richtext(1M)

richtext -- view a richtext document

Synopsis

richtext [-c] [-e] [-f] [-n] [-p] [-t] [-o] [filename]

Description

The richtext program allows users to view "text/richtext" and "text/enriched" files on an ASCII terminal. Files considered to be richtext are based on a simple markup language designed to send richtext through the mail.

richtext employs termcap capabilities to highlight text that is supposed to be bold or italic, and to underline text that is supposed to be underlined. It also implements a set of richtext subcommands that provide for text indentation and justification, as well as formatting for excerpt and signature.

The richtext program takes raw text/richtext or text/enriched output on its standard input or from a file specified by filename and produces formatted output on its standard output, which is assumed to be a terminal. It is intended primarily for use by the metamail program.

The program will also repair the raw input to match up any richtext or enriched command pairs that are out of order.

Options

When invoked with no options, richtext expects raw richtext on its standard input, which is corrected, and then formatted output is written on its standard output. The following options can alter that behavior:

-c: Directs richtext to simply correct the raw richtext and write the corrected version to its standard output, without performing any formatting.
-e: This option directs richtext to expect text/enriched instead of text/richtext on its standard input.
-f: Directs richtext to use termcap derived escape codes for bold and italic text, even if richtext is called in a pipe.
-n: Directs richtext to not do any correction to the raw text/richtext or text/enriched it receives.
-o: Directs richtext to use overstriking for underlining, etc., on terminals where this is the most appropriate behavior.
-p: Enables the use of a pager which reports Press <Return> to go on after each screen-full of data. Alternatively, if the environment variable MM_USEPAGER is set, the pager is used. This option and the environment variable have no effect if either standard input or standard output is redirected.
-a: Toggles whether or not to use ANSI mode for highlighting bold, italic, or underlined text. (This option is available only under DOS.)
-t: Directs richtext not to use termcap derived escape codes for bold and italic text, even if richtext is called in a terminal. Instead, the asterisk and underscore characters (* and _) are used to highlight the affected text.

x11 resources

If you are using the xterm program, you can control the font that will be used for bold text by referencing the xterm*boldFont resource.

References

mailto(1), metamail(1), terminfo(4)

Notices

The classification of richtext is reserved as part of the MIME standard for multimedia Internet mail and should not to be confused with Microsoft's RTF (Rich Text Format).

Author is Nathaniel S. Borenstein, Bell Communications Research, Inc. See copyright page for further information.

The richtext correction algorithm is by Rhys Weatherley (rhys@cs.uq.oz.au).