.TH nptx "" "" Command
.PC "Generate permutations of users' full names"
.B /usr/bin/nptx
.PP
The command
.B nptx
reads an address/name pair (that is, an address and a user's full name),
and prints on the standard output as many permutations of the user's name
as it can devise, each linked to the given address.
A set of such permutations helps to relieve a user of the need to know the
exact form of another user's name when she wishes to send mail to that user.
When a set of users' names is filtered through
.BR nptx ,
the mail program
.B smail
can use the output as a ``full-name data base''.
.PP
The format of an input line is:
.DM
	name<tab>address
.DE
.PP
.I name
gives the user's first name, last name, optional middle initial, and
optional nickname in parentheses; all are separated by space characters.
.I address
can contain any e-mail address.
.I name
and
.I address
are separated by one
.B <tab>
character.
.PP
.B nptx
prints all permutations of the first names and initials, with
the last name appearing in each permutation.
Permutations are not necesarily unique.
.SH Example
Given the name/address pair
.DM
	LaMonte Cranston(Shadow)<tab>shadow@goodguy.com
.DE
.PP
.B nptx
produces the following set of permutations:
.DM
.ta 0.4i 2.0i
	Cranston	shadow@goodguy.com
	L.Cranston	shadow@goodguy.com
	LaMonte.Cranston	shadow@goodguy.com
	S.Cranston	shadow@goodguy.com
	Shadow.Cranston	shadow@goodguy.com
.DE
.SH "See Also"
.Xr "commands," commands
.Xr "mail," mail
.Xr "mkfnames," mkfnames
.Xr "paths," paths
.Xr "smail" smail
.SH Notes
.B nptx
normally is invoked via the script
.BR mkfnames ,
which reads a file of names (or the file
.B /etc/passwd )
and generates a data base of names and addresses
that can be used by the mail system.
.PP
.B nptx
assumes European-style names, i.e., that the family name comes last
(unlike Asian or Hungarian names, in which the family name comes first).
