By Nicolas Rougier
(c) 2000-2002
Released under the GNU general public license

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Documentation - Using gbiff

1. Basics
For lauching gbiff, just type gbiff. The mail configuration window will appear asking you to enter miscellaneous informations and options as described below.
Once configured, gbiff will start monitoring your email account. If there is a problem, gbiff will display "--" instead of the mail number. If there are too many mails to be displayed in the popup window, gbiff will display "++" instead of the mail number.

2. Command line options
Command line options are the following:

--protocol=[file,pop3,imap4,maildir,mh]  Protocol to use for checking mail
--address=LOCATION Location of the mailbox (path or address)
--user=USERNAME Username for login to a remote mailbox
--polltime=POLLTIME Check mail every POLLTIME seconds
--poptime=POPTIME Display popup windows for POPTIME
--pop_geom=GEOMETRY Display popup at specified coordinate
--win_geom=GEOMETRY Display window at specified coordinate
--title=NAME Title of the mailbox
--nosound No sound when new mail has arrived
--sndfile=SOUNDFILE Soundfile to play when new mail has arrived
--mailapp=MAILAPP Mail application to lauch when asked
--mailpix=PIXMAP Pixmap to use when new mail has arrived
--nomailpix=PIXMAP Pixmap to use when no mail
--nopopup No popup when new mail has arrived
--notitle No title in popup window
--nodate No date in popup window
--font=FONT Font to used in popup window
--noconfigure Skip the configure process (no mail configuration window)
--help Give a summary of command line options


3. Mail configuration window
When run without the --noconfigure option, gbiff first displays the mail configuration window before doing any mailcheck. Later, you can invoke this setup dialog by clicking the "Properties..." menu of the gbiff applet for the GNOME version or by rigth clicking on the gbiff window for the GTK version.

Setup Dialog Mailbox
The first page (Mailbox) of the setup dialog allows you to configure the mailbox you want to check.
  • Title is an optional field and give the text to be displayed above popup summary and in gnome panel.
  • Mailbox format/protocol allows you to specify what kind of mailbox you want gbiff to watch.
  • Mailbox addressing information allows you to specify different parameters for your mailbox. For imap4 and pop3 protocols it is possible to specify the port to be used. If you don't supply a port, gbiff will use default value (pop3 : 110 and imap4 : 143).


Setup Dialog Options
The second page (Options) for he setup dialog allows you to specify gbiff behavior:

  • The time between poll indicates how long gbiff will wait between two mail check.
  • The time to display popup indicates how long gbiff will display the popup when a new mail has arrived.
  • The popup geometry specify the placement of the popup window on screen. Negative X and Y coordinates resepctively refer to right and bottom of screen.
  • The Biff window geometry specify Biff window placement when compiled without GNOME support.

Other options are quite self-explanatory so I won't comment them.


4. Popup window
gbiff popup window

The popup window appears when there are new mails. It will remain on screen for the specified amount of time. Nonetheless, if you want the popup to remain on screen longer, just leave the mouse pointer within.


5. Key and mouse shortcuts
Left-clicking on the biff applet in the gnome panel or in the biff window will force an immediate mailcheck.
Leaving the button pressed will keep the popup window to popdown.