NAME

dp − parse dates RFC 822-style

SYNTAX

/usr/new/lib/mh/dp [−form formatfile] [−format string] [−width columns] dates [−help]

DESCRIPTION

The command dp parses dates according to the ARPA Internet standard. It also understands many non-standard formats, such as those produced by TOPS−20 sites and some UNIX sites using ctime(.). It is useful for seeing how MH will interpret a date.

The dp program treats each argument as a single date, and prints the date out in the official RFC 822−format. Hence, it is usually best to enclose each argument in double-quotes for the shell.

To override the output format used by dp, the −format string or −format file switches are used. This permits individual fields of the address to be extracted with ease. The string is simply a format string and the file is simply a format file. See mh−format() for the details.

The default format string used by dp is:

%<(nodate{text})error: %{text}%|%(pretty{text})%>

When an error is detected this prints error: and the date in error.  Otherwise, output the RFC 822−proper format of the date.  The width value −width defaults to the width of the terminal.

The argument to the −format switch must be interpreted as a single token by the shell that invokes dp. Place the argument to this switch inside double quotes.

FILES

$HOME/.mh_profileThe user profile

SEE ALSO

ap(8mh), Standard for the Format of ARPA Internet Text Messages (RFC 822)
 

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