1 Sylpheed-Claws - a GTK+ based, lightweight, and fast e-mail client
3 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
5 Copyright(C) 1999-2006 Hiroyuki Yamamoto <hiro-y@kcn.ne.jp> and the
8 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
9 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
10 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
13 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
14 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
15 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
16 GNU General Public License for more details.
18 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
19 along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
20 Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
22 For more details see the file COPYING.
24 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
28 1. What is Sylpheed-Claws?
35 8. Partial downloading of POP3 mails
39 12. How to request features
40 13. Installing Claws from CVS
45 1. What is Sylpheed-Claws?
46 --------------------------
48 Sylpheed-Claws is the extended version of Sylpheed, a lightweight and
49 highly configurable email client and news reader based on the GTK+ GUI
50 toolkit, it runs on the X Window System.
52 Sylpheed-Claws is free software distributed under the GNU GPL.
54 To run Sylpheed-Claws use 'sylpheed-claws' on the command line.
56 When sylpheed-claws is executed for the first time a configuration
57 'Wizard' will appear prompting you for the minimum information necesary
58 to create a new account.
64 Sylpheed-Claws' capabilities are extended by plugins. It comes with
65 the following plugins included, all of which, except SpamAssassin, are
66 built automatically if the required libraries are present.
68 Plugins are installed in $PREFIX/lib/sylpheed-claws/plugins/
69 and have a suffix of '.so'
70 To load a plugin go to '/Configuration/Plugins' and click
71 the 'Load Plugin' button.
72 Select the plugin that you want and click 'OK'
75 Enables the scanning of message attachments in mail
76 received from a POP, IMAP or LOCAL account using Clam
77 AntiVirus. It can optionally delete the mail or save it
78 to a designated folder. Preferences can be found in
79 '/Configuration/PreferencesPlugins/Clam AntiVirus'.
80 Clam AntiVirus is available from http://clamav.sourceforge.net/
83 Enables the viewing of html messages using the Dillo web
84 browser, version 0.7.0 or newer. It uses Dillo's --local
85 option by default for safe browsing. Preferences can be
86 found in '/Configuration/Preferences/Plugins/Dillo Browser'.
87 Dillo is available from http://www.dillo.org/
90 Handles core PGP functions and is required by the PGP/Inline
92 Uses GnuPG/GPGME, <ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/gpgme/>
95 Handles inline PGP signed and/or encrypted mails. You can
96 decrypt mails, verify signatures or sign and encrypt your
97 own mails. Uses GnuPG/GPGME, <ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/gpgme/>
100 Handles PGP/MIME signed and/or encrypted mails. You can
101 decrypt mails, verify signatures or sign and encrypt your
102 own mails. Uses GnuPG/GPGME, <ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/gpgme/>
105 Enables the scanning of incoming mail received from a POP,
106 IMAP or LOCAL account using SpamAssassin. It can optionally
107 delete mail identified as spam or save it to a designated
108 folder. Preferences can be found in '/Configuration/
109 Preferences/Plugins/SpamAssassin'.
110 SpamAssassin is available from http://spamassassin.apache.org/.
113 Places an icon in the system tray that indicates whether
114 you have any new mail. A tooltip also shows the current
115 new, unread and total number of messages
117 Additonal plugins can be found here:
118 http://www.sylpheed-claws.net/plugins.php
123 The "actions" feature is a convenient way for the user to launch external
124 commands to process a complete message file including headers and body or
125 just one of its parts. It allows also the use of an external command to
126 filter the whole text or just a selected part in the message window or in
127 the compose window. This is a generic tool that allows to do any uncommon
128 actions on the messages, and thus extends the possibilities of Sylpheed-Claws.
129 For example, Sylpheed-Claws does not include the rot13 cyphering algorithm
130 popular in some newsgroups. It does not support uuencoded messages. As
131 all these features can be handled by external programs, the actions
132 provide a convenient way to use them from the menu bar.
137 To create a new action, go to Configuration -> Actions.... The "Action
138 Creation" dialog offers to enter the Menu name that will trigger the
139 command. The created menu will be found in the Tools -> Actions submenu.
140 By inserting a slash / in the menu name, you create a submenu.
142 The command is entered in the Command line entry. Note that Sylpheed-Claws
143 stores every single email in a separate file. This allows to use the
144 following syntax for the command:
146 * %f denotes the file name of the selected message. If you selected more
147 than one, then the command will be launched for each message with
148 the appropriate file name
149 * %F denotes the list of the file names of the selected message. If only
150 one message is selected, this amounts to %f, but if more messages
151 are selected, then the command will be launched only once with the
152 list of the file names. (You can use both %f and %F in one command:
153 then the command will be launched for each selected message with
154 the name of this message and with the list of all selected
155 messages. I did not find a practical example for this.)
156 * %p denotes the current selected message part of a multipart message.
157 The part is decoded accordingly. If the message is not a multipart
158 message, it denotes the message body.
159 * Prepending >: this will allow you to send to the command's standard
160 input a text that you will enter in a dialog window.
161 * Prepending *: this will allow you to send to the command's standard
162 input a text that you will enter in a dialog window. But in
163 contrast to prepending >, the entered text is hidden (useful when
165 * Appending an ampersand &: this will run the command asynchronously.
166 That means "fire and forget". Sylpheed-Claws won't wait for the
167 command to finish, nor will it catch its output or its error
169 * Prepending the vertical bar | (pipe-in): this will send the current
170 displayed text or the current selected text from the message view
171 or the compose window to the command standard input. The command
172 will silently fail if more than one message is selected.
173 * Appending the vertical bar | (pipe-out): this will replace the current
174 displayed text or the current selected text from the message window
175 or the compose window by the command standard output. The command
176 will silently fail if more than one message is selected.
178 Note: It is not possible to use actions containing %f, %F or %p from the
181 When a command is run, and unless it is run asynchronously, Sylpheed will
182 be insensitive to any interaction and it will wait for the command to
183 finish. If the command takes too long (5 seconds), it will popup a dialog
184 window allowing to stop it. This dialog will also be displayed as soon as
185 the command has some output: error messages or even its standard output
186 when the command is not a "pipe-out" command. When multiple commands are
187 being run, they are run in parallel and each command output is separated
188 from the outputs of the others.
193 Here are some examples that are listed in the same syntax as used for
194 storing the actions list. You can copy and past the definition in your
195 ~/.sylpheed-claws/actionsrc file (exit Sylpheed-Claws before). The syntax
196 is very simple: one line per action, each action contains the menu name
197 and the command line separated by a colon and a space ": "
199 Purpose: rot13 cyphering
200 Definition: Rot13: |tr a-zA-Z n-za-mN-ZA-M|
201 Details: This will apply the rot13 cyphering algorithm to the
202 (selected) text in the message/compose view.
204 Purpose: Decoding uuencoded messages
205 Definition: UUdeview: xdeview %F&
206 Details: xdeview comes with uudeview. If an encoded file is split in
207 multiple messages, just select them all and run the command.
209 Purpose: Display uuencoded image
210 Definition: Display uuencoded: uudec %f&
211 Details: Displays uuencoded files. The uudec[1] script can be found in
212 the 'tools' directory of the distribution package.
214 Purpose: Alter messages
215 Definition: Edit message: gvim -f %F
216 Details: Allows editing of any received message. Can be used to remove
217 unneeded message parts, etc.
219 Purpose: Pretty format
220 Definition: Par: |par 72Tbgjqw74bEe B=._A_a 72bg|
221 Details: par is a utility that can pretty format any text. It does a
222 very good job in indenting quoted messages, and justifying
223 text. Used when composing a message
226 Definition: Part/Dillo: dillo %p&
227 Details: Browse the selected message part in Dillo.
230 Definition: GnuPG/Clear Sign: |gpg-sign-syl|
231 Details: Clear sign a message. The gpg-sign-syl[2] script is responsible
232 for asking the passphrase and for running gnupg.
234 Purpose: Verify Clear Signed
235 Definition: GnuPG/Verify: |gpg --no-tty --verify
236 Details: Verify clear signed messages. The result is displayed in the
237 actions output dialog.
239 Purpose: Decrypt ASCII Armored
240 Definition: GnuPG/Decrypt: *gpg --no-tty --command-fd 0 --passphrase-fd 0 --decrypt %f|
241 Details: Decrypt ASCII armored messages. The passphrase is entered
242 into the opened action's input dialog.
244 [1] The uudec script can be found in the 'tools' directory of the
245 distribution package. It needs uudecode and ImageMagick's display. The
246 latter can be replaced by any image viewer that can get input from
247 standard input. The script could also be modified to use temporary files
248 instead of standard input.
250 [2] The gpg-sign-syl script can be found in the 'tools' directory of the
251 distribution package.
257 Claws has support for different icon sets. Several icon sets can be
258 downloaded from http://www.sylpheed-claws.net/themes.php
259 You will need to create a directory called 'themes' in your config
260 directory, unpack them into this directory, and then use the interface
261 to select them, /Configuration/Preferences/Display/Themes
263 This interface can also be used to install new themes.
270 b. Configuration and installation
277 The spell checker in Sylpheed-Claws requires the GNU/aspell library
278 (http://www.gnu.org/software/aspell), version 0.50 or newer.
280 You also need the dictionaries. Check GNU/aspell home page for how
281 to download and install them.
283 NB: The old dictionaries used by the old aspell will not work.
288 Spell checking is enabled automatically if the aspell executable is
289 found. If it is in unusual places, use '--with-aspell-prefix' to state
290 the path to the aspell executable. E.g., if aspell's full path is
291 /foo/bar/bin/aspell, then use:
293 ./configure --with-aspell-prefix=/foo/bar
295 The '--with-aspell-prefix=PREFIX' option will let the configure
296 script search for includes and libraries in PREFIX/include and PREFIX/lib.
298 You can also manually specify the includes and libraries path by using
299 either following options:
301 --with-aspell-includes=/foo/bar/include
305 --with-aspell-libs=/rab/oof/lib
309 The configure script summarizes the options compiled in. Check that
310 it lists 'GNU/aspell = yes'.
312 Then proceed as usual, with 'make' and 'make install'.
317 After successful compiling, you need to tell Sylpheed-Claws where your
318 dictionaries reside. The configure script should have found it, but in
319 case it did not, run 'aspell config dict-dir' on the shell to get the
320 path to the dictionaries.
322 Then run Sylpheed and go to /Configuration/Preferences/Compose/Spell Checking.
323 Check the box 'Enable spell checker' and use the directory selector to select
324 the path where the dictionaries reside. Within the file selector, go to that
325 directory and select *any* file in the file lists. Click OK. Then, you should
326 be able to select your default dictionary.
328 When composing, misspelled words are highlighted. Click on any
329 highlighted word with the right mouse button to get a list of
330 suggestions. The first entry of the menu just displays the unknown
331 word. Selecting 'Accept in this session' (or hitting MOD1-Space,
332 where MOD1 is usually the ALT key) will ignore this word and accept
333 it in this message. Selecting the next entry, "Add to dictionary", which
334 is bound to MOD1-Enter combination, will add the unknown word to your
335 personal dictionary to learn it. The next entries are the suggested words.
336 The first 15 suggestions can be accessed by typing one of the first letters
337 of Latin alphabet (if this does not suit your language, please send
338 a mail to melvin.hadasht@free.fr). Aspell has a 'learn from mistake'
339 function that can be used by pressing the MOD1 key and selecting the
340 suggestion (with the keyboard or with the mouse). See GNU/aspell manual
341 §6.3 for an explanation of this feature (also called 'replacement storing').
343 If you click with the right mouse button everywhere else, or if you
344 shift-right-click even on a misspelled word, you get the
345 configuration menu. 'Check all' highlights all misspelled words.
346 With this menu, you can also change the dictionary while editing.
347 Finally, you can change the suggestion mode, and the learn from
350 Spell checking can also be done using keyboard shortcuts. In the
351 'Edit' menu of the compose window, there are two menus 'Check backwards
352 misspelled word' and 'Forward to next misspelled word'. Add to them
353 appropriate keyboard shortcuts. 'Check backwards misspelled word'
354 checks backwards from cursor position for the first misspelled word.
355 If it finds one, it displays the suggestions lists which can be handled
356 with the keyboard as described before. When the suggestion menu is
357 closed, the cursor returns to its original position to be able to
358 continue editing. The 'Forward to next misspelled word' do the same
359 thing in the other direction but moves the cursor at the end of the
360 misspelled word. This way, you can spell check easily a whole message
361 starting from its beginning and using the 'Forward to next misspelled
362 word' keyboard short cut.
365 6. Quick Search with extended search
366 ------------------------------------
367 Quick Search, with its powerful Extended search function,
368 enables searching through folder's messages.
370 Extended Search allows one to define criteria that messages must
371 have in order to match and be displayed in the summary view pane.
372 Search types titled From, Subject and To are self explanatory.
373 Search type extended allows one to use Sylpheed's powerful
374 filtering engine to select messages. Examples:
375 from regexpcase "foo"
376 subject regexp "Bug" & to regexp "sylpheed-claws"
378 Additionally, it is possible to use simpler yet equally
379 powerfull patterns for message selections. Mutt users will
380 immediately recognise most of the available patterns:
382 Pattern Parameter Selects
383 ----------------------------------------------------
385 ag # messages whose age is greater than #
386 al # messages whose age is lower than #
387 b S messages which contain S in the message body
388 B S messages which contain S in the whole message
389 c S messages carbon-copied to S
390 C S message is either to: or cc: to S
392 e S messages which contain S in the Sender field
393 E S true if execute "S" succeeds
394 f S messages originating from user S
396 h S messages which contain header S
397 i S messages which contain S in Message-Id header
398 I S messages which contain S in inreplyto header
400 n S messages which are in newsgroup S
403 r messages which have been replied to
405 s S messages which contain S in subject
406 se # messages whose score is equal to #
407 sg # messages whose score is greater than #
408 sl # messages whose score is lower than #
409 Se # messages whose size is equal to #
410 Sg # messages whose size is greater than #
411 Ss # messages whose size is smaller than #
412 t S messages which have been sent to S
415 x S messages which contain S in References header
416 y S messages which contain S in X-Label header
419 S means regexp string
421 It is possible to use logical operators AND (&), OR (|) and
422 NOT (! or ~). Case sensitive search is achieved with %.
426 f "john beavis" messages from john beavis
427 %f "John Beavis" messages from John Beavis (case sensitive)
428 ~s foo messages which do not have foo in the subject
429 f foo & ~s bar messages from foo that do not have bar in thesubject
435 /Configuration/Preferences/Customize Toolbars lets you define the
436 toolbar you want. The configuration dialog enables you to set an icon,
437 an appropriate text, and map an action to it. Actions to choose
438 from are predefined. You can also have your "Sylpheed-Claws Actions"
439 (refer to "Actions" above) on your toolbar.
442 * Configuration->Actions
443 - add an entry "Dillo: dillo %p&"
444 * Configuration->Custom toolbar
445 - select Sylpheed Actions Feature
446 - select "Dillo: dillo %p&" from drop down list
447 - choose an icon and click ok
451 8. Partial downloading of POP3 mails
452 ------------------------------------
453 Messages over the configured size limit, (/[Account preferences]/
454 Receive/Message size limit), will be partially retrieved. These
455 messages will have a Notice View displayed (above the Message View),
456 informing of the partially retrieved state and the total size of the
457 message. The Notice View will also contain two buttons, 'Mark for
458 download' and 'Mark for deletion'. If the user clicks 'Mark for
459 download', the message will be downloaded in full at the next message
460 retrieval, (and the partial one deleted); if the user checks 'Mark for
461 deletion' it will be removed from the server after the normal delay
462 as specified in the POP3 account's 'Receive' preferences.
463 If a user moves a partially retrieved message to the Trash folder
464 it will be deleted on the server at the next retrieval after the
465 Trash folder has been emptied.
473 allow_jisx0201_kana (default: 0)
474 allow JIS X 0201 Kana (half-width kana) on sending.
477 bold_unread (default: 1)
478 show unread messages using bold font in summary view
481 cache_max_mem_usage (default: 4096)
482 the maximum kB of memory sylpheed should use.
483 It will try to keep the memory usage below this
484 value, but it will always use the assigned
485 amount of memory for speed gain.
487 cache_min_keep_time (default: 15)
488 the minimum time in minutes sylpheed will keep
489 the folder cache in memory. If a cache is more
490 recent than this time it will not be freed even
491 if the memory usage is above the maximum. You
492 should probably set this value higher than your
493 mail check interval. Otherwise the cache will
494 always be freed between checks even if the folder
495 is accessed on every check, which will cause much
498 compose_no_markup (default: 0)
499 prevent italic and bold text in the Compose dialog
501 0: normal (markup) 1: no markup
503 enable_hscrollbar (default: 1)
504 enable horizontal scroll bar in summary view
507 enable_rules_hint (default: 1)
508 enable alternate coloring of items in GtkTreeView
511 enable_swap_from (default: 0)
512 display sender's email address in To column in Sent
513 folder instead of recipient's
516 folderview_vscrollbar_policy (default: 0)
517 specify the policy of vertical scroll bar of folder view
518 0: always 1: automatic 2: never
520 hover_timeout (default: 500)
521 time in milliseconds that will cause a folder tree to
522 expand during drag n drop when the mouse cover is held
525 statusbar_update_step (default: 10)
526 update stepping in progress bars
528 textview_cursor_visible (default: 0)
529 display the cursor in the message view
532 thread_by_subject_max_age (default: 10)
533 number of days to include a message in a thread when using
534 'Thread using subject in addition to standard headers'
536 toolbar_detachable (default: 0)
537 hide handles in the toolbar
540 utf8_instead_of_locale_for_broken_mail (default: 0)
541 use UTF-8 encoding for broken mails instead of current
545 warn_dnd (default: 1)
546 display a confirmation dialog on drag n drop of folders
551 You will find all of these tools in the 'tools' directory:
554 send PDFs from Adobe Reader 7
556 import mbox files exported by calypso
558 convert mbox format to MH format
560 convert a Eudora (v.3?) addressbook to vCard
563 convert sylpheed main's filter rules, (< 0.9.99),
564 into Claws' filtering format
566 convert sylpheed main's filter rules, (>= 0.9.99),
567 into Claws' filtering format
569 Actions script to lookup the selected text on
570 Freshmeat www.freshmeat.net using the configured
573 convert a gif file to an xface
575 Actions script to lookup selected message-id on
576 google using mozilla.
578 Actions script to lookup up the selected text on
579 google using the configured browser
581 GnuPG cleartext-signing script for use with
584 Service Menus for Konqueror to allow attaching files and
585 compressing/attaching files/directories to a new Compose
588 convert a Kmail addressbook to a Sylpheed
591 new version of the address book conversion script
592 for newer versions of Kmail/Kaddressbook
594 convert a maildir format mailbox into MH format
596 search any searchable website for the selected text
598 enables sending files from the Nautilus file manager
601 enable OpenOffice to send documents through
604 convert an Outlook contacts list to a Sylpheed
607 process a Sylpheed mail and print it using enscript
608 if available or lpr if not
610 convert an addressbook exported from The Bat! into
611 a Sylpheed addressbook
613 integrate a Thunderbird folder tree into Claws
615 attempt to view an attachment as plain text
617 translators' tool that eases the creation of
620 decode UUencoded mails, for use with Actions
622 import an Evolution vCard
625 11. How to contribute
626 ---------------------
628 You are encourged to send patches via the Sylpheed-Claws sourceforge
629 project's Patch Tracker.
630 http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=384600&group_id=25528&func=browse
632 If that's too troublesome, either contact Paul Mangan
633 <claws@thewildbeast.co.uk> or consider posting to the
634 Sylpheed-Claws-users mailing list.
635 http://www.sylpheed-claws.net/MLs.php
637 Bugs can be reported with Claws' bugzilla at:
638 http://www.thewildbeast.co.uk/sylpheed-claws/bugzilla/index.cgi
640 Of course, you can also post to the Sylpheed-Claws-users mailing list.
642 Also, we really try to incorporate good contributions, but sometimes we
643 don't have enough time. If the contribution is really big, or requires
644 a long time to stabilise, send a mail to Paul Mangan
645 <claws@thewildbeast.co.uk>. We can probably arrange access to the
646 Sylpheed-Claws CVS tree.
650 12. How to request features
651 ---------------------------
653 Ask around in Sylpheed-Claws-users ML. Note that some developers may
654 have already thought about your feature, may,perhaps, be implementing it,
655 or the feature was already discussed and rejected for whatever reason.
656 You might want to go ahead and hack a patch for it. (That would be very
657 cool!) Another possibility is to use the Feature Request Tracker at the
659 http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=25528&atid=384601
663 13. Installing Sylpheed-Claws from CVS
664 --------------------------------------
669 To download the latest cvs cd to the directory where you wish to download
670 to and type the following information:
672 cvs -z3 -d:pserver:cvs@sunsite.dk:/pack/anoncvs login
678 cvs -z3 -d:pserver:cvs@sunsite.dk:/pack/anoncvs co -r gtk2 sylpheedclaws/sylpheed-claws
684 To compile and install use the following commands:
686 ./autogen.sh [add configure options as required]
688 make install [as root]
690 You will need a full set of development tools installed to be able to run
691 autogen.sh. See also ac/README.
733 2004-05-31 0.9.11claws
734 2004-03-08 0.9.10claws
735 2004-02-06 0.9.9claws
736 2003-12-19 0.9.8claws
737 2003-11-26 0.9.7claws
738 2003-10-02 0.9.6claws
739 2003-09-10 0.9.5claws
740 2003-08-04 0.9.4claws
741 2003-07-12 0.9.3claws
742 2003-05-24 0.9.0claws
743 2003-03-12 0.8.11claws
744 2003-02-12 0.8.10claws
745 2003-01-24 0.8.9claws
746 2002-12-26 0.8.8claws
747 2002-12-23 0.8.7claws
748 2002-11-25 0.8.6claws
749 2002-10-07 0.8.5claws
750 2002-09-22 0.8.3claws
751 2002-08-28 0.8.2claws
752 2002-07-30 0.8.1claws
753 2002-07-23 0.8.0claws
754 2002-06-15 0.7.8claws
755 2002-05-18 0.7.6claws
756 2002-04-28 0.7.5claws
757 2002-03-11 0.7.4claws
758 2002-02-19 0.7.2claws
759 2002-02-14 0.7.1claws
760 2002-01-14 0.7.0claws
761 2001-12-16 0.6.6claws
762 2001-10-16 0.6.5claws8
763 2001-09-30 0.6.2claws
764 2001-08-14 0.6.1claws
765 2001-07-13 0.5.1claws
766 2001-07-01 0.5.0claws3
767 2001-06-16 0.4.99claws
768 2001-05-29 0.4.99claws3
769 2001-05-11 0.4.67claws1
776 http://www.sylpheed-claws.net/
778 http://www.sylpheed-claws.net/faq/
780 http://sourceforge.net/projects/sylpheed-claws/
782 http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=25528&package_id=147457
784 http://www.sylpheed-claws.net/plugins.php
786 http://www.sylpheed-claws.net/themes.php
788 http://cvs.sunsite.dk/viewcvs.cgi/sylpheedclaws/sylpheed-claws/?only_with_tag=gtk2
790 http://www.sylpheed-claws.net/MLs.php
791 Users Mailing List archive
792 http://lists.sunsite.dk/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi/28
793 Commits Announcement List archive
794 http://lists.sunsite.dk/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi/27
796 http://www.thewildbeast.co.uk/sylpheed-claws/bugzilla/index.cgi
797 Feature Request Tracker
798 http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=25528&atid=384601
800 http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=25528&atid=384600
801 Internationalisation Status
802 http://www.sylpheed-claws.net/i18n.php
804 http://www.sylpheed-claws.net/sponsors.php
806 http://planet.sylpheed-claws.net/
807 Sylpheed-Claws for Windows homepage
808 http://www.sylpheed-claws.net/win32/