 XIOBIFF  by Ross Linder
=========================

Q) What is xiobiff ?

A) xiobiff is a replacement for xbiff.

Q) Why replace xbiff ?

A) Good question, primarily I use xiobiff to tell me if all the mail
   I have sent has been delivered yet on not.


Enough questions, here is what it does.

It looks at the size and modification time of the users mailbox, which
is normally in /usr/spool/mail/USERNAME. If the size size increases and
then the window displays a pixmap who's contents on the left depict
incoming mail, the bell will also sound. This is scanned on a 10 second
interval.

If the notification of new mail is not acknowledged, then subsequent new
mail will simply sound the bell.

At the same time, xiobiff counts the number of files waiting in the smail
spool directory, usually /usr/spool/smail/input, and displays a pixmap
who's contents on the right indicate if there is mail waiting to be
delivered. Once the mail has been delivered, two half bells will be rung.

The pixmap is split into two halves, the incoming mail on the left, and
the outgoing mail on the right.

The pixmap will display an envelope on the left if mail has been received,
an eye will show that xiobiff is "looking" for new mail.

The pixmap will show a tray of envelopes if mail is waiting to be delivered,
and an eye to show that xiobiff is looking for mail to be delivered.

The outgoing mail feature is useful if you use a SLIP link with smail
and TCP/IP, and want to know when all your messages on your system
have been posted.


Making
=======

On Linux type make, or just use the binary, on other systems edit the
makefile. Its real simple !


Installation
=============

Just copy the executable to a suitable directory, Eg. /usr/local/bin

Thats it. Send comments etc to ..

Ross Linder  (ross@wanda.iaccess.za)

