’s name. For example, at the Virtual Brewery, the file for vlager contains the following:

#
# The local hostname
hostname = vlager
#
# Domain name
hostdomain = .vbrew.com
#
# Fully qualified domain name
hostfullname = vlager.vbrew.com

These options set elm’s idea of the local hostname. Although this information is rarely used, you should set the options. Note that these particular options only take effect when giving them in the global configuration file; when found in your private elmrc, they will be ignored.

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