1 .\"@ nail.1 - S-nail(1) reference manual.
3 .\" Copyright (c) 2000-2008 Gunnar Ritter, Freiburg i. Br., Germany.
4 .\" Copyright (c) 2012 - 2018 Steffen (Daode) Nurpmeso <steffen@sdaoden.eu>.
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34 .\"@ S-nail v14.9.9 / 2018-03-06
44 .ds VD \\%~/dead.letter
48 .ds vS /etc/mime.types
56 .ds OU [no v15-compat]
57 .ds ID [v15 behaviour may differ]
58 .ds NQ [Only new quoting rules]
69 .Nd send and receive Internet mail
75 .\" Keep in SYNC: ./nail.1:"SYNOPSIS, main()
84 .Op : Ns Fl a Ar attachment Ns \&:
85 .Op : Ns Fl b Ar bcc-addr Ns \&:
86 .Op : Ns Fl C Ar """custom:\0header""" Ns \&:
87 .Op : Ns Fl c Ar cc-addr Ns \&:
88 .Op Fl M Ar type | Fl m Ar file | Fl q Ar file | Fl t
91 .Fl S Ar var Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value Ns
94 .Op : Ns Fl X Ar cmd Ns \&:
96 .Pf : Ar to-addr Ns \&:
97 .Op Fl Fl \~ Ns : Ns Ar mta-option Ns \&:
105 .Op : Ns Fl C Ar """custom:\0header""" Ns \&:
107 .Op Fl r Ar from-addr
109 .Fl S Ar var Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value Ns
112 .Op : Ns Fl X Ar cmd Ns \&:
113 .Op Fl Fl \~ Ns : Ns Ar mta-option Ns \&:
120 .Op : Ns Fl C Ar """custom:\0header""" Ns \&:
123 .Op Fl r Ar from-addr
125 .Fl S Ar var Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value Ns
127 .Op : Ns Fl X Ar cmd Ns \&:
129 .Op Fl Fl \~ Ns : Ns Ar mta-option Ns \&:
135 .Mx -toc -tree html pdf ps xhtml
138 .\" .Sh DESCRIPTION {{{
141 .Bd -filled -compact -offset indent
142 .Sy Compatibility note:
143 S-nail (\*(UA) will wrap up into \%S-mailx in v15.0 (circa 2020).
144 Backward incompatibility has to be expected \(en
147 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
148 rules, for example, and shell metacharacters will become meaningful.
149 New and old behaviour is flagged \*(IN and \*(OU, and setting
152 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
153 will choose new behaviour when applicable.
154 \*(OB flags what will vanish, and enabling
158 enables obsoletion warnings.
162 \*(UA provides a simple and friendly environment for sending and
164 It is intended to provide the functionality of the POSIX
166 command, but is MIME capable and optionally offers extensions for
167 line editing, S/MIME, SMTP and POP3, among others.
168 \*(UA divides incoming mail into its constituent messages and allows
169 the user to deal with them in any order.
173 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
174 for manipulating messages and sending mail.
175 It provides the user simple editing capabilities to ease the composition
176 of outgoing messages, and increasingly powerful and reliable
177 non-interactive scripting capabilities.
179 .\" .Ss "Options" {{{
182 .Bl -tag -width ".It Fl BaNg"
185 Explicitly control which of the
189 d (loaded): if the letter
191 is (case-insensitively) part of the
195 is sourced, likewise the letter
197 controls sourcing of the user's personal
199 file, whereas the letters
203 explicitly forbid sourcing of any resource files.
204 Scripts should use this option: to avoid environmental noise they should
206 from any configuration and create a script-specific environment, setting
208 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
211 and running configurating commands via
213 This option overrides
220 command for the given user email
222 after program startup is complete (all resource files are loaded, any
224 setting is being established; only
226 commands have not been evaluated yet).
227 Being a special incarnation of
229 macros for the purpose of bundling longer-lived
231 tings, activating such an email account also switches to the accounts
233 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
238 .It Fl a Ar file Ns Op Ar =input-charset Ns Op Ar #output-charset
241 to the message (for compose mode opportunities refer to
245 .Sx "Filename transformations"
248 will be performed, except that shell variables are not expanded.
251 not be accessible but contain a
253 character, then anything before the last
255 will be used as the filename, anything thereafter as a character set
258 If an input character set is specified,
259 .Mx -ix "character set specification"
260 but no output character set, then the given input character set is fixed
261 as-is, and no conversion will be applied;
262 giving the empty string or the special string hyphen-minus
264 will be treated as if
266 has been specified (the default).
268 If an output character set has also been given then the conversion will
269 be performed exactly as specified and on-the-fly, not considering the
270 file's type and content.
271 As an exception, if the output character set is specified as the empty
272 string or hyphen-minus
274 then the default conversion algorithm (see
275 .Sx "Character sets" )
276 is applied (therefore no conversion is performed on-the-fly,
278 will be MIME-classified and its contents will be inspected first) \(em
279 without support for character set conversions
281 does not include the term
283 only this argument is supported.
286 (\*(OB: \*(UA will always use line-buffered output, to gain
287 line-buffered input even in batch mode enable batch mode via
292 Send a blind carbon copy to
299 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
301 The option may be used multiple times.
303 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
306 .It Fl C Ar """field: body"""
307 Create a custom header which persists for an entire session.
308 A custom header consists of the field name followed by a colon
310 and the field content body, e.g.,
311 .Ql -C """Blah: Neminem laede; imo omnes, quantum potes, juva""" .
312 Standard header field names cannot be overwritten by custom headers.
313 Runtime adjustable custom headers are available via the variable
318 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ,
319 is the most flexible and powerful option to manage message headers.
320 This option may be used multiple times.
324 Send carbon copies to the given receiver, if so allowed by
326 May be used multiple times.
330 Almost enable a sandbox mode with the internal variable
332 the same can be achieved via
333 .Ql Fl S Va \&\&debug
335 .Ql Ic set Va \&\&debug .
341 and thus discard messages with an empty message part body.
345 Just check if mail is present (in the system
347 or the one specified via
349 if yes, return an exit status of zero, a non-zero value otherwise.
350 To restrict the set of mails to consider in this evaluation a message
351 specification can be added with the option
356 Save the message to send in a file named after the local part of the
357 first recipient's address (instead of in
362 Read in the contents of the user's
364 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
366 (or the specified file) for processing;
367 when \*(UA is quit, it writes undeleted messages back to this file
373 argument will undergo some special
374 .Sx "Filename transformations"
379 is not an argument to the flag
381 but is instead taken from the command line after option processing has
385 that starts with a hyphen-minus, prefix with a relative path, as in
386 .Ql ./-hyphenbox.mbox .
392 and exit; a configurable summary view is available via the
398 Show a short usage summary.
404 to ignore tty interrupt signals.
410 of all messages that match the given
414 .Sx "Specifying messages"
419 option has been given in addition no header summary is produced,
420 but \*(UA will instead indicate via its exit status whether
426 note that any verbose output is suppressed in this mode and must instead
427 be enabled explicitly (e.g., by using the option
432 Special send mode that will flag standard input with the MIME
436 and use it as the main message body.
437 \*(ID Using this option will bypass processing of
438 .Va message-inject-head
440 .Va message-inject-tail .
446 Special send mode that will MIME classify the specified
448 and use it as the main message body.
449 \*(ID Using this option will bypass processing of
450 .Va message-inject-head
452 .Va message-inject-tail .
458 inhibit the initial display of message headers when reading mail or
463 for the internal variable
468 Standard flag that inhibits reading the system wide
473 allows more control over the startup sequence; also see
474 .Sx "Resource files" .
478 Special send mode that will initialize the message body with the
479 contents of the specified
481 which may be standard input
483 only in non-interactive context.
491 opened will be in read-only mode.
495 .It Fl r Ar from-addr
496 Whereas the source address that appears in the
498 header of a message (or in the
500 header if the former contains multiple addresses) is honoured by the
501 builtin SMTP transport, it is not used by a file-based
503 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) for the RFC 5321 reverse-path used for relaying
504 and delegating a message to its destination(s), for delivery errors
505 etc., but it instead uses the local identity of the initiating user.
508 When this command line option is used the given
510 will be assigned to the internal variable
512 but in addition the command line option
513 .Fl \&\&f Ar from-addr
514 will be passed to a file-based
516 whenever a message is sent.
519 include a user name the address components will be separated and
520 the name part will be passed to a file-based
526 If an empty string is passed as
528 then the content of the variable
530 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
532 will be evaluated and used for this purpose whenever the file-based
541 command line options are used when contacting a file-based MTA, unless
542 this automatic deduction is enforced by
544 ing the internal variable
545 .Va r-option-implicit .
548 Remarks: many default installations and sites disallow overriding the
549 local user identity like this unless either the MTA has been configured
550 accordingly or the user is member of a group with special privileges.
551 Passing an invalid address will cause an error.
555 .It Fl S Ar var Ns Op = Ns value
557 (or, with a prefix string
560 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
563 iable and optionally assign
565 if supported; \*(ID the entire expression is evaluated as if specified
566 within dollar-single-quotes (see
567 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" )
568 if the internal variable
571 If the operation fails the program will exit if any of
576 Settings established via
578 cannot be changed from within
580 or an account switch initiated by
582 They will become mutable again before commands registered via
588 Specify the subject of the message to be sent.
589 Newline (NL) and carriage-return (CR) bytes are invalid and will be
590 normalized to space (SP) characters.
594 The message given (on standard input) is expected to contain, separated
595 from the message body by an empty line, a message header with
600 fields giving its recipients, which will be added to any recipients
601 specified on the command line.
602 If a message subject is specified via
604 then it will be used in favour of one given on the command line.
620 .Ql Mail-Followup-To: ,
621 by default created automatically dependent on message context, will
622 be used if specified (a special address massage will however still occur
624 Any other custom header field (also see
629 is passed through entirely
630 unchanged, and in conjunction with the options
634 it is possible to embed
635 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
643 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
646 appropriate privileges presumed; effectively identical to
647 .Ql Fl \&\&f Ns \0%user .
656 will also show the list of
658 .Ql $ \*(uA -Xversion -Xx .
663 ting the internal variable
665 enables display of some informational context messages.
666 Using it twice increases the level of verbosity.
670 Add the given (or multiple for a multiline argument)
672 to the list of commands to be executed,
673 as a last step of program startup, before normal operation starts.
674 This is the only possibility to execute commands in non-interactive mode
675 when reading startup files is actively prohibited.
676 The commands will be evaluated as a unit, just as via
686 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
687 in compose mode even in non-interactive use cases.
688 This can be used to, e.g., automatically format the composed message
689 text before sending the message:
690 .Bd -literal -offset indent
691 $ ( echo 'line one. Word. Word2.';\e
692 echo '~| /usr/bin/fmt -tuw66' ) |\e
693 LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d~:/ -Sttycharset=utf-8 bob@exam.ple
698 Enables batch mode: standard input is made line buffered, the complete
699 set of (interactive) commands is available, processing of
700 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
701 is enabled in compose mode, and diverse
702 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
703 are adjusted for batch necessities, exactly as if done via
719 The following prepares an email message in a batched dry run:
720 .Bd -literal -offset indent
721 $ LC_ALL=C printf 'm bob\en~s ubject\enText\en~.\enx\en' |\e
722 LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d#:/ -X'alias bob bob@exam.ple'
727 This flag forces termination of option processing in order to prevent
730 It also forcefully puts \*(UA into send mode, see
731 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
737 arguments and all receivers established via
741 are subject to the checks established by
744 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" .
747 allows their recognition all
749 arguments given at the end of the command line after a
751 separator will be passed through to a file-based
753 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) and persist for the entire session.
755 constraints do not apply to the content of
759 .\" .Ss "A starter" {{{
762 \*(UA is a direct descendant of
764 Mail, itself a successor of the Research
767 .Dq was there from the start
770 It thus represents the user side of the
772 mail system, whereas the system side (Mail-Transfer-Agent, MTA) was
773 traditionally taken by
775 and most MTAs provide a binary of this name for compatibility purposes.
780 of \*(UA then the system side is not a mandatory precondition for mail
784 Because \*(UA strives for compliance with POSIX
786 it is likely that some configuration settings have to be adjusted before
787 using it is a smooth experience.
788 (Rather complete configuration examples can be found in the section
793 .Sx "Resource files" ,
794 that ships with \*(UA bends those standard imposed settings of the
795 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
796 a bit towards more user friendliness and safety already.
804 in order to suppress the automatic moving of messages to the
806 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
808 that would otherwise occur (see
809 .Sx "Message states" ) ,
812 to not remove empty system MBOX mailbox files in order not to mangle
813 file permissions when files eventually get recreated (all empty (MBOX)
814 mailbox files will be removed unless this variable is set whenever
816 .Pf a.k.a.\0 Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT
817 mode has been enabled).
822 in order to synchronize \*(UA with the exit status report of the used
829 to enter interactive startup even if the initial mailbox is empty,
831 to allow editing of headers as well as
833 to not strip down addresses in compose mode, and
835 to include the message that is being responded to when
837 ing, which is indented by an
839 that also deviates from standard imposed settings.
840 .Va mime-counter-evidence
841 is fully enabled, too.
845 The file mode creation mask can be managed explicitly via the variable
847 Sufficient system support provided symbolic links will not be followed
848 when files are opened for writing.
849 Files and shell pipe output can be
851 d for evaluation, also during startup from within the
852 .Sx "Resource files" .
855 .\" .Ss "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" {{{
856 .Ss "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode"
858 To send a message to one or more people, using a local or built-in
860 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) transport to actually deliver the generated mail
861 message, \*(UA can be invoked with arguments which are the names of
862 people to whom the mail will be sent, and the command line options
866 can be used to add (blind) carbon copy receivers:
868 .Bd -literal -offset indent
870 $ \*(uA -s ubject -a ttach.txt bill@exam.ple
872 # But... try it in an isolated dry-run mode (-d) first
873 $ LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d -:/ -Ssendwait -Sttycharset=utf8 \e
874 -b bcc@exam.ple -c cc@exam.ple \e
876 '(Lovely) Bob <bob@exam.ple>' eric@exam.ple
879 $ LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d -:/ -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait -Sttycharset=utf8 \e
880 -S mta=smtps://mylogin@exam.ple:465 -Ssmtp-auth=none \e
881 -S from=scriptreply@exam.ple \e
887 If standard input is a terminal rather than the message to be sent,
888 the user is expected to type in the message contents.
889 In this compose mode \*(UA treats lines beginning with the character
891 special \(en these are so-called
892 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ,
893 which can be used to read in files, process shell commands, add and edit
894 attachments and more; e.g., the command escape
896 will start the text editor to revise the message in its current state,
898 allows editing of the most important message headers, with
900 custom headers can be created (more specifically than with
905 \*(OPally gives an overview of most other available command escapes.
908 will leave compose mode and send the message once it is completed.
912 at the beginning of an empty line has the same effect, whereas typing
915 twice will abort the current letter (saving its contents in the file
926 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
927 can be used to alter default behavior.
928 E.g., messages are sent asynchronously, without supervision, unless the
931 is set, therefore send errors will not be recognizable until then.
936 will automatically startup a text editor when compose mode is entered,
938 allows editing of headers additionally to plain body content,
942 will cause the user to be prompted actively for (blind) carbon-copy
943 recipients, respectively, and (the default)
945 will request confirmation whether the message shall be sent.
948 The envelope sender address is defined by
950 explicitly defining an originating
952 may be desirable, especially with the builtin SMTP Mail-Transfer-Agent
955 for outgoing message and MIME part content are configurable via
957 whereas input data is assumed to be in
959 Message data will be passed over the wire in a
961 MIME parts a.k.a. attachments need to be assigned a
964 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
965 Saving a copy of sent messages in a
967 mailbox may be desirable \(en as for most mailbox
969 targets the value will undergo
970 .Sx "Filename transformations" .
975 sandbox dry-run tests will prove correctness.
978 Message recipients (as specified on the command line or defined in
983 may not only be email addressees but can also be names of mailboxes and
984 even complete shell command pipe specifications.
987 is not set then only network addresses (see
989 for a description of mail addresses) and plain user names (including MTA
990 aliases) may be used, other types will be filtered out, giving a warning
992 A network address that contains no domain-, but only a valid local user
994 in angle brackets will be automatically expanded to a valid address when
996 is set to a non-empty value; setting it to the empty value instructs
999 will perform the necessary expansion.
1002 can be used to generate standard compliant network addresses.
1004 .\" When changing any of the following adjust any RECIPIENTADDRSPEC;
1005 .\" grep the latter for the complete picture
1009 is set then extended recipient addresses will optionally be accepted:
1010 Any name which starts with a vertical bar
1012 character specifies a command pipe \(en the command string following the
1014 is executed and the message is sent to its standard input;
1015 Likewise, any name that starts with the character solidus
1017 or the character sequence dot solidus
1019 is treated as a file, regardless of the remaining content;
1020 likewise a name that solely consists of a hyphen-minus
1022 Any other name which contains a commercial at
1024 character is treated as a network address;
1025 Any other name which starts with a plus sign
1027 character specifies a mailbox name;
1028 Any other name which contains a solidus
1030 character but no exclamation mark
1034 character before also specifies a mailbox name;
1035 What remains is treated as a network address.
1037 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1038 $ echo bla | \*(uA -Sexpandaddr -s test ./mbox.mbox
1039 $ echo bla | \*(uA -Sexpandaddr -s test '|cat >> ./mbox.mbox'
1040 $ echo safe | LC_ALL=C \e
1041 \*(uA -:/ -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait -Sttycharset=utf8 \e
1042 -Sexpandaddr=fail,-all,+addr,failinvaddr -s test \e
1047 It is possible to create personal distribution lists via the
1049 command, so that, for instance, the user can send mail to
1051 and have it go to a group of people.
1052 These aliases have nothing in common with the system wide aliases that
1053 may be used by the MTA, which are subject to the
1057 and are often tracked in a file
1063 Personal aliases will be expanded by \*(UA before the message is sent,
1064 and are thus a convenient alternative to specifying each addressee by
1065 itself; they correlate with the active set of
1072 .Dl alias cohorts bill jkf mark kridle@ucbcory ~/mail/cohorts.mbox
1075 .Va on-compose-enter , on-compose-leave
1077 .Va on-compose-cleanup
1078 hook variables may be set to
1080 d macros to automatically adjust some settings dependent
1081 on receiver, sender or subject contexts, and via the
1082 .Va on-compose-splice
1084 .Va on-compose-splice-shell
1085 variables, the former also to be set to a
1087 d macro, increasingly powerful mechanisms to perform automated message
1088 adjustments, including signature creation, are available.
1089 (\*(ID These hooks work for commands which newly create messages, namely
1090 .Ic forward , mail , reply
1095 for now provide only the hooks
1098 .Va on-resend-cleanup . )
1101 For the purpose of arranging a complete environment of settings that can
1102 be switched to with a single command or command line option there are
1104 Alternatively it is also possible to use a flat configuration, making use
1105 of so-called variable chains which automatically pick
1109 context-dependent variable variants: for example addressing
1110 .Ql Ic File Ns \& pop3://yaa@exam.ple
1112 .Va \&\&pop3-no-apop-yaa@exam.ple ,
1113 .Va \&\&pop3-no-apop-exam.ple
1118 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
1120 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" .
1123 To avoid environmental noise scripts should
1125 \*(UA from any configuration files and create a script-local
1126 environment, ideally with the command line options
1128 to disable any configuration file in conjunction with repetitions of
1130 to specify variables:
1132 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1133 $ env LC_ALL=C \*(uA -:/ \e
1134 -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait -Sttycharset=utf-8 \e
1135 -Sexpandaddr=fail,-all,failinvaddr \e
1136 -S mta=smtps://mylogin@exam.ple:465 -Ssmtp-auth=login \e
1137 -S from=scriptreply@exam.ple \e
1138 -s 'Subject to go' -a attachment_file \e
1140 'Recipient 1 <rec1@exam.ple>' rec2@exam.ple \e
1145 As shown, scripts can
1147 a locale environment, the above specifies the all-compatible 7-bit clean
1150 but will nonetheless take and send UTF-8 in the message text by using
1152 In interactive mode, which is introduced in the next section, messages
1153 can be sent by calling the
1155 command with a list of recipient addresses:
1157 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1158 $ \*(uA -d -Squiet -Semptystart
1159 "/var/spool/mail/user": 0 messages
1160 ? mail "Recipient 1 <rec1@exam.ple>", rec2@exam.ple
1162 ? # Will do the right thing (tm)
1163 ? m rec1@exam.ple rec2@exam.ple
1167 .\" .Ss "On reading mail, and interactive mode" {{{
1168 .Ss "On reading mail, and interactive mode"
1170 When invoked without addressees \*(UA enters interactive mode in which
1172 When used like that the user's system
1174 (for more on mailbox types please see the command
1176 is read in and a one line header of each message therein is displayed if
1180 The visual style of this summary of
1182 can be adjusted through the variable
1184 and the possible sorting criterion via
1190 can be performed with the command
1192 If the initially opened mailbox is empty \*(UA will instead exit
1193 immediately (after displaying a message) unless the variable
1202 will give a listing of all available commands and
1204 will \*(OPally give a summary of some common ones.
1205 If the \*(OPal documentation strings are available (see
1210 and see the actual expansion of
1212 and what its purpose is, i.e., commands can be abbreviated
1213 (note that POSIX defines some abbreviations, so that the alphabetical
1214 order of commands does not necessarily relate to the abbreviations; it is
1215 however possible to define overwrites with
1216 .Ic commandalias ) .
1217 These commands can also produce a more
1222 Messages are given numbers (starting at 1) which uniquely identify
1223 messages; the current message \(en the
1225 \(en will either be the first new message, or the first unread message,
1226 or the first message of the mailbox; the internal variable
1228 will instead cause usage of the last message for this purpose.
1233 ful of header summaries containing the
1237 will display only the summaries of the given messages, defaulting to the
1241 Message content can be displayed with the command
1248 controls whether and when \*(UA will use the configured
1250 for display instead of directly writing to the user terminal
1252 the sole difference to the command
1254 which will always use the
1258 will instead only show the first
1260 of a message (maybe even compressed if
1263 Message display experience may improve by setting and adjusting
1264 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
1266 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" .
1269 By default the current message
1271 is displayed, but like with many other commands it is possible to give
1272 a fancy message specification (see
1273 .Sx "Specifying messages" ) ,
1276 will display all unread messages,
1281 will type the messages 1 and 5,
1283 will type the messages 1 through 5, and
1287 will display the last and the next message, respectively.
1290 (a more substantial alias for
1292 will display a header summary of the given message specification list
1293 instead of their content, e.g., the following will search for subjects:
1296 .Dl ? from "'@Some subject to search for'"
1299 In the default setup all header fields of a message will be
1301 d, but fields can be white- or blacklisted for a variety of
1302 applications by using the command
1304 e.g., to restrict their display to a very restricted set for
1306 .Ql Ic \:headerpick Cd \:type retain Ar \:from to cc subject .
1307 In order to display all header fields of a message regardless of
1308 currently active ignore or retain lists, use the commands
1313 will show the raw message content.
1314 Note that historically the global
1316 not only adjusts the list of displayed headers, but also sets
1320 Dependent upon the configuration a line editor (see the section
1321 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
1322 aims at making the user experience with the many
1325 When reading the system
1331 specified a mailbox explicitly prefixed with the special
1333 modifier (propagating the mailbox to a
1335 .Sx "primary system mailbox" ) ,
1336 then messages which have been read will be automatically moved to a
1338 .Sx "secondary mailbox" ,
1341 file, when the mailbox is left, either by changing the
1342 active mailbox or by quitting \*(UA (also see
1343 .Sx "Message states" )
1344 \(en this automatic moving from a system or primary to the secondary
1345 mailbox is not performed when the variable
1348 Messages can also be explicitly
1350 d to other mailboxes, whereas
1352 keeps the original message.
1354 can be used to write out data content of specific parts of messages.
1357 After examining a message the user can
1359 to the sender and all recipients (which will also be placed in
1362 .Va recipients-in-cc
1365 exclusively to the sender(s).
1367 ing a message will allow editing the new message: the original message
1368 will be contained in the message body, adjusted according to
1374 messages: the former will add a series of
1376 headers, whereas the latter will not; different to newly created
1377 messages editing is not possible and no copy will be saved even with
1379 unless the additional variable
1382 When sending, replying or forwarding messages comments and full names
1383 will be stripped from recipient addresses unless the internal variable
1386 Of course messages can be
1388 and they can spring into existence again via
1390 or when the \*(UA session is ended via the
1395 To end a mail processing session one may either issue
1397 to cause a full program exit, which possibly includes
1398 automatic moving of read messages to the
1400 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
1402 as well as updating the \*(OPal (see
1408 instead in order to prevent any of these actions.
1411 .\" .Ss "HTML mail and MIME attachments" {{{
1412 .Ss "HTML mail and MIME attachments"
1414 Messages which are HTML-only become more and more common and of course
1415 many messages come bundled with a bouquet of MIME (Multipurpose Internet
1416 Mail Extensions) parts for, e.g., attachments.
1417 To get a notion of MIME types, \*(UA will first read
1418 .Sx "The mime.types files"
1419 (as configured and allowed by
1420 .Va mimetypes-load-control ) ,
1421 and then add onto that types registered directly with
1423 It (normally) has a default set of types built-in, too.
1424 To improve interaction with faulty MIME part declarations which are
1425 often seen in real-life messages, setting
1426 .Va mime-counter-evidence
1427 will allow \*(UA to verify the given assertion and possibly provide
1428 an alternative MIME type.
1431 Whereas \*(UA \*(OPally supports a simple HTML-to-text converter for
1432 HTML messages, it cannot handle MIME types other than plain text itself.
1433 Instead programs need to become registered to deal with specific MIME
1434 types or file extensions.
1435 These programs may either prepare plain text versions of their input in
1436 order to enable \*(UA to integrate their output neatlessly in its own
1437 message visualization (a mode which is called
1438 .Cd copiousoutput ) ,
1439 or display the content themselves, for example in an external graphical
1440 window: such handlers will only be considered by and for the command
1444 To install a handler program for a specific MIME type an according
1445 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
1446 variable needs to be set; to instead define a handler for a specific
1447 file extension the respective
1449 variable can be used \(en these handlers take precedence.
1450 \*(OPally \*(UA supports mail user agent configuration as defined in
1451 RFC 1524; this mechanism (see
1452 .Sx "The Mailcap files" )
1453 will be queried for display or quote handlers if none of the former two
1454 .\" TODO v15-compat "will be" -> "is"
1455 did; it will be the sole source for handlers of other purpose.
1456 A last source for handlers is the MIME type definition itself, when
1457 a (\*(UA specific) type-marker was registered with the command
1459 (which many built-in MIME types do).
1462 E.g., to display a HTML message inline (that is, converted to a more
1463 fancy plain text representation than the built-in converter is capable to
1464 produce) with either of the text-mode browsers
1468 teach \*(UA about MathML documents and make it display them as plain
1469 text, and to open PDF attachments in an external PDF viewer,
1470 asynchronously and with some other magic attached:
1472 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1473 ? if [ "$features" !% +filter-html-tagsoup ]
1474 ? #set pipe-text/html='@* elinks -force-html -dump 1'
1475 ? set pipe-text/html='@* lynx -stdin -dump -force_html'
1476 ? # Display HTML as plain text instead
1477 ? #set pipe-text/html=@
1479 ? mimetype @ application/mathml+xml mathml
1480 ? wysh set pipe-application/pdf='@&=@ \e
1481 trap "rm -f \e"${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}\e"" EXIT;\e
1482 trap "trap \e"\e" INT QUIT TERM; exit 1" INT QUIT TERM;\e
1483 mupdf "${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}"'
1487 .\" .Ss "Mailing lists" {{{
1490 \*(UA offers some support to ease handling of mailing lists.
1493 promotes all given arguments to known mailing lists, and
1495 sets their subscription attribute, creating them first as necessary.
1500 automatically, but only resets the subscription attribute.)
1501 Using the commands without arguments will show (a subset of) all
1502 currently defined mailing lists.
1507 can be used to mark out messages with configured list addresses
1508 in the header display.
1511 If the \*(OPal regular expression support is available a mailing list
1512 specification that contains any of the
1514 regular expression characters
1518 will be interpreted as one, which allows matching of many addresses with
1519 a single expression.
1520 However, all fully qualified list addresses are matched via a fast
1521 dictionary, whereas expressions are placed in (a) list(s) which is
1522 (are) matched sequentially.
1524 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1525 ? set followup-to followup-to-honour=ask-yes \e
1526 reply-to-honour=ask-yes
1527 ? wysh mlist a1@b1.c1 a2@b2.c2 '.*@lists\e.c3$'
1528 ? mlsubscribe a4@b4.c4 exact@lists.c3
1533 .Va followup-to-honour
1535 .Ql Mail-\:Followup-\:To:
1536 header is honoured when the message is being replied to (via
1542 controls whether this header is created when sending mails; it will be
1543 created automatically for a couple of reasons, too, like when the
1545 .Dq mailing list specific
1550 is used to respond to a message with its
1551 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
1555 A difference in between the handling of known and subscribed lists is
1556 that the address of the sender is usually not part of a generated
1557 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
1558 when addressing the latter, whereas it is for the former kind of lists.
1559 Usually because there are exceptions: say, if multiple lists are
1560 addressed and not all of them are subscribed lists.
1562 For convenience \*(UA will, temporarily, automatically add a list
1563 address that is presented in the
1565 header of a message that is being responded to to the list of known
1567 Shall that header have existed \*(UA will instead, dependent on the
1569 .Va reply-to-honour ,
1572 for this purpose in order to accept a list administrators' wish that
1573 is supposed to have been manifested like that (but only if it provides
1574 a single address which resides on the same domain as what is stated in
1578 .\" .Ss "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME" {{{
1579 .Ss "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
1581 \*(OP S/MIME provides two central mechanisms:
1582 message signing and message encryption.
1583 A signed message contains some data in addition to the regular text.
1584 The data can be used to verify that the message was sent using a valid
1585 certificate, that the sender's address in the message header matches
1586 that in the certificate, and that the message text has not been altered.
1587 Signing a message does not change its regular text;
1588 it can be read regardless of whether the recipient's software is able to
1590 It is thus usually possible to sign all outgoing messages if so desired.
1593 Encryption, in contrast, makes the message text invisible for all people
1594 except those who have access to the secret decryption key.
1595 To encrypt a message, the specific recipient's public encryption key
1597 It is therefore not possible to send encrypted mail to people unless their
1598 key has been retrieved from either previous communication or public key
1600 A message should always be signed before it is encrypted.
1601 Otherwise, it is still possible that the encrypted message text is
1605 A central concept to S/MIME is that of the certification authority (CA).
1606 A CA is a trusted institution that issues certificates.
1607 For each of these certificates it can be verified that it really
1608 originates from the CA, provided that the CA's own certificate is
1610 A set of CA certificates is usually delivered with OpenSSL and installed
1612 If you trust the source of your OpenSSL software installation,
1613 this offers reasonable security for S/MIME on the Internet.
1615 .Va smime-ca-no-defaults
1616 to avoid using the default certificates and point
1620 to a trusted pool of certificates.
1621 In general, a certificate cannot be more secure than the method its CA
1622 certificate has been retrieved with.
1625 This trusted pool of certificates is used by the command
1627 to ensure that the given S/MIME messages can be trusted.
1628 If so, verified sender certificates that were embedded in signed
1629 messages can be saved locally with the command
1631 and used by \*(UA to encrypt further communication with these senders:
1633 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1635 ? set smime-encrypt-USER@HOST=FILENAME \e
1636 smime-cipher-USER@HOST=AES256
1640 To sign outgoing messages in order to allow receivers to verify the
1641 origin of these messages a personal S/MIME certificate is required.
1642 \*(UA supports password-protected personal certificates (and keys),
1643 for more on this, and its automatization, please see the section
1644 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
1646 .Sx "S/MIME step by step"
1647 shows examplarily how such a private certificate can be obtained.
1648 In general, if such a private key plus certificate
1650 is available, all that needs to be done is to set some variables:
1652 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1653 ? set smime-sign-cert=ME@HERE.com.paired \e
1654 smime-sign-message-digest=SHA256 \e
1659 Variables of interest for S/MIME in general are
1662 .Va smime-ca-flags ,
1663 .Va smime-ca-no-defaults ,
1665 .Va smime-crl-file .
1666 For S/MIME signing of interest are
1668 .Va smime-sign-cert ,
1669 .Va smime-sign-include-certs
1671 .Va smime-sign-message-digest .
1672 Additional variables of interest for S/MIME en- and decryption:
1675 .Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST .
1678 \*(ID Note that neither S/MIME signing nor encryption applies to
1679 message subjects or other header fields yet.
1680 Thus they may not contain sensitive information for encrypted messages,
1681 and cannot be trusted even if the message content has been verified.
1682 When sending signed messages,
1683 it is recommended to repeat any important header information in the
1687 .\" .Ss "On URL syntax and credential lookup" {{{
1688 .Ss "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
1690 \*(IN For accessing protocol-specific resources usage of Uniform
1691 Resource Locators (URL, RFC 1738) has become omnipresent.
1692 \*(UA expects and understands URLs in the following form;
1695 denote optional parts, optional either because there also exist other
1696 ways to define the information in question or because support of the
1697 part is protocol-specific (e.g.,
1699 is used by the local maildir and the IMAP protocol, but not by POP3);
1704 are specified they must be given in URL percent encoded form (RFC 3986;
1710 .Dl PROTOCOL://[USER[:PASSWORD]@]server[:port][/path]
1713 Note that these \*(UA URLs most often do not conform to any real
1714 standard, but instead represent a normalized variant of RFC 1738 \(en
1715 they are not used in data exchange but only meant as a compact,
1716 easy-to-use way of defining and representing information in
1717 a well-known notation.
1720 Many internal variables of \*(UA exist in multiple versions, called
1721 variable chains for the rest of this document: the plain
1726 .Ql variable-USER@HOST .
1733 had been specified in the respective URL, otherwise it refers to the plain
1739 that had been found when doing the user chain lookup as is described
1742 will never be in URL percent encoded form, whether it came from an URL
1743 or not; i.e., variable chain name extensions of
1744 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
1745 must not be URL percent encoded.
1748 For example, whether an hypothetical URL
1749 .Ql smtp://hey%3Ayou@our.house
1750 had been given that includes a user, or whether the URL was
1751 .Ql smtp://our.house
1752 and the user had been found differently, to lookup the variable chain
1753 .Va smtp-use-starttls
1754 \*(UA first looks for whether
1755 .Ql smtp-\:use-\:starttls-\:hey:you@our.house
1756 is defined, then whether
1757 .Ql smtp-\:use-\:starttls-\:our.house
1758 exists before finally ending up looking at the plain variable itself.
1761 \*(UA obeys the following logic scheme when dealing with the
1762 necessary credential information of an account:
1768 has been given in the URL the variables
1772 are looked up; if no such variable(s) can be found then \*(UA will,
1773 when enforced by the \*(OPal variables
1774 .Va netrc-lookup-HOST
1781 specific entry which provides a
1783 name: this lookup will only succeed if unambiguous (one possible matching
1786 It is possible to load encrypted
1791 If there is still no
1793 then \*(UA will fall back to the user who is supposed to run \*(UA,
1794 the identity of which has been fixated during \*(UA startup and is
1795 known to be a valid user on the current host.
1798 Authentication: unless otherwise noted this will lookup the
1799 .Va PROTOCOL-auth-USER@HOST , PROTOCOL-auth-HOST , PROTOCOL-auth
1800 variable chain, falling back to a protocol-specific default should this
1806 has been given in the URL, then if the
1808 has been found through the \*(OPal
1810 that may have already provided the password, too.
1811 Otherwise the variable chain
1812 .Va password-USER@HOST , password-HOST , password
1813 is looked up and used if existent.
1815 Afterwards the complete \*(OPal variable chain
1816 .Va netrc-lookup-USER@HOST , netrc-lookup-HOST , netrc-lookup
1820 cache is searched for a password only (multiple user accounts for
1821 a single machine may exist as well as a fallback entry without user
1822 but with a password).
1824 If at that point there is still no password available, but the
1825 (protocols') chosen authentication type requires a password, then in
1826 interactive mode the user will be prompted on the terminal.
1831 S/MIME verification works relative to the values found in the
1835 header field(s), which means that the values of
1836 .Va smime-sign , smime-sign-cert , smime-sign-include-certs
1838 .Va smime-sign-message-digest
1839 will not be looked up using the
1843 chains from above but instead use the corresponding values from the
1844 message that is being worked on.
1845 In unusual cases multiple and different
1849 combinations may therefore be involved \(en on the other hand those
1850 unusual cases become possible.
1851 The usual case is as short as:
1853 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1854 set mta=smtp://USER:PASS@HOST smtp-use-starttls \e
1855 smime-sign smime-sign-cert=+smime.pair
1861 contains complete example configurations.
1864 .\" .Ss "Encrypted network communication" {{{
1865 .Ss "Encrypted network communication"
1867 SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) a.k.a. its successor TLS (Transport Layer
1868 Security) are protocols which aid in securing communication by providing
1869 a safely initiated and encrypted network connection.
1870 A central concept of SSL/TLS is that of certificates: as part of each
1871 network connection setup a (set of) certificates will be exchanged, and
1872 by using those the identity of the network peer can be cryptographically
1874 SSL/TLS works by using a locally installed pool of trusted certificates,
1875 and verifying the connection peer succeeds if that provides
1876 a certificate which has been issued or is trusted by any certificate in
1877 the trusted local pool.
1880 The local pool of trusted so-called CA (Certification Authority)
1881 certificates is usually delivered with the used SSL/TLS library, and
1882 will be selected automatically, but it is also possible to create and
1883 use an own pool of trusted certificates.
1884 If this is desired, set
1885 .Va ssl-ca-no-defaults
1886 to avoid using the default certificate pool, and point
1890 to a trusted pool of certificates.
1891 A certificate cannot be more secure than the method its CA certificate
1892 has been retrieved with.
1895 It depends on the used protocol whether encrypted communication is
1896 possible, and which configuration steps have to be taken to enable it.
1897 Some protocols, e.g., POP3S, are implicitly encrypted, others, like
1898 POP3, can upgrade a plain text connection if so requested: POP3 offers
1900 which will be used if the variable (chain)
1901 .Va pop3-use-starttls
1904 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1905 shortcut encpop1 pop3s://pop1.exam.ple
1907 shortcut encpop2 pop3://pop2.exam.ple
1908 set pop3-use-starttls-pop2.exam.ple
1910 set mta=smtps://smtp.exam.ple:465
1911 set mta=smtp://smtp.exam.ple smtp-use-starttls
1915 Normally that is all there is to do, given that SSL/TLS libraries try to
1916 provide safe defaults, plenty of knobs however exist to adjust settings.
1917 For example certificate verification settings can be fine-tuned via
1919 and the SSL/TLS configuration basics are accessible via
1920 .Va ssl-config-pairs ,
1921 e.g., to specify the allowed protocols or cipher lists that
1922 a communication channel may use.
1923 In the past hints of how to restrict the set of protocols to highly
1924 secure ones were indicated, as of the time of this writing the allowed
1925 protocols or cipher list may need to become relaxed in order to be able
1926 to connect to some servers; the following example allows connecting to a
1928 that uses OpenSSL 0.9.8za from June 2014 (refer to
1929 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
1930 for more on variable chains):
1932 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1933 wysh set ssl-config-pairs-lion@exam.ple='MinProtocol=TLSv1.1,\e
1934 CipherList=TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:\e
1935 ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA:\e
1936 DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:@STRENGTH'
1942 can be used and should be referred to when creating a custom cipher list.
1943 Variables of interest for SSL/TLS in general are
1947 .Va ssl-ca-no-defaults ,
1948 .Va ssl-config-file ,
1949 .Va ssl-config-module ,
1950 .Va ssl-config-pairs ,
1958 .\" .Ss "Character sets" {{{
1959 .Ss "Character sets"
1961 \*(OP \*(UA detects the character set of the terminal by using
1962 mechanisms that are controlled by the
1964 environment variable
1969 in that order, see there).
1970 The internal variable
1972 will be set to the detected terminal character set accordingly,
1973 and will thus show up in the output of commands like, e.g.,
1979 However, the user may give a value for
1981 during startup, so that it is possible to send mail in a completely
1983 locale environment, an option which can be used to generate and send,
1984 e.g., 8-bit UTF-8 input data in a pure 7-bit US-ASCII
1986 environment (an example of this can be found in the section
1987 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" ) .
1988 Changing the value does not mean much beside that, because several
1989 aspects of the real character set are implied by the locale environment
1990 of the system, which stays unaffected by
1994 Messages and attachments which consist of 7-bit clean data will be
1995 classified as consisting of
1998 This is a problem if the
2000 character set is a multibyte character set that is also 7-bit clean.
2001 For example, the Japanese character set ISO-2022-JP is 7-bit clean but
2002 capable to encode the rich set of Japanese Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana
2003 characters: in order to notify receivers of this character set the mail
2004 message must be MIME encoded so that the character set ISO-2022-JP can
2006 To achieve this, the variable
2008 must be set to ISO-2022-JP.
2009 (Today a better approach regarding email is the usage of UTF-8, which
2010 uses 8-bit bytes for non-US-ASCII data.)
2013 If the \*(OPal character set conversion capabilities are not available
2015 does not include the term
2019 will be the only supported character set,
2020 it is simply assumed that it can be used to exchange 8-bit messages
2021 (over the wire an intermediate, configurable
2024 and the rest of this section does not apply;
2025 it may however still be necessary to explicitly set it if automatic
2026 detection fails, since in that case it defaults to
2027 .\" (Keep in SYNC: ./nail.1:"Character sets", ./config.h:CHARSET_*!)
2028 LATIN1 a.k.a. ISO-8859-1 unless the operating system environment is
2029 known to always and exclusively support UTF-8 locales.
2032 \*(OP When reading messages, their text is converted into
2034 as necessary in order to display them on the users terminal.
2035 Unprintable characters and invalid byte sequences are detected
2036 and replaced by proper substitution characters.
2037 Character set mappings for source character sets can be established with
2040 which may be handy to work around faulty character set catalogues (e.g.,
2041 to add a missing LATIN1 to ISO-8859-1 mapping), or to enforce treatment
2042 of one character set as another one (e.g., to interpret LATIN1 as CP1252).
2044 .Va charset-unknown-8bit
2045 to deal with another hairy aspect of message interpretation.
2048 When sending messages all their parts and attachments are classified.
2049 Whereas no character set conversion is performed on those parts which
2050 appear to be binary data,
2051 the character set being used must be declared within the MIME header of
2052 an outgoing text part if it contains characters that do not conform to
2053 the set of characters that are allowed by the email standards.
2054 Permissible values for character sets used in outgoing messages can be
2059 which defines a catch-all last-resort fallback character set that is
2060 implicitly appended to the list of character sets in
2064 When replying to a message and the variable
2065 .Va reply-in-same-charset
2066 is set, then the character set of the message being replied to
2067 is tried first (still being a subject of
2068 .Ic charsetalias ) .
2069 And it is also possible to make \*(UA work even more closely related to
2070 the current locale setting automatically by using the variable
2071 .Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset ,
2072 please see there for more information.
2075 All the specified character sets are tried in order unless the
2076 conversion of the part or attachment succeeds.
2077 If none of the tried (8-bit) character sets is capable to represent the
2078 content of the part or attachment,
2079 then the message will not be sent and its text will optionally be
2083 In general, if a message saying
2084 .Dq cannot convert from a to b
2085 appears, either some characters are not appropriate for the currently
2086 selected (terminal) character set,
2087 or the needed conversion is not supported by the system.
2088 In the first case, it is necessary to set an appropriate
2090 locale and/or the variable
2094 The best results are usually achieved when \*(UA is run in a UTF-8
2095 locale on an UTF-8 capable terminal, in which case the full Unicode
2096 spectrum of characters is available.
2097 In this setup characters from various countries can be displayed,
2098 while it is still possible to use more simple character sets for sending
2099 to retain maximum compatibility with older mail clients.
2102 On the other hand the POSIX standard defines a locale-independent 7-bit
2103 .Dq portable character set
2104 that should be used when overall portability is an issue, the even more
2105 restricted subset named
2106 .Dq portable filename character set
2107 consists of A-Z, a-z, 0-9, period
2115 .\" .Ss "Message states" {{{
2116 .Ss "Message states"
2118 \*(UA differentiates in between several different message states;
2119 the current state will be reflected in header summary displays if
2121 is configured to do so (via the internal variable
2123 and messages can also be selected and be acted upon depending on their
2125 .Sx "Specifying messages" ) .
2126 When operating on the system
2130 .Sx "primary system mailbox" ,
2131 special actions, like the automatic moving of messages to the
2133 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
2135 may be applied when the mailbox is left (also implicitly via
2136 a successful exit of \*(UA, but not if the special command
2138 is used) \(en however, because this may be irritating to users which
2141 mail-user-agents, the default global
2147 variables in order to suppress this behaviour.
2149 .Bl -hang -width ".It Ql new"
2151 Message has neither been viewed nor moved to any other state.
2152 Such messages are retained even in the
2154 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
2157 Message has neither been viewed nor moved to any other state, but the
2158 message was present already when the mailbox has been opened last:
2159 Such messages are retained even in the
2161 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
2164 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
2183 will always try to automatically
2189 logical message, and may thus mark multiple messages as read, the
2191 command will do so if the internal variable
2196 command is used, messages that are in a
2198 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
2201 state when the mailbox is left will be saved in the
2203 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
2205 unless the internal variable
2210 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
2216 can be used to access such messages.
2219 The message has been processed by a
2221 command and it will be retained in its current location.
2224 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
2230 command is used, messages that are in a
2232 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
2235 state when the mailbox is left will be deleted; they will be saved in the
2237 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
2239 when the internal variable
2245 In addition to these message states, flags which otherwise have no
2246 technical meaning in the mail system except allowing special ways of
2247 addressing them when
2248 .Sx "Specifying messages"
2249 can be set on messages.
2250 These flags are saved with messages and are thus persistent, and are
2251 portable between a set of widely used MUAs.
2253 .Bl -hang -width ".It Ic answered"
2255 Mark messages as having been answered.
2257 Mark messages as being a draft.
2259 Mark messages which need special attention.
2263 .\" .Ss "Specifying messages" {{{
2264 .Ss "Specifying messages"
2267 .Sx "Message list arguments" ,
2275 can be given a list of message numbers as arguments to apply to a number
2276 of messages at once.
2279 deletes messages 1 and 2,
2282 will delete the messages 1 through 5.
2283 In sorted or threaded mode (see the
2287 will delete the messages that are located between (and including)
2288 messages 1 through 5 in the sorted/threaded order, as shown in the
2291 The following special message names exist:
2294 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ar BaNg"
2296 The current message, the so-called
2300 The message that was previously the current message.
2303 The parent message of the current message,
2304 that is the message with the Message-ID given in the
2306 field or the last entry of the
2308 field of the current message.
2311 The next previous undeleted message,
2312 or the next previous deleted message for the
2315 In sorted/threaded mode,
2316 the next previous such message in the sorted/threaded order.
2319 The next undeleted message,
2320 or the next deleted message for the
2323 In sorted/threaded mode,
2324 the next such message in the sorted/threaded order.
2327 The first undeleted message,
2328 or the first deleted message for the
2331 In sorted/threaded mode,
2332 the first such message in the sorted/threaded order.
2336 In sorted/threaded mode,
2337 the last message in the sorted/threaded order.
2341 selects the message addressed with
2345 is any other message specification,
2346 and all messages from the thread that begins at it.
2347 Otherwise it is identical to
2352 the thread beginning with the current message is selected.
2357 All messages that were included in the
2358 .Sx "Message list arguments"
2359 of the previous command.
2362 An inclusive range of message numbers.
2363 Selectors that may also be used as endpoints include any of
2368 .Dq any substring matches
2371 header, which will match addresses (too) even if
2373 is set (and POSIX says
2374 .Dq any address as shown in a header summary shall be matchable in this form ) ;
2377 variable is set, only the local part of the address is evaluated
2378 for the comparison, not ignoring case, and the setting of
2380 is completely ignored.
2381 For finer control and match boundaries use the
2385 .It Ar / Ns Ar string
2386 All messages that contain
2388 in the subject field (case ignored according to locale).
2395 the string from the previous specification of that type is used again.
2398 .It Xo Op Ar @ Ns Ar name-list Ns
2401 All messages that contain the given case-insensitive search
2403 ession; If the \*(OPal regular expression support is available
2405 will be interpreted as (an extended) one if any of the
2407 regular expression characters
2412 .Ar @ Ns Ar name-list
2413 part is missing the search is restricted to the subject field body,
2416 specifies a comma-separated list of header fields to search, e.g.,
2419 .Dl '@to,from,cc@Someone i ought to know'
2422 In order to search for a string that includes a
2424 (commercial at) character the
2426 is effectively non-optional, but may be given as the empty string.
2427 Also, specifying an empty search
2429 ession will effectively test for existence of the given header fields.
2430 Some special header fields may be abbreviated:
2444 respectively and case-insensitively.
2445 \*(OPally, and just like
2448 will be interpreted as (an extended) regular expression if any of the
2450 regular expression characters is seen.
2457 can be used to search in (all of) the header(s) of the message, and the
2466 will perform full text searches \(en whereas the former searches only
2467 the body, the latter also searches the message header (\*(ID this mode
2468 yet brute force searches over the entire decoded content of messages,
2469 including administrativa strings).
2472 This specification performs full text comparison, but even with
2473 regular expression support it is almost impossible to write a search
2474 expression that safely matches only a specific address domain.
2475 To request that the body content of the header is treated as a list of
2476 addresses, and to strip those down to the plain email address which the
2477 search expression is to be matched against, prefix the effective
2483 .Dl @~f@@a\e.safe\e.domain\e.match$
2487 All messages of state or with matching condition
2491 is one or multiple of the following colon modifiers:
2493 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar :M"
2496 messages (cf. the variable
2497 .Va markanswered ) .
2509 Messages with receivers that match
2513 Messages with receivers that match
2520 Old messages (any not in state
2528 \*(OP Messages with unsure spam classification (see
2529 .Sx "Handling spam" ) .
2531 \*(OP Messages classified as spam.
2543 \*(OP IMAP-style SEARCH expressions may also be used.
2544 This addressing mode is available with all types of mailbox
2546 s; \*(UA will perform the search locally as necessary.
2547 Strings must be enclosed by double quotes
2549 in their entirety if they contain whitespace or parentheses;
2550 within the quotes, only reverse solidus
2552 is recognized as an escape character.
2553 All string searches are case-insensitive.
2554 When the description indicates that the
2556 representation of an address field is used,
2557 this means that the search string is checked against both a list
2560 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2561 (\*qname\*q \*qsource\*q \*qlocal-part\*q \*qdomain-part\*q)
2566 and the addresses without real names from the respective header field.
2567 These search expressions can be nested using parentheses, see below for
2571 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar _n_u"
2572 .It Ar ( criterion )
2573 All messages that satisfy the given
2575 .It Ar ( criterion1 criterion2 ... criterionN )
2576 All messages that satisfy all of the given criteria.
2578 .It Ar ( or criterion1 criterion2 )
2579 All messages that satisfy either
2584 To connect more than two criteria using
2586 specifications have to be nested using additional parentheses,
2588 .Ql (or a (or b c)) ,
2592 .Ql ((a or b) and c) .
2595 operation of independent criteria on the lowest nesting level,
2596 it is possible to achieve similar effects by using three separate
2600 .It Ar ( not criterion )
2601 All messages that do not satisfy
2603 .It Ar ( bcc \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2604 All messages that contain
2606 in the envelope representation of the
2609 .It Ar ( cc \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2610 All messages that contain
2612 in the envelope representation of the
2615 .It Ar ( from \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2616 All messages that contain
2618 in the envelope representation of the
2621 .It Ar ( subject \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2622 All messages that contain
2627 .It Ar ( to \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2628 All messages that contain
2630 in the envelope representation of the
2633 .It Ar ( header name \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2634 All messages that contain
2639 .It Ar ( body \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2640 All messages that contain
2643 .It Ar ( text \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2644 All messages that contain
2646 in their header or body.
2647 .It Ar ( larger size )
2648 All messages that are larger than
2651 .It Ar ( smaller size )
2652 All messages that are smaller than
2656 .It Ar ( before date )
2657 All messages that were received before
2659 which must be in the form
2663 denotes the day of the month as one or two digits,
2665 is the name of the month \(en one of
2666 .Ql Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec ,
2669 is the year as four digits, e.g.,
2673 All messages that were received on the specified date.
2674 .It Ar ( since date )
2675 All messages that were received since the specified date.
2676 .It Ar ( sentbefore date )
2677 All messages that were sent on the specified date.
2678 .It Ar ( senton date )
2679 All messages that were sent on the specified date.
2680 .It Ar ( sentsince date )
2681 All messages that were sent since the specified date.
2683 The same criterion as for the previous search.
2684 This specification cannot be used as part of another criterion.
2685 If the previous command line contained more than one independent
2686 criterion then the last of those criteria is used.
2690 .\" .Ss "On terminal control and line editor" {{{
2691 .Ss "On terminal control and line editor"
2693 \*(OP Terminal control will be realized through one of the standard
2695 libraries, either the
2697 or, alternatively, the
2699 both of which will be initialized to work with the environment variable
2701 Terminal control will enhance or enable interactive usage aspects, e.g.,
2702 .Sx "Coloured display" ,
2703 and extend behaviour of the Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE), which may learn the
2704 byte-sequences of keys like the cursor and function keys.
2707 The internal variable
2709 can be used to overwrite settings or to learn (correct(ed)) keycodes.
2710 \*(UA may also become a fullscreen application by entering the
2711 so-called ca-mode and switching to an alternative exclusive screen
2712 (content) shall the terminal support it and the internal variable
2714 has been set explicitly.
2715 Actual interaction with the chosen library can be disabled completely by
2716 setting the internal variable
2717 .Va termcap-disable ;
2719 will be queried regardless, which is true even if the \*(OPal library
2720 support has not been enabled at configuration time as long as some other
2721 \*(OP which (may) query terminal control sequences has been enabled.
2724 \*(OP The built-in Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE) should work in all
2725 environments which comply to the ISO C standard
2727 and will support wide glyphs if possible (the necessary functionality
2728 had been removed from ISO C, but was included in
2730 Prevent usage of a line editor in interactive mode by setting the
2732 .Va line-editor-disable .
2733 Especially if the \*(OPal terminal control support is missing setting
2734 entries in the internal variable
2736 will help shall the MLE misbehave, see there for more.
2737 The MLE can support a little bit of
2743 feature is available then input from line editor prompts will be saved
2744 in a history list that can be searched in and be expanded from.
2745 Such saving can be prevented by prefixing input with any amount of
2747 Aspects of history, like allowed content and maximum size, as well as
2748 whether history shall be saved persistently, can be configured with the
2752 .Va history-gabby-persist
2757 The MLE supports a set of editing and control commands.
2758 By default (as) many (as possible) of these will be assigned to a set of
2759 single-letter control codes, which should work on any terminal (and can
2760 be generated by holding the
2762 key while pressing the key of desire, e.g.,
2766 command is available then the MLE commands can also be accessed freely
2767 by assigning the command name, which is shown in parenthesis in the list
2768 below, to any desired key-sequence, and the MLE will instead and also use
2770 to establish its built-in key bindings
2771 (more of them if the \*(OPal terminal control is available),
2772 an action which can then be suppressed completely by setting
2773 .Va line-editor-no-defaults .
2774 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
2775 notation is used in the following;
2776 combinations not mentioned either cause job control signals or do not
2777 generate a (unique) keycode:
2781 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql \eBa"
2783 Go to the start of the line
2785 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-home ) .
2788 Move the cursor backward one character
2790 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-bwd ) .
2793 Forward delete the character under the cursor;
2794 quits \*(UA if used on the empty line unless the internal variable
2798 .Pf ( Cd mle-del-fwd ) .
2801 Go to the end of the line
2803 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-end ) .
2806 Move the cursor forward one character
2808 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-fwd ) .
2811 Cancel current operation, full reset.
2812 If there is an active history search or tabulator expansion then this
2813 command will first reset that, reverting to the former line content;
2814 thus a second reset is needed for a full reset in this case
2816 .Pf ( Cd mle-reset ) .
2819 Backspace: backward delete one character
2821 .Pf ( Cd mle-del-bwd ) .
2825 Horizontal tabulator:
2826 try to expand the word before the cursor, supporting the usual
2827 .Sx "Filename transformations"
2829 .Pf ( Cd mle-complete ;
2831 .Cd mle-quote-rndtrip ) .
2835 commit the current line
2837 .Pf ( Cd mle-commit ) .
2840 Cut all characters from the cursor to the end of the line
2842 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-end ) .
2847 .Pf ( Cd mle-repaint ) .
2850 \*(OP Go to the next history entry
2852 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-fwd ) .
2855 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
2859 \*(OP Go to the previous history entry
2861 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-bwd ) .
2864 Toggle roundtrip mode shell quotes, where produced,
2867 .Pf ( Cd mle-quote-rndtrip ) .
2868 This setting is temporary, and will be forgotten once the command line
2869 is committed; also see
2873 \*(OP Complete the current line from (the remaining) older history entries
2875 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-srch-bwd ) .
2878 \*(OP Complete the current line from (the remaining) newer history entries
2880 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-srch-fwd ) .
2883 Paste the snarf buffer
2885 .Pf ( Cd mle-paste ) .
2893 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-line ) .
2896 Prompts for a Unicode character (hexadecimal number without prefix, see
2900 .Pf ( Cd mle-prompt-char ) .
2901 Note this command needs to be assigned to a single-letter control code
2902 in order to become recognized and executed during input of
2903 a key-sequence (only three single-letter control codes can be used for
2904 that shortcut purpose); this control code is special-treated and cannot
2905 be part of any other sequence, because any occurrence will perform the
2907 function immediately.
2910 Cut the characters from the one preceding the cursor to the preceding
2913 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-word-bwd ) .
2916 Move the cursor forward one word boundary
2918 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-word-fwd ) .
2921 Move the cursor backward one word boundary
2923 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-word-bwd ) .
2926 Escape: reset a possibly used multibyte character input state machine
2927 and \*(OPally a lingering, incomplete key binding
2929 .Pf ( Cd mle-cancel ) .
2930 This command needs to be assigned to a single-letter control code in
2931 order to become recognized and executed during input of a key-sequence
2932 (only three single-letter control codes can be used for that shortcut
2934 This control code may also be part of a multi-byte sequence, but if
2935 a sequence is active and the very control code is currently also an
2936 expected input, then it will first be consumed by the active sequence.
2939 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
2943 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
2947 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
2951 Cut the characters from the one after the cursor to the succeeding word
2954 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-word-fwd ) .
2965 this will immediately reset a possibly active search etc.
2970 ring the audible bell.
2974 .\" .Ss "Coloured display" {{{
2975 .Ss "Coloured display"
2977 \*(OP \*(UA can be configured to support a coloured display and font
2978 attributes by emitting ANSI a.k.a. ISO 6429 SGR (select graphic
2979 rendition) escape sequences.
2980 Usage of colours and font attributes solely depends upon the
2981 capability of the detected terminal type that is defined by the
2982 environment variable
2984 and which can be fine-tuned by the user via the internal variable
2988 On top of what \*(UA knows about the terminal the boolean variable
2990 defines whether the actually applicable colour and font attribute
2991 sequences should also be generated when output is going to be paged
2992 through the external program defined by the environment variable
2997 This is not enabled by default because different pager programs need
2998 different command line switches or other configuration in order to
2999 support those sequences.
3000 \*(UA however knows about some widely used pagers and in a clean
3001 environment it is often enough to simply set
3003 please refer to that variable for more on this topic.
3008 is set then any active usage of colour and font attribute sequences
3009 is suppressed, but without affecting possibly established
3014 To define and control colours and font attributes a single multiplexer
3015 command family exists:
3017 shows or defines colour mappings for the given colour type (e.g.,
3020 can be used to remove mappings of a given colour type.
3021 Since colours are only available in interactive mode, it may make
3022 sense to conditionalize the colour setup by encapsulating it with
3025 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3026 if terminal && [ "$features" =% +colour ]
3027 colour iso view-msginfo ft=bold,fg=green
3028 colour iso view-header ft=bold,fg=red from,subject
3029 colour iso view-header fg=red
3031 uncolour iso view-header from,subject
3032 colour iso view-header ft=bold,fg=magenta,bg=cyan
3033 colour 256 view-header ft=bold,fg=208,bg=230 "subject,from"
3034 colour mono view-header ft=bold
3035 colour mono view-header ft=bold,ft=reverse subject,from
3040 .\" .Ss "Handling spam" {{{
3043 \*(OP \*(UA can make use of several spam interfaces for the purpose of
3044 identification of, and, in general, dealing with spam messages.
3045 A precondition of most commands in order to function is that the
3047 variable is set to one of the supported interfaces.
3048 Once messages have been identified as spam their (volatile)
3050 state can be prompted: the
3054 message specifications will address respective messages and their
3056 entries will be used when displaying the
3058 in the header display.
3063 rates the given messages and sets their
3066 If the spam interface offers spam scores those can also be displayed in
3067 the header display by including the
3077 will interact with the Bayesian filter of the chosen interface and learn
3078 the given messages as
3082 respectively; the last command can be used to cause
3084 of messages; it adheres to their current
3086 state and thus reverts previous teachings.
3091 will simply set and clear, respectively, the mentioned volatile
3093 message flag, without any interface interaction.
3102 requires a running instance of the
3104 server in order to function, started with the option
3106 shall Bayesian filter learning be possible.
3108 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3109 $ spamd -i localhost:2142 -i /tmp/.spamsock -d [-L] [-l]
3110 $ spamd --listen=localhost:2142 --listen=/tmp/.spamsock \e
3111 --daemonize [--local] [--allow-tell]
3115 Thereafter \*(UA can make use of these interfaces:
3117 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3118 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=spamc -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
3119 -Sspamc-command=/usr/local/bin/spamc \e
3120 -Sspamc-arguments="-U /tmp/.spamsock" -Sspamc-user=
3122 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=spamc -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
3123 -Sspamc-command=/usr/local/bin/spamc \e
3124 -Sspamc-arguments="-d localhost -p 2142" -Sspamc-user=
3128 Using the generic filter approach allows usage of programs like
3130 Here is an example, requiring it to be accessible via
3133 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3134 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=filter -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
3135 -Sspamfilter-ham="bogofilter -n" \e
3136 -Sspamfilter-noham="bogofilter -N" \e
3137 -Sspamfilter-nospam="bogofilter -S" \e
3138 -Sspamfilter-rate="bogofilter -TTu 2>/dev/null" \e
3139 -Sspamfilter-spam="bogofilter -s" \e
3140 -Sspamfilter-rate-scanscore="1;^(.+)$"
3144 Because messages must exist on local storage in order to be scored (or
3145 used for Bayesian filter training), it is possibly a good idea to
3146 perform the local spam check last.
3147 Spam can be checked automatically when opening specific folders by
3148 setting a specialized form of the internal variable
3151 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3152 define spamdelhook {
3154 spamset (header x-dcc-brand-metrics "bulk")
3155 # Server-side spamassassin(1)
3156 spamset (header x-spam-flag "YES")
3157 del :s # TODO we HAVE to be able to do `spamrate :u ! :sS'
3163 set folder-hook-SOMEFOLDER=spamdelhook
3167 See also the documentation for the variables
3168 .Va spam-interface , spam-maxsize ,
3169 .Va spamc-command , spamc-arguments , spamc-user ,
3170 .Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , spamfilter-nospam , \
3173 .Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore .
3176 .\" }}} (DESCRIPTION)
3179 .\" .Sh COMMANDS {{{
3182 \*(UA reads input in lines.
3183 An unquoted reverse solidus
3185 at the end of a command line
3187 the newline character: it is discarded and the next line of input is
3188 used as a follow-up line, with all leading whitespace removed;
3189 once an entire line is completed, the whitespace characters
3190 .Cm space , tabulator , newline
3191 as well as those defined by the variable
3193 are removed from the beginning and end.
3194 Placing any whitespace characters at the beginning of a line will
3195 prevent a possible addition of the command line to the \*(OPal
3199 The beginning of such input lines is then scanned for the name of
3200 a known command: command names may be abbreviated, in which case the
3201 first command that matches the given prefix will be used.
3202 .Sx "Command modifiers"
3203 may prefix a command in order to modify its behaviour.
3204 A name may also be a
3206 which will become expanded until no more expansion is possible.
3207 Once the command that shall be executed is known, the remains of the
3208 input line will be interpreted according to command-specific rules,
3209 documented in the following.
3212 This behaviour is different to the
3214 ell, which is a programming language with syntactic elements of clearly
3215 defined semantics, and therefore capable to sequentially expand and
3216 evaluate individual elements of a line.
3217 \*(UA will never be able to handle
3218 .Ql ? set one=value two=$one
3219 in a single statement, because the variable assignment is performed by
3227 can be used to show the list of all commands, either alphabetically
3228 sorted or in prefix search order (these do not match, also because the
3229 POSIX standard prescribes a set of abbreviations).
3230 \*(OPally the command
3234 when given an argument, will show a documentation string for the
3235 command matching the expanded argument, as in
3237 which should be a shorthand of
3239 with these documentation strings both commands support a more
3241 listing mode which includes the argument type of the command and other
3242 information which applies; a handy suggestion might thus be:
3244 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3246 # Before v15: need to enable sh(1)ell-style on _entire_ line!
3247 localopts 1;wysh set verbose;ignerr eval "${@}";return ${?}
3249 ? commandalias xv '\ecall __xv'
3253 .\" .Ss "Command modifiers" {{{
3254 .Ss "Command modifiers"
3256 Commands may be prefixed by one or multiple command modifiers.
3257 Some command modifiers can be used with a restricted set of commands
3262 will (\*(OPally) show which modifiers apply.
3266 The modifier reverse solidus
3269 to be placed first, prevents
3271 expansions on the remains of the line, e.g.,
3273 will always evaluate the command
3275 even if an (command)alias of the same name exists.
3277 content may itself contain further command modifiers, including
3278 an initial reverse solidus to prevent further expansions.
3284 indicates that any error generated by the following command should be
3285 ignored by the state machine and not cause a program exit with enabled
3287 or for the standardized exit cases in
3292 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
3293 will be set to the real exit status of the command regardless.
3298 will alter the called command to apply changes only temporarily,
3299 local to block-scope, and can thus only be used inside of a
3304 Specifying it implies the modifier
3306 Block-scope settings will not be inherited by macros deeper in the
3308 chain, and will be garbage collected once the current block is left.
3309 To record and unroll changes in the global scope use the command
3315 does yet not implement any functionality.
3320 does yet not implement any functionality.
3323 Some commands support the
3326 modifier: if used, they expect the name of a variable, which can itself
3327 be a variable, i.e., shell expansion is applied, as their first
3328 argument, and will place their computation result in it instead of the
3329 default location (it is usually written to standard output).
3331 The given name will be tested for being a valid
3333 variable name, and may therefore only consist of upper- and lowercase
3334 characters, digits, and the underscore; the hyphen-minus may be used as
3335 a non-portable extension; digits may not be used as first, hyphen-minus
3336 may not be used as last characters.
3337 In addition the name may either not be one of the known
3338 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
3339 or must otherwise refer to a writable (non-boolean) value variable.
3340 The actual put operation may fail nonetheless, e.g., if the variable
3341 expects a number argument only a number will be accepted.
3342 Any error during these operations causes the command as such to fail,
3343 and the error number
3346 .Va ^ERR Ns -NOTSUP ,
3351 but some commands deviate from the latter, which is documented.
3354 Last, but not least, the modifier
3357 can be used for some old and established commands to choose the new
3358 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
3359 rules over the traditional
3360 .Sx "Old-style argument quoting" .
3364 .\" .Ss "Message list arguments" {{{
3365 .Ss "Message list arguments"
3367 Some commands expect arguments that represent messages (actually
3368 their symbolic message numbers), as has been documented above under
3369 .Sx "Specifying messages"
3371 If no explicit message list has been specified, the next message
3372 forward that satisfies the command's requirements will be used,
3373 and if there are no messages forward of the current message,
3374 the search proceeds backwards;
3375 if there are no good messages at all to be found, an error message is
3376 shown and the command is aborted.
3379 .\" .Ss "Old-style argument quoting" {{{
3380 .Ss "Old-style argument quoting"
3382 \*(ID This section documents the old, traditional style of quoting
3383 non-message-list arguments to commands which expect this type of
3384 arguments: whereas still used by the majority of such commands, the new
3385 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
3386 may be available even for those via
3389 .Sx "Command modifiers" .
3390 Nonetheless care must be taken, because only new commands have been
3391 designed with all the capabilities of the new quoting rules in mind,
3392 which can, e.g., generate control characters.
3395 .Bl -bullet -offset indent
3397 An argument can be enclosed between paired double-quotes
3402 any whitespace, shell word expansion, or reverse solidus characters
3403 (except as described next) within the quotes are treated literally as
3404 part of the argument.
3405 A double-quote will be treated literally within single-quotes and vice
3407 Inside such a quoted string the actually used quote character can be
3408 used nonetheless by escaping it with a reverse solidus
3414 An argument that is not enclosed in quotes, as above, can usually still
3415 contain space characters if those spaces are reverse solidus escaped, as in
3419 A reverse solidus outside of the enclosing quotes is discarded
3420 and the following character is treated literally as part of the argument.
3424 .\" .Ss "Shell-style argument quoting" {{{
3425 .Ss "Shell-style argument quoting"
3427 Commands which don't expect message-list arguments use
3429 ell-style, and therefore POSIX standardized, argument parsing and
3431 \*(ID Most new commands only support these new rules and are flagged
3432 \*(NQ, some elder ones can use them with the command modifier
3434 in the future only this type of argument quoting will remain.
3437 A command line is parsed from left to right and an input token is
3438 completed whenever an unquoted, otherwise ignored, metacharacter is seen.
3439 Metacharacters are vertical bar
3445 as well as all characters from the variable
3448 .Cm space , tabulator , newline .
3449 The additional metacharacters left and right parenthesis
3451 and less-than and greater-than signs
3455 supports are not used, and are treated as ordinary characters: for one
3456 these characters are a vivid part of email addresses, and it seems
3457 highly unlikely that their function will become meaningful to \*(UA.
3459 .Bd -filled -offset indent
3460 .Sy Compatibility note:
3461 \*(ID Please note that even many new-style commands do not yet honour
3463 to parse their arguments: whereas the
3465 ell is a language with syntactic elements of clearly defined semantics,
3466 \*(UA parses entire input lines and decides on a per-command base what
3467 to do with the rest of the line.
3468 This also means that whenever an unknown command is seen all that \*(UA
3469 can do is cancellation of the processing of the remains of the line.
3471 It also often depends on an actual subcommand of a multiplexer command
3472 how the rest of the line should be treated, and until v15 we are not
3473 capable to perform this deep inspection of arguments.
3474 Nonetheless, at least the following commands which work with positional
3475 parameters fully support
3477 for an almost shell-compatible field splitting:
3478 .Ic call , call_if , read , vpospar , xcall .
3482 Any unquoted number sign
3484 at the beginning of a new token starts a comment that extends to the end
3485 of the line, and therefore ends argument processing.
3486 An unquoted dollar sign
3488 will cause variable expansion of the given name, which must be a valid
3490 ell-style variable name (see
3492 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
3495 (shell) variables can be accessed through this mechanism, brace
3496 enclosing the name is supported (i.e., to subdivide a token).
3499 Whereas the metacharacters
3500 .Cm space , tabulator , newline
3501 only complete an input token, vertical bar
3507 also act as control operators and perform control functions.
3508 For now supported is semicolon
3510 which terminates a single command, therefore sequencing the command line
3511 and making the remainder of the line a subject to reevaluation.
3512 With sequencing, multiple command argument types and quoting rules may
3513 therefore apply to a single line, which can become problematic before
3514 v15: e.g., the first of the following will cause surprising results.
3517 .Dl ? echo one; set verbose; echo verbose=$verbose.
3518 .Dl ? echo one; wysh set verbose; echo verbose=$verbose.
3521 Quoting is a mechanism that will remove the special meaning of
3522 metacharacters and reserved words, and will prevent expansion.
3523 There are four quoting mechanisms: the escape character, single-quotes,
3524 double-quotes and dollar-single-quotes:
3527 .Bl -bullet -offset indent
3529 The literal value of any character can be preserved by preceding it
3530 with the escape character reverse solidus
3534 Arguments which are enclosed in
3535 .Ql 'single-\:quotes'
3536 retain their literal value.
3537 A single-quote cannot occur within single-quotes.
3540 The literal value of all characters enclosed in
3541 .Ql \(dqdouble-\:quotes\(dq
3542 is retained, with the exception of dollar sign
3544 which will cause variable expansion, as above, backquote (grave accent)
3546 (which not yet means anything special), reverse solidus
3548 which will escape any of the characters dollar sign
3550 (to prevent variable expansion), backquote (grave accent)
3554 (to prevent ending the quote) and reverse solidus
3556 (to prevent escaping, i.e., to embed a reverse solidus character as-is),
3557 but has no special meaning otherwise.
3560 Arguments enclosed in
3561 .Ql $'dollar-\:single-\:quotes'
3562 extend normal single quotes in that reverse solidus escape sequences are
3563 expanded as follows:
3565 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".Ql \eNNN"
3567 bell control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 BEL).
3569 backspace control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 BS).
3571 escape control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 ESC).
3575 form feed control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 FF).
3577 line feed control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 LF).
3579 carriage return control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 CR).
3581 horizontal tabulator control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 HT).
3583 vertical tabulator control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 VT).
3585 emits a reverse solidus character.
3589 double quote (escaping is optional).
3591 eight-bit byte with the octal value
3593 (one to three octal digits), optionally prefixed by an additional
3595 A 0 byte will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
3597 eight-bit byte with the hexadecimal value
3599 (one or two hexadecimal characters, no prefix, see
3601 A 0 byte will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
3603 the Unicode / ISO-10646 character with the hexadecimal codepoint value
3605 (one to eight hexadecimal characters) \(em note that Unicode defines the
3606 maximum codepoint ever to be supported as
3611 This escape is only supported in locales that support Unicode (see
3612 .Sx "Character sets" ) ,
3613 in other cases the sequence will remain unexpanded unless the given code
3614 point is ASCII compatible or (if the \*(OPal character set conversion is
3615 available) can be represented in the current locale.
3616 The character NUL will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
3620 except it takes only one to four hexadecimal characters.
3622 Emits the non-printable (ASCII and compatible) C0 control codes
3623 0 (NUL) to 31 (US), and 127 (DEL).
3624 Printable representations of ASCII control codes can be created by
3625 mapping them to a different part of the ASCII character set, which is
3626 possible by adding the number 64 for the codes 0 to 31, e.g., 7 (BEL) is
3627 .Ql 7 + 64 = 71 = G .
3628 The real operation is a bitwise logical XOR with 64 (bit 7 set, see
3630 thus also covering code 127 (DEL), which is mapped to 63 (question mark):
3631 .Ql ? vexpr ^ 127 64 .
3633 Whereas historically circumflex notation has often been used for
3634 visualization purposes of control codes, e.g.,
3636 the reverse solidus notation has been standardized:
3638 Some control codes also have standardized (ISO-10646, ISO C) aliases,
3639 as shown above (e.g.,
3643 whenever such an alias exists it will be used for display purposes.
3644 The control code NUL
3646 a non-standard extension) will suppress further output for the remains
3647 of the token (which may extend beyond the current quote), or, depending
3648 on the context, the remains of all arguments for the current command.
3650 Non-standard extension: expand the given variable name, as above.
3651 Brace enclosing the name is supported.
3653 Not yet supported, just to raise awareness: Non-standard extension.
3660 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3661 ? echo 'Quotes '${HOME}' and 'tokens" differ!"# no comment
3662 ? echo Quotes ${HOME} and tokens differ! # comment
3663 ? echo Don"'"t you worry$'\ex21' The sun shines on us. $'\eu263A'
3667 .\" .Ss "Raw data arguments for codec commands" {{{
3668 .Ss "Raw data arguments for codec commands"
3670 A special set of commands, which all have the string
3672 in their name, e.g.,
3676 take raw string data as input, which means that the content of the
3677 command input line is passed completely unexpanded and otherwise
3678 unchanged: like this the effect of the actual codec is visible without
3679 any noise of possible shell quoting rules etc., i.e., the user can input
3680 one-to-one the desired or questionable data.
3681 To gain a level of expansion, the entire command line can be
3685 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3686 ? vput shcodec res encode /usr/Sch\[:o]nes Wetter/heute.txt
3688 $'/usr/Sch\eu00F6nes Wetter/heute.txt'
3690 $'/usr/Sch\eu00F6nes Wetter/heute.txt'
3691 ? eval shcodec d $res
3692 /usr/Sch\[:o]nes Wetter/heute.txt
3696 .\" .Ss "Filename transformations" {{{
3697 .Ss "Filename transformations"
3699 Filenames, where expected, and unless documented otherwise, are
3700 subsequently subject to the following filename transformations, in
3703 .Bl -bullet -offset indent
3705 If the given name is a registered
3707 it will be replaced with the expanded shortcut.
3710 The filename is matched against the following patterns or strings:
3712 .Bl -hang -compact -width ".Ar %user"
3714 (Number sign) is expanded to the previous file.
3716 (Percent sign) is replaced by the invoking
3717 .Mx -ix "primary system mailbox"
3718 user's primary system mailbox, which either is the (itself expandable)
3720 if that is set, the standardized absolute pathname indicated by
3722 if that is set, or a built-in compile-time default otherwise.
3724 Expands to the primary system mailbox of
3726 (and never the value of
3728 regardless of its actual setting).
3730 (Ampersand) is replaced with the invoking users
3731 .Mx -ix "secondary mailbox"
3732 secondary mailbox, the
3739 directory (if that variable is set).
3741 Expands to the same value as
3743 but has special meaning when used with, e.g., the command
3745 the file will be treated as a primary system mailbox by, e.g., the
3749 commands, meaning that messages that have been read in the current
3750 session will be moved to the
3752 mailbox instead of simply being flagged as read.
3756 Meta expansions may be applied to the resulting filename, as allowed by
3757 the operation and applicable to the resulting access protocol (also see
3758 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) .
3759 For the file-protocol, a leading tilde
3761 character will be replaced by the expansion of
3763 except when followed by a valid user name, in which case the home
3764 directory of the given user is used instead.
3766 A shell expansion as if specified in double-quotes (see
3767 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" )
3768 may be applied, so that any occurrence of
3772 will be replaced by the expansion of the variable, if possible;
3773 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
3776 (shell) variables can be accessed through this mechanism.
3778 Shell pathname wildcard pattern expansions
3780 may be applied as documented.
3781 If the fully expanded filename results in multiple pathnames and the
3782 command is expecting only one file, an error results.
3784 In interactive context, in order to allow simple value acceptance (via
3786 arguments will usually be displayed in a properly quoted form, e.g., a file
3787 .Ql diet\e is \ecurd.txt
3789 .Ql 'diet\e is \ecurd.txt' .
3793 .\" .Ss "Commands" {{{
3796 The following commands are available:
3798 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ic BaNg"
3805 command which follows, replacing unescaped exclamation marks with the
3806 previously executed command if the internal variable
3809 This command supports
3812 .Sx "Command modifiers" ,
3813 and manages the error number
3815 A 0 or positive exit status
3817 reflects the exit status of the command, negative ones that
3818 an error happened before the command was executed, or that the program
3819 did not exit cleanly, but, e.g., due to a signal: the error number is
3820 .Va ^ERR Ns -CHILD ,
3824 In conjunction with the
3826 modifier the following special cases exist:
3827 a negative exit status occurs if the collected data could not be stored
3828 in the given variable, which is a
3830 error that should otherwise not occur.
3831 .Va ^ERR Ns -CANCELED
3832 indicates that no temporary file could be created to collect the command
3833 output at first glance.
3834 In case of catchable out-of-memory situations
3836 will occur and \*(UA will try to store the empty string, just like with
3837 all other detected error conditions.
3842 The comment-command causes the entire line to be ignored.
3844 this really is a normal command which' purpose is to discard its
3847 indicating special character, which means that, e.g., trailing comments
3848 on a line are not possible.
3852 Goes to the next message in sequence and types it
3858 Display the preceding message, or the n'th previous message if given
3859 a numeric argument n.
3863 Show the current message number (the
3868 \*(OP Show a brief summary of commands.
3869 \*(OP Given an argument a synopsis for the command in question is
3870 shown instead; commands can be abbreviated in general and this command
3871 can be used to see the full expansion of an abbreviation including the
3872 synopsis, try, e.g.,
3877 and see how the output changes.
3878 This mode also supports a more
3880 output, which will provide the information documented for
3891 .It Ic account , unaccount
3892 (ac, una) Creates, selects or lists (an) account(s).
3893 Accounts are special incarnations of
3895 macros and group commands and variable settings which together usually
3896 arrange the environment for the purpose of creating an email account.
3897 Different to normal macros settings which are covered by
3899 \(en here by default enabled! \(en will not be reverted before the
3904 (case-insensitive) always exists, and all but it can be deleted by the
3905 latter command, and in one operation with the special name
3907 Also for all but it a possibly set
3908 .Va on-account-cleanup
3909 hook is called once they are left.
3911 Without arguments a listing of all defined accounts is shown.
3912 With one argument the given account is activated: the system
3914 of that account will be activated (as via
3916 a possibly installed
3918 will be run, and the internal variable
3921 The two argument form is identical to defining a macro as via
3923 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3925 set folder=~/mail inbox=+syste.mbox record=+sent.mbox
3926 set from='(My Name) myname@myisp.example'
3927 set mta=smtp://mylogin@smtp.myisp.example
3934 Perform email address codec transformations on raw-data argument, rather
3935 according to email standards (RFC 5322; \*(ID will furtherly improve).
3939 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) ,
3940 and manages the error number
3942 The first argument must be either
3943 .Ar [+[+[+]]]e[ncode] ,
3948 and specifies the operation to perform on the rest of the line.
3951 Decoding will show how a standard-compliant MUA will display the given
3952 argument, which should be an email address.
3953 Please be aware that most MUAs have difficulties with the address
3954 standards, and vary wildly when (comments) in parenthesis,
3956 strings, or quoted-pairs, as below, become involved.
3957 \*(ID \*(UA currently does not perform decoding when displaying addresses.
3960 Skinning is identical to decoding but only outputs the plain address,
3961 without any string, comment etc. components.
3962 Another difference is that it may fail with the error number
3966 if decoding fails to find a(n) (valid) email address, in which case the
3967 unmodified input will be output again.
3971 first performs a skin operation, and thereafter checks a valid
3972 address for whether it is a registered mailing-list (see
3976 eventually reporting that state in the error number
3979 .Va ^ERR Ns -EXIST .
3980 (This state could later become overwritten by an I/O error, though.)
3983 Encoding supports four different modes, lesser automated versions can be
3984 chosen by prefixing one, two or three plus signs: the standard imposes
3985 a special meaning on some characters, which thus have to be transformed
3986 to so-called quoted-pairs by pairing them with a reverse solidus
3988 in order to remove the special meaning; this might change interpretation
3989 of the entire argument from what has been desired, however!
3990 Specify one plus sign to remark that parenthesis shall be left alone,
3991 two for not turning double quotation marks into quoted-pairs, and three
3992 for also leaving any user-specified reverse solidus alone.
3993 The result will always be valid, if a successful exit status is reported
3994 (\*(ID the current parser fails this assertion for some constructs).
3995 \*(ID Addresses need to be specified in between angle brackets
3998 if the construct becomes more difficult, otherwise the current parser
3999 will fail; it is not smart enough to guess right.
4001 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4002 ? addrc enc "Hey, you",<diet@exam.ple>\e out\e there
4003 "\e"Hey, you\e", \e\e out\e\e there" <diet@exam.ple>
4004 ? addrc d "\e"Hey, you\e", \e\e out\e\e there" <diet@exam.ple>
4005 "Hey, you", \e out\e there <diet@exam.ple>
4006 ? addrc s "\e"Hey, you\e", \e\e out\e\e there" <diet@exam.ple>
4013 .It Ic alias , unalias
4014 (a, una) Aliases are a method of creating personal distribution lists
4015 that map a single alias name to none to multiple real receivers;
4016 these aliases become expanded after message composing is completed.
4017 The latter command removes the given list of aliases, the special name
4019 will discard all existing aliases.
4021 The former command shows all currently defined aliases when used without
4022 arguments, and with one argument the expansion of the given alias.
4023 With more than one argument, creates or appends to the alias name given
4024 as the first argument the remaining arguments.
4025 Alias names adhere to the Postfix MTA
4027 rules and are thus restricted to alphabetic characters, digits, the
4028 underscore, hyphen-minus, the number sign, colon and commercial at,
4029 the last character can also be the dollar sign; the regular expression:
4030 .Ql [[:alnum:]_#:@-]+$? .
4031 .\" ALIASCOLON next sentence
4032 \*(ID Unfortunately the colon is currently not supported, as it
4033 interferes with normal address parsing rules.
4034 As extensions the exclamation mark
4039 .Dq any character that has the high bit set
4041 .\" ALIASCOLON next sentence
4042 \*(ID Such high bit characters will likely cause warnings at the moment
4043 for the same reasons why colon is unsupported.
4047 .It Ic alternates , unalternates
4048 \*(NQ (alt) Manage a list of alternate addresses or names of the active user,
4049 members of which will be removed from recipient lists.
4050 The latter command removes the given list of alternates, the special name
4052 will discard all existing aliases.
4053 The former command manages the error number
4055 and shows the current set of alternates when used without arguments; in
4056 this mode it supports
4059 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
4060 Otherwise the given arguments (after being checked for validity) are
4061 appended to the list of alternate names; in
4063 mode they replace that list instead.
4064 There is a set of implicit alternates which is formed of the values of
4073 .It Ic answered , unanswered
4074 Take a message lists and mark each message as having been answered,
4075 having not been answered, respectively.
4076 Messages will be marked answered when being
4078 to automatically if the
4082 .Sx "Message states" .
4087 .It Ic bind , unbind
4088 \*(OP\*(NQ The bind command extends the MLE (see
4089 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
4090 with freely configurable key bindings.
4091 The latter command removes from the given context the given key binding,
4092 both of which may be specified as a wildcard
4096 will remove all bindings of all contexts.
4097 Due to initialization order unbinding will not work for built-in key
4098 bindings upon program startup, however: please use
4099 .Va line-editor-no-defaults
4100 for this purpose instead.
4103 With one argument the former command shows all key bindings for the
4104 given context, specifying an asterisk
4106 will show the bindings of all contexts; a more verbose listing will be
4107 produced if either of
4112 With two or more arguments a binding is (re)established:
4113 the first argument is the context to which the binding shall apply,
4114 the second argument is a comma-separated list of the
4116 which form the binding, and any remaining arguments form the expansion.
4117 To indicate that a binding shall not be auto-committed, but that the
4118 expansion shall instead be furtherly editable by the user, a commercial at
4120 (that will be removed) can be placed last in the expansion, from which
4121 leading and trailing whitespace will finally be removed.
4122 Reverse solidus cannot be used as the last character of expansion.
4125 Contexts define when a binding applies, i.e., a binding will not be seen
4126 unless the context for which it is defined for is currently active.
4127 This is not true for the shared binding
4129 which is the foundation for all other bindings and as such always
4130 applies, its bindings, however, only apply secondarily.
4131 The available contexts are the shared
4135 context which is used in all not otherwise documented situations, and
4137 which applies to compose mode only.
4141 which form the binding are specified as a comma-separated list of
4142 byte-sequences, where each list entry corresponds to one key(press).
4143 A list entry may, indicated by a leading colon character
4145 also refer to the name of a terminal capability; several dozen names
4146 will be compiled in and may be specified either by their
4148 or, if existing, by their
4150 name, regardless of the actually used \*(OPal terminal control library.
4151 It is possible to use any capability, as long as the name is resolvable
4152 by the \*(OPal control library or was defined via the internal variable
4154 Input sequences are not case-normalized, so that an exact match is
4155 required to update or remove a binding.
4158 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4159 ? bind base $'\eE',d mle-snarf-word-fwd # Esc(ape)
4160 ? bind base $'\eE',$'\ec?' mle-snarf-word-bwd # Esc, Delete
4161 ? bind default $'\ecA',:khome,w 'echo An editable binding@'
4162 ? bind default a,b,c rm -irf / @ # Another editable binding
4163 ? bind default :kf1 File %
4164 ? bind compose :kf1 ~e
4168 Note that the entire comma-separated list is first parsed (over) as a
4169 shell-token with whitespace as the field separator, before being parsed
4170 and expanded for real with comma as the field separator, therefore
4171 whitespace needs to be properly quoted, see
4172 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" .
4173 Using Unicode reverse solidus escape sequences renders a binding
4174 defunctional if the locale does not support Unicode (see
4175 .Sx "Character sets" ) ,
4176 and using terminal capabilities does so if no (corresponding) terminal
4177 control support is (currently) available.
4180 The following terminal capability names are built-in and can be used in
4182 or (if available) the two-letter
4185 See the respective manual for a list of capabilities.
4188 can be used to show all the capabilities of
4190 or the given terminal type;
4193 flag will also show supported (non-standard) extensions.
4196 .Bl -tag -compact -width kcuuf_or_kcuuf
4197 .It Cd kbs Ns \0or Cd kb
4199 .It Cd kdch1 Ns \0or Cd kD
4201 .It Cd kDC Ns \0or Cd *4
4202 \(em shifted variant.
4203 .It Cd kel Ns \0or Cd kE
4204 Clear to end of line.
4205 .It Cd kext Ns \0or Cd @9
4207 .It Cd kich1 Ns \0or Cd kI
4209 .It Cd kIC Ns \0or Cd #3
4210 \(em shifted variant.
4211 .It Cd khome Ns \0or Cd kh
4213 .It Cd kHOM Ns \0or Cd #2
4214 \(em shifted variant.
4215 .It Cd kend Ns \0or Cd @7
4217 .It Cd knp Ns \0or Cd kN
4219 .It Cd kpp Ns \0or Cd kP
4221 .It Cd kcub1 Ns \0or Cd kl
4222 Left cursor (with more modifiers: see below).
4223 .It Cd kLFT Ns \0or Cd #4
4224 \(em shifted variant.
4225 .It Cd kcuf1 Ns \0or Cd kr
4226 Right cursor (ditto).
4227 .It Cd kRIT Ns \0or Cd %i
4228 \(em shifted variant.
4229 .It Cd kcud1 Ns \0or Cd kd
4230 Down cursor (ditto).
4232 \(em shifted variant (only terminfo).
4233 .It Cd kcuu1 Ns \0or Cd ku
4236 \(em shifted variant (only terminfo).
4237 .It Cd kf0 Ns \0or Cd k0
4239 Add one for each function key up to
4244 .It Cd kf10 Ns \0or Cd k;
4246 .It Cd kf11 Ns \0or Cd F1
4248 Add one for each function key up to
4256 Some terminals support key-modifier combination extensions, e.g.,
4258 For example, the delete key,
4260 in its shifted variant, the name is mutated to
4262 then a number is appended for the states
4274 .Ql Shift+Alt+Control
4276 The same for the left cursor key,
4278 .Cd KLFT , KLFT3 , KLFT4 , KLFT5 , KLFT6 , KLFT7 , KLFT8 .
4281 It is advisable to use an initial escape or other control character (e.g.,
4283 for bindings which describe user key combinations (as opposed to purely
4284 terminal capability based ones), in order to avoid ambiguities whether
4285 input belongs to key sequences or not; it also reduces search time.
4288 may help shall keys and sequences be falsely recognized.
4293 \*(NQ Calls the given macro, which must have been created via
4298 Calling macros recursively will at some time excess the stack size
4299 limit, causing a hard program abortion; if recursively calling a macro
4300 is the last command of the current macro, consider to use the command
4302 which will first release all resources of the current macro before
4303 replacing the current macro with the called one.
4304 Numeric and string operations can be performed via
4308 may be helpful to recreate argument lists.
4315 if the given macro has been created via
4317 but doesn't fail nor warn if the macro doesn't exist.
4321 (ch) Change the working directory to
4323 or the given argument.
4329 \*(OP Only applicable to S/MIME signed messages.
4330 Takes a message list and a filename and saves the certificates
4331 contained within the message signatures to the named file in both
4332 human-readable and PEM format.
4333 The certificates can later be used to send encrypted messages to the
4334 respective message senders by setting
4335 .Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST
4340 .It Ic charsetalias , uncharsetalias
4341 \*(NQ Manage (character set conversion) character set alias mappings,
4342 as documented in the section
4343 .Sx "Character sets" .
4344 Character set aliases are expanded recursively, but no expansion is
4345 performed on values of the user-settable variables, e.g.,
4347 These are effectively no-operations if character set conversion
4348 is not available (i.e., no
4352 Without arguments the list of all currently defined aliases is shown,
4353 with one argument the expansion of the given alias.
4354 Otherwise all given arguments are treated as pairs of character sets and
4355 their desired target alias name, creating new or changing already
4356 existing aliases, as necessary.
4358 The latter deletes all aliases given as arguments, the special argument
4360 will remove all aliases.
4364 (ch) Change the working directory to
4366 or the given argument.
4372 .It Ic collapse , uncollapse
4373 Only applicable to threaded mode.
4374 Takes a message list and makes all replies to these messages invisible
4375 in header summaries, except for
4379 Also when a message with collapsed replies is displayed,
4380 all of these are automatically uncollapsed.
4381 The latter command undoes collapsing.
4386 .It Ic colour , uncolour
4387 \*(OP\*(NQ Manage colour mappings of and for a
4388 .Sx "Coloured display" .
4389 The type of colour is given as the (case-insensitive) first argument,
4390 which must be one of
4392 for 256-colour terminals,
4397 for the standard 8-colour ANSI / ISO 6429 color palette and
4401 for monochrome terminals.
4402 Monochrome terminals cannot deal with colours, but only (some) font
4406 Without further arguments the list of all currently defined mappings
4407 for the given colour type is shown (as a special case giving
4411 will show the mappings of all types).
4412 Otherwise the second argument defines the mappable slot, and the third
4413 argument a (comma-separated list of) colour and font attribute
4414 specification(s), and the optional fourth argument can be used to
4415 specify a precondition: if conditioned mappings exist they are tested in
4416 (creation) order unless a (case-insensitive) match has been found, and
4417 the default mapping (if any has been established) will only be chosen as
4419 The types of precondition available depend on the mappable slot (see
4420 .Sx "Coloured display"
4421 for some examples), the following of which exist:
4424 Mappings prefixed with
4426 are used for the \*(OPal built-in Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE, see
4427 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
4428 and do not support preconditions.
4430 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
4432 This mapping is used for the position indicator that is visible when
4433 a line cannot be fully displayed on the screen.
4440 Mappings prefixed with
4442 are used in header summaries, and they all understand the preconditions
4444 (the current message) and
4446 for elder messages (only honoured in conjunction with
4447 .Va datefield-markout-older ) .
4449 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
4451 This mapping is used for the
4453 that can be created with the
4457 formats of the variable
4460 For the complete header summary line except the
4462 and the thread structure.
4464 For the thread structure which can be created with the
4466 format of the variable
4471 Mappings prefixed with
4473 are used when displaying messages.
4475 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
4477 This mapping is used for so-called
4479 lines, which are MBOX file format specific header lines.
4482 A comma-separated list of headers to which the mapping applies may be
4483 given as a precondition; if the \*(OPal regular expression support is
4484 available then if any of the
4486 (extended) regular expression characters is seen the precondition will
4487 be evaluated as (an extended) one.
4489 For the introductional message info line.
4490 .It Ar view-partinfo
4491 For MIME part info lines.
4495 The following (case-insensitive) colour definitions and font attributes
4496 are understood, multiple of which can be specified in a comma-separated
4506 It is possible (and often applicable) to specify multiple font
4507 attributes for a single mapping.
4510 foreground colour attribute:
4520 To specify a 256-color mode a decimal number colour specification in
4521 the range 0 to 255, inclusive, is supported, and interpreted as follows:
4523 .Bl -tag -compact -width "999 - 999"
4525 the standard ISO 6429 colors, as above.
4527 high intensity variants of the standard colors.
4529 216 colors in tuples of 6.
4531 grayscale from black to white in 24 steps.
4533 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4535 fg() { printf "\e033[38;5;${1}m($1)"; }
4536 bg() { printf "\e033[48;5;${1}m($1)"; }
4538 while [ $i -lt 256 ]; do fg $i; i=$(($i + 1)); done
4539 printf "\e033[0m\en"
4541 while [ $i -lt 256 ]; do bg $i; i=$(($i + 1)); done
4542 printf "\e033[0m\en"
4546 background colour attribute (see
4548 for possible values).
4554 will remove for the given colour type (the special type
4556 selects all) the given mapping; if the optional precondition argument is
4557 given only the exact tuple of mapping and precondition is removed.
4560 will remove all mappings (no precondition allowed), thus
4562 will remove all established mappings.
4567 .It Ic commandalias , uncommandalias
4568 \*(NQ Define or list, and remove, respectively, command aliases.
4569 An (command)alias can be used everywhere a normal command can be used,
4570 but always takes precedence: any arguments that are given to the command
4571 alias are joined onto the alias expansion, and the resulting string
4572 forms the command line that is, in effect, executed.
4573 The latter command removes all given aliases, the special name
4575 will remove all existing aliases.
4576 When used without arguments the former shows a list of all currently
4577 known aliases, with one argument only the expansion of the given one.
4579 With two or more arguments a command alias is defined or updated: the
4580 first argument is the name under which the remaining command line should
4581 be accessible, the content of which can be just about anything.
4582 An alias may itself expand to another alias, but to avoid expansion loops
4583 further expansion will be prevented if an alias refers to itself or if
4584 an expansion depth limit is reached.
4585 Explicit expansion prevention is available via reverse solidus
4588 .Sx "Command modifiers" .
4589 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4591 \*(uA: `commandalias': no such alias: xx
4592 ? commandalias xx echo hello,
4594 commandalias xx 'echo hello,'
4603 (C) Copy messages to files whose names are derived from the author of
4604 the respective message and do not mark them as being saved;
4605 otherwise identical to
4610 (c) Copy messages to the named file and do not mark them as being saved;
4611 otherwise identical to
4616 Show the name of the current working directory, as reported by
4621 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
4622 The return status is tracked via
4627 \*(OP For unencrypted messages this command is identical to
4629 Encrypted messages are first decrypted, if possible, and then copied.
4633 \*(OP For unencrypted messages this command is identical to
4635 Encrypted messages are first decrypted, if possible, and then copied.
4640 .It Ic define , undefine
4641 The latter command deletes the given macro, the special name
4643 will discard all existing macros.
4644 Deletion of (a) macro(s) can be performed from within running (a)
4645 macro(s), including self-deletion.
4646 Without arguments the former command prints the current list of macros,
4647 including their content, otherwise it it defines a macro, replacing an
4648 existing one of the same name as applicable.
4651 A defined macro can be invoked explicitly by using the
4656 commands, or implicitly if a macro hook is triggered, e.g., a
4658 Execution of a macro body can be stopped from within by calling
4662 Temporary macro block-scope variables can be created or deleted with the
4664 command modifier in conjunction with the commands
4669 To enforce unrolling of changes made to (global)
4670 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
4673 can be used instead; its covered scope depends on how (i.e.,
4675 normal macro, folder hook, hook,
4677 switch) the macro is invoked.
4682 ed macro, the given positional parameters are implicitly local
4683 to the macro's scope, and may be accessed via the variables
4689 and any other positive unsigned decimal number less than or equal to
4691 Positional parameters can be
4693 ed, or become completely replaced, removed etc. via
4696 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4706 echo Parameter 1 of ${#} is ${1}, all: ${*} / ${@}
4709 call exmac Hello macro exmac!
4710 echo ${?}/${!}/${^ERRNAME}
4716 .It Ic delete , undelete
4717 (d, u) Marks the given message list as being or not being
4719 respectively; if no argument has been specified then the usual search
4720 for a visible message is performed, as documented for
4721 .Sx "Message list arguments" ,
4722 showing only the next input prompt if the search fails.
4723 Deleted messages will neither be saved in the
4725 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
4727 nor will they be available for most other commands.
4730 variable is set, the new
4732 or the last message restored, respectively, is automatically
4742 Superseded by the multiplexer
4748 Delete the given messages and automatically
4752 if one exists, regardless of the setting of
4759 up or down by one message when given
4763 argument, respectively.
4767 .It Ic draft , undraft
4768 Take message lists and mark each given message as being draft, or not
4769 being draft, respectively, as documented in the section
4770 .Sx "Message states" .
4774 \*(NQ (ec) Echoes arguments to standard output and writes a trailing
4775 newline, whereas the otherwise identical
4778 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
4780 .Sx "Filename transformations"
4781 are applied to the expanded arguments.
4782 This command also supports
4785 .Sx "Command modifiers" ,
4786 and manages the error number
4788 if data is stored in a variable then the return value reflects the
4789 length of the result string in case of success and is
4797 except that is echoes to standard error.
4800 In interactive sessions the \*(OPal message ring queue for
4802 will be used instead, if available and
4810 but does not write or store a trailing newline.
4816 but does not write or store a trailing newline.
4820 (e) Point the text editor (as defined in
4822 at each message from the given list in turn.
4823 Modified contents are discarded unless the
4825 variable is set, and are not used unless the mailbox can be written to
4826 and the editor returns a successful exit status.
4831 .Ic if Ns \0/\: Ic elif Ns \0/\: Ic else Ns \0/\: Ic endif
4832 conditional \(em if the condition of a preceding
4834 was false, check the following condition and execute the following block
4835 if it evaluates true.
4840 .Ic if Ns \0/\: Ic elif Ns \0/\: Ic else Ns \0/\: Ic endif
4841 conditional \(em if none of the conditions of the preceding
4845 commands was true, the
4851 (en) Marks the end of an
4852 .Ic if Ns \0/\: Ic elif Ns \0/\: Ic else Ns \0/\: Ic endif
4853 conditional execution block.
4858 \*(NQ \*(UA has a strict notion about which variables are
4859 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
4860 and which are managed in the program
4862 Since some of the latter are a vivid part of \*(UAs functioning,
4863 however, they are transparently integrated into the normal handling of
4864 internal variables via
4868 To integrate other environment variables of choice into this
4869 transparent handling, and also to export internal variables into the
4870 process environment where they normally are not, a
4872 needs to become established with this command, as in, e.g.,
4875 .Dl environ link PERL5LIB TZ
4878 Afterwards changing such variables with
4880 will cause automatic updates of the program environment, and therefore
4881 be inherited by newly created child processes.
4882 Sufficient system support provided (it was in BSD as early as 1987, and
4883 is standardized since Y2K) removing such variables with
4885 will remove them also from the program environment, but in any way
4886 the knowledge they ever have been
4889 Note that this implies that
4891 may cause loss of such links.
4896 will remove an existing link, but leaves the variables as such intact.
4897 Additionally the subcommands
4901 are provided, which work exactly the same as the documented commands
4905 but (additionally un)link the variable(s) with the program environment
4906 and thus immediately export them to, or remove them from (if possible),
4907 respectively, the program environment.
4912 \*(OP Since \*(UA uses the console as a user interface it can happen
4913 that messages scroll by too fast to become recognized.
4914 An error message ring queue is available which stores duplicates of any
4915 error message and notifies the user in interactive sessions whenever
4916 a new error has occurred.
4917 The queue is finite: if its maximum size is reached any new message
4918 replaces the eldest.
4921 can be used to manage this message queue: if given
4923 or no argument the queue will be displayed and cleared,
4925 will only clear all messages from the queue.
4929 \*(NQ Construct a command by concatenating the arguments, separated with
4930 a single space character, and then evaluate the result.
4931 This command passes through the exit status
4935 of the evaluated command; also see
4937 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4948 call yyy '\ecall xxx' "b\e$'\et'u ' "
4956 (ex or x) Exit from \*(UA without changing the active mailbox and skip
4957 any saving of messages in the
4959 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
4961 as well as a possibly tracked line editor
4963 The optional status number argument will be passed through to
4965 \*(ID For now it can happen that the given status will be overwritten,
4966 later this will only occur if a later error needs to be reported onto an
4967 otherwise success indicating status.
4973 but open the mailbox read-only.
4978 (fi) The file command switches to a new mailbox.
4979 Without arguments it shows status information of the current mailbox.
4980 If an argument is given, it will write out changes (such as deletions)
4981 the user has made, open a new mailbox, update the internal variables
4982 .Va mailbox-resolved
4984 .Va mailbox-display ,
4985 and optionally display a summary of
4992 .Sx "Filename transformations"
4993 will be applied to the
4997 prefixes are, i.e., URL syntax is understood, e.g.,
4998 .Ql maildir:///tmp/mdirbox :
4999 if a protocol prefix is used the mailbox type is fixated and neither
5000 the auto-detection (read on) nor the
5003 \*(OPally URLs can also be used to access network resources, which may
5004 be accessed securely via
5005 .Sx "Encrypted network communication"
5006 if so supported, and it is possible to proxy all network traffic over
5007 a SOCKS5 server given via
5011 .Dl \*(IN protocol://[user[:password]@]host[:port][/path]
5012 .Dl \*(OU protocol://[user@]host[:port][/path]
5015 \*(OPally supported network protocols are
5019 (POP3 with SSL/TLS encrypted transport),
5025 part is valid only for IMAP; there it defaults to
5027 Network URLs require a special encoding as documented in the section
5028 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
5031 If the resulting file protocol (MBOX database)
5033 is located on a local filesystem then the list of all registered
5035 s is traversed in order to see whether a transparent intermediate
5036 conversion step is necessary to handle the given mailbox, in which case
5037 \*(UA will use the found hook to load and save data into and from
5038 a temporary file, respectively.
5039 Changing hooks will not affect already opened mailboxes.
5040 For example, the following creates hooks for the
5042 compression tool and a combined compressed and encrypted format:
5044 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5046 gzip 'gzip -dc' 'gzip -c' \e
5047 zst.pgp 'gpg -d | zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc | gpg -e'
5051 MBOX database files are generally locked during file operations in order
5052 to avoid inconsistencies due to concurrent modifications.
5053 \*(OPal Mailbox files which \*(UA treats as the system
5058 .Sx "primary system mailbox" Ns
5059 es in general will also be protected by so-called dotlock files, the
5060 traditional way of mail spool file locking: for any file
5064 will be created for the duration of the synchronization \(em
5065 as necessary a privilege-separated dotlock child process will be used
5066 to accommodate for necessary privilege adjustments in order to create
5067 the dotlock file in the same directory
5068 and with the same user and group identities as the file of interest.
5069 Possible dotlock creation errors can be catched by setting
5070 .Va dotlock-ignore-error .
5073 \*(UA by default uses tolerant POSIX rules when reading MBOX database
5074 files, but it will detect invalid message boundaries in this mode and
5075 complain (even more with
5077 if any is seen: in this case
5079 can be used to create a valid MBOX database from the invalid input.
5082 If no protocol has been fixated, and
5084 refers to a directory with the subdirectories
5089 then it is treated as a folder in
5092 The maildir format stores each message in its own file, and has been
5093 designed so that file locking is not necessary when reading or writing
5097 \*(ID If no protocol has been fixated and no existing file has
5098 been found, the variable
5100 controls the format of mailboxes yet to be created.
5105 .It Ic filetype , unfiletype
5106 \*(NQ Define or list, and remove, respectively, file handler hooks,
5107 which provide (shell) commands that enable \*(UA to load and save MBOX
5108 files from and to files with the registered file extensions;
5109 it will use an intermediate temporary file to store the plain data.
5110 The latter command removes the hooks for all given extensions,
5112 will remove all existing handlers.
5114 When used without arguments the former shows a list of all currently
5115 defined file hooks, with one argument the expansion of the given alias.
5116 Otherwise three arguments are expected, the first specifying the file
5117 extension for which the hook is meant, and the second and third defining
5118 the load- and save commands, respectively, to deal with the file type,
5119 both of which must read from standard input and write to standard
5121 Changing hooks will not affect already opened mailboxes (\*(ID except below).
5122 \*(ID For now too much work is done, and files are oftened read in twice
5123 where once would be sufficient: this can cause problems if a filetype is
5124 changed while such a file is opened; this was already so with the
5125 built-in support of .gz etc. in Heirloom, and will vanish in v15.
5126 \*(ID For now all handler strings are passed to the
5127 .Ev SHELL for evaluation purposes; in the future a
5129 prefix to load and save commands may mean to bypass this shell instance:
5130 placing a leading space will avoid any possible misinterpretations.
5131 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5132 ? filetype bz2 'bzip2 -dc' 'bzip2 -zc' \e
5133 gz 'gzip -dc' 'gzip -c' xz 'xz -dc' 'xz -zc' \e
5134 zst 'zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc' \e
5135 zst.pgp 'gpg -d | zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc | gpg -e'
5136 ? set record=+sent.zst.pgp
5141 .It Ic flag , unflag
5142 Take message lists and mark the messages as being flagged, or not being
5143 flagged, respectively, for urgent/special attention.
5145 .Sx "Message states" .
5154 With no arguments, list the names of the folders in the folder directory.
5155 With an existing folder as an argument,
5156 lists the names of folders below the named folder.
5162 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
5163 recipient's address (instead of in
5170 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
5171 recipient's address (instead of in
5178 but responds to all recipients regardless of the
5183 .It Ic followupsender
5186 but responds to the sender only regardless of the
5194 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the
5195 recipient's address (instead of in
5200 Takes a message and the address of a recipient
5201 and forwards the message to him.
5202 The text of the original message is included in the new one,
5203 with the value of the
5204 .Va forward-inject-head
5205 variable preceding it.
5206 To filter the included header fields to the desired subset use the
5208 slot of the white- and blacklisting command
5210 Only the first part of a multipart message is included unless
5211 .Va forward-as-attachment ,
5212 and recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names
5213 etc. unless the internal variable
5217 This may generate the errors
5218 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
5219 if no receiver has been specified,
5221 if some addressees where rejected by
5224 if no applicable messages have been given,
5226 if multiple messages have been specified,
5228 if an I/O error occurs,
5230 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
5236 (f) Takes a list of message specifications and displays a summary of
5237 their message headers, exactly as via
5239 making the first message of the result the new
5241 (the last message if
5244 An alias of this command is
5247 .Sx "Specifying messages" .
5258 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
5262 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
5265 .It Ic ghost , unghost
5268 .Ic uncommandalias .
5272 .It Ic headerpick , unheaderpick
5273 \*(NQ Multiplexer command to manage white- and blacklisting
5274 selections of header fields for a variety of applications.
5275 Without arguments the set of contexts that have settings is displayed.
5276 When given arguments, the first argument is the context to which the
5277 command applies, one of (case-insensitive)
5279 for display purposes (via, e.g.,
5282 for selecting which headers shall be stored persistently when
5288 ing messages (note that MIME related etc. header fields should not be
5289 ignored in order to not destroy usability of the message in this case),
5291 for stripping down messages when
5293 ing message (has no effect if
5294 .Va forward-as-attachment
5297 for defining user-defined set of fields for the command
5300 The current settings of the given context are displayed if it is the
5302 A second argument denotes the type of restriction that is to be chosen,
5303 it may be (a case-insensitive prefix of)
5307 for white- and blacklisting purposes, respectively.
5308 Establishing a whitelist suppresses inspection of the corresponding
5311 If no further argument is given the current settings of the given type
5312 will be displayed, otherwise the remaining arguments specify header
5313 fields, which \*(OPally may be given as regular expressions, to be added
5315 The special wildcard field (asterisk,
5317 will establish a (fast) shorthand setting which covers all fields.
5319 The latter command always takes three or more arguments and can be used
5320 to remove selections, i.e., from the given context, the given type of
5321 list, all the given headers will be removed, the special argument
5323 will remove all headers.
5327 (h) Show the current group of headers, the size of which depends on
5330 and the style of which can be adjusted with the variable
5332 If a message-specification is given the group of headers containing the
5333 first message therein is shown and the message at the top of the screen
5336 the last message is targeted if
5347 \*(OP Without arguments or when given
5349 all history entries are shown (this mode also supports a more
5353 will replace the list of entries with the content of
5357 will dump the current list to said file, replacing former content.
5359 will delete all history entries.
5360 The argument can also be a signed decimal
5362 which will select and evaluate the respective history entry, and move it
5363 to the top of the history; a negative number is used as an offset to the
5364 current command, e.g.,
5366 will select the last command, the history top.
5368 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor"
5369 for more on this topic.
5375 Takes a message list and marks each message therein to be saved in the
5380 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
5382 Does not override the
5385 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command, because a
5387 command issued after
5389 will display the following message, not the current one.
5394 (i) Part of the nestable
5395 .Ic if Ns \0/\: Ic elif Ns \0/\: Ic else Ns \0/\: Ic endif
5396 conditional execution construct \(em if the given condition is true then
5397 the encapsulated block is executed.
5398 The POSIX standards supports the (case-insensitive) conditions
5403 end, all remaining conditions are non-portable extensions.
5404 \*(ID These commands do not yet use
5405 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
5406 and therefore do not know about input tokens, so that syntax
5407 elements have to be surrounded by whitespace; in v15 \*(UA will inspect
5408 all conditions bracket group wise and consider the tokens, representing
5409 values and operators, therein, which also means that variables will
5410 already have been expanded at that time (just like in the shell).
5412 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5421 The (case-insensitive) condition
5423 erminal will evaluate to true if the standard input is a terminal, i.e.,
5424 in interactive sessions.
5425 Another condition can be any boolean value (see the section
5426 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
5427 for textual boolean representations) to mark an enwrapped block as
5430 .Dq always execute .
5431 (It shall be remarked that a faulty condition skips all branches until
5436 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
5437 will be used, and this command will simply interpret expanded tokens.)
5438 It is possible to check
5439 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
5442 variables for existence or compare their expansion against a user given
5443 value or another variable by using the
5445 .Pf ( Dq variable next )
5446 conditional trigger character;
5447 a variable on the right hand side may be signalled using the same
5449 Variable names may be enclosed in a pair of matching braces.
5450 When this mode has been triggered, several operators are available:
5453 Integer operators treat the arguments on the left and right hand side of
5454 the operator as integral numbers and compare them arithmetically.
5455 It is an error if any of the operands is not a valid integer, an empty
5456 argument (which implies it had been quoted) is treated as if it were 0.
5457 Available operators are
5461 (less than or equal to),
5467 (greater than or equal to), and
5472 String data operators compare the left and right hand side according to
5473 their textual content.
5474 Unset variables are treated as the empty string.
5475 The behaviour of string operators can be adjusted by prefixing the
5476 operator with the modifier trigger commercial at
5478 followed by none to multiple modifiers: for now supported is
5480 which turns the comparison into a case-insensitive one: this is
5481 implied if no modifier follows the trigger.
5484 Available string operators are
5488 (less than or equal to),
5494 (greater than or equal to),
5498 (is substring of) and
5500 (is not substring of).
5501 By default these operators work on bytes and (therefore) do not take
5502 into account character set specifics.
5503 If the case-insensitivity modifier has been used, case is ignored
5504 according to the rules of the US-ASCII encoding, i.e., bytes are
5508 When the \*(OPal regular expression support is available, the additional
5514 They treat the right hand side as an extended regular expression that is
5515 matched according to the active locale (see
5516 .Sx "Character sets" ) ,
5517 i.e., character sets should be honoured correctly.
5520 Conditions can be joined via AND-OR lists (where the AND operator is
5522 and the OR operator is
5524 which have equal precedence and will be evaluated with left
5525 associativity, thus using the same syntax that is known for the
5527 It is also possible to form groups of conditions and lists by enclosing
5528 them in pairs of brackets
5529 .Ql [\ \&.\&.\&.\ ] ,
5530 which may be interlocked within each other, and also be joined via
5534 The results of individual conditions and entire groups may be modified
5535 via unary operators: the unary operator
5537 will reverse the result.
5539 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5540 # (This not in v15, there [ -n "$debug"]!)
5544 if [ "$ttycharset" == UTF-8 ] || \e
5545 [ "$ttycharset" @i== UTF8 ]
5546 echo *ttycharset* is UTF-8, the former case-sensitive!
5549 if [ "${t1}" == "${t2}" ]
5550 echo These two variables are equal
5552 if [ "$features" =% +regex ] && \e
5553 [ "$TERM" @i=~ "^xterm\&.*" ]
5554 echo ..in an X terminal
5556 if [ [ true ] && [ [ "${debug}" != '' ] || \e
5557 [ "$verbose" != '' ] ] ]
5560 if true && [ "$debug" != '' ] || [ "${verbose}" != '' ]
5561 echo Left associativity, as is known from the shell
5570 Superseded by the multiplexer
5575 Shows the names of all available commands, alphabetically sorted.
5576 If given any non-whitespace argument the list will be shown in the order
5577 in which command prefixes are searched.
5578 \*(OP In conjunction with a set variable
5580 additional information will be provided for each command: the argument
5581 type will be indicated, the documentation string will be shown,
5582 and the set of command flags will show up:
5584 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql NEEDS_BOX"
5586 command supports the command modifier
5589 command supports the command modifier
5592 the error number is tracked in
5595 commands needs an active mailbox, a
5597 .It Ql "ok: batch/interactive"
5598 command may only be used in interactive or
5601 .It Ql "ok: send mode"
5602 command can be used in send mode.
5603 .It Ql "not ok: compose mode"
5604 command is not available when in compose mode.
5605 .It Ql "not ok: startup"
5606 command cannot be used during program startup, e.g., while loading
5607 .Sx "Resource files" .
5608 .It Ql "ok: subprocess"
5609 command is allowed to be used when running in a subprocess instance,
5610 e.g., from within a macro that is called via
5611 .Va on-compose-splice .
5613 The command produces
5622 This command can be used to localize changes to (linked)
5625 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
5626 meaning that their state will be reverted to the former one once the
5629 Just like the command modifier
5631 which provides block-scope localization for some commands (instead),
5632 it can only be used inside of macro definition blocks introduced by
5636 The covered scope of an
5638 is left once a different account is activated, and some macros, notably
5639 .Va folder-hook Ns s ,
5640 use their own specific notion of covered scope, here it will be extended
5641 until the folder is left again.
5644 This setting stacks up: i.e., if
5646 enables change localization and calls
5648 which explicitly resets localization, then any value changes within
5650 will still be reverted when the scope of
5653 (Caveats: if in this example
5655 changes to a different
5657 which sets some variables that are already covered by localizations,
5658 their scope will be extended, and in fact leaving the
5660 will (thus) restore settings in (likely) global scope which actually
5661 were defined in a local, macro private context!)
5664 This command takes one or two arguments, the optional first one
5665 specifies an attribute that may be one of
5667 which refers to the current scope and is thus the default,
5669 which causes any macro that is being
5671 ed to be started with localization enabled by default, as well as
5673 which (if enabled) disallows any called macro to turn off localization:
5674 like this it can be ensured that once the current scope regains control,
5675 any changes made in deeper levels have been reverted.
5676 The latter two are mutually exclusive, and neither affects
5678 The (second) argument is interpreted as a boolean (string, see
5679 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" )
5680 and states whether the given attribute shall be turned on or off.
5682 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5683 define temporary_settings {
5684 set possibly_global_option1
5686 set localized_option1
5687 set localized_option2
5689 set possibly_global_option2
5696 Reply to messages that come in via known
5699 .Pf ( Ic mlsubscribe )
5700 mailing lists, or pretend to do so (see
5701 .Sx "Mailing lists" ) :
5704 functionality this will actively resort and even remove message
5705 recipients in order to generate a message that is supposed to be sent to
5707 For example it will also implicitly generate a
5708 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
5709 header if that seems useful, regardless of the setting of the variable
5711 For more documentation please refer to
5712 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
5714 This may generate the errors
5715 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
5716 if no receiver has been specified,
5718 if some addressees where rejected by
5721 if no applicable messages have been given,
5723 if an I/O error occurs,
5725 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
5728 Any error stops processing of further messages.
5734 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
5735 recipient's address (instead of in
5740 (m) Takes a (list of) recipient address(es) as (an) argument(s),
5741 or asks on standard input if none were given;
5742 then collects the remaining mail content and sends it out.
5743 Unless the internal variable
5745 is set recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names etc.
5746 For more documentation please refer to
5747 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
5749 This may generate the errors
5750 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
5751 if no receiver has been specified,
5753 if some addressees where rejected by
5756 if no applicable messages have been given,
5758 if multiple messages have been specified,
5760 if an I/O error occurs,
5762 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
5768 (mb) The given message list is to be sent to the
5770 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
5772 when \*(UA is quit; this is the default action unless the variable
5775 \*(ID This command can only be used in a
5777 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
5781 .It Ic mimetype , unmimetype
5782 Without arguments the content of the MIME type cache will displayed;
5783 a more verbose listing will be produced if either of
5788 When given arguments they will be joined, interpreted as shown in
5789 .Sx "The mime.types files"
5791 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ) ,
5792 and the resulting entry will be added (prepended) to the cache.
5793 In any event MIME type sources are loaded first as necessary \(en
5794 .Va mimetypes-load-control
5795 can be used to fine-tune which sources are actually loaded.
5797 The latter command deletes all specifications of the given MIME type, thus
5798 .Ql ? unmimetype text/plain
5799 will remove all registered specifications for the MIME type
5803 will discard all existing MIME types, just as will
5805 but which also reenables cache initialization via
5806 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
5810 .It Ic mlist , unmlist
5811 The latter command removes all given mailing-lists, the special name
5813 can be used to remove all registered lists.
5814 The former will list all currently defined mailing lists (and their
5815 attributes, if any) when used without arguments; a more verbose listing
5816 will be produced if either of
5821 Otherwise all given arguments will be added and henceforth be recognized
5823 If the \*(OPal regular expression support is available then any argument
5824 which contains any of the
5826 regular expression characters
5830 will be interpreted as one, which allows matching of many addresses with
5831 a single expression.
5834 pair of commands manages subscription attributes of mailing-lists.
5838 \*(ID Only available in interactive mode, this command allows one to
5839 display MIME parts which require external MIME handler programs to run
5840 which do not integrate in \*(UAs normal
5843 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ) .
5844 (\*(ID No syntax to directly address parts, this restriction may vanish.)
5845 The user will be asked for each non-text part of the given message in
5846 turn whether the registered handler shall be used to display the part.
5850 .It Ic mlsubscribe , unmlsubscribe
5851 The latter command removes the subscription attribute from all given
5852 mailing-lists, the special name
5854 can be used to do so for any registered list.
5855 The former will list all currently defined mailing lists which have
5856 a subscription attribute when used without arguments; a more verbose
5857 listing will be produced if either of
5862 Otherwise this attribute will be set for all given mailing lists,
5863 newly creating them as necessary (as via
5872 but moves the messages to a file named after the local part of the
5873 sender address of the first message (instead of in
5880 but marks the messages for deletion if they were transferred
5887 but also displays header fields which would not pass the
5889 selection, and all MIME parts.
5897 on the given messages, even in non-interactive mode and as long as the
5898 standard output is a terminal.
5904 \*(OP When used without arguments or if
5906 has been given the content of the
5908 cache is shown, loading it first as necessary.
5911 then the cache will only be initialized and
5913 will remove its contents.
5914 Note that \*(UA will try to load the file only once, use
5915 .Ql Ic \&\&netrc Ns \:\0\:clear
5916 to unlock further attempts.
5921 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ;
5923 .Sx "The .netrc file"
5924 documents the file format in detail.
5928 Checks for new mail in the current folder without committing any changes
5930 If new mail is present, a message is shown.
5934 the headers of each new message are also shown.
5935 This command is not available for all mailbox types.
5943 Goes to the next message in sequence and types it.
5944 With an argument list, types the next matching message.
5958 If the current folder is accessed via a network connection, a
5960 command is sent, otherwise no operation is performed.
5966 but also displays header fields which would not pass the
5968 selection, and all MIME parts.
5976 on the given messages, even in non-interactive mode and as long as the
5977 standard output is a terminal.
5985 but also pipes header fields which would not pass the
5987 selection, and all parts of MIME
5988 .Ql multipart/alternative
5993 (pi) Takes a message list and a shell command
5994 and pipes the messages through the command.
5995 Without an argument the current message is piped through the command
6002 every message is followed by a formfeed character.
6023 (q) Terminates the session, saving all undeleted, unsaved messages in
6026 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
6028 preserving all messages marked with
6032 or never referenced in the system
6034 and removing all other messages from the
6036 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
6037 If new mail has arrived during the session,
6039 .Dq You have new mail
6041 If given while editing a mailbox file with the command line option
6043 then the edit file is rewritten.
6044 A return to the shell is effected,
6045 unless the rewrite of edit file fails,
6046 in which case the user can escape with the exit command.
6047 The optional status number argument will be passed through to
6049 \*(ID For now it can happen that the given status will be overwritten,
6050 later this will only occur if a later error needs to be reported onto an
6051 otherwise success indicating status.
6055 \*(NQ Read a line from standard input, or the channel set active via
6057 and assign the data, which will be split as indicated by
6059 to the given variables.
6060 The variable names are checked by the same rules as documented for
6062 and the same error codes will be seen in
6066 indicates the number of bytes read, it will be
6068 with the error number
6072 in case of I/O errors, or
6075 If there are more fields than variables, assigns successive fields to the
6076 last given variable.
6077 If there are less fields than variables, assigns the empty string to the
6079 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6082 ? echo "<$a> <$b> <$c>"
6084 ? wysh set ifs=:; read a b c;unset ifs
6085 hey2.0,:"'you ",:world!:mars.:
6086 ? echo $?/$^ERRNAME / <$a><$b><$c>
6087 0/NONE / <hey2.0,><"'you ",><world!:mars.:><><>
6092 \*(NQ Read anything from standard input, or the channel set active via
6094 and assign the data to the given variable.
6095 The variable name is checked by the same rules as documented for
6097 and the same error codes will be seen in
6101 indicates the number of bytes read, it will be
6103 with the error number
6107 in case of I/O errors, or
6110 \*(ID The input data length is restricted to 31-bits.
6114 \*(NQ Manages input channels for
6118 to be used to avoid complicated or impracticable code, like calling
6120 from within a macro in non-interactive mode.
6121 Without arguments, or when the first argument is
6123 a listing of all known channels is printed.
6124 Channels can otherwise be
6126 d, and existing channels can be
6130 d by giving the string used for creation.
6132 The channel name is expected to be a file descriptor number, or,
6133 if parsing the numeric fails, an input file name that undergoes
6134 .Sx "Filename transformations" .
6135 E.g. (this example requires a modern shell):
6136 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6137 $ LC_ALL=C printf 'echon "hey, "\enread a\enyou\enecho $a' |\e
6140 $ LC_ALL=C printf 'echon "hey, "\enread a\enecho $a' |\e
6141 LC_ALL=C 6<<< 'you' \*(uA -R#X'readctl create 6'
6155 Removes the named files or directories.
6156 .Sx "Filename transformations"
6157 including shell pathname wildcard pattern expansions
6159 are performed on the arguments.
6160 If a name refer to a mailbox, e.g., a Maildir mailbox, then a mailbox
6161 type specific removal will be performed, deleting the complete mailbox.
6162 The user is asked for confirmation in interactive mode.
6166 Takes the name of an existing folder
6167 and the name for the new folder
6168 and renames the first to the second one.
6169 .Sx "Filename transformations"
6170 including shell pathname wildcard pattern expansions
6172 are performed on both arguments.
6173 Both folders must be of the same type.
6177 (R) Replies to only the sender of each message of the given message
6178 list, by using the first message as the template to quote, for the
6182 will exchange this command with
6184 Unless the internal variable
6186 is set the recipient address will be stripped from comments, names etc.
6188 headers will be inspected if
6192 This may generate the errors
6193 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
6194 if no receiver has been specified,
6196 if some addressees where rejected by
6199 if no applicable messages have been given,
6201 if an I/O error occurs,
6203 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
6209 (r) Take a message and group-responds to it by addressing the sender
6210 and all recipients, subject to
6214 .Va followup-to-honour ,
6217 .Va recipients-in-cc
6218 influence response behaviour.
6219 Unless the internal variable
6221 is set recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names etc.
6231 offers special support for replying to mailing lists.
6232 For more documentation please refer to
6233 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
6235 This may generate the errors
6236 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
6237 if no receiver has been specified,
6239 if some addressees where rejected by
6242 if no applicable messages have been given,
6244 if an I/O error occurs,
6246 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
6249 Any error stops processing of further messages.
6255 but initiates a group-reply regardless of the value of
6262 but responds to the sender only regardless of the value of
6269 but does not add any header lines.
6270 This is not a way to hide the sender's identity,
6271 but useful for sending a message again to the same recipients.
6275 Takes a list of messages and a user name
6276 and sends each message to the named user.
6278 and related header fields are prepended to the new copy of the message.
6281 is only performed if
6285 This may generate the errors
6286 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
6287 if no receiver has been specified,
6289 if some addressees where rejected by
6292 if no applicable messages have been given,
6294 if an I/O error occurs,
6296 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
6299 Any error stops processing of further messages.
6317 .It Ic respondsender
6323 (ret) Superseded by the multiplexer
6328 Only available inside the scope of a
6332 this will stop evaluation of any further macro content, and return
6333 execution control to the caller.
6334 The two optional parameters must be specified as positive decimal
6335 numbers and default to the value 0:
6336 the first argument specifies the signed 32-bit return value (stored in
6338 \*(ID and later extended to signed 64-bit),
6339 the second the signed 32-bit error number (stored in
6343 a non-0 exit status may cause the program to exit.
6349 but saves the messages in a file named after the local part of the
6350 sender of the first message instead of (in
6352 and) taking a filename argument; the variable
6354 is inspected to decide on the actual storage location.
6358 (s) Takes a message list and a filename and appends each message in turn
6359 to the end of the file.
6360 .Sx "Filename transformations"
6361 including shell pathname wildcard pattern expansions
6363 is performed on the filename.
6364 If no filename is given, the
6366 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
6369 The filename in quotes, followed by the generated character count
6370 is echoed on the user's terminal.
6373 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
6374 the messages are marked for deletion.
6375 .Sx "Filename transformations"
6377 To filter the saved header fields to the desired subset use the
6379 slot of the white- and blacklisting command
6383 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6387 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6391 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6396 Takes a message specification (list) and displays a header summary of
6397 all matching messages, as via
6399 This command is an alias of
6402 .Sx "Specifying messages" .
6406 Takes a message list and marks all messages as having been read.
6412 (se, \*(NQ uns) The latter command will delete all given global
6413 variables, or only block-scope local ones if the
6415 command modifier has been used.
6416 The former, when used without arguments, will show all
6417 currently known variables, being more verbose if either of
6422 Remarks: this list mode will not automatically link-in known
6424 variables, but only explicit addressing will, e.g., via
6426 using a variable in an
6428 condition or a string passed to
6432 ting, as well as some program-internal use cases.
6435 Otherwise the given variables (and arguments) are set or adjusted.
6436 Arguments are of the form
6438 (no space before or after
6442 if there is no value, i.e., a boolean variable.
6443 If a name begins with
6447 the effect is the same as invoking the
6449 command with the remaining part of the variable
6450 .Pf ( Ql unset save ) .
6451 \*(ID In conjunction with the
6453 .Pf (or\0 Cm local )
6455 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
6456 can be used to quote arguments as necessary.
6457 \*(ID Otherwise quotation marks may be placed around any part of the
6458 assignment statement to quote blanks or tabs.
6461 When operating in global scope any
6463 that is known to map to an environment variable will automatically cause
6464 updates in the program environment (unsetting a variable in the
6465 environment requires corresponding system support) \(em use the command
6467 for further environmental control.
6468 If the command modifier
6470 has been used to alter the command to work in block-scope all variables
6471 have values (may they be empty), and creation of names which shadow
6472 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
6473 is actively prevented (\*(ID shadowing of linked
6475 variables and free-form versions of variable chains is not yet detected).
6480 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
6484 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6485 ? wysh set indentprefix=' -> '
6486 ? wysh set atab=$'\t' aspace=' ' zero=0
6492 Apply shell quoting rules to the given raw-data arguments.
6496 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
6497 The first argument specifies the operation:
6501 cause shell quoting to be applied to the remains of the line, and
6502 expanded away thereof, respectively.
6503 If the former is prefixed with a plus-sign, the quoted result will not
6504 be roundtrip enabled, and thus can be decoded only in the very same
6505 environment that was used to perform the encode; also see
6506 .Cd mle-quote-rndtrip .
6507 If the coding operation fails the error number
6510 .Va ^ERR Ns -CANCELED ,
6511 and the unmodified input is used as the result; the error number may
6512 change again due to output or result storage errors.
6516 \*(NQ (sh) Invokes an interactive version of the shell,
6517 and returns its exit status.
6521 .It Ic shortcut , unshortcut
6522 Without arguments the list of all currently defined shortcuts is
6523 shown, with one argument the expansion of the given shortcut.
6524 Otherwise all given arguments are treated as pairs of shortcuts and
6525 their expansions, creating new or changing already existing shortcuts,
6527 The latter command will remove all given shortcuts, the special name
6529 will remove all registered shortcuts.
6533 \*(NQ Shift the positional parameter stack (starting at
6535 by the given number (which must be a positive decimal),
6536 or 1 if no argument has been given.
6537 It is an error if the value exceeds the number of positional parameters.
6538 If the given number is 0, no action is performed, successfully.
6539 The stack as such can be managed via
6541 Note this command will fail in
6543 and hook macros unless the positional parameter stack has been
6544 explicitly created in the current context via
6551 but performs neither MIME decoding nor decryption, so that the raw
6552 message text is shown.
6556 (si) Shows the size in characters of each message of the given
6561 \*(NQ Sleep for the specified number of seconds (and optionally
6562 milliseconds), by default interruptably.
6563 If a third argument is given the sleep will be uninterruptible,
6564 otherwise the error number
6568 if the sleep has been interrupted.
6569 The command will fail and the error number will be
6570 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW
6571 if the given duration(s) overflow the time datatype, and
6573 if the given durations are no valid integers.
6578 .It Ic sort , unsort
6579 The latter command disables sorted or threaded mode, returns to normal
6580 message order and, if the
6583 displays a header summary.
6584 The former command shows the current sorting criterion when used without
6585 an argument, but creates a sorted representation of the current folder
6586 otherwise, and changes the
6588 command and the addressing modes such that they refer to messages in
6590 Message numbers are the same as in regular mode.
6594 a header summary in the new order is also displayed.
6595 Automatic folder sorting can be enabled by setting the
6597 variable, as in, e.g.,
6598 .Ql set autosort=thread .
6599 Possible sorting criterions are:
6602 .Bl -tag -compact -width "subject"
6604 Sort the messages by their
6606 field, that is by the time they were sent.
6608 Sort messages by the value of their
6610 field, that is by the address of the sender.
6613 variable is set, the sender's real name (if any) is used.
6615 Sort the messages by their size.
6617 \*(OP Sort the message by their spam score, as has been classified by
6620 Sort the messages by their message status.
6622 Sort the messages by their subject.
6624 Create a threaded display.
6626 Sort messages by the value of their
6628 field, that is by the address of the recipient.
6631 variable is set, the recipient's real name (if any) is used.
6637 \*(NQ (so) The source command reads commands from the given file.
6638 .Sx "Filename transformations"
6640 If the given expanded argument ends with a vertical bar
6642 then the argument will instead be interpreted as a shell command and
6643 \*(UA will read the output generated by it.
6644 Dependent on the settings of
6648 and also dependent on whether the command modifier
6650 had been used, encountering errors will stop sourcing of the given input.
6653 cannot be used from within macros that execute as
6654 .Va folder-hook Ns s
6657 i.e., it can only be called from macros that were
6662 \*(NQ The difference to
6664 (beside not supporting pipe syntax aka shell command input) is that
6665 this command will not generate an error nor warn if the given file
6666 argument cannot be opened successfully.
6670 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and clears their
6676 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and causes the
6678 to forget it has ever used them to train its Bayesian filter.
6679 Unless otherwise noted the
6681 flag of the message is inspected to chose whether a message shall be
6689 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and informs the Bayesian filter of the
6693 This also clears the
6695 flag of the messages in question.
6699 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and rates them using the configured
6700 .Va spam-interface ,
6701 without modifying the messages, but setting their
6703 flag as appropriate; because the spam rating headers are lost the rate
6704 will be forgotten once the mailbox is left.
6705 Refer to the manual section
6707 for the complete picture of spam handling in \*(UA.
6711 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and sets their
6717 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and informs the Bayesian filter of the
6723 flag of the messages in question.
6739 slot for white- and blacklisting header fields.
6743 (to) Takes a message list and types out the first
6745 lines of each message on the users' terminal.
6746 Unless a special selection has been established for the
6750 command, the only header fields that are displayed are
6761 It is possible to apply compression to what is displayed by setting
6763 Messages are decrypted and converted to the terminal character set
6768 (tou) Takes a message list and marks the messages for saving in the
6770 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
6772 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command,
6775 command will display the following message instead of the current one.
6781 but also displays header fields which would not pass the
6783 selection, and all visualizable parts of MIME
6784 .Ql multipart/alternative
6789 (t) Takes a message list and types out each message on the users terminal.
6790 The display of message headers is selectable via
6792 For MIME multipart messages, all parts with a content type of
6794 all parts which have a registered MIME type handler (see
6795 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" )
6796 which produces plain text output, and all
6798 parts are shown, others are hidden except for their headers.
6799 Messages are decrypted and converted to the terminal character set
6803 can be used to display parts which are not displayable as plain text.
6846 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6850 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6855 Superseded by the multiplexer
6866 .It Ic unmlsubscribe
6877 Takes a message list and marks each message as not having been read.
6881 Superseded by the multiplexer
6885 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6889 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6911 Perform URL percent codec operations on the raw-data argument, rather
6912 according to RFC 3986.
6916 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) ,
6917 and manages the error number
6919 This is a character set agnostic and thus locale dependent operation,
6920 and it may decode bytes which are invalid in the current
6922 \*(ID This command does not know about URLs beside that.
6924 The first argument specifies the operation:
6928 perform plain URL percent en- and decoding, respectively.
6932 perform a slightly modified operation which should be better for
6933 pathnames: it does not allow a tilde
6935 and will neither accept hyphen-minus
6939 as an initial character.
6940 The remains of the line form the URL data which is to be converted.
6941 If the coding operation fails the error number
6944 .Va ^ERR Ns -CANCELED ,
6945 and the unmodified input is used as the result; the error number may
6946 change again due to output or result storage errors.
6950 \*(NQ Edit the values of or create the given variable(s) in the
6952 Boolean variables cannot be edited, and variables can also not be
6958 \*(NQ This command produces the same output as the listing mode of
6962 ity adjustments, but only for the given variables.
6966 \*(OP Takes a message list and verifies each message.
6967 If a message is not a S/MIME signed message,
6968 verification will fail for it.
6969 The verification process checks if the message was signed using a valid
6971 if the message sender's email address matches one of those contained
6972 within the certificate,
6973 and if the message content has been altered.
6981 of \*(UA, as well as the build and running system environment.
6985 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
6990 \*(NQ Evaluate arguments according to a given operator.
6991 This is a multiplexer command which can be used to perform signed 64-bit
6992 numeric calculations as well as byte string and string operations.
6993 It uses polish notation, i.e., the operator is the first argument and
6994 defines the number and type, and the meaning of the remaining arguments.
6995 An empty argument is replaced with a 0 if a number is expected.
6999 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
7002 The result that is shown in case of errors is always
7004 for usage errors and numeric operations, and the empty string for byte
7005 string and string operations;
7006 if the latter two fail to provide result data for
7008 errors, e.g., when a search operation failed, they also set the
7011 .Va ^ERR Ns -NODATA .
7012 Except when otherwise noted numeric arguments are parsed as signed 64-bit
7013 numbers, and errors will be reported in the error number
7015 as the numeric error
7016 .Va ^ERR Ns -RANGE .
7019 Numeric operations work on one or two signed 64-bit integers.
7020 Numbers prefixed with
7024 are interpreted as hexadecimal (base 16) numbers, whereas
7026 indicates octal (base 8), and
7030 denote binary (base 2) numbers.
7031 It is possible to use any base in between 2 and 36, inclusive, with the
7033 notation, where the base is given as an unsigned decimal number, e.g.,
7035 is a different way of specifying a hexadecimal number.
7036 Unsigned interpretation of a number can be enforced by prefixing a
7038 (case-insensitively), e.g.,
7040 this is not necessary for power-of-two bases (2, 4, 8, 16 and 32),
7041 which will be interpreted as unsigned by default, but it still makes
7042 a difference regarding overflow detection and overflow constant.
7043 It is possible to enforce signed interpretation by (instead) prefixing a
7045 (case-insensitively).
7048 One integer is expected by assignment (equals sign
7050 which does nothing but parsing the argument, thus detecting validity and
7051 possible overflow conditions, and unary not (tilde
7053 which creates the bitwise complement.
7054 Two integers are used by addition (plus sign
7056 subtraction (hyphen-minus
7058 multiplication (asterisk
7062 and modulo (percent sign
7064 as well as for the bitwise operators logical or (vertical bar
7067 bitwise and (ampersand
7070 bitwise xor (circumflex
7072 the bitwise signed left- and right shifts
7075 as well as for the unsigned right shift
7079 Another numeric operation is
7081 which takes a number base in between 2 and 36, inclusive, and will act
7082 on the second number given just the same as what equals sign
7084 does, but the number result will be formatted in the base given.
7087 All numeric operators can be prefixed with a commercial at
7091 this will turn the operation into a saturated one, which means that
7092 overflow errors and division and modulo by zero are no longer reported
7093 via the exit status, but the result will linger at the minimum or
7094 maximum possible value, instead of overflowing (or trapping).
7095 This is true also for the argument parse step.
7096 For the bitwise shifts, the saturated maximum is 63.
7097 Any caught overflow will be reported via the error number
7100 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW .
7101 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7102 ? vexpr @- +1 -9223372036854775808
7103 ? echo $?/$!/$^ERRNAME
7107 Character set agnostic string functions have no notion of locale
7108 settings and character sets.
7110 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm random"
7113 .Sx "Filename transformations"
7116 Generates a random string of the given length, or of
7118 bytes (a constant from
7120 if the value 0 is given; the random string will be base64url encoded
7121 according to RFC 4648, and thus be usable as a (portable) filename.
7125 Byte string operations work on 8-bit bytes and have no notion of locale
7126 settings and character sets, effectively assuming ASCII data.
7129 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm length"
7131 Queries the length of the given argument.
7134 Calculates the Chris Torek hash of the given argument.
7137 Byte-searches in the first for the second argument.
7138 Shows the resulting 0-based offset shall it have been found.
7143 but works case-insensitively according to the rules of the ASCII
7147 Creates a substring of its first argument.
7148 The second argument is the 0-based starting offset, a negative one
7149 counts from the end;
7150 the optional third argument specifies the length of the desired result,
7151 a negative length leaves off the given number of bytes at the end of the
7152 original string, by default the entire string is used;
7153 this operation tries to work around faulty arguments (set
7155 for error logs), but reports them via the error number
7158 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW .
7161 Trim away whitespace characters from both ends of the argument.
7164 Trim away whitespace characters from the begin of the argument.
7167 Trim away whitespace characters from the end of the argument.
7172 String operations work, sufficient support provided, according to the
7173 active user's locale encoding and character set (see
7174 .Sx "Character sets" ) .
7177 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm regex"
7179 (One-way) Converts the argument to something safely printable on the
7183 \*(OP A string operation that will try to match the first argument with
7184 the regular expression given as the second argument.
7185 If the optional third argument has been given then instead of showing
7186 the match offset a replacement operation is performed: the third
7187 argument is treated as if specified within dollar-single-quote (see
7188 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ) ,
7189 and any occurrence of a positional parameter, e.g.,
7191 is replaced by the corresponding match group of the regular expression:
7192 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7193 ? vput vexpr res regex bananarama \e
7194 (.*)NanA(.*) '\e${1}au\e$2'
7195 ? echo $?/$!/$^ERRNAME: $res
7199 On otherwise identical case-insensitive equivalent to
7201 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7202 ? vput vexpr res ire bananarama \e
7203 (.*)NanA(.*) '\e${1}au\e$2'
7204 ? echo $?/$!/$^ERRNAME: $res
7211 \*(NQ Manage the positional parameter stack (see
7215 If the first argument is
7217 then the positional parameter stack of the current context, or the
7218 global one, if there is none, is cleared.
7221 then the remaining arguments will be used to (re)create the stack,
7222 if the parameter stack size limit is excessed an
7223 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW
7227 If the first argument is
7229 a round-trip capable representation of the stack contents is created,
7230 with each quoted parameter separated from each other with the first
7233 and followed by the first character of
7235 if that is not empty and not identical to the first.
7236 If that results in no separation at all a
7242 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
7243 I.e., the subcommands
7247 can be used (in conjunction with
7249 to (re)create an argument stack from and to a single variable losslessly.
7251 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7252 ? vpospar set hey, "'you ", world!
7253 ? echo $#: <${1}><${2}><${3}>
7254 ? vput vpospar x quote
7256 ? echo $#: <${1}><${2}><${3}>
7257 ? eval vpospar set ${x}
7258 ? echo $#: <${1}><${2}><${3}>
7264 (v) Takes a message list and invokes the display editor on each message.
7265 Modified contents are discarded unless the
7267 variable is set, and are not used unless the mailbox can be written to
7268 and the editor returns a successful exit status.
7272 (w) For conventional messages the body without all headers is written.
7273 The original message is never marked for deletion in the originating
7275 The output is decrypted and converted to its native format as necessary.
7276 If the output file exists, the text is appended.
7277 If a message is in MIME multipart format its first part is written to
7278 the specified file as for conventional messages, handling of the remains
7279 depends on the execution mode.
7280 No special handling of compressed files is performed.
7282 In interactive mode the user is consecutively asked for the filenames of
7283 the processed parts.
7284 For convience saving of each part may be skipped by giving an empty
7285 value, the same result as writing it to
7287 Shell piping the part content by specifying a leading vertical bar
7289 character for the filename is supported.
7290 Other user input undergoes the usual
7291 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
7292 including shell pathname wildcard pattern expansions
7294 and shell variable expansion for the message as such, not the individual
7295 parts, and contents of the destination file are overwritten if the file
7298 \*(ID In non-interactive mode any part which does not specify a filename
7299 is ignored, and suspicious parts of filenames of the remaining parts are
7300 URL percent encoded (as via
7302 to prevent injection of malicious character sequences, resulting in
7303 a filename that will be written into the current directory.
7304 Existing files will not be overwritten, instead the part number or
7305 a dot are appended after a number sign
7307 to the name until file creation succeeds (or fails due to other
7312 \*(NQ The sole difference to
7314 is that the new macro is executed in place of the current one, which
7315 will not regain control: all resources of the current macro will be
7317 This implies that any setting covered by
7319 will be forgotten and covered variables will become cleaned up.
7320 If this command is not used from within a
7322 ed macro it will silently be (a more expensive variant of)
7332 \*(NQ \*(UA presents message headers in
7334 fuls as described under the
7337 Without arguments this command scrolls to the next window of messages,
7338 likewise if the argument is
7342 scrolls to the last,
7344 scrolls to the first, and
7349 A number argument prefixed by
7353 indicates that the window is calculated in relation to the current
7354 position, and a number without a prefix specifies an absolute position.
7360 but scrolls to the next or previous window that contains at least one
7371 .\" .Sh COMMAND ESCAPES {{{
7372 .Sh "COMMAND ESCAPES"
7374 Here is a summary of the command escapes available in compose mode,
7375 which are used to perform special functions when composing messages.
7376 Command escapes are only recognized at the beginning of lines, and
7377 consist of a trigger (escape) and a command character.
7378 The actual escape character can be set via the internal variable
7380 it defaults to the tilde
7382 Otherwise ignored whitespace characters following the escape character
7383 will prevent a possible addition of the command line to the \*(OPal
7387 Unless otherwise noted all compose mode command escapes ensure proper
7388 updates of the variables which represent the error number
7394 is set they will, unless stated otherwise, error out message compose
7395 mode and cause a progam exit if an operation fails.
7396 It is however possible to place the character hyphen-minus
7398 after (possible whitespace following) the escape character, which has an
7399 effect equivalent to the command modifier
7401 If the \*(OPal key bindings are available it is possible to create
7403 ings specifically for the compose mode.
7406 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ic BaNg"
7409 Insert the string of text in the message prefaced by a single
7411 (If the escape character has been changed,
7412 that character must be doubled instead.)
7415 .It Ic ~! Ar command
7416 Execute the indicated shell
7418 which follows, replacing unescaped exclamation marks with the previously
7419 executed command if the internal variable
7421 is set, then return to the message.
7425 End compose mode and send the message.
7427 .Va on-compose-splice-shell
7429 .Va on-compose-splice ,
7430 in order, will be called when set, after which
7432 will be checked, a set
7433 .Va on-compose-leave
7434 hook will be called,
7438 will be joined in if set,
7440 will be honoured in interactive mode, finally a given
7441 .Va message-inject-tail
7442 will be incorporated, after which the compose mode is left.
7445 .It Ic ~: Ar \*(UA-command Ns \0or Ic ~_ Ar \*(UA-command
7446 Execute the given \*(UA command.
7447 Not all commands, however, are allowed.
7450 .It Ic ~< Ar filename
7455 .It Ic ~<! Ar command
7457 is executed using the shell.
7458 Its standard output is inserted into the message.
7462 \*(OP Write a summary of command escapes.
7465 .It Ic ~@ Op Ar filename...
7466 Append or edit the list of attachments.
7467 Does not manage the error number
7473 instead if this is a concern).
7476 arguments is expected as shell tokens (see
7477 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ;
7478 token-separating commas are ignored, too), to be
7479 interpreted as documented for the command line option
7481 with the message number exception as below.
7485 arguments the attachment list is edited, entry by entry;
7486 if a filename is left empty, that attachment is deleted from the list;
7487 once the end of the list is reached either new attachments may be
7488 entered or the session can be quit by committing an empty
7491 In non-interactive mode or in batch mode
7493 the list of attachments is effectively not edited but instead recreated;
7494 again, an empty input ends list creation.
7496 For all modes, if a given filename solely consists of the number sign
7498 followed by a valid message number of the currently active mailbox, then
7499 the given message is attached as a
7502 The number sign must be quoted to avoid misinterpretation with the shell
7506 .It Ic ~| Ar command
7507 Pipe the message through the specified filter command.
7508 If the command gives no output or terminates abnormally,
7509 retain the original text of the message.
7512 is often used as a rejustifying filter.
7516 .It Ic ~^ Ar cmd Op Ar subcmd Op Ar arg3 Op Ar arg4
7517 Low-level command meant for scripted message access, i.e., for
7518 .Va on-compose-splice
7520 .Va on-compose-splice-shell .
7521 The used protocol is likely subject to changes, and therefore the
7522 mentioned hooks receive the used protocol version as an initial line.
7523 In general the first field of a response line represents a status code
7524 which specifies whether a command was successful or not, whether result
7525 data is to be expected, and if, the format of the result data.
7526 Does not manage the error number
7530 because errors are reported via the protocol
7531 (hard errors like I/O failures cannot be handled).
7532 This command has read-only access to several virtual pseudo headers in
7533 the \*(UA private namespace, which may not exist (except for the first):
7537 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Va BaNg"
7538 .It Ql Mailx-Command:
7539 The name of the command that generates the message, one of
7547 .It Ql Mailx-Raw-To:
7548 .It Ql Mailx-Raw-Cc:
7549 .It Ql Mailx-Raw-Bcc:
7550 Represent the frozen initial state of these headers before any
7551 transformation (e.g.,
7554 .Va recipients-in-cc
7557 .It Ql Mailx-Orig-From:
7558 .It Ql Mailx-Orig-To:
7559 .It Ql Mailx-Orig-Cc:
7560 .It Ql Mailx-Orig-Bcc:
7561 The values of said headers of the original message which has been
7563 .Ic reply , forward , resend .
7567 The status codes are:
7571 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql 210"
7573 Status ok; the remains of the line are the result.
7576 Status ok; the rest of the line is optionally used for more status.
7577 What follows are lines of result addresses, terminated by an empty line.
7578 The address lines consist of two fields, the first of which is the
7579 plain address, e.g.,
7581 separated by a single ASCII SP space from the second which contains the
7582 unstripped address, even if that is identical to the first field, e.g.,
7583 .Ql (Lovely) Bob <bob@exam.ple> .
7584 All the input, including the empty line, must be consumed before further
7585 commands can be issued.
7588 Status ok; the rest of the line is optionally used for more status.
7589 What follows are lines of furtherly unspecified string content,
7590 terminated by an empty line.
7591 All the input, including the empty line, must be consumed before further
7592 commands can be issued.
7595 Syntax error; invalid command.
7598 Syntax error in parameters or arguments.
7601 Error: an argument fails verification.
7602 For example an invalid address has been specified, or an attempt was
7603 made to modify anything in \*(UA's own namespace.
7606 Error: an otherwise valid argument is rendered invalid due to context.
7607 For example, a second address is added to a header which may consist of
7608 a single address only.
7613 If a command indicates failure then the message will have remained
7615 Most commands can fail with
7617 if required arguments are missing (false command usage).
7618 The following (case-insensitive) commands are supported:
7621 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm header"
7623 This command allows listing, inspection, and editing of message headers.
7624 Header name case is not normalized, and case-insensitive comparison
7625 should be used when matching names.
7626 The second argument specifies the subcommand to apply, one of:
7628 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm remove"
7630 Without a third argument a list of all yet existing headers is given via
7632 this command is the default command of
7634 if no second argument has been given.
7635 A third argument restricts output to the given header only, which may
7638 if no such field is defined.
7641 Shows the content of the header given as the third argument.
7642 Dependent on the header type this may respond with
7646 any failure results in
7650 This will remove all instances of the header given as the third
7655 if no such header can be found, and
7657 on \*(UA namespace violations.
7660 This will remove from the header given as the third argument the
7661 instance at the list position (counting from one!) given with the fourth
7666 if the list position argument is not a number or on \*(UA namespace
7669 if no such header instance exists.
7672 Create a new or an additional instance of the header given in the third
7673 argument, with the header body content as given in the fourth argument
7674 (the remains of the line).
7677 if the third argument specifies a free-form header field name that is
7678 invalid, or if body content extraction fails to succeed,
7680 if any extracted address does not pass syntax and/or security checks or
7681 on \*(UA namespace violations, and
7683 to indicate prevention of excessing a single-instance header \(em note that
7685 can be appended to (a space separator will be added automatically first).
7688 is returned upon success, followed by the name of the header and the list
7689 position of the newly inserted instance.
7690 The list position is always 1 for single-instance header fields.
7691 All free-form header fields are managed in a single list.
7696 This command allows listing, removal and addition of message attachments.
7697 The second argument specifies the subcommand to apply, one of:
7699 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm remove"
7701 List all attachments via
7705 if no attachments exist.
7706 This command is the default command of
7708 if no second argument has been given.
7711 This will remove the attachment given as the third argument, and report
7715 if no such attachment can be found.
7716 If there exists any path component in the given argument, then an exact
7717 match of the path which has been used to create the attachment is used
7718 directly, but if only the basename of that path matches then all
7719 attachments are traversed to find an exact match first, and the removal
7720 occurs afterwards; if multiple basenames match, a
7723 Message attachments are treated as absolute pathnames.
7725 If no path component exists in the given argument, then all attachments
7726 will be searched for
7728 parameter matches as well as for matches of the basename of the path
7729 which has been used when the attachment has been created; multiple
7734 This will interpret the third argument as a number and remove the
7735 attachment at that list position (counting from one!), reporting
7739 if the argument is not a number or
7741 if no such attachment exists.
7744 Adds the attachment given as the third argument, specified exactly as
7745 documented for the command line option
7747 and supporting the message number extension as documented for
7751 upon success, with the index of the new attachment following,
7753 if the given file cannot be opened,
7755 if an on-the-fly performed character set conversion fails, otherwise
7757 is reported; this is also reported if character set conversion is
7758 requested but not available.
7761 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
7763 and prints any known attributes of the first found attachment via
7767 if no such attachment can be found.
7768 The attributes are written as lines of keyword and value tuples, the
7769 keyword being separated from the rest of the line with an ASCII SP space
7773 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
7775 and is otherwise identical to
7778 .It Cm attribute-set
7779 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
7781 and will assign the attribute given as the fourth argument, which is
7782 expected to be a value tuple of keyword and other data, separated by
7783 a ASCII SP space or TAB tabulator character.
7784 If the value part is empty, then the given attribute is removed, or
7785 reset to a default value if existence of the attribute is crucial.
7789 upon success, with the index of the found attachment following,
7791 for message attachments or if the given keyword is invalid, and
7793 if no such attachment can be found.
7794 The following keywords may be used (case-insensitively):
7796 .Bl -hang -compact -width ".It Ql filename"
7798 Sets the filename of the MIME part, i.e., the name that is used for
7799 display and when (suggesting a name for) saving (purposes).
7800 .It Ql content-description
7801 Associate some descriptive information to the attachment's content, used
7802 in favour of the plain filename by some MUAs.
7804 May be used for uniquely identifying MIME entities in several contexts;
7805 this expects a special reference address format as defined in RFC 2045
7808 upon address content verification failure.
7810 Defines the media type/subtype of the part, which is managed
7811 automatically, but can be overwritten.
7812 .It Ql content-disposition
7813 Automatically set to the string
7817 .It Cm attribute-set-at
7818 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
7820 and is otherwise identical to
7829 .Ql Ic ~i Ns \| Va Sign .
7834 .Ql Ic ~i Ns \| Va sign .
7837 .It Ic ~b Ar name ...
7838 Add the given names to the list of blind carbon copy recipients.
7841 .It Ic ~c Ar name ...
7842 Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients.
7846 Read the file specified by the
7848 variable into the message.
7852 Invoke the text editor on the message collected so far.
7853 After the editing session is finished,
7854 the user may continue appending text to the message.
7857 .It Ic ~F Ar messages
7858 Read the named messages into the message being sent, including all
7859 message headers and MIME parts.
7860 If no messages are specified, read in the current message, the
7864 .It Ic ~f Ar messages
7865 Read the named messages into the message being sent.
7866 If no messages are specified, read in the current message, the
7868 Strips down the list of header fields according to the
7870 white- and blacklist selection of
7872 For MIME multipart messages,
7873 only the first displayable part is included.
7877 Edit the message header fields
7882 by typing each one in turn and allowing the user to edit the field.
7883 The default values for these fields originate from the
7891 Edit the message header fields
7897 by typing each one in turn and allowing the user to edit the field.
7900 .It Ic ~I Ar variable
7901 Insert the value of the specified variable into the message.
7902 The message remains unaltered if the variable is unset or empty.
7903 Any embedded character sequences
7905 horizontal tabulator and
7907 line feed are expanded in
7909 mode; otherwise the expansion should occur at
7911 time by using the command modifier
7915 .It Ic ~i Ar variable
7916 Insert the value of the specified variable followed by a newline
7917 character into the message.
7918 The message remains unaltered if the variable is unset or empty.
7919 Any embedded character sequences
7921 horizontal tabulator and
7923 line feed are expanded in
7925 mode; otherwise the expansion should occur at
7927 time by using the command modifier
7931 .It Ic ~M Ar messages
7932 Read the named messages into the message being sent,
7935 If no messages are specified, read the current message, the
7939 .It Ic ~m Ar messages
7940 Read the named messages into the message being sent,
7943 If no messages are specified, read the current message, the
7945 Strips down the list of header fields according to the
7947 white- and blacklist selection of
7949 For MIME multipart messages,
7950 only the first displayable part is included.
7954 Display the message collected so far,
7955 prefaced by the message header fields
7956 and followed by the attachment list, if any.
7960 Abort the message being sent,
7961 copying it to the file specified by the
7968 .It Ic ~R Ar filename
7971 but indent each line that has been read by
7975 .It Ic ~r Ar filename Op Ar HERE-delimiter
7976 Read the named file, object to the usual
7977 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
7978 into the message; if (the expanded)
7982 then standard input is used, e.g., for pasting purposes.
7983 Only in this latter mode
7985 may be given: if it is data will be read in until the given
7987 is seen on a line by itself, and encountering EOF is an error; the
7989 is a required argument in non-interactive mode; if it is single-quote
7990 quoted then the pasted content will not be expanded, \*(ID otherwise
7991 a future version of \*(UA may perform shell-style expansion on the content.
7995 Cause the named string to become the current subject field.
7996 Newline (NL) and carriage-return (CR) bytes are invalid and will be
7997 normalized to space (SP) characters.
8000 .It Ic ~t Ar name ...
8001 Add the given name(s) to the direct recipient list.
8004 .It Ic ~U Ar messages
8005 Read in the given / current message(s) excluding all headers, indented by
8009 .It Ic ~u Ar messages
8010 Read in the given / current message(s), excluding all headers.
8014 Invoke an alternate editor (defined by the
8016 environment variable) on the message collected so far.
8017 Usually, the alternate editor will be a screen editor.
8018 After the editor is quit,
8019 the user may resume appending text to the end of the message.
8022 .It Ic ~w Ar filename
8023 Write the message onto the named file, which is object to the usual
8024 .Sx "Filename transformations" .
8026 the message is appended to it.
8032 except that the message is not saved at all.
8038 .\" .Sh INTERNAL VARIABLES {{{
8039 .Sh "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
8041 Internal \*(UA variables are controlled via the
8045 commands; prefixing a variable name with the string
8049 has the same effect as using
8055 Creation or editing of variables can be performed in the
8060 will give more insight on the given variable(s), and
8062 when called without arguments, will show a listing of all variables.
8063 Both commands support a more
8066 Some well-known variables will also become inherited from the
8069 implicitly, others can be imported explicitly with the command
8071 and henceforth share said properties.
8074 Two different kinds of internal variables exist, and both of which can
8076 There are boolean variables, which can only be in one of the two states
8080 and value variables with a(n optional) string value.
8081 For the latter proper quoting is necessary upon assignment time, the
8082 introduction of the section
8084 documents the supported quoting rules.
8086 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8087 ? wysh set one=val\e 1 two="val 2" \e
8088 three='val "3"' four=$'val \e'4\e''; \e
8089 varshow one two three four; \e
8090 unset one two three four
8094 Dependent upon the actual option string values may become interpreted as
8095 colour names, command specifications, normal text, etc.
8096 They may be treated as numbers, in which case decimal values are
8097 expected if so documented, but otherwise any numeric format and
8098 base that is valid and understood by the
8100 command may be used, too.
8103 There also exists a special kind of string value, the
8104 .Dq boolean string ,
8105 which must either be a decimal integer (in which case
8109 and any other value is true) or any of the (case-insensitive) strings
8115 for a false boolean and
8121 for a true boolean; a special kind of boolean string is the
8123 which is a boolean string that can optionally be prefixed with the
8124 (case-insensitive) term
8128 which causes prompting of the user in interactive mode, with the given
8129 boolean as the default value.
8132 Variable chains extend a plain
8137 .Ql variable-USER@HOST
8145 had been specified in the contextual Uniform Resource Locator URL, see
8146 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
8147 Even though this mechanism is based on URLs no URL percent encoding may
8148 be applied to neither of
8152 variable chains need to be specified using raw data;
8153 the mentioned section contains examples.
8154 Variables which support chains are explicitly documented as such, and
8155 \*(UA treats the base name of any such variable special, meaning that
8156 users should not create custom names like
8158 in order to avoid false classifications and treatment of such variables.
8160 .\" .Ss "Initial settings" {{{
8161 .\" (Keep in SYNC: ./nail.h:okeys, ./nail.rc, ./nail.1:"Initial settings")
8162 .Ss "Initial settings"
8164 The standard POSIX 2008/Cor 2-2016 mandates the following initial
8170 .Pf no Va autoprint ,
8184 .Pf no Va ignoreeof ,
8186 .Pf no Va keepsave ,
8188 .Pf no Va outfolder ,
8196 .Pf no Va sendwait ,
8205 Notes: \*(UA does not support the
8207 variable \(en use command line options or
8209 to pass options through to a
8211 And the default global
8213 file, which is loaded unless the
8215 (with according argument) or
8217 command line options have been used, or the
8218 .Ev MAILX_NO_SYSTEM_RC
8219 environment variable is set (see
8220 .Sx "Resource files" )
8221 bends those initial settings a bit, e.g., it sets the variables
8226 to name a few, establishes a default
8228 selection etc., and should thus be taken into account.
8231 .\" .Ss "Variables" {{{
8234 .Bl -tag -width ".It Va BaNg"
8238 \*(RO The exit status of the last command, or the
8243 This status has a meaning in the state machine: in conjunction with
8245 any non-0 exit status will cause a program exit, and in
8247 mode any error while loading (any of the) resource files will have the
8251 .Sx "Command modifiers" ,
8252 can be used to instruct the state machine to ignore errors.
8256 \*(RO The current error number
8257 .Pf ( Xr errno 3 ) ,
8258 which is set after an error occurred; it is also available via
8260 and the error name and documentation string can be queried via
8264 \*(ID This machinery is new and the error number is only really usable
8265 if a command explicitly states that it manages the variable
8267 for others errno will be used in case of errors, or
8269 if that is 0: it thus may or may not reflect the real error.
8270 The error number may be set with the command
8276 \*(RO This is a multiplexer variable which performs dynamic expansion of
8277 the requested state or condition, of which there are:
8280 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Va BaNg"
8284 .It Va ^ERR , ^ERRDOC , ^ERRNAME
8285 The number, documentation, and name of the current
8287 respectively, which is usually set after an error occurred.
8288 The documentation is an \*(OP, the name is used if not available.
8289 \*(ID This machinery is new and is usually reliable only if a command
8290 explicitly states that it manages the variable
8292 which is effectively identical to
8294 Each of those variables can be suffixed with a hyphen minus followed by
8295 a name or number, in which case the expansion refers to the given error.
8296 Note this is a direct mapping of (a subset of) the system error values:
8297 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8299 eval echo \e$1: \e$^ERR-$1:\e
8300 \e$^ERRNAME-$1: \e$^ERRDOC-$1
8301 vput vexpr i + "$1" 1
8313 \*(RO Expands all positional parameters (see
8315 separated by the first character of the value of
8317 \*(ID The special semantics of the equally named special parameter of the
8319 are not yet supported.
8323 \*(RO Expands all positional parameters (see
8325 separated by a space character.
8326 If placed in double quotation marks, each positional parameter is
8327 properly quoted to expand to a single parameter again.
8331 \*(RO Expands to the number of positional parameters, i.e., the size of
8332 the positional parameter stack in decimal.
8336 \*(RO Inside the scope of a
8340 ed macro this expands to the name of the calling macro, or to the empty
8341 string if the macro is running from top-level.
8342 For the \*(OPal regular expression search and replace operator of
8344 this expands to the entire matching expression.
8345 It represents the program name in global context.
8349 \*(RO Access of the positional parameter stack.
8350 All further parameters can be accessed with this syntax, too, e.g.,
8353 etc.; positional parameters can be shifted off the stack by calling
8355 The parameter stack contains, e.g., the arguments of a
8359 d macro, the matching groups of the \*(OPal regular expression search
8360 and replace expression of
8362 and can be explicitly created or overwritten with the command
8367 \*(RO Is set to the active
8371 .It Va add-file-recipients
8372 \*(BO When file or pipe recipients have been specified,
8373 mention them in the corresponding address fields of the message instead
8374 of silently stripping them from their recipient list.
8375 By default such addressees are not mentioned.
8379 \*(BO Causes only the local part to be evaluated
8380 when comparing addresses.
8384 \*(BO Causes messages saved in the
8386 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
8388 to be appended to the end rather than prepended.
8389 This should always be set.
8393 \*(BO Causes the prompts for
8397 lists to appear after the message has been edited.
8401 \*(BO If set, \*(UA asks for files to attach at the end of each message.
8402 An empty line finalizes the list.
8406 \*(BO Causes the user to be prompted for carbon copy recipients
8407 (at the end of each message if
8415 \*(BO Causes the user to be prompted for blind carbon copy
8416 recipients (at the end of each message if
8424 \*(BO Causes the user to be prompted for confirmation to send the
8425 message or reenter compose mode after having been shown an envelope
8427 This is by default enabled.
8431 \*(BO\*(OP Causes the user to be prompted if the message is to be
8432 signed at the end of each message.
8435 variable is ignored when this variable is set.
8439 .\" The alternative *ask* is not documented on purpose
8440 \*(BO Causes \*(UA to prompt for the subject upon entering compose mode
8441 unless a subject already exists.
8445 A sequence of characters to display in the
8449 as shown in the display of
8451 each for one type of messages (see
8452 .Sx "Message states" ) ,
8453 with the default being
8456 .Ql NU\ \ *HMFAT+\-$~
8459 variable is set, in the following order:
8461 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql _"
8483 start of a collapsed thread.
8485 an uncollapsed thread (TODO ignored for now).
8489 classified as possible spam.
8495 Specifies a list of recipients to which a blind carbon copy of each
8496 outgoing message will be sent automatically.
8500 Specifies a list of recipients to which a carbon copy of each outgoing
8501 message will be sent automatically.
8505 \*(BO Causes threads to be collapsed automatically when threaded mode
8512 \*(BO Enable automatic
8514 ing of a(n existing)
8520 commands, e.g., the message that becomes the new
8522 is shown automatically, as via
8529 Causes sorted mode (see the
8531 command) to be entered automatically with the value of this variable as
8532 sorting method when a folder is opened, e.g.,
8533 .Ql set autosort=thread .
8537 \*(BO Enables the substitution of all not (reverse-solidus) escaped
8540 characters by the contents of the last executed command for the
8542 shell escape command and
8544 one of the compose mode
8545 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
8546 If this variable is not set no reverse solidus stripping is performed.
8550 \*(OP Terminals generate multi-byte sequences for certain forms of
8551 input, for example for function and other special keys.
8552 Some terminals however do not write these multi-byte sequences as
8553 a whole, but byte-by-byte, and the latter is what \*(UA actually reads.
8554 This variable specifies the timeout in milliseconds that the MLE (see
8555 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
8556 waits for more bytes to arrive unless it considers a sequence
8562 \*(BO Sets some cosmetical features to traditional BSD style;
8563 has the same affect as setting
8565 and all other variables prefixed with
8567 it also changes the behaviour of
8569 (which does not exist in BSD).
8573 \*(BO Changes the letters shown in the first column of a header
8574 summary to traditional BSD style.
8578 \*(BO Changes the display of columns in a header summary to traditional
8583 \*(BO Changes some informational messages to traditional BSD style.
8589 field to appear immediately after the
8591 field in message headers and with the
8593 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
8597 .It Va build-os , build-osenv
8598 \*(RO The operating system \*(UA has been build for, usually taken from
8604 respectively, the former being lowercased.
8608 The value that should appear in the
8612 MIME header fields when no character set conversion of the message data
8614 This defaults to US-ASCII, and the chosen character set should be
8615 US-ASCII compatible.
8619 \*(OP The default 8-bit character set that is used as an implicit last
8620 member of the variable
8622 This defaults to UTF-8 if character set conversion capabilities are
8623 available, and to ISO-8859-1 otherwise (unless the operating system
8624 environment is known to always and exclusively support UTF-8 locales),
8625 in which case the only supported character set is
8627 and this variable is effectively ignored.
8628 Refer to the section
8629 .Sx "Character sets"
8630 for the complete picture of character set conversion in \*(UA.
8633 .It Va charset-unknown-8bit
8634 \*(OP RFC 1428 specifies conditions when internet mail gateways shall
8636 the content of a mail message by using a character set with the name
8638 Because of the unclassified nature of this character set \*(UA will not
8639 be capable to convert this character set to any other character set.
8640 If this variable is set any message part which uses the character set
8642 is assumed to really be in the character set given in the value,
8643 otherwise the (final) value of
8645 is used for this purpose.
8647 This variable will also be taken into account if a MIME type (see
8648 .Sx "The mime.types files" )
8649 of a MIME message part that uses the
8651 character set is forcefully treated as text.
8655 The default value for the
8660 .It Va colour-disable
8661 \*(BO\*(OP Forcefully disable usage of colours.
8662 Also see the section
8663 .Sx "Coloured display" .
8667 \*(BO\*(OP Whether colour shall be used for output that is paged through
8669 Note that pagers may need special command line options, e.g.,
8677 in order to support colours.
8678 Often doing manual adjustments is unnecessary since \*(UA may perform
8679 adjustments dependent on the value of the environment variable
8681 (see there for more).
8685 .It Va contact-mail , contact-web
8686 \*(RO Addresses for contact per email and web, respectively, e.g., for
8687 bug reports, suggestions, or help regarding \*(UA.
8688 The former can be used directly:
8689 .Ql ? Ns \| Ic eval Ns \| Ic mail Ns \| $contact-mail .
8693 In a(n interactive) terminal session, then if this valued variable is
8694 set it will be used as a threshold to determine how many lines the given
8695 output has to span before it will be displayed via the configured
8699 can be forced by setting this to the value
8701 setting it without a value will deduce the current height of the
8702 terminal screen to compute the threshold (see
8707 \*(ID At the moment this uses the count of lines of the message in wire
8708 format, which, dependent on the
8710 of the message, is unrelated to the number of display lines.
8711 (The software is old and historically the relation was a given thing.)
8715 Define a set of custom headers to be injected into newly composed or
8717 A custom header consists of the field name followed by a colon
8719 and the field content body.
8720 Standard header field names cannot be overwritten by a custom header.
8721 Different to the command line option
8723 the variable value is interpreted as a comma-separated list of custom
8724 headers: to include commas in header bodies they need to become escaped
8725 with reverse solidus
8727 Headers can be managed more freely in compose mode via
8730 .Dl ? set customhdr='Hdr1: Body1-1\e, Body1-2, Hdr2: Body2'
8734 Controls the appearance of the
8736 date and time format specification of the
8738 variable, that is used, for example, when viewing the summary of
8740 If unset, then the local receiving date is used and displayed
8741 unformatted, otherwise the message sending
8743 It is possible to assign a
8745 format string and control formatting, but embedding newlines via the
8747 format is not supported, and will result in display errors.
8749 .Ql %Y-%m-%d %H:%M ,
8751 .Va datefield-markout-older .
8754 .It Va datefield-markout-older
8755 Only used in conjunction with
8757 Can be used to create a visible distinction of messages dated more than
8758 a day in the future, or older than six months, a concept comparable to the
8760 option of the POSIX utility
8762 If set to the empty string, then the plain month, day and year of the
8764 will be displayed, but a
8766 format string to control formatting can be assigned.
8772 \*(BO Enables debug messages and obsoletion warnings, disables the
8773 actual delivery of messages and also implies
8779 .It Va disposition-notification-send
8781 .Ql Disposition-Notification-To:
8782 header (RFC 3798) with the message.
8786 .\" TODO .It Va disposition-notification-send-HOST
8788 .\".Va disposition-notification-send
8789 .\" for SMTP accounts on a specific host.
8790 .\" TODO .It Va disposition-notification-send-USER@HOST
8792 .\".Va disposition-notification-send
8793 .\"for a specific account.
8797 \*(BO When dot is set, a period
8799 on a line by itself during message input in (interactive or batch
8801 compose mode will be treated as end-of-message (in addition to the
8802 normal end-of-file condition).
8803 This behaviour is implied in
8809 .It Va dotlock-ignore-error
8810 \*(BO\*(OP Synchronization of mailboxes which \*(UA treats as
8812 .Sx "primary system mailbox" Ns
8813 es (see, e.g., the notes on
8814 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
8815 as well as the documentation of
8817 will be protected with so-called dotlock files\(emthe traditional mail
8818 spool file locking method\(emin addition to system file locking.
8819 Because \*(UA ships with a privilege-separated dotlock creation program
8820 that should always be able to create such a dotlock file there is no
8821 good reason to ignore dotlock file creation errors, and thus these are
8822 fatal unless this variable is set.
8826 \*(BO If this variable is set then the editor is started automatically
8827 when a message is composed in interactive mode, as if the
8829 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
8833 variable is implied for this automatically spawned editor session.
8837 \*(BO When a message is edited while being composed,
8838 its header is included in the editable text.
8842 \*(BO When entering interactive mode \*(UA normally writes
8843 .Dq \&No mail for user
8844 and exits immediately if a mailbox is empty or does not exist.
8845 If this variable is set \*(UA starts even with an empty or non-existent
8846 mailbox (the latter behaviour furtherly depends upon
8852 \*(BO Let each command with a non-0 exit status, including every
8856 s a non-0 status, cause a program exit unless prefixed by
8859 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
8861 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ,
8862 but which use a different modifier for ignoring the error.
8863 Please refer to the variable
8865 for more on this topic.
8869 The first character of this value defines the escape character for
8870 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
8872 The default value is the character tilde
8874 If set to the empty string, command escapes are disabled.
8878 If not set then file and command pipeline targets are not allowed,
8879 and any such address will be filtered out, giving a warning message.
8880 If set without a value then all possible recipient address
8881 specifications will be accepted \(en see the section
8882 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode"
8884 To accept them, but only in interactive mode, or when tilde commands
8885 were enabled explicitly by using one of the command line options
8889 set this to the (case-insensitive) value
8891 (it actually acts like
8892 .Ql restrict,-all,+name,+addr ,
8893 so that care for ordering issues must be taken) .
8895 In fact the value is interpreted as a comma-separated list of values.
8898 then the existence of disallowed specifications is treated as a hard
8899 send error instead of only filtering them out.
8900 The remaining values specify whether a specific type of recipient
8901 address specification is allowed (optionally indicated by a plus sign
8903 prefix) or disallowed (prefixed with a hyphen-minus
8907 addresses all possible address specifications,
8911 command pipeline targets,
8913 plain user names and (MTA) aliases and
8916 These kind of values are interpreted in the given order, so that
8917 .Ql restrict,\:fail,\:+file,\:-all,\:+addr
8918 will cause hard errors for any non-network address recipient address
8919 unless \*(UA is in interactive mode or has been started with the
8923 command line option; in the latter case(s) any address may be used, then.
8925 Historically invalid network addressees are silently stripped off.
8926 To change this so that any encountered invalid email address causes
8927 a hard error it must be ensured that
8929 is an entry in the above list.
8930 Setting this automatically enables network addressees
8931 (it actually acts like
8932 .Ql failinvaddr,+addr ,
8933 so that care for ordering issues must be taken) .
8937 Unless this variable is set additional
8939 (Mail-Transfer-Agent)
8940 arguments from the command line, as can be given after a
8942 separator, results in a program termination with failure status.
8943 The same can be accomplished by using the special (case-insensitive) value
8945 A lesser strict variant is the otherwise identical
8947 which does accept such arguments in interactive mode, or if tilde
8948 commands were enabled explicitly by using one of the command line options
8952 The empty value will allow unconditional usage.
8956 \*(RO String giving a list of optional features.
8957 Features are preceded with a plus sign
8959 if they are available, with a hyphen-minus
8962 The output of the command
8964 will include this information in a more pleasant output.
8968 \*(BO This setting reverses the meanings of a set of reply commands,
8969 turning the lowercase variants, which by default address all recipients
8970 included in the header of a message
8971 .Pf ( Ic reply , respond , followup )
8972 into the uppercase variants, which by default address the sender only
8973 .Pf ( Ic Reply , Respond , Followup )
8976 .Ic replysender , respondsender , followupsender
8978 .Ic replyall , respondall , followupall
8979 are not affected by the current setting of
8984 The default path under which mailboxes are to be saved:
8985 filenames that begin with the plus sign
8987 will have the plus sign replaced with the value of this variable if set,
8988 otherwise the plus sign will remain unchanged when doing
8989 .Sx "Filename transformations" ;
8992 for more on this topic.
8993 The value supports a subset of transformations itself, and if the
8994 non-empty value does not start with a solidus
8998 will be prefixed automatically.
8999 Once the actual value is evaluated first, the internal variable
9001 will be updated for caching purposes.
9004 .It Va folder-hook-FOLDER , Va folder-hook
9007 macro which will be called whenever a
9010 The macro will also be invoked when new mail arrives,
9011 but message lists for commands executed from the macro
9012 only include newly arrived messages then.
9014 are activated by default in a folder hook, causing the covered settings
9015 to be reverted once the folder is left again.
9017 The specialized form will override the generic one if
9019 matches the file that is opened.
9020 Unlike other folder specifications, the fully expanded name of a folder,
9021 without metacharacters, is used to avoid ambiguities.
9022 However, if the mailbox resides under
9026 specification is tried in addition, e.g., if
9030 (and thus relative to the user's home directory) then
9031 .Pa /home/usr1/mail/sent
9033 .Ql folder-hook-/home/usr1/mail/sent
9034 first, but then followed by
9035 .Ql folder-hook-+sent .
9038 .It Va folder-resolved
9039 \*(RO Set to the fully resolved path of
9041 once that evaluation has occurred; rather internal.
9045 \*(BO Controls whether a
9046 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
9047 header is generated when sending messages to known mailing lists.
9049 .Va followup-to-honour
9051 .Ic mlist , mlsubscribe , reply
9056 .It Va followup-to-honour
9058 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
9059 header is honoured when group-replying to a message via
9063 This is a quadoption; if set without a value it defaults to
9073 .It Va forward-as-attachment
9074 \*(BO Original messages are normally sent as inline text with the
9077 and only the first part of a multipart message is included.
9078 With this setting enabled messages are sent as unmodified MIME
9080 attachments with all of their parts included.
9083 .It Va forward-inject-head
9084 The string to put before the text of a message with the
9086 command instead of the default
9087 .Dq -------- Original Message -------- .
9088 No heading is put if it is set to the empty string.
9089 This variable is ignored if the
9090 .Va forward-as-attachment
9096 The address (or a list of addresses) to put into the
9098 field of the message header, quoting RFC 5322:
9099 the author(s) of the message, that is, the mailbox(es) of the person(s)
9100 or system(s) responsible for the writing of the message.
9101 According to that RFC setting the
9103 variable is required if
9105 contains more than one address.
9108 ing to messages these addresses are handled as if they were in the
9113 If a file-based MTA is used, then
9115 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
9117 can nonetheless be enforced to appear as the envelope sender address at
9118 the MTA protocol level (the RFC 5321 reverse-path), either by using the
9120 command line option (with an empty argument; see there for the complete
9121 picture on this topic), or by setting the internal variable
9122 .Va r-option-implicit .
9125 If the machine's hostname is not valid at the Internet (for example at
9126 a dialup machine) then either this variable or
9130 adds even more fine-tuning capabilities with
9131 .Va smtp-hostname ) ,
9132 have to be set; if so the message and MIME part related unique ID fields
9136 will be created (except when disallowed by
9137 .Va message-id-disable
9144 \*(BO Due to historical reasons comments and name parts of email
9145 addresses are removed by default when sending mail, replying to or
9146 forwarding a message.
9147 If this variable is set such stripping is not performed.
9150 \*(OB Predecessor of
9151 .Va forward-inject-head .
9155 \*(BO Causes the header summary to be written at startup and after
9156 commands that affect the number of messages or the order of messages in
9161 mode a header summary will also be displayed on folder changes.
9162 The command line option
9170 A format string to use for the summary of
9172 similar to the ones used for
9175 Format specifiers in the given string start with a percent sign
9177 and may be followed by an optional decimal number indicating the field
9178 width \(em if that is negative, the field is to be left-aligned.
9179 Valid format specifiers are:
9182 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql _%%_"
9184 A plain percent sign.
9187 a space character but for the current message
9189 for which it expands to
9192 .Va headline-plain ) .
9195 a space character but for the current message
9197 for which it expands to
9200 .Va headline-plain ) .
9202 \*(OP The spam score of the message, as has been classified via the
9205 Shows only a replacement character if there is no spam support.
9207 Message attribute character (status flag); the actual content can be
9211 The date found in the
9213 header of the message when
9215 is set (the default), otherwise the date when the message was received.
9216 Formatting can be controlled by assigning a
9221 The indenting level in threaded mode.
9223 The address of the message sender.
9225 The message thread tree structure.
9226 (Note that this format does not support a field width, and honours
9227 .Va headline-plain . )
9229 The number of lines of the message, if available.
9233 The number of octets (bytes) in the message, if available.
9235 Message subject (if any).
9237 Message subject (if any) in double quotes.
9239 Message recipient flags: is the addressee of the message a known or
9240 subscribed mailing list \(en see
9245 The position in threaded/sorted order.
9249 .Ql %>\&%a\&%m\ %-18f\ %16d\ %4l/%\-5o\ %i%-s ,
9251 .Ql %>\&%a\&%m\ %20-f\ \ %16d\ %3l/%\-5o\ %i%-S
9263 .It Va headline-bidi
9264 Bidirectional text requires special treatment when displaying headers,
9265 because numbers (in dates or for file sizes etc.) will not affect the
9266 current text direction, in effect resulting in ugly line layouts when
9267 arabic or other right-to-left text is to be displayed.
9268 On the other hand only a minority of terminals is capable to correctly
9269 handle direction changes, so that user interaction is necessary for
9271 Note that extended host system support is required nonetheless, e.g.,
9272 detection of the terminal character set is one precondition;
9273 and this feature only works in an Unicode (i.e., UTF-8) locale.
9275 In general setting this variable will cause \*(UA to encapsulate text
9276 fields that may occur when displaying
9278 (and some other fields, like dynamic expansions in
9280 with special Unicode control sequences;
9281 it is possible to fine-tune the terminal support level by assigning
9283 no value (or any value other than
9288 will make \*(UA assume that the terminal is capable to properly deal
9289 with Unicode version 6.3, in which case text is embedded in a pair of
9290 U+2068 (FIRST STRONG ISOLATE) and U+2069 (POP DIRECTIONAL ISOLATE)
9292 In addition no space on the line is reserved for these characters.
9294 Weaker support is chosen by using the value
9296 (Unicode 6.3, but reserve the room of two spaces for writing the control
9297 sequences onto the line).
9302 select Unicode 1.1 support (U+200E, LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK); the latter
9303 again reserves room for two spaces in addition.
9306 .It Va headline-plain
9307 \*(BO On Unicode (UTF-8) aware terminals enhanced graphical symbols are
9308 used by default for certain entries of
9310 If this variable is set only basic US-ASCII symbols will be used.
9314 \*(OP If a line editor is available then this can be set to
9315 name the (expandable) path of the location of a permanent
9321 .It Va history-gabby
9322 \*(BO\*(OP Add more entries to the
9324 as is normally done.
9327 .It Va history-gabby-persist
9328 \*(BO\*(OP \*(UA's own MLE will not save the additional
9330 entries in persistent storage unless this variable is set.
9331 On the other hand it will not loose the knowledge of whether
9332 a persistent entry was gabby or not.
9338 \*(OP Setting this variable imposes a limit on the number of concurrent
9341 If set to the value 0 then no further history entries will be added,
9342 and loading and incorporation of the
9344 upon program startup can also be suppressed by doing this.
9345 Runtime changes will not be reflected, but will affect the number of
9346 entries saved to permanent storage.
9350 \*(BO This setting controls whether messages are held in the system
9352 and it is set by default.
9356 Used instead of the value obtained from
9360 as the hostname when expanding local addresses, e.g., in
9363 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" ) .
9366 or this variable Is set the message and MIME part related unique ID fields
9370 will be created (except when disallowed by
9371 .Va message-id-disable
9374 If the \*(OPal IDNA support is available (see
9376 variable assignment is aborted when a necessary conversion fails.
9378 Setting it to the empty string will cause the normal hostname to be
9379 used, but nonetheless enables creation of said ID fields.
9380 \*(IN in conjunction with the built-in SMTP
9383 also influences the results:
9384 one should produce some test messages with the desired combination of
9393 \*(BO\*(OP Can be used to turn off the automatic conversion of domain
9394 names according to the rules of IDNA (internationalized domain names
9396 Since the IDNA code assumes that domain names are specified with the
9398 character set, an UTF-8 locale charset is required to represent all
9399 possible international domain names (before conversion, that is).
9403 The input field separator that is used (\*(ID by some functions) to
9404 determine where to split input data.
9406 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It MMM"
9408 Unsetting is treated as assigning the default value,
9411 If set to the empty value, no field splitting will be performed.
9413 If set to a non-empty value, all whitespace characters are extracted
9414 and assigned to the variable
9418 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It MMM"
9421 will be ignored at the beginning and end of input.
9422 Diverging from POSIX shells default whitespace is removed in addition,
9423 which is owed to the entirely different line content extraction rules.
9425 Each occurrence of a character of
9427 will cause field-splitting, any adjacent
9429 characters will be skipped.
9434 \*(RO Automatically deduced from the whitespace characters in
9439 \*(BO Ignore interrupt signals from the terminal while entering
9440 messages; instead echo them as
9442 characters and discard the current line.
9446 \*(BO Ignore end-of-file conditions
9447 .Pf ( Ql control-D )
9448 in compose mode on message input and in interactive command input.
9449 If set an interactive command input session can only be left by
9450 explicitly using one of the commands
9454 and message input in compose mode can only be terminated by entering
9457 on a line by itself or by using the
9459 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ;
9460 Setting this implies the behaviour that
9468 If this is set to a non-empty string it will specify the users
9470 .Sx "primary system mailbox" ,
9473 and the system-dependent default, and (thus) be used to replace
9476 .Sx "Filename transformations" ;
9479 for more on this topic.
9480 The value supports a subset of transformations itself.
9488 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
9491 option for indenting messages,
9492 in place of the POSIX mandated default tabulator character
9499 \*(BO If set, an empty
9501 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
9502 file is not removed.
9503 Note that, in conjunction with
9505 mode any empty file will be removed unless this variable is set.
9506 This may improve the interoperability with other mail user agents
9507 when using a common folder directory, and prevents malicious users
9508 from creating fake mailboxes in a world-writable spool directory.
9509 \*(ID Only local regular (MBOX) files are covered, Maildir or other
9510 mailbox types will never be removed, even if empty.
9513 .It Va keep-content-length
9514 \*(BO When (editing messages and) writing MBOX mailbox files \*(UA can
9519 header fields that some MUAs generate by setting this variable.
9520 Since \*(UA does neither use nor update these non-standardized header
9521 fields (which in itself shows one of their conceptual problems),
9522 stripping them should increase interoperability in between MUAs that
9523 work with with same mailbox files.
9524 Note that, if this is not set but
9525 .Va writebackedited ,
9526 as below, is, a possibly performed automatic stripping of these header
9527 fields already marks the message as being modified.
9528 \*(ID At some future time \*(UA will be capable to rewrite and apply an
9530 to modified messages, and then those fields will be stripped silently.
9534 \*(BO When a message is saved it is usually discarded from the
9535 originating folder when \*(UA is quit.
9536 This setting causes all saved message to be retained.
9539 .It Va line-editor-disable
9540 \*(BO Turn off any enhanced line editing capabilities (see
9541 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor"
9545 .It Va line-editor-no-defaults
9546 \*(BO\*(OP Do not establish any default key binding.
9550 Error log message prefix string
9551 .Pf ( Ql "\*(uA: " ) .
9554 .It Va mailbox-display
9555 \*(RO The name of the current mailbox
9557 possibly abbreviated for display purposes.
9560 .It Va mailbox-resolved
9561 \*(RO The fully resolved path of the current mailbox.
9564 .It Va mailx-extra-rc
9565 An additional startup file that is loaded as the last of the
9566 .Sx "Resource files" .
9567 Use this file for commands that are not understood by other POSIX
9569 implementations, i.e., mostly anything which is not covered by
9570 .Sx "Initial settings" .
9574 \*(BO When a message is replied to and this variable is set,
9575 it is marked as having been
9578 .Sx "Message states" .
9582 \*(BO When opening MBOX mailbox databases \*(UA by default uses tolerant
9583 POSIX rules for detecting message boundaries (so-called
9585 lines) due to compatibility reasons, instead of the stricter rules that
9586 have been standardized in RFC 4155.
9587 This behaviour can be switched to the stricter RFC 4155 rules by
9588 setting this variable.
9589 (This is never necessary for any message newly generated by \*(UA,
9590 it only applies to messages generated by buggy or malicious MUAs, or may
9591 occur in old MBOX databases: \*(UA itself will choose a proper
9593 to avoid false interpretation of
9595 content lines in the MBOX database.)
9597 This may temporarily be handy when \*(UA complains about invalid
9599 lines when opening a MBOX: in this case setting this variable and
9600 re-opening the mailbox in question may correct the result.
9601 If so, copying the entire mailbox to some other file, as in
9602 .Ql copy * SOME-FILE ,
9603 will perform proper, all-compatible
9605 quoting for all detected messages, resulting in a valid MBOX mailbox.
9606 Finally the variable can be unset again:
9607 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9609 localopts yes; wysh set mbox-rfc4155;\e
9610 wysh File "${1}"; eval copy * "${2}"
9612 call mboxfix /tmp/bad.mbox /tmp/good.mbox
9617 \*(BO Internal development variable.
9620 .It Va message-id-disable
9621 \*(BO By setting this variable the generation of
9625 message and MIME part headers can be completely suppressed, effectively
9626 leaving this task up to the
9628 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) or the SMTP server.
9629 Note that according to RFC 5321 a SMTP server is not required to add this
9630 field by itself, so it should be ensured that it accepts messages without
9634 .It Va message-inject-head
9635 A string to put at the beginning of each new message, followed by a newline.
9636 \*(OB The escape sequences tabulator
9640 are understood (use the
9644 ting the variable(s) instead).
9647 .It Va message-inject-tail
9648 A string to put at the end of each new message, followed by a newline.
9649 \*(OB The escape sequences tabulator
9653 are understood (use the
9657 ting the variable(s) instead).
9661 \*(BO Usually, when an
9663 expansion contains the sender, the sender is removed from the expansion.
9664 Setting this option suppresses these removals.
9669 option to be passed through to the
9671 (Mail-Transfer-Agent); though most of the modern MTAs no longer document
9672 this flag, no MTA is known which does not support it (for historical
9676 .It Va mime-allow-text-controls
9677 \*(BO When sending messages, each part of the message is MIME-inspected
9678 in order to classify the
9681 .Ql Content-Transfer-Encoding:
9684 that is required to send this part over mail transport, i.e.,
9685 a computation rather similar to what the
9687 command produces when used with the
9691 This classification however treats text files which are encoded in
9692 UTF-16 (seen for HTML files) and similar character sets as binary
9693 octet-streams, forcefully changing any
9698 .Ql application/octet-stream :
9699 If that actually happens a yet unset charset MIME parameter is set to
9701 effectively making it impossible for the receiving MUA to automatically
9702 interpret the contents of the part.
9704 If this variable is set, and the data was unambiguously identified as
9705 text data at first glance (by a
9709 file extension), then the original
9711 will not be overwritten.
9714 .It Va mime-alternative-favour-rich
9715 \*(BO If this variable is set then rich MIME alternative parts (e.g.,
9716 HTML) will be preferred in favour of included plain text versions when
9717 displaying messages, provided that a handler exists which produces
9718 output that can be (re)integrated into \*(UA's normal visual display.
9719 (E.g., at the time of this writing some newsletters ship their full
9720 content only in the rich HTML part, whereas the plain text part only
9721 contains topic subjects.)
9724 .It Va mime-counter-evidence
9727 field is used to decide how to handle MIME parts.
9728 Some MUAs, however, do not use
9729 .Sx "The mime.types files"
9731 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" )
9732 or a similar mechanism to correctly classify content, but specify an
9733 unspecific MIME type
9734 .Pf ( Ql application/octet-stream )
9735 even for plain text attachments.
9736 If this variable is set then \*(UA will try to re-classify such MIME
9737 message parts, if possible, for example via a possibly existing
9738 attachment filename.
9739 A non-empty value may also be given, in which case a number is expected,
9740 actually a carrier of bits, best specified as a binary value, e.g.,
9743 .Bl -bullet -compact
9745 If bit two is set (counting from 1, decimal 2) then the detected
9747 will be carried along with the message and be used for deciding which
9748 MIME handler is to be used, for example;
9749 when displaying such a MIME part the part-info will indicate the
9750 overridden content-type by showing a plus sign
9753 If bit three is set (decimal 4) then the counter-evidence is always
9754 produced and a positive result will be used as the MIME type, even
9755 forcefully overriding the parts given MIME type.
9757 If bit four is set (decimal 8) as a last resort the actual content of
9758 .Ql application/octet-stream
9759 parts will be inspected, so that data which looks like plain text can be
9761 This mode is even more relaxed when data is to be displayed to the user
9762 or used as a message quote (data consumers which mangle data for display
9763 purposes, which includes masking of control characters, for example).
9767 .It Va mime-encoding
9769 .Ql Content-Transfer-Encoding
9770 to use in outgoing text messages and message parts, where applicable.
9771 (7-bit clean text messages are sent as-is, without a transfer encoding.)
9774 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql _%%_"
9777 8-bit transport effectively causes the raw data be passed through
9778 unchanged, but may cause problems when transferring mail messages over
9779 channels that are not ESMTP (RFC 1869) compliant.
9780 Also, several input data constructs are not allowed by the
9781 specifications and may cause a different transfer-encoding to be used.
9782 .It Ql quoted-printable
9784 Quoted-printable encoding is 7-bit clean and has the property that ASCII
9785 characters are passed through unchanged, so that an english message can
9786 be read as-is; it is also acceptable for other single-byte locales that
9787 share many characters with ASCII, like, e.g., ISO-8859-1.
9788 The encoding will cause a large overhead for messages in other character
9789 sets: e.g., it will require up to twelve (12) bytes to encode a single
9790 UTF-8 character of four (4) bytes.
9791 It is the default encoding.
9793 .Pf (Or\0 Ql b64 . )
9794 This encoding is 7-bit clean and will always be used for binary data.
9795 This encoding has a constant input:output ratio of 3:4, regardless of
9796 the character set of the input data it will encode three bytes of input
9797 to four bytes of output.
9798 This transfer-encoding is not human readable without performing
9803 .It Va mimetypes-load-control
9804 Can be used to control which of
9805 .Sx "The mime.types files"
9806 are loaded: if the letter
9808 is part of the option value, then the user's personal
9810 file will be loaded (if it exists); likewise the letter
9812 controls loading of the system wide
9814 directives found in the user file take precedence, letter matching is
9816 If this variable is not set \*(UA will try to load both files.
9817 Incorporation of the \*(UA-built-in MIME types cannot be suppressed,
9818 but they will be matched last (the order can be listed via
9821 More sources can be specified by using a different syntax: if the
9822 value string contains an equals sign
9824 then it is instead parsed as a comma-separated list of the described
9827 pairs; the given filenames will be expanded and loaded, and their
9828 content may use the extended syntax that is described in the section
9829 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
9830 Directives found in such files always take precedence (are prepended to
9831 the MIME type cache).
9836 To choose an alternate Mail-Transfer-Agent, set this option to either
9837 the full pathname of an executable (optionally prefixed with the protocol
9839 or \*(OPally a SMTP a.k.a. SUBMISSION protocol URL, e.g., \*(IN
9841 .Dl smtps?://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
9844 .Ql [smtp://]server[:port] . )
9845 The default has been chosen at compile time.
9846 All supported data transfers are executed in child processes, which
9847 run asynchronously and without supervision unless either the
9852 If such a child receives a TERM signal, it will abort and
9859 For a file-based MTA it may be necessary to set
9861 in in order to choose the right target of a modern
9864 It will be passed command line arguments from several possible sources:
9867 if set, from the command line if given and the variable
9870 Argument processing of the MTA will be terminated with a
9875 The otherwise occurring implicit usage of the following MTA command
9876 line arguments can be disabled by setting the boolean variable
9877 .Va mta-no-default-arguments
9878 (which will also disable passing
9882 (for not treating a line with only a dot
9884 character as the end of input),
9892 variable is set); in conjunction with the
9894 command line option \*(UA will also (not) pass
9900 \*(OPally \*(UA can send mail over SMTP a.k.a. SUBMISSION network
9901 connections to a single defined smart host by setting this variable to
9902 a SMTP or SUBMISSION URL (see
9903 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) .
9904 An authentication scheme can be specified via the variable chain
9906 Encrypted network connections are \*(OPally available, the section
9907 .Sx "Encrypted network communication"
9908 should give an overview and provide links to more information on this.
9909 Note that with some mail providers it may be necessary to set the
9911 variable in order to use a specific combination of
9916 \*(UA also supports forwarding of all network traffic over a specified
9918 The following SMTP variants may be used:
9922 The plain SMTP protocol (RFC 5321) that normally lives on the
9923 server port 25 and requires setting the
9924 .Va smtp-use-starttls
9925 variable to enter a SSL/TLS encrypted session state.
9926 Assign a value like \*(IN
9927 .Ql smtp://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
9929 .Ql smtp://server[:port] )
9930 to choose this protocol.
9932 The so-called SMTPS which is supposed to live on server port 465
9933 and is automatically SSL/TLS secured.
9934 Unfortunately it never became a standardized protocol and may thus not
9935 be supported by your hosts network service database
9936 \(en in fact the port number has already been reassigned to other
9939 SMTPS is nonetheless a commonly offered protocol and thus can be
9940 chosen by assigning a value like \*(IN
9941 .Ql smtps://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
9943 .Ql smtps://server[:port] ) ;
9944 due to the mentioned problems it is usually necessary to explicitly
9949 The SUBMISSION protocol (RFC 6409) lives on server port 587 and
9950 is identically to the SMTP protocol from \*(UA's point of view;
9952 .Va smtp-use-starttls
9953 to enter a SSL/TLS secured session state; e.g., \*(IN
9954 .Ql submission://[user[:password]@]server[:port] .
9956 The SUBMISSIONS protocol (RFC 8314) that lives on server port 465 and is
9957 SSL/TLS secured by default.
9958 It can be chosen by assigning a value like \*(IN
9959 .Ql submissions://[user[:password]@]server[:port] .
9960 Due to the problems mentioned for SMTPS above and the fact that
9961 SUBMISSIONS is new and a successor that lives on the same port as the
9962 historical engineering mismanagement named SMTPS, it is usually
9963 necessary to explicitly specify the port as
9969 .It Va mta-arguments
9970 Arguments to pass through to a file-based
9972 can be given via this variable, which is parsed according to
9973 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
9974 into an array of arguments, and which will be joined onto MTA options
9975 from other sources, and then passed individually to the MTA:
9976 .Ql ? wysh set mta-arguments='-t -X \&"/tmp/my log\&"' .
9979 .It Va mta-no-default-arguments
9980 \*(BO Unless this variable is set \*(UA will pass some well known
9981 standard command line options to a file-based
9983 (Mail-Transfer-Agent), see there for more.
9986 .It Va mta-no-receiver-arguments
9987 \*(BO By default a file-based
9989 will be passed all receiver addresses on the command line.
9990 This variable can be set to suppress any such argument.
9994 Many systems use a so-called
9996 environment to ensure compatibility with
9998 This works by inspecting the name that was used to invoke the mail
10000 If this variable is set then the mailwrapper (the program that is
10001 actually executed when calling the file-based
10003 will treat its contents as that name.
10005 .Mx Va netrc-lookup
10006 .It Va netrc-lookup-USER@HOST , netrc-lookup-HOST , netrc-lookup
10007 \*(BO\*(IN\*(OP Used to control usage of the users
10009 file for lookup of account credentials, as documented in the section
10010 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
10011 and for the command
10014 .Sx "The .netrc file"
10015 documents the file format.
10027 then \*(UA will read the output of a shell pipe instead of the users
10029 file if this variable is set (to the desired shell command).
10030 This can be used to, e.g., store
10033 .Ql ? set netrc-pipe='gpg -qd ~/.netrc.pgp' .
10037 If this variable has the value
10039 newly created local folders will be in Maildir instead of MBOX format.
10043 Checks for new mail in the current folder each time the prompt is shown.
10044 A Maildir folder must be re-scanned to determine if new mail has arrived.
10045 If this variable is set to the special value
10047 then a Maildir folder will not be rescanned completely, but only
10048 timestamp changes are detected.
10052 \*(BO Causes the filename given in the
10055 and the sender-based filenames for the
10059 commands to be interpreted relative to the directory given in the
10061 variable rather than to the current directory,
10062 unless it is set to an absolute pathname.
10064 .Mx Va on-account-cleanup
10065 .It Va on-account-cleanup-ACCOUNT , Va on-account-cleanup
10066 Macro hook which will be called once an
10068 is left, as the very last step before unrolling per-account
10070 This hook is run even in case of fatal errors, and it is advisable to
10071 perform only absolutely necessary actions, like cleaning up
10074 The specialized form is used in favour of the generic one if found.
10077 .It Va on-compose-cleanup
10078 Macro hook which will be called after the message has been sent (or not,
10079 in case of failures), as the very last step before unrolling compose mode
10081 This hook is run even in case of fatal errors, and it is advisable to
10082 perform only absolutely necessary actions, like cleaning up
10086 For compose mode hooks that may affect the message content please see
10087 .Va on-compose-enter , on-compose-leave , on-compose-splice .
10088 \*(ID This hook exists because
10089 .Ic alias , alternates , commandalias , shortcut ,
10090 to name a few, are not covered by
10092 changes applied in compose mode will continue to be in effect thereafter.
10097 .It Va on-compose-enter , on-compose-leave
10098 Macro hooks which will be called once compose mode is entered,
10099 and after composing has been finished, but before a set
10100 .Va message-inject-tail
10101 has been injected etc., respectively.
10103 are enabled for these hooks, and changes on variables will be forgotten
10104 after the message has been sent.
10105 .Va on-compose-cleanup
10106 can be used to perform other necessary cleanup steps.
10108 The following (read-only) variables will be set temporarily during
10109 execution of the macros to represent respective message headers, to
10110 the empty string otherwise; most of them correspond to according virtual
10111 message headers that can be accessed via
10114 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
10116 .Va on-compose-splice
10120 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Va mailx_subject"
10121 .It Va mailx-command
10122 The command that generates the message.
10123 .It Va mailx-subject
10127 .It Va mailx-sender
10129 .It Va mailx-to , mailx-cc , mailx-bcc
10130 The list of receiver addresses as a space-separated list.
10131 .It Va mailx-raw-to , mailx-raw-cc , mailx-raw-bcc
10132 The list of receiver addresses before any mangling (due to, e.g.,
10135 .Va recipients-in-cc )
10136 as a space-separated list.
10137 .It Va mailx-orig-from
10138 When replying, forwarding or resending, this will be set to the
10140 of the given message.
10141 .It Va mailx-orig-to , mailx-orig-cc , mailx-orig-bcc
10142 When replying, forwarding or resending, this will be set to the
10143 receivers of the given message.
10147 Here is am example that injects a signature via
10148 .Va message-inject-tail ;
10150 .Va on-compose-splice
10151 to simply inject the file of desire via
10155 may be a better approach.
10157 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10159 vput ! i cat ~/.mysig
10161 vput vexpr message-inject-tail trim-end $i
10165 readctl create ~/.mysig
10169 vput vexpr message-inject-tail trim-end $i
10171 readctl remove ~/.mysig
10174 set on-compose-leave=t_ocl
10180 .It Va on-compose-splice , on-compose-splice-shell
10181 These hooks run once the normal compose mode is finished, but before the
10182 .Va on-compose-leave
10183 macro hook is called, the
10184 .Va message-inject-tail
10186 Both hooks will be executed in a subprocess, with their input and output
10187 connected to \*(UA such that they can act as if they would be an
10189 The difference in between them is that the latter is a
10191 command, whereas the former is a normal \*(UA macro, but which is
10192 restricted to a small set of commands (the
10196 will indicate said capability).
10198 are enabled for these hooks (in the parent process), causing any setting
10199 to be forgotten after the message has been sent;
10200 .Va on-compose-cleanup
10201 can be used to perform other cleanup as necessary.
10204 During execution of these hooks \*(UA will temporarily forget whether it
10205 has been started in interactive mode, (a restricted set of)
10206 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
10207 will always be available, and for guaranteed reproducibilities sake
10211 will be set to their defaults.
10212 The compose mode command
10214 has been especially designed for scriptability (via these hooks).
10215 The first line the hook will read on its standard input is the protocol
10216 version of said command escape, currently
10218 backward incompatible protocol changes have to be expected.
10221 Care must be taken to avoid deadlocks and other false control flow:
10222 if both involved processes wait for more input to happen at the
10223 same time, or one does not expect more input but the other is stuck
10224 waiting for consumption of its output, etc.
10225 There is no automatic synchronization of the hook: it will not be
10226 stopped automatically just because it, e.g., emits
10228 The hooks will however receive a termination signal if the parent enters
10229 an error condition.
10230 \*(ID Protection against and interaction with signals is not yet given;
10231 it is likely that in the future these scripts will be placed in an
10232 isolated session, which is signalled in its entirety as necessary.
10234 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10235 define ocs_signature {
10237 echo '~< ~/.mysig' # '~<! fortune pathtofortunefile'
10239 set on-compose-splice=ocs_signature
10241 wysh set on-compose-splice-shell=$'\e
10243 printf "hello $version! Headers: ";\e
10244 echo \e'~^header list\e';\e
10245 read status result;\e
10246 echo "status=$status result=$result";\e
10251 echo Splice protocol version is $version
10252 echo '~^h l'; read hl; vput vexpr es substring "${hl}" 0 1
10254 echoerr 'Cannot read header list'; echo '~x'; xit
10256 if [ "$hl" @i!% ' cc' ]
10257 echo '~^h i cc Diet is your <mirr.or>'; read es;\e
10258 vput vexpr es substring "${es}" 0 1
10260 echoerr 'Cannot insert Cc: header'; echo '~x'
10261 # (no xit, macro finishs anyway)
10265 set on-compose-splice=ocsm
10270 .It Va on-resend-cleanup
10272 .Va on-compose-cleanup ,
10273 but is only triggered by
10277 .It Va on-resend-enter
10279 .Va on-compose-enter ,
10280 but is only triggered by
10285 \*(BO If set, each message feed through the command given for
10287 is followed by a formfeed character
10291 .It Va password-USER@HOST , password-HOST , password
10292 \*(IN Variable chain that sets a password, which is used in case none has
10293 been given in the protocol and account-specific URL;
10294 as a last resort \*(UA will ask for a password on the user's terminal if
10295 the authentication method requires a password.
10296 Specifying passwords in a startup file is generally a security risk;
10297 the file should be readable by the invoking user only.
10299 .It Va password-USER@HOST
10300 \*(OU (see the chain above for \*(IN)
10301 Set the password for
10305 If no such variable is defined for a host,
10306 the user will be asked for a password on standard input.
10307 Specifying passwords in a startup file is generally a security risk;
10308 the file should be readable by the invoking user only.
10312 \*(BO Send messages to the
10314 command without performing MIME and character set conversions.
10318 .It Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
10319 When a MIME message part of type
10321 (case-insensitive) is displayed or quoted,
10322 its text is filtered through the value of this variable interpreted as
10324 Note that only parts which can be displayed inline as plain text (see
10325 .Cd copiousoutput )
10326 are displayed unless otherwise noted, other MIME parts will only be
10327 considered by and for the command
10331 The special value commercial at
10333 forces interpretation of the message part as plain text, e.g.,
10334 .Ql set pipe-application/xml=@
10335 will henceforth display XML
10337 (The same could also be achieved by adding a MIME type marker with the
10340 And \*(OPally MIME type handlers may be defined via
10341 .Sx "The Mailcap files"
10342 \(em these directives,
10344 has already been used, should be referred to for further documentation.
10349 can in fact be used as a trigger character to adjust usage and behaviour
10350 of a following shell command specification more thoroughly by appending
10351 more special characters which refer to further mailcap directives, e.g.,
10352 the following hypothetical command specification could be used:
10354 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10355 ? set pipe-X/Y='@!++=@vim ${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}'
10359 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql __"
10361 The command produces plain text to be integrated in \*(UAs output:
10362 .Cd copiousoutput .
10365 If set the handler will not be invoked when a message is to be quoted,
10366 but only when it will be displayed:
10367 .Cd x-mailx-noquote .
10370 Run the command asynchronously, i.e., without blocking \*(UA:
10371 .Cd x-mailx-async .
10374 The command must be run on an interactive terminal, \*(UA will
10375 temporarily release the terminal to it:
10376 .Cd needsterminal .
10379 Request creation of a zero-sized temporary file, the absolute pathname
10380 of which will be made accessible via the environment variable
10381 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY :
10382 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile .
10383 If given twice then the file will be unlinked automatically by \*(UA
10384 when the command loop is entered again at latest:
10385 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink .
10388 Normally the MIME part content is passed to the handler via standard
10389 input; if this flag is set then the data will instead be written into
10390 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY
10391 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill ) ,
10392 the creation of which is implied; note however that in order to cause
10393 deletion of the temporary file you still have to use two plus signs
10398 To avoid ambiguities with normal shell command content you can use
10399 another commercial at to forcefully terminate interpretation of
10400 remaining characters.
10401 (Any character not in this list will have the same effect.)
10405 Some information about the MIME part to be displayed is embedded into
10406 the environment of the shell command:
10409 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ev _AIL__ILENAME__ENERATED"
10411 .It Ev MAILX_CONTENT
10412 The MIME content-type of the part, if known, the empty string otherwise.
10415 .It Ev MAILX_CONTENT_EVIDENCE
10417 .Va mime-counter-evidence
10418 includes the carry-around-bit (2), then this will be set to the detected
10419 MIME content-type; not only then identical to
10420 .Ev \&\&MAILX_CONTENT
10424 .It Ev MAILX_EXTERNAL_BODY_URL
10426 .Ql message/external-body access-type=url
10427 will store the access URL in this variable, it is empty otherwise.
10430 .It Ev MAILX_FILENAME
10431 The filename, if any is set, the empty string otherwise.
10434 .It Ev MAILX_FILENAME_GENERATED
10438 .It Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY
10439 If temporary file creation has been requested through the command prefix
10440 this variable will be set and contain the absolute pathname of the
10446 .It Va pipe-EXTENSION
10447 This is identical to
10448 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
10451 (normalized to lowercase using character mappings of the ASCII charset)
10452 names a file extension, e.g.,
10454 Handlers registered using this method take precedence.
10457 .It Va pop3-auth-USER@HOST , pop3-auth-HOST , pop3-auth
10458 \*(OP\*(IN Variable chain that sets the POP3 authentication method.
10459 The only possible value as of now is
10461 which is thus the default.
10463 .Mx Va pop3-bulk-load
10464 .It Va pop3-bulk-load-USER@HOST , pop3-bulk-load-HOST , pop3-bulk-load
10465 \*(BO\*(OP When accessing a POP3 server \*(UA loads the headers of
10466 the messages, and only requests the message bodies on user request.
10467 For the POP3 protocol this means that the message headers will be
10469 If this variable is set then \*(UA will download only complete messages
10470 from the given POP3 server(s) instead.
10472 .Mx Va pop3-keepalive
10473 .It Va pop3-keepalive-USER@HOST , pop3-keepalive-HOST , pop3-keepalive
10474 \*(OP POP3 servers close the connection after a period of inactivity;
10475 the standard requires this to be at least 10 minutes,
10476 but practical experience may vary.
10477 Setting this variable to a numeric value greater than
10481 command to be sent each value seconds if no other operation is performed.
10483 .Mx Va pop3-no-apop
10484 .It Va pop3-no-apop-USER@HOST , pop3-no-apop-HOST , pop3-no-apop
10485 \*(BO\*(OP Unless this variable is set the
10487 authentication method will be used when connecting to a POP3 server that
10488 advertises support.
10491 is that the password is not sent in clear text over the wire and that
10492 only a single packet is sent for the user/password tuple.
10494 .Va pop3-no-apop-HOST
10497 .Mx Va pop3-use-starttls
10498 .It Va pop3-use-starttls-USER@HOST , pop3-use-starttls-HOST , pop3-use-starttls
10499 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a
10501 command to make an unencrypted POP3 session SSL/TLS encrypted.
10502 This functionality is not supported by all servers,
10503 and is not used if the session is already encrypted by the POP3S method.
10505 .Va pop3-use-starttls-HOST
10511 \*(BO This flag enables POSIX mode, which changes behaviour of \*(UA
10512 where that deviates from standardized behaviour.
10513 It will be set implicitly before the
10514 .Sx "Resource files"
10515 are loaded if the environment variable
10516 .Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT
10517 is set, and adjusting any of those two will be reflected by the other
10519 The following behaviour is covered and enforced by this mechanism:
10522 .Bl -bullet -compact
10524 In non-interactive mode, any error encountered while loading resource
10525 files during program startup will cause a program exit, whereas in
10526 interactive mode such errors will stop loading of the currently loaded
10527 (stack of) file(s, i.e., recursively).
10528 These exits can be circumvented on a per-command base by using
10531 .Sx "Command modifiers" ,
10532 for each command which shall be allowed to fail.
10536 will replace the list of alternate addresses instead of appending to it.
10539 The variable inserting
10540 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
10546 will expand embedded character sequences
10548 horizontal tabulator and
10551 \*(ID For compatibility reasons this step will always be performed.
10554 Upon changing the active
10558 will be displayed even if
10565 implies the behaviour described by
10571 is extended to cover any empty mailbox, not only empty
10573 .Sx "primary system mailbox" Ns
10574 es: they will be removed when they are left in empty state otherwise.
10579 .It Va print-alternatives
10580 \*(BO When a MIME message part of type
10581 .Ql multipart/alternative
10582 is displayed and it contains a subpart of type
10584 other parts are normally discarded.
10585 Setting this variable causes all subparts to be displayed,
10586 just as if the surrounding part was of type
10587 .Ql multipart/mixed .
10591 The string used as a prompt in interactive mode.
10592 Whenever the variable is evaluated the value is treated as if specified
10593 within dollar-single-quotes (see
10594 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ) .
10595 This (post-assignment, i.e., second) expansion can be used to embed
10596 status information, for example
10601 .Va mailbox-display .
10603 In order to embed characters which should not be counted when
10604 calculating the visual width of the resulting string, enclose the
10605 characters of interest in a pair of reverse solidus escaped brackets:
10607 a slot for coloured prompts is also available with the \*(OPal command
10609 Prompting may be prevented by setting this to the null string
10611 .Ql set noprompt ) .
10615 This string is used for secondary prompts, but is otherwise identical to
10622 \*(BO Suppresses the printing of the version when first invoked.
10626 If set, \*(UA starts a replying message with the original message
10627 prefixed by the value of the variable
10629 Normally, a heading consisting of
10630 .Dq Fromheaderfield wrote:
10631 is put before the quotation.
10636 variable, this heading is omitted.
10639 is assigned, only the headers selected by the
10642 selection are put above the message body,
10645 acts like an automatic
10647 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
10651 is assigned, all headers are put above the message body and all MIME
10652 parts are included, making
10654 act like an automatic
10657 .Va quote-as-attachment .
10660 .It Va quote-as-attachment
10661 \*(BO Add the original message in its entirety as a
10663 MIME attachment when replying to a message.
10664 Note this works regardless of the setting of
10669 Can be set to a string consisting of non-whitespace ASCII characters
10670 which shall be treated as quotation leaders, the default being
10675 \*(OP Can be set in addition to
10677 Setting this turns on a more fancy quotation algorithm in that leading
10678 quotation characters
10679 .Pf ( Va quote-chars )
10680 are compressed and overlong lines are folded.
10682 can be set to either one or two (space separated) numeric values,
10683 which are interpreted as the maximum (goal) and the minimum line length,
10684 respectively, in a spirit rather equal to the
10686 program, but line-, not paragraph-based.
10687 If not set explicitly the minimum will reflect the goal algorithmically.
10688 The goal cannot be smaller than the length of
10690 plus some additional pad.
10691 Necessary adjustments take place silently.
10694 .It Va r-option-implicit
10695 \*(BO Setting this option evaluates the contents of
10697 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
10699 and passes the results onto the used (file-based) MTA as described for the
10701 option (empty argument case).
10704 .It Va recipients-in-cc
10711 are by default merged into the new
10713 If this variable is set, only the original
10717 the rest is merged into
10722 Unless this variable is defined, no copies of outgoing mail will be saved.
10723 If defined it gives the pathname, subject to the usual
10724 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
10725 of a folder where all new, replied-to or forwarded messages are saved:
10726 when saving to this folder fails the message is not sent, but instead
10730 The standard defines that relative (fully expanded) paths are to be
10731 interpreted relative to the current directory
10733 to force interpretation relative to
10736 needs to be set in addition.
10739 .It Va record-files
10740 \*(BO If this variable is set the meaning of
10742 will be extended to cover messages which target only file and pipe
10745 These address types will not appear in recipient lists unless
10746 .Va add-file-recipients
10750 .It Va record-resent
10751 \*(BO If this variable is set the meaning of
10753 will be extended to also cover the
10760 .It Va reply-in-same-charset
10761 \*(BO If this variable is set \*(UA first tries to use the same
10762 character set of the original message for replies.
10763 If this fails, the mechanism described in
10764 .Sx "Character sets"
10765 is evaluated as usual.
10768 .It Va reply-strings
10769 Can be set to a comma-separated list of (case-insensitive according to
10770 ASCII rules) strings which shall be recognized in addition to the
10771 built-in strings as
10773 reply message indicators \(en built-in are
10775 which is mandated by RFC 5322, as well as the german
10780 which often has been seen in the wild;
10781 I.e., the separating colon has to be specified explicitly.
10785 A list of addresses to put into the
10787 field of the message header.
10788 Members of this list are handled as if they were in the
10797 .It Va reply-to-honour
10800 header is honoured when replying to a message via
10804 This is a quadoption; if set without a value it defaults to
10808 .It Va rfc822-body-from_
10809 \*(BO This variable can be used to force displaying a so-called
10811 line for messages that are embedded into an envelope mail via the
10813 MIME mechanism, for more visual convenience.
10817 \*(BO Enable saving of (partial) messages in
10819 upon interrupt or delivery error.
10823 The number of lines that represents a
10832 line display and scrolling via
10834 If this variable is not set \*(UA falls back to a calculation based upon
10835 the detected terminal window size and the baud rate: the faster the
10836 terminal, the more will be shown.
10837 Overall screen dimensions and pager usage is influenced by the
10838 environment variables
10846 .It Va searchheaders
10847 \*(BO Expand message-list specifiers in the form
10849 to all messages containing the substring
10851 in the header field
10853 The string search is case insensitive.
10856 .It Va sendcharsets
10857 \*(OP A comma-separated list of character set names that can be used in
10858 outgoing internet mail.
10859 The value of the variable
10861 is automatically appended to this list of character sets.
10862 If no character set conversion capabilities are compiled into \*(UA then
10863 the only supported charset is
10866 .Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
10867 and refer to the section
10868 .Sx "Character sets"
10869 for the complete picture of character set conversion in \*(UA.
10872 .It Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
10873 \*(BO\*(OP If this variable is set, but
10875 is not, then \*(UA acts as if
10877 had been set to the value of the variable
10879 In effect this combination passes through the message data in the
10880 character set of the current locale encoding:
10881 therefore mail message text will be (assumed to be) in ISO-8859-1
10882 encoding when send from within a ISO-8859-1 locale, and in UTF-8
10883 encoding when send from within an UTF-8 locale.
10887 never comes into play as
10889 is implicitly assumed to be 8-bit and capable to represent all files the
10890 user may specify (as is the case when no character set conversion
10891 support is available in \*(UA and the only supported character set is
10893 .Sx "Character sets" ) .
10894 This might be a problem for scripts which use the suggested
10896 setting, since in this case the character set is US-ASCII by definition,
10897 so that it is better to also override
10903 An address that is put into the
10905 field of outgoing messages, quoting RFC 5322: the mailbox of the agent
10906 responsible for the actual transmission of the message.
10907 This field should normally not be used unless the
10909 field contains more than one address, on which case it is required.
10912 address is handled as if it were in the
10916 .Va r-option-implicit .
10919 \*(OB Predecessor of
10922 .It Va sendmail-arguments
10923 \*(OB Predecessor of
10924 .Va mta-arguments .
10926 .It Va sendmail-no-default-arguments
10927 \*(OB\*(BO Predecessor of
10928 .Va mta-no-default-arguments .
10930 .It Va sendmail-progname
10931 \*(OB Predecessor of
10936 \*(BO When sending a message wait until the
10938 (including the built-in SMTP one) exits before accepting further commands.
10940 with this variable set errors reported by the MTA will be recognizable!
10941 If the MTA returns a non-zero exit status,
10942 the exit status of \*(UA will also be non-zero.
10946 \*(BO This setting causes \*(UA to start at the last message
10947 instead of the first one when opening a mail folder, as well as with
10954 \*(BO Causes \*(UA to use the sender's real name instead of the plain
10955 address in the header field summary and in message specifications.
10959 \*(BO Causes the recipient of the message to be shown in the header
10960 summary if the message was sent by the user.
10967 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
10969 .Va message-inject-tail ,
10970 .Va on-compose-leave
10972 .Va on-compose-splice .
10979 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
10981 .Va message-inject-tail ,
10982 .Va on-compose-leave
10984 .Va on-compose-splice .
10989 .Va on-compose-splice
10991 .Va on-compose-splice-shell
10993 .Va on-compose-leave
10995 .Va message-inject-tail
10999 .It Va skipemptybody
11000 \*(BO If an outgoing message does not contain any text in its first or
11001 only message part, do not send it but discard it silently (see also the
11002 command line option
11007 .It Va smime-ca-dir , smime-ca-file
11008 \*(OP Specify the location of trusted CA certificates in PEM (Privacy
11009 Enhanced Mail) format as a directory and a file, respectively, for the
11010 purpose of verification of S/MIME signed messages.
11011 It is possible to set both, the file will be loaded immediately, the
11012 directory will be searched whenever no match has yet been found.
11013 The set of CA certificates which are built into the SSL/TLS library can
11014 be explicitly turned off by setting
11015 .Va smime-ca-no-defaults ,
11016 and further fine-tuning is possible via
11017 .Va smime-ca-flags .
11020 .It Va smime-ca-flags
11021 \*(OP Can be used to fine-tune behaviour of the X509 CA certificate
11022 storage, and the certificate verification that is used.
11023 The actual values and their meanings are documented for
11027 .It Va smime-ca-no-defaults
11028 \*(BO\*(OP Do not load the default CA locations that are built into the
11029 used to SSL/TLS library to verify S/MIME signed messages.
11031 .Mx Va smime-cipher
11032 .It Va smime-cipher-USER@HOST , smime-cipher
11033 \*(OP Specifies the cipher to use when generating S/MIME encrypted
11034 messages (for the specified account).
11035 RFC 5751 mandates a default of
11038 Possible values are (case-insensitive and) in decreasing cipher strength:
11046 (DES EDE3 CBC, 168 bits; default if
11048 is not available) and
11050 (DES CBC, 56 bits).
11052 The actually available cipher algorithms depend on the cryptographic
11053 library that \*(UA uses.
11054 \*(OP Support for more cipher algorithms may be available through
11055 dynamic loading via, e.g.,
11056 .Xr EVP_get_cipherbyname 3
11057 (OpenSSL) if \*(UA has been compiled to support this.
11060 .It Va smime-crl-dir
11061 \*(OP Specifies a directory that contains files with CRLs in PEM format
11062 to use when verifying S/MIME messages.
11065 .It Va smime-crl-file
11066 \*(OP Specifies a file that contains a CRL in PEM format to use when
11067 verifying S/MIME messages.
11070 .It Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST
11071 \*(OP If this variable is set, messages send to the given receiver are
11072 encrypted before sending.
11073 The value of the variable must be set to the name of a file that
11074 contains a certificate in PEM format.
11076 If a message is sent to multiple recipients,
11077 each of them for whom a corresponding variable is set will receive an
11078 individually encrypted message;
11079 other recipients will continue to receive the message in plain text
11081 .Va smime-force-encryption
11083 It is recommended to sign encrypted messages, i.e., to also set the
11088 .It Va smime-force-encryption
11089 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to refuse sending unencrypted messages.
11093 \*(BO\*(OP S/MIME sign outgoing messages with the user's private key
11094 and include the user's certificate as a MIME attachment.
11095 Signing a message enables a recipient to verify that the sender used
11096 a valid certificate,
11097 that the email addresses in the certificate match those in the message
11098 header and that the message content has not been altered.
11099 It does not change the message text,
11100 and people will be able to read the message as usual.
11102 .Va smime-sign-cert , smime-sign-include-certs
11104 .Va smime-sign-message-digest .
11106 .Mx Va smime-sign-cert
11107 .It Va smime-sign-cert-USER@HOST , smime-sign-cert
11108 \*(OP Points to a file in PEM format.
11109 For the purpose of signing and decryption this file needs to contain the
11110 user's private key, followed by his certificate.
11112 For message signing
11114 is always derived from the value of
11116 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
11118 For the purpose of encryption the recipient's public encryption key
11119 (certificate) is expected; the command
11121 can be used to save certificates of signed messages (the section
11122 .Sx "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
11123 gives some details).
11124 This mode of operation is usually driven by the specialized form.
11126 When decrypting messages the account is derived from the recipient
11131 of the message, which are searched for addresses for which such
11133 \*(UA always uses the first address that matches,
11134 so if the same message is sent to more than one of the user's addresses
11135 using different encryption keys, decryption might fail.
11137 For signing and decryption purposes it is possible to use encrypted
11138 keys, and the pseudo-host(s)
11139 .Ql USER@HOST.smime-cert-key
11140 for the private key
11142 .Ql USER@HOST.smime-cert-cert
11143 for the certificate stored in the same file)
11144 will be used for performing any necessary password lookup,
11145 therefore the lookup can be automated via the mechanisms described in
11146 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
11147 For example, the hypothetical address
11149 could be driven with a private key / certificate pair path defined in
11150 .Va \&\&smime-sign-cert-bob@exam.ple ,
11151 and needed passwords would then be looked up via the pseudo hosts
11152 .Ql bob@exam.ple.smime-cert-key
11154 .Ql bob@exam.ple.smime-cert-cert ) .
11155 To include intermediate certificates, use
11156 .Va smime-sign-include-certs .
11158 .Mx Va smime-sign-include-certs
11159 .It Va smime-sign-include-certs-USER@HOST , smime-sign-include-certs
11160 \*(OP If used, this is supposed to a consist of a comma-separated list
11161 of files, each of which containing a single certificate in PEM format to
11162 be included in the S/MIME message in addition to the
11163 .Va smime-sign-cert
11165 This can be used to include intermediate certificates of the certificate
11166 authority, in order to allow the receiver's S/MIME implementation to
11167 perform a verification of the entire certificate chain, starting from
11168 a local root certificate, over the intermediate certificates, down to the
11169 .Va smime-sign-cert .
11170 Even though top level certificates may also be included in the chain,
11171 they won't be used for the verification on the receiver's side.
11173 For the purpose of the mechanisms involved here,
11175 refers to the content of the internal variable
11177 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
11180 .Ql USER@HOST.smime-include-certs
11181 will be used for performing password lookups for these certificates,
11182 shall they have been given one, therefore the lookup can be automated
11183 via the mechanisms described in
11184 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
11186 .Mx Va smime-sign-message-digest
11187 .It Va smime-sign-message-digest-USER@HOST , smime-sign-message-digest
11188 \*(OP Specifies the message digest to use when signing S/MIME messages.
11189 RFC 5751 mandates a default of
11191 Possible values are (case-insensitive and) in decreasing cipher strength:
11199 The actually available message digest algorithms depend on the
11200 cryptographic library that \*(UA uses.
11201 \*(OP Support for more message digest algorithms may be available
11202 through dynamic loading via, e.g.,
11203 .Xr EVP_get_digestbyname 3
11204 (OpenSSL) if \*(UA has been compiled to support this.
11205 Remember that for this
11207 refers to the variable
11209 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
11213 \*(OB\*(OP To use the built-in SMTP transport, specify a SMTP URL in
11215 \*(ID For compatibility reasons a set
11217 is used in preference of
11221 .It Va smtp-auth-USER@HOST , smtp-auth-HOST , smtp-auth
11222 \*(OP Variable chain that controls the SMTP
11224 authentication method, possible values are
11230 as well as the \*(OPal methods
11236 method does not need any user credentials,
11238 requires a user name and all other methods require a user name and
11246 .Va smtp-auth-password
11248 .Va smtp-auth-user ) .
11253 .Va smtp-auth-USER@HOST :
11254 may override dependent on sender address in the variable
11257 .It Va smtp-auth-password
11258 \*(OP\*(OU Sets the global fallback password for SMTP authentication.
11259 If the authentication method requires a password, but neither
11260 .Va smtp-auth-password
11262 .Va smtp-auth-password-USER@HOST
11264 \*(UA will ask for a password on the user's terminal.
11266 .It Va smtp-auth-password-USER@HOST
11268 .Va smtp-auth-password
11269 for specific values of sender addresses, dependent upon the variable
11272 .It Va smtp-auth-user
11273 \*(OP\*(OU Sets the global fallback user name for SMTP authentication.
11274 If the authentication method requires a user name, but neither
11277 .Va smtp-auth-user-USER@HOST
11279 \*(UA will ask for a user name on the user's terminal.
11281 .It Va smtp-auth-user-USER@HOST
11284 for specific values of sender addresses, dependent upon the variable
11288 .It Va smtp-hostname
11289 \*(OP\*(IN Normally \*(UA uses the variable
11291 to derive the necessary
11293 information in order to issue a
11300 can be used to use the
11302 from the SMTP account
11309 from the content of this variable (or, if that is the empty string,
11311 or the local hostname as a last resort).
11312 This often allows using an address that is itself valid but hosted by
11313 a provider other than which (in
11315 is about to send the message.
11316 Setting this variable also influences generated
11321 If the \*(OPal IDNA support is available (see
11323 variable assignment is aborted when a necessary conversion fails.
11325 .Mx Va smtp-use-starttls
11326 .It Va smtp-use-starttls-USER@HOST , smtp-use-starttls-HOST , smtp-use-starttls
11327 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a
11329 command to make an SMTP
11331 session SSL/TLS encrypted, i.e., to enable transport layer security.
11334 .It Va socks-proxy-USER@HOST , socks-proxy-HOST , socks-proxy
11335 \*(OP If this is set to the hostname (SOCKS URL) of a SOCKS5 server then
11336 \*(UA will proxy all of its network activities through it.
11337 This can be used to proxy SMTP, POP3 etc. network traffic through the
11338 Tor anonymizer, for example.
11339 The following would create a local SOCKS proxy on port 10000 that
11340 forwards to the machine
11342 and from which the network traffic is actually instantiated:
11343 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11344 # Create local proxy server in terminal 1 forwarding to HOST
11345 $ ssh -D 10000 USER@HOST
11346 # Then, start a client that uses it in terminal 2
11347 $ \*(uA -Ssocks-proxy-USER@HOST=localhost:10000
11351 .It Va spam-interface
11352 \*(OP In order to use any of the spam-related commands (like, e.g.,
11354 the desired spam interface must be defined by setting this variable.
11355 Please refer to the manual section
11356 .Sx "Handling spam"
11357 for the complete picture of spam handling in \*(UA.
11358 All or none of the following interfaces may be available:
11360 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ql _ilte_"
11366 .Pf ( Lk http://spamassassin.apache.org SpamAssassin )
11368 Different to the generic filter interface \*(UA will automatically add
11369 the correct arguments for a given command and has the necessary
11370 knowledge to parse the program's output.
11371 A default value for
11373 will have been compiled into the \*(UA binary if
11377 during compilation.
11378 Shall it be necessary to define a specific connection type (rather than
11379 using a configuration file for that), the variable
11380 .Va spamc-arguments
11381 can be used as in, e.g.,
11382 .Ql -d server.example.com -p 783 .
11383 It is also possible to specify a per-user configuration via
11385 Note that this interface does not inspect the
11387 flag of a message for the command
11391 generic spam filter support via freely configurable hooks.
11392 This interface is meant for programs like
11394 and requires according behaviour in respect to the hooks' exit
11395 status for at least the command
11398 meaning a message is spam,
11402 for unsure and any other return value indicating a hard error);
11403 since the hooks can include shell code snippets diverting behaviour
11404 can be intercepted as necessary.
11406 .Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , spamfilter-nospam , \
11409 .Va spamfilter-spam ;
11411 .Sx "Handling spam"
11412 contains examples for some programs.
11413 The process environment of the hooks will have the variable
11414 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_GENERATED
11416 Note that spam score support for
11418 is not supported unless the \*(OPtional regular expression support is
11420 .Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore
11426 .It Va spam-maxsize
11427 \*(OP Messages that exceed this size will not be passed through to the
11429 .Va spam-interface .
11430 If unset or 0, the default of 420000 bytes is used.
11433 .It Va spamc-command
11434 \*(OP The path to the
11438 .Va spam-interface .
11439 Note that the path is not expanded, but used
11441 A fallback path will have been compiled into the \*(UA binary if the
11442 executable had been found during compilation.
11445 .It Va spamc-arguments
11446 \*(OP Even though \*(UA deals with most arguments for the
11449 automatically, it may at least sometimes be desirable to specify
11450 connection-related ones via this variable, e.g.,
11451 .Ql -d server.example.com -p 783 .
11455 \*(OP Specify a username for per-user configuration files for the
11457 .Va spam-interface .
11458 If this is set to the empty string then \*(UA will use the name of the
11467 .It Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , \
11468 spamfilter-nospam , spamfilter-rate , spamfilter-spam
11469 \*(OP Command and argument hooks for the
11471 .Va spam-interface .
11473 .Sx "Handling spam"
11474 contains examples for some programs.
11477 .It Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore
11478 \*(OP Because of the generic nature of the
11481 spam scores are not supported for it by default, but if the \*(OPnal
11482 regular expression support is available then setting this variable can
11483 be used to overcome this restriction.
11484 It is interpreted as follows: first a number (digits) is parsed that
11485 must be followed by a semicolon
11487 and an extended regular expression.
11488 Then the latter is used to parse the first output line of the
11489 .Va spamfilter-rate
11490 hook, and, in case the evaluation is successful, the group that has been
11491 specified via the number is interpreted as a floating point scan score.
11495 .It Va ssl-ca-dir-USER@HOST , ssl-ca-dir-HOST , ssl-ca-dir ,\
11496 ssl-ca-file-USER@HOST , ssl-ca-file-HOST , ssl-ca-file
11497 \*(OP Specify the location of trusted CA certificates in PEM (Privacy
11498 Enhanced Mail) format as a directory and a file, respectively, for the
11499 purpose of verification of SSL/TLS server certificates.
11500 It is possible to set both, the file will be loaded immediately, the
11501 directory will be searched whenever no match has yet been found.
11502 The set of CA certificates which are built into the SSL/TLS library can
11503 be explicitly turned off by setting
11504 .Va ssl-ca-no-defaults ,
11505 and further fine-tuning is possible via
11508 .Xr SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations 3
11509 for more information.
11510 \*(UA will try to use the TLS/SNI (ServerNameIndication) extension when
11511 establishing TLS connections to servers identified with hostnames.
11514 .Mx Va ssl-ca-flags
11515 .It Va ssl-ca-flags-USER@HOST , ssl-ca-flags-HOST , ssl-ca-flags
11516 \*(OP Can be used to fine-tune behaviour of the X509 CA certificate
11517 storage, and the certificate verification that is used (also see
11519 The value is expected to consist of a comma-separated list of
11520 configuration directives, with any intervening whitespace being ignored.
11521 The directives directly map to flags that can be passed to
11522 .Xr X509_STORE_set_flags 3 ,
11523 which are usually defined in a file
11524 .Pa openssl/x509_vfy.h ,
11525 and the availability of which depends on the used SSL/TLS library
11526 version: a directive without mapping is ignored (error log subject to
11528 Directives currently understood (case-insensitively) include:
11531 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Cd BaNg"
11532 .It Cd no-alt-chains
11533 If the initial chain is not trusted, do not attempt to build an
11535 Setting this flag will make OpenSSL certificate verification match that
11536 of older OpenSSL versions, before automatic building and checking of
11537 alternative chains has been implemented; also see
11538 .Cd trusted-first .
11539 .It Cd no-check-time
11540 Do not check certificate/CRL validity against current time.
11541 .It Cd partial-chain
11542 By default partial, incomplete chains which cannot be verified up to the
11543 chain top, a self-signed root certificate, will not verify.
11544 With this flag set, a chain succeeds to verify if at least one signing
11545 certificate of the chain is in any of the configured trusted stores of
11547 The OpenSSL manual page
11548 .Xr SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations 3
11549 gives some advise how to manage your own trusted store of CA certificates.
11551 Disable workarounds for broken certificates.
11552 .It Cd trusted-first
11553 Try building a chain using issuers in the trusted store first to avoid
11554 problems with server-sent legacy intermediate certificates.
11555 Newer versions of OpenSSL support alternative chain checking and enable
11556 it by default, resulting in the same behaviour; also see
11557 .Cd no-alt-chains .
11561 .Mx Va ssl-ca-no-defaults
11562 .It Va ssl-ca-no-defaults-USER@HOST , ssl-ca-no-defaults-HOST ,\
11564 \*(BO\*(OP Do not load the default CA locations that are built into the
11565 used to SSL/TLS library to verify SSL/TLS server certificates.
11568 .It Va ssl-cert-USER@HOST , ssl-cert-HOST , ssl-cert
11569 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
11572 .Va ssl-config-pairs .
11574 .Mx Va ssl-cipher-list
11575 .It Va ssl-cipher-list-USER@HOST , ssl-cipher-list-HOST , ssl-cipher-list
11576 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
11579 .Va ssl-config-pairs .
11582 .It Va ssl-config-file
11583 \*(OP If this variable is set
11584 .Xr CONF_modules_load_file 3
11586 .Ql +modules-load-file
11589 is used to allow resource file based configuration of the SSL/TLS library.
11590 This happens once the library is used first, which may also be early
11591 during startup (logged with
11593 If a non-empty value is given then the given file, after performing
11594 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
11595 will be used instead of the global OpenSSL default, and it is an error
11596 if the file cannot be loaded.
11597 The application name will always be passed as
11599 Some SSL/TLS libraries support application-specific configuration via
11600 resource files loaded like this, please see
11601 .Va ssl-config-module .
11603 .Mx Va ssl-config-module
11604 .It Va ssl-config-module-USER@HOST , ssl-config-module-HOST ,\
11606 \*(OP If file based application-specific configuration via
11607 .Va ssl-config-file
11608 is available, announced as
11612 indicating availability of
11613 .Xr SSL_CTX_config 3 ,
11614 then, it becomes possible to use a central SSL/TLS configuration file
11615 for all programs, including \*(uA, e.g.:
11616 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11617 # Register a configuration section for \*(uA
11618 \*(uA = mailx_master
11619 # The top configuration section creates a relation
11620 # in between dynamic SSL configuration and an actual
11621 # program specific configuration section
11623 ssl_conf = mailx_ssl_config
11624 # Well that actual program specific configuration section
11625 # now can map individual ssl-config-module names to sections,
11626 # e.g., ssl-config-module=account_xy
11628 account_xy = mailx_account_xy
11629 account_yz = mailx_account_yz
11631 MinProtocol = TLSv1.2
11634 CipherString = TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:
11635 MinProtocol = TLSv1.1
11640 .Mx Va ssl-config-pairs
11641 .It Va ssl-config-pairs-USER@HOST , ssl-config-pairs-HOST , ssl-config-pairs
11642 \*(OP The value of this variable chain will be interpreted as
11643 a comma-separated list of directive/value pairs.
11644 Different to when placing these pairs in a
11645 .Va ssl-config-module
11647 .Va ssl-config-file
11650 need to be escaped with a reverse solidus
11652 when included in pairs.
11653 Just likewise directives and values need to be separated by equals signs
11655 any whitespace surrounding pair members is removed.
11656 Keys are (usually) case-insensitive.
11657 Unless proper support is announced by
11659 .Pf ( Ql +conf-ctx )
11660 only the keys below are supported, otherwise the pairs will be used
11661 directly as arguments to the function
11662 .Xr SSL_CONF_cmd 3 .
11665 may be preceded with an asterisk
11668 .Sx "Filename transformations"
11669 shall be performed on the value; it is an error if these fail.
11672 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Cd C_rtificate"
11674 Filename of a SSL/TLS client certificate (chain) required by some servers.
11675 Fallback support via
11676 .Xr SSL_CTX_use_certificate_chain_file 3 .
11677 .Sx "Filename transformations"
11679 .\" v15compat: remove the next sentence
11681 if you use this you need to specify the private key via
11687 A list of ciphers for SSL/TLS connections, see
11689 By default no list of ciphers is set, resulting in a
11690 .Cd Protocol Ns - Ns
11691 specific list of ciphers (the protocol standards define lists of
11692 acceptable ciphers; possibly cramped by the used SSL/TLS library).
11693 Fallback support via
11694 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_cipher_list 3 .
11697 A list of supported elliptic curves, if applicable.
11698 By default no curves are set.
11699 Fallback support via
11700 .Xr SSL_CTX_set1_curves_list 3 ,
11703 .It Cd MaxProtocol , MinProtocol
11704 The maximum and minimum supported SSL/TLS versions, respectively.
11705 Optional fallback support via
11706 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_max_proto_version 3
11708 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_min_proto_version 3
11712 .Ql +ctx-set-maxmin-proto ,
11713 otherwise this directive results in an error.
11714 The fallback uses an internal parser which understands the strings
11719 and the special value
11721 which disables the given limit.
11724 Various flags to set.
11726 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_options 3 ,
11727 in which case any other value but (exactly)
11729 results in an error.
11732 Filename of the private key in PEM format of a SSL/TLS client certificate.
11733 If unset, the name of the certificate file is used.
11734 .Sx "Filename transformations"
11737 .Xr SSL_CTX_use_PrivateKey_file 3 .
11738 .\" v15compat: remove the next sentence
11740 if you use this you need to specify the certificate (chain) via
11746 The used SSL/TLS protocol.
11752 .Ql ctx-set-maxmin-proto
11759 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_options 3 ,
11760 driven via an internal parser which understands the strings
11765 and the special value
11767 Multiple protocols may be given as a comma-separated list, any
11768 whitespace is ignored, an optional plus sign
11770 prefix enables, a hyphen-minus
11772 prefix disables a protocol, so that
11774 enables only the TLSv1.2 protocol.
11780 .It Va ssl-crl-dir , ssl-crl-file
11781 \*(OP Specify a directory / a file, respectively that contains a CRL in
11782 PEM format to use when verifying SSL/TLS server certificates.
11785 .It Va ssl-curves-USER@HOST , ssl-curves-HOST , ssl-curves
11786 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
11789 .Va ssl-config-pairs .
11792 .It Va ssl-features
11793 \*(OP\*(RO This expands to a comma separated list of the TLS/SSL library
11794 identity and optional TLS/SSL library features.
11795 Currently supported identities are
11799 (OpenSSL v1.1.x series)
11802 (elder OpenSSL series, other clones).
11803 Optional features are preceded with a plus sign
11805 when available, and with a hyphen-minus
11808 .Ql modules-load-file
11809 .Pf ( Va ssl-config-file ) ,
11811 .Pf ( Va ssl-config-pairs ) ,
11813 .Pf ( Va ssl-config-module ) ,
11814 .Ql ctx-set-maxmin-proto
11815 .Pf ( Va ssl-config-pairs )
11818 .Pf ( Va ssl-rand-egd ) .
11821 .It Va ssl-key-USER@HOST , ssl-key-HOST , ssl-key
11822 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
11825 .Va ssl-config-pairs .
11827 .It Va ssl-method-USER@HOST , ssl-method-HOST , ssl-method
11828 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
11831 .Va ssl-config-pairs .
11833 .Mx Va ssl-protocol
11834 .It Va ssl-protocol-USER@HOST , ssl-protocol-HOST , ssl-protocol
11835 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
11838 .Va ssl-config-pairs .
11841 .It Va ssl-rand-egd
11842 \*(OP Gives the pathname to an entropy daemon socket, see
11844 Not all SSL/TLS libraries support this,
11846 announces availability with
11850 .It Va ssl-rand-file
11851 \*(OP Gives the filename to a file with random entropy data, see
11852 .Xr RAND_load_file 3 .
11853 If this variable is not set, or set to the empty string, or if the
11854 .Sx "Filename transformations"
11856 .Xr RAND_file_name 3
11857 will be used to create the filename.
11858 If the SSL PRNG was seeded successfully
11859 The file will be updated
11860 .Pf ( Xr RAND_write_file 3 )
11861 if and only if seeding and buffer stirring succeeds.
11862 This variable is only used if
11864 is not set (or not supported by the SSL/TLS library).
11867 .It Va ssl-verify-USER@HOST , ssl-verify-HOST , ssl-verify
11868 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the action to be performed if an error
11869 occurs during SSL/TLS server certificate validation against the
11870 specified or default trust stores
11873 or the SSL/TLS library built-in defaults (unless usage disallowed via
11874 .Va ssl-ca-no-defaults ) ,
11875 and as fine-tuned via
11877 Valid (case-insensitive) values are
11879 (fail and close connection immediately),
11881 (ask whether to continue on standard input),
11883 (show a warning and continue),
11885 (do not perform validation).
11891 If only set without an assigned value, then this setting inhibits the
11897 header fields that include obvious references to \*(UA.
11898 There are two pitfalls associated with this:
11899 First, the message id of outgoing messages is not known anymore.
11900 Second, an expert may still use the remaining information in the header
11901 to track down the originating mail user agent.
11902 If set to the value
11908 suppression does not occur.
11911 .It Va system-mailrc
11912 \*(RO The compiled in path of the system wide initialization file
11914 .Sx "Resource files" :
11920 (\*(OP) This specifies a comma-separated list of
11925 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" ,
11926 escape commas with reverse solidus) to be used to overwrite or define
11929 this variable will only be queried once at program startup and can
11930 thus only be specified in resource files or on the command line.
11933 String capabilities form
11935 pairs and are expected unless noted otherwise.
11936 Numerics have to be notated as
11938 where the number is expected in normal decimal notation.
11939 Finally, booleans do not have any value but indicate a true or false
11940 state simply by being defined or not; this indeed means that \*(UA
11941 does not support undefining an existing boolean.
11942 String capability values will undergo some expansions before use:
11943 for one notations like
11946 .Ql control-LETTER ,
11947 and for clarification purposes
11949 can be used to specify
11951 (the control notation
11953 could lead to misreadings when a left bracket follows, which it does for
11954 the standard CSI sequence);
11955 finally three letter octal sequences, as in
11958 To specify that a terminal supports 256-colours, and to define sequences
11959 that home the cursor and produce an audible bell, one might write:
11961 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11962 ? set termcap='Co#256,home=\eE[H,bel=^G'
11966 The following terminal capabilities are or may be meaningful for the
11967 operation of the built-in line editor or \*(UA in general:
11970 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Cd yay"
11972 .It Cd colors Ns \0or Cd Co
11974 numeric capability specifying the maximum number of colours.
11975 Note that \*(UA does not actually care about the terminal beside that,
11976 but always emits ANSI / ISO 6429 escape sequences.
11979 .It Cd rmcup Ns \0or Cd te Ns \0/ Cd smcup Ns \0or Cd ti
11982 .Cd enter_ca_mode ,
11983 respectively: exit and enter the alternative screen ca-mode,
11984 effectively turning \*(UA into a fullscreen application.
11985 This must be enabled explicitly by setting
11986 .Va termcap-ca-mode .
11988 .It Cd smkx Ns \0or Cd ks Ns \0/ Cd rmkx Ns \0or Cd ke
11992 respectively: enable and disable the keypad.
11993 This is always enabled if available, because it seems even keyboards
11994 without keypads generate other key codes for, e.g., cursor keys in that
11995 case, and only if enabled we see the codes that we are interested in.
11997 .It Cd ed Ns \0or Cd cd
12001 .It Cd clear Ns \0or Cd cl
12003 clear the screen and home cursor.
12004 (Will be simulated via
12009 .It Cd home Ns \0or Cd ho
12014 .It Cd el Ns \0or Cd ce
12016 clear to the end of line.
12017 (Will be simulated via
12019 plus repetitions of space characters.)
12021 .It Cd hpa Ns \0or Cd ch
12022 .Cd column_address :
12023 move the cursor (to the given column parameter) in the current row.
12024 (Will be simulated via
12030 .Cd carriage_return :
12031 move to the first column in the current row.
12032 The default built-in fallback is
12035 .It Cd cub1 Ns \0or Cd le
12037 move the cursor left one space (non-destructively).
12038 The default built-in fallback is
12041 .It Cd cuf1 Ns \0or Cd nd
12043 move the cursor right one space (non-destructively).
12044 The default built-in fallback is
12046 which is used by most terminals.
12054 Many more capabilities which describe key-sequences are documented for
12059 .It Va termcap-ca-mode
12060 \*(OP Allow usage of the
12064 terminal capabilities, effectively turning \*(UA into a fullscreen
12065 application, as documented for
12068 this variable will only be queried once at program startup and can
12069 thus only be specified in resource files or on the command line.
12072 .It Va termcap-disable
12073 \*(OP Disable any interaction with a terminal control library.
12074 If set only some generic fallback built-ins and possibly the content of
12076 describe the terminal to \*(UA.
12078 this variable will only be queried once at program startup and can
12079 thus only be specified in resource files or on the command line.
12083 If defined, gives the number of lines of a message to be displayed
12086 if unset, the first five lines are printed, if set to 0 the variable
12089 If the value is negative then its absolute value will be used for
12090 unsigned right shifting (see
12098 \*(BO If set then the
12100 command series will strip adjacent empty lines and quotations.
12104 The character set of the terminal \*(UA operates on,
12105 and the one and only supported character set that \*(UA can use if no
12106 character set conversion capabilities have been compiled into it,
12107 in which case it defaults to ISO-8859-1.
12108 Otherwise it defaults to UTF-8.
12109 Sufficient locale support provided the default will be preferably
12110 deduced from the locale environment if that is set (e.g.,
12112 see there for more); runtime locale changes will be reflected by
12114 except during the program startup phase and if
12116 had been used to freeze the given value.
12117 Refer to the section
12118 .Sx "Character sets"
12119 for the complete picture about character sets.
12122 .It Va typescript-mode
12123 \*(BO A special multiplex variable that disables all variables and
12124 settings which result in behaviour that interferes with running \*(UA in
12127 .Va colour-disable ,
12128 .Va line-editor-disable
12129 and (before startup completed only)
12130 .Va termcap-disable .
12131 Unsetting it does not restore the former state of the covered settings.
12135 For a safe-by-default policy the process file mode creation mask
12139 on program startup by default.
12140 Child processes inherit the file mode creation mask of their parent, and
12141 by setting this variable to an empty value no change will be applied,
12142 and the inherited value will be used.
12143 Otherwise the given value will be made the new file mode creation mask.
12146 .It Va user-HOST , user
12147 \*(IN Variable chain that sets a global fallback user name, which is
12148 used in case none has been given in the protocol and account-specific
12150 This variable defaults to the name of the user who runs \*(UA.
12154 \*(BO Setting this enables upward compatibility with \*(UA
12155 version 15.0 in respect to which configuration options are available and
12156 how they are handled.
12157 This manual uses \*(IN and \*(OU to refer to the new and the old way of
12158 doing things, respectively.
12162 \*(BO This setting, also controllable via the command line option
12164 causes \*(UA to be more verbose, e.g., it will display obsoletion
12165 warnings and SSL/TLS certificate chains.
12166 Even though marked \*(BO this option may be set twice in order to
12167 increase the level of verbosity even more, in which case even details of
12168 the actual message delivery and protocol conversations are shown.
12171 is sufficient to disable verbosity as such.
12178 .It Va version , version-date , \
12179 version-hexnum , version-major , version-minor , version-update
12180 \*(RO \*(UA version information: the first variable is a string with
12181 the complete version identification, the second the release date in ISO
12182 8601 notation without time.
12183 The third is a 32-bit hexadecimal number with the upper 8 bits storing
12184 the major, followed by the minor and update version numbers which occupy
12186 The latter three variables contain only decimal digits: the major, minor
12187 and update version numbers.
12188 The output of the command
12190 will include this information.
12193 .It Va writebackedited
12194 If this variable is set messages modified using the
12198 commands are written back to the current folder when it is quit;
12199 it is only honoured for writable folders in MBOX format, though.
12200 Note that the editor will be pointed to the raw message content in that
12201 case, i.e., neither MIME decoding nor decryption will have been
12202 performed, and proper RFC 4155
12204 quoting of newly added or edited content is also left as an exercise to
12207 .\" }}} (Variables)
12209 .\" }}} (INTERNAL VARIABLES)
12212 .\" .Sh ENVIRONMENT {{{
12216 .Dq environment variable
12217 should be considered an indication that these variables are either
12218 standardized as vivid parts of process environments, or that they are
12219 commonly found in there.
12220 The process environment is inherited from the
12222 once \*(UA is started, and unless otherwise explicitly noted handling of
12223 the following variables transparently integrates into that of the
12224 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
12225 from \*(UA's point of view.
12226 This means that, e.g., they can be managed via
12230 causing automatic program environment updates (to be inherited by
12231 newly created child processes).
12234 In order to transparently integrate other environment variables equally
12235 they need to be imported (linked) with the command
12237 This command can also be used to set and unset non-integrated
12238 environment variables from scratch, sufficient system support provided.
12239 The following example, applicable to a POSIX shell, sets the
12241 environment variable for \*(UA only, and beforehand exports the
12243 in order to affect any further processing in the running shell:
12245 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12246 $ EDITOR="vim -u ${HOME}/.vimrc"
12248 $ COLUMNS=80 \*(uA -R
12251 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ev BaNg"
12254 The user's preferred width in column positions for the terminal screen
12256 Queried and used once on program startup, actively managed for child
12257 processes and the MLE (see
12258 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
12259 in interactive mode thereafter.
12260 Ignored in non-interactive mode, which always uses 80 columns, unless in
12266 The name of the (mailbox)
12268 to use for saving aborted messages if
12270 is set; this defaults to
12274 is set no output will be generated, otherwise the contents of the file
12279 Pathname of the text editor to use in the
12283 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
12284 A default editor is used if this value is not defined.
12288 The user's home directory.
12289 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
12290 The calling user's home directory will be used instead if this directory
12291 does not exist, is not accessible or cannot be read;
12292 it will always be used for the root user.
12293 (No test for being writable is performed to allow usage by
12294 non-privileged users within read-only jails, but dependent on the
12295 variable settings this directory is a default write target, e.g. for
12303 .It Ev LC_ALL , LC_CTYPE , LANG
12304 \*(OP The (names in lookup order of the)
12308 which indicates the used
12309 .Sx "Character sets" .
12310 Runtime changes trigger automatic updates of the entire locale system,
12311 which includes updating
12313 (except during startup if the variable has been frozen via
12318 The user's preferred number of lines on a page or the vertical screen
12319 or window size in lines.
12320 Queried and used once on program startup, actively managed for child
12321 processes in interactive mode thereafter.
12322 Ignored in non-interactive mode, which always uses 24 lines, unless in
12328 Pathname of the directory lister to use in the
12330 command when operating on local mailboxes.
12333 (path search through
12338 Upon startup \*(UA will actively ensure that this variable refers to the
12339 name of the user who runs \*(UA, in order to be able to pass a verified
12340 name to any newly created child process.
12344 Is used as the users
12346 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
12350 This is assumed to be an absolute pathname.
12354 \*(OP Overrides the default path search for
12355 .Sx "The Mailcap files" ,
12356 which is defined in the standard RFC 1524 as
12357 .Ql ~/.mailcap:\:/etc/mailcap:\:/usr/etc/mailcap:\:/usr/local/etc/mailcap .
12358 .\" TODO we should have a mailcaps-default virtual RDONLY option!
12359 (\*(UA makes it a configuration option, however.)
12360 Note this is not a search path, but a path search.
12364 Is used as a startup file instead of
12367 In order to avoid side-effects from configuration files scripts should
12368 either set this variable to
12372 command line option should be used.
12375 .It Ev MAILX_NO_SYSTEM_RC
12376 If this variable is set then reading of
12379 .Va system-mailrc )
12380 at startup is inhibited, i.e., the same effect is achieved as if \*(UA
12381 had been started up with the option
12383 (and according argument) or
12385 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
12389 The name of the users
12391 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
12393 A logical subset of the special
12394 .Sx "Filename transformations"
12400 Traditionally this MBOX is used as the file to save messages from the
12402 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
12403 that have been read.
12405 .Sx "Message states" .
12409 \*(IN\*(OP This variable overrides the default location of the user's
12415 Pathname of the program to use for backing the command
12419 variable enforces usage of a pager for output.
12420 The default paginator is
12422 (path search through
12425 \*(UA inspects the contents of this variable: if its contains the string
12427 then a non-existing environment variable
12434 will optionally be set to
12441 A colon-separated list of directories that is searched by the shell when
12442 looking for commands, e.g.,
12443 .Ql /bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin .
12446 .It Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT
12447 This variable is automatically looked for upon startup, see
12453 The shell to use for the commands
12458 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
12459 and when starting subprocesses.
12460 A default shell is used if this environment variable is not defined.
12463 .It Ev SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
12464 Specifies a time in seconds since the Unix epoch (1970-01-01) to be
12465 used in place of the current time.
12466 This variable is looked up upon program startup, and its existence will
12467 switch \*(UA to a reproducible mode
12468 .Pf ( Lk https://reproducible-builds.org )
12469 which uses deterministic random numbers, a special fixated pseudo
12472 This operation mode is used for development and by software packagers.
12473 \*(ID Currently an invalid setting is only ignored, rather than causing
12474 a program abortion.
12476 .Dl $ SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH=`date +%s` \*(uA
12480 \*(OP The terminal type for which output is to be prepared.
12481 For extended colour and font control please refer to
12482 .Sx "Coloured display" ,
12483 and for terminal management in general to
12484 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" .
12488 Except for the root user this variable defines the directory for
12489 temporary files to be used instead of
12491 (or the given compile-time constant) if set, existent, accessible as
12492 well as read- and writable.
12493 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment,
12494 but \*(UA will ensure at startup that this environment variable is
12495 updated to contain a usable temporary directory.
12501 (see there), but this variable is not standardized, should therefore not
12502 be used, and is only corrected if already set.
12506 Pathname of the text editor to use in the
12510 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
12520 .Bl -tag -width ".It Pa BaNg"
12522 User-specific file giving initial commands, one of the
12523 .Sx "Resource files" .
12524 The actual value is read from
12528 System wide initialization file, one of the
12529 .Sx "Resource files" .
12530 The actual value is read from
12531 .Va system-mailrc .
12535 \*(OP Personal MIME type handler definition file, see
12536 .Sx "The Mailcap files" .
12537 This location is part of the RFC 1524 standard search path, which is
12538 a configuration option and can be overridden via
12542 .It Pa /etc/mailcap
12543 \*(OP System wide MIME type handler definition file, see
12544 .Sx "The Mailcap files" .
12545 This location is part of the RFC 1524 standard search path, which is
12546 a configuration option and can be overridden via
12550 The default value for
12555 Personal MIME types, see
12556 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
12560 System wide MIME types, see
12561 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
12565 \*(IN\*(OP The default location of the users
12567 file \(en the section
12568 .Sx "The .netrc file"
12569 documents the file format.
12570 The actually used path can be overridden via
12580 .\" .Ss "Resource files" {{{
12581 .Ss "Resource files"
12583 Upon startup \*(UA reads in several resource files, in order:
12585 .Bl -tag -width ".It Pa BaNg"
12588 System wide initialization file
12589 .Pf ( Va system-mailrc ) .
12590 Reading of this file can be suppressed, either by using the
12592 (and according argument) or
12594 command line options, or by setting the
12597 .Ev MAILX_NO_SYSTEM_RC .
12601 File giving initial commands.
12602 A different file can be chosen by setting the
12606 Reading of this file can be suppressed with the
12608 command line option.
12610 .It Va mailx-extra-rc
12611 Defines a startup file to be read after all other resource files.
12612 It can be used to specify settings that are not understood by other
12614 implementations, for example.
12615 This variable is only honoured when defined in a resource file, e.g.,
12617 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" .
12621 The content of these files is interpreted as follows:
12624 .Bl -bullet -compact
12626 The whitespace characters space, tabulator and newline,
12627 as well as those defined by the variable
12629 are removed from the beginning and end of input lines.
12631 Empty lines are ignored.
12633 Any other line is interpreted as a command.
12634 It may be spread over multiple input lines if the newline character is
12636 by placing a reverse solidus character
12638 as the last character of the line; whereas any leading whitespace of
12639 follow lines is ignored, trailing whitespace before a escaped newline
12640 remains in the input.
12642 If the line (content) starts with the number sign
12644 then it is a comment-command and also ignored.
12645 (The comment-command is a real command, which does nothing, and
12646 therefore the usual follow lines mechanism applies!)
12650 Unless \*(UA is about to enter interactive mode syntax errors that occur
12651 while loading these files are treated as errors and cause program exit.
12652 More files with syntactically equal content can be
12654 The following, saved in a file, would be an examplary content:
12656 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12657 # This line is a comment command. And y\e
12658 es, it is really continued here.
12665 .\" .Ss "The mime.types files" {{{
12666 .Ss "The mime.types files"
12669 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments"
12670 \*(UA needs to learn about MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions)
12671 media types in order to classify message and attachment content.
12672 One source for them are
12674 files, the loading of which can be controlled by setting the variable
12675 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
12676 Another is the command
12678 which also offers access to \*(UAs MIME type cache.
12680 files have the following syntax:
12682 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12683 type/subtype extension [extension ...]
12684 # E.g., text/html html htm
12690 define the MIME media type, as standardized in RFC 2046:
12692 is used to declare the general type of data, while the
12694 specifies a specific format for that type of data.
12695 One or multiple filename
12697 s, separated by whitespace, can be bound to the media type format.
12698 Comments may be introduced anywhere on a line with a number sign
12700 causing the remaining line to be discarded.
12702 \*(UA also supports an extended, non-portable syntax in especially
12703 crafted files, which can be loaded via the alternative value syntax of
12704 .Va mimetypes-load-control ,
12705 and prepends an optional
12709 .Dl [type-marker ]type/subtype extension [extension ...]
12712 The following type markers are supported:
12715 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar _n_u"
12717 Treat message parts with this content as plain text.
12722 Treat message parts with this content as HTML tagsoup.
12723 If the \*(OPal HTML-tagsoup-to-text converter is not available treat
12724 the content as plain text instead.
12728 but instead of falling back to plain text require an explicit content
12729 handler to be defined.
12731 If no handler can be found a text message is displayed which says so.
12732 This can be annoying, for example signatures serve a contextual purpose,
12733 their content is of no use by itself.
12734 This marker will avoid displaying the text message.
12739 for sending messages:
12741 .Va mime-allow-text-controls ,
12742 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
12743 For reading etc. messages:
12744 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ,
12745 .Sx "The Mailcap files" ,
12747 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
12748 .Va mimetypes-load-control ,
12749 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE ,
12750 .Va pipe-EXTENSION .
12753 .\" .Ss "The Mailcap files" {{{
12754 .Ss "The Mailcap files"
12756 .\" TODO MAILCAP DISABLED
12757 .Sy This feature is not available in v14.9.0, sorry!
12759 .Dq User Agent Configuration Mechanism
12760 which \*(UA \*(OPally supports (see
12761 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ) .
12762 It defines a file format to be used to inform mail user agent programs
12763 about the locally-installed facilities for handling various data
12764 formats, i.e., about commands and how they can be used to display, edit
12765 et cetera MIME part contents, as well as a default path search that
12766 includes multiple possible locations of
12770 environment variable that can be used to overwrite that (repeating here
12771 that it is not a search path, but instead a path search specification).
12772 Any existing files will be loaded in sequence, appending any content to
12773 the list of MIME type handler directives.
12777 files consist of a set of newline separated entries.
12778 Comment lines start with a number sign
12780 (in the first column!) and are ignored.
12781 Empty lines are also ignored.
12782 All other lines form individual entries that must adhere to the syntax
12784 To extend a single entry (not comment) its line can be continued on
12785 follow lines if newline characters are
12787 by preceding them with the reverse solidus character
12789 The standard does not specify how leading whitespace of follow lines
12790 is to be treated, therefore \*(UA retains it.
12794 entries consist of a number of semicolon
12796 separated fields, and the reverse solidus
12798 character can be used to escape any following character including
12799 semicolon and itself.
12800 The first two fields are mandatory and must occur in the specified
12801 order, the remaining fields are optional and may appear in any order.
12802 Leading and trailing whitespace of content is ignored (removed).
12805 The first field defines the MIME
12807 the entry is about to handle (case-insensitively, and no reverse solidus
12808 escaping is possible in this field).
12809 If the subtype is specified as an asterisk
12811 the entry is meant to match all subtypes of the named type, e.g.,
12813 would match any audio type.
12814 The second field defines the shell command which shall be used to
12816 MIME parts of the given type; it is implicitly called the
12823 shell commands message (MIME part) data is passed via standard input
12824 unless the given shell command includes one or more instances of the
12827 in which case these instances will be replaced with a temporary filename
12828 and the data will have been stored in the file that is being pointed to.
12831 shell commands data is assumed to be generated on standard output unless
12832 the given command includes (one ore multiple)
12834 In any case any given
12836 format is replaced with a(n already) properly quoted filename.
12837 Note that when a command makes use of a temporary file via
12839 then \*(UA will remove it again, as if the
12840 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile ,
12841 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill
12843 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
12844 flags had been set; see below for more.
12847 The optional fields either define a shell command or an attribute (flag)
12848 value, the latter being a single word and the former being a keyword
12849 naming the field followed by an equals sign
12851 succeeded by a shell command, and as usual for any
12853 content any whitespace surrounding the equals sign will be removed, too.
12854 Optional fields include the following:
12857 .Bl -tag -width ".It Cd BaNg"
12859 A program that can be used to compose a new body or body part in the
12861 (Currently unused.)
12863 .It Cd composetyped
12866 field, but is to be used when the composing program needs to specify the
12868 header field to be applied to the composed data.
12869 (Currently unused.)
12872 A program that can be used to edit a body or body part in the given
12874 (Currently unused.)
12877 A program that can be used to print a message or body part in the given
12879 (Currently unused.)
12882 Specifies a program to be run to test some condition, e.g., the machine
12883 architecture, or the window system in use, to determine whether or not
12884 this mailcap entry applies.
12885 If the test fails, a subsequent mailcap entry should be sought; also see
12886 .Cd x-mailx-test-once .
12889 .It Cd needsterminal
12890 This flag field indicates that the given shell command must be run on
12891 an interactive terminal.
12892 \*(UA will temporarily release the terminal to the given command in
12893 interactive mode, in non-interactive mode this entry will be entirely
12894 ignored; this flag implies
12895 .Cd x-mailx-noquote .
12898 .It Cd copiousoutput
12899 A flag field which indicates that the output of the
12901 command will be an extended stream of textual output that can be
12902 (re)integrated into \*(UA's normal visual display.
12903 It is mutually exclusive with
12904 .Cd needsterminal .
12906 .It Cd textualnewlines
12907 A flag field which indicates that this type of data is line-oriented and
12908 that, if encoded in
12910 all newlines should be converted to canonical form (CRLF) before
12911 encoding, and will be in that form after decoding.
12912 (Currently unused.)
12914 .It Cd nametemplate
12915 This field gives a filename format, in which
12917 will be replaced by a random string, the joined combination of which
12918 will be used as the filename denoted by
12919 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY .
12920 One could specify that a GIF file being passed to an image viewer should
12921 have a name ending in
12924 .Ql nametemplate=%s.gif .
12925 Note that \*(UA ignores the name template unless that solely specifies
12926 a filename suffix that consists of (ASCII) alphabetic and numeric
12927 characters, the underscore and dot only.
12930 Names a file, in X11 bitmap (xbm) format, which points to an appropriate
12931 icon to be used to visually denote the presence of this kind of data.
12932 This field is not used by \*(UA.
12935 A textual description that describes this type of data.
12938 .It Cd x-mailx-even-if-not-interactive
12939 An extension flag test field \(em by default handlers without
12941 are entirely ignored in non-interactive mode, but if this flag is set
12942 then their use will be considered.
12943 It is an error if this flag is set for commands that use the flag
12944 .Cd needsterminal .
12947 .It Cd x-mailx-noquote
12948 An extension flag field that indicates that even a
12951 command shall not be used to generate message quotes
12952 (as it would be by default).
12955 .It Cd x-mailx-async
12956 Extension flag field that denotes that the given
12958 command shall be executed asynchronously, without blocking \*(UA.
12959 Cannot be used in conjunction with
12960 .Cd needsterminal .
12963 .It Cd x-mailx-test-once
12964 Extension flag which denotes whether the given
12966 command shall be evaluated once only and the (boolean) result be cached.
12967 This is handy if some global unchanging condition is to be queried, like
12968 .Dq running under the X Window System .
12971 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile
12972 Extension flag field that requests creation of a zero-sized temporary
12973 file, the name of which is to be placed in the environment variable
12974 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY .
12975 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
12980 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill
12981 Normally the MIME part content is passed to the handler via standard
12982 input; if this flag is set then the data will instead be written into
12984 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile .
12985 In order to cause deletion of the temporary file you will have to set
12986 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
12988 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
12993 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
12994 Extension flag field that requests that the temporary file shall be
12995 deleted automatically when the command loop is entered again at latest.
12996 (Do not use this for asynchronous handlers.)
12997 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
12999 format, or in conjunction with
13000 .Cd x-mailx-async ,
13001 or without also setting
13002 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile
13004 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill .
13007 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-keep
13010 implies the three tmpfile related flags above, but if you want, e.g.,
13012 and deal with the temporary file yourself, you can add in this flag to
13014 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink .
13019 The standard includes the possibility to define any number of additional
13020 entry fields, prefixed by
13022 Flag fields apply to the entire
13024 entry \(em in some unusual cases, this may not be desirable, but
13025 differentiation can be accomplished via separate entries, taking
13026 advantage of the fact that subsequent entries are searched if an earlier
13027 one does not provide enough information.
13030 command needs to specify the
13034 command shall not, the following will help out the latter (with enabled
13038 level \*(UA will show information about handler evaluation):
13040 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13041 application/postscript; ps-to-terminal %s; needsterminal
13042 application/postscript; ps-to-terminal %s; compose=idraw %s
13046 In fields any occurrence of the format string
13048 will be replaced by the
13051 Named parameters from the
13053 field may be placed in the command execution line using
13055 followed by the parameter name and a closing
13058 The entire parameter should appear as a single command line argument,
13059 regardless of embedded spaces; thus:
13061 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13063 Content-type: multipart/mixed; boundary=42
13066 multipart/*; /usr/local/bin/showmulti \e
13067 %t %{boundary} ; composetyped = /usr/local/bin/makemulti
13069 # Executed shell command
13070 /usr/local/bin/showmulti multipart/mixed 42
13074 .\" TODO v15: Mailcap: %n,%F
13075 Note that \*(UA does not support handlers for multipart MIME parts as
13076 shown in this example (as of today).
13077 \*(UA does not support the additional formats
13081 An example file, also showing how to properly deal with the expansion of
13083 which includes any quotes that are necessary to make it a valid shell
13084 argument by itself and thus will cause undesired behaviour when placed
13085 in additional user-provided quotes:
13087 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13089 text/richtext; richtext %s; copiousoutput
13091 text/x-perl; perl -cWT %s
13093 application/pdf; \e
13095 trap "rm -f ${infile}" EXIT\e; \e
13096 trap "exit 75" INT QUIT TERM\e; \e
13098 x-mailx-async; x-mailx-tmpfile-keep
13100 application/*; echo "This is \e"%t\e" but \e
13101 is 50 \e% Greek to me" \e; < %s head -c 1024 | cat -vET; \e
13102 copiousoutput; x-mailx-noquote
13107 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ,
13108 .Sx "The mime.types files" ,
13111 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
13112 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE ,
13113 .Va pipe-EXTENSION .
13116 .\" .Ss "The .netrc file" {{{
13117 .Ss "The .netrc file"
13121 file contains user credentials for machine accounts.
13122 The default location
13124 may be overridden by the
13126 environment variable.
13127 The file consists of space, tabulator or newline separated tokens.
13128 \*(UA implements a parser that supports a superset of the original BSD
13129 syntax, but users should nonetheless be aware of portability glitches
13130 of that file format, shall their
13132 be usable across multiple programs and platforms:
13135 .Bl -bullet -compact
13137 BSD does not support single, but only double quotation marks, e.g.,
13138 .Ql password="pass with spaces" .
13140 BSD (only?) supports escaping of single characters via a reverse solidus
13141 (e.g., a space can be escaped via
13143 in- as well as outside of a quoted string.
13145 BSD does not require a final quotation mark of the last user input token.
13147 The original BSD (Berknet) parser also supported a format which allowed
13148 tokens to be separated with commas \(en whereas at least Hewlett-Packard
13149 still seems to support this syntax, \*(UA does not!
13151 As a non-portable extension some widely-used programs support
13152 shell-style comments: if an input line starts, after any amount of
13153 whitespace, with a number sign
13155 then the rest of the line is ignored.
13157 Whereas other programs may require that the
13159 file is accessible by only the user if it contains a
13161 token for any other
13165 \*(UA will always require these strict permissions.
13169 Of the following list of supported tokens \*(UA only uses (and caches)
13174 At runtime the command
13176 can be used to control \*(UA's
13180 .Bl -tag -width ".It Cd BaNg"
13181 .It Cd machine Ar name
13182 The hostname of the entries' machine, lowercase-normalized by \*(UA
13184 Any further file content, until either end-of-file or the occurrence
13189 first-class token is bound (only related) to the machine
13192 As an extension that should not be the cause of any worries
13193 \*(UA supports a single wildcard prefix for
13195 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13196 machine *.example.com login USER password PASS
13197 machine pop3.example.com login USER password PASS
13198 machine smtp.example.com login USER password PASS
13204 .Ql pop3.example.com ,
13208 .Ql local.smtp.example.com .
13209 Note that in the example neither
13210 .Ql pop3.example.com
13212 .Ql smtp.example.com
13213 will be matched by the wildcard, since the exact matches take
13214 precedence (it is however faster to specify it the other way around).
13217 This is the same as
13219 except that it is a fallback entry that is used shall none of the
13220 specified machines match; only one default token may be specified,
13221 and it must be the last first-class token.
13223 .It Cd login Ar name
13224 The user name on the remote machine.
13226 .It Cd password Ar string
13227 The user's password on the remote machine.
13229 .It Cd account Ar string
13230 Supply an additional account password.
13231 This is merely for FTP purposes.
13233 .It Cd macdef Ar name
13235 A macro is defined with the specified
13237 it is formed from all lines beginning with the next line and continuing
13238 until a blank line is (consecutive newline characters are) encountered.
13241 entries cannot be utilized by multiple machines, too, but must be
13242 defined following the
13244 they are intended to be used with.)
13247 exists, it is automatically run as the last step of the login process.
13248 This is merely for FTP purposes.
13255 .\" .Sh EXAMPLES {{{
13258 .\" .Ss "An example configuration" {{{
13259 .Ss "An example configuration"
13261 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13262 # This example assumes v15.0 compatibility mode
13265 # Request strict SSL/TLS transport security checks
13266 set ssl-verify=strict
13268 # Where are the up-to-date SSL/TLS certificates?
13269 # (Since we manage up-to-date ones explicitly, do not use any,
13270 # possibly outdated, default certificates shipped with OpenSSL)
13271 #set ssl-ca-dir=/etc/ssl/certs
13272 set ssl-ca-file=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
13273 set ssl-ca-no-defaults
13274 #set ssl-ca-flags=partial-chain
13275 wysh set smime-ca-file="${ssl-ca-file}" \e
13276 smime-ca-no-defaults #smime-ca-flags="${ssl-ca-flags}"
13278 # This could be outsourced to a central configuration file via
13279 # ssl-config-file plus ssl-config-module if the used library allows.
13280 # CipherList: explicitly define the list of ciphers, which may
13281 # improve security, especially with protocols older than TLS v1.2.
13282 # See ciphers(1). Possibly best to only use ssl-cipher-list-HOST
13283 # (or -USER@HOST), as necessary, again..
13284 # Curves: especially with TLSv1.3 curves selection may be desired.
13285 # MinProtocol,MaxProtocol: do not use protocols older than TLS v1.2.
13286 # Change this only when the remote server does not support it:
13287 # maybe use chain support via ssl-config-pairs-HOST / -USER@HOST
13288 # to define such explicit exceptions, then, e.g.
13289 # MinProtocol=TLSv1.1
13290 if [ "$ssl-features" =% +ctx-set-maxmin-proto ]
13291 wysh set ssl-config-pairs='\e
13292 CipherList=TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:@STRENGTH,\e
13293 Curves=P-521:P-384:P-256,\e
13294 MinProtocol=TLSv1.1'
13296 wysh set ssl-config-pairs='\e
13297 CipherList=TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:@STRENGTH,\e
13298 Curves=P-521:P-384:P-256,\e
13299 Protocol=-ALL\e,+TLSv1.1 \e, +TLSv1.2'
13302 # Essential setting: select allowed character sets
13303 set sendcharsets=utf-8,iso-8859-1
13305 # A very kind option: when replying to a message, first try to
13306 # use the same encoding that the original poster used herself!
13307 set reply-in-same-charset
13309 # When replying, do not merge From: and To: of the original message
13310 # into To:. Instead old From: -> new To:, old To: -> merge Cc:.
13311 set recipients-in-cc
13313 # When sending messages, wait until the Mail-Transfer-Agent finishs.
13314 # Only like this you will be able to see errors reported through the
13315 # exit status of the MTA (including the built-in SMTP one)!
13318 # Only use built-in MIME types, no mime.types(5) files
13319 set mimetypes-load-control
13321 # Default directory where we act in (relative to $HOME)
13323 # A leading "+" (often) means: under *folder*
13324 # *record* is used to save copies of sent messages
13325 set MBOX=+mbox.mbox DEAD=+dead.txt \e
13326 record=+sent.mbox record-files record-resent
13328 # Make "file mymbox" and "file myrec" go to..
13329 shortcut mymbox %:+mbox.mbox myrec +sent.mbox
13331 # Not really optional, e.g., for S/MIME
13332 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
13334 # It may be necessary to set hostname and/or smtp-hostname
13335 # if the "SERVER" of mta and "domain" of from do not match.
13336 # The `urlencode' command can be used to encode USER and PASS
13337 set mta=(smtps?|submission)://[USER[:PASS]@]SERVER[:PORT] \e
13338 smtp-auth=login/plain... \e
13341 # Never refuse to start into interactive mode, and more
13343 colour-pager crt= \e
13344 followup-to followup-to-honour=ask-yes fullnames \e
13345 history-file=+.\*(uAhist history-size=-1 history-gabby \e
13346 mime-counter-evidence=0b1111 \e
13347 prompt='?\e$?!\e$!/\e$^ERRNAME[\e$account#\e$mailbox-display]? ' \e
13348 reply-to-honour=ask-yes \e
13351 # Only include the selected header fields when typing messages
13352 headerpick type retain from_ date from to cc subject \e
13353 message-id mail-followup-to reply-to
13354 # ...when forwarding messages
13355 headerpick forward retain subject date from to cc
13356 # ...when saving message, etc.
13357 #headerpick save ignore ^Original-.*$ ^X-.*$
13359 # Some mailing lists
13360 mlist '@xyz-editor\e.xyz$' '@xyzf\e.xyz$'
13361 mlsubscribe '^xfans@xfans\e.xyz$'
13363 # Handle a few file extensions (to store MBOX databases)
13364 filetype bz2 'bzip2 -dc' 'bzip2 -zc' \e
13365 gz 'gzip -dc' 'gzip -c' xz 'xz -dc' 'xz -zc' \e
13366 zst 'zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc' \e
13367 zst.pgp 'gpg -d | zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc | gpg -e'
13369 # A real life example of a very huge free mail provider
13370 # Instead of directly placing content inside `account',
13371 # we `define' a macro: like that we can switch "accounts"
13372 # from within *on-compose-splice*, for example!
13374 set folder=~/spool/XooglX inbox=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
13375 set from='Your Name <address@examp.ple>'
13377 set pop3-no-apop-pop.gmXil.com
13378 shortcut pop %:pop3s://pop.gmXil.com
13379 shortcut imap %:imaps://imap.gmXil.com
13380 #set record="+[Gmail]/Sent Mail"
13381 # Select: File imaps://imap.gmXil.com/[Gmail]/Sent\e Mail
13383 set mta=smtp://USER:PASS@smtp.gmXil.com smtp-use-starttls
13385 set mta=smtps://USER:PASS@smtp.gmail.com:465
13391 # Here is a pretty large one which does not allow sending mails
13392 # if there is a domain name mismatch on the SMTP protocol level,
13393 # which would bite us if the value of from does not match, e.g.,
13394 # for people who have a sXXXXeforge project and want to speak
13395 # with the mailing list under their project account (in from),
13396 # still sending the message through their normal mail provider
13398 set folder=~/spool/XandeX inbox=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
13399 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
13401 shortcut pop %:pop3s://pop.yaXXex.com
13402 shortcut imap %:imaps://imap.yaXXex.com
13404 set mta=smtps://USER:PASS@smtp.yaXXex.com:465 \e
13405 hostname=yaXXex.com smtp-hostname=
13411 # Create some new commands so that, e.g., `ls /tmp' will..
13412 commandalias lls '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFlrS'
13413 commandalias llS '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFlS'
13415 set pipe-message/external-body='@* echo $MAILX_EXTERNAL_BODY_URL'
13417 # We do not support gpg(1) directly yet. But simple --clearsign'd
13418 # message parts can be dealt with as follows:
13421 wysh set pipe-text/plain=$'@*#++=@\e
13422 < "${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}" awk \e
13423 -v TMPFILE="${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}" \e'\e
13425 /^-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----/,/^$/ {\e
13428 print "--- GPG --verify ---";\e
13429 system("gpg --verify " TMPFILE " 2>&1");\e
13430 print "--- GPG --verify ---";\e
13434 /^-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----/,\e
13435 /^-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----/{\e
13442 commandalias V '\e'call V
13446 When storing passwords in
13448 appropriate permissions should be set on this file with
13449 .Ql $ chmod 0600 \*(ur .
13452 is available user credentials can be stored in the central
13454 file instead; e.g., here is a different version of the example account
13455 that sets up SMTP and POP3:
13457 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13459 set folder=~/spool/XandeX inbox=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
13460 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
13462 # Load an encrypted ~/.netrc by uncommenting the next line
13463 #set netrc-pipe='gpg -qd ~/.netrc.pgp'
13465 set mta=smtps://smtp.yXXXXx.ru:465 \e
13466 smtp-hostname= hostname=yXXXXx.com
13467 set pop3-keepalive=240 pop3-no-apop-pop.yXXXXx.ru
13468 commandalias xp fi pop3s://pop.yXXXXx.ru
13480 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13481 machine *.yXXXXx.ru login USER password PASS
13485 This configuration should now work just fine:
13488 .Dl $ echo text | \*(uA -dvv -AXandeX -s Subject user@exam.ple
13491 .\" .Ss "S/MIME step by step" {{{
13492 .Ss "S/MIME step by step"
13494 \*(OP The first thing you need for participating in S/MIME message
13495 exchange is your personal certificate, including a private key.
13496 The certificate contains public information, in particular your name and
13497 your email address(es), and the public key that is used by others to
13498 encrypt messages for you,
13499 and to verify signed messages they supposedly received from you.
13500 The certificate is included in each signed message you send.
13501 The private key must be kept secret.
13502 It is used to decrypt messages that were previously encrypted with your
13503 public key, and to sign messages.
13506 For personal use it is recommended that you get a S/MIME certificate
13507 from one of the major CAs on the Internet using your WWW browser.
13508 Many CAs offer such certificates for free.
13510 .Lk https://www.CAcert.org
13511 which issues client and server certificates to members of their
13512 community for free; their root certificate
13513 .Pf ( Lk https://\:www.cacert.org/\:certs/\:root.crt )
13514 is often not in the default set of trusted CA root certificates, though,
13515 which means you will have to download their root certificate separately
13516 and ensure it is part of our S/MIME certificate validation chain by
13519 or as a vivid member of the
13520 .Va smime-ca-file .
13521 But let us take a step-by-step tour on how to setup S/MIME with
13522 a certificate from CAcert.org despite this situation!
13525 First of all you will have to become a member of the CAcert.org
13526 community, simply by registrating yourself via the web interface.
13527 Once you are, create and verify all email addresses you want to be able
13528 to create signed and encrypted messages for/with using the corresponding
13529 entries of the web interface.
13530 Now ready to create S/MIME certificates, so let us create a new
13531 .Dq client certificate ,
13532 ensure to include all email addresses that should be covered by the
13533 certificate in the following web form, and also to use your name as the
13537 Create a private key and a certificate request on your local computer
13538 (please see the manual pages of the used commands for more in-depth
13539 knowledge on what the used arguments etc. do):
13542 .Dl $ openssl req -nodes -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout key.pem -out creq.pem
13545 Afterwards copy-and-paste the content of
13547 into the certificate-request (CSR) field of the web form on the
13548 CAcert.org website (you may need to unfold some
13549 .Dq advanced options
13550 to see the corresponding text field).
13551 This last step will ensure that your private key (which never left your
13552 box) and the certificate belong together (through the public key that
13553 will find its way into the certificate via the certificate-request).
13554 You are now ready and can create your CAcert certified certificate.
13555 Download and store or copy-and-paste it as
13560 In order to use your new S/MIME setup a combined private key/public key
13561 (certificate) file has to be created:
13564 .Dl $ cat key.pem pub.crt > ME@HERE.com.paired
13567 This is the file \*(UA will work with.
13568 If you have created your private key with a passphrase then \*(UA will
13569 ask you for it whenever a message is signed or decrypted.
13570 Set the following variables to henceforth use S/MIME (setting
13572 is of interest for verification only):
13574 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13575 ? set smime-ca-file=ALL-TRUSTED-ROOT-CERTS-HERE \e
13576 smime-sign-cert=ME@HERE.com.paired \e
13577 smime-sign-message-digest=SHA256 \e
13583 .\" .Ss "Using CRLs with S/MIME or SSL/TLS" {{{
13584 .Ss "Using CRLs with S/MIME or SSL/TLS"
13586 \*(OP Certification authorities (CAs) issue certificate revocation
13587 lists (CRLs) on a regular basis.
13588 These lists contain the serial numbers of certificates that have been
13589 declared invalid after they have been issued.
13590 Such usually happens because the private key for the certificate has
13592 because the owner of the certificate has left the organization that is
13593 mentioned in the certificate, etc.
13594 To seriously use S/MIME or SSL/TLS verification,
13595 an up-to-date CRL is required for each trusted CA.
13596 There is otherwise no method to distinguish between valid and
13597 invalidated certificates.
13598 \*(UA currently offers no mechanism to fetch CRLs, nor to access them on
13599 the Internet, so they have to be retrieved by some external mechanism.
13602 \*(UA accepts CRLs in PEM format only;
13603 CRLs in DER format must be converted, like, e.\|g.:
13606 .Dl $ openssl crl \-inform DER \-in crl.der \-out crl.pem
13609 To tell \*(UA about the CRLs, a directory that contains all CRL files
13610 (and no other files) must be created.
13615 variables, respectively, must then be set to point to that directory.
13616 After that, \*(UA requires a CRL to be present for each CA that is used
13617 to verify a certificate.
13626 In general it is a good idea to turn on
13632 twice) if something does not work well.
13633 Very often a diagnostic message can be produced that leads to the
13634 problems' solution.
13636 .\" .Ss "\*(UA shortly hangs on startup" {{{
13637 .Ss "\*(UA shortly hangs on startup"
13639 This can have two reasons, one is the necessity to wait for a file lock
13640 and cannot be helped, the other being that \*(UA calls the function
13642 in order to query the nodename of the box (sometimes the real one is
13643 needed instead of the one represented by the internal variable
13645 One may have varying success by ensuring that the real hostname and
13649 or, more generally, that the name service is properly setup \(en
13652 return the expected value?
13653 Does this local hostname have a domain suffix?
13654 RFC 6762 standardized the link-local top-level domain
13656 try again after adding an (additional) entry with this extension.
13659 .\" .Ss "I cannot login to Google mail aka GMail" {{{
13660 .Ss "I cannot login to Google mail aka GMail"
13662 Since 2014 some free service providers classify programs as
13664 unless they use a special authentication method (OAuth 2.0) which
13665 was not standardized for non-HTTP protocol authentication token query
13666 until August 2015 (RFC 7628).
13669 Different to Kerberos / GSSAPI, which is developed since the mid of the
13670 1980s, where a user can easily create a local authentication ticket for
13671 her- and himself with the locally installed
13673 program, that protocol has no such local part but instead requires
13674 a world-wide-web query to create or fetch a token; since there is no
13675 local cache this query would have to be performed whenever \*(UA is
13676 invoked (in interactive sessions situation may differ).
13679 \*(UA does not support OAuth.
13680 Because of this it is necessary to declare \*(UA a
13681 .Dq less secure app
13682 (on the providers account web page) in order to read and send mail.
13683 However, it also seems possible to take the following steps instead:
13688 give the provider the number of a mobile phone,
13691 .Dq 2-Step Verification ,
13693 create an application specific password (16 characters), and
13695 use that special password instead of the real Google account password in
13696 \*(UA (for more on that see the section
13697 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) .
13701 .\" .Ss "Not \(dqdefunctional\(dq, but the editor key does not work" {{{
13702 .Ss "Not \(dqdefunctional\(dq, but the editor key does not work"
13704 It can happen that the terminal library (see
13705 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor",
13708 reports different codes than the terminal really sends, in which case
13709 \*(UA will tell that a key binding is functional, but will not be able to
13710 recognize it because the received data does not match anything expected.
13711 Especially without the \*(OPal terminal capability library support one
13712 reason for this may be that the (possibly even non-existing) keypad
13713 is not turned on and the resulting layout reports the keypad control
13714 codes for the normal keyboard keys.
13719 ings will show the byte sequences that are expected.
13722 To overcome the situation, use, e.g., the program
13724 in conjunction with the command line option
13726 if available, to see the byte sequences which are actually produced
13727 by keypresses, and use the variable
13729 to make \*(UA aware of them.
13730 E.g., the terminal this is typed on produces some false sequences, here
13731 an example showing the shifted home key:
13733 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13736 # 1B 5B=[ 31=1 3B=; 32=2 48=H
13741 ? \*(uA -v -Stermcap='kHOM=\eE[H'
13748 .\" .Ss "Can \*(UA git-send-email?" {{{
13749 .Ss "Can \*(UA git-send-email?"
13752 Put (at least parts of) the following in your
13755 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13757 smtpserver = /usr/bin/s-mailx
13758 smtpserveroption = -t
13759 #smtpserveroption = -Sexpandaddr
13760 smtpserveroption = -Athe-account-you-need
13763 suppressfrom = false
13764 assume8bitEncoding = UTF-8
13767 chainreplyto = true
13778 .\" .Sh "IMAP CLIENT" {{{
13781 \*(OPally there is IMAP client support available.
13782 This part of the program is obsolete and will vanish in v15 with the
13783 large MIME and I/O layer rewrite, because it uses old-style blocking I/O
13784 and makes excessive use of signal based long code jumps.
13785 Support can hopefully be readded later based on a new-style I/O, with
13786 SysV signal handling.
13787 In fact the IMAP support had already been removed from the codebase, but
13788 was reinstantiated on user demand: in effect the IMAP code is at the
13789 level of \*(UA v14.8.16 (with
13791 being the sole exception), and should be treated with some care.
13798 protocol prefixes, and an IMAP-based
13801 IMAP URLs (paths) undergo inspections and possible transformations
13802 before use (and the command
13804 can be used to manually apply them to any given argument).
13805 Hierarchy delimiters are normalized, a step which is configurable via the
13807 variable chain, but defaults to the first seen delimiter otherwise.
13808 \*(UA supports internationalised IMAP names, and en- and decodes the
13809 names from and to the
13811 as necessary and possible.
13812 If a mailbox name is expanded (see
13813 .Sx "Filename transformations" )
13814 to an IMAP mailbox, all names that begin with `+' then refer to IMAP
13815 mailboxes below the
13817 target box, while folder names prefixed by `@' refer to folders below
13818 the hierarchy base, e.g., the following lists all folders below the
13819 current one when in an IMAP mailbox:
13823 Note: some IMAP servers do not accept the creation of mailboxes in
13824 the hierarchy base, but require that they are created as subfolders of
13825 `INBOX' \(en with such servers a folder name of the form
13827 .Dl imaps://mylogin@imap.myisp.example/INBOX.
13829 should be used (the last character is the server's hierarchy
13831 The following IMAP-specific commands exist:
13834 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ic BaNg"
13837 Only applicable to cached IMAP mailboxes;
13838 takes a message list and reads the specified messages into the IMAP
13843 If operating in disconnected mode on an IMAP mailbox,
13844 switch to online mode and connect to the mail server while retaining
13845 the mailbox status.
13846 See the description of the
13848 variable for more information.
13852 If operating in online mode on an IMAP mailbox,
13853 switch to disconnected mode while retaining the mailbox status.
13854 See the description of the
13857 A list of messages may optionally be given as argument;
13858 the respective messages are then read into the cache before the
13859 connection is closed, thus
13861 makes the entire mailbox available for disconnected use.
13865 Sends command strings directly to the current IMAP server.
13866 \*(UA operates always in IMAP `selected state' on the current mailbox;
13867 commands that change this will produce undesirable results and should be
13869 Useful IMAP commands are:
13870 .Bl -tag -offset indent -width ".Ic getquotearoot"
13872 Takes the name of an IMAP mailbox as an argument and creates it.
13874 (RFC 2087) Takes the name of an IMAP mailbox as an argument
13875 and prints the quotas that apply to the mailbox.
13876 Not all IMAP servers support this command.
13878 (RFC 2342) Takes no arguments and prints the Personal Namespaces,
13879 the Other User's Namespaces and the Shared Namespaces.
13880 Each namespace type is printed in parentheses;
13881 if there are multiple namespaces of the same type,
13882 inner parentheses separate them.
13883 For each namespace a prefix and a hierarchy separator is listed.
13884 Not all IMAP servers support this command.
13889 Perform IMAP path transformations.
13893 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) ,
13894 and manages the error number
13896 The first argument specifies the operation:
13898 normalizes hierarchy delimiters (see
13900 and converts the strings from the locale
13902 to the internationalized variant used by IMAP,
13904 performs the reverse operation.
13909 The following IMAP-specific internal variables exist:
13912 .Bl -tag -width ".It Va BaNg"
13914 .It Va disconnected
13915 \*(BO When an IMAP mailbox is selected and this variable is set,
13916 no connection to the server is initiated.
13917 Instead, data is obtained from the local cache (see
13920 Mailboxes that are not present in the cache
13921 and messages that have not yet entirely been fetched from the server
13923 to fetch all messages in a mailbox at once,
13925 .No ` Ns Li copy * /dev/null Ns '
13926 can be used while still in connected mode.
13927 Changes that are made to IMAP mailboxes in disconnected mode are queued
13928 and committed later when a connection to that server is made.
13929 This procedure is not completely reliable since it cannot be guaranteed
13930 that the IMAP unique identifiers (UIDs) on the server still match the
13931 ones in the cache at that time.
13934 when this problem occurs.
13936 .It Va disconnected-USER@HOST
13937 The specified account is handled as described for the
13940 but other accounts are not affected.
13943 .It Va imap-auth-USER@HOST , imap-auth
13944 Sets the IMAP authentication method.
13945 Valid values are `login' for the usual password-based authentication
13947 `cram-md5', which is a password-based authentication that does not send
13948 the password over the network in clear text,
13949 and `gssapi' for GSS-API based authentication.
13953 Enables caching of IMAP mailboxes.
13954 The value of this variable must point to a directory that is either
13955 existent or can be created by \*(UA.
13956 All contents of the cache can be deleted by \*(UA at any time;
13957 it is not safe to make assumptions about them.
13960 .It Va imap-delim-USER@HOST , imap-delim-HOST , imap-delim
13961 The hierarchy separator used by the IMAP server.
13962 Whenever an IMAP path is specified it will undergo normalization.
13963 One of the normalization steps is the squeezing and adjustment of
13964 hierarchy separators.
13965 If this variable is set, any occurrence of any character of the given
13966 value that exists in the path will be replaced by the first member of
13967 the value; an empty value will cause the default to be used, it is
13969 If not set, we will reuse the first hierarchy separator character that
13970 is discovered in a user-given mailbox name.
13972 .Mx Va imap-keepalive
13973 .It Va imap-keepalive-USER@HOST , imap-keepalive-HOST , imap-keepalive
13974 IMAP servers may close the connection after a period of
13975 inactivity; the standard requires this to be at least 30 minutes,
13976 but practical experience may vary.
13977 Setting this variable to a numeric `value' greater than 0 causes
13978 a `NOOP' command to be sent each `value' seconds if no other operation
13982 .It Va imap-list-depth
13983 When retrieving the list of folders on an IMAP server, the
13985 command stops after it has reached a certain depth to avoid possible
13987 The value of this variable sets the maximum depth allowed.
13989 If the folder separator on the current IMAP server is a slash `/',
13990 this variable has no effect and the
13992 command does not descend to subfolders.
13994 .Mx Va imap-use-starttls
13995 .It Va imap-use-starttls-USER@HOST , imap-use-starttls-HOST , imap-use-starttls
13996 Causes \*(UA to issue a `STARTTLS' command to make an unencrypted
13997 IMAP session SSL/TLS encrypted.
13998 This functionality is not supported by all servers,
13999 and is not used if the session is already encrypted by the IMAPS method.
14005 .\" .Sh "SEE ALSO" {{{
14015 .Xr spamassassin 1 ,
14024 .Xr mailwrapper 8 ,
14030 .\" .Sh HISTORY {{{
14033 M. Douglas McIlroy writes in his article
14034 .Dq A Research UNIX Reader: Annotated Excerpts \
14035 from the Programmer's Manual, 1971-1986
14038 command already appeared in First Edition
14042 .Bd -ragged -offset indent
14043 Electronic mail was there from the start.
14044 Never satisfied with its exact behavior, everybody touched it at one
14045 time or another: to assure the safety of simultaneous access, to improve
14046 privacy, to survive crashes, to exploit uucp, to screen out foreign
14047 freeloaders, or whatever.
14048 Not until v7 did the interface change (Thompson).
14049 Later, as mail became global in its reach, Dave Presotto took charge and
14050 brought order to communications with a grab-bag of external networks
14056 Mail was written in 1978 by Kurt Shoens and developed as part of the
14059 distribution until 1995.
14060 Mail has then seen further development in open source
14062 variants, noticeably by Christos Zoulas in
14064 Based upon this Nail, later Heirloom Mailx, was developed by Gunnar
14065 Ritter in the years 2000 until 2008.
14066 Since 2012 S-nail is maintained by Steffen (Daode) Nurpmeso.
14067 This man page is derived from
14068 .Dq The Mail Reference Manual
14069 that was originally written by Kurt Shoens.
14077 .An "Kurt Shoens" ,
14078 .An "Edward Wang" ,
14079 .An "Keith Bostic" ,
14080 .An "Christos Zoulas" ,
14081 .An "Gunnar Ritter" .
14082 \*(UA is developed by
14083 .An "Steffen Nurpmeso" Aq steffen@sdaoden.eu .
14086 .\" .Sh CAVEATS {{{
14089 \*(ID Interrupting an operation via
14093 from anywhere else but a command prompt is very problematic and likely
14094 to leave the program in an undefined state: many library functions
14095 cannot deal with the
14097 that this software (still) performs; even though efforts have been taken
14098 to address this, no sooner but in v15 it will have been worked out:
14099 interruptions have not been disabled in order to allow forceful breakage
14100 of hanging network connections, for example (all this is unrelated to
14104 The SMTP and POP3 protocol support of \*(UA is very basic.
14105 Also, if it fails to contact its upstream SMTP server, it will not make
14106 further attempts to transfer the message at a later time (setting
14111 If this is a concern, it might be better to set up a local SMTP server
14112 that is capable of message queuing.
14119 After deleting some message of a POP3 mailbox the header summary falsely
14120 claims that there are no messages to display, one needs to perform
14121 a scroll or dot movement to restore proper state.
14123 In threaded display a power user may encounter crashes very
14124 occasionally (this is may and very).
14128 in the source repository lists future directions.
14131 Please report bugs to the
14133 address, e.g., from within \*(uA:
14134 .\" v15-compat: drop eval as `mail' will expand variable?
14135 .Ql ? Ns \| Ic eval Ns \| Ic mail Ns \| $contact-mail .
14136 Including the output of the command
14138 may be helpful, e.g.,
14140 .Bd -literal -offset indent
14141 ? vput version xy; wysh set escape=!; eval mail $contact-mail
14148 Information on the web at
14149 .Ql $ \*(uA -X 'echo Ns \| $ Ns Va contact-web Ns ' -Xx .