1 .\"@ nail.1 - S-nail(1) reference manual.
3 .\" Copyright (c) 2000-2008 Gunnar Ritter, Freiburg i. Br., Germany.
4 .\" Copyright (c) 2012 - 2018 Steffen (Daode) Nurpmeso <steffen@sdaoden.eu>.
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34 .\"@ S-nail v14.9.9 / 2018-03-06
46 .\" If not ~/.mailrc, it breaks POSIX compatibility. And adjust main.c.
51 .ds OU [no v15-compat]
52 .ds ID [v15 behaviour may differ]
53 .ds NQ [Only new quoting rules]
64 .Nd send and receive Internet mail
70 .\" Keep in SYNC: ./nail.1:"SYNOPSIS, main()
79 .Op : Ns Fl a Ar attachment Ns \&:
80 .Op : Ns Fl b Ar bcc-addr Ns \&:
81 .Op : Ns Fl C Ar """custom:\0header""" Ns \&:
82 .Op : Ns Fl c Ar cc-addr Ns \&:
83 .Op Fl M Ar type | Fl m Ar file | Fl q Ar file | Fl t
86 .Fl S Ar var Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value Ns
89 .Op : Ns Fl X Ar cmd Ns \&:
91 .Pf : Ar to-addr Ns \&:
92 .Op Fl Fl \~ Ns : Ns Ar mta-option Ns \&:
100 .Op : Ns Fl C Ar """custom:\0header""" Ns \&:
102 .Op Fl r Ar from-addr
104 .Fl S Ar var Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value Ns
107 .Op : Ns Fl X Ar cmd Ns \&:
108 .Op Fl Fl \~ Ns : Ns Ar mta-option Ns \&:
115 .Op : Ns Fl C Ar """custom:\0header""" Ns \&:
118 .Op Fl r Ar from-addr
120 .Fl S Ar var Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value Ns
122 .Op : Ns Fl X Ar cmd Ns \&:
124 .Op Fl Fl \~ Ns : Ns Ar mta-option Ns \&:
130 .Mx -toc -tree html pdf ps xhtml
133 .\" .Sh DESCRIPTION {{{
136 .Bd -filled -compact -offset indent
137 .Sy Compatibility note:
138 S-nail (\*(UA) will wrap up into \%S-mailx in v15.0 (circa 2020).
139 Backward incompatibility has to be expected \(en
142 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
143 rules, for example, and shell metacharacters will become meaningful.
144 New and old behaviour is flagged \*(IN and \*(OU, and setting
147 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
148 will choose new behaviour when applicable.
149 \*(OB flags what will vanish, and enabling
153 enables obsoletion warnings.
157 \*(UA provides a simple and friendly environment for sending and
159 It is intended to provide the functionality of the POSIX
161 command, but is MIME capable and optionally offers extensions for
162 line editing, S/MIME, SMTP and POP3, among others.
163 \*(UA divides incoming mail into its constituent messages and allows
164 the user to deal with them in any order.
168 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
169 for manipulating messages and sending mail.
170 It provides the user simple editing capabilities to ease the composition
171 of outgoing messages, and increasingly powerful and reliable
172 non-interactive scripting capabilities.
174 .\" .Ss "Options" {{{
177 .Bl -tag -width ".It Fl BaNg"
180 Explicitly control which of the
184 d (loaded): if the letter
186 is (case-insensitively) part of the
190 is sourced, likewise the letter
192 controls sourcing of the user's personal
194 file, whereas the letters
198 explicitly forbid sourcing of any resource files.
199 Scripts should use this option: to avoid environmental noise they should
201 from any configuration and create a script-specific environment, setting
203 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
206 and running configurating commands via
208 This option overrides
215 command for the given user email
217 after program startup is complete (all resource files are loaded, any
219 setting is being established; only
221 commands have not been evaluated yet).
222 Being a special incarnation of
224 macros for the purpose of bundling longer-lived
226 tings, activating such an email account also switches to the accounts
228 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
233 .It Fl a Ar file Ns Op Ar =input-charset Ns Op Ar #output-charset
236 to the message (for compose mode opportunities refer to
240 .Sx "Filename transformations"
243 will be performed, except that shell variables are not expanded.
246 not be accessible but contain a
248 character, then anything before the last
250 will be used as the filename, anything thereafter as a character set
253 If an input character set is specified,
254 .Mx -ix "character set specification"
255 but no output character set, then the given input character set is fixed
256 as-is, and no conversion will be applied;
257 giving the empty string or the special string hyphen-minus
259 will be treated as if
261 has been specified (the default).
263 If an output character set has also been given then the conversion will
264 be performed exactly as specified and on-the-fly, not considering the
265 file's type and content.
266 As an exception, if the output character set is specified as the empty
267 string or hyphen-minus
269 then the default conversion algorithm (see
270 .Sx "Character sets" )
271 is applied (therefore no conversion is performed on-the-fly,
273 will be MIME-classified and its contents will be inspected first) \(em
274 without support for character set conversions
276 does not include the term
278 only this argument is supported.
281 (\*(OB: \*(UA will always use line-buffered output, to gain
282 line-buffered input even in batch mode enable batch mode via
287 Send a blind carbon copy to
294 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
296 The option may be used multiple times.
298 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
301 .It Fl C Ar """field: body"""
302 Create a custom header which persists for an entire session.
303 A custom header consists of the field name followed by a colon
305 and the field content body, e.g.,
306 .Ql -C """Blah: Neminem laede; imo omnes, quantum potes, juva""" .
307 Standard header field names cannot be overwritten by custom headers.
308 Runtime adjustable custom headers are available via the variable
313 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ,
314 is the most flexible and powerful option to manage message headers.
315 This option may be used multiple times.
319 Send carbon copies to the given receiver, if so allowed by
321 May be used multiple times.
325 Almost enable a sandbox mode with the internal variable
327 the same can be achieved via
328 .Ql Fl S Va \&\&debug
330 .Ql Ic set Va \&\&debug .
336 and thus discard messages with an empty message part body.
340 Just check if mail is present (in the system
342 or the one specified via
344 if yes, return an exit status of zero, a non-zero value otherwise.
345 To restrict the set of mails to consider in this evaluation a message
346 specification can be added with the option
351 Save the message to send in a file named after the local part of the
352 first recipient's address (instead of in
357 Read in the contents of the user's
359 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
361 (or the specified file) for processing;
362 when \*(UA is quit, it writes undeleted messages back to this file
368 argument will undergo some special
369 .Sx "Filename transformations"
374 is not an argument to the flag
376 but is instead taken from the command line after option processing has
380 that starts with a hyphen-minus, prefix with a relative path, as in
381 .Ql ./-hyphenbox.mbox .
387 and exit; a configurable summary view is available via the
393 Show a short usage summary.
399 to ignore tty interrupt signals.
405 of all messages that match the given
409 .Sx "Specifying messages"
414 option has been given in addition no header summary is produced,
415 but \*(UA will instead indicate via its exit status whether
421 note that any verbose output is suppressed in this mode and must instead
422 be enabled explicitly (e.g., by using the option
427 Special send mode that will flag standard input with the MIME
431 and use it as the main message body.
432 \*(ID Using this option will bypass processing of
433 .Va message-inject-head
435 .Va message-inject-tail .
441 Special send mode that will MIME classify the specified
443 and use it as the main message body.
444 \*(ID Using this option will bypass processing of
445 .Va message-inject-head
447 .Va message-inject-tail .
453 inhibit the initial display of message headers when reading mail or
458 for the internal variable
463 Standard flag that inhibits reading the system wide
468 allows more control over the startup sequence; also see
469 .Sx "Resource files" .
473 Special send mode that will initialize the message body with the
474 contents of the specified
476 which may be standard input
478 only in non-interactive context.
486 opened will be in read-only mode.
490 .It Fl r Ar from-addr
491 Whereas the source address that appears in the
493 header of a message (or in the
495 header if the former contains multiple addresses) is honoured by the
496 builtin SMTP transport, it is not used by a file-based
498 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) for the RFC 5321 reverse-path used for relaying
499 and delegating a message to its destination(s), for delivery errors
500 etc., but it instead uses the local identity of the initiating user.
503 When this command line option is used the given
505 will be assigned to the internal variable
507 but in addition the command line option
508 .Fl \&\&f Ar from-addr
509 will be passed to a file-based
511 whenever a message is sent.
514 include a user name the address components will be separated and
515 the name part will be passed to a file-based
521 If an empty string is passed as
523 then the content of the variable
525 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
527 will be evaluated and used for this purpose whenever the file-based
536 command line options are used when contacting a file-based MTA, unless
537 this automatic deduction is enforced by
539 ing the internal variable
540 .Va r-option-implicit .
543 Remarks: many default installations and sites disallow overriding the
544 local user identity like this unless either the MTA has been configured
545 accordingly or the user is member of a group with special privileges.
546 Passing an invalid address will cause an error.
550 .It Fl S Ar var Ns Op = Ns value
552 (or, with a prefix string
555 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
558 iable and optionally assign
560 if supported; \*(ID the entire expression is evaluated as if specified
561 within dollar-single-quotes (see
562 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" )
563 if the internal variable
566 If the operation fails the program will exit if any of
571 Settings established via
573 cannot be changed from within
575 or an account switch initiated by
577 They will become mutable again before commands registered via
583 Specify the subject of the message to be sent.
584 Newline (NL) and carriage-return (CR) bytes are invalid and will be
585 normalized to space (SP) characters.
589 The message given (on standard input) is expected to contain, separated
590 from the message body by an empty line, a message header with
595 fields giving its recipients, which will be added to any recipients
596 specified on the command line.
597 If a message subject is specified via
599 then it will be used in favour of one given on the command line.
615 .Ql Mail-Followup-To: ,
616 by default created automatically dependent on message context, will
617 be used if specified (a special address massage will however still occur
619 Any other custom header field (also see
624 is passed through entirely
625 unchanged, and in conjunction with the options
629 it is possible to embed
630 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
638 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
641 appropriate privileges presumed; effectively identical to
642 .Ql Fl \&\&f Ns \0%user .
651 will also show the list of
653 .Ql $ \*(uA -Xversion -Xx .
658 ting the internal variable
660 enables display of some informational context messages.
661 Using it twice increases the level of verbosity.
665 Add the given (or multiple for a multiline argument)
667 to the list of commands to be executed,
668 as a last step of program startup, before normal operation starts.
669 This is the only possibility to execute commands in non-interactive mode
670 when reading startup files is actively prohibited.
671 The commands will be evaluated as a unit, just as via
681 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
682 in compose mode even in non-interactive use cases.
683 This can be used to, e.g., automatically format the composed message
684 text before sending the message:
685 .Bd -literal -offset indent
686 $ ( echo 'line one. Word. Word2.';\e
687 echo '~| /usr/bin/fmt -tuw66' ) |\e
688 LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d~:/ -Sttycharset=utf-8 bob@exam.ple
693 Enables batch mode: standard input is made line buffered, the complete
694 set of (interactive) commands is available, processing of
695 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
696 is enabled in compose mode, and diverse
697 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
698 are adjusted for batch necessities, exactly as if done via
714 The following prepares an email message in a batched dry run:
715 .Bd -literal -offset indent
716 $ LC_ALL=C printf 'm bob\en~s ubject\enText\en~.\enx\en' |\e
717 LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d#:/ -X'alias bob bob@exam.ple'
722 This flag forces termination of option processing in order to prevent
725 It also forcefully puts \*(UA into send mode, see
726 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
732 arguments and all receivers established via
736 are subject to the checks established by
739 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" .
742 allows their recognition all
744 arguments given at the end of the command line after a
746 separator will be passed through to a file-based
748 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) and persist for the entire session.
750 constraints do not apply to the content of
754 .\" .Ss "A starter" {{{
757 \*(UA is a direct descendant of
759 Mail, itself a successor of the Research
762 .Dq was there from the start
765 It thus represents the user side of the
767 mail system, whereas the system side (Mail-Transfer-Agent, MTA) was
768 traditionally taken by
770 and most MTAs provide a binary of this name for compatibility purposes.
775 of \*(UA then the system side is not a mandatory precondition for mail
779 Because \*(UA strives for compliance with POSIX
781 it is likely that some configuration settings have to be adjusted before
782 using it is a smooth experience.
783 (Rather complete configuration examples can be found in the section
788 .Sx "Resource files" ,
789 bends those standard imposed settings of the
790 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
791 a bit towards more user friendliness and safety already.
799 in order to suppress the automatic moving of messages to the
801 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
803 that would otherwise occur (see
804 .Sx "Message states" ) ,
807 to not remove empty system MBOX mailbox files in order not to mangle
808 file permissions when files eventually get recreated (all empty (MBOX)
809 mailbox files will be removed unless this variable is set whenever
811 .Pf a.k.a.\0 Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT
812 mode has been enabled).
817 in order to synchronize \*(UA with the exit status report of the used
824 to enter interactive startup even if the initial mailbox is empty,
826 to allow editing of headers as well as
828 to not strip down addresses in compose mode, and
830 to include the message that is being responded to when
832 ing, which is indented by an
834 that also deviates from standard imposed settings.
835 .Va mime-counter-evidence
836 is fully enabled, too.
840 The file mode creation mask can be managed explicitly via the variable
842 Sufficient system support provided symbolic links will not be followed
843 when files are opened for writing.
844 Files and shell pipe output can be
846 d for evaluation, also during startup from within the
847 .Sx "Resource files" .
850 .\" .Ss "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" {{{
851 .Ss "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode"
853 To send a message to one or more people, using a local or built-in
855 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) transport to actually deliver the generated mail
856 message, \*(UA can be invoked with arguments which are the names of
857 people to whom the mail will be sent, and the command line options
861 can be used to add (blind) carbon copy receivers:
863 .Bd -literal -offset indent
865 $ \*(uA -s ubject -a ttach.txt bill@exam.ple
867 # But... try it in an isolated dry-run mode (-d) first
868 $ LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d -:/ -Ssendwait -Sttycharset=utf8 \e
869 -b bcc@exam.ple -c cc@exam.ple \e
871 '(Lovely) Bob <bob@exam.ple>' eric@exam.ple
874 $ LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d -:/ -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait -Sttycharset=utf8 \e
875 -S mta=smtps://mylogin@exam.ple:465 -Ssmtp-auth=none \e
876 -S from=scriptreply@exam.ple \e
882 If standard input is a terminal rather than the message to be sent,
883 the user is expected to type in the message contents.
884 In this compose mode \*(UA treats lines beginning with the character
886 special \(en these are so-called
887 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ,
888 which can be used to read in files, process shell commands, add and edit
889 attachments and more; e.g., the command escape
891 will start the text editor to revise the message in its current state,
893 allows editing of the most important message headers, with
895 custom headers can be created (more specifically than with
900 \*(OPally gives an overview of most other available command escapes.
903 will leave compose mode and send the message once it is completed.
907 at the beginning of an empty line has the same effect, whereas typing
910 twice will abort the current letter (saving its contents in the file
921 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
922 can be used to alter default behavior.
923 E.g., messages are sent asynchronously, without supervision, unless the
926 is set, therefore send errors will not be recognizable until then.
931 will automatically startup a text editor when compose mode is entered,
933 allows editing of headers additionally to plain body content,
937 will cause the user to be prompted actively for (blind) carbon-copy
938 recipients, respectively, and (the default)
940 will request confirmation whether the message shall be sent.
943 The envelope sender address is defined by
945 explicitly defining an originating
947 may be desirable, especially with the builtin SMTP Mail-Transfer-Agent
950 for outgoing message and MIME part content are configurable via
952 whereas input data is assumed to be in
954 Message data will be passed over the wire in a
956 MIME parts a.k.a. attachments need to be assigned a
959 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
960 Saving a copy of sent messages in a
962 mailbox may be desirable \(en as for most mailbox
964 targets the value will undergo
965 .Sx "Filename transformations" .
970 sandbox dry-run tests will prove correctness.
973 Message recipients (as specified on the command line or defined in
978 may not only be email addressees but can also be names of mailboxes and
979 even complete shell command pipe specifications.
982 is not set then only network addresses (see
984 for a description of mail addresses) and plain user names (including MTA
985 aliases) may be used, other types will be filtered out, giving a warning
987 A network address that contains no domain-, but only a valid local user
989 in angle brackets will be automatically expanded to a valid address when
991 is set to a non-empty value; setting it to the empty value instructs
994 will perform the necessary expansion.
997 can be used to generate standard compliant network addresses.
999 .\" When changing any of the following adjust any RECIPIENTADDRSPEC;
1000 .\" grep the latter for the complete picture
1004 is set then extended recipient addresses will optionally be accepted:
1005 Any name which starts with a vertical bar
1007 character specifies a command pipe \(en the command string following the
1009 is executed and the message is sent to its standard input;
1010 Likewise, any name that starts with the character solidus
1012 or the character sequence dot solidus
1014 is treated as a file, regardless of the remaining content;
1015 likewise a name that solely consists of a hyphen-minus
1017 Any other name which contains a commercial at
1019 character is treated as a network address;
1020 Any other name which starts with a plus sign
1022 character specifies a mailbox name;
1023 Any other name which contains a solidus
1025 character but no exclamation mark
1029 character before also specifies a mailbox name;
1030 What remains is treated as a network address.
1032 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1033 $ echo bla | \*(uA -Sexpandaddr -s test ./mbox.mbox
1034 $ echo bla | \*(uA -Sexpandaddr -s test '|cat >> ./mbox.mbox'
1035 $ echo safe | LC_ALL=C \e
1036 \*(uA -:/ -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait -Sttycharset=utf8 \e
1037 -Sexpandaddr=fail,-all,+addr,failinvaddr -s test \e
1042 It is possible to create personal distribution lists via the
1044 command, so that, for instance, the user can send mail to
1046 and have it go to a group of people.
1047 These aliases have nothing in common with the system wide aliases that
1048 may be used by the MTA, which are subject to the
1052 and are often tracked in a file
1058 Personal aliases will be expanded by \*(UA before the message is sent,
1059 and are thus a convenient alternative to specifying each addressee by
1060 itself; they correlate with the active set of
1067 .Dl alias cohorts bill jkf mark kridle@ucbcory ~/mail/cohorts.mbox
1070 .Va on-compose-enter , on-compose-leave
1072 .Va on-compose-cleanup
1073 hook variables may be set to
1075 d macros to automatically adjust some settings dependent
1076 on receiver, sender or subject contexts, and via the
1077 .Va on-compose-splice
1079 .Va on-compose-splice-shell
1080 variables, the former also to be set to a
1082 d macro, increasingly powerful mechanisms to perform automated message
1083 adjustments, including signature creation, are available.
1084 (\*(ID These hooks work for commands which newly create messages, namely
1085 .Ic forward , mail , reply
1090 for now provide only the hooks
1093 .Va on-resend-cleanup . )
1096 For the purpose of arranging a complete environment of settings that can
1097 be switched to with a single command or command line option there are
1099 Alternatively it is also possible to use a flat configuration, making use
1100 of so-called variable chains which automatically pick
1104 context-dependent variable variants: for example addressing
1105 .Ql Ic File Ns \& pop3://yaa@exam.ple
1107 .Va \&\&pop3-no-apop-yaa@exam.ple ,
1108 .Va \&\&pop3-no-apop-exam.ple
1113 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
1115 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" .
1118 To avoid environmental noise scripts should
1120 \*(UA from any configuration files and create a script-local
1121 environment, ideally with the command line options
1123 to disable any configuration file in conjunction with repetitions of
1125 to specify variables:
1127 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1128 $ env LC_ALL=C \*(uA -:/ \e
1129 -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait -Sttycharset=utf-8 \e
1130 -Sexpandaddr=fail,-all,failinvaddr \e
1131 -S mta=smtps://mylogin@exam.ple:465 -Ssmtp-auth=login \e
1132 -S from=scriptreply@exam.ple \e
1133 -s 'Subject to go' -a attachment_file \e
1135 'Recipient 1 <rec1@exam.ple>' rec2@exam.ple \e
1140 As shown, scripts can
1142 a locale environment, the above specifies the all-compatible 7-bit clean
1145 but will nonetheless take and send UTF-8 in the message text by using
1147 In interactive mode, which is introduced in the next section, messages
1148 can be sent by calling the
1150 command with a list of recipient addresses:
1152 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1153 $ \*(uA -d -Squiet -Semptystart
1154 "/var/spool/mail/user": 0 messages
1155 ? mail "Recipient 1 <rec1@exam.ple>", rec2@exam.ple
1157 ? # Will do the right thing (tm)
1158 ? m rec1@exam.ple rec2@exam.ple
1162 .\" .Ss "On reading mail, and interactive mode" {{{
1163 .Ss "On reading mail, and interactive mode"
1165 When invoked without addressees \*(UA enters interactive mode in which
1167 When used like that the user's system
1169 (for more on mailbox types please see the command
1171 is read in and a one line header of each message therein is displayed if
1175 The visual style of this summary of
1177 can be adjusted through the variable
1179 and the possible sorting criterion via
1185 can be performed with the command
1187 If the initially opened mailbox is empty \*(UA will instead exit
1188 immediately (after displaying a message) unless the variable
1197 will give a listing of all available commands and
1199 will \*(OPally give a summary of some common ones.
1200 If the \*(OPal documentation strings are available (see
1205 and see the actual expansion of
1207 and what its purpose is, i.e., commands can be abbreviated
1208 (note that POSIX defines some abbreviations, so that the alphabetical
1209 order of commands does not necessarily relate to the abbreviations; it is
1210 however possible to define overwrites with
1211 .Ic commandalias ) .
1212 These commands can also produce a more
1217 Messages are given numbers (starting at 1) which uniquely identify
1218 messages; the current message \(en the
1220 \(en will either be the first new message, or the first unread message,
1221 or the first message of the mailbox; the internal variable
1223 will instead cause usage of the last message for this purpose.
1228 ful of header summaries containing the
1232 will display only the summaries of the given messages, defaulting to the
1236 Message content can be displayed with the command
1243 controls whether and when \*(UA will use the configured
1245 for display instead of directly writing to the user terminal
1247 the sole difference to the command
1249 which will always use the
1253 will instead only show the first
1255 of a message (maybe even compressed if
1258 Message display experience may improve by setting and adjusting
1259 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
1261 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" .
1264 By default the current message
1266 is displayed, but like with many other commands it is possible to give
1267 a fancy message specification (see
1268 .Sx "Specifying messages" ) ,
1271 will display all unread messages,
1276 will type the messages 1 and 5,
1278 will type the messages 1 through 5, and
1282 will display the last and the next message, respectively.
1285 (a more substantial alias for
1287 will display a header summary of the given message specification list
1288 instead of their content, e.g., the following will search for subjects:
1291 .Dl ? from "'@Some subject to search for'"
1294 In the default setup all header fields of a message will be
1296 d, but fields can be white- or blacklisted for a variety of
1297 applications by using the command
1299 e.g., to restrict their display to a very restricted set for
1301 .Ql Ic \:headerpick Cd \:type retain Ar \:from to cc subject .
1302 In order to display all header fields of a message regardless of
1303 currently active ignore or retain lists, use the commands
1308 will show the raw message content.
1309 Note that historically the global
1311 not only adjusts the list of displayed headers, but also sets
1315 Dependent upon the configuration a line editor (see the section
1316 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
1317 aims at making the user experience with the many
1320 When reading the system
1326 specified a mailbox explicitly prefixed with the special
1328 modifier (propagating the mailbox to a
1330 .Sx "primary system mailbox" ) ,
1331 then messages which have been read will be automatically moved to a
1333 .Sx "secondary mailbox" ,
1336 file, when the mailbox is left, either by changing the
1337 active mailbox or by quitting \*(UA (also see
1338 .Sx "Message states" )
1339 \(en this automatic moving from a system or primary to the secondary
1340 mailbox is not performed when the variable
1343 Messages can also be explicitly
1345 d to other mailboxes, whereas
1347 keeps the original message.
1349 can be used to write out data content of specific parts of messages.
1352 After examining a message the user can
1354 to the sender and all recipients (which will also be placed in
1357 .Va recipients-in-cc
1360 exclusively to the sender(s).
1362 ing a message will allow editing the new message: the original message
1363 will be contained in the message body, adjusted according to
1369 messages: the former will add a series of
1371 headers, whereas the latter will not; different to newly created
1372 messages editing is not possible and no copy will be saved even with
1374 unless the additional variable
1377 When sending, replying or forwarding messages comments and full names
1378 will be stripped from recipient addresses unless the internal variable
1381 Of course messages can be
1383 and they can spring into existence again via
1385 or when the \*(UA session is ended via the
1390 To end a mail processing session one may either issue
1392 to cause a full program exit, which possibly includes
1393 automatic moving of read messages to the
1395 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
1397 as well as updating the \*(OPal (see
1403 instead in order to prevent any of these actions.
1406 .\" .Ss "HTML mail and MIME attachments" {{{
1407 .Ss "HTML mail and MIME attachments"
1409 Messages which are HTML-only become more and more common and of course
1410 many messages come bundled with a bouquet of MIME (Multipurpose Internet
1411 Mail Extensions) parts for, e.g., attachments.
1412 To get a notion of MIME types, \*(UA will first read
1413 .Sx "The mime.types files"
1414 (as configured and allowed by
1415 .Va mimetypes-load-control ) ,
1416 and then add onto that types registered directly with
1418 It (normally) has a default set of types built-in, too.
1419 To improve interaction with faulty MIME part declarations which are
1420 often seen in real-life messages, setting
1421 .Va mime-counter-evidence
1422 will allow \*(UA to verify the given assertion and possibly provide
1423 an alternative MIME type.
1426 Whereas \*(UA \*(OPally supports a simple HTML-to-text converter for
1427 HTML messages, it cannot handle MIME types other than plain text itself.
1428 Instead programs need to become registered to deal with specific MIME
1429 types or file extensions.
1430 These programs may either prepare plain text versions of their input in
1431 order to enable \*(UA to integrate their output neatlessly in its own
1432 message visualization (a mode which is called
1433 .Cd copiousoutput ) ,
1434 or display the content themselves, for example in an external graphical
1435 window: such handlers will only be considered by and for the command
1439 To install a handler program for a specific MIME type an according
1440 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
1441 variable needs to be set; to instead define a handler for a specific
1442 file extension the respective
1444 variable can be used \(en these handlers take precedence.
1445 \*(OPally \*(UA supports mail user agent configuration as defined in
1446 RFC 1524; this mechanism (see
1447 .Sx "The Mailcap files" )
1448 will be queried for display or quote handlers if none of the former two
1449 .\" TODO v15-compat "will be" -> "is"
1450 did; it will be the sole source for handlers of other purpose.
1451 A last source for handlers is the MIME type definition itself, when
1452 a (\*(UA specific) type-marker was registered with the command
1454 (which many built-in MIME types do).
1457 E.g., to display a HTML message inline (that is, converted to a more
1458 fancy plain text representation than the built-in converter is capable to
1459 produce) with either of the text-mode browsers
1463 teach \*(UA about MathML documents and make it display them as plain
1464 text, and to open PDF attachments in an external PDF viewer,
1465 asynchronously and with some other magic attached:
1467 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1468 ? if [ "$features" !% +filter-html-tagsoup ]
1469 ? #set pipe-text/html='@* elinks -force-html -dump 1'
1470 ? set pipe-text/html='@* lynx -stdin -dump -force_html'
1471 ? # Display HTML as plain text instead
1472 ? #set pipe-text/html=@
1474 ? mimetype @ application/mathml+xml mathml
1475 ? wysh set pipe-application/pdf='@&=@ \e
1476 trap "rm -f \e"${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}\e"" EXIT;\e
1477 trap "trap \e"\e" INT QUIT TERM; exit 1" INT QUIT TERM;\e
1478 mupdf "${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}"'
1482 .\" .Ss "Mailing lists" {{{
1485 \*(UA offers some support to ease handling of mailing lists.
1488 promotes all given arguments to known mailing lists, and
1490 sets their subscription attribute, creating them first as necessary.
1495 automatically, but only resets the subscription attribute.)
1496 Using the commands without arguments will show (a subset of) all
1497 currently defined mailing lists.
1502 can be used to mark out messages with configured list addresses
1503 in the header display.
1506 If the \*(OPal regular expression support is available a mailing list
1507 specification that contains any of the
1509 regular expression characters
1513 will be interpreted as one, which allows matching of many addresses with
1514 a single expression.
1515 However, all fully qualified list addresses are matched via a fast
1516 dictionary, whereas expressions are placed in (a) list(s) which is
1517 (are) matched sequentially.
1519 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1520 ? set followup-to followup-to-honour=ask-yes \e
1521 reply-to-honour=ask-yes
1522 ? wysh mlist a1@b1.c1 a2@b2.c2 '.*@lists\e.c3$'
1523 ? mlsubscribe a4@b4.c4 exact@lists.c3
1528 .Va followup-to-honour
1530 .Ql Mail-\:Followup-\:To:
1531 header is honoured when the message is being replied to (via
1537 controls whether this header is created when sending mails; it will be
1538 created automatically for a couple of reasons, too, like when the
1540 .Dq mailing list specific
1545 is used to respond to a message with its
1546 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
1550 A difference in between the handling of known and subscribed lists is
1551 that the address of the sender is usually not part of a generated
1552 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
1553 when addressing the latter, whereas it is for the former kind of lists.
1554 Usually because there are exceptions: say, if multiple lists are
1555 addressed and not all of them are subscribed lists.
1557 For convenience \*(UA will, temporarily, automatically add a list
1558 address that is presented in the
1560 header of a message that is being responded to to the list of known
1562 Shall that header have existed \*(UA will instead, dependent on the
1564 .Va reply-to-honour ,
1567 for this purpose in order to accept a list administrators' wish that
1568 is supposed to have been manifested like that (but only if it provides
1569 a single address which resides on the same domain as what is stated in
1573 .\" .Ss "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME" {{{
1574 .Ss "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
1576 \*(OP S/MIME provides two central mechanisms:
1577 message signing and message encryption.
1578 A signed message contains some data in addition to the regular text.
1579 The data can be used to verify that the message was sent using a valid
1580 certificate, that the sender's address in the message header matches
1581 that in the certificate, and that the message text has not been altered.
1582 Signing a message does not change its regular text;
1583 it can be read regardless of whether the recipient's software is able to
1585 It is thus usually possible to sign all outgoing messages if so desired.
1588 Encryption, in contrast, makes the message text invisible for all people
1589 except those who have access to the secret decryption key.
1590 To encrypt a message, the specific recipient's public encryption key
1592 It is therefore not possible to send encrypted mail to people unless their
1593 key has been retrieved from either previous communication or public key
1595 A message should always be signed before it is encrypted.
1596 Otherwise, it is still possible that the encrypted message text is
1600 A central concept to S/MIME is that of the certification authority (CA).
1601 A CA is a trusted institution that issues certificates.
1602 For each of these certificates it can be verified that it really
1603 originates from the CA, provided that the CA's own certificate is
1605 A set of CA certificates is usually delivered with OpenSSL and installed
1607 If you trust the source of your OpenSSL software installation,
1608 this offers reasonable security for S/MIME on the Internet.
1610 .Va smime-ca-no-defaults
1611 to avoid using the default certificates and point
1615 to a trusted pool of certificates.
1616 In general, a certificate cannot be more secure than the method its CA
1617 certificate has been retrieved with.
1620 This trusted pool of certificates is used by the command
1622 to ensure that the given S/MIME messages can be trusted.
1623 If so, verified sender certificates that were embedded in signed
1624 messages can be saved locally with the command
1626 and used by \*(UA to encrypt further communication with these senders:
1628 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1630 ? set smime-encrypt-USER@HOST=FILENAME \e
1631 smime-cipher-USER@HOST=AES256
1635 To sign outgoing messages in order to allow receivers to verify the
1636 origin of these messages a personal S/MIME certificate is required.
1637 \*(UA supports password-protected personal certificates (and keys),
1638 for more on this, and its automatization, please see the section
1639 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
1641 .Sx "S/MIME step by step"
1642 shows examplarily how such a private certificate can be obtained.
1643 In general, if such a private key plus certificate
1645 is available, all that needs to be done is to set some variables:
1647 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1648 ? set smime-sign-cert=ME@HERE.com.paired \e
1649 smime-sign-message-digest=SHA256 \e
1654 Variables of interest for S/MIME in general are
1657 .Va smime-ca-flags ,
1658 .Va smime-ca-no-defaults ,
1660 .Va smime-crl-file .
1661 For S/MIME signing of interest are
1663 .Va smime-sign-cert ,
1664 .Va smime-sign-include-certs
1666 .Va smime-sign-message-digest .
1667 Additional variables of interest for S/MIME en- and decryption:
1670 .Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST .
1673 \*(ID Note that neither S/MIME signing nor encryption applies to
1674 message subjects or other header fields yet.
1675 Thus they may not contain sensitive information for encrypted messages,
1676 and cannot be trusted even if the message content has been verified.
1677 When sending signed messages,
1678 it is recommended to repeat any important header information in the
1682 .\" .Ss "On URL syntax and credential lookup" {{{
1683 .Ss "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
1685 \*(IN For accessing protocol-specific resources usage of Uniform
1686 Resource Locators (URL, RFC 1738) has become omnipresent.
1687 \*(UA expects and understands URLs in the following form;
1690 denote optional parts, optional either because there also exist other
1691 ways to define the information in question or because support of the
1692 part is protocol-specific (e.g.,
1694 is used by the local maildir and the IMAP protocol, but not by POP3);
1699 are specified they must be given in URL percent encoded form (RFC 3986;
1705 .Dl PROTOCOL://[USER[:PASSWORD]@]server[:port][/path]
1708 Note that these \*(UA URLs most often do not conform to any real
1709 standard, but instead represent a normalized variant of RFC 1738 \(en
1710 they are not used in data exchange but only meant as a compact,
1711 easy-to-use way of defining and representing information in
1712 a well-known notation.
1715 Many internal variables of \*(UA exist in multiple versions, called
1716 variable chains for the rest of this document: the plain
1721 .Ql variable-USER@HOST .
1728 had been specified in the respective URL, otherwise it refers to the plain
1734 that had been found when doing the user chain lookup as is described
1737 will never be in URL percent encoded form, whether it came from an URL
1738 or not; i.e., variable chain name extensions of
1739 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
1740 must not be URL percent encoded.
1743 For example, whether an hypothetical URL
1744 .Ql smtp://hey%3Ayou@our.house
1745 had been given that includes a user, or whether the URL was
1746 .Ql smtp://our.house
1747 and the user had been found differently, to lookup the variable chain
1748 .Va smtp-use-starttls
1749 \*(UA first looks for whether
1750 .Ql smtp-\:use-\:starttls-\:hey:you@our.house
1751 is defined, then whether
1752 .Ql smtp-\:use-\:starttls-\:our.house
1753 exists before finally ending up looking at the plain variable itself.
1756 \*(UA obeys the following logic scheme when dealing with the
1757 necessary credential information of an account:
1763 has been given in the URL the variables
1767 are looked up; if no such variable(s) can be found then \*(UA will,
1768 when enforced by the \*(OPal variables
1769 .Va netrc-lookup-HOST
1776 specific entry which provides a
1778 name: this lookup will only succeed if unambiguous (one possible matching
1781 It is possible to load encrypted
1786 If there is still no
1788 then \*(UA will fall back to the user who is supposed to run \*(UA,
1789 the identity of which has been fixated during \*(UA startup and is
1790 known to be a valid user on the current host.
1793 Authentication: unless otherwise noted this will lookup the
1794 .Va PROTOCOL-auth-USER@HOST , PROTOCOL-auth-HOST , PROTOCOL-auth
1795 variable chain, falling back to a protocol-specific default should this
1801 has been given in the URL, then if the
1803 has been found through the \*(OPal
1805 that may have already provided the password, too.
1806 Otherwise the variable chain
1807 .Va password-USER@HOST , password-HOST , password
1808 is looked up and used if existent.
1810 Afterwards the complete \*(OPal variable chain
1811 .Va netrc-lookup-USER@HOST , netrc-lookup-HOST , netrc-lookup
1815 cache is searched for a password only (multiple user accounts for
1816 a single machine may exist as well as a fallback entry without user
1817 but with a password).
1819 If at that point there is still no password available, but the
1820 (protocols') chosen authentication type requires a password, then in
1821 interactive mode the user will be prompted on the terminal.
1826 S/MIME verification works relative to the values found in the
1830 header field(s), which means that the values of
1831 .Va smime-sign , smime-sign-cert , smime-sign-include-certs
1833 .Va smime-sign-message-digest
1834 will not be looked up using the
1838 chains from above but instead use the corresponding values from the
1839 message that is being worked on.
1840 In unusual cases multiple and different
1844 combinations may therefore be involved \(en on the other hand those
1845 unusual cases become possible.
1846 The usual case is as short as:
1848 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1849 set mta=smtp://USER:PASS@HOST smtp-use-starttls \e
1850 smime-sign smime-sign-cert=+smime.pair
1856 contains complete example configurations.
1859 .\" .Ss "Encrypted network communication" {{{
1860 .Ss "Encrypted network communication"
1862 SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) a.k.a. its successor TLS (Transport Layer
1863 Security) are protocols which aid in securing communication by providing
1864 a safely initiated and encrypted network connection.
1865 A central concept of SSL/TLS is that of certificates: as part of each
1866 network connection setup a (set of) certificates will be exchanged, and
1867 by using those the identity of the network peer can be cryptographically
1869 SSL/TLS works by using a locally installed pool of trusted certificates,
1870 and verifying the connection peer succeeds if that provides
1871 a certificate which has been issued or is trusted by any certificate in
1872 the trusted local pool.
1875 The local pool of trusted so-called CA (Certification Authority)
1876 certificates is usually delivered with the used SSL/TLS library, and
1877 will be selected automatically, but it is also possible to create and
1878 use an own pool of trusted certificates.
1879 If this is desired, set
1880 .Va ssl-ca-no-defaults
1881 to avoid using the default certificate pool, and point
1885 to a trusted pool of certificates.
1886 A certificate cannot be more secure than the method its CA certificate
1887 has been retrieved with.
1890 It depends on the used protocol whether encrypted communication is
1891 possible, and which configuration steps have to be taken to enable it.
1892 Some protocols, e.g., POP3S, are implicitly encrypted, others, like
1893 POP3, can upgrade a plain text connection if so requested: POP3 offers
1895 which will be used if the variable (chain)
1896 .Va pop3-use-starttls
1899 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1900 shortcut encpop1 pop3s://pop1.exam.ple
1902 shortcut encpop2 pop3://pop2.exam.ple
1903 set pop3-use-starttls-pop2.exam.ple
1905 set mta=smtps://smtp.exam.ple:465
1906 set mta=smtp://smtp.exam.ple smtp-use-starttls
1910 Normally that is all there is to do, given that SSL/TLS libraries try to
1911 provide safe defaults, plenty of knobs however exist to adjust settings.
1912 For example certificate verification settings can be fine-tuned via
1914 and the SSL/TLS configuration basics are accessible via
1915 .Va ssl-config-pairs ,
1916 e.g., to specify the allowed protocols or cipher lists that
1917 a communication channel may use.
1918 In the past hints of how to restrict the set of protocols to highly
1919 secure ones were indicated, as of the time of this writing the allowed
1920 protocols or cipher list may need to become relaxed in order to be able
1921 to connect to some servers; the following example allows connecting to a
1923 that uses OpenSSL 0.9.8za from June 2014 (refer to
1924 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
1925 for more on variable chains):
1927 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1928 wysh set ssl-config-pairs-lion@exam.ple='MinProtocol=TLSv1.1,\e
1929 CipherList=TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:\e
1930 ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA:\e
1931 DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:@STRENGTH'
1937 can be used and should be referred to when creating a custom cipher list.
1938 Variables of interest for SSL/TLS in general are
1942 .Va ssl-ca-no-defaults ,
1943 .Va ssl-config-file ,
1944 .Va ssl-config-module ,
1945 .Va ssl-config-pairs ,
1953 .\" .Ss "Character sets" {{{
1954 .Ss "Character sets"
1956 \*(OP \*(UA detects the character set of the terminal by using
1957 mechanisms that are controlled by the
1959 environment variable
1964 in that order, see there).
1965 The internal variable
1967 will be set to the detected terminal character set accordingly,
1968 and will thus show up in the output of commands like, e.g.,
1974 However, the user may give a value for
1976 during startup, so that it is possible to send mail in a completely
1978 locale environment, an option which can be used to generate and send,
1979 e.g., 8-bit UTF-8 input data in a pure 7-bit US-ASCII
1981 environment (an example of this can be found in the section
1982 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" ) .
1983 Changing the value does not mean much beside that, because several
1984 aspects of the real character set are implied by the locale environment
1985 of the system, which stays unaffected by
1989 Messages and attachments which consist of 7-bit clean data will be
1990 classified as consisting of
1993 This is a problem if the
1995 character set is a multibyte character set that is also 7-bit clean.
1996 For example, the Japanese character set ISO-2022-JP is 7-bit clean but
1997 capable to encode the rich set of Japanese Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana
1998 characters: in order to notify receivers of this character set the mail
1999 message must be MIME encoded so that the character set ISO-2022-JP can
2001 To achieve this, the variable
2003 must be set to ISO-2022-JP.
2004 (Today a better approach regarding email is the usage of UTF-8, which
2005 uses 8-bit bytes for non-US-ASCII data.)
2008 If the \*(OPal character set conversion capabilities are not available
2010 does not include the term
2014 will be the only supported character set,
2015 it is simply assumed that it can be used to exchange 8-bit messages
2016 (over the wire an intermediate, configurable
2019 and the rest of this section does not apply;
2020 it may however still be necessary to explicitly set it if automatic
2021 detection fails, since in that case it defaults to
2022 .\" (Keep in SYNC: ./nail.1:"Character sets", ./config.h:CHARSET_*!)
2023 LATIN1 a.k.a. ISO-8859-1.
2026 \*(OP When reading messages, their text is converted into
2028 as necessary in order to display them on the users terminal.
2029 Unprintable characters and invalid byte sequences are detected
2030 and replaced by proper substitution characters.
2031 Character set mappings for source character sets can be established with
2034 which may be handy to work around faulty character set catalogues (e.g.,
2035 to add a missing LATIN1 to ISO-8859-1 mapping), or to enforce treatment
2036 of one character set as another one (e.g., to interpret LATIN1 as CP1252).
2038 .Va charset-unknown-8bit
2039 to deal with another hairy aspect of message interpretation.
2042 When sending messages all their parts and attachments are classified.
2043 Whereas no character set conversion is performed on those parts which
2044 appear to be binary data,
2045 the character set being used must be declared within the MIME header of
2046 an outgoing text part if it contains characters that do not conform to
2047 the set of characters that are allowed by the email standards.
2048 Permissible values for character sets used in outgoing messages can be
2053 which defines a catch-all last-resort fallback character set that is
2054 implicitly appended to the list of character sets in
2058 When replying to a message and the variable
2059 .Va reply-in-same-charset
2060 is set, then the character set of the message being replied to
2061 is tried first (still being a subject of
2062 .Ic charsetalias ) .
2063 And it is also possible to make \*(UA work even more closely related to
2064 the current locale setting automatically by using the variable
2065 .Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset ,
2066 please see there for more information.
2069 All the specified character sets are tried in order unless the
2070 conversion of the part or attachment succeeds.
2071 If none of the tried (8-bit) character sets is capable to represent the
2072 content of the part or attachment,
2073 then the message will not be sent and its text will optionally be
2077 In general, if a message saying
2078 .Dq cannot convert from a to b
2079 appears, either some characters are not appropriate for the currently
2080 selected (terminal) character set,
2081 or the needed conversion is not supported by the system.
2082 In the first case, it is necessary to set an appropriate
2084 locale and/or the variable
2088 The best results are usually achieved when \*(UA is run in a UTF-8
2089 locale on an UTF-8 capable terminal, in which case the full Unicode
2090 spectrum of characters is available.
2091 In this setup characters from various countries can be displayed,
2092 while it is still possible to use more simple character sets for sending
2093 to retain maximum compatibility with older mail clients.
2096 On the other hand the POSIX standard defines a locale-independent 7-bit
2097 .Dq portable character set
2098 that should be used when overall portability is an issue, the even more
2099 restricted subset named
2100 .Dq portable filename character set
2101 consists of A-Z, a-z, 0-9, period
2109 .\" .Ss "Message states" {{{
2110 .Ss "Message states"
2112 \*(UA differentiates in between several different message states;
2113 the current state will be reflected in header summary displays if
2115 is configured to do so (via the internal variable
2117 and messages can also be selected and be acted upon depending on their
2119 .Sx "Specifying messages" ) .
2120 When operating on the system
2124 .Sx "primary system mailbox" ,
2125 special actions, like the automatic moving of messages to the
2127 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
2129 may be applied when the mailbox is left (also implicitly via
2130 a successful exit of \*(UA, but not if the special command
2132 is used) \(en however, because this may be irritating to users which
2135 mail-user-agents, the default global
2141 variables in order to suppress this behaviour.
2143 .Bl -hang -width ".It Ql new"
2145 Message has neither been viewed nor moved to any other state.
2146 Such messages are retained even in the
2148 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
2151 Message has neither been viewed nor moved to any other state, but the
2152 message was present already when the mailbox has been opened last:
2153 Such messages are retained even in the
2155 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
2158 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
2177 will always try to automatically
2183 logical message, and may thus mark multiple messages as read, the
2185 command will do so if the internal variable
2190 command is used, messages that are in a
2192 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
2195 state when the mailbox is left will be saved in the
2197 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
2199 unless the internal variable
2204 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
2210 can be used to access such messages.
2213 The message has been processed by a
2215 command and it will be retained in its current location.
2218 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
2224 command is used, messages that are in a
2226 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
2229 state when the mailbox is left will be deleted; they will be saved in the
2231 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
2233 when the internal variable
2239 In addition to these message states, flags which otherwise have no
2240 technical meaning in the mail system except allowing special ways of
2241 addressing them when
2242 .Sx "Specifying messages"
2243 can be set on messages.
2244 These flags are saved with messages and are thus persistent, and are
2245 portable between a set of widely used MUAs.
2247 .Bl -hang -width ".It Ic answered"
2249 Mark messages as having been answered.
2251 Mark messages as being a draft.
2253 Mark messages which need special attention.
2257 .\" .Ss "Specifying messages" {{{
2258 .Ss "Specifying messages"
2261 .Sx "Message list arguments" ,
2269 can be given a list of message numbers as arguments to apply to a number
2270 of messages at once.
2273 deletes messages 1 and 2,
2276 will delete the messages 1 through 5.
2277 In sorted or threaded mode (see the
2281 will delete the messages that are located between (and including)
2282 messages 1 through 5 in the sorted/threaded order, as shown in the
2285 The following special message names exist:
2288 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ar BaNg"
2290 The current message, the so-called
2294 The message that was previously the current message.
2297 The parent message of the current message,
2298 that is the message with the Message-ID given in the
2300 field or the last entry of the
2302 field of the current message.
2305 The next previous undeleted message,
2306 or the next previous deleted message for the
2309 In sorted/threaded mode,
2310 the next previous such message in the sorted/threaded order.
2313 The next undeleted message,
2314 or the next deleted message for the
2317 In sorted/threaded mode,
2318 the next such message in the sorted/threaded order.
2321 The first undeleted message,
2322 or the first deleted message for the
2325 In sorted/threaded mode,
2326 the first such message in the sorted/threaded order.
2330 In sorted/threaded mode,
2331 the last message in the sorted/threaded order.
2335 selects the message addressed with
2339 is any other message specification,
2340 and all messages from the thread that begins at it.
2341 Otherwise it is identical to
2346 the thread beginning with the current message is selected.
2351 All messages that were included in the
2352 .Sx "Message list arguments"
2353 of the previous command.
2356 An inclusive range of message numbers.
2357 Selectors that may also be used as endpoints include any of
2362 .Dq any substring matches
2365 header, which will match addresses (too) even if
2367 is set (and POSIX says
2368 .Dq any address as shown in a header summary shall be matchable in this form ) ;
2371 variable is set, only the local part of the address is evaluated
2372 for the comparison, not ignoring case, and the setting of
2374 is completely ignored.
2375 For finer control and match boundaries use the
2379 .It Ar / Ns Ar string
2380 All messages that contain
2382 in the subject field (case ignored according to locale).
2389 the string from the previous specification of that type is used again.
2392 .It Xo Op Ar @ Ns Ar name-list Ns
2395 All messages that contain the given case-insensitive search
2397 ession; If the \*(OPal regular expression support is available
2399 will be interpreted as (an extended) one if any of the
2401 regular expression characters
2406 .Ar @ Ns Ar name-list
2407 part is missing the search is restricted to the subject field body,
2410 specifies a comma-separated list of header fields to search, e.g.,
2413 .Dl '@to,from,cc@Someone i ought to know'
2416 In order to search for a string that includes a
2418 (commercial at) character the
2420 is effectively non-optional, but may be given as the empty string.
2421 Also, specifying an empty search
2423 ession will effectively test for existence of the given header fields.
2424 Some special header fields may be abbreviated:
2438 respectively and case-insensitively.
2439 \*(OPally, and just like
2442 will be interpreted as (an extended) regular expression if any of the
2444 regular expression characters is seen.
2451 can be used to search in (all of) the header(s) of the message, and the
2460 will perform full text searches \(en whereas the former searches only
2461 the body, the latter also searches the message header (\*(ID this mode
2462 yet brute force searches over the entire decoded content of messages,
2463 including administrativa strings).
2466 This specification performs full text comparison, but even with
2467 regular expression support it is almost impossible to write a search
2468 expression that safely matches only a specific address domain.
2469 To request that the body content of the header is treated as a list of
2470 addresses, and to strip those down to the plain email address which the
2471 search expression is to be matched against, prefix the effective
2477 .Dl @~f@@a\e.safe\e.domain\e.match$
2481 All messages of state or with matching condition
2485 is one or multiple of the following colon modifiers:
2487 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar :M"
2490 messages (cf. the variable
2491 .Va markanswered ) .
2503 Messages with receivers that match
2507 Messages with receivers that match
2514 Old messages (any not in state
2522 \*(OP Messages with unsure spam classification (see
2523 .Sx "Handling spam" ) .
2525 \*(OP Messages classified as spam.
2537 \*(OP IMAP-style SEARCH expressions may also be used.
2538 This addressing mode is available with all types of mailbox
2540 s; \*(UA will perform the search locally as necessary.
2541 Strings must be enclosed by double quotes
2543 in their entirety if they contain whitespace or parentheses;
2544 within the quotes, only reverse solidus
2546 is recognized as an escape character.
2547 All string searches are case-insensitive.
2548 When the description indicates that the
2550 representation of an address field is used,
2551 this means that the search string is checked against both a list
2554 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2555 (\*qname\*q \*qsource\*q \*qlocal-part\*q \*qdomain-part\*q)
2560 and the addresses without real names from the respective header field.
2561 These search expressions can be nested using parentheses, see below for
2565 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar _n_u"
2566 .It Ar ( criterion )
2567 All messages that satisfy the given
2569 .It Ar ( criterion1 criterion2 ... criterionN )
2570 All messages that satisfy all of the given criteria.
2572 .It Ar ( or criterion1 criterion2 )
2573 All messages that satisfy either
2578 To connect more than two criteria using
2580 specifications have to be nested using additional parentheses,
2582 .Ql (or a (or b c)) ,
2586 .Ql ((a or b) and c) .
2589 operation of independent criteria on the lowest nesting level,
2590 it is possible to achieve similar effects by using three separate
2594 .It Ar ( not criterion )
2595 All messages that do not satisfy
2597 .It Ar ( bcc \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2598 All messages that contain
2600 in the envelope representation of the
2603 .It Ar ( cc \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2604 All messages that contain
2606 in the envelope representation of the
2609 .It Ar ( from \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2610 All messages that contain
2612 in the envelope representation of the
2615 .It Ar ( subject \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2616 All messages that contain
2621 .It Ar ( to \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2622 All messages that contain
2624 in the envelope representation of the
2627 .It Ar ( header name \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2628 All messages that contain
2633 .It Ar ( body \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2634 All messages that contain
2637 .It Ar ( text \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2638 All messages that contain
2640 in their header or body.
2641 .It Ar ( larger size )
2642 All messages that are larger than
2645 .It Ar ( smaller size )
2646 All messages that are smaller than
2650 .It Ar ( before date )
2651 All messages that were received before
2653 which must be in the form
2657 denotes the day of the month as one or two digits,
2659 is the name of the month \(en one of
2660 .Ql Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec ,
2663 is the year as four digits, e.g.,
2667 All messages that were received on the specified date.
2668 .It Ar ( since date )
2669 All messages that were received since the specified date.
2670 .It Ar ( sentbefore date )
2671 All messages that were sent on the specified date.
2672 .It Ar ( senton date )
2673 All messages that were sent on the specified date.
2674 .It Ar ( sentsince date )
2675 All messages that were sent since the specified date.
2677 The same criterion as for the previous search.
2678 This specification cannot be used as part of another criterion.
2679 If the previous command line contained more than one independent
2680 criterion then the last of those criteria is used.
2684 .\" .Ss "On terminal control and line editor" {{{
2685 .Ss "On terminal control and line editor"
2687 \*(OP Terminal control will be realized through one of the standard
2689 libraries, either the
2691 or, alternatively, the
2693 both of which will be initialized to work with the environment variable
2695 Terminal control will enhance or enable interactive usage aspects, e.g.,
2696 .Sx "Coloured display" ,
2697 and extend behaviour of the Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE), which may learn the
2698 byte-sequences of keys like the cursor and function keys.
2701 The internal variable
2703 can be used to overwrite settings or to learn (correct(ed)) keycodes.
2704 \*(UA may also become a fullscreen application by entering the
2705 so-called ca-mode and switching to an alternative exclusive screen
2706 (content) shall the terminal support it and the internal variable
2708 has been set explicitly.
2709 Actual interaction with the chosen library can be disabled completely by
2710 setting the internal variable
2711 .Va termcap-disable ;
2713 will be queried regardless, which is true even if the \*(OPal library
2714 support has not been enabled at configuration time as long as some other
2715 \*(OP which (may) query terminal control sequences has been enabled.
2718 \*(OP The built-in Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE) should work in all
2719 environments which comply to the ISO C standard
2721 and will support wide glyphs if possible (the necessary functionality
2722 had been removed from ISO C, but was included in
2724 Prevent usage of a line editor in interactive mode by setting the
2726 .Va line-editor-disable .
2727 Especially if the \*(OPal terminal control support is missing setting
2728 entries in the internal variable
2730 will help shall the MLE misbehave, see there for more.
2731 The MLE can support a little bit of
2737 feature is available then input from line editor prompts will be saved
2738 in a history list that can be searched in and be expanded from.
2739 Such saving can be prevented by prefixing input with any amount of
2741 Aspects of history, like allowed content and maximum size, as well as
2742 whether history shall be saved persistently, can be configured with the
2746 .Va history-gabby-persist
2751 The MLE supports a set of editing and control commands.
2752 By default (as) many (as possible) of these will be assigned to a set of
2753 single-letter control codes, which should work on any terminal (and can
2754 be generated by holding the
2756 key while pressing the key of desire, e.g.,
2760 command is available then the MLE commands can also be accessed freely
2761 by assigning the command name, which is shown in parenthesis in the list
2762 below, to any desired key-sequence, and the MLE will instead and also use
2764 to establish its built-in key bindings
2765 (more of them if the \*(OPal terminal control is available),
2766 an action which can then be suppressed completely by setting
2767 .Va line-editor-no-defaults .
2768 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
2769 notation is used in the following;
2770 combinations not mentioned either cause job control signals or do not
2771 generate a (unique) keycode:
2775 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql \eBa"
2777 Go to the start of the line
2779 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-home ) .
2782 Move the cursor backward one character
2784 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-bwd ) .
2787 Forward delete the character under the cursor;
2788 quits \*(UA if used on the empty line unless the internal variable
2792 .Pf ( Cd mle-del-fwd ) .
2795 Go to the end of the line
2797 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-end ) .
2800 Move the cursor forward one character
2802 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-fwd ) .
2805 Cancel current operation, full reset.
2806 If there is an active history search or tabulator expansion then this
2807 command will first reset that, reverting to the former line content;
2808 thus a second reset is needed for a full reset in this case
2810 .Pf ( Cd mle-reset ) .
2813 Backspace: backward delete one character
2815 .Pf ( Cd mle-del-bwd ) .
2819 Horizontal tabulator:
2820 try to expand the word before the cursor, supporting the usual
2821 .Sx "Filename transformations"
2823 .Pf ( Cd mle-complete ;
2825 .Cd mle-quote-rndtrip ) .
2829 commit the current line
2831 .Pf ( Cd mle-commit ) .
2834 Cut all characters from the cursor to the end of the line
2836 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-end ) .
2841 .Pf ( Cd mle-repaint ) .
2844 \*(OP Go to the next history entry
2846 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-fwd ) .
2849 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
2853 \*(OP Go to the previous history entry
2855 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-bwd ) .
2858 Toggle roundtrip mode shell quotes, where produced,
2861 .Pf ( Cd mle-quote-rndtrip ) .
2862 This setting is temporary, and will be forgotten once the command line
2863 is committed; also see
2867 \*(OP Complete the current line from (the remaining) older history entries
2869 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-srch-bwd ) .
2872 \*(OP Complete the current line from (the remaining) newer history entries
2874 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-srch-fwd ) .
2877 Paste the snarf buffer
2879 .Pf ( Cd mle-paste ) .
2887 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-line ) .
2890 Prompts for a Unicode character (hexadecimal number without prefix, see
2894 .Pf ( Cd mle-prompt-char ) .
2895 Note this command needs to be assigned to a single-letter control code
2896 in order to become recognized and executed during input of
2897 a key-sequence (only three single-letter control codes can be used for
2898 that shortcut purpose); this control code is special-treated and cannot
2899 be part of any other sequence, because any occurrence will perform the
2901 function immediately.
2904 Cut the characters from the one preceding the cursor to the preceding
2907 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-word-bwd ) .
2910 Move the cursor forward one word boundary
2912 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-word-fwd ) .
2915 Move the cursor backward one word boundary
2917 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-word-bwd ) .
2920 Escape: reset a possibly used multibyte character input state machine
2921 and \*(OPally a lingering, incomplete key binding
2923 .Pf ( Cd mle-cancel ) .
2924 This command needs to be assigned to a single-letter control code in
2925 order to become recognized and executed during input of a key-sequence
2926 (only three single-letter control codes can be used for that shortcut
2928 This control code may also be part of a multi-byte sequence, but if
2929 a sequence is active and the very control code is currently also an
2930 expected input, then it will first be consumed by the active sequence.
2933 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
2937 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
2941 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
2945 Cut the characters from the one after the cursor to the succeeding word
2948 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-word-fwd ) .
2959 this will immediately reset a possibly active search etc.
2964 ring the audible bell.
2968 .\" .Ss "Coloured display" {{{
2969 .Ss "Coloured display"
2971 \*(OP \*(UA can be configured to support a coloured display and font
2972 attributes by emitting ANSI a.k.a. ISO 6429 SGR (select graphic
2973 rendition) escape sequences.
2974 Usage of colours and font attributes solely depends upon the
2975 capability of the detected terminal type that is defined by the
2976 environment variable
2978 and which can be fine-tuned by the user via the internal variable
2982 On top of what \*(UA knows about the terminal the boolean variable
2984 defines whether the actually applicable colour and font attribute
2985 sequences should also be generated when output is going to be paged
2986 through the external program defined by the environment variable
2991 This is not enabled by default because different pager programs need
2992 different command line switches or other configuration in order to
2993 support those sequences.
2994 \*(UA however knows about some widely used pagers and in a clean
2995 environment it is often enough to simply set
2997 please refer to that variable for more on this topic.
3002 is set then any active usage of colour and font attribute sequences
3003 is suppressed, but without affecting possibly established
3008 To define and control colours and font attributes a single multiplexer
3009 command family exists:
3011 shows or defines colour mappings for the given colour type (e.g.,
3014 can be used to remove mappings of a given colour type.
3015 Since colours are only available in interactive mode, it may make
3016 sense to conditionalize the colour setup by encapsulating it with
3019 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3020 if terminal && [ "$features" =% +colour ]
3021 colour iso view-msginfo ft=bold,fg=green
3022 colour iso view-header ft=bold,fg=red from,subject
3023 colour iso view-header fg=red
3025 uncolour iso view-header from,subject
3026 colour iso view-header ft=bold,fg=magenta,bg=cyan
3027 colour 256 view-header ft=bold,fg=208,bg=230 "subject,from"
3028 colour mono view-header ft=bold
3029 colour mono view-header ft=bold,ft=reverse subject,from
3034 .\" .Ss "Handling spam" {{{
3037 \*(OP \*(UA can make use of several spam interfaces for the purpose of
3038 identification of, and, in general, dealing with spam messages.
3039 A precondition of most commands in order to function is that the
3041 variable is set to one of the supported interfaces.
3042 Once messages have been identified as spam their (volatile)
3044 state can be prompted: the
3048 message specifications will address respective messages and their
3050 entries will be used when displaying the
3052 in the header display.
3057 rates the given messages and sets their
3060 If the spam interface offers spam scores those can also be displayed in
3061 the header display by including the
3071 will interact with the Bayesian filter of the chosen interface and learn
3072 the given messages as
3076 respectively; the last command can be used to cause
3078 of messages; it adheres to their current
3080 state and thus reverts previous teachings.
3085 will simply set and clear, respectively, the mentioned volatile
3087 message flag, without any interface interaction.
3096 requires a running instance of the
3098 server in order to function, started with the option
3100 shall Bayesian filter learning be possible.
3102 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3103 $ spamd -i localhost:2142 -i /tmp/.spamsock -d [-L] [-l]
3104 $ spamd --listen=localhost:2142 --listen=/tmp/.spamsock \e
3105 --daemonize [--local] [--allow-tell]
3109 Thereafter \*(UA can make use of these interfaces:
3111 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3112 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=spamc -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
3113 -Sspamc-command=/usr/local/bin/spamc \e
3114 -Sspamc-arguments="-U /tmp/.spamsock" -Sspamc-user=
3116 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=spamc -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
3117 -Sspamc-command=/usr/local/bin/spamc \e
3118 -Sspamc-arguments="-d localhost -p 2142" -Sspamc-user=
3122 Using the generic filter approach allows usage of programs like
3124 Here is an example, requiring it to be accessible via
3127 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3128 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=filter -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
3129 -Sspamfilter-ham="bogofilter -n" \e
3130 -Sspamfilter-noham="bogofilter -N" \e
3131 -Sspamfilter-nospam="bogofilter -S" \e
3132 -Sspamfilter-rate="bogofilter -TTu 2>/dev/null" \e
3133 -Sspamfilter-spam="bogofilter -s" \e
3134 -Sspamfilter-rate-scanscore="1;^(.+)$"
3138 Because messages must exist on local storage in order to be scored (or
3139 used for Bayesian filter training), it is possibly a good idea to
3140 perform the local spam check last.
3141 Spam can be checked automatically when opening specific folders by
3142 setting a specialized form of the internal variable
3145 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3146 define spamdelhook {
3148 spamset (header x-dcc-brand-metrics "bulk")
3149 # Server-side spamassassin(1)
3150 spamset (header x-spam-flag "YES")
3151 del :s # TODO we HAVE to be able to do `spamrate :u ! :sS'
3157 set folder-hook-SOMEFOLDER=spamdelhook
3161 See also the documentation for the variables
3162 .Va spam-interface , spam-maxsize ,
3163 .Va spamc-command , spamc-arguments , spamc-user ,
3164 .Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , spamfilter-nospam , \
3167 .Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore .
3170 .\" }}} (DESCRIPTION)
3173 .\" .Sh COMMANDS {{{
3176 \*(UA reads input in lines.
3177 An unquoted reverse solidus
3179 at the end of a command line
3181 the newline character: it is discarded and the next line of input is
3182 used as a follow-up line, with all leading whitespace removed;
3183 once an entire line is completed, the whitespace characters
3184 .Cm space , tabulator , newline
3185 as well as those defined by the variable
3187 are removed from the beginning and end.
3188 Placing any whitespace characters at the beginning of a line will
3189 prevent a possible addition of the command line to the \*(OPal
3193 The beginning of such input lines is then scanned for the name of
3194 a known command: command names may be abbreviated, in which case the
3195 first command that matches the given prefix will be used.
3196 .Sx "Command modifiers"
3197 may prefix a command in order to modify its behaviour.
3198 A name may also be a
3200 which will become expanded until no more expansion is possible.
3201 Once the command that shall be executed is known, the remains of the
3202 input line will be interpreted according to command-specific rules,
3203 documented in the following.
3206 This behaviour is different to the
3208 ell, which is a programming language with syntactic elements of clearly
3209 defined semantics, and therefore capable to sequentially expand and
3210 evaluate individual elements of a line.
3211 \*(UA will never be able to handle
3212 .Ql ? set one=value two=$one
3213 in a single statement, because the variable assignment is performed by
3221 can be used to show the list of all commands, either alphabetically
3222 sorted or in prefix search order (these do not match, also because the
3223 POSIX standard prescribes a set of abbreviations).
3224 \*(OPally the command
3228 when given an argument, will show a documentation string for the
3229 command matching the expanded argument, as in
3231 which should be a shorthand of
3233 with these documentation strings both commands support a more
3235 listing mode which includes the argument type of the command and other
3236 information which applies; a handy suggestion might thus be:
3238 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3240 # Before v15: need to enable sh(1)ell-style on _entire_ line!
3241 localopts 1;wysh set verbose;ignerr eval "${@}";return ${?}
3243 ? commandalias xv '\ecall __xv'
3247 .\" .Ss "Command modifiers" {{{
3248 .Ss "Command modifiers"
3250 Commands may be prefixed by one or multiple command modifiers.
3251 Some command modifiers can be used with a restricted set of commands
3256 will (\*(OPally) show which modifiers apply.
3260 The modifier reverse solidus
3263 to be placed first, prevents
3265 expansions on the remains of the line, e.g.,
3267 will always evaluate the command
3269 even if an (command)alias of the same name exists.
3271 content may itself contain further command modifiers, including
3272 an initial reverse solidus to prevent further expansions.
3278 indicates that any error generated by the following command should be
3279 ignored by the state machine and not cause a program exit with enabled
3281 or for the standardized exit cases in
3286 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
3287 will be set to the real exit status of the command regardless.
3292 will alter the called command to apply changes only temporarily,
3293 local to block-scope, and can thus only be used inside of a
3298 Specifying it implies the modifier
3300 Block-scope settings will not be inherited by macros deeper in the
3302 chain, and will be garbage collected once the current block is left.
3303 To record and unroll changes in the global scope use the command
3309 does yet not implement any functionality.
3314 does yet not implement any functionality.
3317 Some commands support the
3320 modifier: if used, they expect the name of a variable, which can itself
3321 be a variable, i.e., shell expansion is applied, as their first
3322 argument, and will place their computation result in it instead of the
3323 default location (it is usually written to standard output).
3325 The given name will be tested for being a valid
3327 variable name, and may therefore only consist of upper- and lowercase
3328 characters, digits, and the underscore; the hyphen-minus may be used as
3329 a non-portable extension; digits may not be used as first, hyphen-minus
3330 may not be used as last characters.
3331 In addition the name may either not be one of the known
3332 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
3333 or must otherwise refer to a writable (non-boolean) value variable.
3334 The actual put operation may fail nonetheless, e.g., if the variable
3335 expects a number argument only a number will be accepted.
3336 Any error during these operations causes the command as such to fail,
3337 and the error number
3340 .Va ^ERR Ns -NOTSUP ,
3345 but some commands deviate from the latter, which is documented.
3348 Last, but not least, the modifier
3351 can be used for some old and established commands to choose the new
3352 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
3353 rules over the traditional
3354 .Sx "Old-style argument quoting" .
3358 .\" .Ss "Message list arguments" {{{
3359 .Ss "Message list arguments"
3361 Some commands expect arguments that represent messages (actually
3362 their symbolic message numbers), as has been documented above under
3363 .Sx "Specifying messages"
3365 If no explicit message list has been specified, the next message
3366 forward that satisfies the command's requirements will be used,
3367 and if there are no messages forward of the current message,
3368 the search proceeds backwards;
3369 if there are no good messages at all to be found, an error message is
3370 shown and the command is aborted.
3373 .\" .Ss "Old-style argument quoting" {{{
3374 .Ss "Old-style argument quoting"
3376 \*(ID This section documents the old, traditional style of quoting
3377 non-message-list arguments to commands which expect this type of
3378 arguments: whereas still used by the majority of such commands, the new
3379 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
3380 may be available even for those via
3383 .Sx "Command modifiers" .
3384 Nonetheless care must be taken, because only new commands have been
3385 designed with all the capabilities of the new quoting rules in mind,
3386 which can, e.g., generate control characters.
3389 .Bl -bullet -offset indent
3391 An argument can be enclosed between paired double-quotes
3396 any whitespace, shell word expansion, or reverse solidus characters
3397 (except as described next) within the quotes are treated literally as
3398 part of the argument.
3399 A double-quote will be treated literally within single-quotes and vice
3401 Inside such a quoted string the actually used quote character can be
3402 used nonetheless by escaping it with a reverse solidus
3408 An argument that is not enclosed in quotes, as above, can usually still
3409 contain space characters if those spaces are reverse solidus escaped, as in
3413 A reverse solidus outside of the enclosing quotes is discarded
3414 and the following character is treated literally as part of the argument.
3418 .\" .Ss "Shell-style argument quoting" {{{
3419 .Ss "Shell-style argument quoting"
3421 Commands which don't expect message-list arguments use
3423 ell-style, and therefore POSIX standardized, argument parsing and
3425 \*(ID Most new commands only support these new rules and are flagged
3426 \*(NQ, some elder ones can use them with the command modifier
3428 in the future only this type of argument quoting will remain.
3431 A command line is parsed from left to right and an input token is
3432 completed whenever an unquoted, otherwise ignored, metacharacter is seen.
3433 Metacharacters are vertical bar
3439 as well as all characters from the variable
3442 .Cm space , tabulator , newline .
3443 The additional metacharacters left and right parenthesis
3445 and less-than and greater-than signs
3449 supports are not used, and are treated as ordinary characters: for one
3450 these characters are a vivid part of email addresses, and it seems
3451 highly unlikely that their function will become meaningful to \*(UA.
3453 .Bd -filled -offset indent
3454 .Sy Compatibility note:
3455 \*(ID Please note that even many new-style commands do not yet honour
3457 to parse their arguments: whereas the
3459 ell is a language with syntactic elements of clearly defined semantics,
3460 \*(UA parses entire input lines and decides on a per-command base what
3461 to do with the rest of the line.
3462 This also means that whenever an unknown command is seen all that \*(UA
3463 can do is cancellation of the processing of the remains of the line.
3465 It also often depends on an actual subcommand of a multiplexer command
3466 how the rest of the line should be treated, and until v15 we are not
3467 capable to perform this deep inspection of arguments.
3468 Nonetheless, at least the following commands which work with positional
3469 parameters fully support
3471 for an almost shell-compatible field splitting:
3472 .Ic call , call_if , read , vpospar , xcall .
3476 Any unquoted number sign
3478 at the beginning of a new token starts a comment that extends to the end
3479 of the line, and therefore ends argument processing.
3480 An unquoted dollar sign
3482 will cause variable expansion of the given name, which must be a valid
3484 ell-style variable name (see
3486 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
3489 (shell) variables can be accessed through this mechanism, brace
3490 enclosing the name is supported (i.e., to subdivide a token).
3493 Whereas the metacharacters
3494 .Cm space , tabulator , newline
3495 only complete an input token, vertical bar
3501 also act as control operators and perform control functions.
3502 For now supported is semicolon
3504 which terminates a single command, therefore sequencing the command line
3505 and making the remainder of the line a subject to reevaluation.
3506 With sequencing, multiple command argument types and quoting rules may
3507 therefore apply to a single line, which can become problematic before
3508 v15: e.g., the first of the following will cause surprising results.
3511 .Dl ? echo one; set verbose; echo verbose=$verbose.
3512 .Dl ? echo one; wysh set verbose; echo verbose=$verbose.
3515 Quoting is a mechanism that will remove the special meaning of
3516 metacharacters and reserved words, and will prevent expansion.
3517 There are four quoting mechanisms: the escape character, single-quotes,
3518 double-quotes and dollar-single-quotes:
3521 .Bl -bullet -offset indent
3523 The literal value of any character can be preserved by preceding it
3524 with the escape character reverse solidus
3528 Arguments which are enclosed in
3529 .Ql 'single-\:quotes'
3530 retain their literal value.
3531 A single-quote cannot occur within single-quotes.
3534 The literal value of all characters enclosed in
3535 .Ql \(dqdouble-\:quotes\(dq
3536 is retained, with the exception of dollar sign
3538 which will cause variable expansion, as above, backquote (grave accent)
3540 (which not yet means anything special), reverse solidus
3542 which will escape any of the characters dollar sign
3544 (to prevent variable expansion), backquote (grave accent)
3548 (to prevent ending the quote) and reverse solidus
3550 (to prevent escaping, i.e., to embed a reverse solidus character as-is),
3551 but has no special meaning otherwise.
3554 Arguments enclosed in
3555 .Ql $'dollar-\:single-\:quotes'
3556 extend normal single quotes in that reverse solidus escape sequences are
3557 expanded as follows:
3559 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".Ql \eNNN"
3561 bell control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 BEL).
3563 backspace control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 BS).
3565 escape control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 ESC).
3569 form feed control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 FF).
3571 line feed control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 LF).
3573 carriage return control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 CR).
3575 horizontal tabulator control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 HT).
3577 vertical tabulator control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 VT).
3579 emits a reverse solidus character.
3583 double quote (escaping is optional).
3585 eight-bit byte with the octal value
3587 (one to three octal digits), optionally prefixed by an additional
3589 A 0 byte will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
3591 eight-bit byte with the hexadecimal value
3593 (one or two hexadecimal characters, no prefix, see
3595 A 0 byte will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
3597 the Unicode / ISO-10646 character with the hexadecimal codepoint value
3599 (one to eight hexadecimal characters) \(em note that Unicode defines the
3600 maximum codepoint ever to be supported as
3605 This escape is only supported in locales that support Unicode (see
3606 .Sx "Character sets" ) ,
3607 in other cases the sequence will remain unexpanded unless the given code
3608 point is ASCII compatible or (if the \*(OPal character set conversion is
3609 available) can be represented in the current locale.
3610 The character NUL will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
3614 except it takes only one to four hexadecimal characters.
3616 Emits the non-printable (ASCII and compatible) C0 control codes
3617 0 (NUL) to 31 (US), and 127 (DEL).
3618 Printable representations of ASCII control codes can be created by
3619 mapping them to a different part of the ASCII character set, which is
3620 possible by adding the number 64 for the codes 0 to 31, e.g., 7 (BEL) is
3621 .Ql 7 + 64 = 71 = G .
3622 The real operation is a bitwise logical XOR with 64 (bit 7 set, see
3624 thus also covering code 127 (DEL), which is mapped to 63 (question mark):
3625 .Ql ? vexpr ^ 127 64 .
3627 Whereas historically circumflex notation has often been used for
3628 visualization purposes of control codes, e.g.,
3630 the reverse solidus notation has been standardized:
3632 Some control codes also have standardized (ISO-10646, ISO C) aliases,
3633 as shown above (e.g.,
3637 whenever such an alias exists it will be used for display purposes.
3638 The control code NUL
3640 a non-standard extension) will suppress further output for the remains
3641 of the token (which may extend beyond the current quote), or, depending
3642 on the context, the remains of all arguments for the current command.
3644 Non-standard extension: expand the given variable name, as above.
3645 Brace enclosing the name is supported.
3647 Not yet supported, just to raise awareness: Non-standard extension.
3654 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3655 ? echo 'Quotes '${HOME}' and 'tokens" differ!"# no comment
3656 ? echo Quotes ${HOME} and tokens differ! # comment
3657 ? echo Don"'"t you worry$'\ex21' The sun shines on us. $'\eu263A'
3661 .\" .Ss "Raw data arguments for codec commands" {{{
3662 .Ss "Raw data arguments for codec commands"
3664 A special set of commands, which all have the string
3666 in their name, e.g.,
3670 take raw string data as input, which means that the content of the
3671 command input line is passed completely unexpanded and otherwise
3672 unchanged: like this the effect of the actual codec is visible without
3673 any noise of possible shell quoting rules etc., i.e., the user can input
3674 one-to-one the desired or questionable data.
3675 To gain a level of expansion, the entire command line can be
3679 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3680 ? vput shcodec res encode /usr/Sch\[:o]nes Wetter/heute.txt
3682 $'/usr/Sch\eu00F6nes Wetter/heute.txt'
3684 $'/usr/Sch\eu00F6nes Wetter/heute.txt'
3685 ? eval shcodec d $res
3686 /usr/Sch\[:o]nes Wetter/heute.txt
3690 .\" .Ss "Filename transformations" {{{
3691 .Ss "Filename transformations"
3693 Filenames, where expected, and unless documented otherwise, are
3694 subsequently subject to the following filename transformations, in
3697 .Bl -bullet -offset indent
3699 If the given name is a registered
3701 it will be replaced with the expanded shortcut.
3704 The filename is matched against the following patterns or strings:
3706 .Bl -hang -compact -width ".Ar %user"
3708 (Number sign) is expanded to the previous file.
3710 (Percent sign) is replaced by the invoking
3711 .Mx -ix "primary system mailbox"
3712 user's primary system mailbox, which either is the (itself expandable)
3714 if that is set, the standardized absolute pathname indicated by
3716 if that is set, or a built-in compile-time default otherwise.
3718 Expands to the primary system mailbox of
3720 (and never the value of
3722 regardless of its actual setting).
3724 (Ampersand) is replaced with the invoking users
3725 .Mx -ix "secondary mailbox"
3726 secondary mailbox, the
3733 directory (if that variable is set).
3735 Expands to the same value as
3737 but has special meaning when used with, e.g., the command
3739 the file will be treated as a primary system mailbox by, e.g., the
3743 commands, meaning that messages that have been read in the current
3744 session will be moved to the
3746 mailbox instead of simply being flagged as read.
3750 Meta expansions may be applied to the resulting filename, as allowed by
3751 the operation and applicable to the resulting access protocol (also see
3752 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) .
3753 For the file-protocol, a leading tilde
3755 character will be replaced by the expansion of
3757 except when followed by a valid user name, in which case the home
3758 directory of the given user is used instead.
3760 A shell expansion as if specified in double-quotes (see
3761 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" )
3762 may be applied, so that any occurrence of
3766 will be replaced by the expansion of the variable, if possible;
3767 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
3770 (shell) variables can be accessed through this mechanism.
3772 Shell pathname wildcard pattern expansions
3774 may be applied as documented.
3775 If the fully expanded filename results in multiple pathnames and the
3776 command is expecting only one file, an error results.
3778 In interactive context, in order to allow simple value acceptance (via
3780 arguments will usually be displayed in a properly quoted form, e.g., a file
3781 .Ql diet\e is \ecurd.txt
3783 .Ql 'diet\e is \ecurd.txt' .
3787 .\" .Ss "Commands" {{{
3790 The following commands are available:
3792 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ic BaNg"
3799 command which follows, replacing unescaped exclamation marks with the
3800 previously executed command if the internal variable
3803 This command supports
3806 .Sx "Command modifiers" ,
3807 and manages the error number
3809 A 0 or positive exit status
3811 reflects the exit status of the command, negative ones that
3812 an error happened before the command was executed, or that the program
3813 did not exit cleanly, but, e.g., due to a signal: the error number is
3814 .Va ^ERR Ns -CHILD ,
3818 In conjunction with the
3820 modifier the following special cases exist:
3821 a negative exit status occurs if the collected data could not be stored
3822 in the given variable, which is a
3824 error that should otherwise not occur.
3825 .Va ^ERR Ns -CANCELED
3826 indicates that no temporary file could be created to collect the command
3827 output at first glance.
3828 In case of catchable out-of-memory situations
3830 will occur and \*(UA will try to store the empty string, just like with
3831 all other detected error conditions.
3836 The comment-command causes the entire line to be ignored.
3838 this really is a normal command which' purpose is to discard its
3841 indicating special character, which means that, e.g., trailing comments
3842 on a line are not possible.
3846 Goes to the next message in sequence and types it
3852 Display the preceding message, or the n'th previous message if given
3853 a numeric argument n.
3857 Show the current message number (the
3862 \*(OP Show a brief summary of commands.
3863 \*(OP Given an argument a synopsis for the command in question is
3864 shown instead; commands can be abbreviated in general and this command
3865 can be used to see the full expansion of an abbreviation including the
3866 synopsis, try, e.g.,
3871 and see how the output changes.
3872 This mode also supports a more
3874 output, which will provide the information documented for
3885 .It Ic account , unaccount
3886 (ac, una) Creates, selects or lists (an) account(s).
3887 Accounts are special incarnations of
3889 macros and group commands and variable settings which together usually
3890 arrange the environment for the purpose of creating an email account.
3891 Different to normal macros settings which are covered by
3893 \(en here by default enabled! \(en will not be reverted before the
3898 (case-insensitive) always exists, and all but it can be deleted by the
3899 latter command, and in one operation with the special name
3901 Also for all but it a possibly set
3902 .Va on-account-cleanup
3903 hook is called once they are left.
3905 Without arguments a listing of all defined accounts is shown.
3906 With one argument the given account is activated: the system
3908 of that account will be activated (as via
3910 a possibly installed
3912 will be run, and the internal variable
3915 The two argument form is identical to defining a macro as via
3917 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3919 set folder=~/mail inbox=+syste.mbox record=+sent.mbox
3920 set from='(My Name) myname@myisp.example'
3921 set mta=smtp://mylogin@smtp.myisp.example
3928 Perform email address codec transformations on raw-data argument, rather
3929 according to email standards (RFC 5322; \*(ID will furtherly improve).
3933 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) ,
3934 and manages the error number
3936 The first argument must be either
3937 .Ar [+[+[+]]]e[ncode] ,
3942 and specifies the operation to perform on the rest of the line.
3945 Decoding will show how a standard-compliant MUA will display the given
3946 argument, which should be an email address.
3947 Please be aware that most MUAs have difficulties with the address
3948 standards, and vary wildly when (comments) in parenthesis,
3950 strings, or quoted-pairs, as below, become involved.
3951 \*(ID \*(UA currently does not perform decoding when displaying addresses.
3954 Skinning is identical to decoding but only outputs the plain address,
3955 without any string, comment etc. components.
3956 Another difference is that it may fail with the error number
3960 if decoding fails to find a(n) (valid) email address, in which case the
3961 unmodified input will be output again.
3965 first performs a skin operation, and thereafter checks a valid
3966 address for whether it is a registered mailing-list (see
3970 eventually reporting that state in the error number
3973 .Va ^ERR Ns -EXIST .
3974 (This state could later become overwritten by an I/O error, though.)
3977 Encoding supports four different modes, lesser automated versions can be
3978 chosen by prefixing one, two or three plus signs: the standard imposes
3979 a special meaning on some characters, which thus have to be transformed
3980 to so-called quoted-pairs by pairing them with a reverse solidus
3982 in order to remove the special meaning; this might change interpretation
3983 of the entire argument from what has been desired, however!
3984 Specify one plus sign to remark that parenthesis shall be left alone,
3985 two for not turning double quotation marks into quoted-pairs, and three
3986 for also leaving any user-specified reverse solidus alone.
3987 The result will always be valid, if a successful exit status is reported
3988 (\*(ID the current parser fails this assertion for some constructs).
3989 \*(ID Addresses need to be specified in between angle brackets
3992 if the construct becomes more difficult, otherwise the current parser
3993 will fail; it is not smart enough to guess right.
3995 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3996 ? addrc enc "Hey, you",<diet@exam.ple>\e out\e there
3997 "\e"Hey, you\e", \e\e out\e\e there" <diet@exam.ple>
3998 ? addrc d "\e"Hey, you\e", \e\e out\e\e there" <diet@exam.ple>
3999 "Hey, you", \e out\e there <diet@exam.ple>
4000 ? addrc s "\e"Hey, you\e", \e\e out\e\e there" <diet@exam.ple>
4007 .It Ic alias , unalias
4008 (a, una) Aliases are a method of creating personal distribution lists
4009 that map a single alias name to none to multiple real receivers;
4010 these aliases become expanded after message composing is completed.
4011 The latter command removes the given list of aliases, the special name
4013 will discard all existing aliases.
4015 The former command shows all currently defined aliases when used without
4016 arguments, and with one argument the expansion of the given alias.
4017 With more than one argument, creates or appends to the alias name given
4018 as the first argument the remaining arguments.
4019 Alias names adhere to the Postfix MTA
4021 rules and are thus restricted to alphabetic characters, digits, the
4022 underscore, hyphen-minus, the number sign, colon and commercial at,
4023 the last character can also be the dollar sign; the regular expression:
4024 .Ql [[:alnum:]_#:@-]+$? .
4025 .\" ALIASCOLON next sentence
4026 \*(ID Unfortunately the colon is currently not supported, as it
4027 interferes with normal address parsing rules.
4028 As extensions the exclamation mark
4033 .Dq any character that has the high bit set
4035 .\" ALIASCOLON next sentence
4036 \*(ID Such high bit characters will likely cause warnings at the moment
4037 for the same reasons why colon is unsupported.
4041 .It Ic alternates , unalternates
4042 \*(NQ (alt) Manage a list of alternate addresses or names of the active user,
4043 members of which will be removed from recipient lists.
4044 The latter command removes the given list of alternates, the special name
4046 will discard all existing aliases.
4047 The former command manages the error number
4049 and shows the current set of alternates when used without arguments; in
4050 this mode it supports
4053 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
4054 Otherwise the given arguments (after being checked for validity) are
4055 appended to the list of alternate names; in
4057 mode they replace that list instead.
4058 There is a set of implicit alternates which is formed of the values of
4067 .It Ic answered , unanswered
4068 Take a message lists and mark each message as having been answered,
4069 having not been answered, respectively.
4070 Messages will be marked answered when being
4072 to automatically if the
4076 .Sx "Message states" .
4081 .It Ic bind , unbind
4082 \*(OP\*(NQ The bind command extends the MLE (see
4083 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
4084 with freely configurable key bindings.
4085 The latter command removes from the given context the given key binding,
4086 both of which may be specified as a wildcard
4090 will remove all bindings of all contexts.
4091 Due to initialization order unbinding will not work for built-in key
4092 bindings upon program startup, however: please use
4093 .Va line-editor-no-defaults
4094 for this purpose instead.
4097 With one argument the former command shows all key bindings for the
4098 given context, specifying an asterisk
4100 will show the bindings of all contexts; a more verbose listing will be
4101 produced if either of
4106 With two or more arguments a binding is (re)established:
4107 the first argument is the context to which the binding shall apply,
4108 the second argument is a comma-separated list of the
4110 which form the binding, and any remaining arguments form the expansion.
4111 To indicate that a binding shall not be auto-committed, but that the
4112 expansion shall instead be furtherly editable by the user, a commercial at
4114 (that will be removed) can be placed last in the expansion, from which
4115 leading and trailing whitespace will finally be removed.
4116 Reverse solidus cannot be used as the last character of expansion.
4119 Contexts define when a binding applies, i.e., a binding will not be seen
4120 unless the context for which it is defined for is currently active.
4121 This is not true for the shared binding
4123 which is the foundation for all other bindings and as such always
4124 applies, its bindings, however, only apply secondarily.
4125 The available contexts are the shared
4129 context which is used in all not otherwise documented situations, and
4131 which applies to compose mode only.
4135 which form the binding are specified as a comma-separated list of
4136 byte-sequences, where each list entry corresponds to one key(press).
4137 A list entry may, indicated by a leading colon character
4139 also refer to the name of a terminal capability; several dozen names
4140 will be compiled in and may be specified either by their
4142 or, if existing, by their
4144 name, regardless of the actually used \*(OPal terminal control library.
4145 It is possible to use any capability, as long as the name is resolvable
4146 by the \*(OPal control library or was defined via the internal variable
4148 Input sequences are not case-normalized, so that an exact match is
4149 required to update or remove a binding.
4152 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4153 ? bind base $'\eE',d mle-snarf-word-fwd # Esc(ape)
4154 ? bind base $'\eE',$'\ec?' mle-snarf-word-bwd # Esc, Delete
4155 ? bind default $'\ecA',:khome,w 'echo An editable binding@'
4156 ? bind default a,b,c rm -irf / @ # Another editable binding
4157 ? bind default :kf1 File %
4158 ? bind compose :kf1 ~e
4162 Note that the entire comma-separated list is first parsed (over) as a
4163 shell-token with whitespace as the field separator, before being parsed
4164 and expanded for real with comma as the field separator, therefore
4165 whitespace needs to be properly quoted, see
4166 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" .
4167 Using Unicode reverse solidus escape sequences renders a binding
4168 defunctional if the locale does not support Unicode (see
4169 .Sx "Character sets" ) ,
4170 and using terminal capabilities does so if no (corresponding) terminal
4171 control support is (currently) available.
4174 The following terminal capability names are built-in and can be used in
4176 or (if available) the two-letter
4179 See the respective manual for a list of capabilities.
4182 can be used to show all the capabilities of
4184 or the given terminal type;
4187 flag will also show supported (non-standard) extensions.
4190 .Bl -tag -compact -width kcuuf_or_kcuuf
4191 .It Cd kbs Ns \0or Cd kb
4193 .It Cd kdch1 Ns \0or Cd kD
4195 .It Cd kDC Ns \0or Cd *4
4196 \(em shifted variant.
4197 .It Cd kel Ns \0or Cd kE
4198 Clear to end of line.
4199 .It Cd kext Ns \0or Cd @9
4201 .It Cd kich1 Ns \0or Cd kI
4203 .It Cd kIC Ns \0or Cd #3
4204 \(em shifted variant.
4205 .It Cd khome Ns \0or Cd kh
4207 .It Cd kHOM Ns \0or Cd #2
4208 \(em shifted variant.
4209 .It Cd kend Ns \0or Cd @7
4211 .It Cd knp Ns \0or Cd kN
4213 .It Cd kpp Ns \0or Cd kP
4215 .It Cd kcub1 Ns \0or Cd kl
4216 Left cursor (with more modifiers: see below).
4217 .It Cd kLFT Ns \0or Cd #4
4218 \(em shifted variant.
4219 .It Cd kcuf1 Ns \0or Cd kr
4220 Right cursor (ditto).
4221 .It Cd kRIT Ns \0or Cd %i
4222 \(em shifted variant.
4223 .It Cd kcud1 Ns \0or Cd kd
4224 Down cursor (ditto).
4226 \(em shifted variant (only terminfo).
4227 .It Cd kcuu1 Ns \0or Cd ku
4230 \(em shifted variant (only terminfo).
4231 .It Cd kf0 Ns \0or Cd k0
4233 Add one for each function key up to
4238 .It Cd kf10 Ns \0or Cd k;
4240 .It Cd kf11 Ns \0or Cd F1
4242 Add one for each function key up to
4250 Some terminals support key-modifier combination extensions, e.g.,
4252 For example, the delete key,
4254 in its shifted variant, the name is mutated to
4256 then a number is appended for the states
4268 .Ql Shift+Alt+Control
4270 The same for the left cursor key,
4272 .Cd KLFT , KLFT3 , KLFT4 , KLFT5 , KLFT6 , KLFT7 , KLFT8 .
4275 It is advisable to use an initial escape or other control character (e.g.,
4277 for bindings which describe user key combinations (as opposed to purely
4278 terminal capability based ones), in order to avoid ambiguities whether
4279 input belongs to key sequences or not; it also reduces search time.
4282 may help shall keys and sequences be falsely recognized.
4287 \*(NQ Calls the given macro, which must have been created via
4292 Calling macros recursively will at some time excess the stack size
4293 limit, causing a hard program abortion; if recursively calling a macro
4294 is the last command of the current macro, consider to use the command
4296 which will first release all resources of the current macro before
4297 replacing the current macro with the called one.
4298 Numeric and string operations can be performed via
4302 may be helpful to recreate argument lists.
4309 if the given macro has been created via
4311 but doesn't fail nor warn if the macro doesn't exist.
4315 (ch) Change the working directory to
4317 or the given argument.
4323 \*(OP Only applicable to S/MIME signed messages.
4324 Takes a message list and a filename and saves the certificates
4325 contained within the message signatures to the named file in both
4326 human-readable and PEM format.
4327 The certificates can later be used to send encrypted messages to the
4328 respective message senders by setting
4329 .Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST
4334 .It Ic charsetalias , uncharsetalias
4335 \*(NQ Manage (character set conversion) character set alias mappings,
4336 as documented in the section
4337 .Sx "Character sets" .
4338 Character set aliases are expanded recursively, but no expansion is
4339 performed on values of the user-settable variables, e.g.,
4341 These are effectively no-operations if character set conversion
4342 is not available (i.e., no
4346 Without arguments the list of all currently defined aliases is shown,
4347 with one argument the expansion of the given alias.
4348 Otherwise all given arguments are treated as pairs of character sets and
4349 their desired target alias name, creating new or changing already
4350 existing aliases, as necessary.
4352 The latter deletes all aliases given as arguments, the special argument
4354 will remove all aliases.
4358 (ch) Change the working directory to
4360 or the given argument.
4366 .It Ic collapse , uncollapse
4367 Only applicable to threaded mode.
4368 Takes a message list and makes all replies to these messages invisible
4369 in header summaries, except for
4373 Also when a message with collapsed replies is displayed,
4374 all of these are automatically uncollapsed.
4375 The latter command undoes collapsing.
4380 .It Ic colour , uncolour
4381 \*(OP\*(NQ Manage colour mappings of and for a
4382 .Sx "Coloured display" .
4383 The type of colour is given as the (case-insensitive) first argument,
4384 which must be one of
4386 for 256-colour terminals,
4391 for the standard 8-colour ANSI / ISO 6429 color palette and
4395 for monochrome terminals.
4396 Monochrome terminals cannot deal with colours, but only (some) font
4400 Without further arguments the list of all currently defined mappings
4401 for the given colour type is shown (as a special case giving
4405 will show the mappings of all types).
4406 Otherwise the second argument defines the mappable slot, and the third
4407 argument a (comma-separated list of) colour and font attribute
4408 specification(s), and the optional fourth argument can be used to
4409 specify a precondition: if conditioned mappings exist they are tested in
4410 (creation) order unless a (case-insensitive) match has been found, and
4411 the default mapping (if any has been established) will only be chosen as
4413 The types of precondition available depend on the mappable slot (see
4414 .Sx "Coloured display"
4415 for some examples), the following of which exist:
4418 Mappings prefixed with
4420 are used for the \*(OPal built-in Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE, see
4421 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
4422 and do not support preconditions.
4424 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
4426 This mapping is used for the position indicator that is visible when
4427 a line cannot be fully displayed on the screen.
4434 Mappings prefixed with
4436 are used in header summaries, and they all understand the preconditions
4438 (the current message) and
4440 for elder messages (only honoured in conjunction with
4441 .Va datefield-markout-older ) .
4443 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
4445 This mapping is used for the
4447 that can be created with the
4451 formats of the variable
4454 For the complete header summary line except the
4456 and the thread structure.
4458 For the thread structure which can be created with the
4460 format of the variable
4465 Mappings prefixed with
4467 are used when displaying messages.
4469 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
4471 This mapping is used for so-called
4473 lines, which are MBOX file format specific header lines.
4476 A comma-separated list of headers to which the mapping applies may be
4477 given as a precondition; if the \*(OPal regular expression support is
4478 available then if any of the
4480 (extended) regular expression characters is seen the precondition will
4481 be evaluated as (an extended) one.
4483 For the introductional message info line.
4484 .It Ar view-partinfo
4485 For MIME part info lines.
4489 The following (case-insensitive) colour definitions and font attributes
4490 are understood, multiple of which can be specified in a comma-separated
4500 It is possible (and often applicable) to specify multiple font
4501 attributes for a single mapping.
4504 foreground colour attribute:
4514 To specify a 256-color mode a decimal number colour specification in
4515 the range 0 to 255, inclusive, is supported, and interpreted as follows:
4517 .Bl -tag -compact -width "999 - 999"
4519 the standard ISO 6429 colors, as above.
4521 high intensity variants of the standard colors.
4523 216 colors in tuples of 6.
4525 grayscale from black to white in 24 steps.
4527 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4529 fg() { printf "\e033[38;5;${1}m($1)"; }
4530 bg() { printf "\e033[48;5;${1}m($1)"; }
4532 while [ $i -lt 256 ]; do fg $i; i=$(($i + 1)); done
4533 printf "\e033[0m\en"
4535 while [ $i -lt 256 ]; do bg $i; i=$(($i + 1)); done
4536 printf "\e033[0m\en"
4540 background colour attribute (see
4542 for possible values).
4548 will remove for the given colour type (the special type
4550 selects all) the given mapping; if the optional precondition argument is
4551 given only the exact tuple of mapping and precondition is removed.
4554 will remove all mappings (no precondition allowed), thus
4556 will remove all established mappings.
4561 .It Ic commandalias , uncommandalias
4562 \*(NQ Define or list, and remove, respectively, command aliases.
4563 An (command)alias can be used everywhere a normal command can be used,
4564 but always takes precedence: any arguments that are given to the command
4565 alias are joined onto the alias expansion, and the resulting string
4566 forms the command line that is, in effect, executed.
4567 The latter command removes all given aliases, the special name
4569 will remove all existing aliases.
4570 When used without arguments the former shows a list of all currently
4571 known aliases, with one argument only the expansion of the given one.
4573 With two or more arguments a command alias is defined or updated: the
4574 first argument is the name under which the remaining command line should
4575 be accessible, the content of which can be just about anything.
4576 An alias may itself expand to another alias, but to avoid expansion loops
4577 further expansion will be prevented if an alias refers to itself or if
4578 an expansion depth limit is reached.
4579 Explicit expansion prevention is available via reverse solidus
4582 .Sx "Command modifiers" .
4583 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4585 \*(uA: `commandalias': no such alias: xx
4586 ? commandalias xx echo hello,
4588 commandalias xx 'echo hello,'
4597 (C) Copy messages to files whose names are derived from the author of
4598 the respective message and do not mark them as being saved;
4599 otherwise identical to
4604 (c) Copy messages to the named file and do not mark them as being saved;
4605 otherwise identical to
4610 Show the name of the current working directory, as reported by
4615 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
4616 The return status is tracked via
4621 \*(OP For unencrypted messages this command is identical to
4623 Encrypted messages are first decrypted, if possible, and then copied.
4627 \*(OP For unencrypted messages this command is identical to
4629 Encrypted messages are first decrypted, if possible, and then copied.
4634 .It Ic define , undefine
4635 The latter command deletes the given macro, the special name
4637 will discard all existing macros.
4638 Deletion of (a) macro(s) can be performed from within running (a)
4639 macro(s), including self-deletion.
4640 Without arguments the former command prints the current list of macros,
4641 including their content, otherwise it it defines a macro, replacing an
4642 existing one of the same name as applicable.
4645 A defined macro can be invoked explicitly by using the
4650 commands, or implicitly if a macro hook is triggered, e.g., a
4652 Execution of a macro body can be stopped from within by calling
4656 Temporary macro block-scope variables can be created or deleted with the
4658 command modifier in conjunction with the commands
4663 To enforce unrolling of changes made to (global)
4664 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
4667 can be used instead; its covered scope depends on how (i.e.,
4669 normal macro, folder hook, hook,
4671 switch) the macro is invoked.
4676 ed macro, the given positional parameters are implicitly local
4677 to the macro's scope, and may be accessed via the variables
4683 and any other positive unsigned decimal number less than or equal to
4685 Positional parameters can be
4687 ed, or become completely replaced, removed etc. via
4690 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4700 echo Parameter 1 of ${#} is ${1}, all: ${*} / ${@}
4703 call exmac Hello macro exmac!
4704 echo ${?}/${!}/${^ERRNAME}
4710 .It Ic delete , undelete
4711 (d, u) Marks the given message list as being or not being
4713 respectively; if no argument has been specified then the usual search
4714 for a visible message is performed, as documented for
4715 .Sx "Message list arguments" ,
4716 showing only the next input prompt if the search fails.
4717 Deleted messages will neither be saved in the
4719 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
4721 nor will they be available for most other commands.
4724 variable is set, the new
4726 or the last message restored, respectively, is automatically
4736 Superseded by the multiplexer
4742 Delete the given messages and automatically
4746 if one exists, regardless of the setting of
4753 up or down by one message when given
4757 argument, respectively.
4761 .It Ic draft , undraft
4762 Take message lists and mark each given message as being draft, or not
4763 being draft, respectively, as documented in the section
4764 .Sx "Message states" .
4768 \*(NQ (ec) Echoes arguments to standard output and writes a trailing
4769 newline, whereas the otherwise identical
4772 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
4774 .Sx "Filename transformations"
4775 are applied to the expanded arguments.
4776 This command also supports
4779 .Sx "Command modifiers" ,
4780 and manages the error number
4782 if data is stored in a variable then the return value reflects the
4783 length of the result string in case of success and is
4791 except that is echoes to standard error.
4794 In interactive sessions the \*(OPal message ring queue for
4796 will be used instead, if available and
4804 but does not write or store a trailing newline.
4810 but does not write or store a trailing newline.
4814 (e) Point the text editor (as defined in
4816 at each message from the given list in turn.
4817 Modified contents are discarded unless the
4819 variable is set, and are not used unless the mailbox can be written to
4820 and the editor returns a successful exit status.
4825 .Ic if Ns \0/\: Ic elif Ns \0/\: Ic else Ns \0/\: Ic endif
4826 conditional \(em if the condition of a preceding
4828 was false, check the following condition and execute the following block
4829 if it evaluates true.
4834 .Ic if Ns \0/\: Ic elif Ns \0/\: Ic else Ns \0/\: Ic endif
4835 conditional \(em if none of the conditions of the preceding
4839 commands was true, the
4845 (en) Marks the end of an
4846 .Ic if Ns \0/\: Ic elif Ns \0/\: Ic else Ns \0/\: Ic endif
4847 conditional execution block.
4852 \*(NQ \*(UA has a strict notion about which variables are
4853 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
4854 and which are managed in the program
4856 Since some of the latter are a vivid part of \*(UAs functioning,
4857 however, they are transparently integrated into the normal handling of
4858 internal variables via
4862 To integrate other environment variables of choice into this
4863 transparent handling, and also to export internal variables into the
4864 process environment where they normally are not, a
4866 needs to become established with this command, as in, e.g.,
4869 .Dl environ link PERL5LIB TZ
4872 Afterwards changing such variables with
4874 will cause automatic updates of the program environment, and therefore
4875 be inherited by newly created child processes.
4876 Sufficient system support provided (it was in BSD as early as 1987, and
4877 is standardized since Y2K) removing such variables with
4879 will remove them also from the program environment, but in any way
4880 the knowledge they ever have been
4883 Note that this implies that
4885 may cause loss of such links.
4890 will remove an existing link, but leaves the variables as such intact.
4891 Additionally the subcommands
4895 are provided, which work exactly the same as the documented commands
4899 but (additionally un)link the variable(s) with the program environment
4900 and thus immediately export them to, or remove them from (if possible),
4901 respectively, the program environment.
4906 \*(OP Since \*(UA uses the console as a user interface it can happen
4907 that messages scroll by too fast to become recognized.
4908 An error message ring queue is available which stores duplicates of any
4909 error message and notifies the user in interactive sessions whenever
4910 a new error has occurred.
4911 The queue is finite: if its maximum size is reached any new message
4912 replaces the eldest.
4915 can be used to manage this message queue: if given
4917 or no argument the queue will be displayed and cleared,
4919 will only clear all messages from the queue.
4923 \*(NQ Construct a command by concatenating the arguments, separated with
4924 a single space character, and then evaluate the result.
4925 This command passes through the exit status
4929 of the evaluated command; also see
4931 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4942 call yyy '\ecall xxx' "b\e$'\et'u ' "
4950 (ex or x) Exit from \*(UA without changing the active mailbox and skip
4951 any saving of messages in the
4953 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
4955 as well as a possibly tracked line editor
4957 The optional status number argument will be passed through to
4959 \*(ID For now it can happen that the given status will be overwritten,
4960 later this will only occur if a later error needs to be reported onto an
4961 otherwise success indicating status.
4967 but open the mailbox read-only.
4972 (fi) The file command switches to a new mailbox.
4973 Without arguments it shows status information of the current mailbox.
4974 If an argument is given, it will write out changes (such as deletions)
4975 the user has made, open a new mailbox, update the internal variables
4976 .Va mailbox-resolved
4978 .Va mailbox-display ,
4979 and optionally display a summary of
4986 .Sx "Filename transformations"
4987 will be applied to the
4991 prefixes are, i.e., URL syntax is understood, e.g.,
4992 .Ql maildir:///tmp/mdirbox :
4993 if a protocol prefix is used the mailbox type is fixated and neither
4994 the auto-detection (read on) nor the
4997 \*(OPally URLs can also be used to access network resources, which may
4998 be accessed securely via
4999 .Sx "Encrypted network communication"
5000 if so supported, and it is possible to proxy all network traffic over
5001 a SOCKS5 server given via
5005 .Dl \*(IN protocol://[user[:password]@]host[:port][/path]
5006 .Dl \*(OU protocol://[user@]host[:port][/path]
5009 \*(OPally supported network protocols are
5013 (POP3 with SSL/TLS encrypted transport),
5019 part is valid only for IMAP; there it defaults to
5021 Network URLs require a special encoding as documented in the section
5022 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
5025 If the resulting file protocol (MBOX database)
5027 is located on a local filesystem then the list of all registered
5029 s is traversed in order to see whether a transparent intermediate
5030 conversion step is necessary to handle the given mailbox, in which case
5031 \*(UA will use the found hook to load and save data into and from
5032 a temporary file, respectively.
5033 Changing hooks will not affect already opened mailboxes.
5034 For example, the following creates hooks for the
5036 compression tool and a combined compressed and encrypted format:
5038 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5040 gzip 'gzip -dc' 'gzip -c' \e
5041 zst.pgp 'gpg -d | zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc | gpg -e'
5045 MBOX database files are generally locked during file operations in order
5046 to avoid inconsistencies due to concurrent modifications.
5047 \*(OPal Mailbox files which \*(UA treats as the system
5052 .Sx "primary system mailbox" Ns
5053 es in general will also be protected by so-called dotlock files, the
5054 traditional way of mail spool file locking: for any file
5058 will be created for the duration of the synchronization \(em
5059 as necessary a privilege-separated dotlock child process will be used
5060 to accommodate for necessary privilege adjustments in order to create
5061 the dotlock file in the same directory
5062 and with the same user and group identities as the file of interest.
5063 Possible dotlock creation errors can be catched by setting
5064 .Va dotlock-ignore-error .
5067 \*(UA by default uses tolerant POSIX rules when reading MBOX database
5068 files, but it will detect invalid message boundaries in this mode and
5069 complain (even more with
5071 if any is seen: in this case
5073 can be used to create a valid MBOX database from the invalid input.
5076 If no protocol has been fixated, and
5078 refers to a directory with the subdirectories
5083 then it is treated as a folder in
5086 The maildir format stores each message in its own file, and has been
5087 designed so that file locking is not necessary when reading or writing
5091 \*(ID If no protocol has been fixated and no existing file has
5092 been found, the variable
5094 controls the format of mailboxes yet to be created.
5099 .It Ic filetype , unfiletype
5100 \*(NQ Define or list, and remove, respectively, file handler hooks,
5101 which provide (shell) commands that enable \*(UA to load and save MBOX
5102 files from and to files with the registered file extensions;
5103 it will use an intermediate temporary file to store the plain data.
5104 The latter command removes the hooks for all given extensions,
5106 will remove all existing handlers.
5108 When used without arguments the former shows a list of all currently
5109 defined file hooks, with one argument the expansion of the given alias.
5110 Otherwise three arguments are expected, the first specifying the file
5111 extension for which the hook is meant, and the second and third defining
5112 the load- and save commands, respectively, to deal with the file type,
5113 both of which must read from standard input and write to standard
5115 Changing hooks will not affect already opened mailboxes (\*(ID except below).
5116 \*(ID For now too much work is done, and files are oftened read in twice
5117 where once would be sufficient: this can cause problems if a filetype is
5118 changed while such a file is opened; this was already so with the
5119 built-in support of .gz etc. in Heirloom, and will vanish in v15.
5120 \*(ID For now all handler strings are passed to the
5121 .Ev SHELL for evaluation purposes; in the future a
5123 prefix to load and save commands may mean to bypass this shell instance:
5124 placing a leading space will avoid any possible misinterpretations.
5125 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5126 ? filetype bz2 'bzip2 -dc' 'bzip2 -zc' \e
5127 gz 'gzip -dc' 'gzip -c' xz 'xz -dc' 'xz -zc' \e
5128 zst 'zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc' \e
5129 zst.pgp 'gpg -d | zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc | gpg -e'
5130 ? set record=+sent.zst.pgp
5135 .It Ic flag , unflag
5136 Take message lists and mark the messages as being flagged, or not being
5137 flagged, respectively, for urgent/special attention.
5139 .Sx "Message states" .
5148 With no arguments, list the names of the folders in the folder directory.
5149 With an existing folder as an argument,
5150 lists the names of folders below the named folder.
5156 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
5157 recipient's address (instead of in
5164 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
5165 recipient's address (instead of in
5172 but responds to all recipients regardless of the
5177 .It Ic followupsender
5180 but responds to the sender only regardless of the
5188 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the
5189 recipient's address (instead of in
5194 Takes a message and the address of a recipient
5195 and forwards the message to him.
5196 The text of the original message is included in the new one,
5197 with the value of the
5198 .Va forward-inject-head
5199 variable preceding it.
5200 To filter the included header fields to the desired subset use the
5202 slot of the white- and blacklisting command
5204 Only the first part of a multipart message is included unless
5205 .Va forward-as-attachment ,
5206 and recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names
5207 etc. unless the internal variable
5211 This may generate the errors
5212 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
5213 if no receiver has been specified,
5215 if some addressees where rejected by
5218 if no applicable messages have been given,
5220 if multiple messages have been specified,
5222 if an I/O error occurs,
5224 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
5230 (f) Takes a list of message specifications and displays a summary of
5231 their message headers, exactly as via
5233 making the first message of the result the new
5235 (the last message if
5238 An alias of this command is
5241 .Sx "Specifying messages" .
5252 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
5256 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
5259 .It Ic ghost , unghost
5262 .Ic uncommandalias .
5266 .It Ic headerpick , unheaderpick
5267 \*(NQ Multiplexer command to manage white- and blacklisting
5268 selections of header fields for a variety of applications.
5269 Without arguments the set of contexts that have settings is displayed.
5270 When given arguments, the first argument is the context to which the
5271 command applies, one of (case-insensitive)
5273 for display purposes (via, e.g.,
5276 for selecting which headers shall be stored persistently when
5282 ing messages (note that MIME related etc. header fields should not be
5283 ignored in order to not destroy usability of the message in this case),
5285 for stripping down messages when
5287 ing message (has no effect if
5288 .Va forward-as-attachment
5291 for defining user-defined set of fields for the command
5294 The current settings of the given context are displayed if it is the
5296 A second argument denotes the type of restriction that is to be chosen,
5297 it may be (a case-insensitive prefix of)
5301 for white- and blacklisting purposes, respectively.
5302 Establishing a whitelist suppresses inspection of the corresponding
5305 If no further argument is given the current settings of the given type
5306 will be displayed, otherwise the remaining arguments specify header
5307 fields, which \*(OPally may be given as regular expressions, to be added
5309 The special wildcard field (asterisk,
5311 will establish a (fast) shorthand setting which covers all fields.
5313 The latter command always takes three or more arguments and can be used
5314 to remove selections, i.e., from the given context, the given type of
5315 list, all the given headers will be removed, the special argument
5317 will remove all headers.
5321 (h) Show the current group of headers, the size of which depends on
5324 and the style of which can be adjusted with the variable
5326 If a message-specification is given the group of headers containing the
5327 first message therein is shown and the message at the top of the screen
5330 the last message is targeted if
5341 \*(OP Without arguments or when given
5343 all history entries are shown (this mode also supports a more
5347 will replace the list of entries with the content of
5351 will dump the current list to said file, replacing former content.
5353 will delete all history entries.
5354 The argument can also be a signed decimal
5356 which will select and evaluate the respective history entry, and move it
5357 to the top of the history; a negative number is used as an offset to the
5358 current command, e.g.,
5360 will select the last command, the history top.
5362 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor"
5363 for more on this topic.
5369 Takes a message list and marks each message therein to be saved in the
5374 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
5376 Does not override the
5379 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command, because a
5381 command issued after
5383 will display the following message, not the current one.
5388 (i) Part of the nestable
5389 .Ic if Ns \0/\: Ic elif Ns \0/\: Ic else Ns \0/\: Ic endif
5390 conditional execution construct \(em if the given condition is true then
5391 the encapsulated block is executed.
5392 The POSIX standards supports the (case-insensitive) conditions
5397 end, all remaining conditions are non-portable extensions.
5398 \*(ID These commands do not yet use
5399 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
5400 and therefore do not know about input tokens, so that syntax
5401 elements have to be surrounded by whitespace; in v15 \*(UA will inspect
5402 all conditions bracket group wise and consider the tokens, representing
5403 values and operators, therein, which also means that variables will
5404 already have been expanded at that time (just like in the shell).
5406 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5415 The (case-insensitive) condition
5417 erminal will evaluate to true if the standard input is a terminal, i.e.,
5418 in interactive sessions.
5419 Another condition can be any boolean value (see the section
5420 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
5421 for textual boolean representations) to mark an enwrapped block as
5424 .Dq always execute .
5425 (It shall be remarked that a faulty condition skips all branches until
5430 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
5431 will be used, and this command will simply interpret expanded tokens.)
5432 It is possible to check
5433 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
5436 variables for existence or compare their expansion against a user given
5437 value or another variable by using the
5439 .Pf ( Dq variable next )
5440 conditional trigger character;
5441 a variable on the right hand side may be signalled using the same
5443 Variable names may be enclosed in a pair of matching braces.
5444 When this mode has been triggered, several operators are available:
5447 Integer operators treat the arguments on the left and right hand side of
5448 the operator as integral numbers and compare them arithmetically.
5449 It is an error if any of the operands is not a valid integer, an empty
5450 argument (which implies it had been quoted) is treated as if it were 0.
5451 Available operators are
5455 (less than or equal to),
5461 (greater than or equal to), and
5466 String data operators compare the left and right hand side according to
5467 their textual content.
5468 Unset variables are treated as the empty string.
5469 The behaviour of string operators can be adjusted by prefixing the
5470 operator with the modifier trigger commercial at
5472 followed by none to multiple modifiers: for now supported is
5474 which turns the comparison into a case-insensitive one: this is
5475 implied if no modifier follows the trigger.
5478 Available string operators are
5482 (less than or equal to),
5488 (greater than or equal to),
5492 (is substring of) and
5494 (is not substring of).
5495 By default these operators work on bytes and (therefore) do not take
5496 into account character set specifics.
5497 If the case-insensitivity modifier has been used, case is ignored
5498 according to the rules of the US-ASCII encoding, i.e., bytes are
5502 When the \*(OPal regular expression support is available, the additional
5508 They treat the right hand side as an extended regular expression that is
5509 matched according to the active locale (see
5510 .Sx "Character sets" ) ,
5511 i.e., character sets should be honoured correctly.
5514 Conditions can be joined via AND-OR lists (where the AND operator is
5516 and the OR operator is
5518 which have equal precedence and will be evaluated with left
5519 associativity, thus using the same syntax that is known for the
5521 It is also possible to form groups of conditions and lists by enclosing
5522 them in pairs of brackets
5523 .Ql [\ \&.\&.\&.\ ] ,
5524 which may be interlocked within each other, and also be joined via
5528 The results of individual conditions and entire groups may be modified
5529 via unary operators: the unary operator
5531 will reverse the result.
5533 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5534 # (This not in v15, there [ -n "$debug"]!)
5538 if [ "$ttycharset" == UTF-8 ] || \e
5539 [ "$ttycharset" @i== UTF8 ]
5540 echo *ttycharset* is UTF-8, the former case-sensitive!
5543 if [ "${t1}" == "${t2}" ]
5544 echo These two variables are equal
5546 if [ "$features" =% +regex ] && \e
5547 [ "$TERM" @i=~ "^xterm\&.*" ]
5548 echo ..in an X terminal
5550 if [ [ true ] && [ [ "${debug}" != '' ] || \e
5551 [ "$verbose" != '' ] ] ]
5554 if true && [ "$debug" != '' ] || [ "${verbose}" != '' ]
5555 echo Left associativity, as is known from the shell
5564 Superseded by the multiplexer
5569 Shows the names of all available commands, alphabetically sorted.
5570 If given any non-whitespace argument the list will be shown in the order
5571 in which command prefixes are searched.
5572 \*(OP In conjunction with a set variable
5574 additional information will be provided for each command: the argument
5575 type will be indicated, the documentation string will be shown,
5576 and the set of command flags will show up:
5578 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql NEEDS_BOX"
5580 command supports the command modifier
5583 command supports the command modifier
5586 the error number is tracked in
5589 commands needs an active mailbox, a
5591 .It Ql "ok: batch/interactive"
5592 command may only be used in interactive or
5595 .It Ql "ok: send mode"
5596 command can be used in send mode.
5597 .It Ql "not ok: compose mode"
5598 command is not available when in compose mode.
5599 .It Ql "not ok: startup"
5600 command cannot be used during program startup, e.g., while loading
5601 .Sx "Resource files" .
5602 .It Ql "ok: subprocess"
5603 command is allowed to be used when running in a subprocess instance,
5604 e.g., from within a macro that is called via
5605 .Va on-compose-splice .
5607 The command produces
5616 This command can be used to localize changes to (linked)
5619 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
5620 meaning that their state will be reverted to the former one once the
5623 Just like the command modifier
5625 which provides block-scope localization for some commands (instead),
5626 it can only be used inside of macro definition blocks introduced by
5630 The covered scope of an
5632 is left once a different account is activated, and some macros, notably
5633 .Va folder-hook Ns s ,
5634 use their own specific notion of covered scope, here it will be extended
5635 until the folder is left again.
5638 This setting stacks up: i.e., if
5640 enables change localization and calls
5642 which explicitly resets localization, then any value changes within
5644 will still be reverted when the scope of
5647 (Caveats: if in this example
5649 changes to a different
5651 which sets some variables that are already covered by localizations,
5652 their scope will be extended, and in fact leaving the
5654 will (thus) restore settings in (likely) global scope which actually
5655 were defined in a local, macro private context!)
5658 This command takes one or two arguments, the optional first one
5659 specifies an attribute that may be one of
5661 which refers to the current scope and is thus the default,
5663 which causes any macro that is being
5665 ed to be started with localization enabled by default, as well as
5667 which (if enabled) disallows any called macro to turn off localization:
5668 like this it can be ensured that once the current scope regains control,
5669 any changes made in deeper levels have been reverted.
5670 The latter two are mutually exclusive, and neither affects
5672 The (second) argument is interpreted as a boolean (string, see
5673 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" )
5674 and states whether the given attribute shall be turned on or off.
5676 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5677 define temporary_settings {
5678 set possibly_global_option1
5680 set localized_option1
5681 set localized_option2
5683 set possibly_global_option2
5690 Reply to messages that come in via known
5693 .Pf ( Ic mlsubscribe )
5694 mailing lists, or pretend to do so (see
5695 .Sx "Mailing lists" ) :
5698 functionality this will actively resort and even remove message
5699 recipients in order to generate a message that is supposed to be sent to
5701 For example it will also implicitly generate a
5702 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
5703 header if that seems useful, regardless of the setting of the variable
5705 For more documentation please refer to
5706 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
5708 This may generate the errors
5709 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
5710 if no receiver has been specified,
5712 if some addressees where rejected by
5715 if no applicable messages have been given,
5717 if an I/O error occurs,
5719 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
5722 Any error stops processing of further messages.
5728 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
5729 recipient's address (instead of in
5734 (m) Takes a (list of) recipient address(es) as (an) argument(s),
5735 or asks on standard input if none were given;
5736 then collects the remaining mail content and sends it out.
5737 Unless the internal variable
5739 is set recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names etc.
5740 For more documentation please refer to
5741 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
5743 This may generate the errors
5744 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
5745 if no receiver has been specified,
5747 if some addressees where rejected by
5750 if no applicable messages have been given,
5752 if multiple messages have been specified,
5754 if an I/O error occurs,
5756 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
5762 (mb) The given message list is to be sent to the
5764 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
5766 when \*(UA is quit; this is the default action unless the variable
5769 \*(ID This command can only be used in a
5771 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
5775 .It Ic mimetype , unmimetype
5776 Without arguments the content of the MIME type cache will displayed;
5777 a more verbose listing will be produced if either of
5782 When given arguments they will be joined, interpreted as shown in
5783 .Sx "The mime.types files"
5785 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ) ,
5786 and the resulting entry will be added (prepended) to the cache.
5787 In any event MIME type sources are loaded first as necessary \(en
5788 .Va mimetypes-load-control
5789 can be used to fine-tune which sources are actually loaded.
5791 The latter command deletes all specifications of the given MIME type, thus
5792 .Ql ? unmimetype text/plain
5793 will remove all registered specifications for the MIME type
5797 will discard all existing MIME types, just as will
5799 but which also reenables cache initialization via
5800 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
5804 .It Ic mlist , unmlist
5805 The latter command removes all given mailing-lists, the special name
5807 can be used to remove all registered lists.
5808 The former will list all currently defined mailing lists (and their
5809 attributes, if any) when used without arguments; a more verbose listing
5810 will be produced if either of
5815 Otherwise all given arguments will be added and henceforth be recognized
5817 If the \*(OPal regular expression support is available then any argument
5818 which contains any of the
5820 regular expression characters
5824 will be interpreted as one, which allows matching of many addresses with
5825 a single expression.
5828 pair of commands manages subscription attributes of mailing-lists.
5832 \*(ID Only available in interactive mode, this command allows one to
5833 display MIME parts which require external MIME handler programs to run
5834 which do not integrate in \*(UAs normal
5837 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ) .
5838 (\*(ID No syntax to directly address parts, this restriction may vanish.)
5839 The user will be asked for each non-text part of the given message in
5840 turn whether the registered handler shall be used to display the part.
5844 .It Ic mlsubscribe , unmlsubscribe
5845 The latter command removes the subscription attribute from all given
5846 mailing-lists, the special name
5848 can be used to do so for any registered list.
5849 The former will list all currently defined mailing lists which have
5850 a subscription attribute when used without arguments; a more verbose
5851 listing will be produced if either of
5856 Otherwise this attribute will be set for all given mailing lists,
5857 newly creating them as necessary (as via
5866 but moves the messages to a file named after the local part of the
5867 sender address of the first message (instead of in
5874 but marks the messages for deletion if they were transferred
5881 but also displays header fields which would not pass the
5883 selection, and all MIME parts.
5891 on the given messages, even in non-interactive mode and as long as the
5892 standard output is a terminal.
5898 \*(OP When used without arguments or if
5900 has been given the content of the
5902 cache is shown, loading it first as necessary.
5905 then the cache will only be initialized and
5907 will remove its contents.
5908 Note that \*(UA will try to load the file only once, use
5909 .Ql Ic \&\&netrc Ns \:\0\:clear
5910 to unlock further attempts.
5915 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ;
5917 .Sx "The .netrc file"
5918 documents the file format in detail.
5922 Checks for new mail in the current folder without committing any changes
5924 If new mail is present, a message is shown.
5928 the headers of each new message are also shown.
5929 This command is not available for all mailbox types.
5937 Goes to the next message in sequence and types it.
5938 With an argument list, types the next matching message.
5952 If the current folder is accessed via a network connection, a
5954 command is sent, otherwise no operation is performed.
5960 but also displays header fields which would not pass the
5962 selection, and all MIME parts.
5970 on the given messages, even in non-interactive mode and as long as the
5971 standard output is a terminal.
5979 but also pipes header fields which would not pass the
5981 selection, and all parts of MIME
5982 .Ql multipart/alternative
5987 (pi) Takes a message list and a shell command
5988 and pipes the messages through the command.
5989 Without an argument the current message is piped through the command
5996 every message is followed by a formfeed character.
6017 (q) Terminates the session, saving all undeleted, unsaved messages in
6020 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
6022 preserving all messages marked with
6026 or never referenced in the system
6028 and removing all other messages from the
6030 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
6031 If new mail has arrived during the session,
6033 .Dq You have new mail
6035 If given while editing a mailbox file with the command line option
6037 then the edit file is rewritten.
6038 A return to the shell is effected,
6039 unless the rewrite of edit file fails,
6040 in which case the user can escape with the exit command.
6041 The optional status number argument will be passed through to
6043 \*(ID For now it can happen that the given status will be overwritten,
6044 later this will only occur if a later error needs to be reported onto an
6045 otherwise success indicating status.
6049 \*(NQ Read a line from standard input, or the channel set active via
6051 and assign the data, which will be split as indicated by
6053 to the given variables.
6054 The variable names are checked by the same rules as documented for
6056 and the same error codes will be seen in
6060 indicates the number of bytes read, it will be
6062 with the error number
6066 in case of I/O errors, or
6069 If there are more fields than variables, assigns successive fields to the
6070 last given variable.
6071 If there are less fields than variables, assigns the empty string to the
6073 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6076 ? echo "<$a> <$b> <$c>"
6078 ? wysh set ifs=:; read a b c;unset ifs
6079 hey2.0,:"'you ",:world!:mars.:
6080 ? echo $?/$^ERRNAME / <$a><$b><$c>
6081 0/NONE / <hey2.0,><"'you ",><world!:mars.:><><>
6086 \*(NQ Read anything from standard input, or the channel set active via
6088 and assign the data to the given variable.
6089 The variable name is checked by the same rules as documented for
6091 and the same error codes will be seen in
6095 indicates the number of bytes read, it will be
6097 with the error number
6101 in case of I/O errors, or
6104 \*(ID The input data length is restricted to 31-bits.
6108 \*(NQ Manages input channels for
6112 to be used to avoid complicated or impracticable code, like calling
6114 from within a macro in non-interactive mode.
6115 Without arguments, or when the first argument is
6117 a listing of all known channels is printed.
6118 Channels can otherwise be
6120 d, and existing channels can be
6124 d by giving the string used for creation.
6126 The channel name is expected to be a file descriptor number, or,
6127 if parsing the numeric fails, an input file name that undergoes
6128 .Sx "Filename transformations" .
6129 E.g. (this example requires a modern shell):
6130 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6131 $ LC_ALL=C printf 'echon "hey, "\enread a\enyou\enecho $a' |\e
6134 $ LC_ALL=C printf 'echon "hey, "\enread a\enecho $a' |\e
6135 LC_ALL=C 6<<< 'you' \*(uA -R#X'readctl create 6'
6149 Removes the named files or directories.
6150 .Sx "Filename transformations"
6151 including shell pathname wildcard pattern expansions
6153 are performed on the arguments.
6154 If a name refer to a mailbox, e.g., a Maildir mailbox, then a mailbox
6155 type specific removal will be performed, deleting the complete mailbox.
6156 The user is asked for confirmation in interactive mode.
6160 Takes the name of an existing folder
6161 and the name for the new folder
6162 and renames the first to the second one.
6163 .Sx "Filename transformations"
6164 including shell pathname wildcard pattern expansions
6166 are performed on both arguments.
6167 Both folders must be of the same type.
6171 (R) Replies to only the sender of each message of the given message
6172 list, by using the first message as the template to quote, for the
6176 will exchange this command with
6178 Unless the internal variable
6180 is set the recipient address will be stripped from comments, names etc.
6182 headers will be inspected if
6186 This may generate the errors
6187 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
6188 if no receiver has been specified,
6190 if some addressees where rejected by
6193 if no applicable messages have been given,
6195 if an I/O error occurs,
6197 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
6203 (r) Take a message and group-responds to it by addressing the sender
6204 and all recipients, subject to
6208 .Va followup-to-honour ,
6211 .Va recipients-in-cc
6212 influence response behaviour.
6213 Unless the internal variable
6215 is set recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names etc.
6225 offers special support for replying to mailing lists.
6226 For more documentation please refer to
6227 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
6229 This may generate the errors
6230 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
6231 if no receiver has been specified,
6233 if some addressees where rejected by
6236 if no applicable messages have been given,
6238 if an I/O error occurs,
6240 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
6243 Any error stops processing of further messages.
6249 but initiates a group-reply regardless of the value of
6256 but responds to the sender only regardless of the value of
6263 but does not add any header lines.
6264 This is not a way to hide the sender's identity,
6265 but useful for sending a message again to the same recipients.
6269 Takes a list of messages and a user name
6270 and sends each message to the named user.
6272 and related header fields are prepended to the new copy of the message.
6275 is only performed if
6279 This may generate the errors
6280 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
6281 if no receiver has been specified,
6283 if some addressees where rejected by
6286 if no applicable messages have been given,
6288 if an I/O error occurs,
6290 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
6293 Any error stops processing of further messages.
6311 .It Ic respondsender
6317 (ret) Superseded by the multiplexer
6322 Only available inside the scope of a
6326 this will stop evaluation of any further macro content, and return
6327 execution control to the caller.
6328 The two optional parameters must be specified as positive decimal
6329 numbers and default to the value 0:
6330 the first argument specifies the signed 32-bit return value (stored in
6332 \*(ID and later extended to signed 64-bit),
6333 the second the signed 32-bit error number (stored in
6337 a non-0 exit status may cause the program to exit.
6343 but saves the messages in a file named after the local part of the
6344 sender of the first message instead of (in
6346 and) taking a filename argument; the variable
6348 is inspected to decide on the actual storage location.
6352 (s) Takes a message list and a filename and appends each message in turn
6353 to the end of the file.
6354 .Sx "Filename transformations"
6355 including shell pathname wildcard pattern expansions
6357 is performed on the filename.
6358 If no filename is given, the
6360 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
6363 The filename in quotes, followed by the generated character count
6364 is echoed on the user's terminal.
6367 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
6368 the messages are marked for deletion.
6369 .Sx "Filename transformations"
6371 To filter the saved header fields to the desired subset use the
6373 slot of the white- and blacklisting command
6377 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6381 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6385 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6390 Takes a message specification (list) and displays a header summary of
6391 all matching messages, as via
6393 This command is an alias of
6396 .Sx "Specifying messages" .
6400 Takes a message list and marks all messages as having been read.
6406 (se, \*(NQ uns) The latter command will delete all given global
6407 variables, or only block-scope local ones if the
6409 command modifier has been used.
6410 The former, when used without arguments, will show all
6411 currently known variables, being more verbose if either of
6416 Remarks: this list mode will not automatically link-in known
6418 variables, but only explicit addressing will, e.g., via
6420 using a variable in an
6422 condition or a string passed to
6426 ting, as well as some program-internal use cases.
6429 Otherwise the given variables (and arguments) are set or adjusted.
6430 Arguments are of the form
6432 (no space before or after
6436 if there is no value, i.e., a boolean variable.
6437 If a name begins with
6441 the effect is the same as invoking the
6443 command with the remaining part of the variable
6444 .Pf ( Ql unset save ) .
6445 \*(ID In conjunction with the
6447 .Pf (or\0 Cm local )
6449 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
6450 can be used to quote arguments as necessary.
6451 \*(ID Otherwise quotation marks may be placed around any part of the
6452 assignment statement to quote blanks or tabs.
6455 When operating in global scope any
6457 that is known to map to an environment variable will automatically cause
6458 updates in the program environment (unsetting a variable in the
6459 environment requires corresponding system support) \(em use the command
6461 for further environmental control.
6462 If the command modifier
6464 has been used to alter the command to work in block-scope all variables
6465 have values (may they be empty), and creation of names which shadow
6466 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
6467 is actively prevented (\*(ID shadowing of linked
6469 variables and free-form versions of variable chains is not yet detected).
6474 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
6478 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6479 ? wysh set indentprefix=' -> '
6480 ? wysh set atab=$'\t' aspace=' ' zero=0
6486 Apply shell quoting rules to the given raw-data arguments.
6490 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
6491 The first argument specifies the operation:
6495 cause shell quoting to be applied to the remains of the line, and
6496 expanded away thereof, respectively.
6497 If the former is prefixed with a plus-sign, the quoted result will not
6498 be roundtrip enabled, and thus can be decoded only in the very same
6499 environment that was used to perform the encode; also see
6500 .Cd mle-quote-rndtrip .
6501 If the coding operation fails the error number
6504 .Va ^ERR Ns -CANCELED ,
6505 and the unmodified input is used as the result; the error number may
6506 change again due to output or result storage errors.
6510 \*(NQ (sh) Invokes an interactive version of the shell,
6511 and returns its exit status.
6515 .It Ic shortcut , unshortcut
6516 Without arguments the list of all currently defined shortcuts is
6517 shown, with one argument the expansion of the given shortcut.
6518 Otherwise all given arguments are treated as pairs of shortcuts and
6519 their expansions, creating new or changing already existing shortcuts,
6521 The latter command will remove all given shortcuts, the special name
6523 will remove all registered shortcuts.
6527 \*(NQ Shift the positional parameter stack (starting at
6529 by the given number (which must be a positive decimal),
6530 or 1 if no argument has been given.
6531 It is an error if the value exceeds the number of positional parameters.
6532 If the given number is 0, no action is performed, successfully.
6533 The stack as such can be managed via
6535 Note this command will fail in
6537 and hook macros unless the positional parameter stack has been
6538 explicitly created in the current context via
6545 but performs neither MIME decoding nor decryption, so that the raw
6546 message text is shown.
6550 (si) Shows the size in characters of each message of the given
6555 \*(NQ Sleep for the specified number of seconds (and optionally
6556 milliseconds), by default interruptably.
6557 If a third argument is given the sleep will be uninterruptible,
6558 otherwise the error number
6562 if the sleep has been interrupted.
6563 The command will fail and the error number will be
6564 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW
6565 if the given duration(s) overflow the time datatype, and
6567 if the given durations are no valid integers.
6572 .It Ic sort , unsort
6573 The latter command disables sorted or threaded mode, returns to normal
6574 message order and, if the
6577 displays a header summary.
6578 The former command shows the current sorting criterion when used without
6579 an argument, but creates a sorted representation of the current folder
6580 otherwise, and changes the
6582 command and the addressing modes such that they refer to messages in
6584 Message numbers are the same as in regular mode.
6588 a header summary in the new order is also displayed.
6589 Automatic folder sorting can be enabled by setting the
6591 variable, as in, e.g.,
6592 .Ql set autosort=thread .
6593 Possible sorting criterions are:
6596 .Bl -tag -compact -width "subject"
6598 Sort the messages by their
6600 field, that is by the time they were sent.
6602 Sort messages by the value of their
6604 field, that is by the address of the sender.
6607 variable is set, the sender's real name (if any) is used.
6609 Sort the messages by their size.
6611 \*(OP Sort the message by their spam score, as has been classified by
6614 Sort the messages by their message status.
6616 Sort the messages by their subject.
6618 Create a threaded display.
6620 Sort messages by the value of their
6622 field, that is by the address of the recipient.
6625 variable is set, the recipient's real name (if any) is used.
6631 \*(NQ (so) The source command reads commands from the given file.
6632 .Sx "Filename transformations"
6634 If the given expanded argument ends with a vertical bar
6636 then the argument will instead be interpreted as a shell command and
6637 \*(UA will read the output generated by it.
6638 Dependent on the settings of
6642 and also dependent on whether the command modifier
6644 had been used, encountering errors will stop sourcing of the given input.
6647 cannot be used from within macros that execute as
6648 .Va folder-hook Ns s
6651 i.e., it can only be called from macros that were
6656 \*(NQ The difference to
6658 (beside not supporting pipe syntax aka shell command input) is that
6659 this command will not generate an error nor warn if the given file
6660 argument cannot be opened successfully.
6664 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and clears their
6670 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and causes the
6672 to forget it has ever used them to train its Bayesian filter.
6673 Unless otherwise noted the
6675 flag of the message is inspected to chose whether a message shall be
6683 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and informs the Bayesian filter of the
6687 This also clears the
6689 flag of the messages in question.
6693 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and rates them using the configured
6694 .Va spam-interface ,
6695 without modifying the messages, but setting their
6697 flag as appropriate; because the spam rating headers are lost the rate
6698 will be forgotten once the mailbox is left.
6699 Refer to the manual section
6701 for the complete picture of spam handling in \*(UA.
6705 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and sets their
6711 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and informs the Bayesian filter of the
6717 flag of the messages in question.
6733 slot for white- and blacklisting header fields.
6737 (to) Takes a message list and types out the first
6739 lines of each message on the users' terminal.
6740 Unless a special selection has been established for the
6744 command, the only header fields that are displayed are
6755 It is possible to apply compression to what is displayed by setting
6757 Messages are decrypted and converted to the terminal character set
6762 (tou) Takes a message list and marks the messages for saving in the
6764 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
6766 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command,
6769 command will display the following message instead of the current one.
6775 but also displays header fields which would not pass the
6777 selection, and all visualizable parts of MIME
6778 .Ql multipart/alternative
6783 (t) Takes a message list and types out each message on the users terminal.
6784 The display of message headers is selectable via
6786 For MIME multipart messages, all parts with a content type of
6788 all parts which have a registered MIME type handler (see
6789 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" )
6790 which produces plain text output, and all
6792 parts are shown, others are hidden except for their headers.
6793 Messages are decrypted and converted to the terminal character set
6797 can be used to display parts which are not displayable as plain text.
6840 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6844 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6849 Superseded by the multiplexer
6860 .It Ic unmlsubscribe
6871 Takes a message list and marks each message as not having been read.
6875 Superseded by the multiplexer
6879 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6883 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6905 Perform URL percent codec operations on the raw-data argument, rather
6906 according to RFC 3986.
6910 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) ,
6911 and manages the error number
6913 This is a character set agnostic and thus locale dependent operation,
6914 and it may decode bytes which are invalid in the current
6916 \*(ID This command does not know about URLs beside that.
6918 The first argument specifies the operation:
6922 perform plain URL percent en- and decoding, respectively.
6926 perform a slightly modified operation which should be better for
6927 pathnames: it does not allow a tilde
6929 and will neither accept hyphen-minus
6933 as an initial character.
6934 The remains of the line form the URL data which is to be converted.
6935 If the coding operation fails the error number
6938 .Va ^ERR Ns -CANCELED ,
6939 and the unmodified input is used as the result; the error number may
6940 change again due to output or result storage errors.
6944 \*(NQ Edit the values of or create the given variable(s) in the
6946 Boolean variables cannot be edited, and variables can also not be
6952 \*(NQ This command produces the same output as the listing mode of
6956 ity adjustments, but only for the given variables.
6960 \*(OP Takes a message list and verifies each message.
6961 If a message is not a S/MIME signed message,
6962 verification will fail for it.
6963 The verification process checks if the message was signed using a valid
6965 if the message sender's email address matches one of those contained
6966 within the certificate,
6967 and if the message content has been altered.
6975 of \*(UA, as well as the build and running system environment.
6979 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
6984 \*(NQ Evaluate arguments according to a given operator.
6985 This is a multiplexer command which can be used to perform signed 64-bit
6986 numeric calculations as well as byte string and string operations.
6987 It uses polish notation, i.e., the operator is the first argument and
6988 defines the number and type, and the meaning of the remaining arguments.
6989 An empty argument is replaced with a 0 if a number is expected.
6993 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
6996 The result that is shown in case of errors is always
6998 for usage errors and numeric operations, and the empty string for byte
6999 string and string operations;
7000 if the latter two fail to provide result data for
7002 errors, e.g., when a search operation failed, they also set the
7005 .Va ^ERR Ns -NODATA .
7006 Except when otherwise noted numeric arguments are parsed as signed 64-bit
7007 numbers, and errors will be reported in the error number
7009 as the numeric error
7010 .Va ^ERR Ns -RANGE .
7013 Numeric operations work on one or two signed 64-bit integers.
7014 Numbers prefixed with
7018 are interpreted as hexadecimal (base 16) numbers, whereas
7020 indicates octal (base 8), and
7024 denote binary (base 2) numbers.
7025 It is possible to use any base in between 2 and 36, inclusive, with the
7027 notation, where the base is given as an unsigned decimal number, e.g.,
7029 is a different way of specifying a hexadecimal number.
7030 Unsigned interpretation of a number can be enforced by prefixing a
7032 (case-insensitively), e.g.,
7034 this is not necessary for power-of-two bases (2, 4, 8, 16 and 32),
7035 which will be interpreted as unsigned by default, but it still makes
7036 a difference regarding overflow detection and overflow constant.
7037 It is possible to enforce signed interpretation by (instead) prefixing a
7039 (case-insensitively).
7042 One integer is expected by assignment (equals sign
7044 which does nothing but parsing the argument, thus detecting validity and
7045 possible overflow conditions, and unary not (tilde
7047 which creates the bitwise complement.
7048 Two integers are used by addition (plus sign
7050 subtraction (hyphen-minus
7052 multiplication (asterisk
7056 and modulo (percent sign
7058 as well as for the bitwise operators logical or (vertical bar
7061 bitwise and (ampersand
7064 bitwise xor (circumflex
7066 the bitwise signed left- and right shifts
7069 as well as for the unsigned right shift
7073 Another numeric operation is
7075 which takes a number base in between 2 and 36, inclusive, and will act
7076 on the second number given just the same as what equals sign
7078 does, but the number result will be formatted in the base given.
7081 All numeric operators can be prefixed with a commercial at
7085 this will turn the operation into a saturated one, which means that
7086 overflow errors and division and modulo by zero are no longer reported
7087 via the exit status, but the result will linger at the minimum or
7088 maximum possible value, instead of overflowing (or trapping).
7089 This is true also for the argument parse step.
7090 For the bitwise shifts, the saturated maximum is 63.
7091 Any caught overflow will be reported via the error number
7094 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW .
7095 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7096 ? vexpr @- +1 -9223372036854775808
7097 ? echo $?/$!/$^ERRNAME
7101 Character set agnostic string functions have no notion of locale
7102 settings and character sets.
7104 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm random"
7107 .Sx "Filename transformations"
7110 Generates a random string of the given length, or of
7112 bytes (a constant from
7114 if the value 0 is given; the random string will be base64url encoded
7115 according to RFC 4648, and thus be usable as a (portable) filename.
7119 Byte string operations work on 8-bit bytes and have no notion of locale
7120 settings and character sets, effectively assuming ASCII data.
7123 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm length"
7125 Queries the length of the given argument.
7128 Calculates the Chris Torek hash of the given argument.
7131 Byte-searches in the first for the second argument.
7132 Shows the resulting 0-based offset shall it have been found.
7137 but works case-insensitively according to the rules of the ASCII
7141 Creates a substring of its first argument.
7142 The second argument is the 0-based starting offset, a negative one
7143 counts from the end;
7144 the optional third argument specifies the length of the desired result,
7145 a negative length leaves off the given number of bytes at the end of the
7146 original string, by default the entire string is used;
7147 this operation tries to work around faulty arguments (set
7149 for error logs), but reports them via the error number
7152 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW .
7155 Trim away whitespace characters from both ends of the argument.
7158 Trim away whitespace characters from the begin of the argument.
7161 Trim away whitespace characters from the end of the argument.
7166 String operations work, sufficient support provided, according to the
7167 active user's locale encoding and character set (see
7168 .Sx "Character sets" ) .
7171 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm regex"
7173 (One-way) Converts the argument to something safely printable on the
7177 \*(OP A string operation that will try to match the first argument with
7178 the regular expression given as the second argument.
7179 If the optional third argument has been given then instead of showing
7180 the match offset a replacement operation is performed: the third
7181 argument is treated as if specified within dollar-single-quote (see
7182 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ) ,
7183 and any occurrence of a positional parameter, e.g.,
7185 is replaced by the corresponding match group of the regular expression:
7186 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7187 ? vput vexpr res regex bananarama \e
7188 (.*)NanA(.*) '\e${1}au\e$2'
7189 ? echo $?/$!/$^ERRNAME: $res
7193 On otherwise identical case-insensitive equivalent to
7195 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7196 ? vput vexpr res ire bananarama \e
7197 (.*)NanA(.*) '\e${1}au\e$2'
7198 ? echo $?/$!/$^ERRNAME: $res
7205 \*(NQ Manage the positional parameter stack (see
7209 If the first argument is
7211 then the positional parameter stack of the current context, or the
7212 global one, if there is none, is cleared.
7215 then the remaining arguments will be used to (re)create the stack,
7216 if the parameter stack size limit is excessed an
7217 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW
7221 If the first argument is
7223 a round-trip capable representation of the stack contents is created,
7224 with each quoted parameter separated from each other with the first
7227 and followed by the first character of
7229 if that is not empty and not identical to the first.
7230 If that results in no separation at all a
7236 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
7237 I.e., the subcommands
7241 can be used (in conjunction with
7243 to (re)create an argument stack from and to a single variable losslessly.
7245 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7246 ? vpospar set hey, "'you ", world!
7247 ? echo $#: <${1}><${2}><${3}>
7248 ? vput vpospar x quote
7250 ? echo $#: <${1}><${2}><${3}>
7251 ? eval vpospar set ${x}
7252 ? echo $#: <${1}><${2}><${3}>
7258 (v) Takes a message list and invokes the display editor on each message.
7259 Modified contents are discarded unless the
7261 variable is set, and are not used unless the mailbox can be written to
7262 and the editor returns a successful exit status.
7266 (w) For conventional messages the body without all headers is written.
7267 The original message is never marked for deletion in the originating
7269 The output is decrypted and converted to its native format as necessary.
7270 If the output file exists, the text is appended.
7271 If a message is in MIME multipart format its first part is written to
7272 the specified file as for conventional messages, handling of the remains
7273 depends on the execution mode.
7274 No special handling of compressed files is performed.
7276 In interactive mode the user is consecutively asked for the filenames of
7277 the processed parts.
7278 For convience saving of each part may be skipped by giving an empty
7279 value, the same result as writing it to
7281 Shell piping the part content by specifying a leading vertical bar
7283 character for the filename is supported.
7284 Other user input undergoes the usual
7285 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
7286 including shell pathname wildcard pattern expansions
7288 and shell variable expansion for the message as such, not the individual
7289 parts, and contents of the destination file are overwritten if the file
7292 \*(ID In non-interactive mode any part which does not specify a filename
7293 is ignored, and suspicious parts of filenames of the remaining parts are
7294 URL percent encoded (as via
7296 to prevent injection of malicious character sequences, resulting in
7297 a filename that will be written into the current directory.
7298 Existing files will not be overwritten, instead the part number or
7299 a dot are appended after a number sign
7301 to the name until file creation succeeds (or fails due to other
7306 \*(NQ The sole difference to
7308 is that the new macro is executed in place of the current one, which
7309 will not regain control: all resources of the current macro will be
7311 This implies that any setting covered by
7313 will be forgotten and covered variables will become cleaned up.
7314 If this command is not used from within a
7316 ed macro it will silently be (a more expensive variant of)
7326 \*(NQ \*(UA presents message headers in
7328 fuls as described under the
7331 Without arguments this command scrolls to the next window of messages,
7332 likewise if the argument is
7336 scrolls to the last,
7338 scrolls to the first, and
7343 A number argument prefixed by
7347 indicates that the window is calculated in relation to the current
7348 position, and a number without a prefix specifies an absolute position.
7354 but scrolls to the next or previous window that contains at least one
7365 .\" .Sh COMMAND ESCAPES {{{
7366 .Sh "COMMAND ESCAPES"
7368 Here is a summary of the command escapes available in compose mode,
7369 which are used to perform special functions when composing messages.
7370 Command escapes are only recognized at the beginning of lines, and
7371 consist of a trigger (escape) and a command character.
7372 The actual escape character can be set via the internal variable
7374 it defaults to the tilde
7376 Otherwise ignored whitespace characters following the escape character
7377 will prevent a possible addition of the command line to the \*(OPal
7381 Unless otherwise noted all compose mode command escapes ensure proper
7382 updates of the variables which represent the error number
7388 is set they will, unless stated otherwise, error out message compose
7389 mode and cause a progam exit if an operation fails.
7390 It is however possible to place the character hyphen-minus
7392 after (possible whitespace following) the escape character, which has an
7393 effect equivalent to the command modifier
7395 If the \*(OPal key bindings are available it is possible to create
7397 ings specifically for the compose mode.
7400 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ic BaNg"
7403 Insert the string of text in the message prefaced by a single
7405 (If the escape character has been changed,
7406 that character must be doubled instead.)
7409 .It Ic ~! Ar command
7410 Execute the indicated shell
7412 which follows, replacing unescaped exclamation marks with the previously
7413 executed command if the internal variable
7415 is set, then return to the message.
7419 End compose mode and send the message.
7421 .Va on-compose-splice-shell
7423 .Va on-compose-splice ,
7424 in order, will be called when set, after which
7426 will be checked, a set
7427 .Va on-compose-leave
7428 hook will be called,
7432 will be joined in if set,
7434 will be honoured in interactive mode, finally a given
7435 .Va message-inject-tail
7436 will be incorporated, after which the compose mode is left.
7439 .It Ic ~: Ar \*(UA-command Ns \0or Ic ~_ Ar \*(UA-command
7440 Execute the given \*(UA command.
7441 Not all commands, however, are allowed.
7444 .It Ic ~< Ar filename
7449 .It Ic ~<! Ar command
7451 is executed using the shell.
7452 Its standard output is inserted into the message.
7456 \*(OP Write a summary of command escapes.
7459 .It Ic ~@ Op Ar filename...
7460 Append or edit the list of attachments.
7461 Does not manage the error number
7467 instead if this is a concern).
7470 arguments is expected as shell tokens (see
7471 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ;
7472 token-separating commas are ignored, too), to be
7473 interpreted as documented for the command line option
7475 with the message number exception as below.
7479 arguments the attachment list is edited, entry by entry;
7480 if a filename is left empty, that attachment is deleted from the list;
7481 once the end of the list is reached either new attachments may be
7482 entered or the session can be quit by committing an empty
7485 In non-interactive mode or in batch mode
7487 the list of attachments is effectively not edited but instead recreated;
7488 again, an empty input ends list creation.
7490 For all modes, if a given filename solely consists of the number sign
7492 followed by a valid message number of the currently active mailbox, then
7493 the given message is attached as a
7496 The number sign must be quoted to avoid misinterpretation with the shell
7500 .It Ic ~| Ar command
7501 Pipe the message through the specified filter command.
7502 If the command gives no output or terminates abnormally,
7503 retain the original text of the message.
7506 is often used as a rejustifying filter.
7510 .It Ic ~^ Ar cmd Op Ar subcmd Op Ar arg3 Op Ar arg4
7511 Low-level command meant for scripted message access, i.e., for
7512 .Va on-compose-splice
7514 .Va on-compose-splice-shell .
7515 The used protocol is likely subject to changes, and therefore the
7516 mentioned hooks receive the used protocol version as an initial line.
7517 In general the first field of a response line represents a status code
7518 which specifies whether a command was successful or not, whether result
7519 data is to be expected, and if, the format of the result data.
7520 Does not manage the error number
7524 because errors are reported via the protocol
7525 (hard errors like I/O failures cannot be handled).
7526 This command has read-only access to several virtual pseudo headers in
7527 the \*(UA private namespace, which may not exist (except for the first):
7531 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Va BaNg"
7532 .It Ql Mailx-Command:
7533 The name of the command that generates the message, one of
7541 .It Ql Mailx-Raw-To:
7542 .It Ql Mailx-Raw-Cc:
7543 .It Ql Mailx-Raw-Bcc:
7544 Represent the frozen initial state of these headers before any
7545 transformation (e.g.,
7548 .Va recipients-in-cc
7551 .It Ql Mailx-Orig-From:
7552 .It Ql Mailx-Orig-To:
7553 .It Ql Mailx-Orig-Cc:
7554 .It Ql Mailx-Orig-Bcc:
7555 The values of said headers of the original message which has been
7557 .Ic reply , forward , resend .
7561 The status codes are:
7565 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql 210"
7567 Status ok; the remains of the line are the result.
7570 Status ok; the rest of the line is optionally used for more status.
7571 What follows are lines of result addresses, terminated by an empty line.
7572 The address lines consist of two fields, the first of which is the
7573 plain address, e.g.,
7575 separated by a single ASCII SP space from the second which contains the
7576 unstripped address, even if that is identical to the first field, e.g.,
7577 .Ql (Lovely) Bob <bob@exam.ple> .
7578 All the input, including the empty line, must be consumed before further
7579 commands can be issued.
7582 Status ok; the rest of the line is optionally used for more status.
7583 What follows are lines of furtherly unspecified string content,
7584 terminated by an empty line.
7585 All the input, including the empty line, must be consumed before further
7586 commands can be issued.
7589 Syntax error; invalid command.
7592 Syntax error in parameters or arguments.
7595 Error: an argument fails verification.
7596 For example an invalid address has been specified, or an attempt was
7597 made to modify anything in \*(UA's own namespace.
7600 Error: an otherwise valid argument is rendered invalid due to context.
7601 For example, a second address is added to a header which may consist of
7602 a single address only.
7607 If a command indicates failure then the message will have remained
7609 Most commands can fail with
7611 if required arguments are missing (false command usage).
7612 The following (case-insensitive) commands are supported:
7615 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm header"
7617 This command allows listing, inspection, and editing of message headers.
7618 Header name case is not normalized, and case-insensitive comparison
7619 should be used when matching names.
7620 The second argument specifies the subcommand to apply, one of:
7622 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm remove"
7624 Without a third argument a list of all yet existing headers is given via
7626 this command is the default command of
7628 if no second argument has been given.
7629 A third argument restricts output to the given header only, which may
7632 if no such field is defined.
7635 Shows the content of the header given as the third argument.
7636 Dependent on the header type this may respond with
7640 any failure results in
7644 This will remove all instances of the header given as the third
7649 if no such header can be found, and
7651 on \*(UA namespace violations.
7654 This will remove from the header given as the third argument the
7655 instance at the list position (counting from one!) given with the fourth
7660 if the list position argument is not a number or on \*(UA namespace
7663 if no such header instance exists.
7666 Create a new or an additional instance of the header given in the third
7667 argument, with the header body content as given in the fourth argument
7668 (the remains of the line).
7671 if the third argument specifies a free-form header field name that is
7672 invalid, or if body content extraction fails to succeed,
7674 if any extracted address does not pass syntax and/or security checks or
7675 on \*(UA namespace violations, and
7677 to indicate prevention of excessing a single-instance header \(em note that
7679 can be appended to (a space separator will be added automatically first).
7682 is returned upon success, followed by the name of the header and the list
7683 position of the newly inserted instance.
7684 The list position is always 1 for single-instance header fields.
7685 All free-form header fields are managed in a single list.
7690 This command allows listing, removal and addition of message attachments.
7691 The second argument specifies the subcommand to apply, one of:
7693 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm remove"
7695 List all attachments via
7699 if no attachments exist.
7700 This command is the default command of
7702 if no second argument has been given.
7705 This will remove the attachment given as the third argument, and report
7709 if no such attachment can be found.
7710 If there exists any path component in the given argument, then an exact
7711 match of the path which has been used to create the attachment is used
7712 directly, but if only the basename of that path matches then all
7713 attachments are traversed to find an exact match first, and the removal
7714 occurs afterwards; if multiple basenames match, a
7717 Message attachments are treated as absolute pathnames.
7719 If no path component exists in the given argument, then all attachments
7720 will be searched for
7722 parameter matches as well as for matches of the basename of the path
7723 which has been used when the attachment has been created; multiple
7728 This will interpret the third argument as a number and remove the
7729 attachment at that list position (counting from one!), reporting
7733 if the argument is not a number or
7735 if no such attachment exists.
7738 Adds the attachment given as the third argument, specified exactly as
7739 documented for the command line option
7741 and supporting the message number extension as documented for
7745 upon success, with the index of the new attachment following,
7747 if the given file cannot be opened,
7749 if an on-the-fly performed character set conversion fails, otherwise
7751 is reported; this is also reported if character set conversion is
7752 requested but not available.
7755 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
7757 and prints any known attributes of the first found attachment via
7761 if no such attachment can be found.
7762 The attributes are written as lines of keyword and value tuples, the
7763 keyword being separated from the rest of the line with an ASCII SP space
7767 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
7769 and is otherwise identical to
7772 .It Cm attribute-set
7773 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
7775 and will assign the attribute given as the fourth argument, which is
7776 expected to be a value tuple of keyword and other data, separated by
7777 a ASCII SP space or TAB tabulator character.
7778 If the value part is empty, then the given attribute is removed, or
7779 reset to a default value if existence of the attribute is crucial.
7783 upon success, with the index of the found attachment following,
7785 for message attachments or if the given keyword is invalid, and
7787 if no such attachment can be found.
7788 The following keywords may be used (case-insensitively):
7790 .Bl -hang -compact -width ".It Ql filename"
7792 Sets the filename of the MIME part, i.e., the name that is used for
7793 display and when (suggesting a name for) saving (purposes).
7794 .It Ql content-description
7795 Associate some descriptive information to the attachment's content, used
7796 in favour of the plain filename by some MUAs.
7798 May be used for uniquely identifying MIME entities in several contexts;
7799 this expects a special reference address format as defined in RFC 2045
7802 upon address content verification failure.
7804 Defines the media type/subtype of the part, which is managed
7805 automatically, but can be overwritten.
7806 .It Ql content-disposition
7807 Automatically set to the string
7811 .It Cm attribute-set-at
7812 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
7814 and is otherwise identical to
7823 .Ql Ic ~i Ns \| Va Sign .
7828 .Ql Ic ~i Ns \| Va sign .
7831 .It Ic ~b Ar name ...
7832 Add the given names to the list of blind carbon copy recipients.
7835 .It Ic ~c Ar name ...
7836 Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients.
7840 Read the file specified by the
7842 variable into the message.
7846 Invoke the text editor on the message collected so far.
7847 After the editing session is finished,
7848 the user may continue appending text to the message.
7851 .It Ic ~F Ar messages
7852 Read the named messages into the message being sent, including all
7853 message headers and MIME parts.
7854 If no messages are specified, read in the current message, the
7858 .It Ic ~f Ar messages
7859 Read the named messages into the message being sent.
7860 If no messages are specified, read in the current message, the
7862 Strips down the list of header fields according to the
7864 white- and blacklist selection of
7866 For MIME multipart messages,
7867 only the first displayable part is included.
7871 Edit the message header fields
7876 by typing each one in turn and allowing the user to edit the field.
7877 The default values for these fields originate from the
7885 Edit the message header fields
7891 by typing each one in turn and allowing the user to edit the field.
7894 .It Ic ~I Ar variable
7895 Insert the value of the specified variable into the message.
7896 The message remains unaltered if the variable is unset or empty.
7897 Any embedded character sequences
7899 horizontal tabulator and
7901 line feed are expanded in
7903 mode; otherwise the expansion should occur at
7905 time by using the command modifier
7909 .It Ic ~i Ar variable
7910 Insert the value of the specified variable followed by a newline
7911 character into the message.
7912 The message remains unaltered if the variable is unset or empty.
7913 Any embedded character sequences
7915 horizontal tabulator and
7917 line feed are expanded in
7919 mode; otherwise the expansion should occur at
7921 time by using the command modifier
7925 .It Ic ~M Ar messages
7926 Read the named messages into the message being sent,
7929 If no messages are specified, read the current message, the
7933 .It Ic ~m Ar messages
7934 Read the named messages into the message being sent,
7937 If no messages are specified, read the current message, the
7939 Strips down the list of header fields according to the
7941 white- and blacklist selection of
7943 For MIME multipart messages,
7944 only the first displayable part is included.
7948 Display the message collected so far,
7949 prefaced by the message header fields
7950 and followed by the attachment list, if any.
7954 Abort the message being sent,
7955 copying it to the file specified by the
7962 .It Ic ~R Ar filename
7965 but indent each line that has been read by
7969 .It Ic ~r Ar filename Op Ar HERE-delimiter
7970 Read the named file, object to the usual
7971 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
7972 into the message; if (the expanded)
7976 then standard input is used, e.g., for pasting purposes.
7977 Only in this latter mode
7979 may be given: if it is data will be read in until the given
7981 is seen on a line by itself, and encountering EOF is an error; the
7983 is a required argument in non-interactive mode; if it is single-quote
7984 quoted then the pasted content will not be expanded, \*(ID otherwise
7985 a future version of \*(UA may perform shell-style expansion on the content.
7989 Cause the named string to become the current subject field.
7990 Newline (NL) and carriage-return (CR) bytes are invalid and will be
7991 normalized to space (SP) characters.
7994 .It Ic ~t Ar name ...
7995 Add the given name(s) to the direct recipient list.
7998 .It Ic ~U Ar messages
7999 Read in the given / current message(s) excluding all headers, indented by
8003 .It Ic ~u Ar messages
8004 Read in the given / current message(s), excluding all headers.
8008 Invoke an alternate editor (defined by the
8010 environment variable) on the message collected so far.
8011 Usually, the alternate editor will be a screen editor.
8012 After the editor is quit,
8013 the user may resume appending text to the end of the message.
8016 .It Ic ~w Ar filename
8017 Write the message onto the named file, which is object to the usual
8018 .Sx "Filename transformations" .
8020 the message is appended to it.
8026 except that the message is not saved at all.
8032 .\" .Sh INTERNAL VARIABLES {{{
8033 .Sh "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
8035 Internal \*(UA variables are controlled via the
8039 commands; prefixing a variable name with the string
8043 has the same effect as using
8049 Creation or editing of variables can be performed in the
8054 will give more insight on the given variable(s), and
8056 when called without arguments, will show a listing of all variables.
8057 Both commands support a more
8060 Some well-known variables will also become inherited from the
8063 implicitly, others can be imported explicitly with the command
8065 and henceforth share said properties.
8068 Two different kinds of internal variables exist, and both of which can
8070 There are boolean variables, which can only be in one of the two states
8074 and value variables with a(n optional) string value.
8075 For the latter proper quoting is necessary upon assignment time, the
8076 introduction of the section
8078 documents the supported quoting rules.
8080 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8081 ? wysh set one=val\e 1 two="val 2" \e
8082 three='val "3"' four=$'val \e'4\e''; \e
8083 varshow one two three four; \e
8084 unset one two three four
8088 Dependent upon the actual option string values may become interpreted as
8089 colour names, command specifications, normal text, etc.
8090 They may be treated as numbers, in which case decimal values are
8091 expected if so documented, but otherwise any numeric format and
8092 base that is valid and understood by the
8094 command may be used, too.
8097 There also exists a special kind of string value, the
8098 .Dq boolean string ,
8099 which must either be a decimal integer (in which case
8103 and any other value is true) or any of the (case-insensitive) strings
8109 for a false boolean and
8115 for a true boolean; a special kind of boolean string is the
8117 which is a boolean string that can optionally be prefixed with the
8118 (case-insensitive) term
8122 which causes prompting of the user in interactive mode, with the given
8123 boolean as the default value.
8126 Variable chains extend a plain
8131 .Ql variable-USER@HOST
8139 had been specified in the contextual Uniform Resource Locator URL, see
8140 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
8141 Even though this mechanism is based on URLs no URL percent encoding may
8142 be applied to neither of
8146 variable chains need to be specified using raw data;
8147 the mentioned section contains examples.
8148 Variables which support chains are explicitly documented as such, and
8149 \*(UA treats the base name of any such variable special, meaning that
8150 users should not create custom names like
8152 in order to avoid false classifications and treatment of such variables.
8154 .\" .Ss "Initial settings" {{{
8155 .\" (Keep in SYNC: ./nail.h:okeys, ./nail.rc, ./nail.1:"Initial settings")
8156 .Ss "Initial settings"
8158 The standard POSIX 2008/Cor 2-2016 mandates the following initial
8164 .Pf no Va autoprint ,
8178 .Pf no Va ignoreeof ,
8180 .Pf no Va keepsave ,
8182 .Pf no Va outfolder ,
8190 .Pf no Va sendwait ,
8199 Notes: \*(UA does not support the
8201 variable \(en use command line options or
8203 to pass options through to a
8205 And the default global
8207 file, which is loaded unless the
8209 (with according argument) or
8211 command line options have been used, or the
8212 .Ev MAILX_NO_SYSTEM_RC
8213 environment variable is set (see
8214 .Sx "Resource files" )
8215 bends those initial settings a bit, e.g., it sets the variables
8220 to name a few, establishes a default
8222 selection etc., and should thus be taken into account.
8225 .\" .Ss "Variables" {{{
8228 .Bl -tag -width ".It Va BaNg"
8232 \*(RO The exit status of the last command, or the
8237 This status has a meaning in the state machine: in conjunction with
8239 any non-0 exit status will cause a program exit, and in
8241 mode any error while loading (any of the) resource files will have the
8245 .Sx "Command modifiers" ,
8246 can be used to instruct the state machine to ignore errors.
8250 \*(RO The current error number
8251 .Pf ( Xr errno 3 ) ,
8252 which is set after an error occurred; it is also available via
8254 and the error name and documentation string can be queried via
8258 \*(ID This machinery is new and the error number is only really usable
8259 if a command explicitly states that it manages the variable
8261 for others errno will be used in case of errors, or
8263 if that is 0: it thus may or may not reflect the real error.
8264 The error number may be set with the command
8270 \*(RO This is a multiplexer variable which performs dynamic expansion of
8271 the requested state or condition, of which there are:
8274 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Va BaNg"
8278 .It Va ^ERR , ^ERRDOC , ^ERRNAME
8279 The number, documentation, and name of the current
8281 respectively, which is usually set after an error occurred.
8282 The documentation is an \*(OP, the name is used if not available.
8283 \*(ID This machinery is new and is usually reliable only if a command
8284 explicitly states that it manages the variable
8286 which is effectively identical to
8288 Each of those variables can be suffixed with a hyphen minus followed by
8289 a name or number, in which case the expansion refers to the given error.
8290 Note this is a direct mapping of (a subset of) the system error values:
8291 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8293 eval echo \e$1: \e$^ERR-$1:\e
8294 \e$^ERRNAME-$1: \e$^ERRDOC-$1
8295 vput vexpr i + "$1" 1
8307 \*(RO Expands all positional parameters (see
8309 separated by the first character of the value of
8311 \*(ID The special semantics of the equally named special parameter of the
8313 are not yet supported.
8317 \*(RO Expands all positional parameters (see
8319 separated by a space character.
8320 If placed in double quotation marks, each positional parameter is
8321 properly quoted to expand to a single parameter again.
8325 \*(RO Expands to the number of positional parameters, i.e., the size of
8326 the positional parameter stack in decimal.
8330 \*(RO Inside the scope of a
8334 ed macro this expands to the name of the calling macro, or to the empty
8335 string if the macro is running from top-level.
8336 For the \*(OPal regular expression search and replace operator of
8338 this expands to the entire matching expression.
8339 It represents the program name in global context.
8343 \*(RO Access of the positional parameter stack.
8344 All further parameters can be accessed with this syntax, too, e.g.,
8347 etc.; positional parameters can be shifted off the stack by calling
8349 The parameter stack contains, e.g., the arguments of a
8353 d macro, the matching groups of the \*(OPal regular expression search
8354 and replace expression of
8356 and can be explicitly created or overwritten with the command
8361 \*(RO Is set to the active
8365 .It Va add-file-recipients
8366 \*(BO When file or pipe recipients have been specified,
8367 mention them in the corresponding address fields of the message instead
8368 of silently stripping them from their recipient list.
8369 By default such addressees are not mentioned.
8373 \*(BO Causes only the local part to be evaluated
8374 when comparing addresses.
8378 \*(BO Causes messages saved in the
8380 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
8382 to be appended to the end rather than prepended.
8383 This should always be set.
8387 \*(BO Causes the prompts for
8391 lists to appear after the message has been edited.
8395 \*(BO If set, \*(UA asks for files to attach at the end of each message.
8396 An empty line finalizes the list.
8400 \*(BO Causes the user to be prompted for carbon copy recipients
8401 (at the end of each message if
8409 \*(BO Causes the user to be prompted for blind carbon copy
8410 recipients (at the end of each message if
8418 \*(BO Causes the user to be prompted for confirmation to send the
8419 message or reenter compose mode after having been shown an envelope
8421 This is by default enabled.
8425 \*(BO\*(OP Causes the user to be prompted if the message is to be
8426 signed at the end of each message.
8429 variable is ignored when this variable is set.
8433 .\" The alternative *ask* is not documented on purpose
8434 \*(BO Causes \*(UA to prompt for the subject upon entering compose mode
8435 unless a subject already exists.
8439 A sequence of characters to display in the
8443 as shown in the display of
8445 each for one type of messages (see
8446 .Sx "Message states" ) ,
8447 with the default being
8450 .Ql NU\ \ *HMFAT+\-$~
8453 variable is set, in the following order:
8455 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql _"
8477 start of a collapsed thread.
8479 an uncollapsed thread (TODO ignored for now).
8483 classified as possible spam.
8489 Specifies a list of recipients to which a blind carbon copy of each
8490 outgoing message will be sent automatically.
8494 Specifies a list of recipients to which a carbon copy of each outgoing
8495 message will be sent automatically.
8499 \*(BO Causes threads to be collapsed automatically when threaded mode
8506 \*(BO Enable automatic
8508 ing of a(n existing)
8514 commands, e.g., the message that becomes the new
8516 is shown automatically, as via
8523 Causes sorted mode (see the
8525 command) to be entered automatically with the value of this variable as
8526 sorting method when a folder is opened, e.g.,
8527 .Ql set autosort=thread .
8531 \*(BO Enables the substitution of all not (reverse-solidus) escaped
8534 characters by the contents of the last executed command for the
8536 shell escape command and
8538 one of the compose mode
8539 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
8540 If this variable is not set no reverse solidus stripping is performed.
8544 \*(OP Terminals generate multi-byte sequences for certain forms of
8545 input, for example for function and other special keys.
8546 Some terminals however do not write these multi-byte sequences as
8547 a whole, but byte-by-byte, and the latter is what \*(UA actually reads.
8548 This variable specifies the timeout in milliseconds that the MLE (see
8549 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
8550 waits for more bytes to arrive unless it considers a sequence
8556 \*(BO Sets some cosmetical features to traditional BSD style;
8557 has the same affect as setting
8559 and all other variables prefixed with
8561 it also changes the behaviour of
8563 (which does not exist in BSD).
8567 \*(BO Changes the letters shown in the first column of a header
8568 summary to traditional BSD style.
8572 \*(BO Changes the display of columns in a header summary to traditional
8577 \*(BO Changes some informational messages to traditional BSD style.
8583 field to appear immediately after the
8585 field in message headers and with the
8587 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
8591 .It Va build-os , build-osenv
8592 \*(RO The operating system \*(UA has been build for, usually taken from
8598 respectively, the former being lowercased.
8602 The value that should appear in the
8606 MIME header fields when no character set conversion of the message data
8608 This defaults to US-ASCII, and the chosen character set should be
8609 US-ASCII compatible.
8613 \*(OP The default 8-bit character set that is used as an implicit last
8614 member of the variable
8616 This defaults to UTF-8 if character set conversion capabilities are
8617 available, and to ISO-8859-1 otherwise, in which case the only supported
8620 and this variable is effectively ignored.
8621 Refer to the section
8622 .Sx "Character sets"
8623 for the complete picture of character set conversion in \*(UA.
8626 .It Va charset-unknown-8bit
8627 \*(OP RFC 1428 specifies conditions when internet mail gateways shall
8629 the content of a mail message by using a character set with the name
8631 Because of the unclassified nature of this character set \*(UA will not
8632 be capable to convert this character set to any other character set.
8633 If this variable is set any message part which uses the character set
8635 is assumed to really be in the character set given in the value,
8636 otherwise the (final) value of
8638 is used for this purpose.
8640 This variable will also be taken into account if a MIME type (see
8641 .Sx "The mime.types files" )
8642 of a MIME message part that uses the
8644 character set is forcefully treated as text.
8648 The default value for the
8653 .It Va colour-disable
8654 \*(BO\*(OP Forcefully disable usage of colours.
8655 Also see the section
8656 .Sx "Coloured display" .
8660 \*(BO\*(OP Whether colour shall be used for output that is paged through
8662 Note that pagers may need special command line options, e.g.,
8670 in order to support colours.
8671 Often doing manual adjustments is unnecessary since \*(UA may perform
8672 adjustments dependent on the value of the environment variable
8674 (see there for more).
8678 .It Va contact-mail , contact-web
8679 \*(RO Addresses for contact per email and web, respectively, e.g., for
8680 bug reports, suggestions, or help regarding \*(UA.
8681 The former can be used directly:
8682 .Ql ? Ns \| Ic eval Ns \| Ic mail Ns \| $contact-mail .
8686 In a(n interactive) terminal session, then if this valued variable is
8687 set it will be used as a threshold to determine how many lines the given
8688 output has to span before it will be displayed via the configured
8692 can be forced by setting this to the value
8694 setting it without a value will deduce the current height of the
8695 terminal screen to compute the threshold (see
8700 \*(ID At the moment this uses the count of lines of the message in wire
8701 format, which, dependent on the
8703 of the message, is unrelated to the number of display lines.
8704 (The software is old and historically the relation was a given thing.)
8708 Define a set of custom headers to be injected into newly composed or
8710 A custom header consists of the field name followed by a colon
8712 and the field content body.
8713 Standard header field names cannot be overwritten by a custom header.
8714 Different to the command line option
8716 the variable value is interpreted as a comma-separated list of custom
8717 headers: to include commas in header bodies they need to become escaped
8718 with reverse solidus
8720 Headers can be managed more freely in compose mode via
8723 .Dl ? set customhdr='Hdr1: Body1-1\e, Body1-2, Hdr2: Body2'
8727 Controls the appearance of the
8729 date and time format specification of the
8731 variable, that is used, for example, when viewing the summary of
8733 If unset, then the local receiving date is used and displayed
8734 unformatted, otherwise the message sending
8736 It is possible to assign a
8738 format string and control formatting, but embedding newlines via the
8740 format is not supported, and will result in display errors.
8742 .Ql %Y-%m-%d %H:%M ,
8744 .Va datefield-markout-older .
8747 .It Va datefield-markout-older
8748 Only used in conjunction with
8750 Can be used to create a visible distinction of messages dated more than
8751 a day in the future, or older than six months, a concept comparable to the
8753 option of the POSIX utility
8755 If set to the empty string, then the plain month, day and year of the
8757 will be displayed, but a
8759 format string to control formatting can be assigned.
8765 \*(BO Enables debug messages and obsoletion warnings, disables the
8766 actual delivery of messages and also implies
8772 .It Va disposition-notification-send
8774 .Ql Disposition-Notification-To:
8775 header (RFC 3798) with the message.
8779 .\" TODO .It Va disposition-notification-send-HOST
8781 .\".Va disposition-notification-send
8782 .\" for SMTP accounts on a specific host.
8783 .\" TODO .It Va disposition-notification-send-USER@HOST
8785 .\".Va disposition-notification-send
8786 .\"for a specific account.
8790 \*(BO When dot is set, a period
8792 on a line by itself during message input in (interactive or batch
8794 compose mode will be treated as end-of-message (in addition to the
8795 normal end-of-file condition).
8796 This behaviour is implied in
8802 .It Va dotlock-ignore-error
8803 \*(BO\*(OP Synchronization of mailboxes which \*(UA treats as
8805 .Sx "primary system mailbox" Ns
8806 es (see, e.g., the notes on
8807 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
8808 as well as the documentation of
8810 will be protected with so-called dotlock files\(emthe traditional mail
8811 spool file locking method\(emin addition to system file locking.
8812 Because \*(UA ships with a privilege-separated dotlock creation program
8813 that should always be able to create such a dotlock file there is no
8814 good reason to ignore dotlock file creation errors, and thus these are
8815 fatal unless this variable is set.
8819 \*(BO If this variable is set then the editor is started automatically
8820 when a message is composed in interactive mode, as if the
8822 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
8826 variable is implied for this automatically spawned editor session.
8830 \*(BO When a message is edited while being composed,
8831 its header is included in the editable text.
8835 \*(BO When entering interactive mode \*(UA normally writes
8836 .Dq \&No mail for user
8837 and exits immediately if a mailbox is empty or does not exist.
8838 If this variable is set \*(UA starts even with an empty or non-existent
8839 mailbox (the latter behaviour furtherly depends upon
8845 \*(BO Let each command with a non-0 exit status, including every
8849 s a non-0 status, cause a program exit unless prefixed by
8852 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
8854 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ,
8855 but which use a different modifier for ignoring the error.
8856 Please refer to the variable
8858 for more on this topic.
8862 The first character of this value defines the escape character for
8863 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
8865 The default value is the character tilde
8867 If set to the empty string, command escapes are disabled.
8871 If not set then file and command pipeline targets are not allowed,
8872 and any such address will be filtered out, giving a warning message.
8873 If set without a value then all possible recipient address
8874 specifications will be accepted \(en see the section
8875 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode"
8877 To accept them, but only in interactive mode, or when tilde commands
8878 were enabled explicitly by using one of the command line options
8882 set this to the (case-insensitive) value
8884 (it actually acts like
8885 .Ql restrict,-all,+name,+addr ,
8886 so that care for ordering issues must be taken) .
8888 In fact the value is interpreted as a comma-separated list of values.
8891 then the existence of disallowed specifications is treated as a hard
8892 send error instead of only filtering them out.
8893 The remaining values specify whether a specific type of recipient
8894 address specification is allowed (optionally indicated by a plus sign
8896 prefix) or disallowed (prefixed with a hyphen-minus
8900 addresses all possible address specifications,
8904 command pipeline targets,
8906 plain user names and (MTA) aliases and
8909 These kind of values are interpreted in the given order, so that
8910 .Ql restrict,\:fail,\:+file,\:-all,\:+addr
8911 will cause hard errors for any non-network address recipient address
8912 unless \*(UA is in interactive mode or has been started with the
8916 command line option; in the latter case(s) any address may be used, then.
8918 Historically invalid network addressees are silently stripped off.
8919 To change this so that any encountered invalid email address causes
8920 a hard error it must be ensured that
8922 is an entry in the above list.
8923 Setting this automatically enables network addressees
8924 (it actually acts like
8925 .Ql failinvaddr,+addr ,
8926 so that care for ordering issues must be taken) .
8930 Unless this variable is set additional
8932 (Mail-Transfer-Agent)
8933 arguments from the command line, as can be given after a
8935 separator, results in a program termination with failure status.
8936 The same can be accomplished by using the special (case-insensitive) value
8938 A lesser strict variant is the otherwise identical
8940 which does accept such arguments in interactive mode, or if tilde
8941 commands were enabled explicitly by using one of the command line options
8945 The empty value will allow unconditional usage.
8949 \*(RO String giving a list of optional features.
8950 Features are preceded with a plus sign
8952 if they are available, with a hyphen-minus
8955 The output of the command
8957 will include this information in a more pleasant output.
8961 \*(BO This setting reverses the meanings of a set of reply commands,
8962 turning the lowercase variants, which by default address all recipients
8963 included in the header of a message
8964 .Pf ( Ic reply , respond , followup )
8965 into the uppercase variants, which by default address the sender only
8966 .Pf ( Ic Reply , Respond , Followup )
8969 .Ic replysender , respondsender , followupsender
8971 .Ic replyall , respondall , followupall
8972 are not affected by the current setting of
8977 The default path under which mailboxes are to be saved:
8978 filenames that begin with the plus sign
8980 will have the plus sign replaced with the value of this variable if set,
8981 otherwise the plus sign will remain unchanged when doing
8982 .Sx "Filename transformations" ;
8985 for more on this topic.
8986 The value supports a subset of transformations itself, and if the
8987 non-empty value does not start with a solidus
8991 will be prefixed automatically.
8992 Once the actual value is evaluated first, the internal variable
8994 will be updated for caching purposes.
8997 .It Va folder-hook-FOLDER , Va folder-hook
9000 macro which will be called whenever a
9003 The macro will also be invoked when new mail arrives,
9004 but message lists for commands executed from the macro
9005 only include newly arrived messages then.
9007 are activated by default in a folder hook, causing the covered settings
9008 to be reverted once the folder is left again.
9010 The specialized form will override the generic one if
9012 matches the file that is opened.
9013 Unlike other folder specifications, the fully expanded name of a folder,
9014 without metacharacters, is used to avoid ambiguities.
9015 However, if the mailbox resides under
9019 specification is tried in addition, e.g., if
9023 (and thus relative to the user's home directory) then
9024 .Pa /home/usr1/mail/sent
9026 .Ql folder-hook-/home/usr1/mail/sent
9027 first, but then followed by
9028 .Ql folder-hook-+sent .
9031 .It Va folder-resolved
9032 \*(RO Set to the fully resolved path of
9034 once that evaluation has occurred; rather internal.
9038 \*(BO Controls whether a
9039 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
9040 header is generated when sending messages to known mailing lists.
9042 .Va followup-to-honour
9044 .Ic mlist , mlsubscribe , reply
9049 .It Va followup-to-honour
9051 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
9052 header is honoured when group-replying to a message via
9056 This is a quadoption; if set without a value it defaults to
9066 .It Va forward-as-attachment
9067 \*(BO Original messages are normally sent as inline text with the
9070 and only the first part of a multipart message is included.
9071 With this setting enabled messages are sent as unmodified MIME
9073 attachments with all of their parts included.
9076 .It Va forward-inject-head
9077 The string to put before the text of a message with the
9079 command instead of the default
9080 .Dq -------- Original Message -------- .
9081 No heading is put if it is set to the empty string.
9082 This variable is ignored if the
9083 .Va forward-as-attachment
9089 The address (or a list of addresses) to put into the
9091 field of the message header, quoting RFC 5322:
9092 the author(s) of the message, that is, the mailbox(es) of the person(s)
9093 or system(s) responsible for the writing of the message.
9094 According to that RFC setting the
9096 variable is required if
9098 contains more than one address.
9101 ing to messages these addresses are handled as if they were in the
9106 If a file-based MTA is used, then
9108 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
9110 can nonetheless be enforced to appear as the envelope sender address at
9111 the MTA protocol level (the RFC 5321 reverse-path), either by using the
9113 command line option (with an empty argument; see there for the complete
9114 picture on this topic), or by setting the internal variable
9115 .Va r-option-implicit .
9118 If the machine's hostname is not valid at the Internet (for example at
9119 a dialup machine) then either this variable or
9123 adds even more fine-tuning capabilities with
9124 .Va smtp-hostname ) ,
9125 have to be set; if so the message and MIME part related unique ID fields
9129 will be created (except when disallowed by
9130 .Va message-id-disable
9137 \*(BO Due to historical reasons comments and name parts of email
9138 addresses are removed by default when sending mail, replying to or
9139 forwarding a message.
9140 If this variable is set such stripping is not performed.
9143 \*(OB Predecessor of
9144 .Va forward-inject-head .
9148 \*(BO Causes the header summary to be written at startup and after
9149 commands that affect the number of messages or the order of messages in
9154 mode a header summary will also be displayed on folder changes.
9155 The command line option
9163 A format string to use for the summary of
9165 similar to the ones used for
9168 Format specifiers in the given string start with a percent sign
9170 and may be followed by an optional decimal number indicating the field
9171 width \(em if that is negative, the field is to be left-aligned.
9172 Valid format specifiers are:
9175 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql _%%_"
9177 A plain percent sign.
9180 a space character but for the current message
9182 for which it expands to
9185 .Va headline-plain ) .
9188 a space character but for the current message
9190 for which it expands to
9193 .Va headline-plain ) .
9195 \*(OP The spam score of the message, as has been classified via the
9198 Shows only a replacement character if there is no spam support.
9200 Message attribute character (status flag); the actual content can be
9204 The date found in the
9206 header of the message when
9208 is set (the default), otherwise the date when the message was received.
9209 Formatting can be controlled by assigning a
9214 The indenting level in threaded mode.
9216 The address of the message sender.
9218 The message thread tree structure.
9219 (Note that this format does not support a field width, and honours
9220 .Va headline-plain . )
9222 The number of lines of the message, if available.
9226 The number of octets (bytes) in the message, if available.
9228 Message subject (if any).
9230 Message subject (if any) in double quotes.
9232 Message recipient flags: is the addressee of the message a known or
9233 subscribed mailing list \(en see
9238 The position in threaded/sorted order.
9242 .Ql %>\&%a\&%m\ %-18f\ %16d\ %4l/%\-5o\ %i%-s ,
9244 .Ql %>\&%a\&%m\ %20-f\ \ %16d\ %3l/%\-5o\ %i%-S
9256 .It Va headline-bidi
9257 Bidirectional text requires special treatment when displaying headers,
9258 because numbers (in dates or for file sizes etc.) will not affect the
9259 current text direction, in effect resulting in ugly line layouts when
9260 arabic or other right-to-left text is to be displayed.
9261 On the other hand only a minority of terminals is capable to correctly
9262 handle direction changes, so that user interaction is necessary for
9264 Note that extended host system support is required nonetheless, e.g.,
9265 detection of the terminal character set is one precondition;
9266 and this feature only works in an Unicode (i.e., UTF-8) locale.
9268 In general setting this variable will cause \*(UA to encapsulate text
9269 fields that may occur when displaying
9271 (and some other fields, like dynamic expansions in
9273 with special Unicode control sequences;
9274 it is possible to fine-tune the terminal support level by assigning
9276 no value (or any value other than
9281 will make \*(UA assume that the terminal is capable to properly deal
9282 with Unicode version 6.3, in which case text is embedded in a pair of
9283 U+2068 (FIRST STRONG ISOLATE) and U+2069 (POP DIRECTIONAL ISOLATE)
9285 In addition no space on the line is reserved for these characters.
9287 Weaker support is chosen by using the value
9289 (Unicode 6.3, but reserve the room of two spaces for writing the control
9290 sequences onto the line).
9295 select Unicode 1.1 support (U+200E, LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK); the latter
9296 again reserves room for two spaces in addition.
9299 .It Va headline-plain
9300 \*(BO On Unicode (UTF-8) aware terminals enhanced graphical symbols are
9301 used by default for certain entries of
9303 If this variable is set only basic US-ASCII symbols will be used.
9307 \*(OP If a line editor is available then this can be set to
9308 name the (expandable) path of the location of a permanent
9314 .It Va history-gabby
9315 \*(BO\*(OP Add more entries to the
9317 as is normally done.
9320 .It Va history-gabby-persist
9321 \*(BO\*(OP \*(UA's own MLE will not save the additional
9323 entries in persistent storage unless this variable is set.
9324 On the other hand it will not loose the knowledge of whether
9325 a persistent entry was gabby or not.
9331 \*(OP Setting this variable imposes a limit on the number of concurrent
9334 If set to the value 0 then no further history entries will be added,
9335 and loading and incorporation of the
9337 upon program startup can also be suppressed by doing this.
9338 Runtime changes will not be reflected, but will affect the number of
9339 entries saved to permanent storage.
9343 \*(BO This setting controls whether messages are held in the system
9345 and it is set by default.
9349 Used instead of the value obtained from
9353 as the hostname when expanding local addresses, e.g., in
9356 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" ) .
9359 or this variable Is set the message and MIME part related unique ID fields
9363 will be created (except when disallowed by
9364 .Va message-id-disable
9367 If the \*(OPal IDNA support is available (see
9369 variable assignment is aborted when a necessary conversion fails.
9371 Setting it to the empty string will cause the normal hostname to be
9372 used, but nonetheless enables creation of said ID fields.
9373 \*(IN in conjunction with the built-in SMTP
9376 also influences the results:
9377 one should produce some test messages with the desired combination of
9386 \*(BO\*(OP Can be used to turn off the automatic conversion of domain
9387 names according to the rules of IDNA (internationalized domain names
9389 Since the IDNA code assumes that domain names are specified with the
9391 character set, an UTF-8 locale charset is required to represent all
9392 possible international domain names (before conversion, that is).
9396 The input field separator that is used (\*(ID by some functions) to
9397 determine where to split input data.
9399 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It MMM"
9401 Unsetting is treated as assigning the default value,
9404 If set to the empty value, no field splitting will be performed.
9406 If set to a non-empty value, all whitespace characters are extracted
9407 and assigned to the variable
9411 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It MMM"
9414 will be ignored at the beginning and end of input.
9415 Diverging from POSIX shells default whitespace is removed in addition,
9416 which is owed to the entirely different line content extraction rules.
9418 Each occurrence of a character of
9420 will cause field-splitting, any adjacent
9422 characters will be skipped.
9427 \*(RO Automatically deduced from the whitespace characters in
9432 \*(BO Ignore interrupt signals from the terminal while entering
9433 messages; instead echo them as
9435 characters and discard the current line.
9439 \*(BO Ignore end-of-file conditions
9440 .Pf ( Ql control-D )
9441 in compose mode on message input and in interactive command input.
9442 If set an interactive command input session can only be left by
9443 explicitly using one of the commands
9447 and message input in compose mode can only be terminated by entering
9450 on a line by itself or by using the
9452 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ;
9453 Setting this implies the behaviour that
9461 If this is set to a non-empty string it will specify the users
9463 .Sx "primary system mailbox" ,
9466 and the system-dependent default, and (thus) be used to replace
9469 .Sx "Filename transformations" ;
9472 for more on this topic.
9473 The value supports a subset of transformations itself.
9481 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
9484 option for indenting messages,
9485 in place of the POSIX mandated default tabulator character
9492 \*(BO If set, an empty
9494 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
9495 file is not removed.
9496 Note that, in conjunction with
9498 mode any empty file will be removed unless this variable is set.
9499 This may improve the interoperability with other mail user agents
9500 when using a common folder directory, and prevents malicious users
9501 from creating fake mailboxes in a world-writable spool directory.
9502 \*(ID Only local regular (MBOX) files are covered, Maildir or other
9503 mailbox types will never be removed, even if empty.
9506 .It Va keep-content-length
9507 \*(BO When (editing messages and) writing MBOX mailbox files \*(UA can
9512 header fields that some MUAs generate by setting this variable.
9513 Since \*(UA does neither use nor update these non-standardized header
9514 fields (which in itself shows one of their conceptual problems),
9515 stripping them should increase interoperability in between MUAs that
9516 work with with same mailbox files.
9517 Note that, if this is not set but
9518 .Va writebackedited ,
9519 as below, is, a possibly performed automatic stripping of these header
9520 fields already marks the message as being modified.
9521 \*(ID At some future time \*(UA will be capable to rewrite and apply an
9523 to modified messages, and then those fields will be stripped silently.
9527 \*(BO When a message is saved it is usually discarded from the
9528 originating folder when \*(UA is quit.
9529 This setting causes all saved message to be retained.
9532 .It Va line-editor-disable
9533 \*(BO Turn off any enhanced line editing capabilities (see
9534 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor"
9538 .It Va line-editor-no-defaults
9539 \*(BO\*(OP Do not establish any default key binding.
9543 Error log message prefix string
9544 .Pf ( Ql "\*(uA: " ) .
9547 .It Va mailbox-display
9548 \*(RO The name of the current mailbox
9550 possibly abbreviated for display purposes.
9553 .It Va mailbox-resolved
9554 \*(RO The fully resolved path of the current mailbox.
9557 .It Va mailx-extra-rc
9558 An additional startup file that is loaded as the last of the
9559 .Sx "Resource files" .
9560 Use this file for commands that are not understood by other POSIX
9562 implementations, i.e., mostly anything which is not covered by
9563 .Sx "Initial settings" .
9567 \*(BO When a message is replied to and this variable is set,
9568 it is marked as having been
9571 .Sx "Message states" .
9575 \*(BO When opening MBOX mailbox databases \*(UA by default uses tolerant
9576 POSIX rules for detecting message boundaries (so-called
9578 lines) due to compatibility reasons, instead of the stricter rules that
9579 have been standardized in RFC 4155.
9580 This behaviour can be switched to the stricter RFC 4155 rules by
9581 setting this variable.
9582 (This is never necessary for any message newly generated by \*(UA,
9583 it only applies to messages generated by buggy or malicious MUAs, or may
9584 occur in old MBOX databases: \*(UA itself will choose a proper
9586 to avoid false interpretation of
9588 content lines in the MBOX database.)
9590 This may temporarily be handy when \*(UA complains about invalid
9592 lines when opening a MBOX: in this case setting this variable and
9593 re-opening the mailbox in question may correct the result.
9594 If so, copying the entire mailbox to some other file, as in
9595 .Ql copy * SOME-FILE ,
9596 will perform proper, all-compatible
9598 quoting for all detected messages, resulting in a valid MBOX mailbox.
9599 Finally the variable can be unset again:
9600 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9602 localopts yes; wysh set mbox-rfc4155;\e
9603 wysh File "${1}"; eval copy * "${2}"
9605 call mboxfix /tmp/bad.mbox /tmp/good.mbox
9610 \*(BO Internal development variable.
9613 .It Va message-id-disable
9614 \*(BO By setting this variable the generation of
9618 message and MIME part headers can be completely suppressed, effectively
9619 leaving this task up to the
9621 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) or the SMTP server.
9622 Note that according to RFC 5321 a SMTP server is not required to add this
9623 field by itself, so it should be ensured that it accepts messages without
9627 .It Va message-inject-head
9628 A string to put at the beginning of each new message, followed by a newline.
9629 \*(OB The escape sequences tabulator
9633 are understood (use the
9637 ting the variable(s) instead).
9640 .It Va message-inject-tail
9641 A string to put at the end of each new message, followed by a newline.
9642 \*(OB The escape sequences tabulator
9646 are understood (use the
9650 ting the variable(s) instead).
9654 \*(BO Usually, when an
9656 expansion contains the sender, the sender is removed from the expansion.
9657 Setting this option suppresses these removals.
9662 option to be passed through to the
9664 (Mail-Transfer-Agent); though most of the modern MTAs no longer document
9665 this flag, no MTA is known which does not support it (for historical
9669 .It Va mime-allow-text-controls
9670 \*(BO When sending messages, each part of the message is MIME-inspected
9671 in order to classify the
9674 .Ql Content-Transfer-Encoding:
9677 that is required to send this part over mail transport, i.e.,
9678 a computation rather similar to what the
9680 command produces when used with the
9684 This classification however treats text files which are encoded in
9685 UTF-16 (seen for HTML files) and similar character sets as binary
9686 octet-streams, forcefully changing any
9691 .Ql application/octet-stream :
9692 If that actually happens a yet unset charset MIME parameter is set to
9694 effectively making it impossible for the receiving MUA to automatically
9695 interpret the contents of the part.
9697 If this variable is set, and the data was unambiguously identified as
9698 text data at first glance (by a
9702 file extension), then the original
9704 will not be overwritten.
9707 .It Va mime-alternative-favour-rich
9708 \*(BO If this variable is set then rich MIME alternative parts (e.g.,
9709 HTML) will be preferred in favour of included plain text versions when
9710 displaying messages, provided that a handler exists which produces
9711 output that can be (re)integrated into \*(UA's normal visual display.
9712 (E.g., at the time of this writing some newsletters ship their full
9713 content only in the rich HTML part, whereas the plain text part only
9714 contains topic subjects.)
9717 .It Va mime-counter-evidence
9720 field is used to decide how to handle MIME parts.
9721 Some MUAs, however, do not use
9722 .Sx "The mime.types files"
9724 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" )
9725 or a similar mechanism to correctly classify content, but specify an
9726 unspecific MIME type
9727 .Pf ( Ql application/octet-stream )
9728 even for plain text attachments.
9729 If this variable is set then \*(UA will try to re-classify such MIME
9730 message parts, if possible, for example via a possibly existing
9731 attachment filename.
9732 A non-empty value may also be given, in which case a number is expected,
9733 actually a carrier of bits, best specified as a binary value, e.g.,
9736 .Bl -bullet -compact
9738 If bit two is set (counting from 1, decimal 2) then the detected
9740 will be carried along with the message and be used for deciding which
9741 MIME handler is to be used, for example;
9742 when displaying such a MIME part the part-info will indicate the
9743 overridden content-type by showing a plus sign
9746 If bit three is set (decimal 4) then the counter-evidence is always
9747 produced and a positive result will be used as the MIME type, even
9748 forcefully overriding the parts given MIME type.
9750 If bit four is set (decimal 8) as a last resort the actual content of
9751 .Ql application/octet-stream
9752 parts will be inspected, so that data which looks like plain text can be
9754 This mode is even more relaxed when data is to be displayed to the user
9755 or used as a message quote (data consumers which mangle data for display
9756 purposes, which includes masking of control characters, for example).
9760 .It Va mime-encoding
9762 .Ql Content-Transfer-Encoding
9763 to use in outgoing text messages and message parts, where applicable.
9764 (7-bit clean text messages are sent as-is, without a transfer encoding.)
9767 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql _%%_"
9770 8-bit transport effectively causes the raw data be passed through
9771 unchanged, but may cause problems when transferring mail messages over
9772 channels that are not ESMTP (RFC 1869) compliant.
9773 Also, several input data constructs are not allowed by the
9774 specifications and may cause a different transfer-encoding to be used.
9775 .It Ql quoted-printable
9777 Quoted-printable encoding is 7-bit clean and has the property that ASCII
9778 characters are passed through unchanged, so that an english message can
9779 be read as-is; it is also acceptable for other single-byte locales that
9780 share many characters with ASCII, like, e.g., ISO-8859-1.
9781 The encoding will cause a large overhead for messages in other character
9782 sets: e.g., it will require up to twelve (12) bytes to encode a single
9783 UTF-8 character of four (4) bytes.
9784 It is the default encoding.
9786 .Pf (Or\0 Ql b64 . )
9787 This encoding is 7-bit clean and will always be used for binary data.
9788 This encoding has a constant input:output ratio of 3:4, regardless of
9789 the character set of the input data it will encode three bytes of input
9790 to four bytes of output.
9791 This transfer-encoding is not human readable without performing
9796 .It Va mimetypes-load-control
9797 Can be used to control which of
9798 .Sx "The mime.types files"
9799 are loaded: if the letter
9801 is part of the option value, then the user's personal
9803 file will be loaded (if it exists); likewise the letter
9805 controls loading of the system wide
9806 .Pa /etc/mime.types ;
9807 directives found in the user file take precedence, letter matching is
9809 If this variable is not set \*(UA will try to load both files.
9810 Incorporation of the \*(UA-built-in MIME types cannot be suppressed,
9811 but they will be matched last (the order can be listed via
9814 More sources can be specified by using a different syntax: if the
9815 value string contains an equals sign
9817 then it is instead parsed as a comma-separated list of the described
9820 pairs; the given filenames will be expanded and loaded, and their
9821 content may use the extended syntax that is described in the section
9822 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
9823 Directives found in such files always take precedence (are prepended to
9824 the MIME type cache).
9829 To choose an alternate Mail-Transfer-Agent, set this option to either
9830 the full pathname of an executable (optionally prefixed with the protocol
9832 or \*(OPally a SMTP a.k.a. SUBMISSION protocol URL, e.g., \*(IN
9834 .Dl smtps?://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
9837 .Ql [smtp://]server[:port] . )
9838 The default has been chosen at compile time.
9839 All supported data transfers are executed in child processes, which
9840 run asynchronously and without supervision unless either the
9845 If such a child receives a TERM signal, it will abort and
9852 For a file-based MTA it may be necessary to set
9854 in in order to choose the right target of a modern
9857 It will be passed command line arguments from several possible sources:
9860 if set, from the command line if given and the variable
9863 Argument processing of the MTA will be terminated with a
9868 The otherwise occurring implicit usage of the following MTA command
9869 line arguments can be disabled by setting the boolean variable
9870 .Va mta-no-default-arguments
9871 (which will also disable passing
9875 (for not treating a line with only a dot
9877 character as the end of input),
9885 variable is set); in conjunction with the
9887 command line option \*(UA will also (not) pass
9893 \*(OPally \*(UA can send mail over SMTP a.k.a. SUBMISSION network
9894 connections to a single defined smart host by setting this variable to
9895 a SMTP or SUBMISSION URL (see
9896 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) .
9897 An authentication scheme can be specified via the variable chain
9899 Encrypted network connections are \*(OPally available, the section
9900 .Sx "Encrypted network communication"
9901 should give an overview and provide links to more information on this.
9902 Note that with some mail providers it may be necessary to set the
9904 variable in order to use a specific combination of
9909 \*(UA also supports forwarding of all network traffic over a specified
9911 The following SMTP variants may be used:
9915 The plain SMTP protocol (RFC 5321) that normally lives on the
9916 server port 25 and requires setting the
9917 .Va smtp-use-starttls
9918 variable to enter a SSL/TLS encrypted session state.
9919 Assign a value like \*(IN
9920 .Ql smtp://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
9922 .Ql smtp://server[:port] )
9923 to choose this protocol.
9925 The so-called SMTPS which is supposed to live on server port 465
9926 and is automatically SSL/TLS secured.
9927 Unfortunately it never became a standardized protocol and may thus not
9928 be supported by your hosts network service database
9929 \(en in fact the port number has already been reassigned to other
9932 SMTPS is nonetheless a commonly offered protocol and thus can be
9933 chosen by assigning a value like \*(IN
9934 .Ql smtps://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
9936 .Ql smtps://server[:port] ) ;
9937 due to the mentioned problems it is usually necessary to explicitly
9942 The SUBMISSION protocol (RFC 6409) lives on server port 587 and
9943 is identically to the SMTP protocol from \*(UA's point of view;
9945 .Va smtp-use-starttls
9946 to enter a SSL/TLS secured session state; e.g., \*(IN
9947 .Ql submission://[user[:password]@]server[:port] .
9949 The SUBMISSIONS protocol (RFC 8314) that lives on server port 465 and is
9950 SSL/TLS secured by default.
9951 It can be chosen by assigning a value like \*(IN
9952 .Ql submissions://[user[:password]@]server[:port] .
9953 Due to the problems mentioned for SMTPS above and the fact that
9954 SUBMISSIONS is new and a successor that lives on the same port as the
9955 historical engineering mismanagement named SMTPS, it is usually
9956 necessary to explicitly specify the port as
9962 .It Va mta-arguments
9963 Arguments to pass through to a file-based
9965 can be given via this variable, which is parsed according to
9966 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
9967 into an array of arguments, and which will be joined onto MTA options
9968 from other sources, and then passed individually to the MTA:
9969 .Ql ? wysh set mta-arguments='-t -X \&"/tmp/my log\&"' .
9972 .It Va mta-no-default-arguments
9973 \*(BO Unless this variable is set \*(UA will pass some well known
9974 standard command line options to a file-based
9976 (Mail-Transfer-Agent), see there for more.
9979 .It Va mta-no-receiver-arguments
9980 \*(BO By default a file-based
9982 will be passed all receiver addresses on the command line.
9983 This variable can be set to suppress any such argument.
9987 Many systems use a so-called
9989 environment to ensure compatibility with
9991 This works by inspecting the name that was used to invoke the mail
9993 If this variable is set then the mailwrapper (the program that is
9994 actually executed when calling the file-based
9996 will treat its contents as that name.
9999 .It Va netrc-lookup-USER@HOST , netrc-lookup-HOST , netrc-lookup
10000 \*(BO\*(IN\*(OP Used to control usage of the users
10002 file for lookup of account credentials, as documented in the section
10003 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
10004 and for the command
10007 .Sx "The .netrc file"
10008 documents the file format.
10020 then \*(UA will read the output of a shell pipe instead of the users
10022 file if this variable is set (to the desired shell command).
10023 This can be used to, e.g., store
10026 .Ql ? set netrc-pipe='gpg -qd ~/.netrc.pgp' .
10030 If this variable has the value
10032 newly created local folders will be in Maildir instead of MBOX format.
10036 Checks for new mail in the current folder each time the prompt is shown.
10037 A Maildir folder must be re-scanned to determine if new mail has arrived.
10038 If this variable is set to the special value
10040 then a Maildir folder will not be rescanned completely, but only
10041 timestamp changes are detected.
10045 \*(BO Causes the filename given in the
10048 and the sender-based filenames for the
10052 commands to be interpreted relative to the directory given in the
10054 variable rather than to the current directory,
10055 unless it is set to an absolute pathname.
10057 .Mx Va on-account-cleanup
10058 .It Va on-account-cleanup-ACCOUNT , Va on-account-cleanup
10059 Macro hook which will be called once an
10061 is left, as the very last step before unrolling per-account
10063 This hook is run even in case of fatal errors, and it is advisable to
10064 perform only absolutely necessary actions, like cleaning up
10067 The specialized form is used in favour of the generic one if found.
10070 .It Va on-compose-cleanup
10071 Macro hook which will be called after the message has been sent (or not,
10072 in case of failures), as the very last step before unrolling compose mode
10074 This hook is run even in case of fatal errors, and it is advisable to
10075 perform only absolutely necessary actions, like cleaning up
10079 For compose mode hooks that may affect the message content please see
10080 .Va on-compose-enter , on-compose-leave , on-compose-splice .
10081 \*(ID This hook exists because
10082 .Ic alias , alternates , commandalias , shortcut ,
10083 to name a few, are not covered by
10085 changes applied in compose mode will continue to be in effect thereafter.
10090 .It Va on-compose-enter , on-compose-leave
10091 Macro hooks which will be called once compose mode is entered,
10092 and after composing has been finished, but before a set
10093 .Va message-inject-tail
10094 has been injected etc., respectively.
10096 are enabled for these hooks, and changes on variables will be forgotten
10097 after the message has been sent.
10098 .Va on-compose-cleanup
10099 can be used to perform other necessary cleanup steps.
10101 The following (read-only) variables will be set temporarily during
10102 execution of the macros to represent respective message headers, to
10103 the empty string otherwise; most of them correspond to according virtual
10104 message headers that can be accessed via
10107 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
10109 .Va on-compose-splice
10113 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Va mailx_subject"
10114 .It Va mailx-command
10115 The command that generates the message.
10116 .It Va mailx-subject
10120 .It Va mailx-sender
10122 .It Va mailx-to , mailx-cc , mailx-bcc
10123 The list of receiver addresses as a space-separated list.
10124 .It Va mailx-raw-to , mailx-raw-cc , mailx-raw-bcc
10125 The list of receiver addresses before any mangling (due to, e.g.,
10128 .Va recipients-in-cc )
10129 as a space-separated list.
10130 .It Va mailx-orig-from
10131 When replying, forwarding or resending, this will be set to the
10133 of the given message.
10134 .It Va mailx-orig-to , mailx-orig-cc , mailx-orig-bcc
10135 When replying, forwarding or resending, this will be set to the
10136 receivers of the given message.
10140 Here is am example that injects a signature via
10141 .Va message-inject-tail ;
10143 .Va on-compose-splice
10144 to simply inject the file of desire via
10148 may be a better approach.
10150 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10152 vput ! i cat ~/.mysig
10154 vput vexpr message-inject-tail trim-end $i
10158 readctl create ~/.mysig
10162 vput vexpr message-inject-tail trim-end $i
10164 readctl remove ~/.mysig
10167 set on-compose-leave=t_ocl
10173 .It Va on-compose-splice , on-compose-splice-shell
10174 These hooks run once the normal compose mode is finished, but before the
10175 .Va on-compose-leave
10176 macro hook is called, the
10177 .Va message-inject-tail
10179 Both hooks will be executed in a subprocess, with their input and output
10180 connected to \*(UA such that they can act as if they would be an
10182 The difference in between them is that the latter is a
10184 command, whereas the former is a normal \*(UA macro, but which is
10185 restricted to a small set of commands (the
10189 will indicate said capability).
10191 are enabled for these hooks (in the parent process), causing any setting
10192 to be forgotten after the message has been sent;
10193 .Va on-compose-cleanup
10194 can be used to perform other cleanup as necessary.
10197 During execution of these hooks \*(UA will temporarily forget whether it
10198 has been started in interactive mode, (a restricted set of)
10199 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
10200 will always be available, and for guaranteed reproducibilities sake
10204 will be set to their defaults.
10205 The compose mode command
10207 has been especially designed for scriptability (via these hooks).
10208 The first line the hook will read on its standard input is the protocol
10209 version of said command escape, currently
10211 backward incompatible protocol changes have to be expected.
10214 Care must be taken to avoid deadlocks and other false control flow:
10215 if both involved processes wait for more input to happen at the
10216 same time, or one does not expect more input but the other is stuck
10217 waiting for consumption of its output, etc.
10218 There is no automatic synchronization of the hook: it will not be
10219 stopped automatically just because it, e.g., emits
10221 The hooks will however receive a termination signal if the parent enters
10222 an error condition.
10223 \*(ID Protection against and interaction with signals is not yet given;
10224 it is likely that in the future these scripts will be placed in an
10225 isolated session, which is signalled in its entirety as necessary.
10227 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10228 define ocs_signature {
10230 echo '~< ~/.mysig' # '~<! fortune pathtofortunefile'
10232 set on-compose-splice=ocs_signature
10234 wysh set on-compose-splice-shell=$'\e
10236 printf "hello $version! Headers: ";\e
10237 echo \e'~^header list\e';\e
10238 read status result;\e
10239 echo "status=$status result=$result";\e
10244 echo Splice protocol version is $version
10245 echo '~^h l'; read hl; vput vexpr es substring "${hl}" 0 1
10247 echoerr 'Cannot read header list'; echo '~x'; xit
10249 if [ "$hl" @i!% ' cc' ]
10250 echo '~^h i cc Diet is your <mirr.or>'; read es;\e
10251 vput vexpr es substring "${es}" 0 1
10253 echoerr 'Cannot insert Cc: header'; echo '~x'
10254 # (no xit, macro finishs anyway)
10258 set on-compose-splice=ocsm
10263 .It Va on-resend-cleanup
10265 .Va on-compose-cleanup ,
10266 but is only triggered by
10270 .It Va on-resend-enter
10272 .Va on-compose-enter ,
10273 but is only triggered by
10278 \*(BO If set, each message feed through the command given for
10280 is followed by a formfeed character
10284 .It Va password-USER@HOST , password-HOST , password
10285 \*(IN Variable chain that sets a password, which is used in case none has
10286 been given in the protocol and account-specific URL;
10287 as a last resort \*(UA will ask for a password on the user's terminal if
10288 the authentication method requires a password.
10289 Specifying passwords in a startup file is generally a security risk;
10290 the file should be readable by the invoking user only.
10292 .It Va password-USER@HOST
10293 \*(OU (see the chain above for \*(IN)
10294 Set the password for
10298 If no such variable is defined for a host,
10299 the user will be asked for a password on standard input.
10300 Specifying passwords in a startup file is generally a security risk;
10301 the file should be readable by the invoking user only.
10305 \*(BO Send messages to the
10307 command without performing MIME and character set conversions.
10311 .It Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
10312 When a MIME message part of type
10314 (case-insensitive) is displayed or quoted,
10315 its text is filtered through the value of this variable interpreted as
10317 Note that only parts which can be displayed inline as plain text (see
10318 .Cd copiousoutput )
10319 are displayed unless otherwise noted, other MIME parts will only be
10320 considered by and for the command
10324 The special value commercial at
10326 forces interpretation of the message part as plain text, e.g.,
10327 .Ql set pipe-application/xml=@
10328 will henceforth display XML
10330 (The same could also be achieved by adding a MIME type marker with the
10333 And \*(OPally MIME type handlers may be defined via
10334 .Sx "The Mailcap files"
10335 \(em these directives,
10337 has already been used, should be referred to for further documentation.
10342 can in fact be used as a trigger character to adjust usage and behaviour
10343 of a following shell command specification more thoroughly by appending
10344 more special characters which refer to further mailcap directives, e.g.,
10345 the following hypothetical command specification could be used:
10347 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10348 ? set pipe-X/Y='@!++=@vim ${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}'
10352 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql __"
10354 The command produces plain text to be integrated in \*(UAs output:
10355 .Cd copiousoutput .
10358 If set the handler will not be invoked when a message is to be quoted,
10359 but only when it will be displayed:
10360 .Cd x-mailx-noquote .
10363 Run the command asynchronously, i.e., without blocking \*(UA:
10364 .Cd x-mailx-async .
10367 The command must be run on an interactive terminal, \*(UA will
10368 temporarily release the terminal to it:
10369 .Cd needsterminal .
10372 Request creation of a zero-sized temporary file, the absolute pathname
10373 of which will be made accessible via the environment variable
10374 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY :
10375 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile .
10376 If given twice then the file will be unlinked automatically by \*(UA
10377 when the command loop is entered again at latest:
10378 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink .
10381 Normally the MIME part content is passed to the handler via standard
10382 input; if this flag is set then the data will instead be written into
10383 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY
10384 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill ) ,
10385 the creation of which is implied; note however that in order to cause
10386 deletion of the temporary file you still have to use two plus signs
10391 To avoid ambiguities with normal shell command content you can use
10392 another commercial at to forcefully terminate interpretation of
10393 remaining characters.
10394 (Any character not in this list will have the same effect.)
10398 Some information about the MIME part to be displayed is embedded into
10399 the environment of the shell command:
10402 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ev _AIL__ILENAME__ENERATED"
10404 .It Ev MAILX_CONTENT
10405 The MIME content-type of the part, if known, the empty string otherwise.
10408 .It Ev MAILX_CONTENT_EVIDENCE
10410 .Va mime-counter-evidence
10411 includes the carry-around-bit (2), then this will be set to the detected
10412 MIME content-type; not only then identical to
10413 .Ev \&\&MAILX_CONTENT
10417 .It Ev MAILX_EXTERNAL_BODY_URL
10419 .Ql message/external-body access-type=url
10420 will store the access URL in this variable, it is empty otherwise.
10423 .It Ev MAILX_FILENAME
10424 The filename, if any is set, the empty string otherwise.
10427 .It Ev MAILX_FILENAME_GENERATED
10431 .It Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY
10432 If temporary file creation has been requested through the command prefix
10433 this variable will be set and contain the absolute pathname of the
10439 .It Va pipe-EXTENSION
10440 This is identical to
10441 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
10444 (normalized to lowercase using character mappings of the ASCII charset)
10445 names a file extension, e.g.,
10447 Handlers registered using this method take precedence.
10450 .It Va pop3-auth-USER@HOST , pop3-auth-HOST , pop3-auth
10451 \*(OP\*(IN Variable chain that sets the POP3 authentication method.
10452 The only possible value as of now is
10454 which is thus the default.
10456 .Mx Va pop3-bulk-load
10457 .It Va pop3-bulk-load-USER@HOST , pop3-bulk-load-HOST , pop3-bulk-load
10458 \*(BO\*(OP When accessing a POP3 server \*(UA loads the headers of
10459 the messages, and only requests the message bodies on user request.
10460 For the POP3 protocol this means that the message headers will be
10462 If this variable is set then \*(UA will download only complete messages
10463 from the given POP3 server(s) instead.
10465 .Mx Va pop3-keepalive
10466 .It Va pop3-keepalive-USER@HOST , pop3-keepalive-HOST , pop3-keepalive
10467 \*(OP POP3 servers close the connection after a period of inactivity;
10468 the standard requires this to be at least 10 minutes,
10469 but practical experience may vary.
10470 Setting this variable to a numeric value greater than
10474 command to be sent each value seconds if no other operation is performed.
10476 .Mx Va pop3-no-apop
10477 .It Va pop3-no-apop-USER@HOST , pop3-no-apop-HOST , pop3-no-apop
10478 \*(BO\*(OP Unless this variable is set the
10480 authentication method will be used when connecting to a POP3 server that
10481 advertises support.
10484 is that the password is not sent in clear text over the wire and that
10485 only a single packet is sent for the user/password tuple.
10487 .Va pop3-no-apop-HOST
10490 .Mx Va pop3-use-starttls
10491 .It Va pop3-use-starttls-USER@HOST , pop3-use-starttls-HOST , pop3-use-starttls
10492 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a
10494 command to make an unencrypted POP3 session SSL/TLS encrypted.
10495 This functionality is not supported by all servers,
10496 and is not used if the session is already encrypted by the POP3S method.
10498 .Va pop3-use-starttls-HOST
10504 \*(BO This flag enables POSIX mode, which changes behaviour of \*(UA
10505 where that deviates from standardized behaviour.
10506 It will be set implicitly before the
10507 .Sx "Resource files"
10508 are loaded if the environment variable
10509 .Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT
10510 is set, and adjusting any of those two will be reflected by the other
10512 The following behaviour is covered and enforced by this mechanism:
10515 .Bl -bullet -compact
10517 In non-interactive mode, any error encountered while loading resource
10518 files during program startup will cause a program exit, whereas in
10519 interactive mode such errors will stop loading of the currently loaded
10520 (stack of) file(s, i.e., recursively).
10521 These exits can be circumvented on a per-command base by using
10524 .Sx "Command modifiers" ,
10525 for each command which shall be allowed to fail.
10529 will replace the list of alternate addresses instead of appending to it.
10532 The variable inserting
10533 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
10539 will expand embedded character sequences
10541 horizontal tabulator and
10544 \*(ID For compatibility reasons this step will always be performed.
10547 Upon changing the active
10551 will be displayed even if
10558 implies the behaviour described by
10564 is extended to cover any empty mailbox, not only empty
10566 .Sx "primary system mailbox" Ns
10567 es: they will be removed when they are left in empty state otherwise.
10572 .It Va print-alternatives
10573 \*(BO When a MIME message part of type
10574 .Ql multipart/alternative
10575 is displayed and it contains a subpart of type
10577 other parts are normally discarded.
10578 Setting this variable causes all subparts to be displayed,
10579 just as if the surrounding part was of type
10580 .Ql multipart/mixed .
10584 The string used as a prompt in interactive mode.
10585 Whenever the variable is evaluated the value is treated as if specified
10586 within dollar-single-quotes (see
10587 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ) .
10588 This (post-assignment, i.e., second) expansion can be used to embed
10589 status information, for example
10594 .Va mailbox-display .
10596 In order to embed characters which should not be counted when
10597 calculating the visual width of the resulting string, enclose the
10598 characters of interest in a pair of reverse solidus escaped brackets:
10600 a slot for coloured prompts is also available with the \*(OPal command
10602 Prompting may be prevented by setting this to the null string
10604 .Ql set noprompt ) .
10608 This string is used for secondary prompts, but is otherwise identical to
10615 \*(BO Suppresses the printing of the version when first invoked.
10619 If set, \*(UA starts a replying message with the original message
10620 prefixed by the value of the variable
10622 Normally, a heading consisting of
10623 .Dq Fromheaderfield wrote:
10624 is put before the quotation.
10629 variable, this heading is omitted.
10632 is assigned, only the headers selected by the
10635 selection are put above the message body,
10638 acts like an automatic
10640 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
10644 is assigned, all headers are put above the message body and all MIME
10645 parts are included, making
10647 act like an automatic
10650 .Va quote-as-attachment .
10653 .It Va quote-as-attachment
10654 \*(BO Add the original message in its entirety as a
10656 MIME attachment when replying to a message.
10657 Note this works regardless of the setting of
10662 Can be set to a string consisting of non-whitespace ASCII characters
10663 which shall be treated as quotation leaders, the default being
10668 \*(OP Can be set in addition to
10670 Setting this turns on a more fancy quotation algorithm in that leading
10671 quotation characters
10672 .Pf ( Va quote-chars )
10673 are compressed and overlong lines are folded.
10675 can be set to either one or two (space separated) numeric values,
10676 which are interpreted as the maximum (goal) and the minimum line length,
10677 respectively, in a spirit rather equal to the
10679 program, but line-, not paragraph-based.
10680 If not set explicitly the minimum will reflect the goal algorithmically.
10681 The goal cannot be smaller than the length of
10683 plus some additional pad.
10684 Necessary adjustments take place silently.
10687 .It Va r-option-implicit
10688 \*(BO Setting this option evaluates the contents of
10690 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
10692 and passes the results onto the used (file-based) MTA as described for the
10694 option (empty argument case).
10697 .It Va recipients-in-cc
10704 are by default merged into the new
10706 If this variable is set, only the original
10710 the rest is merged into
10715 Unless this variable is defined, no copies of outgoing mail will be saved.
10716 If defined it gives the pathname, subject to the usual
10717 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
10718 of a folder where all new, replied-to or forwarded messages are saved:
10719 when saving to this folder fails the message is not sent, but instead
10723 The standard defines that relative (fully expanded) paths are to be
10724 interpreted relative to the current directory
10726 to force interpretation relative to
10729 needs to be set in addition.
10732 .It Va record-files
10733 \*(BO If this variable is set the meaning of
10735 will be extended to cover messages which target only file and pipe
10738 These address types will not appear in recipient lists unless
10739 .Va add-file-recipients
10743 .It Va record-resent
10744 \*(BO If this variable is set the meaning of
10746 will be extended to also cover the
10753 .It Va reply-in-same-charset
10754 \*(BO If this variable is set \*(UA first tries to use the same
10755 character set of the original message for replies.
10756 If this fails, the mechanism described in
10757 .Sx "Character sets"
10758 is evaluated as usual.
10761 .It Va reply-strings
10762 Can be set to a comma-separated list of (case-insensitive according to
10763 ASCII rules) strings which shall be recognized in addition to the
10764 built-in strings as
10766 reply message indicators \(en built-in are
10768 which is mandated by RFC 5322, as well as the german
10773 which often has been seen in the wild;
10774 I.e., the separating colon has to be specified explicitly.
10778 A list of addresses to put into the
10780 field of the message header.
10781 Members of this list are handled as if they were in the
10790 .It Va reply-to-honour
10793 header is honoured when replying to a message via
10797 This is a quadoption; if set without a value it defaults to
10801 .It Va rfc822-body-from_
10802 \*(BO This variable can be used to force displaying a so-called
10804 line for messages that are embedded into an envelope mail via the
10806 MIME mechanism, for more visual convenience.
10810 \*(BO Enable saving of (partial) messages in
10812 upon interrupt or delivery error.
10816 The number of lines that represents a
10825 line display and scrolling via
10827 If this variable is not set \*(UA falls back to a calculation based upon
10828 the detected terminal window size and the baud rate: the faster the
10829 terminal, the more will be shown.
10830 Overall screen dimensions and pager usage is influenced by the
10831 environment variables
10839 .It Va searchheaders
10840 \*(BO Expand message-list specifiers in the form
10842 to all messages containing the substring
10844 in the header field
10846 The string search is case insensitive.
10849 .It Va sendcharsets
10850 \*(OP A comma-separated list of character set names that can be used in
10851 outgoing internet mail.
10852 The value of the variable
10854 is automatically appended to this list of character sets.
10855 If no character set conversion capabilities are compiled into \*(UA then
10856 the only supported charset is
10859 .Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
10860 and refer to the section
10861 .Sx "Character sets"
10862 for the complete picture of character set conversion in \*(UA.
10865 .It Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
10866 \*(BO\*(OP If this variable is set, but
10868 is not, then \*(UA acts as if
10870 had been set to the value of the variable
10872 In effect this combination passes through the message data in the
10873 character set of the current locale encoding:
10874 therefore mail message text will be (assumed to be) in ISO-8859-1
10875 encoding when send from within a ISO-8859-1 locale, and in UTF-8
10876 encoding when send from within an UTF-8 locale.
10880 never comes into play as
10882 is implicitly assumed to be 8-bit and capable to represent all files the
10883 user may specify (as is the case when no character set conversion
10884 support is available in \*(UA and the only supported character set is
10886 .Sx "Character sets" ) .
10887 This might be a problem for scripts which use the suggested
10889 setting, since in this case the character set is US-ASCII by definition,
10890 so that it is better to also override
10896 An address that is put into the
10898 field of outgoing messages, quoting RFC 5322: the mailbox of the agent
10899 responsible for the actual transmission of the message.
10900 This field should normally not be used unless the
10902 field contains more than one address, on which case it is required.
10905 address is handled as if it were in the
10909 .Va r-option-implicit .
10912 \*(OB Predecessor of
10915 .It Va sendmail-arguments
10916 \*(OB Predecessor of
10917 .Va mta-arguments .
10919 .It Va sendmail-no-default-arguments
10920 \*(OB\*(BO Predecessor of
10921 .Va mta-no-default-arguments .
10923 .It Va sendmail-progname
10924 \*(OB Predecessor of
10929 \*(BO When sending a message wait until the
10931 (including the built-in SMTP one) exits before accepting further commands.
10933 with this variable set errors reported by the MTA will be recognizable!
10934 If the MTA returns a non-zero exit status,
10935 the exit status of \*(UA will also be non-zero.
10939 \*(BO This setting causes \*(UA to start at the last message
10940 instead of the first one when opening a mail folder, as well as with
10947 \*(BO Causes \*(UA to use the sender's real name instead of the plain
10948 address in the header field summary and in message specifications.
10952 \*(BO Causes the recipient of the message to be shown in the header
10953 summary if the message was sent by the user.
10960 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
10962 .Va message-inject-tail ,
10963 .Va on-compose-leave
10965 .Va on-compose-splice .
10972 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
10974 .Va message-inject-tail ,
10975 .Va on-compose-leave
10977 .Va on-compose-splice .
10982 .Va on-compose-splice
10984 .Va on-compose-splice-shell
10986 .Va on-compose-leave
10988 .Va message-inject-tail
10992 .It Va skipemptybody
10993 \*(BO If an outgoing message does not contain any text in its first or
10994 only message part, do not send it but discard it silently (see also the
10995 command line option
11000 .It Va smime-ca-dir , smime-ca-file
11001 \*(OP Specify the location of trusted CA certificates in PEM (Privacy
11002 Enhanced Mail) format as a directory and a file, respectively, for the
11003 purpose of verification of S/MIME signed messages.
11004 It is possible to set both, the file will be loaded immediately, the
11005 directory will be searched whenever no match has yet been found.
11006 The set of CA certificates which are built into the SSL/TLS library can
11007 be explicitly turned off by setting
11008 .Va smime-ca-no-defaults ,
11009 and further fine-tuning is possible via
11010 .Va smime-ca-flags .
11013 .It Va smime-ca-flags
11014 \*(OP Can be used to fine-tune behaviour of the X509 CA certificate
11015 storage, and the certificate verification that is used.
11016 The actual values and their meanings are documented for
11020 .It Va smime-ca-no-defaults
11021 \*(BO\*(OP Do not load the default CA locations that are built into the
11022 used to SSL/TLS library to verify S/MIME signed messages.
11024 .Mx Va smime-cipher
11025 .It Va smime-cipher-USER@HOST , smime-cipher
11026 \*(OP Specifies the cipher to use when generating S/MIME encrypted
11027 messages (for the specified account).
11028 RFC 5751 mandates a default of
11031 Possible values are (case-insensitive and) in decreasing cipher strength:
11039 (DES EDE3 CBC, 168 bits; default if
11041 is not available) and
11043 (DES CBC, 56 bits).
11045 The actually available cipher algorithms depend on the cryptographic
11046 library that \*(UA uses.
11047 \*(OP Support for more cipher algorithms may be available through
11048 dynamic loading via, e.g.,
11049 .Xr EVP_get_cipherbyname 3
11050 (OpenSSL) if \*(UA has been compiled to support this.
11053 .It Va smime-crl-dir
11054 \*(OP Specifies a directory that contains files with CRLs in PEM format
11055 to use when verifying S/MIME messages.
11058 .It Va smime-crl-file
11059 \*(OP Specifies a file that contains a CRL in PEM format to use when
11060 verifying S/MIME messages.
11063 .It Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST
11064 \*(OP If this variable is set, messages send to the given receiver are
11065 encrypted before sending.
11066 The value of the variable must be set to the name of a file that
11067 contains a certificate in PEM format.
11069 If a message is sent to multiple recipients,
11070 each of them for whom a corresponding variable is set will receive an
11071 individually encrypted message;
11072 other recipients will continue to receive the message in plain text
11074 .Va smime-force-encryption
11076 It is recommended to sign encrypted messages, i.e., to also set the
11081 .It Va smime-force-encryption
11082 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to refuse sending unencrypted messages.
11086 \*(BO\*(OP S/MIME sign outgoing messages with the user's private key
11087 and include the user's certificate as a MIME attachment.
11088 Signing a message enables a recipient to verify that the sender used
11089 a valid certificate,
11090 that the email addresses in the certificate match those in the message
11091 header and that the message content has not been altered.
11092 It does not change the message text,
11093 and people will be able to read the message as usual.
11095 .Va smime-sign-cert , smime-sign-include-certs
11097 .Va smime-sign-message-digest .
11099 .Mx Va smime-sign-cert
11100 .It Va smime-sign-cert-USER@HOST , smime-sign-cert
11101 \*(OP Points to a file in PEM format.
11102 For the purpose of signing and decryption this file needs to contain the
11103 user's private key, followed by his certificate.
11105 For message signing
11107 is always derived from the value of
11109 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
11111 For the purpose of encryption the recipient's public encryption key
11112 (certificate) is expected; the command
11114 can be used to save certificates of signed messages (the section
11115 .Sx "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
11116 gives some details).
11117 This mode of operation is usually driven by the specialized form.
11119 When decrypting messages the account is derived from the recipient
11124 of the message, which are searched for addresses for which such
11126 \*(UA always uses the first address that matches,
11127 so if the same message is sent to more than one of the user's addresses
11128 using different encryption keys, decryption might fail.
11130 For signing and decryption purposes it is possible to use encrypted
11131 keys, and the pseudo-host(s)
11132 .Ql USER@HOST.smime-cert-key
11133 for the private key
11135 .Ql USER@HOST.smime-cert-cert
11136 for the certificate stored in the same file)
11137 will be used for performing any necessary password lookup,
11138 therefore the lookup can be automated via the mechanisms described in
11139 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
11140 For example, the hypothetical address
11142 could be driven with a private key / certificate pair path defined in
11143 .Va \&\&smime-sign-cert-bob@exam.ple ,
11144 and needed passwords would then be looked up via the pseudo hosts
11145 .Ql bob@exam.ple.smime-cert-key
11147 .Ql bob@exam.ple.smime-cert-cert ) .
11148 To include intermediate certificates, use
11149 .Va smime-sign-include-certs .
11151 .Mx Va smime-sign-include-certs
11152 .It Va smime-sign-include-certs-USER@HOST , smime-sign-include-certs
11153 \*(OP If used, this is supposed to a consist of a comma-separated list
11154 of files, each of which containing a single certificate in PEM format to
11155 be included in the S/MIME message in addition to the
11156 .Va smime-sign-cert
11158 This can be used to include intermediate certificates of the certificate
11159 authority, in order to allow the receiver's S/MIME implementation to
11160 perform a verification of the entire certificate chain, starting from
11161 a local root certificate, over the intermediate certificates, down to the
11162 .Va smime-sign-cert .
11163 Even though top level certificates may also be included in the chain,
11164 they won't be used for the verification on the receiver's side.
11166 For the purpose of the mechanisms involved here,
11168 refers to the content of the internal variable
11170 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
11173 .Ql USER@HOST.smime-include-certs
11174 will be used for performing password lookups for these certificates,
11175 shall they have been given one, therefore the lookup can be automated
11176 via the mechanisms described in
11177 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
11179 .Mx Va smime-sign-message-digest
11180 .It Va smime-sign-message-digest-USER@HOST , smime-sign-message-digest
11181 \*(OP Specifies the message digest to use when signing S/MIME messages.
11182 RFC 5751 mandates a default of
11184 Possible values are (case-insensitive and) in decreasing cipher strength:
11192 The actually available message digest algorithms depend on the
11193 cryptographic library that \*(UA uses.
11194 \*(OP Support for more message digest algorithms may be available
11195 through dynamic loading via, e.g.,
11196 .Xr EVP_get_digestbyname 3
11197 (OpenSSL) if \*(UA has been compiled to support this.
11198 Remember that for this
11200 refers to the variable
11202 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
11206 \*(OB\*(OP To use the built-in SMTP transport, specify a SMTP URL in
11208 \*(ID For compatibility reasons a set
11210 is used in preference of
11214 .It Va smtp-auth-USER@HOST , smtp-auth-HOST , smtp-auth
11215 \*(OP Variable chain that controls the SMTP
11217 authentication method, possible values are
11223 as well as the \*(OPal methods
11229 method does not need any user credentials,
11231 requires a user name and all other methods require a user name and
11239 .Va smtp-auth-password
11241 .Va smtp-auth-user ) .
11246 .Va smtp-auth-USER@HOST :
11247 may override dependent on sender address in the variable
11250 .It Va smtp-auth-password
11251 \*(OP\*(OU Sets the global fallback password for SMTP authentication.
11252 If the authentication method requires a password, but neither
11253 .Va smtp-auth-password
11255 .Va smtp-auth-password-USER@HOST
11257 \*(UA will ask for a password on the user's terminal.
11259 .It Va smtp-auth-password-USER@HOST
11261 .Va smtp-auth-password
11262 for specific values of sender addresses, dependent upon the variable
11265 .It Va smtp-auth-user
11266 \*(OP\*(OU Sets the global fallback user name for SMTP authentication.
11267 If the authentication method requires a user name, but neither
11270 .Va smtp-auth-user-USER@HOST
11272 \*(UA will ask for a user name on the user's terminal.
11274 .It Va smtp-auth-user-USER@HOST
11277 for specific values of sender addresses, dependent upon the variable
11281 .It Va smtp-hostname
11282 \*(OP\*(IN Normally \*(UA uses the variable
11284 to derive the necessary
11286 information in order to issue a
11293 can be used to use the
11295 from the SMTP account
11302 from the content of this variable (or, if that is the empty string,
11304 or the local hostname as a last resort).
11305 This often allows using an address that is itself valid but hosted by
11306 a provider other than which (in
11308 is about to send the message.
11309 Setting this variable also influences generated
11314 If the \*(OPal IDNA support is available (see
11316 variable assignment is aborted when a necessary conversion fails.
11318 .Mx Va smtp-use-starttls
11319 .It Va smtp-use-starttls-USER@HOST , smtp-use-starttls-HOST , smtp-use-starttls
11320 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a
11322 command to make an SMTP
11324 session SSL/TLS encrypted, i.e., to enable transport layer security.
11327 .It Va socks-proxy-USER@HOST , socks-proxy-HOST , socks-proxy
11328 \*(OP If this is set to the hostname (SOCKS URL) of a SOCKS5 server then
11329 \*(UA will proxy all of its network activities through it.
11330 This can be used to proxy SMTP, POP3 etc. network traffic through the
11331 Tor anonymizer, for example.
11332 The following would create a local SOCKS proxy on port 10000 that
11333 forwards to the machine
11335 and from which the network traffic is actually instantiated:
11336 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11337 # Create local proxy server in terminal 1 forwarding to HOST
11338 $ ssh -D 10000 USER@HOST
11339 # Then, start a client that uses it in terminal 2
11340 $ \*(uA -Ssocks-proxy-USER@HOST=localhost:10000
11344 .It Va spam-interface
11345 \*(OP In order to use any of the spam-related commands (like, e.g.,
11347 the desired spam interface must be defined by setting this variable.
11348 Please refer to the manual section
11349 .Sx "Handling spam"
11350 for the complete picture of spam handling in \*(UA.
11351 All or none of the following interfaces may be available:
11353 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ql _ilte_"
11359 .Pf ( Lk http://spamassassin.apache.org SpamAssassin )
11361 Different to the generic filter interface \*(UA will automatically add
11362 the correct arguments for a given command and has the necessary
11363 knowledge to parse the program's output.
11364 A default value for
11366 will have been compiled into the \*(UA binary if
11370 during compilation.
11371 Shall it be necessary to define a specific connection type (rather than
11372 using a configuration file for that), the variable
11373 .Va spamc-arguments
11374 can be used as in, e.g.,
11375 .Ql -d server.example.com -p 783 .
11376 It is also possible to specify a per-user configuration via
11378 Note that this interface does not inspect the
11380 flag of a message for the command
11384 generic spam filter support via freely configurable hooks.
11385 This interface is meant for programs like
11387 and requires according behaviour in respect to the hooks' exit
11388 status for at least the command
11391 meaning a message is spam,
11395 for unsure and any other return value indicating a hard error);
11396 since the hooks can include shell code snippets diverting behaviour
11397 can be intercepted as necessary.
11399 .Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , spamfilter-nospam , \
11402 .Va spamfilter-spam ;
11404 .Sx "Handling spam"
11405 contains examples for some programs.
11406 The process environment of the hooks will have the variable
11407 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_GENERATED
11409 Note that spam score support for
11411 is not supported unless the \*(OPtional regular expression support is
11413 .Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore
11419 .It Va spam-maxsize
11420 \*(OP Messages that exceed this size will not be passed through to the
11422 .Va spam-interface .
11423 If unset or 0, the default of 420000 bytes is used.
11426 .It Va spamc-command
11427 \*(OP The path to the
11431 .Va spam-interface .
11432 Note that the path is not expanded, but used
11434 A fallback path will have been compiled into the \*(UA binary if the
11435 executable had been found during compilation.
11438 .It Va spamc-arguments
11439 \*(OP Even though \*(UA deals with most arguments for the
11442 automatically, it may at least sometimes be desirable to specify
11443 connection-related ones via this variable, e.g.,
11444 .Ql -d server.example.com -p 783 .
11448 \*(OP Specify a username for per-user configuration files for the
11450 .Va spam-interface .
11451 If this is set to the empty string then \*(UA will use the name of the
11460 .It Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , \
11461 spamfilter-nospam , spamfilter-rate , spamfilter-spam
11462 \*(OP Command and argument hooks for the
11464 .Va spam-interface .
11466 .Sx "Handling spam"
11467 contains examples for some programs.
11470 .It Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore
11471 \*(OP Because of the generic nature of the
11474 spam scores are not supported for it by default, but if the \*(OPnal
11475 regular expression support is available then setting this variable can
11476 be used to overcome this restriction.
11477 It is interpreted as follows: first a number (digits) is parsed that
11478 must be followed by a semicolon
11480 and an extended regular expression.
11481 Then the latter is used to parse the first output line of the
11482 .Va spamfilter-rate
11483 hook, and, in case the evaluation is successful, the group that has been
11484 specified via the number is interpreted as a floating point scan score.
11488 .It Va ssl-ca-dir-USER@HOST , ssl-ca-dir-HOST , ssl-ca-dir ,\
11489 ssl-ca-file-USER@HOST , ssl-ca-file-HOST , ssl-ca-file
11490 \*(OP Specify the location of trusted CA certificates in PEM (Privacy
11491 Enhanced Mail) format as a directory and a file, respectively, for the
11492 purpose of verification of SSL/TLS server certificates.
11493 It is possible to set both, the file will be loaded immediately, the
11494 directory will be searched whenever no match has yet been found.
11495 The set of CA certificates which are built into the SSL/TLS library can
11496 be explicitly turned off by setting
11497 .Va ssl-ca-no-defaults ,
11498 and further fine-tuning is possible via
11501 .Xr SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations 3
11502 for more information.
11503 \*(UA will try to use the TLS/SNI (ServerNameIndication) extension when
11504 establishing TLS connections to servers identified with hostnames.
11507 .Mx Va ssl-ca-flags
11508 .It Va ssl-ca-flags-USER@HOST , ssl-ca-flags-HOST , ssl-ca-flags
11509 \*(OP Can be used to fine-tune behaviour of the X509 CA certificate
11510 storage, and the certificate verification that is used (also see
11512 The value is expected to consist of a comma-separated list of
11513 configuration directives, with any intervening whitespace being ignored.
11514 The directives directly map to flags that can be passed to
11515 .Xr X509_STORE_set_flags 3 ,
11516 which are usually defined in a file
11517 .Pa openssl/x509_vfy.h ,
11518 and the availability of which depends on the used SSL/TLS library
11519 version: a directive without mapping is ignored (error log subject to
11521 Directives currently understood (case-insensitively) include:
11524 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Cd BaNg"
11525 .It Cd no-alt-chains
11526 If the initial chain is not trusted, do not attempt to build an
11528 Setting this flag will make OpenSSL certificate verification match that
11529 of older OpenSSL versions, before automatic building and checking of
11530 alternative chains has been implemented; also see
11531 .Cd trusted-first .
11532 .It Cd no-check-time
11533 Do not check certificate/CRL validity against current time.
11534 .It Cd partial-chain
11535 By default partial, incomplete chains which cannot be verified up to the
11536 chain top, a self-signed root certificate, will not verify.
11537 With this flag set, a chain succeeds to verify if at least one signing
11538 certificate of the chain is in any of the configured trusted stores of
11540 The OpenSSL manual page
11541 .Xr SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations 3
11542 gives some advise how to manage your own trusted store of CA certificates.
11544 Disable workarounds for broken certificates.
11545 .It Cd trusted-first
11546 Try building a chain using issuers in the trusted store first to avoid
11547 problems with server-sent legacy intermediate certificates.
11548 Newer versions of OpenSSL support alternative chain checking and enable
11549 it by default, resulting in the same behaviour; also see
11550 .Cd no-alt-chains .
11554 .Mx Va ssl-ca-no-defaults
11555 .It Va ssl-ca-no-defaults-USER@HOST , ssl-ca-no-defaults-HOST ,\
11557 \*(BO\*(OP Do not load the default CA locations that are built into the
11558 used to SSL/TLS library to verify SSL/TLS server certificates.
11561 .It Va ssl-cert-USER@HOST , ssl-cert-HOST , ssl-cert
11562 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
11565 .Va ssl-config-pairs .
11567 .Mx Va ssl-cipher-list
11568 .It Va ssl-cipher-list-USER@HOST , ssl-cipher-list-HOST , ssl-cipher-list
11569 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
11572 .Va ssl-config-pairs .
11575 .It Va ssl-config-file
11576 \*(OP If this variable is set
11577 .Xr CONF_modules_load_file 3
11579 .Ql +modules-load-file
11582 is used to allow resource file based configuration of the SSL/TLS library.
11583 This happens once the library is used first, which may also be early
11584 during startup (logged with
11586 If a non-empty value is given then the given file, after performing
11587 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
11588 will be used instead of the global OpenSSL default, and it is an error
11589 if the file cannot be loaded.
11590 The application name will always be passed as
11592 Some SSL/TLS libraries support application-specific configuration via
11593 resource files loaded like this, please see
11594 .Va ssl-config-module .
11596 .Mx Va ssl-config-module
11597 .It Va ssl-config-module-USER@HOST , ssl-config-module-HOST ,\
11599 \*(OP If file based application-specific configuration via
11600 .Va ssl-config-file
11601 is available, announced as
11605 indicating availability of
11606 .Xr SSL_CTX_config 3 ,
11607 then, it becomes possible to use a central SSL/TLS configuration file
11608 for all programs, including \*(uA, e.g.:
11609 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11610 # Register a configuration section for \*(uA
11611 \*(uA = mailx_master
11612 # The top configuration section creates a relation
11613 # in between dynamic SSL configuration and an actual
11614 # program specific configuration section
11616 ssl_conf = mailx_ssl_config
11617 # Well that actual program specific configuration section
11618 # now can map individual ssl-config-module names to sections,
11619 # e.g., ssl-config-module=account_xy
11621 account_xy = mailx_account_xy
11622 account_yz = mailx_account_yz
11624 MinProtocol = TLSv1.2
11627 CipherString = TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:
11628 MinProtocol = TLSv1.1
11633 .Mx Va ssl-config-pairs
11634 .It Va ssl-config-pairs-USER@HOST , ssl-config-pairs-HOST , ssl-config-pairs
11635 \*(OP The value of this variable chain will be interpreted as
11636 a comma-separated list of directive/value pairs.
11637 Different to when placing these pairs in a
11638 .Va ssl-config-module
11640 .Va ssl-config-file
11643 need to be escaped with a reverse solidus
11645 when included in pairs.
11646 Just likewise directives and values need to be separated by equals signs
11648 any whitespace surrounding pair members is removed.
11649 Keys are (usually) case-insensitive.
11650 Unless proper support is announced by
11652 .Pf ( Ql +conf-ctx )
11653 only the keys below are supported, otherwise the pairs will be used
11654 directly as arguments to the function
11655 .Xr SSL_CONF_cmd 3 .
11658 may be preceded with an asterisk
11661 .Sx "Filename transformations"
11662 shall be performed on the value; it is an error if these fail.
11665 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Cd C_rtificate"
11667 Filename of a SSL/TLS client certificate (chain) required by some servers.
11668 Fallback support via
11669 .Xr SSL_CTX_use_certificate_chain_file 3 .
11670 .Sx "Filename transformations"
11672 .\" v15compat: remove the next sentence
11674 if you use this you need to specify the private key via
11680 A list of ciphers for SSL/TLS connections, see
11682 By default no list of ciphers is set, resulting in a
11683 .Cd Protocol Ns - Ns
11684 specific list of ciphers (the protocol standards define lists of
11685 acceptable ciphers; possibly cramped by the used SSL/TLS library).
11686 Fallback support via
11687 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_cipher_list 3 .
11690 A list of supported elliptic curves, if applicable.
11691 By default no curves are set.
11692 Fallback support via
11693 .Xr SSL_CTX_set1_curves_list 3 ,
11696 .It Cd MaxProtocol , MinProtocol
11697 The maximum and minimum supported SSL/TLS versions, respectively.
11698 Optional fallback support via
11699 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_max_proto_version 3
11701 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_min_proto_version 3
11705 .Ql +ctx-set-maxmin-proto ,
11706 otherwise this directive results in an error.
11707 The fallback uses an internal parser which understands the strings
11712 and the special value
11714 which disables the given limit.
11717 Various flags to set.
11719 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_options 3 ,
11720 in which case any other value but (exactly)
11722 results in an error.
11725 Filename of the private key in PEM format of a SSL/TLS client certificate.
11726 If unset, the name of the certificate file is used.
11727 .Sx "Filename transformations"
11730 .Xr SSL_CTX_use_PrivateKey_file 3 .
11731 .\" v15compat: remove the next sentence
11733 if you use this you need to specify the certificate (chain) via
11739 The used SSL/TLS protocol.
11745 .Ql ctx-set-maxmin-proto
11752 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_options 3 ,
11753 driven via an internal parser which understands the strings
11758 and the special value
11760 Multiple protocols may be given as a comma-separated list, any
11761 whitespace is ignored, an optional plus sign
11763 prefix enables, a hyphen-minus
11765 prefix disables a protocol, so that
11767 enables only the TLSv1.2 protocol.
11773 .It Va ssl-crl-dir , ssl-crl-file
11774 \*(OP Specify a directory / a file, respectively that contains a CRL in
11775 PEM format to use when verifying SSL/TLS server certificates.
11778 .It Va ssl-curves-USER@HOST , ssl-curves-HOST , ssl-curves
11779 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
11782 .Va ssl-config-pairs .
11785 .It Va ssl-features
11786 \*(OP\*(RO This expands to a comma separated list of the TLS/SSL library
11787 identity and optional TLS/SSL library features.
11788 Currently supported identities are
11792 (OpenSSL v1.1.x series)
11795 (elder OpenSSL series, other clones).
11796 Optional features are preceded with a plus sign
11798 when available, and with a hyphen-minus
11801 .Ql modules-load-file
11802 .Pf ( Va ssl-config-file ) ,
11804 .Pf ( Va ssl-config-pairs ) ,
11806 .Pf ( Va ssl-config-module ) ,
11807 .Ql ctx-set-maxmin-proto
11808 .Pf ( Va ssl-config-pairs )
11811 .Pf ( Va ssl-rand-egd ) .
11814 .It Va ssl-key-USER@HOST , ssl-key-HOST , ssl-key
11815 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
11818 .Va ssl-config-pairs .
11820 .It Va ssl-method-USER@HOST , ssl-method-HOST , ssl-method
11821 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
11824 .Va ssl-config-pairs .
11826 .Mx Va ssl-protocol
11827 .It Va ssl-protocol-USER@HOST , ssl-protocol-HOST , ssl-protocol
11828 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
11831 .Va ssl-config-pairs .
11834 .It Va ssl-rand-egd
11835 \*(OP Gives the pathname to an entropy daemon socket, see
11837 Not all SSL/TLS libraries support this,
11839 announces availability with
11843 .It Va ssl-rand-file
11844 \*(OP Gives the filename to a file with random entropy data, see
11845 .Xr RAND_load_file 3 .
11846 If this variable is not set, or set to the empty string, or if the
11847 .Sx "Filename transformations"
11849 .Xr RAND_file_name 3
11850 will be used to create the filename.
11851 If the SSL PRNG was seeded successfully
11852 The file will be updated
11853 .Pf ( Xr RAND_write_file 3 )
11854 if and only if seeding and buffer stirring succeeds.
11855 This variable is only used if
11857 is not set (or not supported by the SSL/TLS library).
11860 .It Va ssl-verify-USER@HOST , ssl-verify-HOST , ssl-verify
11861 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the action to be performed if an error
11862 occurs during SSL/TLS server certificate validation against the
11863 specified or default trust stores
11866 or the SSL/TLS library built-in defaults (unless usage disallowed via
11867 .Va ssl-ca-no-defaults ) ,
11868 and as fine-tuned via
11870 Valid (case-insensitive) values are
11872 (fail and close connection immediately),
11874 (ask whether to continue on standard input),
11876 (show a warning and continue),
11878 (do not perform validation).
11884 If only set without an assigned value, then this setting inhibits the
11890 header fields that include obvious references to \*(UA.
11891 There are two pitfalls associated with this:
11892 First, the message id of outgoing messages is not known anymore.
11893 Second, an expert may still use the remaining information in the header
11894 to track down the originating mail user agent.
11895 If set to the value
11901 suppression does not occur.
11906 (\*(OP) This specifies a comma-separated list of
11911 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" ,
11912 escape commas with reverse solidus) to be used to overwrite or define
11915 this variable will only be queried once at program startup and can
11916 thus only be specified in resource files or on the command line.
11919 String capabilities form
11921 pairs and are expected unless noted otherwise.
11922 Numerics have to be notated as
11924 where the number is expected in normal decimal notation.
11925 Finally, booleans do not have any value but indicate a true or false
11926 state simply by being defined or not; this indeed means that \*(UA
11927 does not support undefining an existing boolean.
11928 String capability values will undergo some expansions before use:
11929 for one notations like
11932 .Ql control-LETTER ,
11933 and for clarification purposes
11935 can be used to specify
11937 (the control notation
11939 could lead to misreadings when a left bracket follows, which it does for
11940 the standard CSI sequence);
11941 finally three letter octal sequences, as in
11944 To specify that a terminal supports 256-colours, and to define sequences
11945 that home the cursor and produce an audible bell, one might write:
11947 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11948 ? set termcap='Co#256,home=\eE[H,bel=^G'
11952 The following terminal capabilities are or may be meaningful for the
11953 operation of the built-in line editor or \*(UA in general:
11956 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Cd yay"
11958 .It Cd colors Ns \0or Cd Co
11960 numeric capability specifying the maximum number of colours.
11961 Note that \*(UA does not actually care about the terminal beside that,
11962 but always emits ANSI / ISO 6429 escape sequences.
11965 .It Cd rmcup Ns \0or Cd te Ns \0/ Cd smcup Ns \0or Cd ti
11968 .Cd enter_ca_mode ,
11969 respectively: exit and enter the alternative screen ca-mode,
11970 effectively turning \*(UA into a fullscreen application.
11971 This must be enabled explicitly by setting
11972 .Va termcap-ca-mode .
11974 .It Cd smkx Ns \0or Cd ks Ns \0/ Cd rmkx Ns \0or Cd ke
11978 respectively: enable and disable the keypad.
11979 This is always enabled if available, because it seems even keyboards
11980 without keypads generate other key codes for, e.g., cursor keys in that
11981 case, and only if enabled we see the codes that we are interested in.
11983 .It Cd ed Ns \0or Cd cd
11987 .It Cd clear Ns \0or Cd cl
11989 clear the screen and home cursor.
11990 (Will be simulated via
11995 .It Cd home Ns \0or Cd ho
12000 .It Cd el Ns \0or Cd ce
12002 clear to the end of line.
12003 (Will be simulated via
12005 plus repetitions of space characters.)
12007 .It Cd hpa Ns \0or Cd ch
12008 .Cd column_address :
12009 move the cursor (to the given column parameter) in the current row.
12010 (Will be simulated via
12016 .Cd carriage_return :
12017 move to the first column in the current row.
12018 The default built-in fallback is
12021 .It Cd cub1 Ns \0or Cd le
12023 move the cursor left one space (non-destructively).
12024 The default built-in fallback is
12027 .It Cd cuf1 Ns \0or Cd nd
12029 move the cursor right one space (non-destructively).
12030 The default built-in fallback is
12032 which is used by most terminals.
12040 Many more capabilities which describe key-sequences are documented for
12045 .It Va termcap-ca-mode
12046 \*(OP Allow usage of the
12050 terminal capabilities, effectively turning \*(UA into a fullscreen
12051 application, as documented for
12054 this variable will only be queried once at program startup and can
12055 thus only be specified in resource files or on the command line.
12058 .It Va termcap-disable
12059 \*(OP Disable any interaction with a terminal control library.
12060 If set only some generic fallback built-ins and possibly the content of
12062 describe the terminal to \*(UA.
12064 this variable will only be queried once at program startup and can
12065 thus only be specified in resource files or on the command line.
12069 If defined, gives the number of lines of a message to be displayed
12072 if unset, the first five lines are printed, if set to 0 the variable
12075 If the value is negative then its absolute value will be used for
12076 unsigned right shifting (see
12084 \*(BO If set then the
12086 command series will strip adjacent empty lines and quotations.
12090 The character set of the terminal \*(UA operates on,
12091 and the one and only supported character set that \*(UA can use if no
12092 character set conversion capabilities have been compiled into it,
12093 in which case it defaults to ISO-8859-1.
12094 Otherwise it defaults to UTF-8.
12095 Sufficient locale support provided the default will be preferably
12096 deduced from the locale environment if that is set (e.g.,
12098 see there for more); runtime locale changes will be reflected by
12100 except during the program startup phase and if
12102 had been used to freeze the given value.
12103 Refer to the section
12104 .Sx "Character sets"
12105 for the complete picture about character sets.
12108 .It Va typescript-mode
12109 \*(BO A special multiplex variable that disables all variables and
12110 settings which result in behaviour that interferes with running \*(UA in
12113 .Va colour-disable ,
12114 .Va line-editor-disable
12115 and (before startup completed only)
12116 .Va termcap-disable .
12117 Unsetting it does not restore the former state of the covered settings.
12121 For a safe-by-default policy the process file mode creation mask
12125 on program startup by default.
12126 Child processes inherit the file mode creation mask of their parent, and
12127 by setting this variable to an empty value no change will be applied,
12128 and the inherited value will be used.
12129 Otherwise the given value will be made the new file mode creation mask.
12132 .It Va user-HOST , user
12133 \*(IN Variable chain that sets a global fallback user name, which is
12134 used in case none has been given in the protocol and account-specific
12136 This variable defaults to the name of the user who runs \*(UA.
12140 \*(BO Setting this enables upward compatibility with \*(UA
12141 version 15.0 in respect to which configuration options are available and
12142 how they are handled.
12143 This manual uses \*(IN and \*(OU to refer to the new and the old way of
12144 doing things, respectively.
12148 \*(BO This setting, also controllable via the command line option
12150 causes \*(UA to be more verbose, e.g., it will display obsoletion
12151 warnings and SSL/TLS certificate chains.
12152 Even though marked \*(BO this option may be set twice in order to
12153 increase the level of verbosity even more, in which case even details of
12154 the actual message delivery and protocol conversations are shown.
12157 is sufficient to disable verbosity as such.
12164 .It Va version , version-date , \
12165 version-hexnum , version-major , version-minor , version-update
12166 \*(RO \*(UA version information: the first variable is a string with
12167 the complete version identification, the second the release date in ISO
12168 8601 notation without time.
12169 The third is a 32-bit hexadecimal number with the upper 8 bits storing
12170 the major, followed by the minor and update version numbers which occupy
12172 The latter three variables contain only decimal digits: the major, minor
12173 and update version numbers.
12174 The output of the command
12176 will include this information.
12179 .It Va writebackedited
12180 If this variable is set messages modified using the
12184 commands are written back to the current folder when it is quit;
12185 it is only honoured for writable folders in MBOX format, though.
12186 Note that the editor will be pointed to the raw message content in that
12187 case, i.e., neither MIME decoding nor decryption will have been
12188 performed, and proper RFC 4155
12190 quoting of newly added or edited content is also left as an exercise to
12193 .\" }}} (Variables)
12195 .\" }}} (INTERNAL VARIABLES)
12198 .\" .Sh ENVIRONMENT {{{
12202 .Dq environment variable
12203 should be considered an indication that these variables are either
12204 standardized as vivid parts of process environments, or that they are
12205 commonly found in there.
12206 The process environment is inherited from the
12208 once \*(UA is started, and unless otherwise explicitly noted handling of
12209 the following variables transparently integrates into that of the
12210 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
12211 from \*(UA's point of view.
12212 This means that, e.g., they can be managed via
12216 causing automatic program environment updates (to be inherited by
12217 newly created child processes).
12220 In order to transparently integrate other environment variables equally
12221 they need to be imported (linked) with the command
12223 This command can also be used to set and unset non-integrated
12224 environment variables from scratch, sufficient system support provided.
12225 The following example, applicable to a POSIX shell, sets the
12227 environment variable for \*(UA only, and beforehand exports the
12229 in order to affect any further processing in the running shell:
12231 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12232 $ EDITOR="vim -u ${HOME}/.vimrc"
12234 $ COLUMNS=80 \*(uA -R
12237 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ev BaNg"
12240 The user's preferred width in column positions for the terminal screen
12242 Queried and used once on program startup, actively managed for child
12243 processes and the MLE (see
12244 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
12245 in interactive mode thereafter.
12246 Ignored in non-interactive mode, which always uses 80 columns, unless in
12252 The name of the (mailbox)
12254 to use for saving aborted messages if
12256 is set; this defaults to
12263 is set no output will be generated, otherwise the contents of the file
12268 Pathname of the text editor to use in the
12272 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
12273 A default editor is used if this value is not defined.
12277 The user's home directory.
12278 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
12279 The calling user's home directory will be used instead if this directory
12280 does not exist, is not accessible or cannot be read;
12281 it will always be used for the root user.
12282 (No test for being writable is performed to allow usage by
12283 non-privileged users within read-only jails, but dependent on the
12284 variable settings this directory is a default write target, e.g. for
12292 .It Ev LC_ALL , LC_CTYPE , LANG
12293 \*(OP The (names in lookup order of the)
12297 which indicates the used
12298 .Sx "Character sets" .
12299 Runtime changes trigger automatic updates of the entire locale system,
12300 which includes updating
12302 (except during startup if the variable has been frozen via
12307 The user's preferred number of lines on a page or the vertical screen
12308 or window size in lines.
12309 Queried and used once on program startup, actively managed for child
12310 processes in interactive mode thereafter.
12311 Ignored in non-interactive mode, which always uses 24 lines, unless in
12317 Pathname of the directory lister to use in the
12319 command when operating on local mailboxes.
12322 (path search through
12327 Upon startup \*(UA will actively ensure that this variable refers to the
12328 name of the user who runs \*(UA, in order to be able to pass a verified
12329 name to any newly created child process.
12333 Is used as the users
12335 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
12339 This is assumed to be an absolute pathname.
12343 \*(OP Overrides the default path search for
12344 .Sx "The Mailcap files" ,
12345 which is defined in the standard RFC 1524 as
12346 .Ql ~/.mailcap:\:/etc/mailcap:\:/usr/etc/mailcap:\:/usr/local/etc/mailcap .
12347 .\" TODO we should have a mailcaps-default virtual RDONLY option!
12348 (\*(UA makes it a configuration option, however.)
12349 Note this is not a search path, but a path search.
12353 Is used as a startup file instead of
12356 In order to avoid side-effects from configuration files scripts should
12357 either set this variable to
12361 command line option should be used.
12364 .It Ev MAILX_NO_SYSTEM_RC
12365 If this variable is set then reading of
12367 at startup is inhibited, i.e., the same effect is achieved as if \*(UA
12368 had been started up with the option
12370 (and according argument) or
12372 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
12376 The name of the users
12378 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
12380 A logical subset of the special
12381 .Sx "Filename transformations"
12387 Traditionally this MBOX is used as the file to save messages from the
12389 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
12390 that have been read.
12392 .Sx "Message states" .
12396 \*(IN\*(OP This variable overrides the default location of the user's
12402 Pathname of the program to use for backing the command
12406 variable enforces usage of a pager for output.
12407 The default paginator is
12409 (path search through
12412 \*(UA inspects the contents of this variable: if its contains the string
12414 then a non-existing environment variable
12421 will optionally be set to
12428 A colon-separated list of directories that is searched by the shell when
12429 looking for commands, e.g.,
12430 .Ql /bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin .
12433 .It Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT
12434 This variable is automatically looked for upon startup, see
12440 The shell to use for the commands
12445 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
12446 and when starting subprocesses.
12447 A default shell is used if this environment variable is not defined.
12450 .It Ev SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
12451 Specifies a time in seconds since the Unix epoch (1970-01-01) to be
12452 used in place of the current time.
12453 This variable is looked up upon program startup, and its existence will
12454 switch \*(UA to a reproducible mode
12455 .Pf ( Lk https://reproducible-builds.org )
12456 which uses deterministic random numbers, a special fixated pseudo
12459 This operation mode is used for development and by software packagers.
12460 \*(ID Currently an invalid setting is only ignored, rather than causing
12461 a program abortion.
12463 .Dl $ SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH=`date +%s` \*(uA
12467 \*(OP The terminal type for which output is to be prepared.
12468 For extended colour and font control please refer to
12469 .Sx "Coloured display" ,
12470 and for terminal management in general to
12471 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" .
12475 Except for the root user this variable defines the directory for
12476 temporary files to be used instead of
12478 (or the given compile-time constant) if set, existent, accessible as
12479 well as read- and writable.
12480 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment,
12481 but \*(UA will ensure at startup that this environment variable is
12482 updated to contain a usable temporary directory.
12488 (see there), but this variable is not standardized, should therefore not
12489 be used, and is only corrected if already set.
12493 Pathname of the text editor to use in the
12497 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
12507 .Bl -tag -width ".It Pa BaNg"
12509 File giving initial commands, one of the
12510 .Sx "Resource files" .
12513 System wide initialization file, one of the
12514 .Sx "Resource files" .
12518 \*(OP Personal MIME type handler definition file, see
12519 .Sx "The Mailcap files" .
12520 This location is part of the RFC 1524 standard search path, which is
12521 a configuration option and can be overridden via
12525 .It Pa /etc/mailcap
12526 \*(OP System wide MIME type handler definition file, see
12527 .Sx "The Mailcap files" .
12528 This location is part of the RFC 1524 standard search path, which is
12529 a configuration option and can be overridden via
12533 The default value for
12535 The actually used path is a configuration option.
12538 .It Pa ~/.mime.types
12539 Personal MIME types, see
12540 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
12541 The actually used path is a configuration option.
12544 .It Pa /etc/mime.types
12545 System wide MIME types, see
12546 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
12547 The actually used path is a configuration option.
12551 \*(IN\*(OP The default location of the users
12553 file \(en the section
12554 .Sx "The .netrc file"
12555 documents the file format.
12556 The actually used path is a configuration option and can be overridden via
12563 The actually used path is a compile-time constant.
12567 .\" .Ss "Resource files" {{{
12568 .Ss "Resource files"
12570 Upon startup \*(UA reads in several resource files:
12572 .Bl -tag -width ".It Pa BaNg"
12575 System wide initialization file.
12576 Reading of this file can be suppressed, either by using the
12578 (and according argument) or
12580 command line options, or by setting the
12583 .Ev MAILX_NO_SYSTEM_RC .
12587 File giving initial commands.
12588 A different file can be chosen by setting the
12592 Reading of this file can be suppressed with the
12594 command line option.
12596 .It Va mailx-extra-rc
12597 Defines a startup file to be read after all other resource files.
12598 It can be used to specify settings that are not understood by other
12600 implementations, for example.
12601 This variable is only honoured when defined in a resource file, e.g.,
12603 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" .
12607 The content of these files is interpreted as follows:
12610 .Bl -bullet -compact
12612 The whitespace characters space, tabulator and newline,
12613 as well as those defined by the variable
12615 are removed from the beginning and end of input lines.
12617 Empty lines are ignored.
12619 Any other line is interpreted as a command.
12620 It may be spread over multiple input lines if the newline character is
12622 by placing a reverse solidus character
12624 as the last character of the line; whereas any leading whitespace of
12625 follow lines is ignored, trailing whitespace before a escaped newline
12626 remains in the input.
12628 If the line (content) starts with the number sign
12630 then it is a comment-command and also ignored.
12631 (The comment-command is a real command, which does nothing, and
12632 therefore the usual follow lines mechanism applies!)
12636 Unless \*(UA is about to enter interactive mode syntax errors that occur
12637 while loading these files are treated as errors and cause program exit.
12638 More files with syntactically equal content can be
12640 The following, saved in a file, would be an examplary content:
12642 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12643 # This line is a comment command. And y\e
12644 es, it is really continued here.
12651 .\" .Ss "The mime.types files" {{{
12652 .Ss "The mime.types files"
12655 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments"
12656 \*(UA needs to learn about MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions)
12657 media types in order to classify message and attachment content.
12658 One source for them are
12660 files, the loading of which can be controlled by setting the variable
12661 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
12662 Another is the command
12664 which also offers access to \*(UAs MIME type cache.
12666 files have the following syntax:
12668 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12669 type/subtype extension [extension ...]
12670 # E.g., text/html html htm
12676 define the MIME media type, as standardized in RFC 2046:
12678 is used to declare the general type of data, while the
12680 specifies a specific format for that type of data.
12681 One or multiple filename
12683 s, separated by whitespace, can be bound to the media type format.
12684 Comments may be introduced anywhere on a line with a number sign
12686 causing the remaining line to be discarded.
12688 \*(UA also supports an extended, non-portable syntax in especially
12689 crafted files, which can be loaded via the alternative value syntax of
12690 .Va mimetypes-load-control ,
12691 and prepends an optional
12695 .Dl [type-marker ]type/subtype extension [extension ...]
12698 The following type markers are supported:
12701 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar _n_u"
12703 Treat message parts with this content as plain text.
12708 Treat message parts with this content as HTML tagsoup.
12709 If the \*(OPal HTML-tagsoup-to-text converter is not available treat
12710 the content as plain text instead.
12714 but instead of falling back to plain text require an explicit content
12715 handler to be defined.
12717 If no handler can be found a text message is displayed which says so.
12718 This can be annoying, for example signatures serve a contextual purpose,
12719 their content is of no use by itself.
12720 This marker will avoid displaying the text message.
12725 for sending messages:
12727 .Va mime-allow-text-controls ,
12728 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
12729 For reading etc. messages:
12730 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ,
12731 .Sx "The Mailcap files" ,
12733 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
12734 .Va mimetypes-load-control ,
12735 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE ,
12736 .Va pipe-EXTENSION .
12739 .\" .Ss "The Mailcap files" {{{
12740 .Ss "The Mailcap files"
12742 .\" TODO MAILCAP DISABLED
12743 .Sy This feature is not available in v14.9.0, sorry!
12745 .Dq User Agent Configuration Mechanism
12746 which \*(UA \*(OPally supports (see
12747 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ) .
12748 It defines a file format to be used to inform mail user agent programs
12749 about the locally-installed facilities for handling various data
12750 formats, i.e., about commands and how they can be used to display, edit
12751 et cetera MIME part contents, as well as a default path search that
12752 includes multiple possible locations of
12756 environment variable that can be used to overwrite that (repeating here
12757 that it is not a search path, but instead a path search specification).
12758 Any existing files will be loaded in sequence, appending any content to
12759 the list of MIME type handler directives.
12763 files consist of a set of newline separated entries.
12764 Comment lines start with a number sign
12766 (in the first column!) and are ignored.
12767 Empty lines are also ignored.
12768 All other lines form individual entries that must adhere to the syntax
12770 To extend a single entry (not comment) its line can be continued on
12771 follow lines if newline characters are
12773 by preceding them with the reverse solidus character
12775 The standard does not specify how leading whitespace of follow lines
12776 is to be treated, therefore \*(UA retains it.
12780 entries consist of a number of semicolon
12782 separated fields, and the reverse solidus
12784 character can be used to escape any following character including
12785 semicolon and itself.
12786 The first two fields are mandatory and must occur in the specified
12787 order, the remaining fields are optional and may appear in any order.
12788 Leading and trailing whitespace of content is ignored (removed).
12791 The first field defines the MIME
12793 the entry is about to handle (case-insensitively, and no reverse solidus
12794 escaping is possible in this field).
12795 If the subtype is specified as an asterisk
12797 the entry is meant to match all subtypes of the named type, e.g.,
12799 would match any audio type.
12800 The second field defines the shell command which shall be used to
12802 MIME parts of the given type; it is implicitly called the
12809 shell commands message (MIME part) data is passed via standard input
12810 unless the given shell command includes one or more instances of the
12813 in which case these instances will be replaced with a temporary filename
12814 and the data will have been stored in the file that is being pointed to.
12817 shell commands data is assumed to be generated on standard output unless
12818 the given command includes (one ore multiple)
12820 In any case any given
12822 format is replaced with a(n already) properly quoted filename.
12823 Note that when a command makes use of a temporary file via
12825 then \*(UA will remove it again, as if the
12826 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile ,
12827 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill
12829 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
12830 flags had been set; see below for more.
12833 The optional fields either define a shell command or an attribute (flag)
12834 value, the latter being a single word and the former being a keyword
12835 naming the field followed by an equals sign
12837 succeeded by a shell command, and as usual for any
12839 content any whitespace surrounding the equals sign will be removed, too.
12840 Optional fields include the following:
12843 .Bl -tag -width ".It Cd BaNg"
12845 A program that can be used to compose a new body or body part in the
12847 (Currently unused.)
12849 .It Cd composetyped
12852 field, but is to be used when the composing program needs to specify the
12854 header field to be applied to the composed data.
12855 (Currently unused.)
12858 A program that can be used to edit a body or body part in the given
12860 (Currently unused.)
12863 A program that can be used to print a message or body part in the given
12865 (Currently unused.)
12868 Specifies a program to be run to test some condition, e.g., the machine
12869 architecture, or the window system in use, to determine whether or not
12870 this mailcap entry applies.
12871 If the test fails, a subsequent mailcap entry should be sought; also see
12872 .Cd x-mailx-test-once .
12875 .It Cd needsterminal
12876 This flag field indicates that the given shell command must be run on
12877 an interactive terminal.
12878 \*(UA will temporarily release the terminal to the given command in
12879 interactive mode, in non-interactive mode this entry will be entirely
12880 ignored; this flag implies
12881 .Cd x-mailx-noquote .
12884 .It Cd copiousoutput
12885 A flag field which indicates that the output of the
12887 command will be an extended stream of textual output that can be
12888 (re)integrated into \*(UA's normal visual display.
12889 It is mutually exclusive with
12890 .Cd needsterminal .
12892 .It Cd textualnewlines
12893 A flag field which indicates that this type of data is line-oriented and
12894 that, if encoded in
12896 all newlines should be converted to canonical form (CRLF) before
12897 encoding, and will be in that form after decoding.
12898 (Currently unused.)
12900 .It Cd nametemplate
12901 This field gives a filename format, in which
12903 will be replaced by a random string, the joined combination of which
12904 will be used as the filename denoted by
12905 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY .
12906 One could specify that a GIF file being passed to an image viewer should
12907 have a name ending in
12910 .Ql nametemplate=%s.gif .
12911 Note that \*(UA ignores the name template unless that solely specifies
12912 a filename suffix that consists of (ASCII) alphabetic and numeric
12913 characters, the underscore and dot only.
12916 Names a file, in X11 bitmap (xbm) format, which points to an appropriate
12917 icon to be used to visually denote the presence of this kind of data.
12918 This field is not used by \*(UA.
12921 A textual description that describes this type of data.
12924 .It Cd x-mailx-even-if-not-interactive
12925 An extension flag test field \(em by default handlers without
12927 are entirely ignored in non-interactive mode, but if this flag is set
12928 then their use will be considered.
12929 It is an error if this flag is set for commands that use the flag
12930 .Cd needsterminal .
12933 .It Cd x-mailx-noquote
12934 An extension flag field that indicates that even a
12937 command shall not be used to generate message quotes
12938 (as it would be by default).
12941 .It Cd x-mailx-async
12942 Extension flag field that denotes that the given
12944 command shall be executed asynchronously, without blocking \*(UA.
12945 Cannot be used in conjunction with
12946 .Cd needsterminal .
12949 .It Cd x-mailx-test-once
12950 Extension flag which denotes whether the given
12952 command shall be evaluated once only and the (boolean) result be cached.
12953 This is handy if some global unchanging condition is to be queried, like
12954 .Dq running under the X Window System .
12957 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile
12958 Extension flag field that requests creation of a zero-sized temporary
12959 file, the name of which is to be placed in the environment variable
12960 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY .
12961 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
12966 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill
12967 Normally the MIME part content is passed to the handler via standard
12968 input; if this flag is set then the data will instead be written into
12970 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile .
12971 In order to cause deletion of the temporary file you will have to set
12972 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
12974 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
12979 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
12980 Extension flag field that requests that the temporary file shall be
12981 deleted automatically when the command loop is entered again at latest.
12982 (Do not use this for asynchronous handlers.)
12983 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
12985 format, or in conjunction with
12986 .Cd x-mailx-async ,
12987 or without also setting
12988 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile
12990 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill .
12993 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-keep
12996 implies the three tmpfile related flags above, but if you want, e.g.,
12998 and deal with the temporary file yourself, you can add in this flag to
13000 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink .
13005 The standard includes the possibility to define any number of additional
13006 entry fields, prefixed by
13008 Flag fields apply to the entire
13010 entry \(em in some unusual cases, this may not be desirable, but
13011 differentiation can be accomplished via separate entries, taking
13012 advantage of the fact that subsequent entries are searched if an earlier
13013 one does not provide enough information.
13016 command needs to specify the
13020 command shall not, the following will help out the latter (with enabled
13024 level \*(UA will show information about handler evaluation):
13026 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13027 application/postscript; ps-to-terminal %s; needsterminal
13028 application/postscript; ps-to-terminal %s; compose=idraw %s
13032 In fields any occurrence of the format string
13034 will be replaced by the
13037 Named parameters from the
13039 field may be placed in the command execution line using
13041 followed by the parameter name and a closing
13044 The entire parameter should appear as a single command line argument,
13045 regardless of embedded spaces; thus:
13047 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13049 Content-type: multipart/mixed; boundary=42
13052 multipart/*; /usr/local/bin/showmulti \e
13053 %t %{boundary} ; composetyped = /usr/local/bin/makemulti
13055 # Executed shell command
13056 /usr/local/bin/showmulti multipart/mixed 42
13060 .\" TODO v15: Mailcap: %n,%F
13061 Note that \*(UA does not support handlers for multipart MIME parts as
13062 shown in this example (as of today).
13063 \*(UA does not support the additional formats
13067 An example file, also showing how to properly deal with the expansion of
13069 which includes any quotes that are necessary to make it a valid shell
13070 argument by itself and thus will cause undesired behaviour when placed
13071 in additional user-provided quotes:
13073 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13075 text/richtext; richtext %s; copiousoutput
13077 text/x-perl; perl -cWT %s
13079 application/pdf; \e
13081 trap "rm -f ${infile}" EXIT\e; \e
13082 trap "exit 75" INT QUIT TERM\e; \e
13084 x-mailx-async; x-mailx-tmpfile-keep
13086 application/*; echo "This is \e"%t\e" but \e
13087 is 50 \e% Greek to me" \e; < %s head -c 1024 | cat -vET; \e
13088 copiousoutput; x-mailx-noquote
13093 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ,
13094 .Sx "The mime.types files" ,
13097 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
13098 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE ,
13099 .Va pipe-EXTENSION .
13102 .\" .Ss "The .netrc file" {{{
13103 .Ss "The .netrc file"
13107 file contains user credentials for machine accounts.
13108 The default location in the user's
13110 directory may be overridden by the
13112 environment variable.
13113 The file consists of space, tabulator or newline separated tokens.
13114 \*(UA implements a parser that supports a superset of the original BSD
13115 syntax, but users should nonetheless be aware of portability glitches
13116 of that file format, shall their
13118 be usable across multiple programs and platforms:
13121 .Bl -bullet -compact
13123 BSD does not support single, but only double quotation marks, e.g.,
13124 .Ql password="pass with spaces" .
13126 BSD (only?) supports escaping of single characters via a reverse solidus
13127 (e.g., a space can be escaped via
13129 in- as well as outside of a quoted string.
13131 BSD does not require a final quotation mark of the last user input token.
13133 The original BSD (Berknet) parser also supported a format which allowed
13134 tokens to be separated with commas \(en whereas at least Hewlett-Packard
13135 still seems to support this syntax, \*(UA does not!
13137 As a non-portable extension some widely-used programs support
13138 shell-style comments: if an input line starts, after any amount of
13139 whitespace, with a number sign
13141 then the rest of the line is ignored.
13143 Whereas other programs may require that the
13145 file is accessible by only the user if it contains a
13147 token for any other
13151 \*(UA will always require these strict permissions.
13155 Of the following list of supported tokens \*(UA only uses (and caches)
13160 At runtime the command
13162 can be used to control \*(UA's
13166 .Bl -tag -width ".It Cd BaNg"
13167 .It Cd machine Ar name
13168 The hostname of the entries' machine, lowercase-normalized by \*(UA
13170 Any further file content, until either end-of-file or the occurrence
13175 first-class token is bound (only related) to the machine
13178 As an extension that should not be the cause of any worries
13179 \*(UA supports a single wildcard prefix for
13181 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13182 machine *.example.com login USER password PASS
13183 machine pop3.example.com login USER password PASS
13184 machine smtp.example.com login USER password PASS
13190 .Ql pop3.example.com ,
13194 .Ql local.smtp.example.com .
13195 Note that in the example neither
13196 .Ql pop3.example.com
13198 .Ql smtp.example.com
13199 will be matched by the wildcard, since the exact matches take
13200 precedence (it is however faster to specify it the other way around).
13203 This is the same as
13205 except that it is a fallback entry that is used shall none of the
13206 specified machines match; only one default token may be specified,
13207 and it must be the last first-class token.
13209 .It Cd login Ar name
13210 The user name on the remote machine.
13212 .It Cd password Ar string
13213 The user's password on the remote machine.
13215 .It Cd account Ar string
13216 Supply an additional account password.
13217 This is merely for FTP purposes.
13219 .It Cd macdef Ar name
13221 A macro is defined with the specified
13223 it is formed from all lines beginning with the next line and continuing
13224 until a blank line is (consecutive newline characters are) encountered.
13227 entries cannot be utilized by multiple machines, too, but must be
13228 defined following the
13230 they are intended to be used with.)
13233 exists, it is automatically run as the last step of the login process.
13234 This is merely for FTP purposes.
13241 .\" .Sh EXAMPLES {{{
13244 .\" .Ss "An example configuration" {{{
13245 .Ss "An example configuration"
13247 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13248 # This example assumes v15.0 compatibility mode
13251 # Request strict SSL/TLS transport security checks
13252 set ssl-verify=strict
13254 # Where are the up-to-date SSL/TLS certificates?
13255 # (Since we manage up-to-date ones explicitly, do not use any,
13256 # possibly outdated, default certificates shipped with OpenSSL)
13257 #set ssl-ca-dir=/etc/ssl/certs
13258 set ssl-ca-file=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
13259 set ssl-ca-no-defaults
13260 #set ssl-ca-flags=partial-chain
13261 wysh set smime-ca-file="${ssl-ca-file}" \e
13262 smime-ca-no-defaults #smime-ca-flags="${ssl-ca-flags}"
13264 # This could be outsourced to a central configuration file via
13265 # ssl-config-file plus ssl-config-module if the used library allows.
13266 # CipherList: explicitly define the list of ciphers, which may
13267 # improve security, especially with protocols older than TLS v1.2.
13268 # See ciphers(1). Possibly best to only use ssl-cipher-list-HOST
13269 # (or -USER@HOST), as necessary, again..
13270 # Curves: especially with TLSv1.3 curves selection may be desired.
13271 # MinProtocol,MaxProtocol: do not use protocols older than TLS v1.2.
13272 # Change this only when the remote server does not support it:
13273 # maybe use chain support via ssl-config-pairs-HOST / -USER@HOST
13274 # to define such explicit exceptions, then, e.g.
13275 # MinProtocol=TLSv1.1
13276 if [ "$ssl-features" =% +ctx-set-maxmin-proto ]
13277 wysh set ssl-config-pairs='\e
13278 CipherList=TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:@STRENGTH,\e
13279 Curves=P-521:P-384:P-256,\e
13280 MinProtocol=TLSv1.1'
13282 wysh set ssl-config-pairs='\e
13283 CipherList=TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:@STRENGTH,\e
13284 Curves=P-521:P-384:P-256,\e
13285 Protocol=-ALL\e,+TLSv1.1 \e, +TLSv1.2'
13288 # Essential setting: select allowed character sets
13289 set sendcharsets=utf-8,iso-8859-1
13291 # A very kind option: when replying to a message, first try to
13292 # use the same encoding that the original poster used herself!
13293 set reply-in-same-charset
13295 # When replying, do not merge From: and To: of the original message
13296 # into To:. Instead old From: -> new To:, old To: -> merge Cc:.
13297 set recipients-in-cc
13299 # When sending messages, wait until the Mail-Transfer-Agent finishs.
13300 # Only like this you will be able to see errors reported through the
13301 # exit status of the MTA (including the built-in SMTP one)!
13304 # Only use built-in MIME types, no mime.types(5) files
13305 set mimetypes-load-control
13307 # Default directory where we act in (relative to $HOME)
13309 # A leading "+" (often) means: under *folder*
13310 # *record* is used to save copies of sent messages
13311 set MBOX=+mbox.mbox DEAD=+dead.txt \e
13312 record=+sent.mbox record-files record-resent
13314 # Make "file mymbox" and "file myrec" go to..
13315 shortcut mymbox %:+mbox.mbox myrec +sent.mbox
13317 # Not really optional, e.g., for S/MIME
13318 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
13320 # It may be necessary to set hostname and/or smtp-hostname
13321 # if the "SERVER" of mta and "domain" of from do not match.
13322 # The `urlencode' command can be used to encode USER and PASS
13323 set mta=(smtps?|submission)://[USER[:PASS]@]SERVER[:PORT] \e
13324 smtp-auth=login/plain... \e
13327 # Never refuse to start into interactive mode, and more
13329 colour-pager crt= \e
13330 followup-to followup-to-honour=ask-yes fullnames \e
13331 history-file=+.\*(uAhist history-size=-1 history-gabby \e
13332 mime-counter-evidence=0b1111 \e
13333 prompt='?\e$?!\e$!/\e$^ERRNAME[\e$account#\e$mailbox-display]? ' \e
13334 reply-to-honour=ask-yes \e
13337 # Only include the selected header fields when typing messages
13338 headerpick type retain from_ date from to cc subject \e
13339 message-id mail-followup-to reply-to
13340 # ...when forwarding messages
13341 headerpick forward retain subject date from to cc
13342 # ...when saving message, etc.
13343 #headerpick save ignore ^Original-.*$ ^X-.*$
13345 # Some mailing lists
13346 mlist '@xyz-editor\e.xyz$' '@xyzf\e.xyz$'
13347 mlsubscribe '^xfans@xfans\e.xyz$'
13349 # Handle a few file extensions (to store MBOX databases)
13350 filetype bz2 'bzip2 -dc' 'bzip2 -zc' \e
13351 gz 'gzip -dc' 'gzip -c' xz 'xz -dc' 'xz -zc' \e
13352 zst 'zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc' \e
13353 zst.pgp 'gpg -d | zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc | gpg -e'
13355 # A real life example of a very huge free mail provider
13356 # Instead of directly placing content inside `account',
13357 # we `define' a macro: like that we can switch "accounts"
13358 # from within *on-compose-splice*, for example!
13360 set folder=~/spool/XooglX inbox=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
13361 set from='Your Name <address@examp.ple>'
13363 set pop3-no-apop-pop.gmXil.com
13364 shortcut pop %:pop3s://pop.gmXil.com
13365 shortcut imap %:imaps://imap.gmXil.com
13366 #set record="+[Gmail]/Sent Mail"
13367 # Select: File imaps://imap.gmXil.com/[Gmail]/Sent\e Mail
13369 set mta=smtp://USER:PASS@smtp.gmXil.com smtp-use-starttls
13371 set mta=smtps://USER:PASS@smtp.gmail.com:465
13377 # Here is a pretty large one which does not allow sending mails
13378 # if there is a domain name mismatch on the SMTP protocol level,
13379 # which would bite us if the value of from does not match, e.g.,
13380 # for people who have a sXXXXeforge project and want to speak
13381 # with the mailing list under their project account (in from),
13382 # still sending the message through their normal mail provider
13384 set folder=~/spool/XandeX inbox=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
13385 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
13387 shortcut pop %:pop3s://pop.yaXXex.com
13388 shortcut imap %:imaps://imap.yaXXex.com
13390 set mta=smtps://USER:PASS@smtp.yaXXex.com:465 \e
13391 hostname=yaXXex.com smtp-hostname=
13397 # Create some new commands so that, e.g., `ls /tmp' will..
13398 commandalias lls '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFlrS'
13399 commandalias llS '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFlS'
13401 set pipe-message/external-body='@* echo $MAILX_EXTERNAL_BODY_URL'
13403 # We do not support gpg(1) directly yet. But simple --clearsign'd
13404 # message parts can be dealt with as follows:
13407 wysh set pipe-text/plain=$'@*#++=@\e
13408 < "${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}" awk \e
13409 -v TMPFILE="${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}" \e'\e
13411 /^-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----/,/^$/ {\e
13414 print "--- GPG --verify ---";\e
13415 system("gpg --verify " TMPFILE " 2>&1");\e
13416 print "--- GPG --verify ---";\e
13420 /^-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----/,\e
13421 /^-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----/{\e
13428 commandalias V '\e'call V
13432 When storing passwords in
13434 appropriate permissions should be set on this file with
13435 .Ql $ chmod 0600 \*(ur .
13438 is available user credentials can be stored in the central
13440 file instead; e.g., here is a different version of the example account
13441 that sets up SMTP and POP3:
13443 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13445 set folder=~/spool/XandeX inbox=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
13446 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
13448 # Load an encrypted ~/.netrc by uncommenting the next line
13449 #set netrc-pipe='gpg -qd ~/.netrc.pgp'
13451 set mta=smtps://smtp.yXXXXx.ru:465 \e
13452 smtp-hostname= hostname=yXXXXx.com
13453 set pop3-keepalive=240 pop3-no-apop-pop.yXXXXx.ru
13454 commandalias xp fi pop3s://pop.yXXXXx.ru
13466 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13467 machine *.yXXXXx.ru login USER password PASS
13471 This configuration should now work just fine:
13474 .Dl $ echo text | \*(uA -dvv -AXandeX -s Subject user@exam.ple
13477 .\" .Ss "S/MIME step by step" {{{
13478 .Ss "S/MIME step by step"
13480 \*(OP The first thing you need for participating in S/MIME message
13481 exchange is your personal certificate, including a private key.
13482 The certificate contains public information, in particular your name and
13483 your email address(es), and the public key that is used by others to
13484 encrypt messages for you,
13485 and to verify signed messages they supposedly received from you.
13486 The certificate is included in each signed message you send.
13487 The private key must be kept secret.
13488 It is used to decrypt messages that were previously encrypted with your
13489 public key, and to sign messages.
13492 For personal use it is recommended that you get a S/MIME certificate
13493 from one of the major CAs on the Internet using your WWW browser.
13494 Many CAs offer such certificates for free.
13496 .Lk https://www.CAcert.org
13497 which issues client and server certificates to members of their
13498 community for free; their root certificate
13499 .Pf ( Lk https://\:www.cacert.org/\:certs/\:root.crt )
13500 is often not in the default set of trusted CA root certificates, though,
13501 which means you will have to download their root certificate separately
13502 and ensure it is part of our S/MIME certificate validation chain by
13505 or as a vivid member of the
13506 .Va smime-ca-file .
13507 But let us take a step-by-step tour on how to setup S/MIME with
13508 a certificate from CAcert.org despite this situation!
13511 First of all you will have to become a member of the CAcert.org
13512 community, simply by registrating yourself via the web interface.
13513 Once you are, create and verify all email addresses you want to be able
13514 to create signed and encrypted messages for/with using the corresponding
13515 entries of the web interface.
13516 Now ready to create S/MIME certificates, so let us create a new
13517 .Dq client certificate ,
13518 ensure to include all email addresses that should be covered by the
13519 certificate in the following web form, and also to use your name as the
13523 Create a private key and a certificate request on your local computer
13524 (please see the manual pages of the used commands for more in-depth
13525 knowledge on what the used arguments etc. do):
13528 .Dl $ openssl req -nodes -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout key.pem -out creq.pem
13531 Afterwards copy-and-paste the content of
13533 into the certificate-request (CSR) field of the web form on the
13534 CAcert.org website (you may need to unfold some
13535 .Dq advanced options
13536 to see the corresponding text field).
13537 This last step will ensure that your private key (which never left your
13538 box) and the certificate belong together (through the public key that
13539 will find its way into the certificate via the certificate-request).
13540 You are now ready and can create your CAcert certified certificate.
13541 Download and store or copy-and-paste it as
13546 In order to use your new S/MIME setup a combined private key/public key
13547 (certificate) file has to be created:
13550 .Dl $ cat key.pem pub.crt > ME@HERE.com.paired
13553 This is the file \*(UA will work with.
13554 If you have created your private key with a passphrase then \*(UA will
13555 ask you for it whenever a message is signed or decrypted.
13556 Set the following variables to henceforth use S/MIME (setting
13558 is of interest for verification only):
13560 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13561 ? set smime-ca-file=ALL-TRUSTED-ROOT-CERTS-HERE \e
13562 smime-sign-cert=ME@HERE.com.paired \e
13563 smime-sign-message-digest=SHA256 \e
13569 .\" .Ss "Using CRLs with S/MIME or SSL/TLS" {{{
13570 .Ss "Using CRLs with S/MIME or SSL/TLS"
13572 \*(OP Certification authorities (CAs) issue certificate revocation
13573 lists (CRLs) on a regular basis.
13574 These lists contain the serial numbers of certificates that have been
13575 declared invalid after they have been issued.
13576 Such usually happens because the private key for the certificate has
13578 because the owner of the certificate has left the organization that is
13579 mentioned in the certificate, etc.
13580 To seriously use S/MIME or SSL/TLS verification,
13581 an up-to-date CRL is required for each trusted CA.
13582 There is otherwise no method to distinguish between valid and
13583 invalidated certificates.
13584 \*(UA currently offers no mechanism to fetch CRLs, nor to access them on
13585 the Internet, so they have to be retrieved by some external mechanism.
13588 \*(UA accepts CRLs in PEM format only;
13589 CRLs in DER format must be converted, like, e.\|g.:
13592 .Dl $ openssl crl \-inform DER \-in crl.der \-out crl.pem
13595 To tell \*(UA about the CRLs, a directory that contains all CRL files
13596 (and no other files) must be created.
13601 variables, respectively, must then be set to point to that directory.
13602 After that, \*(UA requires a CRL to be present for each CA that is used
13603 to verify a certificate.
13612 In general it is a good idea to turn on
13618 twice) if something does not work well.
13619 Very often a diagnostic message can be produced that leads to the
13620 problems' solution.
13622 .\" .Ss "\*(UA shortly hangs on startup" {{{
13623 .Ss "\*(UA shortly hangs on startup"
13625 This can have two reasons, one is the necessity to wait for a file lock
13626 and cannot be helped, the other being that \*(UA calls the function
13628 in order to query the nodename of the box (sometimes the real one is
13629 needed instead of the one represented by the internal variable
13631 One may have varying success by ensuring that the real hostname and
13635 or, more generally, that the name service is properly setup \(en
13638 return the expected value?
13639 Does this local hostname have a domain suffix?
13640 RFC 6762 standardized the link-local top-level domain
13642 try again after adding an (additional) entry with this extension.
13645 .\" .Ss "I cannot login to Google mail aka GMail" {{{
13646 .Ss "I cannot login to Google mail aka GMail"
13648 Since 2014 some free service providers classify programs as
13650 unless they use a special authentication method (OAuth 2.0) which
13651 was not standardized for non-HTTP protocol authentication token query
13652 until August 2015 (RFC 7628).
13655 Different to Kerberos / GSSAPI, which is developed since the mid of the
13656 1980s, where a user can easily create a local authentication ticket for
13657 her- and himself with the locally installed
13659 program, that protocol has no such local part but instead requires
13660 a world-wide-web query to create or fetch a token; since there is no
13661 local cache this query would have to be performed whenever \*(UA is
13662 invoked (in interactive sessions situation may differ).
13665 \*(UA does not support OAuth.
13666 Because of this it is necessary to declare \*(UA a
13667 .Dq less secure app
13668 (on the providers account web page) in order to read and send mail.
13669 However, it also seems possible to take the following steps instead:
13674 give the provider the number of a mobile phone,
13677 .Dq 2-Step Verification ,
13679 create an application specific password (16 characters), and
13681 use that special password instead of the real Google account password in
13682 \*(UA (for more on that see the section
13683 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) .
13687 .\" .Ss "Not \(dqdefunctional\(dq, but the editor key does not work" {{{
13688 .Ss "Not \(dqdefunctional\(dq, but the editor key does not work"
13690 It can happen that the terminal library (see
13691 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor",
13694 reports different codes than the terminal really sends, in which case
13695 \*(UA will tell that a key binding is functional, but will not be able to
13696 recognize it because the received data does not match anything expected.
13697 Especially without the \*(OPal terminal capability library support one
13698 reason for this may be that the (possibly even non-existing) keypad
13699 is not turned on and the resulting layout reports the keypad control
13700 codes for the normal keyboard keys.
13705 ings will show the byte sequences that are expected.
13708 To overcome the situation, use, e.g., the program
13710 in conjunction with the command line option
13712 if available, to see the byte sequences which are actually produced
13713 by keypresses, and use the variable
13715 to make \*(UA aware of them.
13716 E.g., the terminal this is typed on produces some false sequences, here
13717 an example showing the shifted home key:
13719 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13722 # 1B 5B=[ 31=1 3B=; 32=2 48=H
13727 ? \*(uA -v -Stermcap='kHOM=\eE[H'
13734 .\" .Ss "Can \*(UA git-send-email?" {{{
13735 .Ss "Can \*(UA git-send-email?"
13738 Put (at least parts of) the following in your
13741 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13743 smtpserver = /usr/bin/s-mailx
13744 smtpserveroption = -t
13745 #smtpserveroption = -Sexpandaddr
13746 smtpserveroption = -Athe-account-you-need
13749 suppressfrom = false
13750 assume8bitEncoding = UTF-8
13753 chainreplyto = true
13764 .\" .Sh "IMAP CLIENT" {{{
13767 \*(OPally there is IMAP client support available.
13768 This part of the program is obsolete and will vanish in v15 with the
13769 large MIME and I/O layer rewrite, because it uses old-style blocking I/O
13770 and makes excessive use of signal based long code jumps.
13771 Support can hopefully be readded later based on a new-style I/O, with
13772 SysV signal handling.
13773 In fact the IMAP support had already been removed from the codebase, but
13774 was reinstantiated on user demand: in effect the IMAP code is at the
13775 level of \*(UA v14.8.16 (with
13777 being the sole exception), and should be treated with some care.
13784 protocol prefixes, and an IMAP-based
13787 IMAP URLs (paths) undergo inspections and possible transformations
13788 before use (and the command
13790 can be used to manually apply them to any given argument).
13791 Hierarchy delimiters are normalized, a step which is configurable via the
13793 variable chain, but defaults to the first seen delimiter otherwise.
13794 \*(UA supports internationalised IMAP names, and en- and decodes the
13795 names from and to the
13797 as necessary and possible.
13798 If a mailbox name is expanded (see
13799 .Sx "Filename transformations" )
13800 to an IMAP mailbox, all names that begin with `+' then refer to IMAP
13801 mailboxes below the
13803 target box, while folder names prefixed by `@' refer to folders below
13804 the hierarchy base, e.g., the following lists all folders below the
13805 current one when in an IMAP mailbox:
13809 Note: some IMAP servers do not accept the creation of mailboxes in
13810 the hierarchy base, but require that they are created as subfolders of
13811 `INBOX' \(en with such servers a folder name of the form
13813 .Dl imaps://mylogin@imap.myisp.example/INBOX.
13815 should be used (the last character is the server's hierarchy
13817 The following IMAP-specific commands exist:
13820 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ic BaNg"
13823 Only applicable to cached IMAP mailboxes;
13824 takes a message list and reads the specified messages into the IMAP
13829 If operating in disconnected mode on an IMAP mailbox,
13830 switch to online mode and connect to the mail server while retaining
13831 the mailbox status.
13832 See the description of the
13834 variable for more information.
13838 If operating in online mode on an IMAP mailbox,
13839 switch to disconnected mode while retaining the mailbox status.
13840 See the description of the
13843 A list of messages may optionally be given as argument;
13844 the respective messages are then read into the cache before the
13845 connection is closed, thus
13847 makes the entire mailbox available for disconnected use.
13851 Sends command strings directly to the current IMAP server.
13852 \*(UA operates always in IMAP `selected state' on the current mailbox;
13853 commands that change this will produce undesirable results and should be
13855 Useful IMAP commands are:
13856 .Bl -tag -offset indent -width ".Ic getquotearoot"
13858 Takes the name of an IMAP mailbox as an argument and creates it.
13860 (RFC 2087) Takes the name of an IMAP mailbox as an argument
13861 and prints the quotas that apply to the mailbox.
13862 Not all IMAP servers support this command.
13864 (RFC 2342) Takes no arguments and prints the Personal Namespaces,
13865 the Other User's Namespaces and the Shared Namespaces.
13866 Each namespace type is printed in parentheses;
13867 if there are multiple namespaces of the same type,
13868 inner parentheses separate them.
13869 For each namespace a prefix and a hierarchy separator is listed.
13870 Not all IMAP servers support this command.
13875 Perform IMAP path transformations.
13879 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) ,
13880 and manages the error number
13882 The first argument specifies the operation:
13884 normalizes hierarchy delimiters (see
13886 and converts the strings from the locale
13888 to the internationalized variant used by IMAP,
13890 performs the reverse operation.
13895 The following IMAP-specific internal variables exist:
13898 .Bl -tag -width ".It Va BaNg"
13900 .It Va disconnected
13901 \*(BO When an IMAP mailbox is selected and this variable is set,
13902 no connection to the server is initiated.
13903 Instead, data is obtained from the local cache (see
13906 Mailboxes that are not present in the cache
13907 and messages that have not yet entirely been fetched from the server
13909 to fetch all messages in a mailbox at once,
13911 .No ` Ns Li copy * /dev/null Ns '
13912 can be used while still in connected mode.
13913 Changes that are made to IMAP mailboxes in disconnected mode are queued
13914 and committed later when a connection to that server is made.
13915 This procedure is not completely reliable since it cannot be guaranteed
13916 that the IMAP unique identifiers (UIDs) on the server still match the
13917 ones in the cache at that time.
13920 when this problem occurs.
13922 .It Va disconnected-USER@HOST
13923 The specified account is handled as described for the
13926 but other accounts are not affected.
13929 .It Va imap-auth-USER@HOST , imap-auth
13930 Sets the IMAP authentication method.
13931 Valid values are `login' for the usual password-based authentication
13933 `cram-md5', which is a password-based authentication that does not send
13934 the password over the network in clear text,
13935 and `gssapi' for GSS-API based authentication.
13939 Enables caching of IMAP mailboxes.
13940 The value of this variable must point to a directory that is either
13941 existent or can be created by \*(UA.
13942 All contents of the cache can be deleted by \*(UA at any time;
13943 it is not safe to make assumptions about them.
13946 .It Va imap-delim-USER@HOST , imap-delim-HOST , imap-delim
13947 The hierarchy separator used by the IMAP server.
13948 Whenever an IMAP path is specified it will undergo normalization.
13949 One of the normalization steps is the squeezing and adjustment of
13950 hierarchy separators.
13951 If this variable is set, any occurrence of any character of the given
13952 value that exists in the path will be replaced by the first member of
13953 the value; an empty value will cause the default to be used, it is
13955 If not set, we will reuse the first hierarchy separator character that
13956 is discovered in a user-given mailbox name.
13958 .Mx Va imap-keepalive
13959 .It Va imap-keepalive-USER@HOST , imap-keepalive-HOST , imap-keepalive
13960 IMAP servers may close the connection after a period of
13961 inactivity; the standard requires this to be at least 30 minutes,
13962 but practical experience may vary.
13963 Setting this variable to a numeric `value' greater than 0 causes
13964 a `NOOP' command to be sent each `value' seconds if no other operation
13968 .It Va imap-list-depth
13969 When retrieving the list of folders on an IMAP server, the
13971 command stops after it has reached a certain depth to avoid possible
13973 The value of this variable sets the maximum depth allowed.
13975 If the folder separator on the current IMAP server is a slash `/',
13976 this variable has no effect and the
13978 command does not descend to subfolders.
13980 .Mx Va imap-use-starttls
13981 .It Va imap-use-starttls-USER@HOST , imap-use-starttls-HOST , imap-use-starttls
13982 Causes \*(UA to issue a `STARTTLS' command to make an unencrypted
13983 IMAP session SSL/TLS encrypted.
13984 This functionality is not supported by all servers,
13985 and is not used if the session is already encrypted by the IMAPS method.
13991 .\" .Sh "SEE ALSO" {{{
14001 .Xr spamassassin 1 ,
14010 .Xr mailwrapper 8 ,
14016 .\" .Sh HISTORY {{{
14019 M. Douglas McIlroy writes in his article
14020 .Dq A Research UNIX Reader: Annotated Excerpts \
14021 from the Programmer's Manual, 1971-1986
14024 command already appeared in First Edition
14028 .Bd -ragged -offset indent
14029 Electronic mail was there from the start.
14030 Never satisfied with its exact behavior, everybody touched it at one
14031 time or another: to assure the safety of simultaneous access, to improve
14032 privacy, to survive crashes, to exploit uucp, to screen out foreign
14033 freeloaders, or whatever.
14034 Not until v7 did the interface change (Thompson).
14035 Later, as mail became global in its reach, Dave Presotto took charge and
14036 brought order to communications with a grab-bag of external networks
14042 Mail was written in 1978 by Kurt Shoens and developed as part of the
14045 distribution until 1995.
14046 Mail has then seen further development in open source
14048 variants, noticeably by Christos Zoulas in
14050 Based upon this Nail, later Heirloom Mailx, was developed by Gunnar
14051 Ritter in the years 2000 until 2008.
14052 Since 2012 S-nail is maintained by Steffen (Daode) Nurpmeso.
14053 This man page is derived from
14054 .Dq The Mail Reference Manual
14055 that was originally written by Kurt Shoens.
14063 .An "Kurt Shoens" ,
14064 .An "Edward Wang" ,
14065 .An "Keith Bostic" ,
14066 .An "Christos Zoulas" ,
14067 .An "Gunnar Ritter" .
14068 \*(UA is developed by
14069 .An "Steffen Nurpmeso" Aq steffen@sdaoden.eu .
14072 .\" .Sh CAVEATS {{{
14075 \*(ID Interrupting an operation via
14079 from anywhere else but a command prompt is very problematic and likely
14080 to leave the program in an undefined state: many library functions
14081 cannot deal with the
14083 that this software (still) performs; even though efforts have been taken
14084 to address this, no sooner but in v15 it will have been worked out:
14085 interruptions have not been disabled in order to allow forceful breakage
14086 of hanging network connections, for example (all this is unrelated to
14090 The SMTP and POP3 protocol support of \*(UA is very basic.
14091 Also, if it fails to contact its upstream SMTP server, it will not make
14092 further attempts to transfer the message at a later time (setting
14097 If this is a concern, it might be better to set up a local SMTP server
14098 that is capable of message queuing.
14105 After deleting some message of a POP3 mailbox the header summary falsely
14106 claims that there are no messages to display, one needs to perform
14107 a scroll or dot movement to restore proper state.
14109 In threaded display a power user may encounter crashes very
14110 occasionally (this is may and very).
14114 in the source repository lists future directions.
14117 Please report bugs to the
14119 address, e.g., from within \*(uA:
14120 .\" v15-compat: drop eval as `mail' will expand variable?
14121 .Ql ? Ns \| Ic eval Ns \| Ic mail Ns \| $contact-mail .
14122 Including the output of the command
14124 may be helpful, e.g.,
14126 .Bd -literal -offset indent
14127 ? vput version xy; wysh set escape=!; eval mail $contact-mail
14134 More information is available on the web:
14135 .Ql $ \*(uA -X 'echo Ns \| $ Ns Va contact-web Ns ' -Xx .