1 .\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990, 1993
2 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
4 .\" Gunnar Ritter. All rights reserved.
5 .\" Copyright (c) 2012 - 2015 Steffen (Daode) Nurpmeso <sdaoden@users.sf.net>.
7 .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
8 .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
10 .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
11 .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
12 .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
13 .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
14 .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
15 .\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
16 .\" must display the following acknowledgement:
17 .\" This product includes software developed by the University of
18 .\" California, Berkeley and its contributors.
19 .\" This product includes software developed by Gunnar Ritter
20 .\" and his contributors.
21 .\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
22 .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
23 .\" without specific prior written permission.
25 .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS 'AS IS' AND
26 .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
27 .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
28 .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
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30 .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
31 .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
32 .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
33 .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
34 .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
38 .\" S-nail(1): v14.8.7 / 2016-03-25
50 .\" If not ~/.mailrc, it breaks POSIX compatibility. And adjust main.c.
55 .ds OU [no v15-compat]
56 .ds ID [v15 behaviour may differ]
67 .Nd send and receive Internet mail
79 .Op Fl a Ar attachment
82 .Op Fl q Ar quote-file
84 .Op Fl S Ar variable Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value
89 .Op Fl Fl \: Ar mta-option ...
97 .Op Fl S Ar variable Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value
100 .Op Fl Fl \: Ar mta-option ...
106 .Op Fl L Ar spec-list
107 .Op Fl r Ar from-addr
108 .Op Fl S Ar variable Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value
111 .Op Fl Fl \: Ar mta-option ...
116 .Mx -toc -tree html pdf ps xhtml
119 .\" .Sh DESCRIPTION {{{
122 .Bd -filled -compact -offset indent
123 .Sy Compatibility note:
124 S-nail (\*(UA) will wrap up into \%S-mailx in v15.0 (circa 2018).
125 A partial set of compatibility options exist, tagged as \*(IN and \*(OU.
126 To choose upward compatible behaviour, please set the internal variable
128 Anything which will vanish in v15.0 is tagged \*(OB, and using
130 will print warnings for many use cases of obsolete features.
134 \*(UA is a mail processing system with a command syntax reminiscent of
136 with lines replaced by messages.
137 It is intended to provide the functionality of the POSIX
139 command and offers (mostly optional) extensions for line editing, IDNA,
140 MIME, S/MIME, SMTP and POP3 (and IMAP).
141 It is usable as a mail batch language.
143 .\" .Ss "Options" {{{
146 .Bl -tag -width ".Fl _ Ar _ccount"
151 command (see below) for
153 after the startup files have been read.
157 Attach the given file to the message.
158 The same filename conventions as described in the section
160 apply: shell word expansion is restricted to the tilde
165 not be accessible but contain a
167 character, then anything after the
169 is assumed to specify the input character set and anything before
171 the filename: this is the only option to specify the input character set
172 (and don't perform any character set conversion) for text attachments
173 from the command line, not using the
175 tilde escape command.
179 Make standard input and standard output line-buffered.
183 Send blind carbon copies to the given list of addresses.
185 below goes into more detail on that.
189 Send carbon copies to the given list of addresses.
201 variable, which enables debug messages and disables message delivery.
207 variable and thus discard messages with an empty message part body.
208 This is useful for sending messages from scripts.
212 Just check if mail is present in the system mailbox.
213 If yes, return an exit status of zero, a non-zero value otherwise.
217 Save the message to send in a file named after the local part of the
218 first recipient's address (instead of in
223 Read in the contents of the user's
225 (or the specified file) for processing;
226 when \*(UA is quit, it writes undeleted messages back to this file
230 Some special conventions are recognized for the string
232 which are documented for the
237 is not a direct argument to the flag
239 but is instead taken from the command line after option processing has
243 that starts with a hyphen, prefix it with a (relative) path, as in
244 .Ql ./-hyphenbox.mbox .
248 Print a header summary of all messages and exit.
249 A configurable summary view is available via the
255 Print a short usage summary.
256 Because of widespread use a
258 argument will have the same effect.
264 variable to ignore tty interrupt signals.
267 .It Fl L Ar spec-list
268 Print a header summary of only those messages that match the given
272 .Sx "Specifying messages"
277 option has been given in addition no header summary is produced,
278 but \*(UA will instead indicate via its exit status wether
284 note that any verbose output is suppressed in this mode and must instead
285 be enabled explicitly (e.g., by using the option
292 variable and thus inhibit initial display of message headers when
293 reading mail or editing a mail folder.
300 This option should be activated for \*(UA scripts that are invoked on
301 more than one machine, because the contents of that file may differ
303 (The same behaviour can be achieved by setting the
304 .Ev NAIL_NO_SYSTEM_RC
305 environment variable.)
309 Start the message with the contents of the specified file.
310 May be given in send mode only.
314 Any folder opened will be in read-only mode.
320 is a valid address then it specifies the envelope sender address to be
323 when a message is send.
326 include a user name, comments etc., then the components will be
327 separated and the name part will be passed to the MTA individually via
331 will also be assigned to the
333 variable, just as if additionally
335 had been specified (therefore affecting SMTP data transfer, too).
337 If instead an empty string is passed as
339 then the content of the variable
341 will be evaluated and used for this purpose whenever the MTA is
343 Note that \*(UA by default, without
345 that is, neither passes
349 flags to the MTA by itself.
352 .It Fl S Ar variable Ns Op = Ns value
353 Sets the internal option
355 and, in case of a value option, assigns
358 Even though options set via
360 may be overwritten from within resource files,
361 the command line setting will be reestablished after all resource files
366 Specify the subject of the to-be-sent message.
370 The message to be sent is expected to contain a message header with
375 fields giving its recipients, which will be added to those given on the
377 If a message subject is specified via
379 then it'll be used in favour of one given on the command line.
391 Note you can also specify
395 and the envelope address possibly specified with the option
398 The following, which are normally created automatically based
399 upon the message context, can also be specified:
404 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
405 (special address massage will however still occur for the latter).
409 Read the system mailbox of
411 (appropriate privileges presumed), and
414 in some aspects, e.g. in respect to
423 Print \*(UA's version and exit.
429 option causes some verbosity (like printing of certificate chains).
430 Using it twice increases the level of verbosity.
436 to the list of commands to be executed before normal operation starts.
440 .Va batch-exit-on-error ;
441 the only possibility to execute commands in non-interactive mode when
442 reading startup files is actively prohibited.
448 even if not in interactive mode.
452 This sets several options to prepare \*(UA for working in (most likely
453 non-interactive) batch mode:
465 It also enables processing of
466 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
467 E.g., the following should send an email message to
469 .Bd -literal -offset indent
470 $ LC_ALL=C printf 'm bob\en~s ubject\enText\en.\enx\en' | \e
471 LC_ALL=C MAILRC=/dev/null s-nail -n -# -Snosave
476 This flag forces termination of option processing in order to prevent
479 It also forcefully puts \*(UA into send mode, see
484 In the above list of supported command line options,
485 .Fl D , d , E , i , N
488 are implemented by means of setting the respective option, as via
491 .Op Ar mta-option ...
493 arguments that are given at the end of the command line after a
495 separator will be passed through to the mail-transfer-agent (MTA) and
496 persist for an entire (interactive) session \(en if the setting of
498 allows their recognition;
499 MTA arguments can also be specified in the variable
500 .Va sendmail-arguments ;
501 find MTA interaction described in more detail in the documentation of
503 MTA arguments are ignored when mail is send via SMTP data transfer.
506 .\" .Ss "A starter" {{{
509 \*(UA is a direct descendant of the BSD Mail program that was introduced
510 in 1978 (itself superceeding the simpler UNIX mail program) and used
511 to introduce itself (in the Mail reference manual) as follows:
513 .Bd -ragged -offset indent
514 Mail provides a simple and friendly environment for sending and
516 It divides incoming mail into its constituent messages and allows the
517 user to deal with them in any order.
518 In addition, it provides a set of
520 -like commands for manipulating messages and sending mail.
521 Mail offers the user simple editing capabilities to ease the composition
522 of outgoing messages, as well as providing the ability to define and
523 send to names which address groups of users.
527 \*(UA is thus the user side of the Unix mail system, whereas the system
528 side (mail-transfer-agent, MTA) was traditionally taken by
534 are often used for this purpose instead.
535 If the \*(OPal SMTP feature has been built into \*(UA then the
536 system side is not a mandatory precondition for mail delivery.
539 Because \*(UA strives for compliance with POSIX
541 it is likely that some configuration settings have to be adjusted before
542 using it is a smooth experience.
545 file already bends those standard settings a bit towards more user
546 friendliness and safety, e.g., it sets the
550 options in order to suppress the automatic moving of messages to
552 that would otherwise occur (see
553 .Sx "Message states" )
556 to not remove empty files in order not to mangle file permissions when
557 files eventually get recreated.
560 option so that by default file grouping (via the
562 prefix as documented also for
567 contains some further suggestions.
570 .\" .Ss "Sending mail" {{{
573 To send a message to one or more people, using a local
574 mail-transfer-agent (MTA; the executable path can be set via
576 or the \*(OPal builtin SMTP (set and see the variable
578 transport to actually deliver the generated mail message, \*(UA can be
579 invoked with arguments which are the names of people to whom the mail
582 .Bd -literal -offset indent
583 $ \*(ua -s Subject -a attachm.ent bill@host1 'Bob <bob@host2>'
584 # But... try it in an isolated dry-run mode first
585 $ LC_ALL=C MAILRC=/dev/null \e
586 \*(ua -n -d -vv -Sfrom="me <he@re>" \e
587 -s Subject -. "(Lovely) Bob <bob@host2>"
591 The user is then expected to type in the message contents.
592 In this compose mode \*(UA treats lines beginning with the character
594 special \(en these are so-called
596 which can be used to read in files, process shell commands, add and edit
597 attachments and more; e.g., the tilde escape
599 will start the text editor to revise the message in it's current state,
601 allows editing of the message recipients and
603 gives an overview of available tilde escapes.
606 at the beginning of an empty line leaves compose mode and causes the
607 message to be send, whereas typing control-C
609 twice will abort the current letter (saving its contents in the file
617 A number of options can be used to alter default behavior; e.g.,
622 will automatically startup a text editor when compose mode is entered,
624 will cause the user to be prompted actively for carbon-copy recipients
627 option will allow leaving compose mode by writing a line consisting
632 Very important, though, is to define which
634 may be used when sending messages, usually by setting the option
637 having read the section
638 .Sx "The mime.types files"
639 to understand how the MIME-type of outgoing attachments is classified
640 and the knowledge that messages are sent asynchronously unless
642 is set: only with it MTA delivery errors will be recognizable.
647 is often necessary (e.g., in conjunction with
649 or desirable, you may want to do some dry-run tests before you go.
650 Saving a copy of the sent messages in a
652 may also be desirable \(en as for most mailbox file targets some
653 special conventions are recognized, see the
655 command for more on that.
657 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
658 will spread some light on the
660 variable chains as well as on using URLs for accessing protocol-specific
665 contains an example configuration for sending messages via some of the
666 well-known public mail providers;
667 note it also gives a compact overview on how to setup a secure SSL/TLS
671 Message recipients (as specified on the command line or defined in
676 may not only be email addressees but can also be names of mailboxes and
677 even complete shell command pipe specifications.
678 Proper quoting may be necessary, e.g., to embed whitespace characters.
679 (Recall that \*(UA deals with mail standards, therefore those define the
680 rules with which content is interpreted.)
683 is not set then only network addresses (see
685 for a description of mail addresses) and plain user names (including MTA
686 aliases) may be used, other types will be filtered out, giving a warning
689 .\" When changing any of the following adjust any RECIPIENTADDRSPEC;
690 .\" grep the latter for the complete picture
694 is set then extended recipient addresses will optionally be accepted:
695 Any name which starts with a vertical bar
697 character specifies a command pipe \(en the command string following the
699 is executed and the message is sent to its standard input;
700 Likewise, any name that starts with the character slash
702 or the character sequence dot slash
704 is treated as a file, regardless of the remaining content.
705 Any other name which contains an at sign
707 character is treated as a network address;
708 Any other name which starts with a plus sign
710 character specifies a mailbox name;
711 Any other name which contains a slash
713 character but no exclamation mark
717 character before also specifies a mailbox name;
718 What remains is treated as a network address.
720 .Bd -literal -offset indent
721 $ echo bla | \*(ua -Sexpandaddr -s test ./mbox.mbox
722 $ echo bla | \*(ua -Sexpandaddr -s test '|cat >> ./mbox.mbox'
723 $ echo safe | LC_ALL=C MAILRC=/dev/null \e
724 \*(ua -n -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait -Snosave \e
725 -Sexpandaddr=fail,-all,+addr -s test \e
730 It is possible to create personal distribution lists via the
732 command, so that, for instance, the user can send mail to
734 and have it go to a group of people:
737 .Dl alias cohorts bill jkf mark kridle@ucbcory ~/mail/cohorts.mbox
740 Please note that this mechanism has nothing in common with the system
741 wide aliases that may be used by the local MTA (mail-transfer-agent),
742 which are subject to the
746 and are often tracked in a file
752 Personal aliases will be expanded by \*(UA before the message is sent,
753 and are thus a convenient alternative to specifying each addressee by
757 To avoid environmental noise scripts should
759 \*(ua from any configuration files and create a script-local
760 environment, either by pointing the
762 variable to a custom configuration file, or by using the
764 command line option to specify options:
766 .Bd -literal -offset indent
767 $ env LC_ALL=C MAILRC=/dev/null password=NOTSECRET \e
768 \*(ua -n -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait -Snosave \e
769 -Sexpandaddr=fail,-all,+addr \e
770 -S 'smtp=smtps://mylogin@some.host:465' -Ssmtp-auth=login \e
771 -S 'from=scriptreply@domain' \e
772 -s 'subject' -a attachment_file \e
773 -. "Recipient 1 <recipient1@domain>" recipient2@domain \e
778 .\" .Ss "Reading mail" {{{
781 When invoked without addressees \*(UA enters interactive mode in which
783 When used like that the user's system mailbox is read in and a one line
784 header of each message therein is printed.
787 for an in-depth description of the different mailbox types that exist.)
788 Note that if the mailbox is empty \*(UA will exit after printing
789 a message unless the option
798 will give a listing of all available commands and
800 will give a summary of some common ones.
801 If the \*(OPal documentation strings are available one can type
803 and see the actual expansion of
805 and what it's purpose is, i.e., commands can be abbreviated
806 (note that POSIX defines some abbreviations, so that the alphabetical
807 order of commands doesn't necessarily relate to the abbreviations; it is
808 possible to define overwrites with the
813 Messages are given numbers (starting at 1) which uniquely identify
814 messages; the current message \(en the
816 \(en will either be the first new message, or the first unread message,
817 or the first message of the mailbox; the option
819 will instead cause usage of the last message for this purpose.
822 Messages can be printed with the
826 By default the current message
828 is printed, but like with most other commands it is possible to give
829 a fancy message specification (see
830 .Sx "Specifying messages" ) ,
833 will display all unread messages,
838 will print the messages 1 and 5,
840 will print the messages 1 through 5, and
844 will print the last and the next message, respectively.
847 In the default setup all header fields of a message will be printed,
848 but this can be changed: either by blacklisting a list of fields via
850 or by whitelisting only a given list with the
853 .Ql Ic \:retain Ns \0date from to cc subject .
854 In order to print all header fields of a message regardless of currently
855 active ignore or retain lists, use the command
859 controls wether and when \*(UA will use the configured
861 for printing instead of directly writing to the terminal (generally
865 Dependent upon the configuration a
866 .Sx "Command line editor"
867 aims at making user experience with the many
870 When reading the system mailbox or when
874 specified a mailbox explicitly prefixed with the special
876 modifier then messages which have been read will be moved to the user's
878 file automatically when the mailbox is left, either by changing the
879 active mailbox or by quitting \*(UA (also see
880 .Sx "Message states" ) .
883 After examining a message the user can also
887 to the sender and all recipients or
889 exclusively to the sender.
894 Note that when replying to or forwarding a message recipient addresses
895 will be stripped from comments and names unless the option
898 Deletion causes \*(UA to forget about the message;
899 This is not irreversible, though, one can
901 the message by giving its number,
902 or the \*(UA session can be ended by giving the
907 To end a mail processing session one may either issue
909 to cause a full program exit, which possibly includes
910 automatic moving of read messages to
912 as well as updating the \*(OPal command line editor history file,
915 instead in order to prevent any of these actions.
918 .\" .Ss "Viewing HTML mail and MIME attachments" {{{
919 .Ss "Viewing HTML mail and MIME attachments"
921 Messages which are HTML-only get more and more common and of course many
922 messages come bundled with a bouquet of MIME attachments.
923 Whereas \*(UA \*(OPally supports a simple HTML-to-text converter to deal
924 with HTML messages (see
925 .Sx "The mime.types files" ) ,
926 it normally can't deal with any of these itself, but instead programs
927 need to become registered to deal with specific MIME types or file
929 These programs may either prepare plain text versions of their input
930 in order to enable \*(UA to display the content on the terminal,
931 or display the content themselves, for example in a graphical window.
932 The latter type of programs by default
934 \*(UA until the external viewer has terminated, but asynchronous
935 side-by-side execution is also possible, in which case \*(UA will
936 continue to display the message and remain responsive.
939 To install an external handler program for a specific MIME type set an
941 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
943 To define a handler for a specific file extension set the respective
945 variable \(en these handlers take precedence.
947 .Va mime-counter-evidence
948 can be set to improve dealing with faulty MIME part declarations as are
949 often seen in real-life messages.
950 E.g., to display a HTML message inline (that is, converted to a more
951 fancy plain text representation than the builtin converter is capable to
952 produce) with either of the text-mode browsers
956 teach \*(UA about MathML documents and make it display them as plain text
957 and to open PDF attachments in an external PDF viewer, asynchronously:
959 .Bd -literal -offset indent
960 if $features !@ HTML-FILTER
961 #set pipe-text/html="elinks -force-html -dump 1"
962 set pipe-text/html="lynx -stdin -dump -force_html"
963 # Display HTML as plain text instead
964 #set pipe-text/html=@
966 mimetype '@ application/mathml+xml mathml'
967 set pipe-application/pdf="@&set -C;\e
968 : > \e"${TMPDIR}/${NAIL_FILENAME_GENERATED}\e"; \e
969 trap \e"rm -f \e\e\e"${TMPDIR}/${NAIL_FILENAME_GENERATED}\e\e\e"\e" \e
970 EXIT INT QUIT PIPE TERM;\e
972 cat > \e"${TMPDIR}/${NAIL_FILENAME_GENERATED}\e"; \e
973 xpdf \e"${TMPDIR}/${NAIL_FILENAME_GENERATED}\e""
977 Note: special care must be taken when using such commands as mail
978 viruses may be distributed by this method: if messages of type
980 or files with the extension
982 were blindly filtered through the shell, for example, a message sender
983 could easily execute arbitrary code on the system \*(UA is running on.
984 For more on MIME, also in respect to sending of messages, see the
986 .Sx "The mime.types files"
991 .\" .Ss "Mailing lists" {{{
994 \*(UA offers some support to ease handling of mailing lists.
997 promotes all given arguments to known mailing lists, and
999 sets their subscription attribute, creating them first as necessary.
1004 automatically, but only resets the subscription attribute.)
1005 Using the commands without arguments will print out (a subset of) all
1006 currently defined mailing lists.
1011 can be used to mark out messages with configured list addresses
1012 in the header display.
1015 \*(OPally mailing lists may also be specified as regular expressions,
1016 which allows matching of many addresses with a single expression.
1017 However, all fully qualified list addresses are matched via a fast
1018 dictionary, whereas expressions are placed in (a) list(s) which is
1019 (are) matched sequentially.
1021 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1022 set followup-to followup-to-honour=ask-yes reply-to-honour=ask-yes
1023 mlist a1@b1.c1 a2@b2.c2 .*@lists.c3$
1024 mlsubscribe a4@b4.c4 exact@lists.c3
1029 .Va followup-to-honour
1031 .Ql Mail-\:Followup-\:To:
1032 header is honoured when the message is being replied to (via
1038 controls wether this header is created when sending mails; it will be
1039 created automatically for a couple of reasons, too, like when the
1041 .Dq mailing list specific
1046 is used to respond to a message with its
1047 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
1051 A difference in between the handling of known and subscribed lists is
1052 that the address of the sender is usually not part of a generated
1053 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
1054 when addressing the latter, whereas it is for the former kind of lists.
1055 Usually because there are exceptions: say, if multiple lists are
1056 addressed and not all of them are subscribed lists.
1058 For convenience \*(UA will, temporarily, automatically add a list
1059 address that is presented in the
1061 header of a message that is being responded to to the list of known
1063 Shall that header have existed \*(UA will instead, dependend on the
1065 .Va reply-to-honour ,
1068 for this purpose in order to accept a list administrators' wish that
1069 is supposed to have been manifested like that (but only if it provides
1070 a single address which resides on the same domain as what is stated in
1074 .\" .Ss "Resource files" {{{
1075 .Ss "Resource files"
1077 Upon startup \*(UA reads in several resource files:
1079 .Bl -tag -width ".It Pa _AIL_EXTRA_R_"
1082 System wide initialization file.
1083 Reading of this file can be suppressed, either by using the
1085 command line option, or by setting the environment variable
1086 .Ev NAIL_NO_SYSTEM_RC .
1090 File giving initial commands.
1091 A different file can be chosen by setting the environment variable
1094 .It Va NAIL_EXTRA_RC
1095 Can be used to define an optional startup file to be read after
1097 This variable is only honoured in certain circumstances (see its
1098 documentation for more).
1102 The content of these files is interpreted as follows:
1105 .Bl -bullet -compact
1107 A lines' leading whitespace is ignored.
1109 An empty line is ignored.
1111 If the line (content) starts with the number sign
1113 then it is a comment-command \(en a real command! \(en and also ignored.
1114 This command is the only form of comment that is understood.
1118 on the next line if the newline character is
1120 by preceding it with the backslash character
1122 Note that any leading whitespace of follow lines is removed:
1123 If whitespace is desired it must be placed before the backslash.
1126 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1127 # This line is a comment command. And y\e
1128 es, it is really continued here.
1135 .\" .Ss "Character sets" {{{
1136 .Ss "Character sets"
1138 \*(OP \*(UA detects the character set of the terminal by using
1139 mechanisms that are controlled by the
1144 should give an overview); the \*(UA internal variable
1146 will be set to the detected terminal character set accordingly
1147 and will thus show up in the output of the commands
1153 However, a user supplied
1155 value is not overwritten by this detection mechanism: this
1157 must be used if the detection doesn't work properly,
1158 and it may be used to adjust the name of the locale character set.
1159 E.g., on BSD systems one may use a locale with the character set
1160 ISO8859-1, which is not a valid name for this character set; to be on
1161 the safe side, one may set
1163 to the correct name, which is ISO-8859-1.
1166 Note that changing the value doesn't mean much beside that,
1167 since several aspects of the real character set are implied by the
1168 locale environment of the system,
1169 and that stays unaffected by the content of an overwritten
1172 (This is mostly an issue when interactively using \*(UA, though.
1173 It is actually possible to send mail in a completely
1175 locale environment.)
1178 If no character set conversion capabilities have been compiled into
1181 library has been found), then
1183 will be the only supported character set,
1184 it is simply assumed that it can be used to exchange 8-bit messages,
1185 and the rest of this section does not apply;
1186 it may however still be necessary to explicitly set it if automatic
1187 detection fails, since in that case it defaults to the mentioned
1191 When reading messages, their text is converted into
1193 as necessary in order to display them on the users terminal.
1194 Unprintable characters and invalid byte sequences are detected
1195 and replaced by proper substitution characters (unless the variable
1197 was set once \*(UA was started).
1199 .Va charset-unknown-8bit
1200 to deal with another hairy aspect of message interpretation.
1203 When sending messages all their parts and attachments are classified.
1204 Whereas no character set conversion is performed on those parts which
1205 appear to be binary data,
1206 the character set being used must be declared within the MIME header of
1207 an outgoing text part if it contains characters that do not conform to
1208 the set of characters that are allowed by the email standards.
1209 Permissible values for character sets can be declared using the
1213 which defines a catch-all last-resort fallback character set that is
1214 implicitly appended to the list of character-sets in
1218 When replying to a message and the variable
1219 .Va reply-in-same-charset
1220 is set then the character set of the message being replied to is tried
1222 And it is also possible to make \*(UA work even more closely related to
1223 the current locale setting automatically by using the variable
1224 .Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset ,
1225 please see there for more information.
1228 All the specified character sets are tried in order unless the
1229 conversion of the part or attachment succeeds.
1230 If none of the tried (8-bit) character sets is capable to represent the
1231 content of the part or attachment,
1232 then the message will not be sent and its text will be saved to
1234 In general, if the message
1235 .Dq Cannot convert from a to b
1236 appears, either some characters are not appropriate for the currently
1237 selected (terminal) character set,
1238 or the needed conversion is not supported by the system.
1239 In the first case, it is necessary to set an appropriate
1241 locale and/or the variable
1245 The best results are usually achieved when \*(UA is run in a UTF-8
1246 locale on a UTF-8 capable terminal, in which case the full Unicode
1247 spectrum of characters is available.
1248 In this setup characters from various countries can be displayed,
1249 while it is still possible to use more simple character sets for sending
1250 to retain maximum compatibility with older mail clients.
1253 .\" .Ss "Message states" {{{
1254 .Ss "Message states"
1256 \*(UA differentiates in between several different message states;
1257 the current state will be reflected in the header display if
1259 is configured to do so.
1260 In \*(UA message states are inspected when leaving a mailbox and may
1261 cause messages to be automatically moved to the special
1263 mailbox \(en because this may be irritating to users which are used to
1265 mail-user-agents, the default global
1271 variables in order to suppress this behaviour.
1273 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ql _reserved"
1275 Message has neither been viewed nor moved to any other state.
1276 Such messages are retained even in the system mailbox.
1279 Message has neither been viewed nor moved to any other state, but the
1280 message was present already when the mailbox has been opened last:
1281 Such messages are retained even in the system mailbox.
1284 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
1304 commands may also cause the next message to be marked as read, depending
1310 command is used, messages that are in the system mailbox or in mailboxes
1311 which were opened with the special
1315 state when the mailbox is left will be saved in
1322 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
1328 can be used to access such messages.
1331 The message has been processed by a
1333 command and it will be retained in its current location.
1336 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
1342 command is used, messages that are in the system mailbox or in mailboxes
1343 which were opened with the special
1347 state when the mailbox is left will be deleted; they will be saved in
1355 .\" .Ss "Specifying messages" {{{
1356 .Ss "Specifying messages"
1362 can be given a list of message numbers as arguments to apply to a number
1363 of messages at once.
1366 deletes messages 1 and 2,
1369 will delete the messages 1 through 5.
1370 In sorted or threaded mode (see the
1374 will delete the messages that are located between (and including)
1375 messages 1 through 5 in the sorted/threaded order, as shown in the
1377 Multiple colon modifiers can be joined into one, e.g.,
1379 The following special message names exist:
1381 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ar _n_u"
1387 All old messages (any not in state
1410 All answered messages
1415 All messages marked as draft.
1417 \*(OP All messages classified as spam.
1419 \*(OP All messages with unsure spam classification.
1421 The current message, the so-called
1424 The message that was previously the current message.
1426 The parent message of the current message,
1427 that is the message with the Message-ID given in the
1429 field or the last entry of the
1431 field of the current message.
1433 The next previous undeleted message,
1434 or the next previous deleted message for the
1437 In sorted/threaded mode,
1438 the next previous such message in the sorted/threaded order.
1440 The next undeleted message,
1441 or the next deleted message for the
1444 In sorted/threaded mode,
1445 the next such message in the sorted/threaded order.
1447 The first undeleted message,
1448 or the first deleted message for the
1451 In sorted/threaded mode,
1452 the first such message in the sorted/threaded order.
1455 In sorted/threaded mode,
1456 the last message in the sorted/threaded order.
1460 selects the message addressed with
1464 is any other message specification,
1465 and all messages from the thread that begins at it.
1466 Otherwise it is identical to
1471 the thread beginning with the current message is selected.
1476 All messages that were included in the message list for the previous
1479 .It Ar / Ns Ar string
1480 All messages that contain
1482 in the subject field (case ignored).
1489 the string from the previous specification of that type is used again.
1491 .It Xo Op Ar @ Ns Ar name-list Ns
1494 All messages that contain the given case-insensitive search
1496 ession; if the \*(OPal regular expression (see
1498 support is available
1500 will be interpreted as one if any of the
1502 regular expression characters is seen.
1504 .Ar @ Ns Ar name-list
1505 part is missing, the search is restricted to the subject field body,
1508 specifies a comma-separated list of header fields to search, as in
1510 .Dl '@to,from,cc@Someone i ought to know'
1512 In order to search for a string that includes a
1514 (commercial at) character the
1516 is effectively non-optional, but may be given as the empty string.
1517 Some special header fields may be abbreviated:
1531 respectively and case-insensitively.
1536 can be used to search in (all of) the header(s) of the message, and the
1545 can be used to perform full text searches \(en whereas the former
1546 searches only the body, the latter also searches the message header.
1548 This message specification performs full text comparison, but even with
1549 regular expression support it is almost impossible to write a search
1550 expression that savely matches only a specific address domain.
1551 To request that the content of the header is treated as a list of
1552 addresses, and to strip those down to the plain email address which the
1553 search expression is to be matched against, prefix the header name
1554 (abbreviation) with a tilde
1557 .Dl '@~f@@a\e.safe\e.domain\e.match$'
1561 .Dq any substring matches
1564 header, which will match addresses (too) even if
1566 is set (and POSIX says
1567 .Dq any address as shown in a header summary shall be matchable in this form ) ;
1570 variable is set, only the local part of the address is evaluated
1571 for the comparison, not ignoring case, and the setting of
1573 is completely ignored.
1574 For finer control and match boundaries use the
1576 search expression; the \*(OPal IMAP-style
1578 expression can also be used if substring matches are desired.
1582 \*(OP IMAP-style SEARCH expressions may also be used.
1583 This addressing mode is available with all types of folders;
1584 \*(UA will perform the search locally as necessary.
1585 Strings must be enclosed by double quotes
1587 in their entirety if they contain white space or parentheses;
1588 within the quotes, only backslash
1590 is recognized as an escape character.
1591 All string searches are case-insensitive.
1592 When the description indicates that the
1594 representation of an address field is used,
1595 this means that the search string is checked against both a list
1598 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1599 (\*qname\*q \*qsource\*q \*qlocal-part\*q \*qdomain-part\*q)
1604 and the addresses without real names from the respective header field.
1605 These search expressions can be nested using parentheses, see below for
1609 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar _n_u"
1610 .It Ar ( criterion )
1611 All messages that satisfy the given
1613 .It Ar ( criterion1 criterion2 ... criterionN )
1614 All messages that satisfy all of the given criteria.
1616 .It Ar ( or criterion1 criterion2 )
1617 All messages that satisfy either
1622 To connect more than two criteria using
1624 specifications have to be nested using additional parentheses,
1626 .Ql (or a (or b c)) ,
1630 .Ql ((a or b) and c) .
1633 operation of independent criteria on the lowest nesting level,
1634 it is possible to achieve similar effects by using three separate
1638 .It Ar ( not criterion )
1639 All messages that do not satisfy
1641 .It Ar ( bcc \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1642 All messages that contain
1644 in the envelope representation of the
1647 .It Ar ( cc \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1648 All messages that contain
1650 in the envelope representation of the
1653 .It Ar ( from \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1654 All messages that contain
1656 in the envelope representation of the
1659 .It Ar ( subject \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1660 All messages that contain
1665 .It Ar ( to \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1666 All messages that contain
1668 in the envelope representation of the
1671 .It Ar ( header name \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1672 All messages that contain
1677 .It Ar ( body \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1678 All messages that contain
1681 .It Ar ( text \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1682 All messages that contain
1684 in their header or body.
1685 .It Ar ( larger size )
1686 All messages that are larger than
1689 .It Ar ( smaller size )
1690 All messages that are smaller than
1694 .It Ar ( before date )
1695 All messages that were received before
1697 which must be in the form
1701 denotes the day of the month as one or two digits,
1703 is the name of the month \(en one of
1704 .Ql Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec ,
1707 is the year as four digits, e.g.,
1711 All messages that were received on the specified date.
1712 .It Ar ( since date )
1713 All messages that were received since the specified date.
1714 .It Ar ( sentbefore date )
1715 All messages that were sent on the specified date.
1716 .It Ar ( senton date )
1717 All messages that were sent on the specified date.
1718 .It Ar ( sentsince date )
1719 All messages that were sent since the specified date.
1721 The same criterion as for the previous search.
1722 This specification cannot be used as part of another criterion.
1723 If the previous command line contained more than one independent
1724 criterion then the last of those criteria is used.
1728 .\" .Ss "On URL syntax and credential lookup" {{{
1729 .Ss "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
1731 \*(IN For accessing protocol-specific resources, like POP3 mailboxes,
1732 usage of compact and standardized Uniform Resource Locators
1733 (URL, RFC 1738) has become omnipresent.
1734 \*(UA expects and understands URLs in the following form;
1737 denote optional parts, optional either because there also exist other
1738 ways to define the information in question or because support of the
1739 part is protocol-specific \(en e.g.,
1741 is used by the IMAP protocol but not by POP3.
1744 .Dl PROTOCOL://[USER[:PASSWORD]@]server[:port][/path]
1751 are specified as part of an URL they must be given in URL percent
1752 encoded (RFC 3986) form \(en the command
1754 can be used to perform the encoding and show the encoded value.
1755 (This doesn't really conform to any standard, but for one it isn't
1756 used for any data exchange over the internet, and second it's easier for
1757 users to simply call
1759 on a string and use that instead of having to deal with several
1760 different standards.)
1761 On the other hand, values given in variables are expected not to be URL
1765 Many variable options of \*(UA exist in multiple versions, called
1766 variable chains for the rest of this document: the plain
1771 .Ql variable-USER@HOST .
1778 had been specified in the respective URL, otherwise it refers to the plain
1784 that had been found when doing the user chain lookup as is described
1787 will never be in URL percent encoded form, wether it came from an URL or not.
1790 For example, wether an hypothetical URL
1791 .Ql smtp://hey%3Ayou@our.house
1792 had been given that includes a user, or wether the URL was
1793 .Ql smtp://our.house
1794 and the user had been found differently, to lookup the variable chain
1795 .Va smtp-use-starttls
1796 \*(UA first looks for wether
1797 .Ql smtp-\:use-\:starttls-\:hey:you@our.house
1798 is defined, then wether
1799 .Ql smtp-\:use-\:starttls-\:our.house
1800 exists before finally ending up looking at the plain variable itself.
1803 \*(UA obeys the following logic scheme when dealing with the
1804 necessary credential informations of an account:
1810 has been given in the URL the variables
1814 are looked up; if no such variable(s) can be found then \*(UA will,
1815 when enforced by the \*(OPal variables
1816 .Va netrc-lookup-HOST
1823 specific entry which provides a
1825 name: this lookup will only succeed if unambiguous (one possible matching
1829 If there is still no
1831 then \*(UA will fall back to the user who is supposed to run \*(UA:
1832 either the name that has been given with the
1834 command line option (or, equivalently, but with less precedence, the
1835 environment variable
1840 The identity of this user has been fixated during \*(UA startup and is
1841 known to be a valid user on the current host.
1844 Authentication: unless otherwise noted this will lookup the
1845 .Va PROTOCOL-auth-USER@HOST , PROTOCOL-auth-HOST , PROTOCOL-auth
1846 variable chain, falling back to a protocol-specific default should this
1852 has been given in the URL \(en it should be noted once that specifying
1853 the password in the URL is only syntactic sugar for the user, it'll
1854 never be part of an URL that \*(UA uses itself \(en, then if the
1856 has been found through the \*(OPal
1858 file lookup then that may have already provided the password, too.
1859 Otherwise the variable chain
1860 .Va password-USER@HOST , password-HOST , password
1863 \*(OP Then if any of the variables of the chain
1864 .Va agent-shell-lookup-USER@HOST , agent-shell-lookup-HOST , \
1866 is set the shell command specified therein is run and the output (less
1867 newline characters) will be used as the password.
1868 It is perfectly valid for such an agent to simply not return any data,
1869 in which case the password lookup is continued somewhere else;
1870 Any command failure is treated as a hard error, however.
1872 The next variable chain that is inspected is the \*(OPal
1873 .Va netrc-lookup-USER@HOST , netrc-lookup-HOST , netrc-lookup ,
1874 but this time looking only for the password (multiple user accounts
1875 for a single machine may exist as well as a fallback entry without
1876 user but with a password).
1878 If at that point there is still no password available, but the
1879 (protocols') chosen authentication type requires a password, then in
1880 interactive mode the user will be prompted on the terminal.
1885 S/MIME verification works relative to the values found in the
1889 header field(s), which means that the values of
1890 .Va smime-sign , smime-sign-cert , smime-sign-include-certs
1892 .Va smime-sign-message-digest
1893 will not be looked up using the
1897 chains from above but instead use the corresponding values from the
1898 message that is being worked on.
1899 In unusual cases multiple and different
1903 combinations may therefore be involved \(en on the other hand those
1904 unusual cases become possible.
1905 The usual case is as short as:
1908 .Dl set smtp=smtp://USER:PASS@HOST smtp-use-starttls \e
1909 .Dl \ \ \ \ smime-sign smime-sign-cert=+smime.pair
1914 contains complete example configurations.
1917 .\" .Ss "Command line editor" {{{
1918 .Ss "Command line editor"
1920 \*(OP \*(UA can be configured to support a command line editor and
1921 command history lists which are saved in between sessions.
1922 One may link against fully-fledged external libraries
1923 .Pf ( Xr readline 6 ,
1925 ) or use \*(UA's own command line editor NCL (Nail-Command-Line)
1926 instead, which should work in all environments which comply to the
1927 ISO C standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1990/Amendment 1:1995).
1928 When an external library is used, interactive behaviour of \*(UA relies
1929 on that library and may not correspond one-to-one to what is described
1933 Regardless of the actually used command line editor
1935 entries will be created for lines entered in command mode only, and
1936 creation of such an entry can be forcefully suppressed by starting the
1937 line with a space character.
1940 handling is by itself an optional feature and may therefore not be
1942 For more information see the documentation of the options
1945 .Va history-gabby-persist ,
1946 .Va line-editor-disable ,
1952 The builtin \*(UA command line editor supports the following operations;
1955 stands for the combination of the
1957 key plus the mentioned character, e.g.,
1960 .Dq hold down control key and press the A key :
1963 .Bl -tag -compact -width "Ql _M"
1965 Go to the start of the line.
1967 Move the cursor backward one character.
1969 Forward delete the character under the cursor;
1970 quits \*(UA if used on the empty line unless the
1974 Go to the end of the line.
1976 Move the cursor forward one character.
1979 Cancel current operation, full reset.
1980 If there is an active history search or tabulator expansion then this
1981 command will first reset that, reverting to the former line content;
1982 thus a second reset is needed for a full reset in this case.
1983 In all cases \*(UA will reset a possibly used multibyte character input
1989 backward delete one character.
1993 .Dq horizontal tabulator :
1994 try to expand the word before the cursor.
1996 .Dq tabulator-completion
1997 as is known from the
1999 but really means the usual \*(UA expansion, as documented for
2001 yet it involves shell expansion as a last step, too.)
2006 complete this line of input.
2008 Delete all characters from the cursor to the end of the line.
2012 \*(OP Go to the next history entry.
2017 \*(OP Go to the previous history entry.
2019 \*(OP Complete the current line from (the remaining older) history entries.
2026 Delete the characters from the one preceding the cursor to the preceding
2029 Move the cursor forward one word boundary.
2031 Move the cursor backward one word boundary.
2035 If problems with commands that are based upon rightwise movement are
2036 encountered, adjustments of the option
2037 .Va line-editor-cursor-right
2038 may solve the problem, as documented for it.
2041 If the terminal produces key sequences which are compatible with
2043 then the left and right cursor keys will map to
2047 respectively, the up and down cursor keys will map to
2051 and the Home/End/PgUp/PgDown keys will call the
2053 command with the respective arguments
2059 (i.e., perform scrolling through the header summary list).
2062 .\" .Ss "Coloured message display" {{{
2063 .Ss "Coloured message display"
2065 \*(OP \*(UA can be configured to support coloured message display,
2066 realized by emitting ANSI colour escape sequences.
2067 Colours are only used when the
2069 environment variable is set and either the terminal type can be found in
2071 or its name includes the string
2075 On top of that the binary option
2077 defines wether these colour sequences are also generated when the output
2078 of a command needs to go through the
2082 ) \(en this is not enabled by default because different pager programs
2083 need different command line switches or other configuration in order to
2084 support those colour sequences, please see the option for more details.
2087 To forcefully disable all colour support, set
2088 .Va colour-disable .
2091 Colours can be configured through font attributes
2112 Multiple specifications can be joined in a comma separated list, as in
2115 .Dl set colour-msginfo="ft=bold,fg=magenta,bg=cyan"
2118 Options to be set are
2119 .Va colour-msginfo ,
2120 .Va colour-partinfo ,
2124 .Va colour-uheader ,
2126 .Va colour-user-headers ,
2127 which is a list of headers to be colourized via
2129 instead of the default
2132 .\" }}} (DESCRIPTION)
2135 .\" .Sh COMMANDS {{{
2138 Each command is typed on a line by itself,
2139 and may take arguments following the command word.
2140 The command need not be typed in its entirety \(en
2141 the first command which matches the typed prefix is used.
2144 prints a sorted list of available commands, and the command
2148 when given an argument, will show a documentation string for the
2151 documentation strings are however \*(OPal.)
2154 For commands which take message lists as arguments, the next message
2155 forward that satisfies the command's requirements will be used shall no
2156 explicit message list have been passed.
2157 If there are no messages forward of the current message,
2158 the search proceeds backwards,
2159 and if there are no good messages at all,
2161 .Dq no applicable messages
2162 and aborts the command.
2163 The arguments to commands can be quoted, using the following methods:
2166 .Bl -bullet -compact -offset indent
2168 An argument can be enclosed between paired double-quotes
2173 any white space, shell word expansion, or backslash characters (except
2174 as described next) within the quotes are treated literally as part of
2176 A double-quote will be treated literally within single-quotes and vice
2178 Inside such a quoted string the actually used quote character can be
2179 used nonetheless by escaping it with a backslash
2185 An argument that is not enclosed in quotes, as above, can usually still
2186 contain space characters if those spaces are backslash-escaped.
2189 A backslash outside of the enclosing quotes is discarded
2190 and the following character is treated literally as part of the argument.
2193 An unquoted backslash at the end of a command line is discarded and the
2194 next line continues the command.
2198 Filenames, where expected, are subsequently subjected to the following
2199 transformations, in sequence:
2202 .Bl -bullet -compact -offset indent
2204 If the filename begins with an unquoted plus sign, and the
2206 variable is defined,
2207 the plus sign will be replaced by the value of the
2209 variable followed by a slash.
2212 variable is unset or is set to null, the filename will be unchanged.
2215 Shell word expansions are applied to the filename.
2216 .\" TODO shell word expansion shell expand fexpand FEXP_NSHELL
2217 .Sy Compatibility note:
2218 on the long run support for complete shell word expansion will be
2219 replaced by an internally implemented restricted expansion mechanism in
2220 order to circumvent possible security impacts through shell expansion.
2221 Expect that a growing number of program parts only support this
2224 Meta expansions are applied to the filename: leading tilde characters
2226 will be replaced by the expansion of
2228 and any occurrence of
2232 will be replaced by the expansion of the variable, if possible;
2233 \*(UA internal as well as environmental (shell) variables can be
2234 accessed through this mechanism.
2235 In order to include a raw
2237 character precede it with a backslash
2239 to include a backslash double it.
2240 If more than a single pathname results from this expansion and the
2241 command is expecting one file, an error results.
2243 Note that in interactive display context, in order to allow simple
2244 value acceptance (typing
2246 backslash quoting is performed automatically as necessary, e.g., a file
2247 .Ql diet\e is \ecurd.txt
2248 will be displayed as
2249 .Ql diet\e\e is \e\ecurd.txt .
2253 The following commands are available:
2255 .Bl -tag -width ".Ic _ccount"
2258 The comment-command causes the entire line to be ignored.
2260 this really is a normal command which' purpose is to discard its
2263 indicating special character, which means that, e.g., trailing comments
2264 on a line are not possible.
2268 Interprets the remainder of the word as a macro name and passes it
2273 is a shorter synonym for
2274 .Ql call Ar mymacro .
2278 Print out the preceding message.
2279 If given a numeric argument n,
2280 goes to the n'th previous message and prints it.
2284 Show the current message number (the
2289 Prints a brief summary of commands.
2290 \*(OP Given an argument a synopsis for the command in question is
2292 commands can be abbreviated in general and this command can be used
2293 to see the full expansion of an abbreviation including the synopsis,
2299 and see how the display changes.
2307 ) command which follows.
2317 (ac) Creates, selects or lists (an) account(s).
2318 An account is a group of commands and variable settings which together
2319 usually arrange the environment for the purpose of creating a system login.
2320 Without any argument a listing of all defined accounts and their content
2322 A specific account can be activated by giving solely its name, resulting
2323 in the system mailbox or inbox of that account to be activated as via an
2324 explicit use of the command
2326 The two argument form is identical to defining a macro as via
2329 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2331 set folder=imaps://mylogin@imap.myisp.example
2333 set from="myname@myisp.example (My Name)"
2334 set smtp=smtp://mylogin@smtp.myisp.example
2338 creates an account named
2340 which can later be selected by specifying
2344 (case-insensitive) always exists.
2346 can be used to localize account settings \(en different to normal macros
2347 the settings will be reverted once the account is switched off.
2348 Accounts can be deleted via
2353 (a) With no arguments, prints out all currently-defined aliases.
2354 With one argument, prints out that alias.
2355 With more than one argument,
2356 creates a new alias or appends to an existing one.
2358 can be used to delete aliases.
2362 (alt) Manage a list of alternate addresses / names of the active user,
2363 members of which will be removed from recipient lists when replying to
2366 variable is not set).
2367 If arguments are given the set of alternate names is replaced by them,
2368 without arguments the current set is displayed.
2372 Takes a message list and marks each message as having been answered.
2373 This mark has no technical meaning in the mail system;
2374 it just causes messages to be marked in the header summary,
2375 and makes them specially addressable.
2379 \*(OP Only applicable to cached IMAP mailboxes;
2380 takes a message list and reads the specified messages into the IMAP
2385 Calls a macro that has been created via
2390 (ch) Change the working directory to
2392 or the given argument.
2398 \*(OP Only applicable to S/MIME signed messages.
2399 Takes a message list and a file name and saves the certificates
2400 contained within the message signatures to the named file in both
2401 human-readable and PEM format.
2402 The certificates can later be used to send encrypted messages to the
2403 respective message senders by setting
2404 .Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST
2409 (ch) Change the working directory to
2411 or the given argument.
2417 Only applicable to threaded mode.
2418 Takes a message list and makes all replies to these messages invisible
2419 in header summaries, unless they are in state
2424 \*(OP If operating in disconnected mode on an IMAP mailbox,
2425 switch to online mode and connect to the mail server while retaining
2427 See the description of the
2429 variable for more information.
2433 (C) Copy messages to files whose names are derived from the author of
2434 the respective message and don't mark them as being saved;
2435 otherwise identical to
2440 (c) Copy messages to the named file and don't mark them as being saved;
2441 otherwise identical to
2446 Print the current working directory.
2450 \*(OP For unencrypted messages this command is identical to
2452 Encrypted messages are first decrypted, if possible, and then copied.
2456 \*(OP For unencrypted messages this command is identical to
2458 Encrypted messages are first decrypted, if possible, and then copied.
2462 Without arguments the current list of macros, including their content,
2463 is printed, but otherwise a macro is defined.
2464 A macro definition is a sequence of commands in the following form:
2465 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2474 A defined macro can be invoked explicitly by using the
2478 commands, or implicitly by setting the
2481 .Va folder-hook-FOLDER
2483 Note that interpretation of
2485 depends on how (i.e.,
2487 normal macro, folder hook, account switch) the macro is invoked.
2488 Macros can be deleted via
2493 (d) Marks the given message list as
2495 Deleted messages will neither be saved in
2497 nor will they be available for most other commands.
2508 \*(OP (disco) If operating in online mode on an IMAP mailbox,
2509 switch to disconnected mode while retaining the mailbox status.
2510 See the description of the
2513 A list of messages may optionally be given as argument;
2514 the respective messages are then read into the cache before the
2515 connection is closed.
2516 Thus `disco *' makes the entire mailbox available for disconnected use.
2521 Deletes the current message and prints the next message.
2522 If there is no next message, \*(UA says
2527 Takes a message list and marks each given message as a draft.
2528 This mark has no technical meaning in the mail system;
2529 it just causes messages to be marked in the header summary,
2530 and makes them specially addressable.
2534 (ec) Echoes its arguments,
2535 resolving special names as documented for the command
2537 The escape sequences
2549 are interpreted just as they are by
2551 (proper quoting provided).
2555 (e) Point the text editor (as defined in
2557 at each message from the given list in turn.
2558 Modified contents are discarded unless the
2565 .Ic if Ns / Ns Ic elif Ns / Ns Ic else Ns / Ns Ic endif
2566 conditional \(em if the condition of a preceeding
2568 was false, check the following condition and execute the following block
2569 if it evaluates true.
2574 .Ic if Ns / Ns Ic elif Ns / Ns Ic else Ns / Ns Ic endif
2575 conditional \(em if none of the conditions of the preceeding
2579 commands was true, the
2585 (en) Marks the end of an
2586 .Ic if Ns / Ns Ic elif Ns / Ns Ic else Ns / Ns Ic endif
2587 conditional execution block.
2591 \*(OP Since \*(UA uses the console as a user interface it can happen
2592 that messages scroll by too fast to become recognized.
2593 Optionally an error message ring queue is available which stores
2594 duplicates of any error message and notifies the user in interactive
2595 sessions whenever a new error has occurred.
2596 The queue is finite: if its maximum size is reached any new message
2597 replaces the eldest.
2600 can be used to manage this message queue: if given
2602 or no argument the queue will be displayed and cleared,
2604 will only clear all messages from the queue.
2608 (ex or x) Exit from \*(UA without changing the active mailbox and skip
2609 any saving of messages in
2611 as well as a possibly tracked command line editor history file.
2615 Print the list of features that have been compiled into \*(UA.
2621 but open the mailbox readonly.
2625 (fi) The file command switches to a new mailbox.
2626 Without arguments it prints the complete state of the current mailbox.
2627 If an argument is given, it will write out changes (such as deletions)
2628 the user has made and open a new mailbox.
2629 Some special conventions are recognized for the
2633 .Bl -tag -compact -offset indent -width ".Ar %:__lespec"
2635 (number sign) means the previous file,
2637 (percent sign) means the invoking user's system mailbox
2642 means the system mailbox of
2644 (and never the value of
2646 regardless of its actual setting),
2648 (ampersand) means the invoking user's
2658 expands to the same value as
2660 but the file is handled as a system mailbox by, e.g., the
2664 commands, meaning that messages that have been read in the current
2665 session will be moved to the
2667 mailbox instead of simply being flagged as read.
2670 If the name matches one of the strings defined with the command
2672 it is replaced by its long form and expanded.
2673 If the name ends with
2678 it is treated as being compressed with
2683 respectively, and transparently handled through an intermediate
2684 (un)compression step (using a temporary file) with the according
2685 facility, sufficient support provided.
2686 Likewise, if the named file doesn't exist, but a file with one of the
2687 mentioned compression extensions does, then the name is automatically
2688 expanded and the compressed file is used.
2690 Otherwise, if the name ends with an extension for which
2691 .Va file-hook-load-EXTENSION
2693 .Va file-hook-save-EXTENSION
2694 variables are set, then the given hooks will be used to load and save
2696 and \*(UA will work with an intermediate temporary file.
2698 MBOX files (flat file-based mailboxes) are generally locked during file
2699 operations in order to avoid inconsistencies against concurrent
2701 Mailbox files which \*(UA treats as system mailboxes will also be
2702 protected by so-called dotlock files, the traditional way of mail spool
2703 file locking: for any file
2707 will be created for the duration of the synchronization \(em
2708 as necessary a privilege-separated dotlock child process will be used
2709 to accommodate for necessary privilege adjustments in order to create
2710 the dotlock file in the same directory
2711 and with the same user and group identities as the file of interest.
2714 for fine-tuning the handling of MBOX files.
2718 refers to a directory with the subdirectories
2723 then it is treated as a folder in
2728 .Dl \*(IN protocol://[user[:password]@]host[:port][/path]
2729 .Dl \*(OU protocol://[user@]host[:port][/path]
2731 is taken as an Internet mailbox specification.
2732 The \*(OPally supported protocols are
2736 (POP3 with SSL/TLS encrypted transport).
2739 part is valid only for IMAP; there it defaults to
2741 Also see the section
2742 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
2746 contains special characters, in particular
2750 they must be escaped in URL notation \(en the command
2752 can be used to show the necessary conversion.
2753 The optional `path' part applies to IMAP only;
2754 if it is omitted, the default `INBOX' is used.
2756 If \*(UA is connected to an IMAP server,
2757 a name of the form `@mailbox' refers to the `mailbox' on that server,
2758 but otherwise a `@' prefix has no special meaning.
2762 Takes a message list and marks the messages as
2764 ged for urgent/special attention.
2765 This mark has no technical meaning in the mail system;
2766 it just causes messages to be highlighted in the header summary,
2767 and makes them specially addressable.
2776 With no arguments, list the names of the folders in the folder directory.
2777 With an existing folder as an argument,
2778 lists the names of folders below the named folder;
2779 e.\|g. the command `folders @' lists the folders on the base level of
2780 the current IMAP server.
2781 See also the variable
2782 .Va imap-list-depth .
2788 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
2789 recipient's address (instead of in
2796 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
2797 recipient's address (instead of in
2804 but responds to all recipients regardless of the
2809 .It Ic followupsender
2812 but responds to the sender only regardless of the
2828 (f) Takes a list of messages and prints their message headers
2829 (which qualifies this command as \*(UAs search facility).
2835 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the
2836 recipient's address (instead of in
2841 Takes a message and the address of a recipient
2842 and forwards the message to him.
2843 The text of the original message is included in the new one,
2844 with the value of the
2846 variable printed before.
2851 commands specify which header fields are included in the new message.
2852 Only the first part of a multipart message is included unless the
2853 .Va forward-as-attachment
2857 is set recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names etc.
2861 Specifies which header fields are to be ignored with the command
2863 This command has no effect when the
2864 .Va forward-as-attachment
2869 Specifies which header fields are to be retained with the command
2874 This command has no effect when the
2875 .Va forward-as-attachment
2880 Define or list command aliases, so-called ghosts.
2881 Without arguments a list of all currently known aliases is printed.
2882 With one argument the expansion of the given alias is shown.
2883 With two or more arguments a command alias is defined or updated: the
2884 first argument is the name under which the remaining command line should
2885 be accessible, the content of which can be just about anything.
2886 A ghost can be used everywhere a normal command can be used, but always
2887 takes precedence; any arguments that are given to the command alias are
2888 joined onto the alias content, and the resulting string forms the
2889 command line that is, in effect, executed.
2892 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2894 `ghost': no such alias: "xx"
2897 ghost xx "echo hello,"
2906 (h) Show the current group of headers, the size of which depends on
2909 If a message-specification is given the group of headers containing the
2910 first message therein is shown and the message at the top of the screen
2925 the list of history entries;
2928 argument selects and shows the respective history entry \(en
2931 to accept it, and the history entry will become the new history top.
2932 The default mode if no arguments are given is
2939 Takes a message list and marks each message therein to be saved in the
2940 user's system mailbox instead of in
2942 Does not override the
2945 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command, because a
2947 command issued after
2949 will display the following message, not the current one.
2954 (i) Part of the nestable
2955 .Ic if Ns / Ns Ic elif Ns / Ns Ic else Ns / Ns Ic endif
2956 conditional execution construct \(em if the given condition is true then
2957 the encapsulated block is executed.
2958 POSIX only supports the conditions
2963 (execute if standard input is a tty), all remaining conditions are
2964 non-portable extensions; note that falsely specified conditions cause
2965 the execution of the entire conditional construct until the
2968 command to be suppressed.
2969 The syntax of the nestable
2971 conditional execution construct requires that each condition and syntax
2972 element is surrounded by whitespace.
2974 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2983 Another condition can be any boolean value (see the section
2985 for booleans) to mark an enwrapped block as
2988 .Dq always execute .
2989 It is possible to check a variable for existence or compare its
2990 expansion against a user given value or another variable via the
2992 .Pf ( Dq variable next )
2993 conditional trigger character.
2994 The available comparison operators are
2998 (less than or equal to),
3004 (greater than or equal to),
3008 (is substring of) and
3010 (is not substring of).
3011 The values of the left and right hand side are treated as strings and
3012 are compared 8-bit byte-wise, ignoring case according to the rules of
3013 the US-ASCII encoding (therefore, dependend on the active locale,
3014 possibly producing false results for strings in the locale encoding).
3015 Except for the substring checks the comparison will instead be performed
3016 arithmetically if both, the user given value as well as the variable
3017 content, can be parsed as numbers (integers).
3018 An unset variable is treated as the empty string.
3021 When the \*(OPal regular expression support is available, the additional
3027 They treat the right hand side as a regular expression that is matched
3028 case-insensitively and according to the active
3030 locale, meaning that strings in the locale encoding should be matched
3034 Conditions can be joined via AND-OR lists (where the AND operator is
3036 and the OR operator is
3038 which have equal precedence and will be evaluated with left
3039 associativity, thus using the same syntax that is known for the
3041 It is also possible to form groups of conditions and lists by enclosing
3042 them in pairs of brackets
3043 .Ql [\ \&.\&.\&.\ ] ,
3044 which may be interlocked within each other, and also be joined via
3048 The results of individual conditions and entire groups may be modified
3049 via unary operators: the unary operator
3051 will reverse the result.
3053 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3057 if $ttycharset == "UTF-8"
3058 echo *ttycharset* is set to UTF-8, case-insensitively
3062 echo These two variables are equal
3064 if $version-major >= 15
3065 echo Running a new version..
3066 if $features =@ "regex"
3067 if $TERM =~ "^xterm\&.*"
3068 echo ..in an X terminal
3071 if [ [ true ] && [ [ $debug ] || [ $verbose ] ] ]
3074 if true && $debug || $verbose
3075 echo Left associativity, as is known from the shell
3077 if ! ! true && ! [ ! $debug && ! $verbose ]
3078 echo Unary operator support
3086 Without arguments the list of ignored header fields is printed,
3087 otherwise the given list of header fields is added to the ignore list:
3088 Header fields in the ignore list are not printed on the terminal when
3089 a message is printed.
3090 To print a message in its entirety, use the commands
3101 \*(OP Sends command strings directly to the current IMAP server.
3102 \*(UA operates always in IMAP `selected state' on the current mailbox;
3103 commands that change this will produce undesirable results and should be
3105 Useful IMAP commands are:
3106 .Bl -tag -offset indent -width ".Ic getquotearoot"
3108 Takes the name of an IMAP mailbox as an argument and creates it.
3110 (RFC 2087) Takes the name of an IMAP mailbox as an argument
3111 and prints the quotas that apply to the mailbox.
3112 Not all IMAP servers support this command.
3114 (RFC 2342) Takes no arguments and prints the Personal Namespaces,
3115 the Other User's Namespaces and the Shared Namespaces.
3116 Each namespace type is printed in parentheses;
3117 if there are multiple namespaces of the same type,
3118 inner parentheses separate them.
3119 For each namespace a prefix and a hierarchy separator is listed.
3120 Not all IMAP servers support this command.
3130 Prints the names of all available commands, alphabetically sorted.
3134 This command can be used to localize changes to variables, meaning that
3135 their state will be reverted to the former one once the covered scope
3137 It can only be used inside of macro definition blocks introduced by
3141 and is interpreted as a boolean (see
3142 .Sx "Value options" ) ;
3145 of an account is left once it is switched off again.
3146 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3147 define temporary_settings {
3162 enables change localization and calls
3164 which explicitly resets localization, then any value changes within
3166 will still be reverted by
3171 Reply to messages that come in via known
3174 .Pf ( Ic mlsubscribe )
3175 mailing lists, or pretend to do so (see
3176 .Sx "Mailing lists" ) :
3179 functionality this will actively resort and even remove message
3180 recipients in order to generate a message that is supposed to be send to
3182 For example it will also implicitly generate a
3183 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
3184 header if that seems useful, regardless of the setting of the variable
3191 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
3192 recipient's address (instead of in
3197 (m) Takes a (list of) recipient address(es) as (an) argument(s),
3198 or asks on standard input if none were given;
3199 then collects the remaining mail content and sends it out.
3203 (mb) The given message list is to be sent to
3205 when \*(UA is quit; this is the default action unless the
3208 \*(ID This command can only be used in a system mailbox (see
3213 Without any arguments the content of the MIME type cache will displayed.
3214 Otherwise each argument defines a complete MIME type specification of
3215 a type that shall be added (prepended) to the cache.
3216 In any event MIME type sources are loaded first as necessary \(en
3217 .Va mimetypes-load-control
3218 can be used to fine-tune which sources are actually loaded.
3219 Refer to the section on
3220 .Sx "The mime.types files"
3221 for more on MIME type specifications and this topic in general.
3222 MIME type unregistration and cache resets can be triggered with
3227 Without arguments the list of all currently defined mailing lists
3228 (and their attributes, if any) is printed.
3229 Otherwise all given arguments (which need not be quoted except for
3230 whitespace) will be added and henceforth be recognized as mailing lists.
3231 Mailing lists may be removed via the command
3234 If the \*(OPal regular expression support is available then mailing
3235 lists may also be specified as regular expressions (see
3241 Without arguments the list of all currently defined mailing lists which
3242 have a subscription attribute is printed.
3243 Otherwise this attribute will be set for all given mailing lists,
3244 newly creating them as necessary (as via
3246 Subscription attributes may be removed via the command
3255 but moves the messages to a file named after the local part of the
3256 sender address of the first message (instead of in
3263 but marks the messages for deletion if they were transferred
3270 but also prints ignored header fields and all MIME parts.
3278 on the given messages, even in non-interactive mode and as long as the
3279 standard output is a terminal.
3291 cache, loading the file first as necessary in the former case.
3292 Note that \*(UA will try to read the file only once, use
3293 .Ql Ic netrc Ns \:\0\:clear
3294 to unlock the next attempt.
3298 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ;
3300 .Sx "The .netrc file"
3301 documents the file format in detail.
3305 Checks for new mail in the current folder without committing any changes
3307 If new mail is present, a message is printed.
3311 the headers of each new message are also printed.
3319 Goes to the next message in sequence and types it.
3320 With an argument list, types the next matching message.
3334 If the current folder is accessed via a network connection, a
3336 command is sent, otherwise no operation is performed.
3342 but also prints ignored header fields and all MIME parts.
3350 on the given messages, even in non-interactive mode and as long as the
3351 standard output is a terminal.
3359 but also pipes ignored header fields and all parts of MIME
3360 .Ql multipart/alternative
3365 (pi) Takes a message list and a shell command
3366 and pipes the messages through the command.
3367 Without an argument the current message is piped through the command
3374 every message is followed by a formfeed character.
3385 but also prints out ignored header fields and all parts of MIME
3386 .Ql multipart/alternative
3396 (p) Takes a message list and types out each message on the user's
3398 For MIME multipart messages, all parts with a content type of
3402 are shown, the other are hidden except for their headers.
3403 Messages are decrypted and converted to the terminal character set
3408 (q) Terminates the session, saving all undeleted, unsaved messages in
3411 preserving all messages marked with
3415 or never referenced in the system mailbox,
3416 and removing all other messages from the system mailbox.
3417 If new mail has arrived during the session,
3419 .Dq You have new mail
3421 If given while editing a mailbox file with the command line flag
3423 then the edit file is rewritten.
3424 A return to the shell is effected,
3425 unless the rewrite of edit file fails,
3426 in which case the user can escape with the exit command.
3440 Removes the named folders.
3441 The user is asked for confirmation in interactive mode.
3445 Takes the name of an existing folder
3446 and the name for the new folder
3447 and renames the first to the second one.
3448 Both folders must be of the same type
3449 and must be located on the current server for IMAP.
3453 (R) Reply to originator.
3454 Does not reply to other recipients of the original message.
3456 will exchange this command with
3460 is set the recipient address will be stripped from comments, names etc.
3464 (r) Take a message and group-responds to it by addressing the sender
3467 .Va followup-to-honour ,
3470 .Va recipients-in-cc
3471 influence response behaviour.
3474 offers special support for replying to mailing lists.
3477 is set recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names etc.
3490 but initiates a group-reply regardless of the value of
3497 but responds to the sender only regardless of the value of
3504 but does not add any header lines.
3505 This is not a way to hide the sender's identity,
3506 but useful for sending a message again to the same recipients.
3510 Takes a list of messages and a user name
3511 and sends each message to the named user.
3513 and related header fields are prepended to the new copy of the message.
3531 .It Ic respondsender
3537 (ret) Without arguments the list of retained header fields is printed,
3538 otherwise the given list of header fields is added to the retain list:
3539 Header fields in the retain list are shown on the terminal when
3540 a message is printed, all other header fields are suppressed.
3541 To print a message in its entirety, use the commands
3550 takes precedence over the mentioned.
3556 but saves the messages in a file named after the local part of the
3557 sender of the first message instead of (in
3559 and) taking a filename argument.
3563 (s) Takes a message list and a filename and appends each message in turn
3564 to the end of the file.
3565 If no filename is given, the
3568 The filename in quotes, followed by the generated character count
3569 is echoed on the user's terminal.
3570 If editing a system mailbox the messages are marked for deletion.
3571 Compressed files and IMAP mailboxes are handled as described for the
3573 command line option above.
3590 Header fields thus marked are filtered out when saving a message by
3592 or when automatically saving to
3594 This command should only be applied to header fields that do not contain
3595 information needed to decode the message,
3596 as MIME content fields do.
3597 If saving messages on an IMAP account ignoring fields makes it
3598 impossible to copy the data directly on the server,
3599 thus operation usually becomes much slower.
3611 Header fields thus marked are the only ones saved with a message when
3614 or when automatically saving to
3619 The use of this command is strongly discouraged since it may strip
3620 header fields that are needed to decode the message correctly.
3624 Takes a message list and marks all messages as having been read.
3628 (se) Without arguments this command prints all options and, for
3629 non-binary options, values that are currently known to \*(UA.
3630 Setting any of the options
3634 changes the output format to BSD style, otherwise a properly quoted
3635 listing is produced.
3640 has been set twice then the listing is modified to mark out assembled
3643 Otherwise modifies (set and unsets) the given options.
3644 Arguments are of the form
3646 (no space before or after
3650 if there is no value.
3651 Quotation marks may be placed around any part of the assignment
3652 statement to quote blanks or tabs, e.g.,
3654 .Dl set indentprefix="->"
3656 If an argument begins with
3660 the effect is the same as invoking the
3662 command with the remaining part of the variable
3663 .Pf ( Ql unset save ) .
3669 except that the options are also exported into the program environment;
3670 since this task requires native host support the command will always
3671 report error if that is not available (but still act like
3674 This operation is a no-op unless all resource files have been loaded.
3680 (sh) Invokes an interactive version of the shell.
3684 Without arguments the list of all currently defined shortcuts is
3686 Otherwise all given arguments (which need not be quoted except for
3687 whitespace) are treated as pairs of shortcuts and their expansions,
3688 creating new or changing already existing shortcuts, as necessary.
3689 Shortcuts may be removed via the command
3691 The expansion strings should be in the syntax that has been described
3700 but performs neither MIME decoding nor decryption, so that the raw
3701 message text is shown.
3705 (si) Print the size in characters of each message of the given
3710 Create a sorted representation of the current folder,
3713 command and the addressing modes such that they refer to messages in the
3715 Message numbers are the same as in regular mode.
3719 a header summary in the new order is also printed.
3720 Possible sorting criteria are:
3722 .Bl -tag -compact -offset indent -width "subject"
3724 Sort the messages by their
3726 field, that is by the time they were sent.
3728 Sort messages by the value of their
3730 field, that is by the address of the sender.
3733 variable is set, the sender's real name (if any) is used.
3735 Sort the messages by their size.
3737 \*(OP Sort the message by their spam score, as has been classified by
3740 Sort the messages by their message status.
3742 Sort the messages by their subject.
3744 Create a threaded display.
3746 Sort messages by the value of their
3748 field, that is by the address of the recipient.
3751 variable is set, the recipient's real name (if any) is used.
3754 If no argument is given,
3755 the current sorting criterion is printed.
3759 (so) The source command reads commands from a file.
3765 is that this command will not generate an error if the given file
3766 argument cannot be opened successfully.
3767 This can matter in, e.g., resource files, since loading of those is
3768 stopped when an error is encountered.
3772 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and clears their
3778 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and causes the
3780 to forget it has ever used them to train its Bayesian filter.
3781 Unless otherwise noted the
3783 flag of the message is inspected to chose wether a message shall be
3791 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and informs the Bayesian filter of the
3795 This also clears the
3797 flag of the messages in question.
3801 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and rates them using the configured
3802 .Va spam-interface ,
3803 without modifying the messages, but setting their
3805 flag as appropriate; because the spam rating headers are lost the rate
3806 will be forgotten once the mailbox is left.
3807 Refer to the manual section
3809 for the complete picture of spam handling in \*(UA.
3813 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and sets their
3819 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and informs the Bayesian filter of the
3825 flag of the messages in question.
3834 Create a threaded representation of the current folder,
3835 i.\|e. indent messages that are replies to other messages in the header
3836 display and change the
3838 command and the addressing modes such that they refer to messages in the
3840 Message numbers are the same as in unthreaded mode.
3844 a header summary in threaded order is also printed.
3848 (to) Takes a message list and prints the top few lines of each.
3849 The number of lines printed is controlled by the variable
3851 and defaults to five.
3855 (tou) Takes a message list and marks the messages for saving in
3857 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command,
3860 command will display the following message instead of the current one.
3864 (T) Identical to the
3875 Delete all given accounts.
3876 An error message is printed if a given account is not defined.
3879 will discard all existing accounts.
3883 (una) Takes a list of names defined by alias commands
3884 and discards the remembered groups of users.
3887 will discard all existing aliases.
3891 Takes a message list and marks each message as not having been answered.
3895 Only applicable to threaded mode.
3896 Takes a message list and makes the message and all replies to it visible
3897 in header summaries again.
3898 When a message becomes the current message,
3899 it is automatically made visible.
3900 Also when a message with collapsed replies is printed,
3901 all of these are automatically uncollapsed.
3905 Undefine all given macros.
3906 An error message is printed if a given macro is not defined.
3909 will discard all existing macros.
3913 (u) Takes a message list and marks each message as not being deleted.
3917 Takes a message list and
3923 Takes a message list and marks each message as not being
3928 Removes the header field names from the list of ignored fields for the
3933 will remove all fields.
3937 Removes the header field names from the list of retained fields for the
3942 will remove all fields.
3946 Remove all the given command
3950 will remove all ghosts.
3954 Removes the header field names from the list of ignored fields.
3957 will remove all fields.
3961 Delete all given MIME types, e.g.,
3962 .Ql unmimetype text/plain
3963 will remove all registered specifications for the MIME type
3967 will discard all existing MIME types, just as will
3969 but which also reenables cache initialization via
3970 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
3974 Forget about all the given mailing lists.
3977 will remove all lists.
3982 .It Ic unmlsubscribe
3983 Remove the subscription attribute from all given mailing lists.
3986 will clear the attribute from all lists which have it set.
3997 Takes a message list and marks each message as not having been read.
4001 Removes the header field names from the list of retained fields.
4004 will remove all fields.
4008 Removes the header field names from the list of ignored fields for
4012 will remove all fields.
4016 Removes the header field names from the list of retained fields for
4020 will remove all fields.
4024 (uns) Takes a list of option names and discards their remembered values;
4032 except that the options are also removed from the program environment;
4033 since this task requires native host support the command will always
4034 report error if that is not available (but still act like
4037 This operation is a no-op unless all resource files have been loaded.
4043 Deletes the shortcut names given as arguments.
4046 will remove all shortcuts.
4050 Disable sorted or threaded mode
4056 return to normal message order and,
4060 print a header summary.
4070 Decode the given URL-encoded string arguments and show the results.
4074 URL-encode the given arguments and show the results.
4078 Edit the values of or create the given variable(s) in the
4080 Binary variables cannot be edited.
4084 Show informations about all the given options.
4085 \*(UA knows about a finite set of known builtin variables that are
4086 subdivided further in binary and value variants;
4087 they may have special properties, like
4089 (setting may not be changed) and
4091 meaning that the value is generated on-the-fly as necessary.
4092 Beside those known variables an infinite number of unknown, so-called
4094 variables, which are expected to be able to store values, may exist.
4095 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4097 ? varshow sendwait version-major foo bar
4098 "sendwait": (73) binary: set=1 (ENVIRON=0)
4099 "version-major": (192) value, read-only, virtual:\e
4100 set=1 (ENVIRON=0) value<14>
4101 "foo": (assembled) set=1 (ENVIRON=0) value<bar>
4102 "bar": (assembled) set=0 (ENVIRON=0) value<NULL>
4107 \*(OP Takes a message list and verifies each message.
4108 If a message is not a S/MIME signed message,
4109 verification will fail for it.
4110 The verification process checks if the message was signed using a valid
4112 if the message sender's email address matches one of those contained
4113 within the certificate,
4114 and if the message content has been altered.
4118 (v) Takes a message list and invokes the display editor on each message.
4119 Modified contents are discarded unless the
4125 (w) For conventional messages the body without all headers is written.
4126 The output is decrypted and converted to its native format as necessary.
4127 If the output file exists, the text is appended.
4128 If a message is in MIME multipart format its first part is written to
4129 the specified file as for conventional messages,
4130 and the user is asked for a filename to save each other part.
4131 For convience saving of each part may be skipped by giving an empty value;
4132 the same result can also be achieved by writing it to
4134 For the second and subsequent parts a leading
4136 character causes the part to be piped to the remainder of the user input
4137 interpreted as a shell command;
4138 otherwise the user input is expanded as usually for folders,
4139 e.g., tilde expansion is performed.
4140 In non-interactive mode, only the parts of the multipart message
4141 that have a filename given in the part header are written,
4142 the others are discarded.
4143 The original message is never marked for deletion in the originating
4146 the contents of the destination file are overwritten if the file
4148 No special handling of compressed files is performed.
4157 \*(UA presents message headers in windowfuls as described under the
4160 This command scrolls to the next window of messages.
4161 If an argument is given,
4162 it specifies the window to use.
4163 A number prefixed by
4167 indicates that the window is calculated in relation to the current position.
4168 A number without a prefix specifies an absolute window number,
4171 lets \*(UA scroll to the last window of messages.
4177 but scrolls to the next or previous window that contains at least one
4186 .\" .Sh TILDE ESCAPES {{{
4189 Here is a summary of the tilde escapes,
4190 which are used to perform special functions when composing messages.
4191 Tilde escapes are only recognized at the beginning of lines.
4194 is somewhat of a misnomer since the actual escape character can be
4195 changed by adjusting the option
4198 .Bl -tag -width ".Ic __ filename"
4201 Insert the string of text in the message prefaced by a single
4203 (If the escape character has been changed,
4204 that character must be doubled
4205 in order to send it at the beginning of a line.)
4208 .It Ic ~! Ar command
4209 Execute the indicated shell
4211 then return to the message.
4215 Same effect as typing the end-of-file character.
4218 .It Ic ~: Ar \*(UA-command Ns \0or Ic ~_ Ar \*(UA-command
4219 Execute the given \*(UA command.
4220 Not all commands, however, are allowed.
4224 Write a summary of command escapes.
4227 .It Ic ~< Ar filename
4232 .It Ic ~<! Ar command
4234 is executed using the shell.
4235 Its standard output is inserted into the message.
4238 .It Ic ~@ Op Ar filename...
4239 With no arguments, edit the attachment list interactively.
4240 If an attachment's file name is left empty,
4241 that attachment is deleted from the list.
4242 When the end of the attachment list is reached,
4243 \*(UA will ask for further attachments until an empty name is given.
4244 If a given file name solely consists of the number sign
4246 followed by a valid message number of the currently active mailbox, then
4247 the given message is attached as a MIME
4249 and the rest of this section does not apply.
4251 If character set conversion has been compiled into \*(UA, then this mode
4252 gives the user the option to specify input and output character sets,
4253 unless the file extension indicates binary content, in which case \*(UA
4254 asks wether this step shall be skipped for the attachment in question.
4255 If not skipped, then the charset that succeeds to represent the
4256 attachment data will be used in the
4258 MIME parameter of the mail message:
4260 .Bl -bullet -compact
4262 If input and output character sets are specified, then the conversion is
4263 performed on the fly.
4264 The user will be asked repeatedly until the desired conversion succeeds.
4266 If only an output character set is specified, then the input is assumed
4269 charset and will be converted to the given output charset on the fly.
4270 The user will be asked repeatedly until the desired conversion succeeds.
4272 If no character sets are specified at all then the algorithm that is
4273 documented in the section
4274 .Sx "Character sets"
4275 is applied, but directly and on the fly.
4276 The user will be asked repeatedly until the desired conversion succeeds.
4278 Finally, if an input-, but no output character set is specified, then no
4279 conversion is ever performed, but the
4281 MIME parameter value will still be set to the user input.
4283 The character set selection loop can be left by typing
4285 i.e., causing an interrupt.
4286 .\" \*(OU next sentence
4287 Note that before \*(UA version 15.0 this terminates the entire
4288 current attachment selection, not only the character set selection.
4291 Without character set conversion support, \*(UA will ask for the input
4292 character set only, and it'll set the
4294 MIME parameter value to the given input, if any;
4295 if no user input is seen then the
4297 character set will be used for the parameter value instead.
4298 Note that the file extension check isn't performed in this mode, since
4299 no conversion will take place anyway.
4301 Note that in non-interactive mode, for reproduceabilities sake, there
4302 will always be two questions for each attachment, regardless of wether
4303 character set conversion is available and what the file extension is.
4304 The first asks for the filename, and the second asks for the input
4305 character set to be passed through to the corresponding MIME parameter;
4306 no conversion will be tried if there is input to the latter question,
4307 otherwise the usual conversion algorithm, as above, is applied.
4308 For message attachments, the answer to the second question is completely
4313 arguments are specified for the
4315 command they are treated as a comma separated list of files,
4316 which are all expanded and appended to the end of the attachment list.
4317 (Filenames with commas, or with leading or trailing whitespace can only
4318 be added via the command line or the first method.
4319 Message attachments can only be added via the first method;
4320 filenames which clash with message numbers can only be added via the
4321 command line or the second method.)
4322 In this mode the (text) attachments are assumed to be in
4324 encoding, and will be evaluated as documented in the section
4325 .Sx "Character sets" .
4329 Inserts the string contained in the
4332 .Ql Ic ~i Ns \0Sign ) .
4333 The escape sequences tabulator
4341 Inserts the string contained in the
4344 .Ql Ic ~i Ns \0sign ) .
4345 The escape sequences tabulator
4352 .It Ic ~b Ar name ...
4353 Add the given names to the list of blind carbon copy recipients.
4356 .It Ic ~c Ar name ...
4357 Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients.
4361 Read the file specified by the
4363 variable into the message.
4367 Invoke the text editor on the message collected so far.
4368 After the editing session is finished,
4369 the user may continue appending text to the message.
4372 .It Ic ~F Ar messages
4373 Read the named messages into the message being sent, including all
4374 message headers and MIME parts.
4375 If no messages are specified, read in the current message.
4378 .It Ic ~f Ar messages
4379 Read the named messages into the message being sent.
4380 If no messages are specified, read in the current message.
4384 lists are used to modify the message headers.
4385 For MIME multipart messages,
4386 only the first printable part is included.
4390 Edit the message header fields
4396 by typing each one in turn and allowing the user to edit the field.
4397 The default values for these fields originate from the
4398 .Va from , replyto , sender
4405 Edit the message header fields
4411 by typing each one in turn and allowing the user to edit the field.
4414 .It Ic ~i Ar variable
4415 Insert the value of the specified variable into the message,
4416 adding a newline character at the end.
4417 The message remains unaltered if the variable is unset or empty.
4418 The escape sequences tabulator
4425 .It Ic ~M Ar messages
4426 Read the named messages into the message being sent,
4429 If no messages are specified, read the current message.
4432 .It Ic ~m Ar messages
4433 Read the named messages into the message being sent,
4436 If no messages are specified, read the current message.
4440 lists are used to modify the message headers.
4441 For MIME multipart messages,
4442 only the first printable part is included.
4446 Print out the message collected so far,
4447 prefaced by the message header fields
4448 and followed by the attachment list, if any.
4452 Abort the message being sent,
4453 copying it to the file specified by the
4460 .It Ic ~R Ar filename
4461 Read the named file into the message, indented by
4465 .It Ic ~r Ar filename
4466 Read the named file into the message.
4470 Cause the named string to become the current subject field.
4473 .It Ic ~t Ar name ...
4474 Add the given name(s) to the direct recipient list.
4477 .It Ic ~U Ar messages
4478 Read in the given / current message(s) excluding all headers, indented by
4482 .It Ic ~u Ar messages
4483 Read in the given / current message(s), excluding all headers.
4487 Invoke an alternate editor (defined by the
4489 option) on the message collected so far.
4490 Usually, the alternate editor will be a screen editor.
4491 After the editor is quit,
4492 the user may resume appending text to the end of the message.
4495 .It Ic ~w Ar filename
4496 Write the message onto the named file.
4498 the message is appended to it.
4504 except that the message is not saved at all.
4507 .It Ic ~| Ar command
4508 Pipe the message through the specified filter command.
4509 If the command gives no output or terminates abnormally,
4510 retain the original text of the message.
4513 is often used as a rejustifying filter.
4518 .\" .Sh VARIABLE OPTIONS {{{
4519 .Sh "VARIABLE OPTIONS"
4521 Variables are controlled via
4525 commands; in general using
4527 can also be accomplished by prefixing a variable name with the string
4533 will have the same effect as
4535 Creation or editing of variables in an editor can also be achieved with
4538 will give more insight on the given variable(s), whereas
4540 will print a listing of all variables when called without arguments.
4541 Options are also implicitly inherited from the program
4543 and can be set explicitly via the command line option
4547 Different kind of options exist:
4548 binary options, which can only be in one of the two states
4552 as well as value options which have an assigned string value, for which
4553 proper quoting may be important upon assignment time.
4555 .\" .Ss "Initial settings" {{{
4556 .\" (Keep in sync: ./main.c:_startup(), ./nail.rc, ./nail.1:"Initial settings"!)
4557 .Ss "Initial Settings"
4559 The standard POSIX 2008/Cor 1-2013 mandates the following initial
4565 .Pf no Va autoprint ,
4579 .Pf no Va ignoreeof ,
4581 .Pf no Va keepsave ,
4583 .Pf no Va outfolder ,
4588 (note that \*(UA deviates from the standard by using
4592 special prompt escape results in
4594 being printed unless
4600 .Pf no Va sendwait ,
4609 Notes: \*(UA doesn't support the
4611 variable \(en use command line options or
4612 .Va sendmail-arguments
4613 to pass options through to a MTA.
4614 And the default global
4616 file (which is loaded unless the
4618 command line flag has been used or the
4619 .Ev NAIL_NO_SYSTEM_RC
4620 environment variable is set) bends those initial settings a bit, e.g.,
4626 to name a few, calls
4628 etc., and should thus be taken into account.
4631 .\" .Ss "Binary options" {{{
4632 .Ss "Binary options"
4634 .Bl -tag -width ".Va _utoprin_"
4636 .It Va add-file-recipients
4637 When file or pipe recipients have been specified,
4638 mention them in the corresponding address fields of the message instead
4639 of silently stripping them from their recipient list.
4640 By default such addressees are not mentioned.
4644 Causes only the local part to be evaluated
4645 when comparing addresses.
4649 Causes messages saved in
4651 to be appended to the end rather than prepended.
4652 This should always be set.
4656 .It Va ask Ns \0or Va asksub
4657 Causes \*(UA to prompt for the subject of each message sent.
4658 If the user responds with simply a newline,
4659 no subject field will be sent.
4663 Causes the prompts for
4667 lists to appear after the message has been edited.
4671 If set, \*(UA asks for files to attach at the end of each message, shall
4672 the list be found empty at that time.
4673 An empty line finalizes the list.
4677 Causes the user to be prompted for carbon copy recipients
4678 (at the end of each message if
4682 are set) shall the list be found empty (at that time).
4683 An empty line finalizes the list.
4687 Causes the user to be prompted for blind carbon copy
4688 recipients (at the end of each message if
4692 are set) shall the list be found empty (at that time).
4693 An empty line finalizes the list.
4697 \*(OP Causes the user to be prompted if the message is to be signed at
4698 the end of each message.
4701 variable is ignored when this variable is set.
4705 Causes threads to be collapsed automatically when threaded mode is
4712 Causes the delete command to behave like
4714 thus, after deleting a message the next one will be typed automatically.
4718 \*(OB Causes threaded mode (see the
4720 command) to be entered automatically when a folder is opened.
4722 .Ql autosort=thread .
4726 Enables the substitution of
4728 by the contents of the last command line in shell escapes.
4731 .It Va batch-exit-on-error
4732 If the batch mode has been enabled via the
4734 command line option, then this variable will be consulted whenever \*(UA
4735 completes one operation (returns to the command prompt); if it is set
4736 then \*(UA will terminate if the last operation generated an error.
4740 Causes automatic display of a header summary after executing a
4746 Sets some cosmetical features to traditional BSD style;
4747 has the same affect as setting
4749 and all other variables prefixed with
4751 it also changes the meaning of the \*(UA specific
4758 Changes the letters printed in the first column of a header summary
4759 to traditional BSD style.
4763 Changes the display of columns in a header summary to traditional BSD
4768 Changes some informational messages to traditional BSD style.
4774 field to appear immediately after the
4776 field in message headers and with the
4778 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
4782 Changes the output format of the
4784 command to traditional BSD style.
4787 .It Va colour-disable
4788 \*(OP Forcefully disable usage of colours.
4789 Also see the section
4790 .Sx "Coloured message display" .
4794 \*(OP Wether colour shall be used for output that is paged through
4796 Note that pagers may need special flags, e.g.,
4804 in order to support colours; therefore \*(UA will inspect the variable
4806 \(en if that starts with the string
4808 a non-existing environment variable
4815 will optionally be set to
4817 Also see the section
4818 .Sx "Coloured message display"
4823 Prints debugging messages and disables the actual delivery of messages.
4831 \*(OP When an IMAP mailbox is selected and this variable is set,
4832 no connection to the server is initiated.
4833 Instead, data is obtained from the local cache (see
4836 Mailboxes that are not present in the cache
4837 and messages that have not yet entirely been fetched from the server
4839 to fetch all messages in a mailbox at once,
4841 .No ` Ns Li copy * /dev/null Ns '
4842 can be used while still in connected mode.
4843 Changes that are made to IMAP mailboxes in disconnected mode are queued
4844 and committed later when a connection to that server is made.
4845 This procedure is not completely reliable since it cannot be guaranteed
4846 that the IMAP unique identifiers (UIDs) on the server still match the
4847 ones in the cache at that time.
4850 when this problem occurs.
4852 .It Va disconnected-USER@HOST
4853 The specified account is handled as described for the
4856 but other accounts are not affected.
4859 .It Va disposition-notification-send
4861 .Ql Disposition-Notification-To:
4862 header (RFC 3798) with the message.
4866 .\" TODO .It Va disposition-notification-send-HOST
4868 .\".Va disposition-notification-send
4869 .\" for SMTP accounts on a specific host.
4870 .\" TODO .It Va disposition-notification-send-USER@HOST
4872 .\".Va disposition-notification-send
4873 .\"for a specific account.
4877 When dot is set, a dot
4879 on a line by itself during message input from a terminal shall be
4880 treated as end-of-message (in addition to the normal end-of-file
4886 is ignored and using a dot is the only method to terminate input mode.
4889 .It Va dotlock-ignore-error
4890 \*(OP Synchronization of mailboxes which \*(UA treats as system
4891 mailboxes (see the command
4893 will be protected with so-called dotlock files\(emthe traditional mail
4894 spool file locking method\(emin addition to system file locking.
4895 Because \*(UA ships with a privilege-separated dotlock creation program
4896 that should always be able to create such a dotlock file there is no
4897 good reason to ignore dotlock file creation errors, and thus these are
4898 fatal unless this variable is set.
4902 If this variable is set then the editor is started automatically when
4903 a message is composed in interactive mode, as if the
4909 variable is implied for this automatically spawned editor session.
4913 When a message is edited while being composed,
4914 its header is included in the editable text.
4925 fields are accepted within the header, other fields are ignored.
4929 If the mailbox is empty \*(UA normally prints
4930 .Dq \&No mail for user
4931 and exits immediately.
4932 If this option is set \*(UA starts even with an empty mailbox.
4936 This option reverses the meanings of a set of reply commands,
4937 turning the lowercase variants, which by default address all recipients
4938 included in the header of a message
4939 .Pf ( Ic reply , respond , followup )
4940 into the uppercase variants, which by default address the sender only
4941 .Pf ( Ic Reply , Respond , Followup )
4944 .Ic replysender , respondsender , followupsender
4946 .Ic replyall , respondall , followupall
4947 are not affected by the current setting of
4953 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
4954 header is generated when sending messages to known mailing lists.
4956 .Va followup-to-honour
4958 .Ic mlist , mlsubscribe , reply
4963 .It Va forward-as-attachment
4964 Original messages are normally sent as inline text with the
4967 and only the first part of a multipart message is included.
4968 With this option messages are sent as unmodified MIME
4970 attachments with all of their parts included.
4974 When replying to or forwarding a message \*(UA normally removes the
4975 comment and name parts of email addresses.
4976 If this variable is set such stripping is not performed,
4977 and comments, names etc. are retained.
4981 Causes the header summary to be written at startup and after commands
4982 that affect the number of messages or the order of messages in the
4983 current folder; enabled by default.
4984 The command line option
4990 .It Va history-gabby
4991 \*(OP Add more entries to the history as is normally done.
4994 .It Va history-gabby-persist
4995 \*(OP \*(UAs own NCL will not save the additional (gabby) history
4996 entries in persistent storage unless this variable is also set.
5002 This option is used to hold messages in the system mailbox by default.
5006 \*(OP Can be used to turn off the automatic conversion of domain names
5007 according to the rules of IDNA (internationalized domain names for
5009 Since the IDNA code assumes that domain names are specified with the
5011 character set, an UTF-8 locale charset is required to represent all
5012 possible international domain names (before conversion, that is).
5016 Ignore interrupt signals from the terminal while entering messages;
5017 instead echo them as
5019 characters and discard the current line.
5023 Ignore end-of-file conditions
5024 .Pf ( Ql control-D ) ,
5025 on message input, which instead can be terminated only by entering a
5028 on a line by itself or by using the
5030 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
5031 This option also applies to \*(UA command mode.
5033 .Mx Va imap-use-starttls
5034 .It Va imap-use-starttls-USER@HOST , imap-use-starttls-HOST , imap-use-starttls
5035 \*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a `STARTTLS' command to make an unencrypted
5036 IMAP session SSL/TLS encrypted.
5037 This functionality is not supported by all servers,
5038 and is not used if the session is already encrypted by the IMAPS method.
5042 If set, an empty mailbox file is not removed.
5043 This may improve the interoperability with other mail user agents
5044 when using a common folder directory, and prevents malicious users
5045 from creating fake mailboxes in a world-writable spool directory.
5046 Note this only applies to local regular (MBOX) files, other mailbox
5047 types will never be removed.
5051 When a message is saved it is usually discarded from the originating
5052 folder when \*(UA is quit.
5053 Setting this option causes all saved message to be retained.
5056 .It Va line-editor-disable
5057 Turn off any enhanced command line editing capabilities (see
5058 .Sx "Command line editor"
5063 When a message is replied to and this variable is set,
5064 it is marked as having been answered.
5065 This mark has no technical meaning in the mail system;
5066 it just causes messages to be marked in the header summary,
5067 and makes them specially addressable.
5071 \*(UA produces and expects fully RFC 4155 compliant MBOX text mailboxes.
5072 Messages which are fetched over the network or from within already
5073 existing Maildir (or any non-MBOX) mailboxes may require so-called
5075 quoting (insertion of additional
5077 characters to prevent line content misinterpretation) to be applied in
5078 order to be storable in MBOX mailboxes, however, dependent on the
5079 circumspection of the message producer.
5080 (E.g., \*(UA itself will, when newly generating messages, choose a
5081 .Pf Content-Transfer- Va encoding
5082 that prevents the necessity for such quoting \(en a necessary
5083 precondition to ensure message checksums won't change.)
5085 By default \*(UA will perform this
5087 quoting in a way that results in a MBOX file that is compatible with
5088 the loose POSIX MBOX layout, in order not to exceed the capabilities
5089 of simple applications, however.
5090 Set this option to generate MBOX files for RFC 4155 compliant
5094 .It Va message-id-disable
5095 By setting this option the generation of
5097 can be completely suppressed, effectively leaving this task up to the
5098 mail-transfer-agent (MTA) or the SMTP server.
5099 (According to RFC 5321 your SMTP server is not required to add this
5100 field by itself, so you should ensure that it accepts messages without a
5107 expansion contains the sender, the sender is removed from the expansion.
5108 Setting this option suppresses these removals.
5113 option to be passed to mail-transfer-agents (MTAs);
5114 though most of the modern MTAs don't (no longer) document this flag, no
5115 MTA is known which doesn't support it (for historical compatibility).
5118 .It Va mime-allow-text-controls
5119 When sending messages, each part of the message is MIME-inspected in
5120 order to classify the
5123 .Ql Content-Transfer-Encoding:
5126 that is required to send this part over mail transport, i.e.,
5127 a computation rather similar to what the
5129 command produces when used with the
5133 This classification however treats text files which are encoded in
5134 UTF-16 (seen for HTML files) and similar character sets as binary
5135 octet-streams, forcefully changing any
5140 .Ql application/octet-stream :
5141 If that actually happens a yet unset charset MIME parameter is set to
5143 effectively making it impossible for the receiving MUA to automatically
5144 interpret the contents of the part.
5146 If this option is set, and the data was unambiguously identified as text
5147 data at first glance (by a
5151 file extension), then the original
5153 will not be overwritten.
5156 .It Va netrc-lookup-USER@HOST , netrc-lookup-HOST , netrc-lookup
5157 \*(IN \*(OP Used to control usage of the users
5159 file for lookup of account credentials, as documented in the section
5160 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
5164 .Sx "The .netrc file"
5165 documents the file format.
5169 Causes the filename given in the
5172 and the sender-based filenames for the
5176 commands to be interpreted relative to the directory given in the
5178 variable rather than to the current directory,
5179 unless it is set to an absolute pathname.
5183 If set, each message the
5185 command prints out is followed by a formfeed character
5190 Send messages to the
5192 command without performing MIME and character set conversions.
5195 .Mx Va pop3-bulk-load
5196 .It Va pop3-bulk-load-USER@HOST , pop3-bulk-load-HOST , pop3-bulk-load
5197 \*(OP When accessing a POP3 server \*(UA loads the headers of the
5198 messages, and only requests the message bodies on user request.
5199 For the POP3 protocol this means that the message headers will be
5201 If this option is set then \*(UA will download only complete messages
5202 from the given POP3 server(s) instead.
5205 .It Va pop3-no-apop-USER@HOST , pop3-no-apop-HOST , pop3-no-apop
5206 \*(OP Unless this variable is set the
5208 authentication method will be used when connecting to a POP3 server that
5212 is that the password is not sent in clear text over the wire and that
5213 only a single packet is sent for the user/password tuple.
5215 .Va pop3-no-apop-HOST
5218 .Mx Va pop3-use-starttls
5219 .It Va pop3-use-starttls-USER@HOST , pop3-use-starttls-HOST , pop3-use-starttls
5220 \*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a
5222 command to make an unencrypted POP3 session SSL/TLS encrypted.
5223 This functionality is not supported by all servers,
5224 and is not used if the session is already encrypted by the POP3S method.
5226 .Va pop3-use-starttls-HOST
5230 .It Va print-all-chars
5231 This option causes all characters to be considered printable.
5232 It is only effective if given in a startup file.
5233 With this option set some character sequences in messages may put the
5234 user's terminal in an undefined state when printed;
5235 it should only be used as a last resort if no working system locale can
5239 .It Va print-alternatives
5240 When a MIME message part of type
5241 .Ql multipart/alternative
5242 is displayed and it contains a subpart of type
5244 other parts are normally discarded.
5245 Setting this variable causes all subparts to be displayed,
5246 just as if the surrounding part was of type
5247 .Ql multipart/mixed .
5251 Suppresses the printing of the version when first invoked.
5254 .It Va quote-as-attachment
5255 If this is set, then the original message is added in its entirety as a
5257 MIME attachment when replying to a message.
5258 Note this works regardless of the setting of
5262 .It Va recipients-in-cc
5263 On group replies, specify only the sender of the original mail in
5265 and mention the other recipients in the secondary
5267 By default all recipients of the original mail will be addressed via
5271 .It Va record-resent
5272 If both this variable and the
5279 commands save messages to the
5281 folder as it is normally only done for newly composed messages.
5284 .It Va reply-in-same-charset
5285 If this variable is set \*(UA first tries to use the same character set
5286 of the original message for replies.
5287 If this fails, the mechanism described in
5288 .Sx "Character sets"
5289 is evaluated as usual.
5292 .It Va rfc822-body-from_
5293 This variable can be used to force displaying a so-called
5295 line for messages that are embedded into an envelope mail via the
5297 MIME mechanism, for more visual convenience.
5301 Enable saving of (partial) messages in
5303 upon interrupt or delivery error.
5306 .It Va searchheaders
5307 Expand message-list specifiers in the form
5309 to all messages containing the substring
5313 The string search is case insensitive.
5316 .It Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
5317 \*(OP If this variable is set, but
5319 is not, then \*(UA acts as if
5321 had been set to the value of the variable
5323 In effect this combination passes through the message data in the
5324 character set of the current locale (given that
5326 hasn't been set manually), i.e., without converting it to the
5328 fallback character set.
5329 Thus, mail message text will be in ISO-8859-1 encoding when send from
5330 within a ISO-8859-1 locale, and in UTF-8 encoding when send from within
5332 If no character set conversion capabilities are available in \*(UA then
5333 the only supported character set is
5336 .It Va sendmail-no-default-arguments
5337 Unless this option is set \*(UA will pass some well known
5338 standard command line options to the defined
5340 program, see there for more.
5344 When sending a message wait until the MTA (including the builtin SMTP
5345 one) exits before accepting further commands.
5347 with this variable set errors reported by the MTA will be recognizable!
5348 If the MTA returns a non-zero exit status,
5349 the exit status of \*(ua will also be non-zero.
5353 Setting this option causes \*(UA to start at the last message instead of
5354 the first one when opening a mail folder.
5358 Causes \*(UA to use the sender's real name instead of the plain address
5359 in the header field summary and in message specifications.
5363 Causes the recipient of the message to be shown in the header summary
5364 if the message was sent by the user.
5367 .It Va skipemptybody
5368 If an outgoing message does not contain any text in its first or only
5370 do not send it but discard it silently (see also the command line option
5374 .It Va smime-force-encryption
5375 \*(OP Causes \*(UA to refuse sending unencrypted messages.
5379 \*(OP S/MIME sign outgoing messages with the user's private key and
5380 include the user's certificate as a MIME attachment.
5381 Signing a message enables a recipient to verify that the sender used
5382 a valid certificate,
5383 that the email addresses in the certificate match those in the message
5384 header and that the message content has not been altered.
5385 It does not change the message text,
5386 and people will be able to read the message as usual.
5388 .Va smime-sign-cert , smime-sign-include-certs
5390 .Va smime-sign-message-digest .
5393 .It Va smime-no-default-ca
5394 \*(OP Don't load default CA locations when verifying S/MIME signed
5397 .Mx Va smtp-use-starttls
5398 .It Va smtp-use-starttls-USER@HOST , smtp-use-starttls-HOST , smtp-use-starttls
5399 \*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a
5401 command to make an SMTP session SSL/TLS encrypted, i.e., to enable
5402 transport layer security.
5405 .It Va ssl-no-default-ca
5406 \*(OP Don't load default CA locations to verify SSL/TLS server
5411 \*(OP If terminal capability queries are supported and this option is
5412 set then \*(UA will try to switch to the
5413 .Dq alternate screen
5414 when in interactive mode, so that the terminal will go back to the
5415 normal screen, leaving all the text there intact, when \*(UA exits.
5417 even when supported for this to produce appealing results the used
5419 and possibly configured
5420 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
5421 applications that take control over the terminal need to have
5422 corresponding support too, e.g., the
5424 pager should be driven with the
5429 .It Va keep-content-length
5430 When (editing messages and) writing
5432 mailbox files \*(UA can be told to keep the
5436 header fields that some MUAs generate by setting this variable.
5437 Since \*(UA does neither use nor update these non-standardized header
5438 fields (which in itself shows one of their conceptual problems),
5439 stripping them should increase interoperability in between MUAs that
5440 work with with same mailbox files.
5441 Note that, if this is not set but
5442 .Va writebackedited ,
5443 as below, is, a possibly performed automatic stripping of these header
5444 fields already marks the message as being modified.
5448 Setting this option enables upward compatibility with \*(UA version 15.0
5449 in respect to which configuration options are available and how they are
5451 This manual uses \*(IN and \*(OU to refer to the new and the old way of
5452 doing things, respectively.
5456 Setting this option, also controllable via the command line option
5458 causes \*(UA to be more verbose, so that, e.g., certificate chains will
5459 be displayed on the users terminal.
5460 Setting this binary option twice increases the level of verbosity, in
5461 which case even details of the actual message delivery and protocol
5462 conversations are shown.
5465 is sufficient to disable verbosity as such.
5468 .It Va writebackedited
5469 If this variable is set messages modified using the
5473 commands are written back to the current folder when it is quit;
5474 it is only honoured for writable folders in MBOX format, though.
5475 Note that the editor will be pointed to the raw message content in that
5476 case, i.e., neither MIME decoding nor decryption will have been
5477 performed, and proper RFC 4155
5479 quoting of newly added or edited content is also left as an excercise to
5484 .\" .Ss "Value options" {{{
5487 Options with values that are generally treated as strings.
5488 To embed whitespace (space and tabulator) in a value it either needs to
5489 be escaped with a backslash character, or the entire value must be
5490 enclosed in (double or single) quotation marks;
5491 To use quotation marks identical to those used to enclose the value,
5492 escape them with a backslash character.
5493 The backslash character has no special meaning except in these cases.
5495 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5496 set 1=val\e one 2="val two" 3='val "three"' 4='val \e'four\e''
5502 Booleans are special string values that must either be set to decimal
5503 integers (in which case
5507 and any other value is true) or to any of
5512 for a false boolean and
5517 for a true boolean; matching is performed case-insensitively.
5518 And there exists a special kind of boolean, the
5520 this is expected to either name a boolean or one of the strings
5526 followed by a valid boolean, case-insensitively);
5527 if one of the latter is set then in interactive mode the user will be
5528 prompted with the default value (also used for empty user input) set to
5529 the given boolean, whereas in non-interactive the given default will
5532 .Bl -tag -width ".It Va _utoprin_"
5533 .Mx Va agent-shell-lookup
5534 .It Va agent-shell-lookup-USER@HOST , agent-shell-lookup-HOST , \
5536 \*(IN \*(OP Account passwords can be fetched via an external agent
5537 program in order to permit encrypted password storage \(en see
5538 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
5539 for more on credential lookup.
5540 If this is set then the content is interpreted as a shell command the
5541 output of which (with newline characters removed) is treated as the
5542 account password shall the command succeed (and have produced non-empty
5543 non-newline output); e.g., via
5545 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5546 $ echo PASSWORD > .pass
5548 $ eval `gpg-agent --daemon \e
5549 --pinentry-program=/usr/bin/pinentry-curses \e
5550 --max-cache-ttl 99999 --default-cache-ttl 99999`
5551 $ echo 'set agent-shell-lookup="gpg -d .pass.gpg"' \e
5555 A couple of environment variables will be set for the agent:
5557 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ev _AIL_TMPDIR[337]"
5559 The temporary directory that \*(UA uses.
5560 Usually identical to
5562 but guaranteed to be set and usable by child processes;
5563 to ensure the latter condition for
5569 for which the password is looked up.
5570 .It Ev NAIL_USER_ENC
5571 The URL percent-encoded variant of
5574 The plain machine hostname of the user account.
5575 .It Ev NAIL_HOST_PORT
5578 (hostname possibly including port) of the user account.
5583 A sequence of characters to print in the
5587 as shown in the header display; each for one type of messages (see
5588 .Sx "Message states" ) ,
5589 with the default being
5592 .Ql NU\ \ *HMFAT+\-$~
5597 environment variable are set, in the following order:
5599 .Bl -tag -compact -offset indent -width ".It Ql _"
5621 start of a collapsed thread.
5627 classified as possible spam.
5632 Specifies a list of recipients to which a blind carbon copy of each
5633 outgoing message will be sent automatically.
5637 Specifies a list of recipients to which a carbon copy of each outgoing
5638 message will be sent automatically.
5642 Causes sorted mode (see the
5644 command) to be entered automatically with the value of this option as
5645 sorting method when a folder is opened.
5649 The value that should appear in the
5653 MIME header fields when no character set conversion of the message data
5655 This defaults to US-ASCII, and the chosen character set should be
5656 US-ASCII compatible.
5660 \*(OP The default 8-bit character set that is used as an implicit last
5661 member of the variable
5663 This defaults to UTF-8.
5664 If no character set conversion capabilities are available in \*(UA then
5665 the only supported character set is
5667 Refer to the section
5668 .Sx "Character sets"
5669 for the complete picture of character set conversion in \*(UA.
5672 .It Va charset-unknown-8bit
5673 \*(OP RFC 1428 specifies conditions when internet mail gateways shall
5675 the content of a mail message by using a character set with the name
5677 Because of the unclassified nature of this character set \*(UA will not
5678 be capable to convert this character set to any other character set.
5679 If this variable is set any message part which uses the character set
5681 is assumed to really be in the character set given in the value,
5682 otherwise the (final) value of
5684 is used for this purpose.
5688 The default value for the
5694 \*(OP The colour specification for so-called
5698 .Sx "Coloured message display"
5699 for the format of the value.
5702 .It Va colour-header
5703 \*(OP The colour specification for header lines.
5706 .It Va colour-msginfo
5707 \*(OP The colour specification for the introductional message info line.
5710 .It Va colour-partinfo
5711 \*(OP The colour specification for MIME part info lines.
5715 \*(OP A comma-separated list of
5717 inals for which coloured message display can be used.
5718 Entries only need to be added if the string
5720 isn't part of the terminal name itself; the default value is
5722 .Dl cons25,linux,rxvt,rxvt-unicode,\:screen,\:sun,\:vt100,\:vt220,\:\
5726 .It Va colour-uheader
5727 \*(OP The colour specification for those header lines that have been
5729 .Va colour-user-headers
5732 .Sx "Coloured message display" .
5735 .It Va colour-user-headers
5736 A comma separated list of (case-insensitive) header names which should
5737 be colourized with the alternative
5740 The default value is
5745 In a(n interactive) terminal session, then if this valued option is set
5746 it'll be used as a threshold to determine how many lines the given
5747 output has to span before it will be displayed via the configured
5751 can be forced by setting this to the value
5753 setting it without a value will deduce the current height of the
5754 terminal screen to compute the treshold (see
5761 The date in a header summary is normally the date of the mailbox
5763 line of the message.
5764 If this variable is set, then the date as given in the
5766 field is used, converted to local time.
5767 It is possible to control the display of the date by assigning a value,
5770 function will be used to format the date accordingly.
5771 Please read your system manual for the available formats.
5774 format should not be used, because \*(UA doesn't take embedded newlines
5775 into account when calculating how many lines fit onto the screen.
5778 .It Va datefield-markout-older
5779 This option, when set in addition to
5783 messages (concept is rather comparable to the
5785 option of the POSIX utility
5787 The content interpretation is identical to
5792 Suggestion for the MIME encoding to use in outgoing text messages
5794 Valid values are the default
5795 .Ql quoted-printable ,
5800 may cause problems when transferring mail messages over channels that
5801 are not ESMTP (RFC 1869) compliant.
5802 If there is no need to encode a message,
5804 transfer mode is always used regardless of this variable.
5805 Binary data is always encoded as
5810 If defined, the first character of this option
5811 gives the character to use in place of
5814 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
5818 If not set then file and command pipeline targets are not allowed,
5819 and any such address will be filtered out, giving a warning message.
5820 If set without a value then all possible recipient address
5821 specifications will be accepted \(en see the section
5824 To accept them, but only in interactive mode, or when tilde commands
5825 were enabled explicitly by using one of the command line options
5829 set this to the (case-insensitive) value
5831 (note right now this is actually like setting
5832 .Ql restrict,-all,+name,+addr ) .
5834 In fact the value is interpreted as a comma-separated list of values.
5837 then the existence of disallowed specifications is treated as a hard
5838 send error instead of only filtering them out.
5839 The remaining values specify wether a specific type of recipient
5840 address specification is allowed (optionally indicated by a plus sign
5842 prefix) or disallowed (prefixed with a hyphen
5846 addresses all possible address specifications,
5850 command pipeline targets,
5852 plain user names and (MTA) aliases (\*(OB
5854 may be used as an alternative syntax to
5859 These kind of values are interpreted in the given order, so that
5860 .Ql restrict,\:fail,\:+file,\:-all,\:+addr
5861 will cause hard errors for any non-network address recipient address
5862 unless \*(UA is in interactive mode or has been started with the
5866 command line option; in the latter case(s) any address may be used, then.
5870 Unless this variable is set additional mail-transfer-agent (MTA)
5871 arguments from the command line, as can be given after a
5873 separator, are ignored due to safety reasons.
5874 However, if set to the special value
5876 then the presence of additional MTA arguments is treated as a hard
5877 error that causes \*(UA to exit with failure status.
5878 A lesser strict variant is the otherwise identical
5880 which does accept such arguments in interactive mode, or if tilde
5881 commands were enabled explicitly by using one of the command line options
5888 \*(RO Information on the features compiled into \*(UA \(en the content
5889 of this variable is identical to the output of the command
5894 .It Va file-hook-load-EXTENSION , file-hook-save-EXTENSION
5895 It is possible to install file hooks which will be used by the
5897 command in order to be able to transparently handle (through an
5898 intermediate temporary file) files with specific
5900 s: the variable values can include shell snippets and are expected to
5901 write data to standard output / read data from standard input,
5903 \*(ID The variables may not be changed while there is a mailbox
5905 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5906 set file-hook-load-xy='echo >&2 XY-LOAD; gzip -cd' \e
5907 file-hook-save-xy='echo >&2 XY-SAVE; gzip -c' \e
5908 record=+null-sent.xy
5913 The name of the directory to use for storing folders of messages.
5914 All folder names that begin with
5916 refer to files below it.
5917 The same special conventions as documented for the
5919 command may be used when specifying a new value for
5921 but be aware that the expansion is fully performed immediately.
5922 E.g., if the expanded name refers to an IMAP account, all names that
5923 begin with `+' refer to IMAP mailboxes below the
5927 Note: some IMAP servers do not accept the creation of mailboxes in
5928 the hierarchy base, but require that they are created as subfolders of
5929 `INBOX' \(en with such servers a folder name of the form
5931 .Dl imaps://mylogin@imap.myisp.example/INBOX.
5933 should be used (the last character is the server's hierarchy delimiter).
5934 Folder names prefixed by `+' will then refer to folders below `INBOX',
5935 while folder names prefixed by `@' refer to folders below the hierarchy
5939 namespace command for a method to detect the appropriate prefix and
5944 When a folder is opened and this variable is set,
5945 the macro corresponding to the value of this variable is executed.
5946 The macro is also invoked when new mail arrives,
5947 but message lists for commands executed from the macro
5948 only include newly arrived messages then.
5951 are activated in a folder hook, then the covered settings will be
5952 reverted once the folder is left again.
5955 .It Va folder-hook-FOLDER
5960 Unlike other folder specifications, the fully expanded name of a folder,
5961 without metacharacters, is used to avoid ambiguities.
5962 However, if the mailbox resides under
5966 specification is tried in addition, e.g., if
5970 (and thus relative to the user's home directory) then
5971 .Pa /home/usr1/mail/sent
5973 .Ql folder-hook-/home/usr1/mail/sent
5974 first, but then followed by
5975 .Ql folder-hook-+sent .
5978 .It Va followup-to-honour
5980 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
5981 header is honoured when group-replying to a message via
5985 This is a quadoption; if set without a value it defaults to
5996 The address (or a list of addresses) to put into the
5998 field of the message header, quoting RFC 5322:
5999 the author(s) of the message, that is, the mailbox(es) of the person(s)
6000 or system(s) responsible for the writing of the message.
6001 If replying to messages these addresses are handled as if they were in
6005 If the machine's hostname is not valid at the Internet (for example at
6006 a dialup machine) then either this variable or
6011 adds even more fine-tuning capabilities),
6015 contains more than one address,
6018 variable is required (according to the standard RFC 5322).
6022 The string to print before the text of a message with the
6026 .Va forward-as-attachment
6029 .Dq -------- Original Message --------
6030 if unset; No heading is printed if it is set to the empty string.
6034 A format string to use for the header summary,
6040 introduces a format specifier that may be followed by a number
6041 indicating the field width;
6042 If the (possibly implicitly implied) field width is negative, the field
6043 is to be left-aligned.
6044 Valid format specifiers are:
6046 .Bl -tag -compact -offset indent -width "_%%_"
6048 A plain percent character.
6050 A space character but for the current message, for which it expands to
6053 A space character but for the current message, for which it expands to
6056 \*(OP The spam score of the message, as has been classified via the
6059 Prints only a replacement character if there is no spam support.
6061 Message attribute character (status flag); the actual content can be
6065 The date when the message was received.
6067 The indenting level in threaded mode.
6069 The address of the message sender.
6071 The message thread structure.
6072 (Note that this format doesn't support a field width.)
6074 The number of lines of the message.
6078 The number of octets (bytes) in the message.
6080 Message subject (if any).
6082 Message subject (if any) in double quotes.
6084 Message recipient flags: is the addressee of the message a known or
6085 subscribed mailing list \(en see
6090 The position in threaded/sorted order.
6094 .Ql %>\&%a\&%m\ %-18f\ %16d\ %4l/%\-5o\ %i%-s ,
6096 .Ql %>\&%a\&%m\ %20-f\ \ %16d\ %3l/%\-5o\ %i%-S
6106 .It Va headline-bidi
6107 Bidirectional text requires special treatment when displaying headers,
6108 because numbers (in dates or for file sizes etc.) will not affect the
6109 current text direction, in effect resulting in ugly line layouts when
6110 arabic or other right-to-left text is to be displayed.
6111 On the other hand only a minority of terminals is capable to correctly
6112 handle direction changes, so that user interaction is necessary for
6114 Note that extended host system support is required nonetheless, e.g.,
6115 detection of the terminal character set is one precondition;
6116 and this feature only works in an Unicode (i.e., UTF-8) locale.
6118 In general setting this variable will cause \*(UA to encapsulate text
6119 fields that may occur when printing
6121 (and some other fields, like dynamic expansions in
6123 with special Unicode control sequences;
6124 it is possible to fine-tune the terminal support level by assigning
6126 no value (or any value other than
6131 will make \*(UA assume that the terminal is capable to properly deal
6132 with Unicode version 6.3, in which case text is embedded in a pair of
6133 U+2068 (FIRST STRONG ISOLATE) and U+2069 (POP DIRECTIONAL ISOLATE)
6135 In addition no space on the line is reserved for these characters.
6137 Weaker support is chosen by using the value
6139 (Unicode 6.3, but reserve the room of two spaces for writing the control
6140 sequences onto the line).
6145 select Unicode 1.1 support (U+200E, LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK); the latter
6146 again reserves room for two spaces in addition.
6150 Use this string as hostname when expanding local addresses instead of
6151 the value obtained from
6162 transport is not used then it is normally the responsibility of the MTA
6163 to create these fields, \*(IN in conjunction with
6167 also influences the results;
6168 you should produce some test messages with the desired combination of
6176 .It Va imap-auth-USER@HOST , imap-auth
6177 \*(OP Sets the IMAP authentication method.
6178 Valid values are `login' for the usual password-based authentication
6180 `cram-md5', which is a password-based authentication that does not send
6181 the password over the network in clear text,
6182 and `gssapi' for GSS-API based authentication.
6186 \*(OP Enables caching of IMAP mailboxes.
6187 The value of this variable must point to a directory that is either
6188 existent or can be created by \*(UA.
6189 All contents of the cache can be deleted by \*(UA at any time;
6190 it is not safe to make assumptions about them.
6192 .Mx Va imap-keepalive
6193 .It Va imap-keepalive-USER@HOST , imap-keepalive-HOST , imap-keepalive
6194 \*(OP IMAP servers may close the connection after a period of
6195 inactivity; the standard requires this to be at least 30 minutes,
6196 but practical experience may vary.
6197 Setting this variable to a numeric `value' greater than 0 causes
6198 a `NOOP' command to be sent each `value' seconds if no other operation
6202 .It Va imap-list-depth
6203 \*(OP When retrieving the list of folders on an IMAP server, the
6205 command stops after it has reached a certain depth to avoid possible
6207 The value of this variable sets the maximum depth allowed.
6209 If the folder separator on the current IMAP server is a slash `/',
6210 this variable has no effect and the
6212 command does not descend to subfolders.
6223 option for indenting messages,
6224 in place of the normal tabulator character
6226 which is the default.
6227 Be sure to quote the value if it contains spaces or tabs.
6230 .It Va line-editor-cursor-right
6231 \*(OP If the builtin command line editor is used, actions which are
6232 based on rightwise movement may not work on some terminals.
6233 If you encounter such problems, set this variable to the terminal
6234 control sequence that is necessary to move the cursor one column to the
6238 which should work for most terminals.
6245 and other control character have to be written as shell-style escape
6253 Is used as the user's mailbox, if set.
6254 Otherwise, a system-dependent default is used.
6255 Supports a logical subset of the special conventions that are documented
6263 .It Va mime-counter-evidence
6266 field is used to decide how to handle MIME parts.
6267 Some MUAs however don't use
6269 or a similar mechanism to correctly classify content, but simply specify
6270 .Ql application/octet-stream ,
6271 even for plain text attachments like
6273 If this variable is set then \*(UA will try to classify such MIME
6274 message parts on its own, if possible, and through their file name.
6275 This variable can also be given a non-empty value, in which case the
6276 value is expected to be a number, actually a carrier of bits.
6277 Creating the bit-carrying number is a simple addition:
6278 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6279 ? !echo Value should be set to $((2 + 4))
6280 Value should be set to 6
6283 .Bl -bullet -compact
6285 If bit two is set (2) then the detected
6287 content-type will be carried along with the message and be used for
6289 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
6290 is responsible for the MIME part, shall that question arise;
6291 when displaying such a MIME part the part-info will indicate the
6292 overridden content-type by showing a plus-sign
6295 If bit three is set (4) then the counter-evidence is always produced
6296 and a positive result will be used as the MIME type, even forcefully
6297 overriding the parts given MIME type.
6299 .\"If bit four is set (8) then as a last resort the content of
6300 .\".Ql application/octet-stream
6301 .\"parts will be inspected, so that data that looks like (english) plain
6302 .\"text can be treated as such.
6306 .It Va mimetypes-load-control
6307 This option can be used to control which of the
6309 databases are loaded by \*(UA, as furtherly described in the section
6310 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
6313 is part of the option value, then the user's personal
6315 file will be loaded (if it exists); likewise the letter
6317 controls loading of the system wide
6318 .Pa /etc/mime.types ;
6319 the user file is loaded first, letter matching is case-insensitive.
6320 If this option is not set \*(UA will try to load both files instead.
6321 Incorporation of the \*(UA-builtin MIME types cannot be suppressed,
6322 but they will be matched last.
6324 More sources can be specified by using a different syntax: if the
6325 value string contains an equals sign
6327 then it is instead parsed as a comma-separated list of the described
6330 pairs; the given filenames will be expanded and loaded, and their
6331 content may use the extended syntax that is described in the section
6332 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
6335 .It Va NAIL_EXTRA_RC
6336 The name of an optional startup file to be read after
6338 This variable has an effect only if it is set in
6342 it is not imported from the environment in order to honour
6343 .Ql MAILRC=/dev/null Ns /
6346 Use this file for commands that are not understood by other POSIX
6352 A string to put at the beginning of each new message.
6353 The escape sequences tabulator
6360 .It Va NAIL_HISTFILE
6361 \*(OP If a command line editor is available then this can be set to
6362 name the (expandable) path of the location of a permanent history file.
6365 .It Va NAIL_HISTSIZE
6366 \*(OP If a command line editor is available this value restricts the
6367 amount of history entries that are saved into a set and valid
6369 A value of less than 0 disables this feature;
6370 note that loading and incorporation of
6372 upon program startup can also be suppressed by doing this.
6373 An unset or invalid value, or 0, causes a default value to be used.
6374 Dependent on the available command line editor this will also define the
6375 number of history entries in memory;
6376 it is also editor-specific wether runtime updates of this value will be
6381 A string to put at the end of each new message.
6382 The escape sequences tabulator
6390 If this variable has the value
6392 newly created local folders will be in Maildir format.
6396 Checks for new mail in the current folder each time the prompt is
6398 For IMAP mailboxes the server is then polled for new mail,
6399 which may result in delayed operation if the connection to the server is
6401 A Maildir folder must be re-scanned to determine if new mail has arrived.
6403 If this variable is set to the special value
6405 an IMAP server is not actively asked for new mail, but new mail may
6406 still be detected and announced with any other IMAP command that is sent
6408 In either case the IMAP server may send notifications about messages
6409 that have been deleted on the server by another process or client.
6411 .Dq Expunged X messages
6412 is printed regardless of this variable, and message numbers may have
6415 If this variable is set to the special value
6417 then a Maildir folder will not be rescanned completely, but only
6418 timestamp changes are detected.
6422 The value to put into the
6424 field of the message header.
6427 .It Va password-USER@HOST , password-HOST , password
6428 \*(IN Variable chain that sets a password, which is used in case none has
6429 been given in the protocol and account-specific URL;
6430 as a last resort \*(UA will ask for a password on the user's terminal if
6431 the authentication method requires a password.
6432 Specifying passwords in a startup file is generally a security risk;
6433 the file should be readable by the invoking user only.
6435 .It Va password-USER@HOST
6436 \*(OU (see the chain above for \*(IN)
6437 Set the password for
6441 If no such variable is defined for a host,
6442 the user will be asked for a password on standard input.
6443 Specifying passwords in a startup file is generally a security risk;
6444 the file should be readable by the invoking user only.
6447 .It Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
6448 When a MIME message part of type
6450 (normalized to lowercase) is displayed or quoted,
6451 its text is filtered through the value of this variable interpreted as
6455 can be used to force interpretation of the message part as plain text, e.g.,
6456 .Ql set pipe-application/pgp-signature=@
6457 will henceforth treat signatures as plain text and display them "as is".
6458 (The same can also be achieved, in a more useful context, by using the
6460 command in conjunction with a type marker.)
6462 Also, if a shell command is prefixed with
6464 then the command will only be used to prepare the MIME message part if
6465 the message is displayed by itself, but not when multiple messages are
6468 Finally, if a shell command is prefixed with
6470 then, in addition to what has been described for the plain
6472 shell command prefix, the command will be run asynchronously, i.e.,
6473 without blocking \*(UA, which may be a handy way to display a, e.g., PDF
6474 file while also continuing to read the mail message.
6475 Some information about the MIME part to be displayed is embedded into
6476 the environment of the shell command:
6478 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ev _AIL__ILENAME__ENERATED"
6481 The temporary directory that \*(UA uses.
6482 Usually identical to
6484 but guaranteed to be set and usable by child processes;
6485 to ensure the latter condition for
6489 .It Ev NAIL_FILENAME
6490 The filename, if any is set, the empty string otherwise.
6492 .It Ev NAIL_FILENAME_GENERATED
6496 The MIME content-type of the part, if known, the empty string otherwise.
6498 .It Ev NAIL_CONTENT_EVIDENCE
6500 .Va mime-counter-evidence
6501 includes the carry-around-bit (2), then this will be set to the detected
6502 MIME content-type; not only then identical to
6503 .Ev \&\&NAIL_CONTENT
6508 .It Va pipe-EXTENSION
6509 This is identical to
6510 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
6513 (normalized to lowercase using character mappings of the ASCII charset)
6514 names a file extension, e.g.,
6516 Handlers registered using this method take precedence.
6518 .Mx Va pop3-keepalive
6519 .It Va pop3-keepalive-USER@HOST , pop3-keepalive-HOST , pop3-keepalive
6520 \*(OP POP3 servers close the connection after a period of inactivity;
6521 the standard requires this to be at least 10 minutes,
6522 but practical experience may vary.
6523 Setting this variable to a numeric value greater than
6527 command to be sent each value seconds if no other operation is performed.
6531 The string printed when a command is accepted.
6532 Prompting may be prevented by either setting this to the null string
6535 The same XSI escape sequences that are understood by the
6537 command may be used within
6540 In addition, the following \*(UA specific additional sequences are
6547 is set, in which case it expands to
6551 is the default value of
6554 which will expand to
6556 if the last command failed and to
6560 which will expand to the name of the currently active
6562 if any, and to the empty string otherwise, and
6564 which will expand to the name of the currently active mailbox.
6565 (Note that the prompt buffer is size-limited, excess is cut off.)
6571 to encapsulate the expansions of the
6575 escape sequences as necessary to correctly display bidirectional text,
6576 this is not true for the final string that makes up
6578 as such, i.e., real BIDI handling is not supported.
6580 When a newer version of the
6582 .Sx "Command line editor"
6583 is used, any escape sequence must itself be encapsulated with another
6584 escape character for usage with the
6586 mechanism: \*(UA configures the control character
6592 If set, \*(UA starts a replying message with the original message
6593 prefixed by the value of the variable
6595 Normally, a heading consisting of
6596 .Dq Fromheaderfield wrote:
6597 is printed before the quotation.
6602 variable, this heading is omitted.
6605 is assigned, the headers selected by the
6606 .Ic ignore Ns / Ns Ic retain
6607 commands are printed above the message body,
6610 acts like an automatic
6616 is assigned, all headers are printed above the message body and all MIME
6617 parts are included, making
6619 act like an automatic
6622 .Va quote-as-attachment .
6626 \*(OP Can be set in addition to
6628 Setting this turns on a more fancy quotation algorithm in that leading
6629 quotation characters are compressed and overlong lines are folded.
6631 can be set to either one or two (space separated) numeric values,
6632 which are interpreted as the maximum (goal) and the minimum line length,
6633 respectively, in a spirit rather equal to the
6635 program, but line-, not paragraph-based.
6636 If not set explicitly the minimum will reflect the goal algorithmically.
6637 The goal can't be smaller than the length of
6639 plus some additional pad.
6640 Necessary adjustments take place silently.
6644 If defined, gives the pathname of the folder used to record all outgoing
6646 If not defined, then outgoing mail is not saved.
6647 When saving to this folder fails the message is not sent,
6648 but instead saved to
6652 .It Va reply_strings
6653 Can be set to a comma-separated list of (case-insensitive according to
6654 ASCII rules) strings which shall be recognized in addition to the
6657 reply message indicators \(en builtin are
6659 which is mandated by RFC 5322, as well as the german
6664 A list of addresses to put into the
6666 field of the message header.
6667 Members of this list are handled as if they were in the
6672 .It Va reply-to-honour
6675 header is honoured when replying to a message via
6679 This is a quadoption; if set without a value it defaults to
6684 When \*(UA initially prints the message headers it determines the number
6685 to print by looking at the speed of the terminal.
6686 The faster the terminal, the more it prints.
6687 This option overrides this calculation and specifies how many message
6688 headers are printed.
6689 This number is also used for scrolling with the
6695 \*(OP A comma-separated list of character set names that can be used in
6696 outgoing internet mail.
6697 The value of the variable
6699 is automatically appended to this list of character-sets.
6700 If no character set conversion capabilities are compiled into \*(UA then
6701 the only supported charset is
6704 .Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
6705 and refer to the section
6706 .Sx "Character sets"
6707 for the complete picture of character set conversion in \*(UA.
6711 An address that is put into the
6713 field of outgoing messages, quoting RFC 5322: the mailbox of the agent
6714 responsible for the actual transmission of the message.
6715 This field should normally not be used unless the
6717 field contains more than one address, on which case it is required.
6720 address is handled as if it were in the
6726 To use an alternate mail transport agent (MTA),
6727 set this option to the full pathname of the program to use.
6728 It may be necessary to set
6729 .Va sendmail-progname
6732 The MTA will be passed command line arguments from several possible
6733 sources: from the variable
6734 .Va sendmail-arguments
6735 if set, from the command line if given and the variable
6738 Argument processing of the MTA will be terminated with a
6742 The otherwise occurring implicit usage of the following MTA command line
6743 arguments can be disabled by setting the boolean option
6744 .Va sendmail-no-default-arguments
6745 (which will also disable passing
6749 (for not treating a line with only a dot
6751 character as the end of input),
6759 option is set); in conjunction with the
6761 command line option \*(UA will also pass
6767 .It Va sendmail-arguments
6768 Arguments to pass through to the Mail-Transfer-Agent can be given via
6770 The content of this variable will be split up in a vector of arguments
6771 which will be joined onto other possible MTA options:
6773 .Dl set sendmail-arguments='-t -X \&"/tmp/my log\&"'
6776 .It Va sendmail-no-default-arguments
6777 \*(BY Unless this option is set \*(UA will pass some well known
6778 standard command line options to the defined
6780 program, see there for more.
6783 .It Va sendmail-progname
6784 Many systems use a so-called
6786 environment to ensure compatibility with
6788 This works by inspecting the name that was used to invoke the mail
6790 If this variable is set then the mailwrapper (the program that is
6791 actually executed when calling
6793 will treat its contents as that name.
6799 A string for use with the
6805 A string for use with the
6811 Must correspond to the name of a readable file if set.
6812 The file's content is then appended to each singlepart message
6813 and to the first part of each multipart message.
6814 Be warned that there is no possibility to edit the signature for an
6819 \*(OP Specifies a directory with CA certificates in PEM (Privacy
6820 Enhanced Mail) format for verification of S/MIME signed messages.
6823 .It Va smime-ca-file
6824 \*(OP Specifies a file with CA certificates in PEM format for
6825 verification of S/MIME signed messages.
6828 .It Va smime-cipher-USER@HOST , smime-cipher
6829 \*(OP Specifies the cipher to use when generating S/MIME encrypted
6830 messages (for the specified account).
6831 RFC 5751 mandates a default of
6834 Possible values are (case-insensitive and) in decreasing cipher strength:
6842 (DES EDE3 CBC, 168 bits; default if
6844 isn't available) and
6848 The actually available cipher algorithms depend on the cryptographic
6849 library that \*(UA uses.
6850 \*(OP Support for more cipher algorithms may be available through
6851 dynamic loading via, e.g.,
6852 .Xr EVP_get_cipherbyname 3
6853 (OpenSSL) if \*(UA has been compiled to support this.
6856 .It Va smime-crl-dir
6857 \*(OP Specifies a directory that contains files with CRLs in PEM format
6858 to use when verifying S/MIME messages.
6861 .It Va smime-crl-file
6862 \*(OP Specifies a file that contains a CRL in PEM format to use when
6863 verifying S/MIME messages.
6866 .It Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST
6867 \*(OP If this variable is set, messages send to the given receiver are
6868 encrypted before sending.
6869 The value of the variable must be set to the name of a file that
6870 contains a certificate in PEM format.
6872 If a message is sent to multiple recipients,
6873 each of them for whom a corresponding variable is set will receive an
6874 individually encrypted message;
6875 other recipients will continue to receive the message in plain text
6877 .Va smime-force-encryption
6879 It is recommended to sign encrypted messages, i.e., to also set the
6883 .Mx Va smime-sign-cert
6884 .It Va smime-sign-cert-USER@HOST , smime-sign-cert
6885 \*(OP Points to a file in PEM format.
6886 For the purpose of signing and decryption this file needs to contain the
6887 user's private key as well as his certificate.
6891 is always derived from the value of
6893 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
6895 For the purpose of encryption the recipient's public encryption key
6896 (certificate) is expected; the command
6898 can be used to save certificates of signed messages (the section
6899 .Sx "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
6900 gives some details).
6901 This mode of operation is usually driven by the specialized form.
6903 When decrypting messages the account is derived from the recipient
6908 of the message, which are searched for addresses for which such
6910 \*(UA always uses the first address that matches,
6911 so if the same message is sent to more than one of the user's addresses
6912 using different encryption keys, decryption might fail.
6914 .Mx Va smime-sign-include-certs
6915 .It Va smime-sign-include-certs-USER@HOST , smime-sign-include-certs
6916 \*(OP If used, this is supposed to a consist of a comma-separated list
6917 of files, each of which containing a single certificate in PEM format to
6918 be included in the S/MIME message in addition to the
6921 This is most useful for long certificate chains if it is desired to aid
6922 the receiving party's verification process.
6923 Note that top level certificates may also be included in the chain but
6924 don't play a role for verification.
6926 .Va smime-sign-cert .
6927 Remember that for this
6929 refers to the variable
6931 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
6934 .Mx Va smime-sign-message-digest
6935 .It Va smime-sign-message-digest-USER@HOST , smime-sign-message-digest
6936 \*(OP Specifies the message digest to use when signing S/MIME messages.
6937 RFC 5751 mandates a default of
6939 Possible values are (case-insensitive and) in decreasing cipher strength:
6947 The actually available message digest algorithms depend on the
6948 cryptographic library that \*(UA uses.
6949 \*(OP Support for more message digest algorithms may be available
6950 through dynamic loading via, e.g.,
6951 .Xr EVP_get_digestbyname 3
6952 (OpenSSL) if \*(UA has been compiled to support this.
6953 Remember that for this
6955 refers to the variable
6957 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
6962 \*(OP Normally \*(UA invokes the program defined via
6964 to transfer messages, as described in
6965 .Sx "Sending mail" .
6968 variable will instead cause SMTP network connections be made to the
6969 server specified therein in order to directly submit the message.
6970 \*(UA knows about three different
6971 .Dq SMTP protocols :
6973 .Bl -bullet -compact
6975 The plain SMTP protocol (RFC 5321) that normally lives on the
6976 server port 25 and requires setting the
6977 .Va smtp-use-starttls
6978 variable to enter a SSL/TLS encrypted session state.
6979 Assign a value like \*(IN
6980 .Ql [smtp://][user[:password]@]server[:port]
6982 .Ql [smtp://]server[:port] )
6983 to choose this protocol.
6985 Then the so-called SMTPS which is supposed to live on server port 465
6986 and is automatically SSL/TLS secured.
6987 Unfortunately it never became a standardized protocol and may thus not
6988 be supported by your hosts network service database
6989 \(en in fact the port number has already been reassigned to other
6992 SMTPS is nonetheless a commonly offered protocol and thus can be
6993 chosen by assigning a value like \*(IN
6994 .Ql smtps://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
6996 .Ql smtps://server[:port] ) ;
6997 due to the mentioned problems it is usually necessary to explicitly
7002 Finally there is the SUBMISSION protocol (RFC 6409), which usually
7003 lives on server port 587 and is practically identically to the SMTP
7004 protocol from \*(UAs point of view beside that; it requires setting the
7005 .Va smtp-use-starttls
7006 variable to enter a SSL/TLS secured session state.
7007 Assign a value like \*(IN
7008 .Ql submission://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
7010 .Ql submission://server[:port] ) .
7013 For more on credentials etc. please see
7014 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
7015 The SMTP transfer is executed in a child process, which runs
7016 asynchronously unless either the
7021 If it receives a TERM signal, it will abort and save the message to
7025 .It Va smtp-auth-USER@HOST , smtp-auth-HOST , smtp-auth
7026 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the SMTP authentication method.
7033 as well as the \*(OPal methods
7039 method doesn't need any user credentials,
7041 requires a user name and all other methods require a user name and
7049 .Va smtp-auth-password
7051 .Va smtp-auth-user ) .
7056 .Va smtp-auth-USER@HOST :
7057 may override dependend on sender address in the variable
7060 .It Va smtp-auth-password
7061 \*(OP \*(OU Sets the global fallback password for SMTP authentication.
7062 If the authentication method requires a password, but neither
7063 .Va smtp-auth-password
7065 .Va smtp-auth-password-USER@HOST
7067 \*(UA will ask for a password on the user's terminal.
7069 .It Va smtp-auth-password-USER@HOST
7071 .Va smtp-auth-password
7072 for specific values of sender addresses, dependent upon the variable
7075 .It Va smtp-auth-user
7076 \*(OP \*(OU Sets the global fallback user name for SMTP authentication.
7077 If the authentication method requires a user name, but neither
7080 .Va smtp-auth-user-USER@HOST
7082 \*(UA will ask for a user name on the user's terminal.
7084 .It Va smtp-auth-user-USER@HOST
7087 for specific values of sender addresses, dependent upon the variable
7091 .It Va smtp-hostname
7092 \*(IN Normally \*(UA uses the variable
7094 to derive the necessary
7096 information to issue a
7101 can be used to use the
7103 from the SMTP account
7110 from the content of this variable (or, if that is the empty string,
7112 or the local hostname as a last resort).
7113 This often allows using an address that is itself valid but hosted by
7114 a provider other than which (in
7116 is about to send the message.
7117 Setting this variable also influences the generated
7122 .It Va spam-interface
7123 \*(OP In order to use any of the spam-related commands (like, e.g.,
7125 the desired spam interface must be defined by setting this variable.
7126 Please refer to the manual section
7128 for the complete picture of spam handling in \*(UA.
7129 All or none of the following interfaces may be available:
7131 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ql _ilte_"
7137 .Pf ( Lk http://spamassassin.apache.org SpamAssassin )
7139 Different to the generic filter interface \*(UA will automatically add
7140 the correct arguments for a given command and has the necessary
7141 knowledge to parse the program's output.
7144 will have been compiled into the \*(UA binary if
7149 Shall it be necessary to define a specific connection type (rather than
7150 using a configuration file for that), the variable
7152 can be used as in, e.g.,
7153 .Ql -d server.example.com -p 783 .
7154 It is also possible to specify a per-user configuration via
7156 Note that this interface doesn't inspect the
7158 flag of a message for the command
7162 \*(UA will directly communicate with the
7168 stream socket as specified in
7170 It is possible to specify a per-user configuration via
7174 generic spam filter support via freely configurable hooks.
7175 This interface is ment for programs like
7179 and requires according behaviour in respect to the hooks' exit
7180 status for at least the command
7183 meaning a message is spam,
7187 for unsure and any other return value indicating a hard error);
7188 since the hooks can include shell code snippets diverting behaviour
7189 can be intercepted as necessary.
7191 .Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , spamfilter-nospam , \
7194 .Va spamfilter-spam ;
7197 contains examples for some programs.
7198 The process environment of the hooks will have the variables
7199 .Ev NAIL_TMPDIR , TMPDIR
7201 .Ev NAIL_FILENAME_GENERATED
7203 Note that spam score support for
7205 isn't supported unless the \*(OPtional regular expression support is
7207 .Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore
7214 \*(OP Messages that exceed this size won't be passed through to the
7216 .Va spam-interface .
7217 The default is 420000 bytes.
7220 .It Va spamc-command
7221 \*(OP The path to the
7225 .Va spam-interface .
7226 Note that the path is not expanded, but used
7228 A fallback path will have been compiled into the \*(UA binary if the
7229 executable had been found during compilation.
7232 .It Va spamc-arguments
7233 \*(OP Even though \*(UA deals with most arguments for the
7236 automatically, it may at least sometimes be desirable to specifiy
7237 connection-related ones via this variable, e.g.,
7238 .Ql -d server.example.com -p 783 .
7242 \*(OP Specify a username for per-user configuration files for the
7244 .Va spam-interface .
7245 If this is set to the empty string then \*(UA will use the name of the
7251 \*(OP Specify the path of the
7253 domain socket on which
7255 listens for connections for the
7257 .Va spam-interface .
7258 Note that the path is not expanded, but used
7263 \*(OP Specify a username for per-user configuration files for the
7265 .Va spam-interface .
7266 If this is set to the empty string then \*(UA will use the name of the
7275 .It Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , \
7276 spamfilter-nospam , spamfilter-rate , spamfilter-spam
7277 \*(OP Command and argument hooks for the
7279 .Va spam-interface .
7282 contains examples for some programs.
7285 .It Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore
7286 \*(OP Because of the generic nature of the
7289 spam scores are not supported for it by default, but if the \*(OPtional
7290 regular expression support is available then setting this variable can
7291 be used to overcome this restriction.
7292 It is interpreted as follows: first a number (digits) is parsed that
7293 must be followed by a semicolon
7295 and a regular expression.
7296 Then the latter is used to parse the first output line of the
7298 hook, and, in case the evaluation is successful, the group that has been
7299 specified via the number is interpreted as a floating point scan score.
7303 \*(OP Specifies a directory with CA certificates in PEM (Pricacy
7304 Enhanced Mail) for verification of of SSL/TLS server certificates.
7306 .Xr SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations 3
7307 for more information.
7311 \*(OP Specifies a file with CA certificates in PEM format for
7312 verification of SSL/TLS server certificates.
7314 .Xr SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations 3
7315 for more information.
7318 .It Va ssl-cert-USER@HOST , ssl-cert-HOST , ssl-cert
7319 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the file name for a SSL/TLS client
7320 certificate required by some servers.
7321 This is a direct interface to the
7325 function of the OpenSSL library, if available.
7327 .Mx Va ssl-cipher-list
7328 .It Va ssl-cipher-list-USER@HOST , ssl-cipher-list-HOST , ssl-cipher-list
7329 \*(OP Specifies a list of ciphers for SSL/TLS connections.
7330 This is a direct interface to the
7334 function of the OpenSSL library, if available; see
7336 for more information.
7337 By default \*(UA doesn't set a list of ciphers, which in effect will use a
7339 specific cipher (protocol standards ship with a list of acceptable
7340 ciphers), possibly cramped to what the actually used SSL/TLS library
7341 supports \(en the manual section
7342 .Sx "An example configuration"
7343 also contains a SSL/TLS use case.
7346 .It Va ssl-config-file
7347 \*(OP If this variable is set \*(UA will call
7348 .Xr CONF_modules_load_file 3
7349 to allow OpenSSL to be configured according to the host system wide
7351 If a non-empty value is given then this will be used to specify the
7352 configuration file to be used instead of the global OpenSSL default;
7353 note that in this case it is an error if the file cannot be loaded.
7354 The application name will always be passed as
7359 \*(OP Specifies a file that contains a CRL in PEM format to use when
7360 verifying SSL/TLS server certificates.
7364 \*(OP Specifies a directory that contains files with CRLs in PEM format
7365 to use when verifying SSL/TLS server certificates.
7368 .It Va ssl-key-USER@HOST , ssl-key-HOST , ssl-key
7369 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the file name for the private key of
7370 a SSL/TLS client certificate.
7371 If unset, the name of the certificate file is used.
7372 The file is expected to be in PEM format.
7373 This is a direct interface to the
7377 function of the OpenSSL library, if available.
7380 .It Va ssl-method-USER@HOST , ssl-method-HOST , ssl-method
7382 \*(OB Please use the newer and more flexible
7384 instead: if both values are set,
7386 will take precedence!
7387 Can be set to the following values, the actually used
7389 specification to which it is mapped is shown in parenthesis:
7391 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, TLSv1.2 ) ,
7393 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, TLSv1.1 ) ,
7395 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, TLSv1 )
7398 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, SSLv3 ) ;
7403 and thus includes the SSLv3 protocol.
7404 Note that SSLv2 is no longer supported at all.
7407 .It Va ssl-protocol-USER@HOST , ssl-protocol-HOST , ssl-protocol
7408 \*(OP Specify the used SSL/TLS protocol.
7409 This is a direct interface to the
7413 function of the OpenSSL library, if available;
7414 otherwise an \*(UA internal parser is used which understands the
7415 following subset of (case-insensitive) command strings:
7421 as well as the special value
7423 Multiple specifications may be given via a comma-separated list which
7424 ignores any whitespace.
7427 plus prefix will enable a protocol, a
7429 minus prefix will disable it, so that
7431 will enable only the TLSv1.2 protocol.
7433 It depends upon the used TLS/SSL library which protocols are actually
7434 supported and which protocols are used if
7436 is not set, but note that SSLv2 is no longer supported at all and
7438 Especially for older protocols explicitly securing
7440 may be worthwile, see
7441 .Sx "An example configuration" .
7445 \*(OP Gives the pathname to an entropy daemon socket, see
7447 Not all SSL/TLS libraries support this.
7450 .It Va ssl-rand-file
7451 \*(OP Gives the pathname to a file with entropy data, see
7452 .Xr RAND_load_file 3 .
7453 If the file is a regular file writable by the invoking user,
7454 new data is written to it after it has been loaded.
7457 .It Va ssl-verify-USER@HOST , ssl-verify-HOST , ssl-verify
7458 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the action to be performed if an error
7459 occurs during SSL/TLS server certificate validation.
7460 Valid (case-insensitive) values are
7462 (fail and close connection immediately),
7464 (ask whether to continue on standard input),
7466 (print a warning and continue),
7468 (do not perform validation).
7474 If only set without an assigned value, then this option inhibits the
7479 header fields that include obvious references to \*(UA.
7480 There are two pitfalls associated with this:
7481 First, the message id of outgoing messages is not known anymore.
7482 Second, an expert may still use the remaining information in the header
7483 to track down the originating mail user agent.
7488 suppression doesn't occur.
7492 If defined, gives the number of lines of a message to be printed out
7493 with the top command; normally, the first five lines are printed.
7497 The character set of the terminal \*(UA operates on,
7498 and the one and only supported character set that \*(UA can use if no
7499 character set conversion capabilities have been compiled into it,
7500 in which case it defaults to ISO-8859-1 unless it can deduce a value
7504 Refer to the section
7505 .Sx "Character sets"
7506 for the complete picture about character sets.
7509 .It Va user-HOST , user
7510 \*(IN Variable chain that sets a global fallback user name, which is
7511 used in case none has been given in the protocol and account-specific
7513 This variable defaults to the value of
7520 .It Va version , version-major , version-minor , version-update
7521 \*(RO \*(UA version information: the first variable contains a string
7522 containing the complete version identification \(en this is identical to
7523 the output of the command
7525 The latter three contain only digits: the major, minor and update
7529 .\" }}} (Variable options)
7532 .\" .Sh ENVIRONMENT {{{
7536 .Dq environment variable
7537 should be considered an indication that the following variables are
7538 either standardized as being vivid parts of process environments, or
7539 are commonly found in there.
7540 Unless otherwise explicitly noted they integrate into the normal
7541 variable handling, as documented above, from \*(UAs point of view.
7543 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ev _AILR_"
7546 The user's preferred width in column positions for the terminal screen
7548 Queried and used once on program startup.
7552 The name of the file to use for saving aborted messages if
7554 is set; this defaults to
7562 Pathname of the text editor to use in the
7566 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
7567 A default editor is used if this value is not defined.
7571 The user's home directory.
7572 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
7575 to update the value at runtime.
7582 .It Ev LANG , LC_ALL , LC_COLLATE , LC_CTYPE , LC_MESSAGES
7586 .Sx "Character sets" .
7590 The user's preferred number of lines on a page or the vertical screen
7591 or window size in lines.
7592 Queried and used once on program startup.
7596 Pathname of the directory lister to use in the
7598 command when operating on local mailboxes.
7601 (path search through
7606 The name of the user's mbox file.
7607 Supports a logical subset of the special conventions that are
7613 The fallback default is
7621 Is used as a startup file instead of
7624 When \*(UA scripts are invoked on behalf of other users,
7625 this variable should be set to
7627 to avoid side-effects from reading their configuration files.
7628 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
7631 .It Ev NAIL_NO_SYSTEM_RC
7632 If this variable is set then reading of
7634 at startup is inhibited, i.e., the same effect is achieved as if \*(UA
7635 had been started up with the option
7637 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
7641 \*(IN \*(OP This variable overrides the default location of the user's
7647 Pathname of the program to use in the more command or when the
7650 The default paginator is
7652 (path search through
7657 A list of directories that is searched by the shell when looking for
7658 commands (as such only recognized in the process environment).
7662 The shell to use for the commands
7668 and when starting subprocesses.
7669 A default shell is used if this option is not defined.
7673 Changes the letters printed in the first column of a header summary.
7677 \*(OP The terminal type for which output is to be prepared.
7681 Used as directory for temporary files instead of
7684 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
7687 to update the value at runtime.
7691 Force identification as the given user, i.e., identical to the
7693 command line option.
7694 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
7697 to update the value at runtime, but note that doing so won't trigger any
7698 of those validation checks that were performed on program startup (again).
7702 Pathname of the text editor to use in the
7706 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
7714 .Bl -tag -width ".It Pa _etc/mime.type_"
7716 File giving initial commands.
7719 System wide initialization file.
7722 .It Pa ~/.mime.types
7723 Personal MIME types, see
7724 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
7727 .It Pa /etc/mime.types
7728 System wide MIME types, see
7729 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
7733 \*(IN \*(OP The default location of the users
7735 file \(en the section
7736 .Sx "The .netrc file"
7737 documents the file format.
7740 .\" .Ss "The mime.types files" {{{
7741 .Ss "The mime.types files"
7743 When sending messages \*(UA tries to determine the content type of all
7745 When displaying message content or attachments \*(UA uses the content
7746 type to decide wether it can directly display data or wether it needs to
7747 deal with content handlers, as can be defined via
7748 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
7750 .Va pipe-EXTENSION )
7751 variables, to do so.
7754 It learns about MIME types and how to treat them by reading
7756 files, the loading of which can be controlled by setting the variable
7757 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
7760 can also be used to deal with MIME types.)
7762 files have the following syntax:
7765 .Dl type/subtype extension [extension ...]
7770 are strings describing the file contents, and one or multiple
7772 s, separated by whitespace, name the part of a filename starting after
7773 the last dot (of interest).
7774 Comments may be introduced anywhere on a line with a number sign
7776 causing the remaining line to be discarded.
7778 \*(UA also supports an extended, non-portable syntax in specially
7779 crafted files, which can be loaded via the alternative value syntax of
7780 .Va mimetypes-load-control
7781 and prepends an optional
7785 .Dl [type-marker ]type/subtype extension [extension ...]
7788 The following type markers are supported:
7791 .Bl -tag -compact -offset indent -width ".It Ar _n_u"
7793 Treat message parts with this content as plain text.
7798 Treat message parts with this content as HTML tagsoup.
7799 If the \*(OPal HTML-tagsoup-to-text converter is not available treat
7800 the content as plain text instead.
7804 but instead of falling back to plain text require an explicit content
7805 handler to be defined.
7810 for sending messages:
7811 .Va mime-allow-text-controls .
7812 For reading etc. messages:
7813 .Sx "Viewing HTML mail and MIME attachments" ,
7814 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
7815 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE ,
7816 .Va pipe-EXTENSION .
7819 .\" .Ss "The .netrc file" {{{
7820 .Ss "The .netrc file"
7824 file contains user credentials for machine accounts.
7825 The default location in the user's
7827 directory may be overridden by the
7829 environment variable.
7830 The file consists of space, tabulator or newline separated tokens.
7831 \*(UA implements a parser that supports a superset of the original BSD
7832 syntax, but users should nonetheless be aware of portability glitches
7833 of that file format, shall their
7835 be usable across multiple programs and platforms:
7838 .Bl -bullet -compact
7840 BSD doesn't support single, but only double quotation marks, e.g.,
7841 .Ql password="pass with spaces" .
7843 BSD (only?) supports escaping of single characters via a backslash
7844 (e.g., a space can be escaped via
7846 in- as well as outside of a quoted string.
7848 BSD doesn't require the final quotation mark of the final user input token.
7850 At least Hewlett-Packard seems to support a format which also allows
7851 tokens to be separated with commas \(en this format is not supported!
7853 Whereas other programs may require that the
7855 file is accessible by only the user if it contains a
7861 \*(UA will always require these strict permissions.
7865 Of the following list of supported tokens \*(UA only uses (and caches)
7871 .Bl -tag -width password
7872 .It Cd machine Ar name
7873 The hostname of the entries' machine, lowercase-normalized by \*(UA
7875 Any further file content, until either end-of-file or the occurrence
7880 first-class token is bound (only related) to the machine
7883 As an extension that shouldn't be the cause of any worries
7884 \*(UA supports a single wildcard prefix for
7886 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7887 machine *.example.com login USER password PASS
7888 machine pop3.example.com login USER password PASS
7889 machine smtp.example.com login USER password PASS
7895 .Ql pop3.example.com ,
7899 .Ql local.smtp.example.com .
7900 Note that in the example neither
7901 .Ql pop3.example.com
7903 .Ql smtp.example.com
7904 will be matched by the wildcard, since the exact matches take
7905 precedence (it is however faster to specify it the other way around).
7910 except that it is a fallback entry that is used shall none of the
7911 specified machines match; only one default token may be specified,
7912 and it must be the last first-class token.
7914 .It Cd login Ar name
7915 The user name on the remote machine.
7917 .It Cd password Ar string
7918 The user's password on the remote machine.
7920 .It Cd account Ar string
7921 Supply an additional account password.
7922 This is merely for FTP purposes.
7924 .It Cd macdef Ar name
7926 A macro is defined with the specified
7928 it is formed from all lines beginning with the next line and continuing
7929 until a blank line is (consecutive newline characters are) encountered.
7932 entries cannot be utilized by multiple machines, too, but must be
7933 defined following the
7935 they are intended to be used with.)
7938 exists, it is automatically run as the last step of the login process.
7939 This is merely for FTP purposes.
7946 .\" .Sh EXAMPLES {{{
7949 .\" .Ss "An example configuration" {{{
7950 .Ss "An example configuration"
7952 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7953 # This example assumes v15.0 compatibility mode
7956 # Where are the up-to-date SSL certificates?
7957 #set ssl-ca-dir=/etc/ssl/certs
7958 set ssl-ca-file=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
7960 # (Since we manage up-to-date ones explicitly, don't use any,
7961 # possibly outdated, default certificates shipped with OpenSSL
7962 set ssl-no-default-ca
7964 # Don't use protocols olders than TLS v1.2.
7965 # Change this only when the remote server doesn't support it:
7966 # maybe use ssl-protocol-HOST (or -USER@HOST) syntax to define
7967 # such explicit exceptions, then
7968 set ssl-protocol="-ALL,+TLSv1.2"
7970 # Explicitly define the list of ciphers, which may improve security,
7971 # especially with protocols older than TLS v1.2. See ciphers(1).
7972 # Hint: it is important to include "@STRENGTH": only with it the
7973 # final list will be sorted by algorithm strength.
7974 # This is an example: in reality it is possibly best to only use
7975 # ssl-cipher-list-HOST (or -USER@HOST), as necessary, again..
7976 set ssl-cipher-list="ALL:!aNULL:!MEDIUM:!LOW:\e
7977 !MD5:!RC4:!EXPORT:@STRENGTH"
7979 # Request strict transport security checks!
7980 set ssl-verify=strict
7982 # Essential setting: select allowed character sets
7983 set sendcharsets=utf-8,iso-8859-1
7985 # A very kind option: when replying to a message, first try to
7986 # use the same encoding that the original poster used herself!
7987 set reply-in-same-charset
7989 # When replying to or forwarding a message the comment and name
7990 # parts of email addresses are removed unless this variable is set
7993 # When sending messages, wait until the Mail-Transfer-Agent finishs.
7994 # Only like this you'll be able to see errors reported through the
7995 # exit status of the MTA (including the builtin SMTP one)!
7998 # Only use builtin MIME types, no mime.types(5) files
7999 set mimetypes-load-control
8001 # Default directory where we act in (relative to $HOME)
8002 set folder=mail MBOX=+mbox.mbox record=+sent.mbox \e
8005 # Make "file mymbox" and "file myrec" go to..
8006 shortcut mymbox %:+mbox.mbox myrec +sent.mbox
8008 # Not really optional, e.g., for S/MIME
8009 set from="Your Name <youremail@domain>"
8011 # It may be necessary to set hostname and/or smtp-hostname
8012 # if the "SERVER" of smtp and "domain" of from don't match.
8013 # The `urlencode' command can be used to encode USER and PASS
8014 set smtp=(smtp[s]/submission)://[USER[:PASS]@]SERVER[:PORT] \e
8015 smtp-auth=login/plain... \e
8018 # Never refuse to start into interactive mode, and more
8020 colour-pager crt= followup-to followup-to-honour=ask-yes \e
8021 history-gabby mime-counter-evidence=6 \e
8022 prompt="\e033[31m?\e?[\e$ \e@]\e& \e033[0m" \e
8023 NAIL_HISTFILE=+.s-nailhist NAIL_HISTSIZE=-1 \e
8024 reply-to-honour=ask-yes
8026 # When `p'rinting messages, show only these headers
8027 # (use `P'rint for all headers and `S'how for raw message)
8028 retain date from to cc subject
8030 # Some mailing lists
8031 mlist @xyz-editor.xyz$ @xyzf.xyz$
8032 mlsubscribe ^xfans@xfans.xyz$
8034 # A real life example of a very huge free mail provider
8037 set from="Your Name <youremail@domain>"
8038 # (The plain smtp:// proto is optional)
8039 set smtp=USER:PASS@smtp.gmXil.com smtp-use-starttls
8042 # Here is a pretty large one which does not allow sending mails
8043 # if there is a domain name mismatch on the SMTP protocol level,
8044 # which would bite us if the value of from does not match, e.g.,
8045 # for people who have a sXXXXeforge project and want to speak
8046 # with the mailing list under their project account (in from),
8047 # still sending the message through their normal mail provider
8050 set from="Your Name <youremail@domain>"
8051 set smtp=smtps://USER:PASS@smtp.yaXXex.ru:465 \e
8052 hostname=yaXXex.com smtp-hostname=
8055 # Create some new commands so that, e.g., `ls /tmp' will..
8066 ghost llS !ls -aFlrS
8069 # We don't support gpg(1) directly yet. But simple --clearsign'd
8070 # message parts can be dealt with as follows:
8073 set pipe-text/plain="set -C;\e
8074 : > \e"${TMPDIR}/${NAIL_FILENAME_GENERATED}\e" \e
8075 trap \e"rm -f \e\e\e"${TMPDIR}/${NAIL_FILENAME_GENERATED}\e\e\e"\e" \e
8076 EXIT INT QUIT PIPE TERM;\e
8078 cat > \e"${TMPDIR}/${NAIL_FILENAME_GENERATED}\e";\e
8079 < \e"${TMPDIR}/${NAIL_FILENAME_GENERATED}\e" awk \e
8080 -v TMPFILE=\e"${TMPDIR}/${NAIL_FILENAME_GENERATED}\e" '\e
8082 /^-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----/,/^$/ {\e
8085 print \e"--- GPG --verify ---\e";\e
8086 system(\e"gpg --verify \e" TMPFILE \e" 2>&1\e");\e
8087 print \e"--- GPG --verify ---\e";\e
8091 /^-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----/,\e
8092 /^-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----/ {\e
8102 !printf 'Key IDs to gpg --recv-keys: ';\e
8104 gpg --recv-keys ${keyids};
8110 When storing passwords in
8112 appropriate permissions should be set on this file with
8113 .Ql $ chmod 0600 \*(ur .
8116 is available user credentials can be stored in the central
8118 file instead; e.g., here is a different version of the example account
8119 that sets up SMTP and POP3:
8121 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8124 set from="Your Name <youremail@domain>"
8126 #set agent-shell-lookup="gpg -d .pass.gpg"
8128 set smtp=smtps://smtp.yXXXXx.ru:465 \e
8129 smtp-hostname= hostname=yXXXXx.com
8130 set pop3-keepalive=240 pop3-no-apop-pop.yXXXXx.ru
8131 ghost xp fi pop3s://pop.yXXXXx.ru
8140 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8141 machine *.yXXXXx.ru login USER password PASS
8146 .Va agent-shell-lookup
8147 is available things could be diversified further by using encrypted
8148 password storage: for this, don't specify
8152 file and instead uncomment the line that defines agent lookup in the
8155 above, then create the encrypted password storage file
8158 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8161 $ eval `gpg-agent --daemon \e
8162 --pinentry-program=/usr/bin/pinentry-curses \e
8163 --max-cache-ttl 99999 --default-cache-ttl 99999`
8167 This configuration should now work just fine (use the
8169 command line option for a(n almost) dry-run):
8172 .Dl $ echo text | \*(ua -vv -AXandeX -s Subject some@where
8175 .\" .Ss "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME" {{{
8176 .Ss "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
8178 \*(OP S/MIME provides two central mechanisms:
8179 message signing and message encryption.
8180 A signed message contains some data in addition to the regular text.
8181 The data can be used to verify that the message was sent using a valid
8182 certificate, that the sender's address in the message header matches
8183 that in the certificate, and that the message text has not been altered.
8184 Signing a message does not change its regular text;
8185 it can be read regardless of whether the recipient's software is able to
8189 It is thus usually possible to sign all outgoing messages if so desired.
8190 Encryption, in contrast, makes the message text invisible for all people
8191 except those who have access to the secret decryption key.
8192 To encrypt a message, the specific recipient's public encryption key
8194 It is therefore not possible to send encrypted mail to people unless their
8195 key has been retrieved from either previous communication or public key
8197 A message should always be signed before it is encrypted.
8198 Otherwise, it is still possible that the encrypted message text is
8202 A central concept to S/MIME is that of the certification authority (CA).
8203 A CA is a trusted institution that issues certificates.
8204 For each of these certificates it can be verified that it really
8205 originates from the CA, provided that the CA's own certificate is
8207 A set of CA certificates is usually delivered with OpenSSL and installed
8209 If you trust the source of your OpenSSL software installation,
8210 this offers reasonable security for S/MIME on the Internet.
8212 .Va ssl-no-default-ca
8216 .Va smime-ca-dir . )
8217 In general, a certificate cannot be more secure than the method its CA
8218 certificate has been retrieved with, though.
8219 Thus if you download a CA certificate from the Internet,
8220 you can only trust the messages you verify using that certificate as
8221 much as you trust the download process.
8224 The first thing you need for participating in S/MIME message exchange is
8225 your personal certificate, including a private key.
8226 The certificate contains public information, in particular your name and
8227 your email address(es), and the public key that is used by others to
8228 encrypt messages for you,
8229 and to verify signed messages they supposedly received from you.
8230 The certificate is included in each signed message you send.
8231 The private key must be kept secret.
8232 It is used to decrypt messages that were previously encrypted with your
8233 public key, and to sign messages.
8236 For personal use it is recommended that you get a S/MIME certificate
8237 from one of the major CAs on the Internet using your WWW browser.
8238 Many CAs offer such certificates for free.
8240 .Lk https://www.CAcert.org
8241 which issues client and server certificates to members of their
8242 community for free; their root certificate
8243 .Pf ( Lk https://\:www.cacert.org/\:certs/\:root.crt )
8244 is often not in the default set of trusted CA root certificates, though,
8245 which means you will have to download their root certificate separately
8246 and ensure it is part of our S/MIME certificate validation chain by
8249 or as a vivid member of the
8251 But let's take a step-by-step tour on how to setup S/MIME with
8252 a certificate from CAcert.org despite this situation!
8255 First of all you will have to become a member of the CAcert.org
8256 community, simply by registrating yourself via the web interface.
8257 Once you are, create and verify all email addresses you want to be able
8258 to create signed and encrypted messages for/with using the corresponding
8259 entries of the web interface.
8260 Now ready to create S/MIME certificates, so let's create a new
8261 .Dq client certificate ,
8262 ensure to include all email addresses that should be covered by the
8263 certificate in the following web form, and also to use your name as the
8267 Create a private key and a certificate request on your local computer
8268 (please see the manual pages of the used commands for more in-depth
8269 knowledge on what the used arguments etc. do):
8272 .Dl openssl req -nodes -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout key.pem -out creq.pem
8275 Afterwards copy-and-paste the content of
8277 into the certificate-request (CSR) field of the web form on the
8278 CAcert.org website (you may need to unfold some
8279 .Dq advanced options
8280 to see the corresponding text field).
8281 This last step will ensure that your private key (which never left your
8282 box) and the certificate belong together (through the public key that
8283 will find its way into the certificate via the certificate-request).
8284 You are now ready and can create your CAcert certified certificate.
8285 Download and store or copy-and-paste it as
8290 In order to use your new S/MIME setup you will have to create
8291 a combined private key/public key (certificate) file:
8294 .Dl cat key.pem pub.crt > ME@HERE.com.paired
8297 This is the file \*(UA will work with.
8298 If you have created your private key with a passphrase then \*(UA will
8299 ask you for it whenever a message is signed or decrypted.
8300 Set the following variables to henceforth use S/MIME (setting
8302 is of interest for verification only):
8304 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8305 set smime-ca-file=ALL-TRUSTED-ROOT-CERTS-HERE \e
8306 smime-sign-cert=ME@HERE.com.paired \e
8307 smime-sign-message-digest=SHA256 \e
8312 From each signed message you send, the recipient can fetch your
8313 certificate and use it to send encrypted mail back to you.
8314 Accordingly if somebody sends you a signed message, you can do the same,
8317 command to check the validity of the certificate.
8320 Options of interest for S/MIME signing:
8324 .Va smime-crl-file ,
8325 .Va smime-no-default-ca ,
8327 .Va smime-sign-cert ,
8328 .Va smime-sign-include-certs
8330 .Va smime-sign-message-digest .
8333 After it has been verified save the certificate via
8335 and tell \*(UA that it should use it for encryption for further
8336 communication with that somebody:
8338 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8340 set smime-encrypt-USER@HOST=FILENAME \e
8341 smime-cipher-USER@HOST=AES256
8345 Additional options of interest for S/MIME en- and decryption:
8348 .Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST .
8351 You should carefully consider if you prefer to store encrypted messages
8353 If you do, anybody who has access to your mail folders can read them,
8354 but if you do not, you might be unable to read them yourself later if
8355 you happen to lose your private key.
8358 command saves messages in decrypted form, while the
8362 commands leave them encrypted.
8365 Note that neither S/MIME signing nor encryption applies to message
8366 subjects or other header fields yet.
8367 Thus they may not contain sensitive information for encrypted messages,
8368 and cannot be trusted even if the message content has been verified.
8369 When sending signed messages,
8370 it is recommended to repeat any important header information in the
8374 .\" .Ss "Using CRLs with S/MIME or SSL/TLS" {{{
8375 .Ss "Using CRLs with S/MIME or SSL/TLS"
8377 \*(OP Certification authorities (CAs) issue certificate revocation
8378 lists (CRLs) on a regular basis.
8379 These lists contain the serial numbers of certificates that have been
8380 declared invalid after they have been issued.
8381 Such usually happens because the private key for the certificate has
8383 because the owner of the certificate has left the organization that is
8384 mentioned in the certificate, etc.
8385 To seriously use S/MIME or SSL/TLS verification,
8386 an up-to-date CRL is required for each trusted CA.
8387 There is otherwise no method to distinguish between valid and
8388 invalidated certificates.
8389 \*(UA currently offers no mechanism to fetch CRLs, nor to access them on
8390 the Internet, so you have to retrieve them by some external mechanism.
8393 \*(UA accepts CRLs in PEM format only;
8394 CRLs in DER format must be converted, like, e.\|g.:
8397 .Dl $ openssl crl \-inform DER \-in crl.der \-out crl.pem
8400 To tell \*(UA about the CRLs, a directory that contains all CRL files
8401 (and no other files) must be created.
8406 variables, respectively, must then be set to point to that directory.
8407 After that, \*(UA requires a CRL to be present for each CA that is used
8408 to verify a certificate.
8411 .\" .Ss "Handling spam" {{{
8414 \*(OP \*(UA can make use of several spam interfaces for the purpose of
8415 identification of, and, in general, dealing with spam messages.
8416 A precondition of most commands in order to function is that the
8418 variable is set to one of the supported interfaces.
8419 Once messages have been identified as spam their (volatile)
8421 state can be prompted: the
8425 message specifications will address respective messages and their
8427 entries will be used when displaying the
8429 in the header display.
8434 rates the given messages and sets their
8437 If the spam interface offers spam scores those can also be displayed in
8438 the header display by including the
8448 will interact with the Bayesian filter of the chosen interface and learn
8449 the given messages as
8453 respectively; the last command can be used to cause
8455 of messages; it adheres to their current
8457 state and thus reverts previous teachings.
8462 will simply set and clear, respectively, the mentioned volatile
8464 message flag, without any interface interaction.
8471 .Va spam-interface Ns s
8475 require a running instance of the
8477 server in order to function, started with the option
8479 shall Bayesian filter learning be possible.
8481 only works via a local path-based
8483 socket, but otherwise the following will be equivalently fine:
8485 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8486 $ spamd -i localhost:2142 -i /tmp/.spamsock -d [-L] [-l]
8487 $ spamd --listen=localhost:2142 --listen=/tmp/.spamsock \e
8488 --daemonize [--local] [--allow-tell]
8492 Thereafter \*(UA can make use of these interfaces:
8494 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8495 $ \*(ua -Sspam-interface=spamd -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
8496 -Sspamd-socket=/tmp/.spamsock -Sspamd-user=
8498 $ \*(ua -Sspam-interface=spamc -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
8499 -Sspamc-command=/usr/local/bin/spamc \e
8500 -Sspamc-arguments="-U /tmp/.spamsock" -Sspamc-user=
8502 $ \*(ua -Sspam-interface=spamc -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
8503 -Sspamc-command=/usr/local/bin/spamc \e
8504 -Sspamc-arguments="-d localhost -p 2142" -Sspamc-user=
8508 Using the generic filter approach allows usage of programs like
8512 Here is an example for the former, requiring it to be accessible via
8515 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8516 $ \*(ua -Sspam-interface=filter -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
8517 -Sspamfilter-ham="bogofilter -n" \e
8518 -Sspamfilter-noham="bogofilter -N" \e
8519 -Sspamfilter-nospam="bogofilter -S" \e
8520 -Sspamfilter-rate="bogofilter -TTu 2>/dev/null" \e
8521 -Sspamfilter-spam="bogofilter -s" \e
8522 -Sspamfilter-rate-scanscore="1;^(.+)$"
8526 Because messages must exist on local storage in order to be scored (or
8527 used for Bayesian filter training), it is possibly a good idea to
8528 perform the local spam check last:
8530 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8531 define spamdelhook {
8533 spamset (header x-dcc-brand-metrics "bulk")
8534 # Server-side spamassassin(1)
8535 spamset (header x-spam-flag "YES")
8536 del :s # TODO we HAVE to be able to do `spamrate :u ! :sS'
8542 set folder-hook-FOLDER=spamdelhook
8546 See also the documentation for the variables
8547 .Va spam-interface , spam-maxsize ,
8548 .Va spamc-command , spamc-arguments , spamc-user ,
8549 .Va spamd-socket , spamd-user ,
8550 .Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , spamfilter-nospam , \
8553 .Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore .
8561 .\" .Ss "\*(UA shortly hangs on startup" {{{
8562 .Ss "\*(UA shortly hangs on startup"
8564 This can have two reasons, one is the necessity to wait for a file lock
8565 and can't be helped, the other being that \*(UA calls the function
8567 in order to query the nodename of the box (sometimes the real one is
8568 needed instead of the one represented by the internal variable
8570 You may have varying success by ensuring that the real hostname and
8574 or, more generally, that the name service is properly setup \(en
8577 return what you'd expect?
8580 .\" .Ss "I can't login to Google mail a.k.a. GMail" {{{
8581 .Ss "I can't login to Google mail a.k.a. GMail"
8583 Since 2014 some free service providers classify programs as
8585 unless they use a special authentification method (OAuth 2.0) which
8586 wasn't standardized for non-HTTP protocol authentication token query
8587 until August 2015 (RFC 7628).
8590 Different to Kerberos / GSSAPI, which is developed since the mid of the
8591 1980s, where a user can easily create a local authentication ticket for
8592 her- and himself with the locally installed
8594 program, that protocol has no such local part but instead requires
8595 a world-wide-web query to create or fetch a token; since there is no
8596 local cache this query has to be performed whenever \*(UA is invoked
8597 from the command line (in interactive sessions situation may differ).
8600 \*(UA doesn't support OAuth.
8601 Because of this it is necessary to declare \*(UA a
8603 (on the providers account web page) in order to read and send mail.
8604 However, it also seems possible to take the following steps instead:
8609 give the provider the number of a mobile phone,
8612 .Dq 2-Step Verification ,
8614 create an application specific password (16 characters), and
8616 use that special password instead of your real Google account password in
8617 S-nail (for more on that see the section
8618 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) .
8624 .\" .Sh "SEE ALSO" {{{
8642 .Xr spamassassin 1 ,
8669 command appeared in Version 1 AT&T Unix.
8670 Berkeley Mail was written in 1978 by Kurt Shoens.
8671 This man page is derived from from
8672 .Dq The Mail Reference Manual
8673 originally written by Kurt Shoens.
8675 enhancements are maintained and documented by Gunnar
8678 is maintained and documented by Steffen (Daode) Nurpmeso.
8681 Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
8682 from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
8683 \(en Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
8684 Specifications Issue 6, Copyright \(co 2001-2003 by the Institute of
8685 Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group.
8686 In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original
8687 IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group
8688 Standard is the referee document.
8689 The original Standard can be obtained online at
8690 .Lk http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html OpenGroup.org
8691 Redistribution of this material is permitted so long as this notice
8699 .An "Christos Zoulas" ,
8700 .An "Gunnar Ritter" ,
8701 .An "Steffen Nurpmeso" Aq Mt s-nail-users@lists.sourceforge.net
8703 .Mt s-mailx@sdaoden.eu ) .
8709 The character set conversion uses and relies upon the
8712 Its functionality differs widely between the various system environments
8716 Limitations with IMAP mailboxes are:
8717 It is not possible to edit messages, but it is possible to append them.
8718 Thus to edit a message, create a local copy of it, edit it, append it,
8719 and delete the original.
8720 The line count for the header display is only appropriate if the entire
8721 message has been downloaded from the server.
8722 The marking of messages as `new' is performed by the IMAP server;
8727 will not cause it to be reset, and if the
8729 variable is unset, messages that arrived during a session will not be
8730 in state `new' anymore when the folder is opened again.
8731 Also if commands queued in disconnected mode are committed,
8732 the IMAP server will delete the `new' flag for all messages in the
8734 and new messages will appear as unread when it is selected for viewing
8736 The `flagged', `answered', and `draft' attributes are usually permanent,
8737 but some IMAP servers are known to drop them without notification.
8738 Message numbers may change with IMAP every time before the prompt is
8739 printed if \*(UA is notified by the server that messages have been
8740 deleted by some other client or process.
8741 In this case, `Expunged n messages' is printed, and message numbers may
8745 Limitations with POP3 mailboxes are:
8746 It is not possible to edit messages, they can only be copied and deleted.
8747 The line count for the header display is only appropriate if the entire
8748 message has been downloaded from the server.
8749 The status field of a message is maintained by the server between
8750 connections; some servers do not update it at all, and with a server
8753 command will not cause the message status to be reset.
8758 variable have no effect.
8759 It is not possible to rename or to remove POP3 mailboxes.
8766 is typed while an IMAP or POP3 operation is in progress, \*(UA will wait
8767 until the operation can be safely aborted, and will then return to the
8768 command loop and print the prompt again.
8771 is typed while \*(UA is waiting for the operation to complete, the
8772 operation itself will be cancelled.
8773 In this case, data that has not been fetched yet will have to be fetched
8774 before the next command can be performed.
8775 If the cancelled operation was using an SSL/TLS encrypted channel,
8776 an error in the SSL transport will very likely result and render the
8777 connection unusable.
8780 As \*(UA is a mail user agent, it provides only basic SMTP services.
8781 If it fails to contact its upstream SMTP server, it will not make
8782 further attempts to transfer the message at a later time,
8783 and it does not leave other information about this condition than an
8784 error message on the terminal and an entry in
8786 This is usually not a problem if the SMTP server is located in the same
8787 local network as the computer on which \*(UA is run.
8788 However, care should be taken when using a remote server of an ISP;
8789 it might be better to set up a local SMTP server then which just acts as
8793 \*(UA immediately contacts the SMTP server (or
8795 ) even when operating in
8798 It would not make much sense for \*(UA to defer outgoing mail since SMTP
8799 servers usually provide much more elaborated delay handling than \*(UA
8800 could perform as a client.
8801 Thus the recommended setup for sending mail in
8803 mode is to configure a local SMTP server such that it sends outgoing
8804 mail as soon as an external network connection is available again,
8805 i.e., to advise it to do that from a network startup script.
8811 With IMAP, at least if the IMAP cache is used, if multiple
8815 cycles happen without an intervening change of the active mailbox then
8816 \*(UA will at some time loose the ability to keep the local state
8817 up-to-date, meaning that, e.g., messages show up with false numbers, and
8818 including the possibility that messages are accessed via numbers that
8819 are no(t longer) valid, resulting in program crashes.
8820 The solution is to change the active mailbox before that happens :).
8823 from the distribution or the repository.
8825 After deleting some message of a POP3 mailbox the header summary falsely
8826 claims that there are no messages to display, you need to perform
8827 a scroll or dot movement to restore proper state.
8829 In threaded display a power user may encounter crashes very
8830 occasionally (this is may and very).