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 v14.9.10 / 2018-03-25
44 .ds VD \\%~/dead.letter
48 .ds vS /etc/mime.types
56 .ds OU [no v15-compat]
57 .ds ID [v15 behaviour may differ]
58 .ds NQ [Only new quoting rules]
62 .if !d str-Lb-libterminfo \
63 .ds str-Lb-libterminfo Terminal Information Library (libterminfo, \-lterminfo)
72 .Nd send and receive Internet mail
78 .\" Keep in SYNC: ./nail.1:"SYNOPSIS, main()
84 .Op : Ns Fl a Ar attachment Ns \&:
85 .Op : Ns Fl b Ar bcc-addr Ns \&:
86 .Op : Ns Fl C Ar """custom:\0header""" Ns \&:
87 .Op : Ns Fl c Ar cc-addr Ns \&:
88 .Op Fl M Ar type | Fl m Ar file | Fl q Ar file | Fl t
91 .Fl S Ar var Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value Ns
94 .Op : Ns Fl X Ar cmd Ns \&:
96 .Pf : Ar to-addr Ns \&:
97 .Op Fl Fl \~ Ns : Ns Ar mta-option Ns \&:
105 .Op : Ns Fl C Ar """custom:\0header""" Ns \&:
107 .Op Fl r Ar from-addr
109 .Fl S Ar var Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value Ns
112 .Op : Ns Fl X Ar cmd Ns \&:
113 .Op Fl Fl \~ Ns : Ns Ar mta-option Ns \&:
120 .Op : Ns Fl C Ar """custom:\0header""" Ns \&:
123 .Op Fl r Ar from-addr
125 .Fl S Ar var Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value Ns
127 .Op : Ns Fl X Ar cmd Ns \&:
129 .Op Fl Fl \~ Ns : Ns Ar mta-option Ns \&:
135 .Fl V | Fl Fl version
140 .Mx -toc -tree html pdf ps xhtml
143 .\" .Sh DESCRIPTION {{{
146 .Bd -filled -compact -offset indent
147 .Sy Compatibility note:
148 S-nail (\*(UA) will wrap up into \%S-mailx in v15.0 (circa 2020).
149 Backward incompatibility has to be expected \(en
152 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
153 rules, for example, and shell metacharacters will become meaningful.
154 New and old behaviour is flagged \*(IN and \*(OU, and setting
157 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
158 will choose new behaviour when applicable.
159 \*(OB flags what will vanish, and enabling
163 enables obsoletion warnings.
167 \*(UA provides a simple and friendly environment for sending and
169 It is intended to provide the functionality of the POSIX
171 command, but is MIME capable and optionally offers extensions for
172 line editing, S/MIME, SMTP and POP3, among others.
173 \*(UA divides incoming mail into its constituent messages and allows
174 the user to deal with them in any order.
178 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
179 for manipulating messages and sending mail.
180 It provides the user simple editing capabilities to ease the composition
181 of outgoing messages, and increasingly powerful and reliable
182 non-interactive scripting capabilities.
184 .\" .Ss "Options" {{{
187 .Bl -tag -width ".It Fl BaNg"
190 Explicitly control which of the
194 d (loaded): if the letter
196 is (case-insensitively) part of the
200 is sourced, likewise the letter
202 controls sourcing of the user's personal
204 file, whereas the letters
208 explicitly forbid sourcing of any resource files.
209 Scripts should use this option: to avoid environmental noise they should
211 from any configuration and create a script-specific environment, setting
213 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
216 and running configurating commands via
218 This option overrides
225 command for the given user email
227 after program startup is complete (all resource files are loaded, any
229 setting is being established; only
231 commands have not been evaluated yet).
232 Being a special incarnation of
234 macros for the purpose of bundling longer-lived
236 tings, activating such an email account also switches to the accounts
238 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
241 If the operation fails the program will exit if it is used
242 non-interactively, or if any of
249 .It Fl a Ar file Ns Op Ar =input-charset Ns Op Ar #output-charset
252 to the message (for compose mode opportunities refer to
256 .Sx "Filename transformations"
259 will be performed, except that shell variables are not expanded.
262 not be accessible but contain a
264 character, then anything before the last
266 will be used as the filename, anything thereafter as a character set
269 If an input character set is specified,
270 .Mx -ix "character set specification"
271 but no output character set, then the given input character set is fixed
272 as-is, and no conversion will be applied;
273 giving the empty string or the special string hyphen-minus
275 will be treated as if
277 has been specified (the default).
279 If an output character set has also been given then the conversion will
280 be performed exactly as specified and on-the-fly, not considering the
281 file type and content.
282 As an exception, if the output character set is specified as the empty
283 string or hyphen-minus
285 then the default conversion algorithm (see
286 .Sx "Character sets" )
287 is applied (therefore no conversion is performed on-the-fly,
289 will be MIME-classified and its contents will be inspected first) \(em
290 without support for character set conversions
292 does not include the term
294 only this argument is supported.
297 (\*(OB: \*(UA will always use line-buffered output, to gain
298 line-buffered input even in batch mode enable batch mode via
303 Send a blind carbon copy to
310 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
312 The option may be used multiple times.
314 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
317 .It Fl C Ar """field: body"""
318 Create a custom header which persists for an entire session.
319 A custom header consists of the field name followed by a colon
321 and the field content body, e.g.,
322 .Ql -C """Blah: Neminem laede; imo omnes, quantum potes, juva""" .
323 Standard header field names cannot be overwritten by custom headers.
324 Runtime adjustable custom headers are available via the variable
329 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ,
330 is the most flexible and powerful option to manage message headers.
331 This option may be used multiple times.
335 Send carbon copies to the given receiver, if so allowed by
337 May be used multiple times.
347 Almost enable a sandbox mode with the internal variable
349 the same can be achieved via
350 .Ql Fl S Va \&\&debug
352 .Ql Ic set Va \&\&debug .
358 and thus discard messages with an empty message part body.
362 Just check if mail is present (in the system
364 or the one specified via
366 if yes, return an exit status of zero, a non-zero value otherwise.
367 To restrict the set of mails to consider in this evaluation a message
368 specification can be added with the option
373 Save the message to send in a file named after the local part of the
374 first recipient's address (instead of in
379 Read in the contents of the user's
381 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
383 (or the specified file) for processing;
384 when \*(UA is quit, it writes undeleted messages back to this file
390 argument will undergo some special
391 .Sx "Filename transformations"
396 is not an argument to the flag
398 but is instead taken from the command line after option processing has
402 that starts with a hyphen-minus, prefix with a relative path, as in
403 .Ql ./-hyphenbox.mbox .
409 and exit; a configurable summary view is available via the
415 Show a short usage summary.
421 to ignore tty interrupt signals.
427 of all messages that match the given
431 .Sx "Specifying messages"
436 option has been given in addition no header summary is produced,
437 but \*(UA will instead indicate via its exit status whether
443 note that any verbose output is suppressed in this mode and must instead
444 be enabled explicitly (e.g., by using the option
449 Special send mode that will flag standard input with the MIME
453 and use it as the main message body.
454 \*(ID Using this option will bypass processing of
455 .Va message-inject-head
457 .Va message-inject-tail .
463 Special send mode that will MIME classify the specified
465 and use it as the main message body.
466 \*(ID Using this option will bypass processing of
467 .Va message-inject-head
469 .Va message-inject-tail .
475 inhibit the initial display of message headers when reading mail or
480 for the internal variable
485 Standard flag that inhibits reading the system wide
490 allows more control over the startup sequence; also see
491 .Sx "Resource files" .
495 Special send mode that will initialize the message body with the
496 contents of the specified
498 which may be standard input
500 only in non-interactive context.
510 opened will be in read-only mode.
514 .It Fl r Ar from-addr
515 Whereas the source address that appears in the
517 header of a message (or in the
519 header if the former contains multiple addresses) is honoured by the
520 builtin SMTP transport, it is not used by a file-based
522 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) for the RFC 5321 reverse-path used for relaying
523 and delegating a message to its destination(s), for delivery errors
524 etc., but it instead uses the local identity of the initiating user.
527 When this command line option is used the given
529 will be assigned to the internal variable
531 but in addition the command line option
532 .Fl \&\&f Ar from-addr
533 will be passed to a file-based
535 whenever a message is sent.
538 include a user name the address components will be separated and
539 the name part will be passed to a file-based
545 If an empty string is passed as
547 then the content of the variable
549 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
551 will be evaluated and used for this purpose whenever the file-based
560 command line options are used when contacting a file-based MTA, unless
561 this automatic deduction is enforced by
563 ing the internal variable
564 .Va r-option-implicit .
567 Remarks: many default installations and sites disallow overriding the
568 local user identity like this unless either the MTA has been configured
569 accordingly or the user is member of a group with special privileges.
570 Passing an invalid address will cause an error.
574 .It Fl S Ar var Ns Op = Ns value
576 (or, with a prefix string
579 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
582 iable and optionally assign
584 if supported; \*(ID the entire expression is evaluated as if specified
585 within dollar-single-quotes (see
586 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" )
587 if the internal variable
590 If the operation fails the program will exit if any of
595 Settings established via
597 cannot be changed from within
599 or an account switch initiated by
601 They will become mutable again before commands registered via
607 Specify the subject of the message to be sent.
608 Newline (NL) and carriage-return (CR) bytes are invalid and will be
609 normalized to space (SP) characters.
613 The message given (on standard input) is expected to contain, separated
614 from the message body by an empty line, a message header with
619 fields giving its recipients, which will be added to any recipients
620 specified on the command line.
621 If a message subject is specified via
623 then it will be used in favour of one given on the command line.
639 .Ql Mail-Followup-To: ,
640 by default created automatically dependent on message context, will
641 be used if specified (a special address massage will however still occur
643 Any other custom header field (also see
648 is passed through entirely
649 unchanged, and in conjunction with the options
653 it is possible to embed
654 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
662 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
665 appropriate privileges presumed; effectively identical to
666 .Ql Fl \&\&f Ns \0%user .
675 will also show the list of
677 .Ql $ \*(uA -Xversion -Xx .
682 ting the internal variable
684 enables display of some informational context messages.
685 Using it twice increases the level of verbosity.
689 Add the given (or multiple for a multiline argument)
691 to the list of commands to be executed,
692 as a last step of program startup, before normal operation starts.
693 This is the only possibility to execute commands in non-interactive mode
694 when reading startup files has been disabled.
695 The commands will be evaluated as a unit, just as via
705 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
706 in compose mode even in non-interactive use cases.
707 This can be used to, e.g., automatically format the composed message
708 text before sending the message:
709 .Bd -literal -offset indent
710 $ ( echo 'line one. Word. Word2.';\e
711 echo '~| /usr/bin/fmt -tuw66' ) |\e
712 LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d~:/ -Sttycharset=utf-8 bob@exam.ple
717 Enables batch mode: standard input is made line buffered, the complete
718 set of (interactive) commands is available, processing of
719 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
720 is enabled in compose mode, and diverse
721 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
722 are adjusted for batch necessities, exactly as if done via
738 The following prepares an email message in a batched dry run:
739 .Bd -literal -offset indent
740 $ LC_ALL=C printf 'm bob\en~s ubject\enText\en~.\enx\en' |\e
741 LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d#:/ -X'alias bob bob@exam.ple'
746 This flag forces termination of option processing in order to prevent
749 It also forcefully puts \*(UA into send mode, see
750 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
756 arguments and all receivers established via
760 are subject to the checks established by
763 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" .
766 allows their recognition all
768 arguments given at the end of the command line after a
770 separator will be passed through to a file-based
772 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) and persist for the entire session.
774 constraints do not apply to the content of
778 .\" .Ss "A starter" {{{
781 \*(UA is a direct descendant of
783 Mail, itself a successor of the Research
786 .Dq was there from the start
789 It thus represents the user side of the
791 mail system, whereas the system side (Mail-Transfer-Agent, MTA) was
792 traditionally taken by
794 and most MTAs provide a binary of this name for compatibility purposes.
799 of \*(UA then the system side is not a mandatory precondition for mail
803 Because \*(UA strives for compliance with POSIX
805 it is likely that some configuration settings have to be adjusted before
806 using it is a smooth experience.
807 (Rather complete configuration examples can be found in the section
812 .Sx "Resource files" )
813 template bends those standard imposed settings of the
814 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
815 a bit towards more user friendliness and safety, however.
823 in order to suppress the automatic moving of messages to the
825 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
827 that would otherwise occur (see
828 .Sx "Message states" ) ,
831 to not remove empty system MBOX mailbox files (or all empty such files if
833 .Pf a.k.a.\0 Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT
834 mode has been enabled) to avoid mangling of file permissions when files
835 eventually get recreated.
839 in order to synchronize \*(UA with the exit status report of the used
846 to enter interactive startup even if the initial mailbox is empty,
848 to allow editing of headers as well as
850 to not strip down addresses in compose mode, and
852 to include the message that is being responded to when
854 ing, which is indented by an
856 that also deviates from standard imposed settings.
857 .Va mime-counter-evidence
858 is fully enabled, too.
862 The file mode creation mask can be managed explicitly via the variable
864 Sufficient system support provided symbolic links will not be followed
865 when files are opened for writing.
866 Files and shell pipe output can be
868 d for evaluation, also during startup from within the
869 .Sx "Resource files" .
872 .\" .Ss "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" {{{
873 .Ss "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode"
875 To send a message to one or more people, using a local or built-in
877 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) transport to actually deliver the generated mail
878 message, \*(UA can be invoked with arguments which are the names of
879 people to whom the mail will be sent, and the command line options
883 can be used to add (blind) carbon copy receivers:
885 .Bd -literal -offset indent
887 $ \*(uA -s ubject -a ttach.txt bill@exam.ple
889 # But... try it in an isolated dry-run mode (-d) first
890 $ LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d -:/ -Ssendwait -Sttycharset=utf8 \e
891 -b bcc@exam.ple -c cc@exam.ple \e
893 '(Lovely) Bob <bob@exam.ple>' eric@exam.ple
896 $ LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d -:/ -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait -Sttycharset=utf8 \e
897 -S mta=smtps://mylogin@exam.ple:465 -Ssmtp-auth=none \e
898 -S from=scriptreply@exam.ple \e
904 If standard input is a terminal rather than the message to be sent,
905 the user is expected to type in the message contents.
906 In this compose mode \*(UA treats lines beginning with the character
908 special \(en these are so-called
909 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ,
910 which can be used to read in files, process shell commands, add and edit
911 attachments and more; e.g.,
919 respectively, to revise the message in its current state,
921 allows editing of the most important message headers, with the potent
923 custom headers can be created, for example (more specifically than with
928 \*(OPally gives an overview of most other available command escapes.
931 will leave compose mode and send the message once it is completed.
932 Aborting letter composition is possible with either of
936 the latter of which will save the message in the file denoted by
945 can also be achieved by typing end-of-transmission (EOT) via
948 at the beginning of an empty line, and
950 is always reachable by typing end-of-text (ETX) twice via
958 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
959 can be used to alter default behavior.
960 E.g., messages are sent asynchronously, without supervision, unless the
963 is set, therefore send errors will not be recognizable until then.
968 will automatically startup an editor when compose mode is entered,
970 allows editing of headers additionally to plain body content,
974 will cause the user to be prompted actively for (blind) carbon-copy
975 recipients, respectively, and (the default)
977 will request confirmation whether the message shall be sent.
980 The envelope sender address is defined by
982 explicitly defining an originating
984 may be desirable, especially with the builtin SMTP Mail-Transfer-Agent
987 for outgoing message and MIME part content are configurable via
989 whereas input data is assumed to be in
991 Message data will be passed over the wire in a
993 MIME parts a.k.a. attachments need to be assigned a
996 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
997 Saving a copy of sent messages in a
999 mailbox may be desirable \(en as for most mailbox
1001 targets the value will undergo
1002 .Sx "Filename transformations" .
1007 sandbox dry-run tests will prove correctness.
1010 Message recipients (as specified on the command line or defined in
1015 may not only be email addressees but can also be names of mailboxes and
1016 even complete shell command pipe specifications.
1019 is not set then only network addresses (see
1021 for a description of mail addresses) and plain user names (including MTA
1022 aliases) may be used, other types will be filtered out, giving a warning
1024 A network address that contains no domain-, but only a valid local user
1026 in angle brackets will be automatically expanded to a valid address when
1028 is set to a non-empty value; setting it to the empty value instructs
1031 will perform the necessary expansion.
1034 may help to generate standard compliant network addresses.
1036 .\" When changing any of the following adjust any RECIPIENTADDRSPEC;
1037 .\" grep the latter for the complete picture
1041 is set then an extended set of recipient addresses will be accepted:
1042 Any name that starts with a vertical bar
1044 character specifies a command pipe \(en the command string following the
1046 is executed and the message is sent to its standard input;
1047 Likewise, any name that starts with the character solidus
1049 or the character sequence dot solidus
1051 is treated as a file, regardless of the remaining content;
1052 likewise a name that solely consists of a hyphen-minus
1054 Any other name which contains a commercial at
1056 character is treated as a network address;
1057 Any other name which starts with a plus sign
1059 character specifies a mailbox name;
1060 Any other name which contains a solidus
1062 character but no exclamation mark
1066 character before also specifies a mailbox name;
1067 What remains is treated as a network address.
1069 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1070 $ echo bla | \*(uA -Sexpandaddr -s test ./mbox.mbox
1071 $ echo bla | \*(uA -Sexpandaddr -s test '|cat >> ./mbox.mbox'
1072 $ echo safe | LC_ALL=C \e
1073 \*(uA -:/ -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait -Sttycharset=utf8 \e
1074 -Sexpandaddr=fail,-all,+addr,failinvaddr -s test \e
1079 It is possible to create personal distribution lists via the
1081 command, so that, for instance, the user can send mail to
1083 and have it go to a group of people.
1084 Different to the alias mechanism of a local
1086 which is often tracked in a file
1090 and the names of which are subject to the
1094 personal aliases will be expanded by \*(UA before the message is sent.
1095 They are thus a convenient alternative to specifying each addressee by
1096 itself, correlate with the active set of
1102 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1103 ? alias cohorts bill jkf mark kridle@ucbcory ~/cohorts.mbox
1104 ? alias mark mark@exam.ple
1108 .Va on-compose-enter , on-compose-leave
1110 .Va on-compose-cleanup
1111 hook variables may be set to
1113 d macros to automatically adjust some settings dependent
1114 on receiver, sender or subject contexts, and via the
1115 .Va on-compose-splice
1117 .Va on-compose-splice-shell
1118 variables, the former also to be set to a
1120 d macro, increasingly powerful mechanisms to perform automated message
1121 adjustments, including signature creation, are available.
1122 (\*(ID These hooks work for commands which newly create messages, namely
1123 .Ic forward , mail , reply
1128 for now provide only the hooks
1131 .Va on-resend-cleanup . )
1134 For the purpose of arranging a complete environment of settings that can
1135 be switched to with a single command or command line option there are
1137 Alternatively it is also possible to use a flat configuration, making use
1138 of so-called variable chains which automatically pick
1142 context-dependent variable variants: for example addressing
1143 .Ql Ic File Ns \& pop3://yaa@exam.ple
1145 .Va \&\&pop3-no-apop-yaa@exam.ple ,
1146 .Va \&\&pop3-no-apop-exam.ple
1151 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
1153 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" .
1156 To avoid environmental noise scripts should
1158 \*(UA from any configuration files and create a script-local
1159 environment, ideally with the command line options
1161 to disable any configuration file in conjunction with repetitions of
1163 to specify variables:
1165 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1166 $ env LC_ALL=C \*(uA -:/ \e
1167 -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait -Sttycharset=utf-8 \e
1168 -Sexpandaddr=fail,-all,failinvaddr \e
1169 -S mta=smtps://mylogin@exam.ple:465 -Ssmtp-auth=login \e
1170 -S from=scriptreply@exam.ple \e
1171 -s 'Subject to go' -a attachment_file \e
1173 'Recipient 1 <rec1@exam.ple>' rec2@exam.ple \e
1178 As shown, scripts can
1180 a locale environment, the above specifies the all-compatible 7-bit clean
1183 but will nonetheless take and send UTF-8 in the message text by using
1185 In interactive mode, which is introduced in the next section, messages
1186 can be sent by calling the
1188 command with a list of recipient addresses:
1190 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1191 $ \*(uA -d -Squiet -Semptystart
1192 "/var/spool/mail/user": 0 messages
1193 ? mail "Recipient 1 <rec1@exam.ple>", rec2@exam.ple
1195 ? # Will do the right thing (tm)
1196 ? m rec1@exam.ple rec2@exam.ple
1200 .\" .Ss "On reading mail, and interactive mode" {{{
1201 .Ss "On reading mail, and interactive mode"
1203 When invoked without addressees \*(UA enters interactive mode in which
1205 When used like that the user's system
1207 (for more on mailbox types please see the command
1209 is read in and a one line header of each message therein is displayed if
1213 The visual style of this summary of
1215 can be adjusted through the variable
1217 and the possible sorting criterion via
1223 can be performed with the command
1225 If the initially opened mailbox is empty \*(UA will instead exit
1226 immediately (after displaying a message) unless the variable
1235 will give a listing of all available commands and
1237 will \*(OPally give a summary of some common ones.
1238 If the \*(OPal documentation strings are available (see
1243 and see the actual expansion of
1245 and what its purpose is, i.e., commands can be abbreviated
1246 (note that POSIX defines some abbreviations, so that the alphabetical
1247 order of commands does not necessarily relate to the abbreviations; it is
1248 however possible to define overwrites with
1249 .Ic commandalias ) .
1250 These commands can also produce a more
1255 Messages are given numbers (starting at 1) which uniquely identify
1256 messages; the current message \(en the
1258 \(en will either be the first new message, or the first unread message,
1259 or the first message of the mailbox; the internal variable
1261 will instead cause usage of the last message for this purpose.
1266 ful of header summaries containing the
1270 will display only the summaries of the given messages, defaulting to the
1274 Message content can be displayed with the command
1281 controls whether and when \*(UA will use the configured
1283 for display instead of directly writing to the user terminal
1285 the sole difference to the command
1287 which will always use the
1291 will instead only show the first
1293 of a message (maybe even compressed if
1296 Message display experience may improve by setting and adjusting
1297 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
1299 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" .
1302 By default the current message
1304 is displayed, but like with many other commands it is possible to give
1305 a fancy message specification (see
1306 .Sx "Specifying messages" ) ,
1309 will display all unread messages,
1314 will type the messages 1 and 5,
1316 will type the messages 1 through 5, and
1320 will display the previous and the next message, respectively.
1323 (a more substantial alias for
1325 will display a header summary of the given message specification list
1326 instead of their content, e.g., the following will search for subjects:
1329 .Dl ? from "'@Some subject to search for'"
1332 In the default setup all header fields of a message will be
1334 d, but fields can be white- or blacklisted for a variety of
1335 applications by using the command
1337 e.g., to restrict their display to a very restricted set for
1339 .Ql Ic \:headerpick Cd \:type retain Ar \:from to cc subject .
1340 In order to display all header fields of a message regardless of
1341 currently active ignore or retain lists, use the commands
1346 will show the raw message content.
1347 Note that historically the global
1349 not only adjusts the list of displayed headers, but also sets
1353 Dependent upon the configuration a line editor (see the section
1354 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
1355 aims at making the user experience with the many
1358 When reading the system
1364 specified a mailbox explicitly prefixed with the special
1366 modifier (to propagate it to a
1368 .Sx "primary system mailbox" ) ,
1369 then messages which have been read
1370 .Pf (see\0 Sx "Message states" )
1371 will be automatically moved to a
1373 .Sx "secondary mailbox" ,
1376 file, when the mailbox is left, either by changing the active mailbox or
1377 by quitting \*(UA \(en this automatic moving from a system- or primary-
1378 to the secondary mailbox is not performed when the variable
1381 Messages can also be explicitly
1383 d to other mailboxes, whereas
1385 keeps the original message.
1387 can be used to write out data content of specific parts of messages.
1390 After examining a message the user can
1392 to the sender and all recipients (which will also be placed in
1395 .Va recipients-in-cc
1398 exclusively to the sender(s).
1401 knows how to apply a special addressee massage, see
1402 .Sx "Mailing lists" .
1404 ing a message will allow editing the new message: the original message
1405 will be contained in the message body, adjusted according to
1411 messages: the former will add a series of
1413 headers, whereas the latter will not; different to newly created
1414 messages editing is not possible and no copy will be saved even with
1416 unless the additional variable
1419 When sending, replying or forwarding messages comments and full names
1420 will be stripped from recipient addresses unless the internal variable
1425 Of course messages can be
1427 and they can spring into existence again via
1429 or when the \*(UA session is ended via the
1433 commands to perform a quick program termation.
1434 To end a mail processing session regulary and perform a full program
1435 exit one may issue the command
1437 It will, among others, move read messages to the
1439 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
1441 as necessary, discard deleted messages in the current mailbox,
1442 and update the \*(OPal (see
1448 .\" .Ss "HTML mail and MIME attachments" {{{
1449 .Ss "HTML mail and MIME attachments"
1451 Messages which are HTML-only become more and more common, and of course
1452 many messages come bundled with a bouquet of MIME (Multipurpose Internet
1453 Mail Extensions) parts.
1454 To get a notion of MIME types \*(UA has a default set of types built-in,
1455 onto which the content of
1456 .Sx "The mime.types files"
1457 will be added (as configured and allowed by
1458 .Va mimetypes-load-control ) .
1459 Types can also become registered with the command
1461 To improve interaction with faulty MIME part declarations which are
1462 often seen in real-life messages, setting
1463 .Va mime-counter-evidence
1464 will allow verification of the given assertion, and possible provision
1465 of an alternative, better MIME type.
1468 Whereas \*(UA \*(OPally supports a simple HTML-to-text filter for
1469 displaying HTML messages, it cannot handle MIME types other than plain
1471 Instead programs need to become registered to deal with specific MIME
1472 types or file extensions.
1473 These programs may either prepare plain text versions of their input in
1474 order to enable \*(UA to integrate their output neatlessly in its own
1475 message visualization (a mode which is called
1476 .Cd copiousoutput ) ,
1477 or display the content themselves, for example in an external graphical
1478 window: such handlers will only be considered by and for the command
1482 To install a handler program for a specific MIME type an according
1483 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
1484 variable needs to be set; to instead define a handler for a specific
1485 file extension the respective
1487 variable can be used \(en these handlers take precedence.
1488 \*(OPally \*(UA supports mail user agent configuration as defined in
1489 RFC 1524; this mechanism (see
1490 .Sx "The Mailcap files" )
1491 will be queried for display or quote handlers if none of the former two
1492 .\" TODO v15-compat "will be" -> "is"
1493 did; it will be the sole source for handlers of other purpose.
1494 A last source for handlers is the MIME type definition itself, if
1495 a type-marker has been registered with the command
1497 which many of the built-in MIME types do.
1500 For example, to display a HTML message inline (converted to a more fancy
1501 plain text representation than the built-in filter is capable to produce)
1502 with either of the text-mode browsers
1506 teach \*(UA about MathML documents and make it display them as plain
1507 text, and to open PDF attachments in an external PDF viewer,
1508 asynchronously and with some other magic attached:
1510 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1511 ? if [ "$features" !% +filter-html-tagsoup ]
1512 ? #set pipe-text/html='@* elinks -force-html -dump 1'
1513 ? set pipe-text/html='@* lynx -stdin -dump -force_html'
1514 ? # Display HTML as plain text instead
1515 ? #set pipe-text/html=@
1517 ? mimetype @ application/mathml+xml mathml
1518 ? wysh set pipe-application/pdf='@&=@ \e
1519 trap "rm -f \e"${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}\e"" EXIT;\e
1520 trap "trap \e"\e" INT QUIT TERM; exit 1" INT QUIT TERM;\e
1521 mupdf "${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}"'
1525 .\" .Ss "Mailing lists" {{{
1528 \*(UA offers some support to ease handling of mailing lists.
1531 promotes all given arguments to known mailing lists, and
1533 sets their subscription attribute, creating them first as necessary.
1538 automatically, but only resets the subscription attribute.)
1539 Using the commands without arguments will show (a subset of) all
1540 currently defined mailing lists.
1545 can be used to mark out messages with configured list addresses
1550 If the \*(OPal regular expression support is available a mailing list
1551 specification that contains any of the
1553 regular expression characters
1557 will be interpreted as one, which allows matching of many addresses with
1558 a single expression.
1559 However, all fully qualified list addresses are matched via a fast
1560 dictionary, whereas expressions are placed in (a) list(s) which is
1561 (are) matched sequentially.
1563 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1564 ? set followup-to followup-to-honour=ask-yes \e
1565 reply-to-honour=ask-yes
1566 ? wysh mlist a1@b1.c1 a2@b2.c2 '.*@lists\e.c3$'
1567 ? mlsubscribe a4@b4.c4 exact@lists.c3
1572 .Va followup-to-honour
1574 .Ql Mail-\:Followup-\:To:
1575 header is honoured when the message is being replied to (via
1581 controls whether this header is created when sending mails; it will be
1582 created automatically for a couple of reasons, too, like when the
1584 .Dq mailing list specific
1589 is used to respond to a message with its
1590 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
1594 A difference in between the handling of known and subscribed lists is
1595 that the address of the user is usually not part of a generated
1596 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
1597 when addressing the latter, whereas it is for the former kind of lists.
1598 Usually because there are exceptions: say, if multiple lists are
1599 addressed and not all of them are subscribed lists.
1601 For convenience \*(UA will, temporarily, automatically add a list
1602 address that is presented in the
1604 header of a message that is being responded to to the list of known
1606 Shall that header have existed \*(UA will instead, dependent on the
1608 .Va reply-to-honour ,
1611 for this purpose (if it provides a single address which resides on the
1612 same domain as what is stated in
1614 in order to accept a list administrator's wish that is supposed to have
1615 been manifested like that.
1618 .\" .Ss "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME" {{{
1619 .Ss "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
1621 \*(OP S/MIME provides two central mechanisms:
1622 message signing and message encryption.
1623 A signed message contains some data in addition to the regular text.
1624 The data can be used to verify that the message has been sent using
1625 a valid certificate, that the sender address matches that in the
1626 certificate, and that the message text has not been altered.
1627 Signing a message does not change its regular text;
1628 it can be read regardless of whether the recipients software is able to
1630 It is thus usually possible to sign all outgoing messages if so desired.
1633 Encryption, in contrast, makes the message text invisible for all people
1634 except those who have access to the secret decryption key.
1635 To encrypt a message, the specific recipients public encryption key
1637 It is therefore not possible to send encrypted mail to people unless their
1638 key has been retrieved from either previous communication or public key
1640 A message should always be signed before it is encrypted.
1643 A central concept to S/MIME is that of the certification authority (CA).
1644 A CA is a trusted institution that issues certificates.
1645 For each of these certificates it can be verified that it really
1646 originates from the CA, provided that the CA's own certificate is
1648 A set of CA certificates is usually delivered and installed together
1649 with the cryptographical library that is used on the local system.
1650 Therefore reasonable security for S/MIME on the Internet is provided if
1651 the source that provides that library installation is trusted.
1652 It is also possible to use a specific pool of trusted certificates.
1654 .Va smime-ca-no-defaults
1655 should be set to avoid using the default certificate pool, and
1659 should be pointed to a trusted pool of certificates.
1660 A certificate cannot be more secure than the method its CA certificate
1661 has been retrieved with.
1664 This trusted pool of certificates is used by the command
1666 to ensure that the given S/MIME messages can be trusted.
1667 If so, verified sender certificates that were embedded in signed
1668 messages can be saved locally with the command
1670 and used by \*(UA to encrypt further communication with these senders:
1672 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1674 ? set smime-encrypt-USER@HOST=FILENAME \e
1675 smime-cipher-USER@HOST=AES256
1679 To sign outgoing messages in order to allow receivers to verify the
1680 origin of these messages a personal S/MIME certificate is required.
1681 \*(UA supports password-protected personal certificates (and keys),
1682 for more on this, and its automatization, please see the section
1683 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
1685 .Sx "S/MIME step by step"
1686 shows examplarily how such a private certificate can be obtained.
1687 In general, if such a private key plus certificate
1689 is available, all that needs to be done is to set some variables:
1691 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1692 ? set smime-sign-cert=ME@exam.ple.paired \e
1693 smime-sign-message-digest=SHA512 \e
1698 Variables of interest for S/MIME in general are
1701 .Va smime-ca-flags ,
1702 .Va smime-ca-no-defaults ,
1704 .Va smime-crl-file .
1705 For S/MIME signing of interest are
1707 .Va smime-sign-cert ,
1708 .Va smime-sign-include-certs
1710 .Va smime-sign-message-digest .
1711 Additional variables of interest for S/MIME en- and decryption:
1714 .Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST .
1717 \*(ID Note that neither S/MIME signing nor encryption applies to
1718 message subjects or other header fields yet.
1719 Thus they may not contain sensitive information for encrypted messages,
1720 and cannot be trusted even if the message content has been verified.
1721 When sending signed messages,
1722 it is recommended to repeat any important header information in the
1726 .\" .Ss "On URL syntax and credential lookup" {{{
1727 .Ss "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
1729 \*(IN For accessing protocol-specific resources usage of Uniform
1730 Resource Locators (URL, RFC 1738) has become omnipresent.
1731 \*(UA expects and understands URLs in the following form;
1734 denote optional parts, optional either because there also exist other
1735 ways to define the information in question or because support of the
1736 part is protocol-specific, e.g.,
1738 is used by the local maildir and the IMAP protocol, but not by POP3;
1743 are specified they must be given in URL percent encoded form (RFC 3986;
1749 .Dl PROTOCOL://[USER[:PASSWORD]@]server[:port][/path]
1752 Note that these \*(UA URLs most often do not conform to any real
1753 standard, but instead represent a normalized variant of RFC 1738 \(en
1754 they are not used in data exchange but only meant as a compact,
1755 easy-to-use way of defining and representing information in
1756 a well-known notation.
1759 Many internal variables of \*(UA exist in multiple versions, called
1760 variable chains for the rest of this document: the plain
1765 .Ql variable-USER@HOST .
1772 had been specified in the respective URL, otherwise it refers to the plain
1778 that had been found when doing the user chain lookup as is described
1781 will never be in URL percent encoded form, whether it came from an URL
1782 or not; i.e., variable chain name extensions of
1783 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
1784 must not be URL percent encoded.
1787 For example, whether an hypothetical URL
1788 .Ql smtp://hey%3Ayou@our.house
1789 had been given that includes a user, or whether the URL was
1790 .Ql smtp://our.house
1791 and the user had been found differently, to lookup the variable chain
1792 .Va smtp-use-starttls
1793 \*(UA first looks for whether
1794 .Ql smtp-\:use-\:starttls-\:hey:you@our.house
1795 is defined, then whether
1796 .Ql smtp-\:use-\:starttls-\:our.house
1797 exists before finally ending up looking at the plain variable itself.
1800 \*(UA obeys the following logic scheme when dealing with the
1801 necessary credential information of an account:
1807 has been given in the URL the variables
1812 If no such variable(s) can be found then \*(UA will,
1813 when enforced by the \*(OPal variables
1814 .Va netrc-lookup-HOST
1818 .Sx "The .netrc file"
1821 specific entry which provides a
1823 name: this lookup will only succeed if unambiguous (one possible matching
1827 If there is still no
1829 then \*(UA will fall back to the user who is supposed to run \*(UA,
1830 the identity of which has been fixated during \*(UA startup and is
1831 known to be a valid user on the current host.
1834 Authentication: unless otherwise noted this will lookup the
1835 .Va PROTOCOL-auth-USER@HOST , PROTOCOL-auth-HOST , PROTOCOL-auth
1836 variable chain, falling back to a protocol-specific default should this
1842 has been given in the URL, then if the
1844 has been found through the \*(OPal
1846 that may have already provided the password, too.
1847 Otherwise the variable chain
1848 .Va password-USER@HOST , password-HOST , password
1849 is looked up and used if existent.
1851 Afterwards the complete \*(OPal variable chain
1852 .Va netrc-lookup-USER@HOST , netrc-lookup-HOST , netrc-lookup
1856 cache is searched for a password only (multiple user accounts for
1857 a single machine may exist as well as a fallback entry without user
1858 but with a password).
1860 If at that point there is still no password available, but the
1861 (protocols') chosen authentication type requires a password, then in
1862 interactive mode the user will be prompted on the terminal.
1867 S/MIME verification works relative to the values found in the
1871 header field(s), which means that the values of
1872 .Va smime-sign , smime-sign-cert , smime-sign-include-certs
1874 .Va smime-sign-message-digest
1875 will not be looked up using the
1879 chains from above but instead use the corresponding values from the
1880 message that is being worked on.
1881 In unusual cases multiple and different
1885 combinations may therefore be involved \(en on the other hand those
1886 unusual cases become possible.
1887 The usual case is as short as:
1889 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1890 set mta=smtp://USER:PASS@HOST smtp-use-starttls \e
1891 smime-sign smime-sign-cert=+smime.pair
1897 contains complete example configurations.
1900 .\" .Ss "Encrypted network communication" {{{
1901 .Ss "Encrypted network communication"
1903 SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) a.k.a. its successor TLS (Transport Layer
1904 Security) are protocols which aid in securing communication by providing
1905 a safely initiated and encrypted network connection.
1906 A central concept of SSL/TLS is that of certificates: as part of each
1907 network connection setup a (set of) certificates will be exchanged, and
1908 by using those the identity of the network peer can be cryptographically
1909 verified; if possible the TLS/SNI (ServerNameIndication) extension will
1910 be enabled in order to allow servers fine-grained control over the
1911 certificates being used.
1912 SSL/TLS works by using a locally installed pool of trusted certificates,
1913 and verifying the connection peer succeeds if that provides
1914 a certificate which has been issued or is trusted by any certificate in
1915 the trusted local pool.
1918 The local pool of trusted so-called CA (Certification Authority)
1919 certificates is usually delivered with the used SSL/TLS library, and
1920 will be selected automatically.
1921 It is also possible to use a specific pool of trusted certificates.
1923 .Va ssl-ca-no-defaults
1924 should be set to avoid using the default certificate pool, and
1926 and/or (with special preparation)
1928 should be pointed to a trusted pool of certificates.
1929 A certificate cannot be more secure than the method its CA certificate
1930 has been retrieved with.
1933 It depends on the used protocol whether encrypted communication is
1934 possible, and which configuration steps have to be taken to enable it.
1935 Some protocols, e.g., POP3S, are implicitly encrypted, others, like
1936 POP3, can upgrade a plain text connection if so requested.
1937 For example, to use the
1939 that POP3 offers (a member of) the variable (chain)
1940 .Va pop3-use-starttls
1943 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1944 shortcut encpop1 pop3s://pop1.exam.ple
1946 shortcut encpop2 pop3://pop2.exam.ple
1947 set pop3-use-starttls-pop2.exam.ple
1949 set mta=smtps://smtp.exam.ple:465
1950 set mta=smtp://smtp.exam.ple smtp-use-starttls
1954 Normally that is all there is to do, given that SSL/TLS libraries try to
1955 provide safe defaults, plenty of knobs however exist to adjust settings.
1956 For example certificate verification settings can be fine-tuned via
1958 and the SSL/TLS configuration basics are accessible via
1959 .Va ssl-config-pairs ,
1960 for example to specify the allowed protocols or cipher lists that
1961 a communication channel may use.
1962 In the past hints on how to restrict the set of protocols to highly
1963 secure ones were indicated, but as of the time of this writing the list
1964 of protocols or ciphers may need to become relaxed in order to be able
1965 to connect to some servers; the following example allows connecting to a
1967 that uses OpenSSL 0.9.8za from June 2014 (refer to
1968 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
1969 for more on variable chains):
1971 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1972 wysh set ssl-config-pairs-lion@exam.ple='MinProtocol=TLSv1.1,\e
1973 CipherString=TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:\e
1974 ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA:\e
1975 DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:@STRENGTH'
1981 can be used and should be referred to when creating a custom cipher list.
1982 Variables of interest for SSL/TLS in general are
1986 .Va ssl-ca-no-defaults ,
1987 .Va ssl-config-file ,
1988 .Va ssl-config-module ,
1989 .Va ssl-config-pairs ,
1997 .\" .Ss "Character sets" {{{
1998 .Ss "Character sets"
2000 \*(OP \*(UA detects the character set of the terminal by using
2001 mechanisms that are controlled by the
2003 environment variable
2008 in that order, see there).
2009 The internal variable
2011 will be set to the detected terminal character set accordingly,
2012 and will thus show up in the output of commands like, e.g.,
2018 However, the user may give
2020 a value during startup, making it possible to send mail in a completely
2022 locale environment, an option which can be used to generate and send,
2023 e.g., 8-bit UTF-8 input data in a pure 7-bit US-ASCII
2025 environment (an example of this can be found in the section
2026 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" ) .
2027 Changing the value does not mean much beside that, because several
2028 aspects of the real character set are implied by the locale environment
2029 of the system, which stays unaffected by
2033 Messages and attachments which consist of 7-bit clean data will be
2034 classified as consisting of
2037 This is a problem if the
2039 character set is a multibyte character set that is also 7-bit clean.
2040 For example, the Japanese character set ISO-2022-JP is 7-bit clean but
2041 capable to encode the rich set of Japanese Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana
2042 characters: in order to notify receivers of this character set the mail
2043 message must be MIME encoded so that the character set ISO-2022-JP can
2045 To achieve this, the variable
2047 must be set to ISO-2022-JP.
2048 (Today a better approach regarding email is the usage of UTF-8, which
2049 uses 8-bit bytes for non-US-ASCII data.)
2052 If the \*(OPal character set conversion capabilities are not available
2054 does not include the term
2058 will be the only supported character set,
2059 it is simply assumed that it can be used to exchange 8-bit messages
2060 (over the wire an intermediate, configurable
2063 and the rest of this section does not apply;
2064 it may however still be necessary to explicitly set it if automatic
2065 detection fails, since in that case it defaults to
2066 .\" (Keep in SYNC: ./nail.1:"Character sets", ./config.h:CHARSET_*!)
2067 LATIN1 a.k.a. ISO-8859-1 unless the operating system environment is
2068 known to always and exclusively support UTF-8 locales.
2071 \*(OP When reading messages, their text is converted into
2073 as necessary in order to display them on the user's terminal.
2074 Unprintable characters and invalid byte sequences are detected
2075 and replaced by proper substitution characters.
2076 Character set mappings for source character sets can be established with
2079 which may be handy to work around faulty character set catalogues (e.g.,
2080 to add a missing LATIN1 to ISO-8859-1 mapping), or to enforce treatment
2081 of one character set as another one (e.g., to interpret LATIN1 as CP1252).
2083 .Va charset-unknown-8bit
2084 to deal with another hairy aspect of message interpretation.
2087 When sending messages their parts and attachments are classified.
2088 Whereas no character set conversion is performed on those parts which
2089 appear to be binary data,
2090 the character set being used must be declared within the MIME header of
2091 an outgoing text part if it contains characters that do not conform to
2092 the set of characters that are allowed by the email standards.
2093 Permissible values for character sets used in outgoing messages can be
2098 which defines a catch-all last-resort fallback character set that is
2099 implicitly appended to the list of character sets in
2103 When replying to a message and the variable
2104 .Va reply-in-same-charset
2105 is set, then the character set of the message being replied to
2106 is tried first (still being a subject of
2107 .Ic charsetalias ) .
2108 And it is also possible to make \*(UA work even more closely related to
2109 the current locale setting automatically by using the variable
2110 .Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset ,
2111 please see there for more information.
2114 All the specified character sets are tried in order unless the
2115 conversion of the part or attachment succeeds.
2116 If none of the tried (8-bit) character sets is capable to represent the
2117 content of the part or attachment,
2118 then the message will not be send and its text will optionally be
2122 In general, if a message saying
2123 .Dq cannot convert from a to b
2124 appears, either some characters are not appropriate for the currently
2125 selected (terminal) character set,
2126 or the needed conversion is not supported by the system.
2127 In the first case, it is necessary to set an appropriate
2129 locale and/or the variable
2133 The best results are usually achieved when \*(UA is run in a UTF-8
2134 locale on an UTF-8 capable terminal, in which case the full Unicode
2135 spectrum of characters is available.
2136 In this setup characters from various countries can be displayed,
2137 while it is still possible to use more simple character sets for sending
2138 to retain maximum compatibility with older mail clients.
2141 On the other hand the POSIX standard defines a locale-independent 7-bit
2142 .Dq portable character set
2143 that should be used when overall portability is an issue, the even more
2144 restricted subset named
2145 .Dq portable filename character set
2146 consists of A-Z, a-z, 0-9, period
2154 .\" .Ss "Message states" {{{
2155 .Ss "Message states"
2157 \*(UA differentiates in between several message states; the current
2158 state will be reflected in the summary of
2165 .Sx "Specifying messages"
2166 dependent on their state is possible.
2167 When operating on the system
2171 .Sx "primary system mailbox" ,
2172 special actions, like the automatic moving of messages to the
2174 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
2176 may be applied when the mailbox is left (also implicitly by program
2177 termination, unless the command
2179 was used) \(en however, because this may be irritating to users which
2182 mail-user-agents, the provided global
2184 template sets the internal
2188 variables in order to suppress this behaviour.
2190 .Bl -hang -width ".It Ql new"
2192 Message has neither been viewed nor moved to any other state.
2193 Such messages are retained even in the
2195 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
2198 Message has neither been viewed nor moved to any other state, but the
2199 message was present already when the mailbox has been opened last:
2200 Such messages are retained even in the
2202 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
2205 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
2224 will always try to automatically
2230 logical message, and may thus mark multiple messages as read, the
2232 command will do so if the internal variable
2238 command is used, messages that are in a
2240 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
2243 state when the mailbox is left will be saved in the
2245 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
2247 unless the internal variable
2252 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
2258 can be used to access such messages.
2261 The message has been processed by a
2263 command and it will be retained in its current location.
2266 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
2272 command is used, messages that are in a
2274 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
2277 state when the mailbox is left will be deleted; they will be saved in the
2279 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
2281 when the internal variable
2287 In addition to these message states, flags which otherwise have no
2288 technical meaning in the mail system except allowing special ways of
2289 addressing them when
2290 .Sx "Specifying messages"
2291 can be set on messages.
2292 These flags are saved with messages and are thus persistent, and are
2293 portable between a set of widely used MUAs.
2295 .Bl -hang -width ".It Ic answered"
2297 Mark messages as having been answered.
2299 Mark messages as being a draft.
2301 Mark messages which need special attention.
2305 .\" .Ss "Specifying messages" {{{
2306 .Ss "Specifying messages"
2309 .Sx "Message list arguments" ,
2317 can be given a list of message numbers as arguments to apply to a number
2318 of messages at once.
2321 deletes messages 1 and 2,
2324 will delete the messages 1 through 5.
2325 In sorted or threaded mode (see the
2329 will delete the messages that are located between (and including)
2330 messages 1 through 5 in the sorted/threaded order, as shown in the
2333 The following special message names exist:
2336 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ar BaNg"
2338 The current message, the so-called
2342 The message that was previously the current message.
2345 The parent message of the current message,
2346 that is the message with the Message-ID given in the
2348 field or the last entry of the
2350 field of the current message.
2353 The previous undeleted message, or the previous deleted message for the
2359 ed mode, the previous such message in the according order.
2362 The next undeleted message, or the next deleted message for the
2368 ed mode, the next such message in the according order.
2371 The first undeleted message,
2372 or the first deleted message for the
2378 ed mode, the first such message in the according order.
2381 The last message; In
2385 ed mode, the last such message in the according order.
2392 mode, selects the message addressed with
2396 is any other message specification,
2397 and all messages from the thread that begins at it.
2398 Otherwise it is identical to
2403 the thread beginning with the current message is selected.
2408 All messages that were included in the
2409 .Sx "Message list arguments"
2410 of the previous command.
2413 An inclusive range of message numbers.
2414 Selectors that may also be used as endpoints include any of
2419 .Dq any substring matches
2422 header, which will match addresses (too) even if
2424 is set (and POSIX says
2425 .Dq any address as shown in a header summary shall be matchable in this form ) ;
2428 variable is set, only the local part of the address is evaluated
2429 for the comparison, not ignoring case, and the setting of
2431 is completely ignored.
2432 For finer control and match boundaries use the
2436 .It Ar / Ns Ar string
2437 All messages that contain
2439 in the subject field (case ignored according to locale).
2446 the string from the previous specification of that type is used again.
2449 .It Xo Op Ar @ Ns Ar name-list Ns
2452 All messages that contain the given case-insensitive search
2454 ession; If the \*(OPal regular expression support is available
2456 will be interpreted as (an extended) one if any of the
2458 regular expression characters
2463 .Ar @ Ns Ar name-list
2464 part is missing the search is restricted to the subject field body,
2467 specifies a comma-separated list of header fields to search, e.g.,
2470 .Dl '@to,from,cc@Someone i ought to know'
2473 In order to search for a string that includes a
2475 (commercial at) character the
2477 is effectively non-optional, but may be given as the empty string.
2478 Also, specifying an empty search
2480 ession will effectively test for existence of the given header fields.
2481 Some special header fields may be abbreviated:
2495 respectively and case-insensitively.
2496 \*(OPally, and just like
2499 will be interpreted as (an extended) regular expression if any of the
2501 regular expression characters is seen.
2508 can be used to search in (all of) the header(s) of the message, and the
2517 will perform full text searches \(en whereas the former searches only
2518 the body, the latter also searches the message header (\*(ID this mode
2519 yet brute force searches over the entire decoded content of messages,
2520 including administrativa strings).
2523 This specification performs full text comparison, but even with
2524 regular expression support it is almost impossible to write a search
2525 expression that safely matches only a specific address domain.
2526 To request that the body content of the header is treated as a list of
2527 addresses, and to strip those down to the plain email address which the
2528 search expression is to be matched against, prefix the effective
2534 .Dl @~f@@a\e.safe\e.domain\e.match$
2538 All messages of state or with matching condition
2542 is one or multiple of the following colon modifiers:
2544 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar :M"
2547 messages (cf. the variable
2548 .Va markanswered ) .
2560 Messages with receivers that match
2564 Messages with receivers that match
2571 Old messages (any not in state
2579 \*(OP Messages with unsure spam classification (see
2580 .Sx "Handling spam" ) .
2582 \*(OP Messages classified as spam.
2594 \*(OP IMAP-style SEARCH expressions may also be used.
2595 This addressing mode is available with all types of mailbox
2597 s; \*(UA will perform the search locally as necessary.
2598 Strings must be enclosed by double quotes
2600 in their entirety if they contain whitespace or parentheses;
2601 within the quotes, only reverse solidus
2603 is recognized as an escape character.
2604 All string searches are case-insensitive.
2605 When the description indicates that the
2607 representation of an address field is used,
2608 this means that the search string is checked against both a list
2611 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2612 (\*qname\*q \*qsource\*q \*qlocal-part\*q \*qdomain-part\*q)
2617 and the addresses without real names from the respective header field.
2618 These search expressions can be nested using parentheses, see below for
2622 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar _n_u"
2623 .It Ar ( criterion )
2624 All messages that satisfy the given
2626 .It Ar ( criterion1 criterion2 ... criterionN )
2627 All messages that satisfy all of the given criteria.
2629 .It Ar ( or criterion1 criterion2 )
2630 All messages that satisfy either
2635 To connect more than two criteria using
2637 specifications have to be nested using additional parentheses,
2639 .Ql (or a (or b c)) ,
2643 .Ql ((a or b) and c) .
2646 operation of independent criteria on the lowest nesting level,
2647 it is possible to achieve similar effects by using three separate
2651 .It Ar ( not criterion )
2652 All messages that do not satisfy
2654 .It Ar ( bcc \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2655 All messages that contain
2657 in the envelope representation of the
2660 .It Ar ( cc \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2661 All messages that contain
2663 in the envelope representation of the
2666 .It Ar ( from \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2667 All messages that contain
2669 in the envelope representation of the
2672 .It Ar ( subject \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2673 All messages that contain
2678 .It Ar ( to \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2679 All messages that contain
2681 in the envelope representation of the
2684 .It Ar ( header name \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2685 All messages that contain
2690 .It Ar ( body \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2691 All messages that contain
2694 .It Ar ( text \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2695 All messages that contain
2697 in their header or body.
2698 .It Ar ( larger size )
2699 All messages that are larger than
2702 .It Ar ( smaller size )
2703 All messages that are smaller than
2707 .It Ar ( before date )
2708 All messages that were received before
2710 which must be in the form
2714 denotes the day of the month as one or two digits,
2716 is the name of the month \(en one of
2717 .Ql Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec ,
2720 is the year as four digits, e.g.,
2724 All messages that were received on the specified date.
2725 .It Ar ( since date )
2726 All messages that were received since the specified date.
2727 .It Ar ( sentbefore date )
2728 All messages that were sent on the specified date.
2729 .It Ar ( senton date )
2730 All messages that were sent on the specified date.
2731 .It Ar ( sentsince date )
2732 All messages that were sent since the specified date.
2734 The same criterion as for the previous search.
2735 This specification cannot be used as part of another criterion.
2736 If the previous command line contained more than one independent
2737 criterion then the last of those criteria is used.
2741 .\" .Ss "On terminal control and line editor" {{{
2742 .Ss "On terminal control and line editor"
2744 \*(OP Terminal control will be realized through one of the standard
2746 libraries, either the
2748 or, alternatively, the
2750 both of which will be initialized to work with the environment variable
2752 Terminal control will enhance or enable interactive usage aspects, e.g.,
2753 .Sx "Coloured display" ,
2754 and extend behaviour of the Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE), which may learn the
2755 byte-sequences of keys like the cursor- and function-keys.
2758 The internal variable
2760 can be used to overwrite settings or to learn (correct(ed)) keycodes.
2761 Actual library interaction can be disabled completely by setting
2762 .Va termcap-disable ;
2764 will be queried regardless, which is true even if the \*(OPal library
2765 support has not been enabled at configuration time as long as some other
2766 \*(OP which (may) query terminal control sequences has been enabled.
2767 \*(UA can be told to enter an alternative exclusive screen, the
2768 so-called ca-mode, by setting
2769 .Va termcap-ca-mode ;
2770 this requires sufficient terminal support, and the used
2772 may also need special configuration, dependent on the value of
2776 \*(OP The built-in Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE) should work in all
2777 environments which comply to the ISO C standard
2779 and will support wide glyphs if possible (the necessary functionality
2780 had been removed from ISO C, but was included in
2782 Usage of a line editor in interactive mode can be prevented by setting
2783 .Va line-editor-disable .
2784 Especially if the \*(OPal terminal control support is missing setting
2785 entries in the internal variable
2787 will help shall the MLE misbehave, see there for more.
2788 The MLE can support a little bit of
2794 feature is available then input from line editor prompts will be saved
2795 in a history list that can be searched in and be expanded from.
2796 Such saving can be prevented by prefixing input with any amount of
2798 Aspects of history, like allowed content and maximum size, as well as
2799 whether history shall be saved persistently, can be configured with the
2803 .Va history-gabby-persist
2808 The MLE supports a set of editing and control commands.
2809 By default (as) many (as possible) of these will be assigned to a set of
2810 single-letter control codes, which should work on any terminal (and can
2811 be generated by holding the
2813 key while pressing the key of desire, e.g.,
2817 command is available then the MLE commands can also be accessed freely
2818 by assigning the command name, which is shown in parenthesis in the list
2819 below, to any desired key-sequence, and the MLE will instead and also use
2821 to establish its built-in key bindings
2822 (more of them if the \*(OPal terminal control is available),
2823 an action which can then be suppressed completely by setting
2824 .Va line-editor-no-defaults .
2825 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
2826 notation is used in the following;
2827 combinations not mentioned either cause job control signals or do not
2828 generate a (unique) keycode:
2832 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql \eBa"
2834 Go to the start of the line
2836 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-home ) .
2839 Move the cursor backward one character
2841 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-bwd ) .
2844 Forward delete the character under the cursor;
2845 quits \*(UA if used on the empty line unless the internal variable
2849 .Pf ( Cd mle-del-fwd ) .
2852 Go to the end of the line
2854 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-end ) .
2857 Move the cursor forward one character
2859 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-fwd ) .
2862 Cancel current operation, full reset.
2863 If there is an active history search or tabulator expansion then this
2864 command will first reset that, reverting to the former line content;
2865 thus a second reset is needed for a full reset in this case
2867 .Pf ( Cd mle-reset ) .
2870 Backspace: backward delete one character
2872 .Pf ( Cd mle-del-bwd ) .
2876 Horizontal tabulator:
2877 try to expand the word before the cursor, supporting the usual
2878 .Sx "Filename transformations"
2880 .Pf ( Cd mle-complete ;
2882 .Cd mle-quote-rndtrip ) .
2886 commit the current line
2888 .Pf ( Cd mle-commit ) .
2891 Cut all characters from the cursor to the end of the line
2893 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-end ) .
2898 .Pf ( Cd mle-repaint ) .
2901 \*(OP Go to the next history entry
2903 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-fwd ) .
2906 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
2910 \*(OP Go to the previous history entry
2912 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-bwd ) .
2915 Toggle roundtrip mode shell quotes, where produced,
2918 .Pf ( Cd mle-quote-rndtrip ) .
2919 This setting is temporary, and will be forgotten once the command line
2920 is committed; also see
2924 \*(OP Complete the current line from (the remaining) older history entries
2926 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-srch-bwd ) .
2929 \*(OP Complete the current line from (the remaining) newer history entries
2931 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-srch-fwd ) .
2934 Paste the snarf buffer
2936 .Pf ( Cd mle-paste ) .
2944 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-line ) .
2947 Prompts for a Unicode character (hexadecimal number without prefix, see
2951 .Pf ( Cd mle-prompt-char ) .
2952 Note this command needs to be assigned to a single-letter control code
2953 in order to become recognized and executed during input of
2954 a key-sequence (only three single-letter control codes can be used for
2955 that shortcut purpose); this control code is then special-treated and
2956 thus cannot be part of any other sequence (because it will trigger the
2958 function immediately).
2961 Cut the characters from the one preceding the cursor to the preceding
2964 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-word-bwd ) .
2967 Move the cursor forward one word boundary
2969 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-word-fwd ) .
2972 Move the cursor backward one word boundary
2974 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-word-bwd ) .
2977 Escape: reset a possibly used multibyte character input state machine
2978 and \*(OPally a lingering, incomplete key binding
2980 .Pf ( Cd mle-cancel ) .
2981 This command needs to be assigned to a single-letter control code in
2982 order to become recognized and executed during input of a key-sequence
2983 (only three single-letter control codes can be used for that shortcut
2985 This control code may also be part of a multi-byte sequence, but if
2986 a sequence is active and the very control code is currently also an
2987 expected input, then the active sequence takes precedence and will
2988 consume the control code.
2991 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
2995 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
2999 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
3003 Cut the characters from the one after the cursor to the succeeding word
3006 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-word-fwd ) .
3017 this will immediately reset a possibly active search etc.
3022 ring the audible bell.
3026 .\" .Ss "Coloured display" {{{
3027 .Ss "Coloured display"
3029 \*(OP \*(UA can be configured to support a coloured display and font
3030 attributes by emitting ANSI a.k.a. ISO 6429 SGR (select graphic
3031 rendition) escape sequences.
3032 Usage of colours and font attributes solely depends upon the
3033 capability of the detected terminal type that is defined by the
3034 environment variable
3036 and which can be fine-tuned by the user via the internal variable
3040 On top of what \*(UA knows about the terminal the boolean variable
3042 defines whether the actually applicable colour and font attribute
3043 sequences should also be generated when output is going to be paged
3044 through the external program defined by the environment variable
3049 This is not enabled by default because different pager programs need
3050 different command line switches or other configuration in order to
3051 support those sequences.
3052 \*(UA however knows about some widely used pagers and in a clean
3053 environment it is often enough to simply set
3055 please refer to that variable for more on this topic.
3058 Colours and font attributes can be managed with the multiplexer command
3062 can be used to remove mappings of a given colour type.
3065 is set then any active usage of colour and font attribute sequences
3066 is suppressed without affecting possibly established
3069 Since colours are only available in interactive mode, it may make
3070 sense to conditionalize the colour setup by encapsulating it with
3073 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3074 if terminal && [ "$features" =% +colour ]
3075 colour iso view-msginfo ft=bold,fg=green
3076 colour iso view-header ft=bold,fg=red from,subject
3077 colour iso view-header fg=red
3079 uncolour iso view-header from,subject
3080 colour iso view-header ft=bold,fg=magenta,bg=cyan
3081 colour 256 view-header ft=bold,fg=208,bg=230 "subject,from"
3082 colour mono view-header ft=bold
3083 colour mono view-header ft=bold,ft=reverse subject,from
3088 .\" .Ss "Handling spam" {{{
3091 \*(OP \*(UA can make use of several spam interfaces for the purpose of
3092 identification of, and, in general, dealing with spam messages.
3093 A precondition of most commands in order to function is that the
3095 variable is set to one of the supported interfaces.
3096 .Sx "Specifying messages"
3097 that have been identified as spam is possible via their (volatile)
3103 specifications, and their
3105 entries will be used when displaying the
3113 rates the given messages and sets their
3116 If the spam interface offers spam scores these can be shown in
3125 will interact with the Bayesian filter of the chosen interface and learn
3126 the given messages as
3130 respectively; the last command can be used to cause
3132 of messages; it adheres to their current
3134 state and thus reverts previous teachings.
3139 will simply set and clear, respectively, the mentioned volatile
3141 message flag, without any interface interaction.
3150 requires a running instance of the
3152 server in order to function, started with the option
3154 shall Bayesian filter learning be possible.
3156 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3157 $ spamd -i localhost:2142 -i /tmp/.spamsock -d [-L] [-l]
3158 $ spamd --listen=localhost:2142 --listen=/tmp/.spamsock \e
3159 --daemonize [--local] [--allow-tell]
3163 Thereafter \*(UA can make use of these interfaces:
3165 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3166 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=spamc -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
3167 -Sspamc-command=/usr/local/bin/spamc \e
3168 -Sspamc-arguments="-U /tmp/.spamsock" -Sspamc-user=
3170 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=spamc -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
3171 -Sspamc-command=/usr/local/bin/spamc \e
3172 -Sspamc-arguments="-d localhost -p 2142" -Sspamc-user=
3176 Using the generic filter approach allows usage of programs like
3178 Here is an example, requiring it to be accessible via
3181 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3182 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=filter -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
3183 -Sspamfilter-ham="bogofilter -n" \e
3184 -Sspamfilter-noham="bogofilter -N" \e
3185 -Sspamfilter-nospam="bogofilter -S" \e
3186 -Sspamfilter-rate="bogofilter -TTu 2>/dev/null" \e
3187 -Sspamfilter-spam="bogofilter -s" \e
3188 -Sspamfilter-rate-scanscore="1;^(.+)$"
3192 Because messages must exist on local storage in order to be scored (or
3193 used for Bayesian filter training), it is possibly a good idea to
3194 perform the local spam check last.
3195 Spam can be checked automatically when opening specific folders by
3196 setting a specialized form of the internal variable
3199 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3200 define spamdelhook {
3202 spamset (header x-dcc-brand-metrics "bulk")
3203 # Server-side spamassassin(1)
3204 spamset (header x-spam-flag "YES")
3205 del :s # TODO we HAVE to be able to do `spamrate :u ! :sS'
3211 set folder-hook-SOMEFOLDER=spamdelhook
3215 See also the documentation for the variables
3216 .Va spam-interface , spam-maxsize ,
3217 .Va spamc-command , spamc-arguments , spamc-user ,
3218 .Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , spamfilter-nospam , \
3221 .Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore .
3224 .\" }}} (DESCRIPTION)
3227 .\" .Sh COMMANDS {{{
3230 \*(UA reads input in lines.
3231 An unquoted reverse solidus
3233 at the end of a command line
3235 the newline character: it is discarded and the next line of input is
3236 used as a follow-up line, with all leading whitespace removed;
3237 once an entire line is completed, the whitespace characters
3238 .Cm space , tabulator , newline
3239 as well as those defined by the variable
3241 are removed from the beginning and end.
3242 Placing any whitespace characters at the beginning of a line will
3243 prevent a possible addition of the command line to the \*(OPal
3247 The beginning of such input lines is then scanned for the name of
3248 a known command: command names may be abbreviated, in which case the
3249 first command that matches the given prefix will be used.
3250 .Sx "Command modifiers"
3251 may prefix a command in order to modify its behaviour.
3252 A name may also be a
3254 which will become expanded until no more expansion is possible.
3255 Once the command that shall be executed is known, the remains of the
3256 input line will be interpreted according to command-specific rules,
3257 documented in the following.
3260 This behaviour is different to the
3262 ell, which is a programming language with syntactic elements of clearly
3263 defined semantics, and therefore capable to sequentially expand and
3264 evaluate individual elements of a line.
3265 \*(UA will never be able to handle
3266 .Ql ? set one=value two=$one
3267 in a single statement, because the variable assignment is performed by
3275 can be used to show the list of all commands, either alphabetically
3276 sorted or in prefix search order (these do not match, also because the
3277 POSIX standard prescribes a set of abbreviations).
3278 \*(OPally the command
3282 when given an argument, will show a documentation string for the
3283 command matching the expanded argument, as in
3285 which should be a shorthand of
3287 with these documentation strings both commands support a more
3289 listing mode which includes the argument type of the command and other
3290 information which applies; a handy suggestion might thus be:
3292 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3294 # Before v15: need to enable sh(1)ell-style on _entire_ line!
3295 localopts yes;wysh set verbose;ignerr eval "${@}";return ${?}
3297 ? commandalias xv '\ecall __xv'
3301 .\" .Ss "Command modifiers" {{{
3302 .Ss "Command modifiers"
3304 Commands may be prefixed by one or multiple command modifiers.
3305 Some command modifiers can be used with a restricted set of commands
3310 will (\*(OPally) show which modifiers apply.
3314 The modifier reverse solidus
3317 to be placed first, prevents
3319 expansions on the remains of the line, e.g.,
3321 will always evaluate the command
3323 even if an (command)alias of the same name exists.
3325 content may itself contain further command modifiers, including
3326 an initial reverse solidus to prevent further expansions.
3332 indicates that any error generated by the following command should be
3333 ignored by the state machine and not cause a program exit with enabled
3335 or for the standardized exit cases in
3340 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
3341 will be set to the real exit status of the command regardless.
3346 will alter the called command to apply changes only temporarily,
3347 local to block-scope, and can thus only be used inside of a
3352 Specifying it implies the modifier
3354 Block-scope settings will not be inherited by macros deeper in the
3356 chain, and will be garbage collected once the current block is left.
3357 To record and unroll changes in the global scope use the command
3363 does yet not implement any functionality.
3368 does yet not implement any functionality.
3371 Some commands support the
3374 modifier: if used, they expect the name of a variable, which can itself
3375 be a variable, i.e., shell expansion is applied, as their first
3376 argument, and will place their computation result in it instead of the
3377 default location (it is usually written to standard output).
3379 The given name will be tested for being a valid
3381 variable name, and may therefore only consist of upper- and lowercase
3382 characters, digits, and the underscore; the hyphen-minus may be used as
3383 a non-portable extension; digits may not be used as first, hyphen-minus
3384 may not be used as last characters.
3385 In addition the name may either not be one of the known
3386 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
3387 or must otherwise refer to a writable (non-boolean) value variable.
3388 The actual put operation may fail nonetheless, e.g., if the variable
3389 expects a number argument only a number will be accepted.
3390 Any error during these operations causes the command as such to fail,
3391 and the error number
3394 .Va ^ERR Ns -NOTSUP ,
3399 but some commands deviate from the latter, which is documented.
3402 Last, but not least, the modifier
3405 can be used for some old and established commands to choose the new
3406 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
3407 rules over the traditional
3408 .Sx "Old-style argument quoting" .
3412 .\" .Ss "Message list arguments" {{{
3413 .Ss "Message list arguments"
3415 Some commands expect arguments that represent messages (actually
3416 their symbolic message numbers), as has been documented above under
3417 .Sx "Specifying messages"
3419 If no explicit message list has been specified, the next message
3420 forward that satisfies the commands requirements will be used,
3421 and if there are no messages forward of the current message,
3422 the search proceeds backwards;
3423 if there are no good messages at all to be found, an error message is
3424 shown and the command is aborted.
3427 .\" .Ss "Old-style argument quoting" {{{
3428 .Ss "Old-style argument quoting"
3430 \*(ID This section documents the old, traditional style of quoting
3431 non-message-list arguments to commands which expect this type of
3432 arguments: whereas still used by the majority of such commands, the new
3433 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
3434 may be available even for those via
3437 .Sx "Command modifiers" .
3438 Nonetheless care must be taken, because only new commands have been
3439 designed with all the capabilities of the new quoting rules in mind,
3440 which can, e.g., generate control characters.
3443 .Bl -bullet -offset indent
3445 An argument can be enclosed between paired double-quotes
3450 any whitespace, shell word expansion, or reverse solidus characters
3451 (except as described next) within the quotes are treated literally as
3452 part of the argument.
3453 A double-quote will be treated literally within single-quotes and vice
3455 Inside such a quoted string the actually used quote character can be
3456 used nonetheless by escaping it with a reverse solidus
3462 An argument that is not enclosed in quotes, as above, can usually still
3463 contain space characters if those spaces are reverse solidus escaped, as in
3467 A reverse solidus outside of the enclosing quotes is discarded
3468 and the following character is treated literally as part of the argument.
3472 .\" .Ss "Shell-style argument quoting" {{{
3473 .Ss "Shell-style argument quoting"
3475 Commands which do not expect message-list arguments use
3477 ell-style, and therefore POSIX standardized, argument parsing and
3479 \*(ID Most new commands only support these new rules and are flagged
3480 \*(NQ, some elder ones can use them with the command modifier
3482 in the future only this type of argument quoting will remain.
3485 A command line is parsed from left to right and an input token is
3486 completed whenever an unquoted, otherwise ignored, metacharacter is seen.
3487 Metacharacters are vertical bar
3493 as well as all characters from the variable
3496 .Cm space , tabulator , newline .
3497 The additional metacharacters left and right parenthesis
3499 and less-than and greater-than signs
3503 supports are not used, and are treated as ordinary characters: for one
3504 these characters are a vivid part of email addresses, and it seems
3505 highly unlikely that their function will become meaningful to \*(UA.
3507 .Bd -filled -offset indent
3508 .Sy Compatibility note:
3509 \*(ID Please note that even many new-style commands do not yet honour
3511 to parse their arguments: whereas the
3513 ell is a language with syntactic elements of clearly defined semantics,
3514 \*(UA parses entire input lines and decides on a per-command base what
3515 to do with the rest of the line.
3516 This also means that whenever an unknown command is seen all that \*(UA
3517 can do is cancellation of the processing of the remains of the line.
3519 It also often depends on an actual subcommand of a multiplexer command
3520 how the rest of the line should be treated, and until v15 we are not
3521 capable to perform this deep inspection of arguments.
3522 Nonetheless, at least the following commands which work with positional
3523 parameters fully support
3525 for an almost shell-compatible field splitting:
3526 .Ic call , call_if , read , vpospar , xcall .
3530 Any unquoted number sign
3532 at the beginning of a new token starts a comment that extends to the end
3533 of the line, and therefore ends argument processing.
3534 An unquoted dollar sign
3536 will cause variable expansion of the given name, which must be a valid
3538 ell-style variable name (see
3540 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
3543 (shell) variables can be accessed through this mechanism, brace
3544 enclosing the name is supported (i.e., to subdivide a token).
3547 Whereas the metacharacters
3548 .Cm space , tabulator , newline
3549 only complete an input token, vertical bar
3555 also act as control operators and perform control functions.
3556 For now supported is semicolon
3558 which terminates a single command, therefore sequencing the command line
3559 and making the remainder of the line a subject to reevaluation.
3560 With sequencing, multiple command argument types and quoting rules may
3561 therefore apply to a single line, which can become problematic before
3562 v15: e.g., the first of the following will cause surprising results.
3565 .Dl ? echo one; set verbose; echo verbose=$verbose.
3566 .Dl ? echo one; wysh set verbose; echo verbose=$verbose.
3569 Quoting is a mechanism that will remove the special meaning of
3570 metacharacters and reserved words, and will prevent expansion.
3571 There are four quoting mechanisms: the escape character, single-quotes,
3572 double-quotes and dollar-single-quotes:
3575 .Bl -bullet -offset indent
3577 The literal value of any character can be preserved by preceding it
3578 with the escape character reverse solidus
3582 Arguments which are enclosed in
3583 .Ql 'single-\:quotes'
3584 retain their literal value.
3585 A single-quote cannot occur within single-quotes.
3588 The literal value of all characters enclosed in
3589 .Ql \(dqdouble-\:quotes\(dq
3590 is retained, with the exception of dollar sign
3592 which will cause variable expansion, as above, backquote (grave accent)
3594 (which not yet means anything special), reverse solidus
3596 which will escape any of the characters dollar sign
3598 (to prevent variable expansion), backquote (grave accent)
3602 (to prevent ending the quote) and reverse solidus
3604 (to prevent escaping, i.e., to embed a reverse solidus character as-is),
3605 but has no special meaning otherwise.
3608 Arguments enclosed in
3609 .Ql $'dollar-\:single-\:quotes'
3610 extend normal single quotes in that reverse solidus escape sequences are
3611 expanded as follows:
3613 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".Ql \eNNN"
3615 bell control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 BEL).
3617 backspace control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 BS).
3619 escape control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 ESC).
3623 form feed control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 FF).
3625 line feed control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 LF).
3627 carriage return control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 CR).
3629 horizontal tabulator control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 HT).
3631 vertical tabulator control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 VT).
3633 emits a reverse solidus character.
3637 double quote (escaping is optional).
3639 eight-bit byte with the octal value
3641 (one to three octal digits), optionally prefixed by an additional
3643 A 0 byte will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
3645 eight-bit byte with the hexadecimal value
3647 (one or two hexadecimal characters, no prefix, see
3649 A 0 byte will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
3651 the Unicode / ISO-10646 character with the hexadecimal codepoint value
3653 (one to eight hexadecimal characters) \(em note that Unicode defines the
3654 maximum codepoint ever to be supported as
3659 This escape is only supported in locales that support Unicode (see
3660 .Sx "Character sets" ) ,
3661 in other cases the sequence will remain unexpanded unless the given code
3662 point is ASCII compatible or (if the \*(OPal character set conversion is
3663 available) can be represented in the current locale.
3664 The character NUL will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
3668 except it takes only one to four hexadecimal characters.
3670 Emits the non-printable (ASCII and compatible) C0 control codes
3671 0 (NUL) to 31 (US), and 127 (DEL).
3672 Printable representations of ASCII control codes can be created by
3673 mapping them to a different, visible part of the ASCII character set.
3674 Adding the number 64 achieves this for the codes 0 to 31, e.g., 7 (BEL):
3675 .Ql 7 + 64 = 71 = G .
3676 The real operation is a bitwise logical XOR with 64 (bit 7 set, see
3678 thus also covering code 127 (DEL), which is mapped to 63 (question mark):
3679 .Ql ? vexpr ^ 127 64 .
3681 Whereas historically circumflex notation has often been used for
3682 visualization purposes of control codes, e.g.,
3684 the reverse solidus notation has been standardized:
3686 Some control codes also have standardized (ISO-10646, ISO C) aliases,
3687 as shown above (e.g.,
3691 whenever such an alias exists it will be used for display purposes.
3692 The control code NUL
3694 a non-standard extension) will suppress further output for the remains
3695 of the token (which may extend beyond the current quote), or, depending
3696 on the context, the remains of all arguments for the current command.
3698 Non-standard extension: expand the given variable name, as above.
3699 Brace enclosing the name is supported.
3701 Not yet supported, just to raise awareness: Non-standard extension.
3708 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3709 ? echo 'Quotes '${HOME}' and 'tokens" differ!"# no comment
3710 ? echo Quotes ${HOME} and tokens differ! # comment
3711 ? echo Don"'"t you worry$'\ex21' The sun shines on us. $'\eu263A'
3715 .\" .Ss "Raw data arguments for codec commands" {{{
3716 .Ss "Raw data arguments for codec commands"
3718 A special set of commands, which all have the string
3720 in their name, e.g.,
3724 take raw string data as input, which means that the content of the
3725 command input line is passed completely unexpanded and otherwise
3726 unchanged: like this the effect of the actual codec is visible without
3727 any noise of possible shell quoting rules etc., i.e., the user can input
3728 one-to-one the desired or questionable data.
3729 To gain a level of expansion, the entire command line can be
3733 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3734 ? vput shcodec res encode /usr/Sch\[:o]nes Wetter/heute.txt
3736 $'/usr/Sch\eu00F6nes Wetter/heute.txt'
3738 $'/usr/Sch\eu00F6nes Wetter/heute.txt'
3739 ? eval shcodec d $res
3740 /usr/Sch\[:o]nes Wetter/heute.txt
3744 .\" .Ss "Filename transformations" {{{
3745 .Ss "Filename transformations"
3747 Filenames, where expected, and unless documented otherwise, are
3748 subsequently subject to the following filename transformations, in
3751 .Bl -bullet -offset indent
3753 If the given name is a registered
3755 it will be replaced with the expanded shortcut.
3758 The filename is matched against the following patterns or strings:
3760 .Bl -hang -compact -width ".Ar %user"
3762 (Number sign) is expanded to the previous file.
3764 (Percent sign) is replaced by the invoking
3765 .Mx -ix "primary system mailbox"
3766 user's primary system mailbox, which either is the (itself expandable)
3768 if that is set, the standardized absolute pathname indicated by
3770 if that is set, or a built-in compile-time default otherwise.
3772 Expands to the primary system mailbox of
3774 (and never the value of
3776 regardless of its actual setting).
3778 (Ampersand) is replaced with the invoking user's
3779 .Mx -ix "secondary mailbox"
3780 secondary mailbox, the
3787 directory (if that variable is set).
3789 Expands to the same value as
3791 but has special meaning when used with, e.g., the command
3793 the file will be treated as a primary system mailbox by, e.g., the
3797 commands, meaning that messages that have been read in the current
3798 session will be moved to the
3800 mailbox instead of simply being flagged as read.
3804 Meta expansions may be applied to the resulting filename, as allowed by
3805 the operation and applicable to the resulting access protocol (also see
3806 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) .
3807 For the file-protocol, a leading tilde
3809 character will be replaced by the expansion of
3811 except when followed by a valid user name, in which case the home
3812 directory of the given user is used instead.
3814 A shell expansion as if specified in double-quotes (see
3815 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" )
3816 may be applied, so that any occurrence of
3820 will be replaced by the expansion of the variable, if possible;
3821 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
3824 (shell) variables can be accessed through this mechanism.
3826 Shell pathname wildcard pattern expansions
3828 may be applied as documented.
3829 If the fully expanded filename results in multiple pathnames and the
3830 command is expecting only one file, an error results.
3832 In interactive context, in order to allow simple value acceptance (via
3834 arguments will usually be displayed in a properly quoted form, e.g., a file
3835 .Ql diet\e is \ecurd.txt
3837 .Ql 'diet\e is \ecurd.txt' .
3841 .\" .Ss "Commands" {{{
3844 The following commands are available:
3846 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ic BaNg"
3853 command which follows, replacing unescaped exclamation marks with the
3854 previously executed command if the internal variable
3857 This command supports
3860 .Sx "Command modifiers" ,
3861 and manages the error number
3863 A 0 or positive exit status
3865 reflects the exit status of the command, negative ones that
3866 an error happened before the command was executed, or that the program
3867 did not exit cleanly, but, e.g., due to a signal: the error number is
3868 .Va ^ERR Ns -CHILD ,
3872 In conjunction with the
3874 modifier the following special cases exist:
3875 a negative exit status occurs if the collected data could not be stored
3876 in the given variable, which is a
3878 error that should otherwise not occur.
3879 .Va ^ERR Ns -CANCELED
3880 indicates that no temporary file could be created to collect the command
3881 output at first glance.
3882 In case of catchable out-of-memory situations
3884 will occur and \*(UA will try to store the empty string, just like with
3885 all other detected error conditions.
3890 The comment-command causes the entire line to be ignored.
3892 this really is a normal command which' purpose is to discard its
3895 indicating special character, which means that, e.g., trailing comments
3896 on a line are not possible (except for commands which use
3897 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ) .
3901 Goes to the next message in sequence and types it
3907 Display the preceding message, or the n'th previous message if given
3908 a numeric argument n.
3912 Show the current message number (the
3917 \*(OP Show a brief summary of commands.
3918 \*(OP Given an argument a synopsis for the command in question is
3919 shown instead; commands can be abbreviated in general and this command
3920 can be used to see the full expansion of an abbreviation including the
3921 synopsis, try, e.g.,
3926 and see how the output changes.
3927 This mode also supports a more
3929 output, which will provide the information documented for
3940 .It Ic account , unaccount
3941 (ac, una) Creates, selects or lists (an) account(s).
3942 Accounts are special incarnations of
3944 macros and group commands and variable settings which together usually
3945 arrange the environment for the purpose of creating an email account.
3946 Different to normal macros settings which are covered by
3948 \(en here by default enabled! \(en will not be reverted before the
3953 (case-insensitive) always exists, and all but it can be deleted by the
3954 latter command, and in one operation with the special name
3956 Also for all but it a possibly set
3957 .Va on-account-cleanup
3958 hook is called once they are left.
3960 Without arguments a listing of all defined accounts is shown.
3961 With one argument the given account is activated: the system
3963 of that account will be activated (as via
3965 a possibly installed
3967 will be run, and the internal variable
3970 The two argument form is identical to defining a macro as via
3972 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3974 set folder=~/mail inbox=+syste.mbox record=+sent.mbox
3975 set from='(My Name) myname@myisp.example'
3976 set mta=smtp://mylogin@smtp.myisp.example
3983 Perform email address codec transformations on raw-data argument, rather
3984 according to email standards (RFC 5322; \*(ID will furtherly improve).
3988 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) ,
3989 and manages the error number
3991 The first argument must be either
3992 .Ar [+[+[+]]]e[ncode] ,
3997 and specifies the operation to perform on the rest of the line.
4000 Decoding will show how a standard-compliant MUA will display the given
4001 argument, which should be an email address.
4002 Please be aware that most MUAs have difficulties with the address
4003 standards, and vary wildly when (comments) in parenthesis,
4005 strings, or quoted-pairs, as below, become involved.
4006 \*(ID \*(UA currently does not perform decoding when displaying addresses.
4009 Skinning is identical to decoding but only outputs the plain address,
4010 without any string, comment etc. components.
4011 Another difference is that it may fail with the error number
4015 if decoding fails to find a(n) (valid) email address, in which case the
4016 unmodified input will be output again.
4020 first performs a skin operation, and thereafter checks a valid
4021 address for whether it is a registered mailing list (see
4025 eventually reporting that state in the error number
4028 .Va ^ERR Ns -EXIST .
4029 (This state could later become overwritten by an I/O error, though.)
4032 Encoding supports four different modes, lesser automated versions can be
4033 chosen by prefixing one, two or three plus signs: the standard imposes
4034 a special meaning on some characters, which thus have to be transformed
4035 to so-called quoted-pairs by pairing them with a reverse solidus
4037 in order to remove the special meaning; this might change interpretation
4038 of the entire argument from what has been desired, however!
4039 Specify one plus sign to remark that parenthesis shall be left alone,
4040 two for not turning double quotation marks into quoted-pairs, and three
4041 for also leaving any user-specified reverse solidus alone.
4042 The result will always be valid, if a successful exit status is reported
4043 (\*(ID the current parser fails this assertion for some constructs).
4044 \*(ID Addresses need to be specified in between angle brackets
4047 if the construct becomes more difficult, otherwise the current parser
4048 will fail; it is not smart enough to guess right.
4050 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4051 ? addrc enc "Hey, you",<diet@exam.ple>\e out\e there
4052 "\e"Hey, you\e", \e\e out\e\e there" <diet@exam.ple>
4053 ? addrc d "\e"Hey, you\e", \e\e out\e\e there" <diet@exam.ple>
4054 "Hey, you", \e out\e there <diet@exam.ple>
4055 ? addrc s "\e"Hey, you\e", \e\e out\e\e there" <diet@exam.ple>
4062 .It Ic alias , unalias
4063 (a, una) Aliases are a method of creating personal distribution lists
4064 that map a single alias name to none to multiple real receivers;
4065 these aliases become expanded after message composing is completed.
4066 The latter command removes the given list of aliases, the special name
4068 will discard all existing aliases.
4070 The former command shows all currently defined aliases when used without
4071 arguments, and with one argument the expansion of the given alias.
4072 With more than one argument, creates or appends to the alias name given
4073 as the first argument the remaining arguments.
4074 Alias names adhere to the Postfix MTA
4076 rules and are thus restricted to alphabetic characters, digits, the
4077 underscore, hyphen-minus, the number sign, colon and commercial at,
4078 the last character can also be the dollar sign; the regular expression:
4079 .Ql [[:alnum:]_#:@-]+$? .
4080 .\" ALIASCOLON next sentence
4081 \*(ID Unfortunately the colon is currently not supported, as it
4082 interferes with normal address parsing rules.
4083 As extensions the exclamation mark
4088 .Dq any character that has the high bit set
4090 .\" ALIASCOLON next sentence
4091 \*(ID Such high bit characters will likely cause warnings at the moment
4092 for the same reasons why colon is unsupported.
4096 .It Ic alternates , unalternates
4097 \*(NQ (alt) Manage a list of alternate addresses or names of the active
4098 user, members of which will be removed from recipient lists (except one).
4099 The latter command removes the given list of alternates, the special name
4101 will discard all existing alternate names.
4103 The former command manages the error number
4105 It shows the current set of alternates when used without arguments; in
4106 this mode only it also supports
4109 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
4110 Otherwise the given arguments (after being checked for validity) are
4111 appended to the list of alternate names; in
4113 mode they replace that list instead.
4114 There is a set of implicit alternates which is formed of the values of
4123 .It Ic answered , unanswered
4124 Take a message lists and mark each message as (not) having been answered.
4125 Messages will be marked answered when being
4127 to automatically if the
4131 .Sx "Message states" .
4136 .It Ic bind , unbind
4137 \*(OP\*(NQ The bind command extends the MLE (see
4138 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
4139 with freely configurable key bindings.
4140 The latter command removes from the given context the given key binding,
4141 both of which may be specified as a wildcard
4145 will remove all bindings of all contexts.
4146 Due to initialization order unbinding will not work for built-in key
4147 bindings upon program startup, however: please use
4148 .Va line-editor-no-defaults
4149 for this purpose instead.
4152 With one argument the former command shows all key bindings for the
4153 given context, specifying an asterisk
4155 will show the bindings of all contexts; a more verbose listing will be
4156 produced if either of
4161 With two or more arguments a binding is (re)established:
4162 the first argument is the context to which the binding shall apply,
4163 the second argument is a comma-separated list of the
4165 which form the binding, and any remaining arguments form the expansion.
4166 To indicate that a binding shall not be auto-committed, but that the
4167 expansion shall instead be furtherly editable by the user, a commercial at
4169 (that will be removed) can be placed last in the expansion, from which
4170 leading and trailing whitespace will finally be removed.
4171 Reverse solidus cannot be used as the last character of expansion.
4174 Contexts define when a binding applies, i.e., a binding will not be seen
4175 unless the context for which it is defined for is currently active.
4176 This is not true for the shared binding
4178 which is the foundation for all other bindings and as such always
4179 applies, its bindings, however, only apply secondarily.
4180 The available contexts are the shared
4184 context which is used in all not otherwise documented situations, and
4186 which applies to compose mode only.
4190 which form the binding are specified as a comma-separated list of
4191 byte-sequences, where each list entry corresponds to one key(press).
4192 A list entry may, indicated by a leading colon character
4194 also refer to the name of a terminal capability; several dozen names
4195 will be compiled in and may be specified either by their
4197 or, if existing, by their
4199 name, regardless of the actually used \*(OPal terminal control library.
4200 It is possible to use any capability, as long as the name is resolvable
4201 by the \*(OPal control library or was defined via the internal variable
4203 Input sequences are not case-normalized, so that an exact match is
4204 required to update or remove a binding.
4207 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4208 ? bind base $'\eE',d mle-snarf-word-fwd # Esc(ape)
4209 ? bind base $'\eE',$'\ec?' mle-snarf-word-bwd # Esc,Delete
4210 ? bind default $'\ecA',:khome,w 'echo Editable binding@'
4211 ? bind default a,b,c rm -irf / @ # Also editable
4212 ? bind default :kf1 File %
4213 ? bind compose :kf1 ~v
4217 Note that the entire comma-separated list is first parsed (over) as a
4218 shell-token with whitespace as the field separator, before being parsed
4219 and expanded for real with comma as the field separator, therefore
4220 whitespace needs to be properly quoted, see
4221 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" .
4222 Using Unicode reverse solidus escape sequences renders a binding
4223 defunctional if the locale does not support Unicode (see
4224 .Sx "Character sets" ) ,
4225 and using terminal capabilities does so if no (corresponding) terminal
4226 control support is (currently) available.
4229 The following terminal capability names are built-in and can be used in
4231 or (if available) the two-letter
4234 See the respective manual for a list of capabilities.
4237 can be used to show all the capabilities of
4239 or the given terminal type;
4242 flag will also show supported (non-standard) extensions.
4245 .Bl -tag -compact -width kcuuf_or_kcuuf
4246 .It Cd kbs Ns \0or Cd kb
4248 .It Cd kdch1 Ns \0or Cd kD
4250 .It Cd kDC Ns \0or Cd *4
4251 \(em shifted variant.
4252 .It Cd kel Ns \0or Cd kE
4253 Clear to end of line.
4254 .It Cd kext Ns \0or Cd @9
4256 .It Cd kich1 Ns \0or Cd kI
4258 .It Cd kIC Ns \0or Cd #3
4259 \(em shifted variant.
4260 .It Cd khome Ns \0or Cd kh
4262 .It Cd kHOM Ns \0or Cd #2
4263 \(em shifted variant.
4264 .It Cd kend Ns \0or Cd @7
4266 .It Cd knp Ns \0or Cd kN
4268 .It Cd kpp Ns \0or Cd kP
4270 .It Cd kcub1 Ns \0or Cd kl
4271 Left cursor (with more modifiers: see below).
4272 .It Cd kLFT Ns \0or Cd #4
4273 \(em shifted variant.
4274 .It Cd kcuf1 Ns \0or Cd kr
4275 Right cursor (ditto).
4276 .It Cd kRIT Ns \0or Cd %i
4277 \(em shifted variant.
4278 .It Cd kcud1 Ns \0or Cd kd
4279 Down cursor (ditto).
4281 \(em shifted variant (only terminfo).
4282 .It Cd kcuu1 Ns \0or Cd ku
4285 \(em shifted variant (only terminfo).
4286 .It Cd kf0 Ns \0or Cd k0
4288 Add one for each function key up to
4293 .It Cd kf10 Ns \0or Cd k;
4295 .It Cd kf11 Ns \0or Cd F1
4297 Add one for each function key up to
4305 Some terminals support key-modifier combination extensions, e.g.,
4307 For example, the delete key,
4309 in its shifted variant, the name is mutated to
4311 then a number is appended for the states
4323 .Ql Shift+Alt+Control
4325 The same for the left cursor key,
4327 .Cd KLFT , KLFT3 , KLFT4 , KLFT5 , KLFT6 , KLFT7 , KLFT8 .
4330 It is advisable to use an initial escape or other control character (e.g.,
4332 for bindings which describe user key combinations (as opposed to purely
4333 terminal capability based ones), in order to avoid ambiguities whether
4334 input belongs to key sequences or not; it also reduces search time.
4337 may help shall keys and sequences be falsely recognized.
4342 \*(NQ Calls the given macro, which must have been created via
4347 Calling macros recursively will at some time excess the stack size
4348 limit, causing a hard program abortion; if recursively calling a macro
4349 is the last command of the current macro, consider to use the command
4351 which will first release all resources of the current macro before
4352 replacing the current macro with the called one.
4353 Numeric and string operations can be performed via
4357 may be helpful to recreate argument lists.
4364 if the given macro has been created via
4366 but does not fail nor warn if the macro does not exist.
4370 (ch) Change the working directory to
4372 or the given argument.
4378 \*(OP Only applicable to S/MIME signed messages.
4379 Takes a message list and a filename and saves the certificates
4380 contained within the message signatures to the named file in both
4381 human-readable and PEM format.
4382 The certificates can later be used to send encrypted messages to the
4383 respective message senders by setting
4384 .Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST
4389 .It Ic charsetalias , uncharsetalias
4390 \*(NQ Manage alias mappings for (conversion of)
4391 .Sx "Character sets" .
4392 Mappings are ineffective if character set conversion is not available
4396 Expansion happens recursively, but expansion is not performed for
4397 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
4401 The latter command deletes all aliases given as arguments,
4402 all aliases can be deleted at once with the special argument
4404 The former shows the list of all currently defined aliases if used
4405 without arguments, the expansion of the given alias with one argument.
4406 Otherwise all given arguments are treated as pairs of character sets and
4407 their desired target alias name, creating new or changing already
4408 existing aliases, as necessary.
4412 (ch) Change the working directory to
4414 or the given argument.
4420 .It Ic collapse , uncollapse
4426 Takes a message list and makes all replies to these messages invisible
4427 in header summaries, except for
4431 Also when a message with collapsed replies is displayed,
4432 all of these are automatically uncollapsed.
4433 The latter command undoes collapsing.
4436 .\" FIXME review until this point
4439 .It Ic colour , uncolour
4440 \*(OP\*(NQ Manage colour mappings of and for a
4441 .Sx "Coloured display" .
4442 The type of colour is given as the (case-insensitive) first argument,
4443 which must be one of
4445 for 256-colour terminals,
4450 for the standard 8-colour ANSI / ISO 6429 colour palette and
4454 for monochrome terminals.
4455 Monochrome terminals cannot deal with colours, but only (some) font
4459 Without further arguments the list of all currently defined mappings
4460 for the given colour type is shown (as a special case giving
4464 will show the mappings of all types).
4465 Otherwise the second argument defines the mappable slot, and the third
4466 argument a (comma-separated list of) colour and font attribute
4467 specification(s), and the optional fourth argument can be used to
4468 specify a precondition: if conditioned mappings exist they are tested in
4469 (creation) order unless a (case-insensitive) match has been found, and
4470 the default mapping (if any has been established) will only be chosen as
4472 The types of precondition available depend on the mappable slot (see
4473 .Sx "Coloured display"
4474 for some examples), the following of which exist:
4477 Mappings prefixed with
4479 are used for the \*(OPal built-in Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE, see
4480 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
4481 and do not support preconditions.
4483 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
4485 This mapping is used for the position indicator that is visible when
4486 a line cannot be fully displayed on the screen.
4493 Mappings prefixed with
4495 are used in header summaries, and they all understand the preconditions
4497 (the current message) and
4499 for elder messages (only honoured in conjunction with
4500 .Va datefield-markout-older ) .
4502 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
4504 This mapping is used for the
4506 that can be created with the
4510 formats of the variable
4513 For the complete header summary line except the
4515 and the thread structure.
4517 For the thread structure which can be created with the
4519 format of the variable
4524 Mappings prefixed with
4526 are used when displaying messages.
4528 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
4530 This mapping is used for so-called
4532 lines, which are MBOX file format specific header lines.
4535 A comma-separated list of headers to which the mapping applies may be
4536 given as a precondition; if the \*(OPal regular expression support is
4537 available then if any of the
4539 (extended) regular expression characters is seen the precondition will
4540 be evaluated as (an extended) one.
4542 For the introductional message info line.
4543 .It Ar view-partinfo
4544 For MIME part info lines.
4548 The following (case-insensitive) colour definitions and font attributes
4549 are understood, multiple of which can be specified in a comma-separated
4559 It is possible (and often applicable) to specify multiple font
4560 attributes for a single mapping.
4563 foreground colour attribute:
4573 To specify a 256-colour mode a decimal number colour specification in
4574 the range 0 to 255, inclusive, is supported, and interpreted as follows:
4576 .Bl -tag -compact -width "999 - 999"
4578 the standard ISO 6429 colours, as above.
4580 high intensity variants of the standard colours.
4582 216 colours in tuples of 6.
4584 grayscale from black to white in 24 steps.
4586 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4588 fg() { printf "\e033[38;5;${1}m($1)"; }
4589 bg() { printf "\e033[48;5;${1}m($1)"; }
4591 while [ $i -lt 256 ]; do fg $i; i=$(($i + 1)); done
4592 printf "\e033[0m\en"
4594 while [ $i -lt 256 ]; do bg $i; i=$(($i + 1)); done
4595 printf "\e033[0m\en"
4599 background colour attribute (see
4601 for possible values).
4607 will remove for the given colour type (the special type
4609 selects all) the given mapping; if the optional precondition argument is
4610 given only the exact tuple of mapping and precondition is removed.
4613 will remove all mappings (no precondition allowed), thus
4615 will remove all established mappings.
4620 .It Ic commandalias , uncommandalias
4621 \*(NQ Define or list, and remove, respectively, command aliases.
4622 An (command)alias can be used everywhere a normal command can be used,
4623 but always takes precedence: any arguments that are given to the command
4624 alias are joined onto the alias expansion, and the resulting string
4625 forms the command line that is, in effect, executed.
4626 The latter command removes all given aliases, the special name
4628 will remove all existing aliases.
4629 When used without arguments the former shows a list of all currently
4630 known aliases, with one argument only the expansion of the given one.
4632 With two or more arguments a command alias is defined or updated: the
4633 first argument is the name under which the remaining command line should
4634 be accessible, the content of which can be just about anything.
4635 An alias may itself expand to another alias, but to avoid expansion loops
4636 further expansion will be prevented if an alias refers to itself or if
4637 an expansion depth limit is reached.
4638 Explicit expansion prevention is available via reverse solidus
4641 .Sx "Command modifiers" .
4642 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4644 \*(uA: `commandalias': no such alias: xx
4645 ? commandalias xx echo hello,
4647 commandalias xx 'echo hello,'
4656 (C) Copy messages to files whose names are derived from the author of
4657 the respective message and do not mark them as being saved;
4658 otherwise identical to
4663 (c) Copy messages to the named file and do not mark them as being saved;
4664 otherwise identical to
4669 Show the name of the current working directory, as reported by
4674 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
4675 The return status is tracked via
4680 \*(OP For unencrypted messages this command is identical to
4682 Encrypted messages are first decrypted, if possible, and then copied.
4686 \*(OP For unencrypted messages this command is identical to
4688 Encrypted messages are first decrypted, if possible, and then copied.
4693 .It Ic define , undefine
4694 The latter command deletes the given macro, the special name
4696 will discard all existing macros.
4697 Deletion of (a) macro(s) can be performed from within running (a)
4698 macro(s), including self-deletion.
4699 Without arguments the former command prints the current list of macros,
4700 including their content, otherwise it it defines a macro, replacing an
4701 existing one of the same name as applicable.
4704 A defined macro can be invoked explicitly by using the
4709 commands, or implicitly if a macro hook is triggered, e.g., a
4711 Execution of a macro body can be stopped from within by calling
4715 Temporary macro block-scope variables can be created or deleted with the
4717 command modifier in conjunction with the commands
4722 To enforce unrolling of changes made to (global)
4723 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
4726 can be used instead; its covered scope depends on how (i.e.,
4728 normal macro, folder hook, hook,
4730 switch) the macro is invoked.
4735 ed macro, the given positional parameters are implicitly local
4736 to the macro's scope, and may be accessed via the variables
4742 and any other positive unsigned decimal number less than or equal to
4744 Positional parameters can be
4746 ed, or become completely replaced, removed etc. via
4749 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4759 echo Parameter 1 of ${#} is ${1}, all: ${*} / ${@}
4762 call exmac Hello macro exmac!
4763 echo ${?}/${!}/${^ERRNAME}
4769 .It Ic delete , undelete
4770 (d, u) Marks the given message list as being or not being
4772 respectively; if no argument has been specified then the usual search
4773 for a visible message is performed, as documented for
4774 .Sx "Message list arguments" ,
4775 showing only the next input prompt if the search fails.
4776 Deleted messages will neither be saved in the
4778 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
4780 nor will they be available for most other commands.
4783 variable is set, the new
4785 or the last message restored, respectively, is automatically
4795 Superseded by the multiplexer
4801 Delete the given messages and automatically
4805 if one exists, regardless of the setting of
4812 up or down by one message when given
4816 argument, respectively.
4820 .It Ic draft , undraft
4821 Take message lists and mark each given message as being draft, or not
4822 being draft, respectively, as documented in the section
4823 .Sx "Message states" .
4827 \*(NQ (ec) Echoes arguments to standard output and writes a trailing
4828 newline, whereas the otherwise identical
4831 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
4833 .Sx "Filename transformations"
4834 are applied to the expanded arguments.
4835 This command also supports
4838 .Sx "Command modifiers" ,
4839 and manages the error number
4841 if data is stored in a variable then the return value reflects the
4842 length of the result string in case of success and is
4850 except that is echoes to standard error.
4853 In interactive sessions the \*(OPal message ring queue for
4855 will be used instead, if available and
4863 but does not write or store a trailing newline.
4869 but does not write or store a trailing newline.
4875 at each message from the given list in turn.
4876 Modified contents are discarded unless the
4878 variable is set, and are not used unless the mailbox can be written to
4879 and the editor returns a successful exit status.
4881 can be used instead for a more display oriented editor.
4886 .Ic if Ns \0/\: Ic elif Ns \0/\: Ic else Ns \0/\: Ic endif
4887 conditional \(em if the condition of a preceding
4889 was false, check the following condition and execute the following block
4890 if it evaluates true.
4895 .Ic if Ns \0/\: Ic elif Ns \0/\: Ic else Ns \0/\: Ic endif
4896 conditional \(em if none of the conditions of the preceding
4900 commands was true, the
4906 (en) Marks the end of an
4907 .Ic if Ns \0/\: Ic elif Ns \0/\: Ic else Ns \0/\: Ic endif
4908 conditional execution block.
4913 \*(NQ \*(UA has a strict notion about which variables are
4914 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
4915 and which are managed in the program
4917 Since some of the latter are a vivid part of \*(UAs functioning,
4918 however, they are transparently integrated into the normal handling of
4919 internal variables via
4923 To integrate other environment variables of choice into this
4924 transparent handling, and also to export internal variables into the
4925 process environment where they normally are not, a
4927 needs to become established with this command, as in, e.g.,
4930 .Dl environ link PERL5LIB TZ
4933 Afterwards changing such variables with
4935 will cause automatic updates of the program environment, and therefore
4936 be inherited by newly created child processes.
4937 Sufficient system support provided (it was in BSD as early as 1987, and
4938 is standardized since Y2K) removing such variables with
4940 will remove them also from the program environment, but in any way
4941 the knowledge they ever have been
4944 Note that this implies that
4946 may cause loss of such links.
4951 will remove an existing link, but leaves the variables as such intact.
4952 Additionally the subcommands
4956 are provided, which work exactly the same as the documented commands
4960 but (additionally un)link the variable(s) with the program environment
4961 and thus immediately export them to, or remove them from (if possible),
4962 respectively, the program environment.
4967 \*(OP Since \*(UA uses the console as a user interface it can happen
4968 that messages scroll by too fast to become recognized.
4969 An error message ring queue is available which stores duplicates of any
4970 error message and notifies the user in interactive sessions whenever
4971 a new error has occurred.
4972 The queue is finite: if its maximum size is reached any new message
4973 replaces the eldest.
4976 can be used to manage this message queue: if given
4978 or no argument the queue will be displayed and cleared,
4980 will only clear all messages from the queue.
4984 \*(NQ Construct a command by concatenating the arguments, separated with
4985 a single space character, and then evaluate the result.
4986 This command passes through the exit status
4990 of the evaluated command; also see
4992 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5003 call yyy '\ecall xxx' "b\e$'\et'u ' "
5011 (ex or x) Exit from \*(UA without changing the active mailbox and skip
5012 any saving of messages in the
5014 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
5016 as well as a possibly tracked line editor
5018 The optional status number argument will be passed through to
5020 \*(ID For now it can happen that the given status will be overwritten,
5021 later this will only occur if a later error needs to be reported onto an
5022 otherwise success indicating status.
5028 but open the mailbox read-only.
5033 (fi) The file command switches to a new mailbox.
5034 Without arguments it shows status information of the current mailbox.
5035 If an argument is given, it will write out changes (such as deletions)
5036 the user has made, open a new mailbox, update the internal variables
5037 .Va mailbox-resolved
5039 .Va mailbox-display ,
5040 and optionally display a summary of
5047 .Sx "Filename transformations"
5048 will be applied to the
5052 prefixes are, i.e., URL syntax is understood, e.g.,
5053 .Ql maildir:///tmp/mdirbox :
5054 if a protocol prefix is used the mailbox type is fixated and neither
5055 the auto-detection (read on) nor the
5058 \*(OPally URLs can also be used to access network resources, which may
5059 be accessed securely via
5060 .Sx "Encrypted network communication"
5061 if so supported, and it is possible to proxy all network traffic over
5062 a SOCKS5 server given via
5066 .Dl \*(IN protocol://[user[:password]@]host[:port][/path]
5067 .Dl \*(OU protocol://[user@]host[:port][/path]
5070 \*(OPally supported network protocols are
5074 (POP3 with SSL/TLS encrypted transport),
5080 part is valid only for IMAP; there it defaults to
5082 Network URLs require a special encoding as documented in the section
5083 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
5086 If the resulting file protocol (MBOX database)
5088 is located on a local filesystem then the list of all registered
5090 s is traversed in order to see whether a transparent intermediate
5091 conversion step is necessary to handle the given mailbox, in which case
5092 \*(UA will use the found hook to load and save data into and from
5093 a temporary file, respectively.
5094 Changing hooks will not affect already opened mailboxes.
5095 For example, the following creates hooks for the
5097 compression tool and a combined compressed and encrypted format:
5099 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5101 gzip 'gzip -dc' 'gzip -c' \e
5102 zst.pgp 'gpg -d | zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc | gpg -e'
5106 MBOX databases will always be protected via file-region locks
5108 during file operations in order to avoid inconsistencies due to
5109 concurrent modifications.
5110 \*(OPal In addition mailbox files treated as the system
5115 .Sx "primary system mailbox" Ns
5116 es in general will also be protected by so-called dotlock files,
5117 the traditional way of mail spool file locking: for any file
5121 will be created for the duration of the synchronization \(em
5122 as necessary a privilege-separated dotlock child process will be used
5123 to accommodate for necessary privilege adjustments in order to create
5124 the dotlock file in the same directory
5125 and with the same user and group identities as the file of interest.
5126 Possible dotlock creation errors can be catched by setting
5127 .Va dotlock-ignore-error .
5130 \*(UA by default uses tolerant POSIX rules when reading MBOX database
5131 files, but it will detect invalid message boundaries in this mode and
5132 complain (even more with
5134 if any is seen: in this case
5136 can be used to create a valid MBOX database from the invalid input.
5139 If no protocol has been fixated, and
5141 refers to a directory with the subdirectories
5146 then it is treated as a folder in
5149 The maildir format stores each message in its own file, and has been
5150 designed so that file locking is not necessary when reading or writing
5154 \*(ID If no protocol has been fixated and no existing file has
5155 been found, the variable
5157 controls the format of mailboxes yet to be created.
5162 .It Ic filetype , unfiletype
5163 \*(NQ Define or list, and remove, respectively, file handler hooks,
5164 which provide (shell) commands that enable \*(UA to load and save MBOX
5165 files from and to files with the registered file extensions;
5166 it will use an intermediate temporary file to store the plain data.
5167 The latter command removes the hooks for all given extensions,
5169 will remove all existing handlers.
5171 When used without arguments the former shows a list of all currently
5172 defined file hooks, with one argument the expansion of the given alias.
5173 Otherwise three arguments are expected, the first specifying the file
5174 extension for which the hook is meant, and the second and third defining
5175 the load- and save commands, respectively, to deal with the file type,
5176 both of which must read from standard input and write to standard
5178 Changing hooks will not affect already opened mailboxes (\*(ID except below).
5179 \*(ID For now too much work is done, and files are oftened read in twice
5180 where once would be sufficient: this can cause problems if a filetype is
5181 changed while such a file is opened; this was already so with the
5182 built-in support of .gz etc. in Heirloom, and will vanish in v15.
5183 \*(ID For now all handler strings are passed to the
5184 .Ev SHELL for evaluation purposes; in the future a
5186 prefix to load and save commands may mean to bypass this shell instance:
5187 placing a leading space will avoid any possible misinterpretations.
5188 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5189 ? filetype bz2 'bzip2 -dc' 'bzip2 -zc' \e
5190 gz 'gzip -dc' 'gzip -c' xz 'xz -dc' 'xz -zc' \e
5191 zst 'zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc' \e
5192 zst.pgp 'gpg -d | zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc | gpg -e'
5193 ? set record=+sent.zst.pgp
5198 .It Ic flag , unflag
5199 Take message lists and mark the messages as being flagged, or not being
5200 flagged, respectively, for urgent/special attention.
5202 .Sx "Message states" .
5211 With no arguments, list the names of the folders in the folder directory.
5212 With an existing folder as an argument,
5213 lists the names of folders below the named folder.
5219 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
5220 recipient's address (instead of in
5227 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
5228 recipient's address (instead of in
5235 but responds to all recipients regardless of the
5240 .It Ic followupsender
5243 but responds to the sender only regardless of the
5251 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the
5252 recipient's address (instead of in
5257 Takes a message and the address of a recipient
5258 and forwards the message to him.
5259 The text of the original message is included in the new one,
5260 with the value of the
5261 .Va forward-inject-head
5262 variable preceding it.
5263 To filter the included header fields to the desired subset use the
5265 slot of the white- and blacklisting command
5267 Only the first part of a multipart message is included unless
5268 .Va forward-as-attachment ,
5269 and recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names
5270 etc. unless the internal variable
5274 This may generate the errors
5275 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
5276 if no receiver has been specified,
5278 if some addressees where rejected by
5281 if no applicable messages have been given,
5283 if multiple messages have been specified,
5285 if an I/O error occurs,
5287 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
5293 (f) Takes a list of message specifications and displays a summary of
5294 their message headers, exactly as via
5296 making the first message of the result the new
5298 (the last message if
5301 An alias of this command is
5304 .Sx "Specifying messages" .
5315 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
5319 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
5322 .It Ic ghost , unghost
5325 .Ic uncommandalias .
5329 .It Ic headerpick , unheaderpick
5330 \*(NQ Multiplexer command to manage white- and blacklisting
5331 selections of header fields for a variety of applications.
5332 Without arguments the set of contexts that have settings is displayed.
5333 When given arguments, the first argument is the context to which the
5334 command applies, one of (case-insensitive)
5336 for display purposes (via, e.g.,
5339 for selecting which headers shall be stored persistently when
5345 ing messages (note that MIME related etc. header fields should not be
5346 ignored in order to not destroy usability of the message in this case),
5348 for stripping down messages when
5350 ing message (has no effect if
5351 .Va forward-as-attachment
5354 for defining user-defined set of fields for the command
5357 The current settings of the given context are displayed if it is the
5359 A second argument denotes the type of restriction that is to be chosen,
5360 it may be (a case-insensitive prefix of)
5364 for white- and blacklisting purposes, respectively.
5365 Establishing a whitelist suppresses inspection of the corresponding
5368 If no further argument is given the current settings of the given type
5369 will be displayed, otherwise the remaining arguments specify header
5370 fields, which \*(OPally may be given as regular expressions, to be added
5372 The special wildcard field (asterisk,
5374 will establish a (fast) shorthand setting which covers all fields.
5376 The latter command always takes three or more arguments and can be used
5377 to remove selections, i.e., from the given context, the given type of
5378 list, all the given headers will be removed, the special argument
5380 will remove all headers.
5384 (h) Show the current group of headers, the size of which depends on
5387 and the style of which can be adjusted with the variable
5389 If a message-specification is given the group of headers containing the
5390 first message therein is shown and the message at the top of the screen
5393 the last message is targeted if
5404 \*(OP Without arguments or when given
5406 all history entries are shown (this mode also supports a more
5410 will replace the list of entries with the content of
5414 will dump the current list to said file, replacing former content.
5416 will delete all history entries.
5417 The argument can also be a signed decimal
5419 which will select and evaluate the respective history entry, and move it
5420 to the top of the history; a negative number is used as an offset to the
5421 current command, e.g.,
5423 will select the last command, the history top.
5425 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor"
5426 for more on this topic.
5432 Takes a message list and marks each message therein to be saved in the
5437 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
5439 Does not override the
5442 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command, because a
5444 command issued after
5446 will display the following message, not the current one.
5451 (i) Part of the nestable
5452 .Ic if Ns \0/\: Ic elif Ns \0/\: Ic else Ns \0/\: Ic endif
5453 conditional execution construct \(em if the given condition is true then
5454 the encapsulated block is executed.
5455 The POSIX standards supports the (case-insensitive) conditions
5460 end, all remaining conditions are non-portable extensions.
5461 \*(ID These commands do not yet use
5462 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
5463 and therefore do not know about input tokens, so that syntax
5464 elements have to be surrounded by whitespace; in v15 \*(UA will inspect
5465 all conditions bracket group wise and consider the tokens, representing
5466 values and operators, therein, which also means that variables will
5467 already have been expanded at that time (just like in the shell).
5469 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5478 The (case-insensitive) condition
5480 erminal will evaluate to true if the standard input is a terminal, i.e.,
5481 in interactive sessions.
5482 Another condition can be any boolean value (see the section
5483 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
5484 for textual boolean representations) to mark an enwrapped block as
5487 .Dq always execute .
5488 (It shall be remarked that a faulty condition skips all branches until
5493 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
5494 will be used, and this command will simply interpret expanded tokens.)
5495 It is possible to check
5496 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
5499 variables for existence or compare their expansion against a user given
5500 value or another variable by using the
5502 .Pf ( Dq variable next )
5503 conditional trigger character;
5504 a variable on the right hand side may be signalled using the same
5506 Variable names may be enclosed in a pair of matching braces.
5507 When this mode has been triggered, several operators are available:
5510 Integer operators treat the arguments on the left and right hand side of
5511 the operator as integral numbers and compare them arithmetically.
5512 It is an error if any of the operands is not a valid integer, an empty
5513 argument (which implies it had been quoted) is treated as if it were 0.
5514 Available operators are
5518 (less than or equal to),
5524 (greater than or equal to), and
5529 String data operators compare the left and right hand side according to
5530 their textual content.
5531 Unset variables are treated as the empty string.
5532 The behaviour of string operators can be adjusted by prefixing the
5533 operator with the modifier trigger commercial at
5535 followed by none to multiple modifiers: for now supported is
5537 which turns the comparison into a case-insensitive one: this is
5538 implied if no modifier follows the trigger.
5541 Available string operators are
5545 (less than or equal to),
5551 (greater than or equal to),
5555 (is substring of) and
5557 (is not substring of).
5558 By default these operators work on bytes and (therefore) do not take
5559 into account character set specifics.
5560 If the case-insensitivity modifier has been used, case is ignored
5561 according to the rules of the US-ASCII encoding, i.e., bytes are
5565 When the \*(OPal regular expression support is available, the additional
5571 They treat the right hand side as an extended regular expression that is
5572 matched according to the active locale (see
5573 .Sx "Character sets" ) ,
5574 i.e., character sets should be honoured correctly.
5577 Conditions can be joined via AND-OR lists (where the AND operator is
5579 and the OR operator is
5581 which have equal precedence and will be evaluated with left
5582 associativity, thus using the same syntax that is known for the
5584 It is also possible to form groups of conditions and lists by enclosing
5585 them in pairs of brackets
5586 .Ql [\ \&.\&.\&.\ ] ,
5587 which may be interlocked within each other, and also be joined via
5591 The results of individual conditions and entire groups may be modified
5592 via unary operators: the unary operator
5594 will reverse the result.
5596 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5597 # (This not in v15, there [ -n "$debug"]!)
5601 if [ "$ttycharset" == UTF-8 ] || \e
5602 [ "$ttycharset" @i== UTF8 ]
5603 echo *ttycharset* is UTF-8, the former case-sensitive!
5606 if [ "${t1}" == "${t2}" ]
5607 echo These two variables are equal
5609 if [ "$features" =% +regex ] && \e
5610 [ "$TERM" @i=~ "^xterm\&.*" ]
5611 echo ..in an X terminal
5613 if [ [ true ] && [ [ "${debug}" != '' ] || \e
5614 [ "$verbose" != '' ] ] ]
5617 if true && [ "$debug" != '' ] || [ "${verbose}" != '' ]
5618 echo Left associativity, as is known from the shell
5627 Superseded by the multiplexer
5632 Shows the names of all available commands, alphabetically sorted.
5633 If given any non-whitespace argument the list will be shown in the order
5634 in which command prefixes are searched.
5635 \*(OP In conjunction with a set variable
5637 additional information will be provided for each command: the argument
5638 type will be indicated, the documentation string will be shown,
5639 and the set of command flags will show up:
5641 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql NEEDS_BOX"
5643 command supports the command modifier
5646 command supports the command modifier
5649 the error number is tracked in
5652 commands needs an active mailbox, a
5654 .It Ql "ok: batch/interactive"
5655 command may only be used in interactive or
5658 .It Ql "ok: send mode"
5659 command can be used in send mode.
5660 .It Ql "not ok: compose mode"
5661 command is not available when in compose mode.
5662 .It Ql "not ok: startup"
5663 command cannot be used during program startup, e.g., while loading
5664 .Sx "Resource files" .
5665 .It Ql "ok: subprocess"
5666 command is allowed to be used when running in a subprocess instance,
5667 e.g., from within a macro that is called via
5668 .Va on-compose-splice .
5670 The command produces
5679 This command can be used to localize changes to (linked)
5682 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
5683 meaning that their state will be reverted to the former one once the
5686 Just like the command modifier
5688 which provides block-scope localization for some commands (instead),
5689 it can only be used inside of macro definition blocks introduced by
5693 The covered scope of an
5695 is left once a different account is activated, and some macros, notably
5696 .Va folder-hook Ns s ,
5697 use their own specific notion of covered scope, here it will be extended
5698 until the folder is left again.
5701 This setting stacks up: i.e., if
5703 enables change localization and calls
5705 which explicitly resets localization, then any value changes within
5707 will still be reverted when the scope of
5710 (Caveats: if in this example
5712 changes to a different
5714 which sets some variables that are already covered by localizations,
5715 their scope will be extended, and in fact leaving the
5717 will (thus) restore settings in (likely) global scope which actually
5718 were defined in a local, macro private context!)
5721 This command takes one or two arguments, the optional first one
5722 specifies an attribute that may be one of
5724 which refers to the current scope and is thus the default,
5726 which causes any macro that is being
5728 ed to be started with localization enabled by default, as well as
5730 which (if enabled) disallows any called macro to turn off localization:
5731 like this it can be ensured that once the current scope regains control,
5732 any changes made in deeper levels have been reverted.
5733 The latter two are mutually exclusive, and neither affects
5735 The (second) argument is interpreted as a boolean (string, see
5736 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" )
5737 and states whether the given attribute shall be turned on or off.
5739 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5740 define temporary_settings {
5741 set possibly_global_option1
5743 set localized_option1
5744 set localized_option2
5746 set possibly_global_option2
5753 Reply to messages that come in via known
5756 .Pf ( Ic mlsubscribe )
5757 mailing lists, or pretend to do so (see
5758 .Sx "Mailing lists" ) :
5761 functionality this will actively resort and even remove message
5762 recipients in order to generate a message that is supposed to be sent to
5764 For example it will also implicitly generate a
5765 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
5766 header if that seems useful, regardless of the setting of the variable
5768 For more documentation please refer to
5769 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
5771 This may generate the errors
5772 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
5773 if no receiver has been specified,
5775 if some addressees where rejected by
5778 if no applicable messages have been given,
5780 if an I/O error occurs,
5782 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
5785 Any error stops processing of further messages.
5791 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
5792 recipient's address (instead of in
5797 (m) Takes a (list of) recipient address(es) as (an) argument(s),
5798 or asks on standard input if none were given;
5799 then collects the remaining mail content and sends it out.
5800 Unless the internal variable
5802 is set recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names etc.
5803 For more documentation please refer to
5804 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
5806 This may generate the errors
5807 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
5808 if no receiver has been specified,
5810 if some addressees where rejected by
5813 if no applicable messages have been given,
5815 if multiple messages have been specified,
5817 if an I/O error occurs,
5819 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
5825 (mb) The given message list is to be sent to the
5827 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
5829 when \*(UA is quit; this is the default action unless the variable
5832 \*(ID This command can only be used in a
5834 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
5838 .It Ic mimetype , unmimetype
5839 Without arguments the content of the MIME type cache will displayed;
5840 a more verbose listing will be produced if either of
5845 When given arguments they will be joined, interpreted as shown in
5846 .Sx "The mime.types files"
5848 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ) ,
5849 and the resulting entry will be added (prepended) to the cache.
5850 In any event MIME type sources are loaded first as necessary \(en
5851 .Va mimetypes-load-control
5852 can be used to fine-tune which sources are actually loaded.
5854 The latter command deletes all specifications of the given MIME type, thus
5855 .Ql ? unmimetype text/plain
5856 will remove all registered specifications for the MIME type
5860 will discard all existing MIME types, just as will
5862 but which also reenables cache initialization via
5863 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
5867 .It Ic mlist , unmlist
5868 The latter command removes all given mailing lists, the special name
5870 can be used to remove all registered lists.
5871 The former will list all currently defined mailing lists (and their
5872 attributes, if any) when used without arguments; a more verbose listing
5873 will be produced if either of
5878 Otherwise all given arguments will be added and henceforth be recognized
5880 If the \*(OPal regular expression support is available then any argument
5881 which contains any of the
5883 regular expression characters
5887 will be interpreted as one, which allows matching of many addresses with
5888 a single expression.
5891 pair of commands manages subscription attributes of mailing lists.
5895 \*(ID Only available in interactive mode, this command allows one to
5896 display MIME parts which require external MIME handler programs to run
5897 which do not integrate in \*(UAs normal
5900 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ) .
5901 (\*(ID No syntax to directly address parts, this restriction may vanish.)
5902 The user will be asked for each non-text part of the given message in
5903 turn whether the registered handler shall be used to display the part.
5907 .It Ic mlsubscribe , unmlsubscribe
5908 The latter command removes the subscription attribute from all given
5909 mailing lists, the special name
5911 can be used to do so for any registered list.
5912 The former will list all currently defined mailing lists which have
5913 a subscription attribute when used without arguments; a more verbose
5914 listing will be produced if either of
5919 Otherwise this attribute will be set for all given mailing lists,
5920 newly creating them as necessary (as via
5929 but moves the messages to a file named after the local part of the
5930 sender address of the first message (instead of in
5937 but marks the messages for deletion if they were transferred
5944 but also displays header fields which would not pass the
5946 selection, and all MIME parts.
5954 on the given messages, even in non-interactive mode and as long as the
5955 standard output is a terminal.
5961 \*(OP When used without arguments or if
5963 has been given the content of the
5965 cache is shown, loading it first as necessary.
5968 then the cache will only be initialized and
5970 will remove its contents.
5971 Note that \*(UA will try to load the file only once, use
5972 .Ql Ic \&\&netrc Ns \:\0\:clear
5973 to unlock further attempts.
5978 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ;
5980 .Sx "The .netrc file"
5981 documents the file format in detail.
5985 Checks for new mail in the current folder without committing any changes
5987 If new mail is present, a message is shown.
5991 the headers of each new message are also shown.
5992 This command is not available for all mailbox types.
6000 Goes to the next message in sequence and types it.
6001 With an argument list, types the next matching message.
6015 If the current folder is accessed via a network connection, a
6017 command is sent, otherwise no operation is performed.
6023 but also displays header fields which would not pass the
6025 selection, and all MIME parts.
6033 on the given messages, even in non-interactive mode and as long as the
6034 standard output is a terminal.
6042 but also pipes header fields which would not pass the
6044 selection, and all parts of MIME
6045 .Ql multipart/alternative
6050 (pi) Takes a message list and a shell command
6051 and pipes the messages through the command.
6052 Without an argument the current message is piped through the command
6059 every message is followed by a formfeed character.
6080 (q) Terminates the session, saving all undeleted, unsaved messages in
6083 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
6085 preserving all messages marked with
6089 or never referenced in the system
6091 and removing all other messages from the
6093 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
6094 If new mail has arrived during the session,
6096 .Dq You have new mail
6098 If given while editing a mailbox file with the command line option
6100 then the edit file is rewritten.
6101 A return to the shell is effected,
6102 unless the rewrite of edit file fails,
6103 in which case the user can escape with the exit command.
6104 The optional status number argument will be passed through to
6106 \*(ID For now it can happen that the given status will be overwritten,
6107 later this will only occur if a later error needs to be reported onto an
6108 otherwise success indicating status.
6112 \*(NQ Read a line from standard input, or the channel set active via
6114 and assign the data, which will be split as indicated by
6116 to the given variables.
6117 The variable names are checked by the same rules as documented for
6119 and the same error codes will be seen in
6123 indicates the number of bytes read, it will be
6125 with the error number
6129 in case of I/O errors, or
6132 If there are more fields than variables, assigns successive fields to the
6133 last given variable.
6134 If there are less fields than variables, assigns the empty string to the
6136 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6139 ? echo "<$a> <$b> <$c>"
6141 ? wysh set ifs=:; read a b c;unset ifs
6142 hey2.0,:"'you ",:world!:mars.:
6143 ? echo $?/$^ERRNAME / <$a><$b><$c>
6144 0/NONE / <hey2.0,><"'you ",><world!:mars.:><><>
6149 \*(NQ Read anything from standard input, or the channel set active via
6151 and assign the data to the given variable.
6152 The variable name is checked by the same rules as documented for
6154 and the same error codes will be seen in
6158 indicates the number of bytes read, it will be
6160 with the error number
6164 in case of I/O errors, or
6167 \*(ID The input data length is restricted to 31-bits.
6171 \*(NQ Manages input channels for
6175 to be used to avoid complicated or impracticable code, like calling
6177 from within a macro in non-interactive mode.
6178 Without arguments, or when the first argument is
6180 a listing of all known channels is printed.
6181 Channels can otherwise be
6183 d, and existing channels can be
6187 d by giving the string used for creation.
6189 The channel name is expected to be a file descriptor number, or,
6190 if parsing the numeric fails, an input file name that undergoes
6191 .Sx "Filename transformations" .
6192 E.g. (this example requires a modern shell):
6193 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6194 $ LC_ALL=C printf 'echon "hey, "\enread a\enyou\enecho $a' |\e
6197 $ LC_ALL=C printf 'echon "hey, "\enread a\enecho $a' |\e
6198 LC_ALL=C 6<<< 'you' \*(uA -R#X'readctl create 6'
6212 Removes the named files or directories.
6213 .Sx "Filename transformations"
6214 including shell pathname wildcard pattern expansions
6216 are performed on the arguments.
6217 If a name refer to a mailbox, e.g., a Maildir mailbox, then a mailbox
6218 type specific removal will be performed, deleting the complete mailbox.
6219 The user is asked for confirmation in interactive mode.
6223 Takes the name of an existing folder
6224 and the name for the new folder
6225 and renames the first to the second one.
6226 .Sx "Filename transformations"
6227 including shell pathname wildcard pattern expansions
6229 are performed on both arguments.
6230 Both folders must be of the same type.
6234 (R) Replies to only the sender of each message of the given message
6235 list, by using the first message as the template to quote, for the
6239 will exchange this command with
6241 Unless the internal variable
6243 is set the recipient address will be stripped from comments, names etc.
6245 headers will be inspected if
6249 This may generate the errors
6250 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
6251 if no receiver has been specified,
6253 if some addressees where rejected by
6256 if no applicable messages have been given,
6258 if an I/O error occurs,
6260 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
6266 (r) Take a message and group-responds to it by addressing the sender
6267 and all recipients, subject to
6271 .Va followup-to-honour ,
6274 .Va recipients-in-cc
6275 influence response behaviour.
6276 Unless the internal variable
6278 is set recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names etc.
6288 offers special support for replying to mailing lists.
6289 For more documentation please refer to
6290 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
6292 This may generate the errors
6293 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
6294 if no receiver has been specified,
6296 if some addressees where rejected by
6299 if no applicable messages have been given,
6301 if an I/O error occurs,
6303 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
6306 Any error stops processing of further messages.
6312 but initiates a group-reply regardless of the value of
6319 but responds to the sender only regardless of the value of
6326 but does not add any header lines.
6327 This is not a way to hide the sender's identity,
6328 but useful for sending a message again to the same recipients.
6332 Takes a list of messages and a user name
6333 and sends each message to the named user.
6335 and related header fields are prepended to the new copy of the message.
6338 is only performed if
6342 This may generate the errors
6343 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
6344 if no receiver has been specified,
6346 if some addressees where rejected by
6349 if no applicable messages have been given,
6351 if an I/O error occurs,
6353 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
6356 Any error stops processing of further messages.
6374 .It Ic respondsender
6380 (ret) Superseded by the multiplexer
6385 Only available inside the scope of a
6389 this will stop evaluation of any further macro content, and return
6390 execution control to the caller.
6391 The two optional parameters must be specified as positive decimal
6392 numbers and default to the value 0:
6393 the first argument specifies the signed 32-bit return value (stored in
6395 \*(ID and later extended to signed 64-bit),
6396 the second the signed 32-bit error number (stored in
6400 a non-0 exit status may cause the program to exit.
6406 but saves the messages in a file named after the local part of the
6407 sender of the first message instead of (in
6409 and) taking a filename argument; the variable
6411 is inspected to decide on the actual storage location.
6415 (s) Takes a message list and a filename and appends each message in turn
6416 to the end of the file.
6417 .Sx "Filename transformations"
6418 including shell pathname wildcard pattern expansions
6420 is performed on the filename.
6421 If no filename is given, the
6423 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
6426 The filename in quotes, followed by the generated character count
6427 is echoed on the user's terminal.
6430 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
6431 the messages are marked for deletion.
6432 .Sx "Filename transformations"
6434 To filter the saved header fields to the desired subset use the
6436 slot of the white- and blacklisting command
6440 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6444 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6448 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6453 Takes a message specification (list) and displays a header summary of
6454 all matching messages, as via
6456 This command is an alias of
6459 .Sx "Specifying messages" .
6463 Takes a message list and marks all messages as having been read.
6469 (se, \*(NQ uns) The latter command will delete all given global
6470 variables, or only block-scope local ones if the
6472 command modifier has been used.
6473 The former, when used without arguments, will show all
6474 currently known variables, being more verbose if either of
6479 Remarks: this list mode will not automatically link-in known
6481 variables, but only explicit addressing will, e.g., via
6483 using a variable in an
6485 condition or a string passed to
6489 ting, as well as some program-internal use cases.
6492 Otherwise the given variables (and arguments) are set or adjusted.
6493 Arguments are of the form
6495 (no space before or after
6499 if there is no value, i.e., a boolean variable.
6500 If a name begins with
6504 the effect is the same as invoking the
6506 command with the remaining part of the variable
6507 .Pf ( Ql unset save ) .
6508 \*(ID In conjunction with the
6510 .Pf (or\0 Cm local )
6512 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
6513 can be used to quote arguments as necessary.
6514 \*(ID Otherwise quotation marks may be placed around any part of the
6515 assignment statement to quote blanks or tabs.
6518 When operating in global scope any
6520 that is known to map to an environment variable will automatically cause
6521 updates in the program environment (unsetting a variable in the
6522 environment requires corresponding system support) \(em use the command
6524 for further environmental control.
6525 If the command modifier
6527 has been used to alter the command to work in block-scope all variables
6528 have values (may they be empty), and creation of names which shadow
6529 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
6530 is actively prevented (\*(ID shadowing of linked
6532 variables and free-form versions of variable chains is not yet detected).
6536 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
6540 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6541 ? wysh set indentprefix=' -> '
6542 ? wysh set atab=$'\t' aspace=' ' zero=0
6548 Apply shell quoting rules to the given raw-data arguments.
6552 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
6553 The first argument specifies the operation:
6557 cause shell quoting to be applied to the remains of the line, and
6558 expanded away thereof, respectively.
6559 If the former is prefixed with a plus-sign, the quoted result will not
6560 be roundtrip enabled, and thus can be decoded only in the very same
6561 environment that was used to perform the encode; also see
6562 .Cd mle-quote-rndtrip .
6563 If the coding operation fails the error number
6566 .Va ^ERR Ns -CANCELED ,
6567 and the unmodified input is used as the result; the error number may
6568 change again due to output or result storage errors.
6572 \*(NQ (sh) Invokes an interactive version of the shell,
6573 and returns its exit status.
6577 .It Ic shortcut , unshortcut
6578 Without arguments the list of all currently defined shortcuts is
6579 shown, with one argument the expansion of the given shortcut.
6580 Otherwise all given arguments are treated as pairs of shortcuts and
6581 their expansions, creating new or changing already existing shortcuts,
6583 The latter command will remove all given shortcuts, the special name
6585 will remove all registered shortcuts.
6589 \*(NQ Shift the positional parameter stack (starting at
6591 by the given number (which must be a positive decimal),
6592 or 1 if no argument has been given.
6593 It is an error if the value exceeds the number of positional parameters.
6594 If the given number is 0, no action is performed, successfully.
6595 The stack as such can be managed via
6597 Note this command will fail in
6599 and hook macros unless the positional parameter stack has been
6600 explicitly created in the current context via
6607 but performs neither MIME decoding nor decryption, so that the raw
6608 message text is shown.
6612 (si) Shows the size in characters of each message of the given
6617 \*(NQ Sleep for the specified number of seconds (and optionally
6618 milliseconds), by default interruptably.
6619 If a third argument is given the sleep will be uninterruptible,
6620 otherwise the error number
6624 if the sleep has been interrupted.
6625 The command will fail and the error number will be
6626 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW
6627 if the given duration(s) overflow the time datatype, and
6629 if the given durations are no valid integers.
6634 .It Ic sort , unsort
6635 The latter command disables sorted or threaded mode, returns to normal
6636 message order and, if the
6639 displays a header summary.
6640 The former command shows the current sorting criterion when used without
6641 an argument, but creates a sorted representation of the current folder
6642 otherwise, and changes the
6644 command and the addressing modes such that they refer to messages in
6646 Message numbers are the same as in regular mode.
6650 a header summary in the new order is also displayed.
6651 Automatic folder sorting can be enabled by setting the
6653 variable, as in, e.g.,
6654 .Ql set autosort=thread .
6655 Possible sorting criterions are:
6658 .Bl -tag -compact -width "subject"
6660 Sort the messages by their
6662 field, that is by the time they were sent.
6664 Sort messages by the value of their
6666 field, that is by the address of the sender.
6669 variable is set, the sender's real name (if any) is used.
6671 Sort the messages by their size.
6673 \*(OP Sort the message by their spam score, as has been classified by
6676 Sort the messages by their message status.
6678 Sort the messages by their subject.
6680 Create a threaded display.
6682 Sort messages by the value of their
6684 field, that is by the address of the recipient.
6687 variable is set, the recipient's real name (if any) is used.
6693 \*(NQ (so) The source command reads commands from the given file.
6694 .Sx "Filename transformations"
6696 If the given expanded argument ends with a vertical bar
6698 then the argument will instead be interpreted as a shell command and
6699 \*(UA will read the output generated by it.
6700 Dependent on the settings of
6704 and also dependent on whether the command modifier
6706 had been used, encountering errors will stop sourcing of the given input.
6709 cannot be used from within macros that execute as
6710 .Va folder-hook Ns s
6713 i.e., it can only be called from macros that were
6718 \*(NQ The difference to
6720 (beside not supporting pipe syntax aka shell command input) is that
6721 this command will not generate an error nor warn if the given file
6722 argument cannot be opened successfully.
6726 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and clears their
6732 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and causes the
6734 to forget it has ever used them to train its Bayesian filter.
6735 Unless otherwise noted the
6737 flag of the message is inspected to chose whether a message shall be
6745 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and informs the Bayesian filter of the
6749 This also clears the
6751 flag of the messages in question.
6755 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and rates them using the configured
6756 .Va spam-interface ,
6757 without modifying the messages, but setting their
6759 flag as appropriate; because the spam rating headers are lost the rate
6760 will be forgotten once the mailbox is left.
6761 Refer to the manual section
6763 for the complete picture of spam handling in \*(UA.
6767 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and sets their
6773 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and informs the Bayesian filter of the
6779 flag of the messages in question.
6795 slot for white- and blacklisting header fields.
6799 (to) Takes a message list and types out the first
6801 lines of each message on the user's terminal.
6802 Unless a special selection has been established for the
6806 command, the only header fields that are displayed are
6817 It is possible to apply compression to what is displayed by setting
6819 Messages are decrypted and converted to the terminal character set
6824 (tou) Takes a message list and marks the messages for saving in the
6826 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
6828 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command,
6831 command will display the following message instead of the current one.
6837 but also displays header fields which would not pass the
6839 selection, and all visualizable parts of MIME
6840 .Ql multipart/alternative
6845 (t) Takes a message list and types out each message on the user's terminal.
6846 The display of message headers is selectable via
6848 For MIME multipart messages, all parts with a content type of
6850 all parts which have a registered MIME type handler (see
6851 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" )
6852 which produces plain text output, and all
6854 parts are shown, others are hidden except for their headers.
6855 Messages are decrypted and converted to the terminal character set
6859 can be used to display parts which are not displayable as plain text.
6902 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6906 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6911 Superseded by the multiplexer
6922 .It Ic unmlsubscribe
6933 Takes a message list and marks each message as not having been read.
6937 Superseded by the multiplexer
6941 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6945 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6967 Perform URL percent codec operations on the raw-data argument, rather
6968 according to RFC 3986.
6972 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) ,
6973 and manages the error number
6975 This is a character set agnostic and thus locale dependent operation,
6976 and it may decode bytes which are invalid in the current
6978 \*(ID This command does not know about URLs beside that.
6980 The first argument specifies the operation:
6984 perform plain URL percent en- and decoding, respectively.
6988 perform a slightly modified operation which should be better for
6989 pathnames: it does not allow a tilde
6991 and will neither accept hyphen-minus
6995 as an initial character.
6996 The remains of the line form the URL data which is to be converted.
6997 If the coding operation fails the error number
7000 .Va ^ERR Ns -CANCELED ,
7001 and the unmodified input is used as the result; the error number may
7002 change again due to output or result storage errors.
7006 \*(NQ This command produces the same output as the listing mode of
7010 ity adjustments, but only for the given variables.
7014 \*(OP Takes a message list and verifies each message.
7015 If a message is not a S/MIME signed message,
7016 verification will fail for it.
7017 The verification process checks if the message was signed using a valid
7019 if the message sender's email address matches one of those contained
7020 within the certificate,
7021 and if the message content has been altered.
7029 of \*(UA, as well as the build and running system environment.
7033 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
7038 \*(NQ Evaluate arguments according to a given operator.
7039 This is a multiplexer command which can be used to perform signed 64-bit
7040 numeric calculations as well as byte string and string operations.
7041 It uses polish notation, i.e., the operator is the first argument and
7042 defines the number and type, and the meaning of the remaining arguments.
7043 An empty argument is replaced with a 0 if a number is expected.
7047 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
7050 The result that is shown in case of errors is always
7052 for usage errors and numeric operations, and the empty string for byte
7053 string and string operations;
7054 if the latter two fail to provide result data for
7056 errors, e.g., when a search operation failed, they also set the
7059 .Va ^ERR Ns -NODATA .
7060 Except when otherwise noted numeric arguments are parsed as signed 64-bit
7061 numbers, and errors will be reported in the error number
7063 as the numeric error
7064 .Va ^ERR Ns -RANGE .
7067 Numeric operations work on one or two signed 64-bit integers.
7068 Numbers prefixed with
7072 are interpreted as hexadecimal (base 16) numbers, whereas
7074 indicates octal (base 8), and
7078 denote binary (base 2) numbers.
7079 It is possible to use any base in between 2 and 36, inclusive, with the
7081 notation, where the base is given as an unsigned decimal number, e.g.,
7083 is a different way of specifying a hexadecimal number.
7084 Unsigned interpretation of a number can be enforced by prefixing a
7086 (case-insensitively), e.g.,
7088 this is not necessary for power-of-two bases (2, 4, 8, 16 and 32),
7089 which will be interpreted as unsigned by default, but it still makes
7090 a difference regarding overflow detection and overflow constant.
7091 It is possible to enforce signed interpretation by (instead) prefixing a
7093 (case-insensitively).
7096 One integer is expected by assignment (equals sign
7098 which does nothing but parsing the argument, thus detecting validity and
7099 possible overflow conditions, and unary not (tilde
7101 which creates the bitwise complement.
7102 Two integers are used by addition (plus sign
7104 subtraction (hyphen-minus
7106 multiplication (asterisk
7110 and modulo (percent sign
7112 as well as for the bitwise operators logical or (vertical bar
7115 bitwise and (ampersand
7118 bitwise xor (circumflex
7120 the bitwise signed left- and right shifts
7123 as well as for the unsigned right shift
7127 Another numeric operation is
7129 which takes a number base in between 2 and 36, inclusive, and will act
7130 on the second number given just the same as what equals sign
7132 does, but the number result will be formatted in the base given.
7135 All numeric operators can be prefixed with a commercial at
7139 this will turn the operation into a saturated one, which means that
7140 overflow errors and division and modulo by zero are no longer reported
7141 via the exit status, but the result will linger at the minimum or
7142 maximum possible value, instead of overflowing (or trapping).
7143 This is true also for the argument parse step.
7144 For the bitwise shifts, the saturated maximum is 63.
7145 Any catched overflow will be reported via the error number
7148 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW .
7149 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7150 ? vexpr @- +1 -9223372036854775808
7151 ? echo $?/$!/$^ERRNAME
7155 Character set agnostic string functions have no notion of locale
7156 settings and character sets.
7158 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm random"
7161 .Sx "Filename transformations"
7164 Generates a random string of the given length, or of
7166 bytes (a constant from
7168 if the value 0 is given; the random string will be base64url encoded
7169 according to RFC 4648, and thus be usable as a (portable) filename.
7173 Byte string operations work on 8-bit bytes and have no notion of locale
7174 settings and character sets, effectively assuming ASCII data.
7177 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm length"
7179 Queries the length of the given argument.
7182 Calculates the Chris Torek hash of the given argument.
7185 Byte-searches in the first for the second argument.
7186 Shows the resulting 0-based offset shall it have been found.
7191 but works case-insensitively according to the rules of the ASCII
7195 Creates a substring of its first argument.
7196 The second argument is the 0-based starting offset, a negative one
7197 counts from the end;
7198 the optional third argument specifies the length of the desired result,
7199 a negative length leaves off the given number of bytes at the end of the
7200 original string, by default the entire string is used;
7201 this operation tries to work around faulty arguments (set
7203 for error logs), but reports them via the error number
7206 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW .
7209 Trim away whitespace characters from both ends of the argument.
7212 Trim away whitespace characters from the begin of the argument.
7215 Trim away whitespace characters from the end of the argument.
7220 String operations work, sufficient support provided, according to the
7221 active user's locale encoding and character set (see
7222 .Sx "Character sets" ) .
7225 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm regex"
7227 (One-way) Converts the argument to something safely printable on the
7231 \*(OP A string operation that will try to match the first argument with
7232 the regular expression given as the second argument.
7233 If the optional third argument has been given then instead of showing
7234 the match offset a replacement operation is performed: the third
7235 argument is treated as if specified within dollar-single-quote (see
7236 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ) ,
7237 and any occurrence of a positional parameter, e.g.,
7239 is replaced by the corresponding match group of the regular expression:
7240 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7241 ? vput vexpr res regex bananarama \e
7242 (.*)NanA(.*) '\e${1}au\e$2'
7243 ? echo $?/$!/$^ERRNAME: $res
7247 On otherwise identical case-insensitive equivalent to
7249 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7250 ? vput vexpr res ire bananarama \e
7251 (.*)NanA(.*) '\e${1}au\e$2'
7252 ? echo $?/$!/$^ERRNAME: $res
7259 \*(NQ Manage the positional parameter stack (see
7263 If the first argument is
7265 then the positional parameter stack of the current context, or the
7266 global one, if there is none, is cleared.
7269 then the remaining arguments will be used to (re)create the stack,
7270 if the parameter stack size limit is excessed an
7271 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW
7275 If the first argument is
7277 a round-trip capable representation of the stack contents is created,
7278 with each quoted parameter separated from each other with the first
7281 and followed by the first character of
7283 if that is not empty and not identical to the first.
7284 If that results in no separation at all a
7290 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
7291 I.e., the subcommands
7295 can be used (in conjunction with
7297 to (re)create an argument stack from and to a single variable losslessly.
7299 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7300 ? vpospar set hey, "'you ", world!
7301 ? echo $#: <${1}><${2}><${3}>
7302 ? vput vpospar x quote
7304 ? echo $#: <${1}><${2}><${3}>
7305 ? eval vpospar set ${x}
7306 ? echo $#: <${1}><${2}><${3}>
7312 (v) Takes a message list and invokes the
7314 display editor on each message.
7315 Modified contents are discarded unless the
7317 variable is set, and are not used unless the mailbox can be written to
7318 and the editor returns a successful exit status.
7320 can be used instead for a less display oriented editor.
7324 (w) For conventional messages the body without all headers is written.
7325 The original message is never marked for deletion in the originating
7327 The output is decrypted and converted to its native format as necessary.
7328 If the output file exists, the text is appended.
7329 If a message is in MIME multipart format its first part is written to
7330 the specified file as for conventional messages, handling of the remains
7331 depends on the execution mode.
7332 No special handling of compressed files is performed.
7334 In interactive mode the user is consecutively asked for the filenames of
7335 the processed parts.
7336 For convience saving of each part may be skipped by giving an empty
7337 value, the same result as writing it to
7339 Shell piping the part content by specifying a leading vertical bar
7341 character for the filename is supported.
7342 Other user input undergoes the usual
7343 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
7344 including shell pathname wildcard pattern expansions
7346 and shell variable expansion for the message as such, not the individual
7347 parts, and contents of the destination file are overwritten if the file
7350 \*(ID In non-interactive mode any part which does not specify a filename
7351 is ignored, and suspicious parts of filenames of the remaining parts are
7352 URL percent encoded (as via
7354 to prevent injection of malicious character sequences, resulting in
7355 a filename that will be written into the current directory.
7356 Existing files will not be overwritten, instead the part number or
7357 a dot are appended after a number sign
7359 to the name until file creation succeeds (or fails due to other
7364 \*(NQ The sole difference to
7366 is that the new macro is executed in place of the current one, which
7367 will not regain control: all resources of the current macro will be
7369 This implies that any setting covered by
7371 will be forgotten and covered variables will become cleaned up.
7372 If this command is not used from within a
7374 ed macro it will silently be (a more expensive variant of)
7384 \*(NQ \*(UA presents message headers in
7386 fuls as described under the
7389 Without arguments this command scrolls to the next window of messages,
7390 likewise if the argument is
7394 scrolls to the last,
7396 scrolls to the first, and
7401 A number argument prefixed by
7405 indicates that the window is calculated in relation to the current
7406 position, and a number without a prefix specifies an absolute position.
7412 but scrolls to the next or previous window that contains at least one
7423 .\" .Sh COMMAND ESCAPES {{{
7424 .Sh "COMMAND ESCAPES"
7426 Command escapes are available in compose mode, and are used to perform
7427 special functions when composing messages.
7428 Command escapes are only recognized at the beginning of lines, and
7429 consist of a trigger (escape), and a command character.
7430 The actual escape character can be set via the internal variable
7432 it defaults to the tilde
7434 Otherwise ignored whitespace characters following the escape character
7435 will prevent a possible addition of the command line to the \*(OPal
7439 Unless otherwise noted all compose mode command escapes ensure proper
7440 updates of the variables which represent the error number
7446 is set they will, unless stated otherwise, error out message compose mode
7447 and cause a program exit if an operation fails;
7448 an effect equivalent to the command modifier
7450 can however be achieved by placing a hyphen-minus
7452 after (possible whitespace following) the escape character.
7453 If the \*(OPal key bindings are available it is possible to create
7455 ings specifically for the compose mode.
7458 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ic BaNg"
7461 Insert the string of text in the message prefaced by a single
7463 (If the escape character has been changed,
7464 that character must be doubled instead.)
7467 .It Ic ~! Ar command
7468 Execute the indicated shell
7470 which follows, replacing unescaped exclamation marks with the previously
7471 executed command if the internal variable
7473 is set, then return to the message.
7477 End compose mode and send the message.
7479 .Va on-compose-splice-shell
7481 .Va on-compose-splice ,
7482 in order, will be called when set, after which
7484 will be checked, a set
7485 .Va on-compose-leave
7486 hook will be called,
7490 will be joined in if set,
7492 will be honoured in interactive mode, finally a given
7493 .Va message-inject-tail
7494 will be incorporated, after which the compose mode is left.
7497 .It Ic ~: Ar \*(UA-command Ns \0or Ic ~_ Ar \*(UA-command
7498 Execute the given \*(UA command.
7499 Not all commands, however, are allowed.
7502 .It Ic ~< Ar filename
7507 .It Ic ~<! Ar command
7509 is executed using the shell.
7510 Its standard output is inserted into the message.
7514 \*(OP Write a summary of command escapes.
7517 .It Ic ~@ Op Ar filename...
7518 Append or edit the list of attachments.
7519 Does not manage the error number
7525 instead if this is a concern).
7526 The append mode expects a list of
7528 arguments as shell tokens (see
7529 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ;
7530 token-separating commas are ignored, too), to be
7531 interpreted as documented for the command line option
7533 with the message number exception as below.
7537 arguments the attachment list is edited, entry by entry;
7538 if a filename is left empty, that attachment is deleted from the list;
7539 once the end of the list is reached either new attachments may be
7540 entered or the session can be quit by committing an empty
7543 In non-interactive mode or in batch mode
7545 the list of attachments is effectively not edited but instead recreated;
7546 again, an empty input ends list creation.
7548 For all modes, if a given filename solely consists of the number sign
7550 followed by a valid message number of the currently active mailbox, then
7551 the given message is attached as a
7554 The number sign must be quoted to avoid misinterpretation with the shell
7558 .It Ic ~| Ar command
7559 Pipe the message through the specified filter command.
7560 If the command gives no output or terminates abnormally,
7561 retain the original text of the message.
7564 is often used as a rejustifying filter.
7568 .It Ic ~^ Ar cmd Op Ar subcmd Op Ar arg3 Op Ar arg4
7569 Low-level command meant for scripted message access, i.e., for
7570 .Va on-compose-splice
7572 .Va on-compose-splice-shell .
7573 The used protocol is likely subject to changes, and therefore the
7574 mentioned hooks receive the used protocol version as an initial line.
7575 In general the first field of a response line represents a status code
7576 which specifies whether a command was successful or not, whether result
7577 data is to be expected, and if, the format of the result data.
7578 Does not manage the error number
7582 because errors are reported via the protocol
7583 (hard errors like I/O failures cannot be handled).
7584 This command has read-only access to several virtual pseudo headers in
7585 the \*(UA private namespace, which may not exist (except for the first):
7589 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Va BaNg"
7590 .It Ql Mailx-Command:
7591 The name of the command that generates the message, one of
7599 .It Ql Mailx-Raw-To:
7600 .It Ql Mailx-Raw-Cc:
7601 .It Ql Mailx-Raw-Bcc:
7602 Represent the frozen initial state of these headers before any
7603 transformation (e.g.,
7606 .Va recipients-in-cc
7609 .It Ql Mailx-Orig-From:
7610 .It Ql Mailx-Orig-To:
7611 .It Ql Mailx-Orig-Cc:
7612 .It Ql Mailx-Orig-Bcc:
7613 The values of said headers of the original message which has been
7615 .Ic reply , forward , resend .
7619 The status codes are:
7623 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql 210"
7625 Status ok; the remains of the line are the result.
7628 Status ok; the rest of the line is optionally used for more status.
7629 What follows are lines of result addresses, terminated by an empty line.
7630 The address lines consist of two fields, the first of which is the
7631 plain address, e.g.,
7633 separated by a single ASCII SP space from the second which contains the
7634 unstripped address, even if that is identical to the first field, e.g.,
7635 .Ql (Lovely) Bob <bob@exam.ple> .
7636 All the input, including the empty line, must be consumed before further
7637 commands can be issued.
7640 Status ok; the rest of the line is optionally used for more status.
7641 What follows are lines of furtherly unspecified string content,
7642 terminated by an empty line.
7643 All the input, including the empty line, must be consumed before further
7644 commands can be issued.
7647 Syntax error; invalid command.
7650 Syntax error in parameters or arguments.
7653 Error: an argument fails verification.
7654 For example an invalid address has been specified, or an attempt was
7655 made to modify anything in \*(UA's own namespace.
7658 Error: an otherwise valid argument is rendered invalid due to context.
7659 For example, a second address is added to a header which may consist of
7660 a single address only.
7665 If a command indicates failure then the message will have remained
7667 Most commands can fail with
7669 if required arguments are missing (false command usage).
7670 The following (case-insensitive) commands are supported:
7673 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm header"
7675 This command allows listing, inspection, and editing of message headers.
7676 Header name case is not normalized, and case-insensitive comparison
7677 should be used when matching names.
7678 The second argument specifies the subcommand to apply, one of:
7680 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm remove"
7682 Without a third argument a list of all yet existing headers is given via
7684 this command is the default command of
7686 if no second argument has been given.
7687 A third argument restricts output to the given header only, which may
7690 if no such field is defined.
7693 Shows the content of the header given as the third argument.
7694 Dependent on the header type this may respond with
7698 any failure results in
7702 This will remove all instances of the header given as the third
7707 if no such header can be found, and
7709 on \*(UA namespace violations.
7712 This will remove from the header given as the third argument the
7713 instance at the list position (counting from one!) given with the fourth
7718 if the list position argument is not a number or on \*(UA namespace
7721 if no such header instance exists.
7724 Create a new or an additional instance of the header given in the third
7725 argument, with the header body content as given in the fourth argument
7726 (the remains of the line).
7729 if the third argument specifies a free-form header field name that is
7730 invalid, or if body content extraction fails to succeed,
7732 if any extracted address does not pass syntax and/or security checks or
7733 on \*(UA namespace violations, and
7735 to indicate prevention of excessing a single-instance header \(em note that
7737 can be appended to (a space separator will be added automatically first).
7740 is returned upon success, followed by the name of the header and the list
7741 position of the newly inserted instance.
7742 The list position is always 1 for single-instance header fields.
7743 All free-form header fields are managed in a single list.
7748 This command allows listing, removal and addition of message attachments.
7749 The second argument specifies the subcommand to apply, one of:
7751 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm remove"
7753 List all attachments via
7757 if no attachments exist.
7758 This command is the default command of
7760 if no second argument has been given.
7763 This will remove the attachment given as the third argument, and report
7767 if no such attachment can be found.
7768 If there exists any path component in the given argument, then an exact
7769 match of the path which has been used to create the attachment is used
7770 directly, but if only the basename of that path matches then all
7771 attachments are traversed to find an exact match first, and the removal
7772 occurs afterwards; if multiple basenames match, a
7775 Message attachments are treated as absolute pathnames.
7777 If no path component exists in the given argument, then all attachments
7778 will be searched for
7780 parameter matches as well as for matches of the basename of the path
7781 which has been used when the attachment has been created; multiple
7786 This will interpret the third argument as a number and remove the
7787 attachment at that list position (counting from one!), reporting
7791 if the argument is not a number or
7793 if no such attachment exists.
7796 Adds the attachment given as the third argument, specified exactly as
7797 documented for the command line option
7799 and supporting the message number extension as documented for
7803 upon success, with the index of the new attachment following,
7805 if the given file cannot be opened,
7807 if an on-the-fly performed character set conversion fails, otherwise
7809 is reported; this is also reported if character set conversion is
7810 requested but not available.
7813 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
7815 and prints any known attributes of the first found attachment via
7819 if no such attachment can be found.
7820 The attributes are written as lines of keyword and value tuples, the
7821 keyword being separated from the rest of the line with an ASCII SP space
7825 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
7827 and is otherwise identical to
7830 .It Cm attribute-set
7831 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
7833 and will assign the attribute given as the fourth argument, which is
7834 expected to be a value tuple of keyword and other data, separated by
7835 a ASCII SP space or TAB tabulator character.
7836 If the value part is empty, then the given attribute is removed, or
7837 reset to a default value if existence of the attribute is crucial.
7841 upon success, with the index of the found attachment following,
7843 for message attachments or if the given keyword is invalid, and
7845 if no such attachment can be found.
7846 The following keywords may be used (case-insensitively):
7848 .Bl -hang -compact -width ".It Ql filename"
7850 Sets the filename of the MIME part, i.e., the name that is used for
7851 display and when (suggesting a name for) saving (purposes).
7852 .It Ql content-description
7853 Associate some descriptive information to the attachment's content, used
7854 in favour of the plain filename by some MUAs.
7856 May be used for uniquely identifying MIME entities in several contexts;
7857 this expects a special reference address format as defined in RFC 2045
7860 upon address content verification failure.
7862 Defines the media type/subtype of the part, which is managed
7863 automatically, but can be overwritten.
7864 .It Ql content-disposition
7865 Automatically set to the string
7869 .It Cm attribute-set-at
7870 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
7872 and is otherwise identical to
7881 .Ql Ic ~i Ns \| Va Sign .
7886 .Ql Ic ~i Ns \| Va sign .
7889 .It Ic ~b Ar name ...
7890 Add the given names to the list of blind carbon copy recipients.
7893 .It Ic ~c Ar name ...
7894 Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients.
7898 Read the file specified by the
7900 variable into the message.
7906 on the message collected so far, then return to compose mode.
7908 can be used for a more display oriented editor.
7911 .It Ic ~F Ar messages
7912 Read the named messages into the message being sent, including all
7913 message headers and MIME parts.
7914 If no messages are specified, read in the current message, the
7918 .It Ic ~f Ar messages
7919 Read the named messages into the message being sent.
7920 If no messages are specified, read in the current message, the
7922 Strips down the list of header fields according to the
7924 white- and blacklist selection of
7926 For MIME multipart messages,
7927 only the first displayable part is included.
7931 Edit the message header fields
7936 by typing each one in turn and allowing the user to edit the field.
7937 The default values for these fields originate from the
7945 Edit the message header fields
7951 by typing each one in turn and allowing the user to edit the field.
7954 .It Ic ~I Ar variable
7955 Insert the value of the specified variable into the message.
7956 The message remains unaltered if the variable is unset or empty.
7957 Any embedded character sequences
7959 horizontal tabulator and
7961 line feed are expanded in
7963 mode; otherwise the expansion should occur at
7965 time (\*(ID by using the command modifier
7969 .It Ic ~i Ar variable
7972 but appends a newline character.
7975 .It Ic ~M Ar messages
7976 Read the named messages into the message being sent,
7979 If no messages are specified, read the current message, the
7983 .It Ic ~m Ar messages
7984 Read the named messages into the message being sent,
7987 If no messages are specified, read the current message, the
7989 Strips down the list of header fields according to the
7991 white- and blacklist selection of
7993 For MIME multipart messages,
7994 only the first displayable part is included.
7998 Display the message collected so far,
7999 prefaced by the message header fields
8000 and followed by the attachment list, if any.
8004 Abort the message being sent,
8005 copying it to the file specified by the
8012 .It Ic ~R Ar filename
8015 but indent each line that has been read by
8019 .It Ic ~r Ar filename Op Ar HERE-delimiter
8020 Read the named file, object to the usual
8021 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
8022 into the message; if (the expanded)
8026 then standard input is used, e.g., for pasting purposes.
8027 Only in this latter mode
8029 may be given: if it is data will be read in until the given
8031 is seen on a line by itself, and encountering EOF is an error; the
8033 is a required argument in non-interactive mode; if it is single-quote
8034 quoted then the pasted content will not be expanded, \*(ID otherwise
8035 a future version of \*(UA may perform shell-style expansion on the content.
8039 Cause the named string to become the current subject field.
8040 Newline (NL) and carriage-return (CR) bytes are invalid and will be
8041 normalized to space (SP) characters.
8044 .It Ic ~t Ar name ...
8045 Add the given name(s) to the direct recipient list.
8048 .It Ic ~U Ar messages
8049 Read in the given / current message(s) excluding all headers, indented by
8053 .It Ic ~u Ar messages
8054 Read in the given / current message(s), excluding all headers.
8060 editor on the message collected so far, then return to compose mode.
8062 can be used for a less display oriented editor.
8065 .It Ic ~w Ar filename
8066 Write the message onto the named file, which is object to the usual
8067 .Sx "Filename transformations" .
8069 the message is appended to it.
8075 except that the message is not saved at all.
8081 .\" .Sh INTERNAL VARIABLES {{{
8082 .Sh "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
8084 Internal \*(UA variables are controlled via the
8088 commands; prefixing a variable name with the string
8092 has the same effect as using
8099 will give more insight on the given variable(s), and
8101 when called without arguments, will show a listing of all variables.
8102 Both commands support a more
8105 Some well-known variables will also become inherited from the
8108 implicitly, others can be imported explicitly with the command
8110 and henceforth share said properties.
8113 Two different kinds of internal variables exist, and both of which can
8115 There are boolean variables, which can only be in one of the two states
8119 and value variables with a(n optional) string value.
8120 For the latter proper quoting is necessary upon assignment time, the
8121 introduction of the section
8123 documents the supported quoting rules.
8125 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8126 ? wysh set one=val\e 1 two="val 2" \e
8127 three='val "3"' four=$'val \e'4\e''; \e
8128 varshow one two three four; \e
8129 unset one two three four
8133 Dependent upon the actual option string values may become interpreted as
8134 colour names, command specifications, normal text, etc.
8135 They may be treated as numbers, in which case decimal values are
8136 expected if so documented, but otherwise any numeric format and
8137 base that is valid and understood by the
8139 command may be used, too.
8142 There also exists a special kind of string value, the
8143 .Dq boolean string ,
8144 which must either be a decimal integer (in which case
8148 and any other value is true) or any of the (case-insensitive) strings
8154 for a false boolean and
8160 for a true boolean; a special kind of boolean string is the
8162 which is a boolean string that can optionally be prefixed with the
8163 (case-insensitive) term
8167 which causes prompting of the user in interactive mode, with the given
8168 boolean as the default value.
8171 Variable chains extend a plain
8176 .Ql variable-USER@HOST
8184 had been specified in the contextual Uniform Resource Locator URL, see
8185 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
8186 Even though this mechanism is based on URLs no URL percent encoding may
8187 be applied to neither of
8191 variable chains need to be specified using raw data;
8192 the mentioned section contains examples.
8193 Variables which support chains are explicitly documented as such, and
8194 \*(UA treats the base name of any such variable special, meaning that
8195 users should not create custom names like
8197 in order to avoid false classifications and treatment of such variables.
8199 .\" .Ss "Initial settings" {{{
8200 .\" (Keep in SYNC: ./nail.h:okeys, ./nail.rc, ./nail.1:"Initial settings")
8201 .Ss "Initial settings"
8203 The standard POSIX 2008/Cor 2-2016 mandates the following initial
8209 .Pf no Va autoprint ,
8223 .Pf no Va ignoreeof ,
8225 .Pf no Va keepsave ,
8227 .Pf no Va outfolder ,
8235 .Pf no Va sendwait ,
8244 Notes: \*(UA does not support the
8246 variable \(en use command line options or
8248 to pass options through to a
8250 And the default global
8252 file, which is loaded unless the
8254 (with according argument) or
8256 command line options have been used, or the
8257 .Ev MAILX_NO_SYSTEM_RC
8258 environment variable is set (see
8259 .Sx "Resource files" )
8260 bends those initial settings a bit, e.g., it sets the variables
8265 to name a few, establishes a default
8267 selection etc., and should thus be taken into account.
8270 .\" .Ss "Variables" {{{
8273 .Bl -tag -width ".It Va BaNg"
8277 \*(RO The exit status of the last command, or the
8282 This status has a meaning in the state machine: in conjunction with
8284 any non-0 exit status will cause a program exit, and in
8286 mode any error while loading (any of the) resource files will have the
8290 .Sx "Command modifiers" ,
8291 can be used to instruct the state machine to ignore errors.
8295 \*(RO The current error number
8296 .Pf ( Xr errno 3 ) ,
8297 which is set after an error occurred; it is also available via
8299 and the error name and documentation string can be queried via
8303 \*(ID This machinery is new and the error number is only really usable
8304 if a command explicitly states that it manages the variable
8306 for others errno will be used in case of errors, or
8308 if that is 0: it thus may or may not reflect the real error.
8309 The error number may be set with the command
8315 \*(RO This is a multiplexer variable which performs dynamic expansion of
8316 the requested state or condition, of which there are:
8319 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Va BaNg"
8323 .It Va ^ERR , ^ERRDOC , ^ERRNAME
8324 The number, documentation, and name of the current
8326 respectively, which is usually set after an error occurred.
8327 The documentation is an \*(OP, the name is used if not available.
8328 \*(ID This machinery is new and is usually reliable only if a command
8329 explicitly states that it manages the variable
8331 which is effectively identical to
8333 Each of those variables can be suffixed with a hyphen minus followed by
8334 a name or number, in which case the expansion refers to the given error.
8335 Note this is a direct mapping of (a subset of) the system error values:
8336 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8338 eval echo \e$1: \e$^ERR-$1:\e
8339 \e$^ERRNAME-$1: \e$^ERRDOC-$1
8340 vput vexpr i + "$1" 1
8352 \*(RO Expands all positional parameters (see
8354 separated by the first character of the value of
8356 \*(ID The special semantics of the equally named special parameter of the
8358 are not yet supported.
8362 \*(RO Expands all positional parameters (see
8364 separated by a space character.
8365 If placed in double quotation marks, each positional parameter is
8366 properly quoted to expand to a single parameter again.
8370 \*(RO Expands to the number of positional parameters, i.e., the size of
8371 the positional parameter stack in decimal.
8375 \*(RO Inside the scope of a
8379 ed macro this expands to the name of the calling macro, or to the empty
8380 string if the macro is running from top-level.
8381 For the \*(OPal regular expression search and replace operator of
8383 this expands to the entire matching expression.
8384 It represents the program name in global context.
8388 \*(RO Access of the positional parameter stack.
8389 All further parameters can be accessed with this syntax, too, e.g.,
8392 etc.; positional parameters can be shifted off the stack by calling
8394 The parameter stack contains, e.g., the arguments of a
8398 d macro, the matching groups of the \*(OPal regular expression search
8399 and replace expression of
8401 and can be explicitly created or overwritten with the command
8406 \*(RO Is set to the active
8410 .It Va add-file-recipients
8411 \*(BO When file or pipe recipients have been specified,
8412 mention them in the corresponding address fields of the message instead
8413 of silently stripping them from their recipient list.
8414 By default such addressees are not mentioned.
8418 \*(BO Causes only the local part to be evaluated
8419 when comparing addresses.
8423 \*(BO Causes messages saved in the
8425 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
8427 to be appended to the end rather than prepended.
8428 This should always be set.
8432 \*(BO Causes the prompts for
8436 lists to appear after the message has been edited.
8440 \*(BO If set, \*(UA asks for files to attach at the end of each message.
8441 An empty line finalizes the list.
8445 \*(BO Causes the user to be prompted for carbon copy recipients
8446 (at the end of each message if
8454 \*(BO Causes the user to be prompted for blind carbon copy
8455 recipients (at the end of each message if
8463 \*(BO Causes the user to be prompted for confirmation to send the
8464 message or reenter compose mode after having been shown an envelope
8466 This is by default enabled.
8470 \*(BO\*(OP Causes the user to be prompted if the message is to be
8471 signed at the end of each message.
8474 variable is ignored when this variable is set.
8478 .\" The alternative *ask* is not documented on purpose
8479 \*(BO Causes \*(UA to prompt for the subject upon entering compose mode
8480 unless a subject already exists.
8484 A sequence of characters to display in the
8488 as shown in the display of
8490 each for one type of messages (see
8491 .Sx "Message states" ) ,
8492 with the default being
8495 .Ql NU\ \ *HMFAT+\-$~
8498 variable is set, in the following order:
8500 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql _"
8522 start of a collapsed thread.
8524 an uncollapsed thread (TODO ignored for now).
8528 classified as possible spam.
8534 Specifies a list of recipients to which a blind carbon copy of each
8535 outgoing message will be sent automatically.
8539 Specifies a list of recipients to which a carbon copy of each outgoing
8540 message will be sent automatically.
8544 \*(BO Causes threads to be collapsed automatically when .Ql thread Ns
8547 mode is entered (see the
8553 \*(BO Enable automatic
8555 ing of a(n existing)
8561 commands, e.g., the message that becomes the new
8563 is shown automatically, as via
8570 Causes sorted mode (see the
8572 command) to be entered automatically with the value of this variable as
8573 sorting method when a folder is opened, e.g.,
8574 .Ql set autosort=thread .
8578 \*(BO Enables the substitution of all not (reverse-solidus) escaped
8581 characters by the contents of the last executed command for the
8583 shell escape command and
8585 one of the compose mode
8586 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
8587 If this variable is not set no reverse solidus stripping is performed.
8591 \*(OP Terminals generate multi-byte sequences for certain forms of
8592 input, for example for function and other special keys.
8593 Some terminals however do not write these multi-byte sequences as
8594 a whole, but byte-by-byte, and the latter is what \*(UA actually reads.
8595 This variable specifies the timeout in milliseconds that the MLE (see
8596 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
8597 waits for more bytes to arrive unless it considers a sequence
8603 \*(BO Sets some cosmetical features to traditional BSD style;
8604 has the same affect as setting
8606 and all other variables prefixed with
8608 it also changes the behaviour of
8610 (which does not exist in BSD).
8614 \*(BO Changes the letters shown in the first column of a header
8615 summary to traditional BSD style.
8619 \*(BO Changes the display of columns in a header summary to traditional
8624 \*(BO Changes some informational messages to traditional BSD style.
8630 field to appear immediately after the
8632 field in message headers and with the
8634 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
8638 .It Va build-os , build-osenv
8639 \*(RO The operating system \*(UA has been build for, usually taken from
8645 respectively, the former being lowercased.
8649 The value that should appear in the
8653 MIME header fields when no character set conversion of the message data
8655 This defaults to US-ASCII, and the chosen character set should be
8656 US-ASCII compatible.
8660 \*(OP The default 8-bit character set that is used as an implicit last
8661 member of the variable
8663 This defaults to UTF-8 if character set conversion capabilities are
8664 available, and to ISO-8859-1 otherwise (unless the operating system
8665 environment is known to always and exclusively support UTF-8 locales),
8666 in which case the only supported character set is
8668 and this variable is effectively ignored.
8669 Refer to the section
8670 .Sx "Character sets"
8671 for the complete picture of character set conversion in \*(UA.
8674 .It Va charset-unknown-8bit
8675 \*(OP RFC 1428 specifies conditions when internet mail gateways shall
8677 the content of a mail message by using a character set with the name
8679 Because of the unclassified nature of this character set \*(UA will not
8680 be capable to convert this character set to any other character set.
8681 If this variable is set any message part which uses the character set
8683 is assumed to really be in the character set given in the value,
8684 otherwise the (final) value of
8686 is used for this purpose.
8688 This variable will also be taken into account if a MIME type (see
8689 .Sx "The mime.types files" )
8690 of a MIME message part that uses the
8692 character set is forcefully treated as text.
8696 The default value for the
8701 .It Va colour-disable
8702 \*(BO\*(OP Forcefully disable usage of colours.
8703 Also see the section
8704 .Sx "Coloured display" .
8708 \*(BO\*(OP Whether colour shall be used for output that is paged through
8710 Note that pagers may need special command line options, e.g.,
8718 in order to support colours.
8719 Often doing manual adjustments is unnecessary since \*(UA may perform
8720 adjustments dependent on the value of the environment variable
8722 (see there for more).
8726 .It Va contact-mail , contact-web
8727 \*(RO Addresses for contact per email and web, respectively, e.g., for
8728 bug reports, suggestions, or help regarding \*(UA.
8729 The former can be used directly:
8730 .Ql ? Ns \| Ic eval Ns \| Ic mail Ns \| $contact-mail .
8734 In a(n interactive) terminal session, then if this valued variable is
8735 set it will be used as a threshold to determine how many lines the given
8736 output has to span before it will be displayed via the configured
8740 can be forced by setting this to the value
8742 setting it without a value will deduce the current height of the
8743 terminal screen to compute the threshold (see
8748 \*(ID At the moment this uses the count of lines of the message in wire
8749 format, which, dependent on the
8751 of the message, is unrelated to the number of display lines.
8752 (The software is old and historically the relation was a given thing.)
8756 Define a set of custom headers to be injected into newly composed or
8758 A custom header consists of the field name followed by a colon
8760 and the field content body.
8761 Standard header field names cannot be overwritten by a custom header.
8762 Different to the command line option
8764 the variable value is interpreted as a comma-separated list of custom
8765 headers: to include commas in header bodies they need to become escaped
8766 with reverse solidus
8768 Headers can be managed more freely in compose mode via
8771 .Dl ? set customhdr='Hdr1: Body1-1\e, Body1-2, Hdr2: Body2'
8775 Controls the appearance of the
8777 date and time format specification of the
8779 variable, that is used, for example, when viewing the summary of
8781 If unset, then the local receiving date is used and displayed
8782 unformatted, otherwise the message sending
8784 It is possible to assign a
8786 format string and control formatting, but embedding newlines via the
8788 format is not supported, and will result in display errors.
8790 .Ql %Y-%m-%d %H:%M ,
8792 .Va datefield-markout-older .
8795 .It Va datefield-markout-older
8796 Only used in conjunction with
8798 Can be used to create a visible distinction of messages dated more than
8799 a day in the future, or older than six months, a concept comparable to the
8801 option of the POSIX utility
8803 If set to the empty string, then the plain month, day and year of the
8805 will be displayed, but a
8807 format string to control formatting can be assigned.
8813 \*(BO Enables debug messages and obsoletion warnings, disables the
8814 actual delivery of messages and also implies
8820 .It Va disposition-notification-send
8822 .Ql Disposition-Notification-To:
8823 header (RFC 3798) with the message.
8827 .\" TODO .It Va disposition-notification-send-HOST
8829 .\".Va disposition-notification-send
8830 .\" for SMTP accounts on a specific host.
8831 .\" TODO .It Va disposition-notification-send-USER@HOST
8833 .\".Va disposition-notification-send
8834 .\"for a specific account.
8838 \*(BO When dot is set, a period
8840 on a line by itself during message input in (interactive or batch
8842 compose mode will be treated as end-of-message (in addition to the
8843 normal end-of-file condition).
8844 This behaviour is implied in
8850 .It Va dotlock-ignore-error
8851 \*(BO\*(OP Synchronization of mailboxes which \*(UA treats as
8853 .Sx "primary system mailbox" Ns
8854 es (see, e.g., the notes on
8855 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
8856 as well as the documentation of
8858 will be protected with so-called dotlock files\(emthe traditional mail
8859 spool file locking method\(emin addition to system file locking.
8860 Because \*(UA ships with a privilege-separated dotlock creation program
8861 that should always be able to create such a dotlock file there is no
8862 good reason to ignore dotlock file creation errors, and thus these are
8863 fatal unless this variable is set.
8867 If this variable is set then the editor is started automatically when
8868 a message is composed in interactive mode.
8869 If the value starts with the letter
8871 then this acts as if
8875 .Pf (see\0 Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" )
8879 variable is implied for this automatically spawned editor session.
8883 \*(BO When a message is edited while being composed,
8884 its header is included in the editable text.
8888 \*(BO When entering interactive mode \*(UA normally writes
8889 .Dq \&No mail for user
8890 and exits immediately if a mailbox is empty or does not exist.
8891 If this variable is set \*(UA starts even with an empty or non-existent
8892 mailbox (the latter behaviour furtherly depends upon
8898 \*(BO Let each command with a non-0 exit status, including every
8902 s a non-0 status, cause a program exit unless prefixed by
8905 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
8907 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ,
8908 but which use a different modifier for ignoring the error.
8909 Please refer to the variable
8911 for more on this topic.
8915 The first character of this value defines the escape character for
8916 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
8918 The default value is the character tilde
8920 If set to the empty string, command escapes are disabled.
8924 If not set then file and command pipeline targets are not allowed,
8925 and any such address will be filtered out, giving a warning message.
8926 If set without a value then all possible recipient address
8927 specifications will be accepted \(en see the section
8928 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode"
8930 To accept them, but only in interactive mode, or when tilde commands
8931 were enabled explicitly by using one of the command line options
8935 set this to the (case-insensitive) value
8937 (it actually acts like
8938 .Ql restrict,-all,+name,+addr ,
8939 so that care for ordering issues must be taken) .
8941 In fact the value is interpreted as a comma-separated list of values.
8944 then the existence of disallowed specifications is treated as a hard
8945 send error instead of only filtering them out.
8946 The remaining values specify whether a specific type of recipient
8947 address specification is allowed (optionally indicated by a plus sign
8949 prefix) or disallowed (prefixed with a hyphen-minus
8953 addresses all possible address specifications,
8957 command pipeline targets,
8959 plain user names and (MTA) aliases and
8962 These kind of values are interpreted in the given order, so that
8963 .Ql restrict,\:fail,\:+file,\:-all,\:+addr
8964 will cause hard errors for any non-network address recipient address
8965 unless \*(UA is in interactive mode or has been started with the
8969 command line option; in the latter case(s) any address may be used, then.
8971 Historically invalid network addressees are silently stripped off.
8972 To change this so that any encountered invalid email address causes
8973 a hard error it must be ensured that
8975 is an entry in the above list.
8976 Setting this automatically enables network addressees
8977 (it actually acts like
8978 .Ql failinvaddr,+addr ,
8979 so that care for ordering issues must be taken) .
8983 Unless this variable is set additional
8985 (Mail-Transfer-Agent)
8986 arguments from the command line, as can be given after a
8988 separator, results in a program termination with failure status.
8989 The same can be accomplished by using the special (case-insensitive) value
8991 A lesser strict variant is the otherwise identical
8993 which does accept such arguments in interactive mode, or if tilde
8994 commands were enabled explicitly by using one of the command line options
8998 The empty value will allow unconditional usage.
9002 \*(RO String giving a list of optional features.
9003 Features are preceded with a plus sign
9005 if they are available, with a hyphen-minus
9008 The output of the command
9010 will include this information in a more pleasant output.
9014 \*(BO This setting reverses the meanings of a set of reply commands,
9015 turning the lowercase variants, which by default address all recipients
9016 included in the header of a message
9017 .Pf ( Ic reply , respond , followup )
9018 into the uppercase variants, which by default address the sender only
9019 .Pf ( Ic Reply , Respond , Followup )
9022 .Ic replysender , respondsender , followupsender
9024 .Ic replyall , respondall , followupall
9025 are not affected by the current setting of
9030 The default path under which mailboxes are to be saved:
9031 filenames that begin with the plus sign
9033 will have the plus sign replaced with the value of this variable if set,
9034 otherwise the plus sign will remain unchanged when doing
9035 .Sx "Filename transformations" ;
9038 for more on this topic.
9039 The value supports a subset of transformations itself, and if the
9040 non-empty value does not start with a solidus
9044 will be prefixed automatically.
9045 Once the actual value is evaluated first, the internal variable
9047 will be updated for caching purposes.
9050 .It Va folder-hook-FOLDER , Va folder-hook
9053 macro which will be called whenever a
9056 The macro will also be invoked when new mail arrives,
9057 but message lists for commands executed from the macro
9058 only include newly arrived messages then.
9060 are activated by default in a folder hook, causing the covered settings
9061 to be reverted once the folder is left again.
9063 The specialized form will override the generic one if
9065 matches the file that is opened.
9066 Unlike other folder specifications, the fully expanded name of a folder,
9067 without metacharacters, is used to avoid ambiguities.
9068 However, if the mailbox resides under
9072 specification is tried in addition, e.g., if
9076 (and thus relative to the user's home directory) then
9077 .Pa /home/usr1/mail/sent
9079 .Ql folder-hook-/home/usr1/mail/sent
9080 first, but then followed by
9081 .Ql folder-hook-+sent .
9084 .It Va folder-resolved
9085 \*(RO Set to the fully resolved path of
9087 once that evaluation has occurred; rather internal.
9091 \*(BO Controls whether a
9092 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
9093 header is generated when sending messages to known mailing lists.
9095 .Va followup-to-honour
9097 .Ic mlist , mlsubscribe , reply
9102 .It Va followup-to-honour
9104 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
9105 header is honoured when group-replying to a message via
9109 This is a quadoption; if set without a value it defaults to
9119 .It Va forward-as-attachment
9120 \*(BO Original messages are normally sent as inline text with the
9123 and only the first part of a multipart message is included.
9124 With this setting enabled messages are sent as unmodified MIME
9126 attachments with all of their parts included.
9129 .It Va forward-inject-head
9130 The string to put before the text of a message with the
9132 command instead of the default
9133 .Dq -------- Original Message -------- .
9134 No heading is put if it is set to the empty string.
9135 This variable is ignored if the
9136 .Va forward-as-attachment
9142 The address (or a list of addresses) to put into the
9144 field of the message header, quoting RFC 5322:
9145 the author(s) of the message, that is, the mailbox(es) of the person(s)
9146 or system(s) responsible for the writing of the message.
9147 According to that RFC setting the
9149 variable is required if
9151 contains more than one address.
9154 ing to messages these addresses are handled as if they were in the
9159 If a file-based MTA is used, then
9161 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
9163 can nonetheless be enforced to appear as the envelope sender address at
9164 the MTA protocol level (the RFC 5321 reverse-path), either by using the
9166 command line option (with an empty argument; see there for the complete
9167 picture on this topic), or by setting the internal variable
9168 .Va r-option-implicit .
9171 If the machine's hostname is not valid at the Internet (for example at
9172 a dialup machine) then either this variable or
9176 adds even more fine-tuning capabilities with
9177 .Va smtp-hostname ) ,
9178 have to be set; if so the message and MIME part related unique ID fields
9182 will be created (except when disallowed by
9183 .Va message-id-disable
9190 \*(BO Due to historical reasons comments and name parts of email
9191 addresses are removed by default when sending mail, replying to or
9192 forwarding a message.
9193 If this variable is set such stripping is not performed.
9196 \*(OB Predecessor of
9197 .Va forward-inject-head .
9201 \*(BO Causes the header summary to be written at startup and after
9202 commands that affect the number of messages or the order of messages in
9207 mode a header summary will also be displayed on folder changes.
9208 The command line option
9216 A format string to use for the summary of
9218 similar to the ones used for
9221 Format specifiers in the given string start with a percent sign
9223 and may be followed by an optional decimal number indicating the field
9224 width \(em if that is negative, the field is to be left-aligned.
9225 Valid format specifiers are:
9228 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql _%%_"
9230 A plain percent sign.
9233 a space character but for the current message
9235 for which it expands to
9238 .Va headline-plain ) .
9241 a space character but for the current message
9243 for which it expands to
9246 .Va headline-plain ) .
9248 \*(OP The spam score of the message, as has been classified via the
9251 Shows only a replacement character if there is no spam support.
9253 Message attribute character (status flag); the actual content can be
9257 The date found in the
9259 header of the message when
9261 is set (the default), otherwise the date when the message was received.
9262 Formatting can be controlled by assigning a
9267 The indenting level in
9273 The address of the message sender.
9275 The message thread tree structure.
9276 (Note that this format does not support a field width, and honours
9277 .Va headline-plain . )
9279 The number of lines of the message, if available.
9283 The number of octets (bytes) in the message, if available.
9285 Message subject (if any).
9287 Message subject (if any) in double quotes.
9289 Message recipient flags: is the addressee of the message a known or
9290 subscribed mailing list \(en see
9295 The position in threaded/sorted order.
9297 The value 0 except in an IMAP mailbox,
9298 where it expands to the UID of the message.
9302 .Ql %>\&%a\&%m\ %-18f\ %16d\ %4l/%\-5o\ %i%-s ,
9304 .Ql %>\&%a\&%m\ %20-f\ \ %16d\ %3l/%\-5o\ %i%-S
9316 .It Va headline-bidi
9317 Bidirectional text requires special treatment when displaying headers,
9318 because numbers (in dates or for file sizes etc.) will not affect the
9319 current text direction, in effect resulting in ugly line layouts when
9320 arabic or other right-to-left text is to be displayed.
9321 On the other hand only a minority of terminals is capable to correctly
9322 handle direction changes, so that user interaction is necessary for
9324 Note that extended host system support is required nonetheless, e.g.,
9325 detection of the terminal character set is one precondition;
9326 and this feature only works in an Unicode (i.e., UTF-8) locale.
9328 In general setting this variable will cause \*(UA to encapsulate text
9329 fields that may occur when displaying
9331 (and some other fields, like dynamic expansions in
9333 with special Unicode control sequences;
9334 it is possible to fine-tune the terminal support level by assigning
9336 no value (or any value other than
9341 will make \*(UA assume that the terminal is capable to properly deal
9342 with Unicode version 6.3, in which case text is embedded in a pair of
9343 U+2068 (FIRST STRONG ISOLATE) and U+2069 (POP DIRECTIONAL ISOLATE)
9345 In addition no space on the line is reserved for these characters.
9347 Weaker support is chosen by using the value
9349 (Unicode 6.3, but reserve the room of two spaces for writing the control
9350 sequences onto the line).
9355 select Unicode 1.1 support (U+200E, LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK); the latter
9356 again reserves room for two spaces in addition.
9359 .It Va headline-plain
9360 \*(BO On Unicode (UTF-8) aware terminals enhanced graphical symbols are
9361 used by default for certain entries of
9363 If this variable is set only basic US-ASCII symbols will be used.
9367 \*(OP If a line editor is available then this can be set to
9368 name the (expandable) path of the location of a permanent
9374 .It Va history-gabby
9375 \*(BO\*(OP Add more entries to the
9377 as is normally done.
9380 .It Va history-gabby-persist
9381 \*(BO\*(OP \*(UA's own MLE will not save the additional
9383 entries in persistent storage unless this variable is set.
9384 On the other hand it will not loose the knowledge of whether
9385 a persistent entry was gabby or not.
9391 \*(OP Setting this variable imposes a limit on the number of concurrent
9394 If set to the value 0 then no further history entries will be added,
9395 and loading and incorporation of the
9397 upon program startup can also be suppressed by doing this.
9398 Runtime changes will not be reflected, but will affect the number of
9399 entries saved to permanent storage.
9403 \*(BO This setting controls whether messages are held in the system
9405 and it is set by default.
9409 Used instead of the value obtained from
9413 as the hostname when expanding local addresses, e.g., in
9416 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" ,
9417 especially for expansion of network addresses that contain domain-less
9418 valid user names in angle brackets).
9421 or this variable Is set the message and MIME part related unique ID fields
9425 will be created (except when disallowed by
9426 .Va message-id-disable
9429 If the \*(OPal IDNA support is available (see
9431 variable assignment is aborted when a necessary conversion fails.
9433 Setting it to the empty string will cause the normal hostname to be
9434 used, but nonetheless enables creation of said ID fields.
9435 \*(IN in conjunction with the built-in SMTP
9438 also influences the results:
9439 one should produce some test messages with the desired combination of
9448 \*(BO\*(OP Can be used to turn off the automatic conversion of domain
9449 names according to the rules of IDNA (internationalized domain names
9451 Since the IDNA code assumes that domain names are specified with the
9453 character set, an UTF-8 locale charset is required to represent all
9454 possible international domain names (before conversion, that is).
9458 The input field separator that is used (\*(ID by some functions) to
9459 determine where to split input data.
9461 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It MMM"
9463 Unsetting is treated as assigning the default value,
9466 If set to the empty value, no field splitting will be performed.
9468 If set to a non-empty value, all whitespace characters are extracted
9469 and assigned to the variable
9473 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It MMM"
9476 will be ignored at the beginning and end of input.
9477 Diverging from POSIX shells default whitespace is removed in addition,
9478 which is owed to the entirely different line content extraction rules.
9480 Each occurrence of a character of
9482 will cause field-splitting, any adjacent
9484 characters will be skipped.
9489 \*(RO Automatically deduced from the whitespace characters in
9494 \*(BO Ignore interrupt signals from the terminal while entering
9495 messages; instead echo them as
9497 characters and discard the current line.
9501 \*(BO Ignore end-of-file conditions
9502 .Pf ( Ql control-D )
9503 in compose mode on message input and in interactive command input.
9504 If set an interactive command input session can only be left by
9505 explicitly using one of the commands
9509 and message input in compose mode can only be terminated by entering
9512 on a line by itself or by using the
9514 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ;
9515 Setting this implies the behaviour that
9523 If this is set to a non-empty string it will specify the user's
9525 .Sx "primary system mailbox" ,
9528 and the system-dependent default, and (thus) be used to replace
9531 .Sx "Filename transformations" ;
9534 for more on this topic.
9535 The value supports a subset of transformations itself.
9543 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
9546 option for indenting messages,
9547 in place of the POSIX mandated default tabulator character
9554 \*(BO If set, an empty
9556 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
9557 file is not removed.
9558 Note that, in conjunction with
9560 mode any empty file will be removed unless this variable is set.
9561 This may improve the interoperability with other mail user agents
9562 when using a common folder directory, and prevents malicious users
9563 from creating fake mailboxes in a world-writable spool directory.
9564 \*(ID Only local regular (MBOX) files are covered, Maildir or other
9565 mailbox types will never be removed, even if empty.
9568 .It Va keep-content-length
9569 \*(BO When (editing messages and) writing MBOX mailbox files \*(UA can
9574 header fields that some MUAs generate by setting this variable.
9575 Since \*(UA does neither use nor update these non-standardized header
9576 fields (which in itself shows one of their conceptual problems),
9577 stripping them should increase interoperability in between MUAs that
9578 work with with same mailbox files.
9579 Note that, if this is not set but
9580 .Va writebackedited ,
9581 as below, is, a possibly performed automatic stripping of these header
9582 fields already marks the message as being modified.
9583 \*(ID At some future time \*(UA will be capable to rewrite and apply an
9585 to modified messages, and then those fields will be stripped silently.
9589 \*(BO When a message is saved it is usually discarded from the
9590 originating folder when \*(UA is quit.
9591 This setting causes all saved message to be retained.
9594 .It Va line-editor-disable
9595 \*(BO Turn off any enhanced line editing capabilities (see
9596 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor"
9600 .It Va line-editor-no-defaults
9601 \*(BO\*(OP Do not establish any default key binding.
9605 Error log message prefix string
9606 .Pf ( Ql "\*(uA: " ) .
9609 .It Va mailbox-display
9610 \*(RO The name of the current mailbox
9612 possibly abbreviated for display purposes.
9615 .It Va mailbox-resolved
9616 \*(RO The fully resolved path of the current mailbox.
9619 .It Va mailx-extra-rc
9620 An additional startup file that is loaded as the last of the
9621 .Sx "Resource files" .
9622 Use this file for commands that are not understood by other POSIX
9624 implementations, i.e., mostly anything which is not covered by
9625 .Sx "Initial settings" .
9629 \*(BO When a message is replied to and this variable is set,
9630 it is marked as having been
9633 .Sx "Message states" .
9637 \*(BO When opening MBOX mailbox databases \*(UA by default uses tolerant
9638 POSIX rules for detecting message boundaries (so-called
9640 lines) due to compatibility reasons, instead of the stricter rules that
9641 have been standardized in RFC 4155.
9642 This behaviour can be switched to the stricter RFC 4155 rules by
9643 setting this variable.
9644 (This is never necessary for any message newly generated by \*(UA,
9645 it only applies to messages generated by buggy or malicious MUAs, or may
9646 occur in old MBOX databases: \*(UA itself will choose a proper
9648 to avoid false interpretation of
9650 content lines in the MBOX database.)
9652 This may temporarily be handy when \*(UA complains about invalid
9654 lines when opening a MBOX: in this case setting this variable and
9655 re-opening the mailbox in question may correct the result.
9656 If so, copying the entire mailbox to some other file, as in
9657 .Ql copy * SOME-FILE ,
9658 will perform proper, all-compatible
9660 quoting for all detected messages, resulting in a valid MBOX mailbox.
9661 Finally the variable can be unset again:
9662 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9664 localopts yes; wysh set mbox-rfc4155;\e
9665 wysh File "${1}"; eval copy * "${2}"
9667 call mboxfix /tmp/bad.mbox /tmp/good.mbox
9672 \*(BO Internal development variable.
9675 .It Va message-id-disable
9676 \*(BO By setting this variable the generation of
9680 message and MIME part headers can be completely suppressed, effectively
9681 leaving this task up to the
9683 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) or the SMTP server.
9684 Note that according to RFC 5321 a SMTP server is not required to add this
9685 field by itself, so it should be ensured that it accepts messages without
9689 .It Va message-inject-head
9690 A string to put at the beginning of each new message, followed by a newline.
9691 \*(OB The escape sequences tabulator
9695 are understood (use the
9699 ting the variable(s) instead).
9702 .It Va message-inject-tail
9703 A string to put at the end of each new message, followed by a newline.
9704 \*(OB The escape sequences tabulator
9708 are understood (use the
9712 ting the variable(s) instead).
9716 \*(BO Usually, when an
9718 expansion contains the sender, the sender is removed from the expansion.
9719 Setting this option suppresses these removals.
9724 option to be passed through to the
9726 (Mail-Transfer-Agent); though most of the modern MTAs no longer document
9727 this flag, no MTA is known which does not support it (for historical
9731 .It Va mime-allow-text-controls
9732 \*(BO When sending messages, each part of the message is MIME-inspected
9733 in order to classify the
9736 .Ql Content-Transfer-Encoding:
9739 that is required to send this part over mail transport, i.e.,
9740 a computation rather similar to what the
9742 command produces when used with the
9746 This classification however treats text files which are encoded in
9747 UTF-16 (seen for HTML files) and similar character sets as binary
9748 octet-streams, forcefully changing any
9753 .Ql application/octet-stream :
9754 If that actually happens a yet unset charset MIME parameter is set to
9756 effectively making it impossible for the receiving MUA to automatically
9757 interpret the contents of the part.
9759 If this variable is set, and the data was unambiguously identified as
9760 text data at first glance (by a
9764 file extension), then the original
9766 will not be overwritten.
9769 .It Va mime-alternative-favour-rich
9770 \*(BO If this variable is set then rich MIME alternative parts (e.g.,
9771 HTML) will be preferred in favour of included plain text versions when
9772 displaying messages, provided that a handler exists which produces
9773 output that can be (re)integrated into \*(UA's normal visual display.
9774 (E.g., at the time of this writing some newsletters ship their full
9775 content only in the rich HTML part, whereas the plain text part only
9776 contains topic subjects.)
9779 .It Va mime-counter-evidence
9782 field is used to decide how to handle MIME parts.
9783 Some MUAs, however, do not use
9784 .Sx "The mime.types files"
9786 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" )
9787 or a similar mechanism to correctly classify content, but specify an
9788 unspecific MIME type
9789 .Pf ( Ql application/octet-stream )
9790 even for plain text attachments.
9791 If this variable is set then \*(UA will try to re-classify such MIME
9792 message parts, if possible, for example via a possibly existing
9793 attachment filename.
9794 A non-empty value may also be given, in which case a number is expected,
9795 actually a carrier of bits, best specified as a binary value, e.g.,
9798 .Bl -bullet -compact
9800 If bit two is set (counting from 1, decimal 2) then the detected
9802 will be carried along with the message and be used for deciding which
9803 MIME handler is to be used, for example;
9804 when displaying such a MIME part the part-info will indicate the
9805 overridden content-type by showing a plus sign
9808 If bit three is set (decimal 4) then the counter-evidence is always
9809 produced and a positive result will be used as the MIME type, even
9810 forcefully overriding the parts given MIME type.
9812 If bit four is set (decimal 8) as a last resort the actual content of
9813 .Ql application/octet-stream
9814 parts will be inspected, so that data which looks like plain text can be
9816 This mode is even more relaxed when data is to be displayed to the user
9817 or used as a message quote (data consumers which mangle data for display
9818 purposes, which includes masking of control characters, for example).
9822 .It Va mime-encoding
9824 .Ql Content-Transfer-Encoding
9825 to use in outgoing text messages and message parts, where applicable.
9826 (7-bit clean text messages are sent as-is, without a transfer encoding.)
9829 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql _%%_"
9832 8-bit transport effectively causes the raw data be passed through
9833 unchanged, but may cause problems when transferring mail messages over
9834 channels that are not ESMTP (RFC 1869) compliant.
9835 Also, several input data constructs are not allowed by the
9836 specifications and may cause a different transfer-encoding to be used.
9837 .It Ql quoted-printable
9839 Quoted-printable encoding is 7-bit clean and has the property that ASCII
9840 characters are passed through unchanged, so that an english message can
9841 be read as-is; it is also acceptable for other single-byte locales that
9842 share many characters with ASCII, like, e.g., ISO-8859-1.
9843 The encoding will cause a large overhead for messages in other character
9844 sets: e.g., it will require up to twelve (12) bytes to encode a single
9845 UTF-8 character of four (4) bytes.
9846 It is the default encoding.
9848 .Pf (Or\0 Ql b64 . )
9849 This encoding is 7-bit clean and will always be used for binary data.
9850 This encoding has a constant input:output ratio of 3:4, regardless of
9851 the character set of the input data it will encode three bytes of input
9852 to four bytes of output.
9853 This transfer-encoding is not human readable without performing
9858 .It Va mimetypes-load-control
9859 Can be used to control which of
9860 .Sx "The mime.types files"
9861 are loaded: if the letter
9863 is part of the option value, then the user's personal
9865 file will be loaded (if it exists); likewise the letter
9867 controls loading of the system wide
9869 directives found in the user file take precedence, letter matching is
9871 If this variable is not set \*(UA will try to load both files.
9872 Incorporation of the \*(UA-built-in MIME types cannot be suppressed,
9873 but they will be matched last (the order can be listed via
9876 More sources can be specified by using a different syntax: if the
9877 value string contains an equals sign
9879 then it is instead parsed as a comma-separated list of the described
9882 pairs; the given filenames will be expanded and loaded, and their
9883 content may use the extended syntax that is described in the section
9884 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
9885 Directives found in such files always take precedence (are prepended to
9886 the MIME type cache).
9891 To choose an alternate Mail-Transfer-Agent, set this option to either
9892 the full pathname of an executable (optionally prefixed with the protocol
9894 or \*(OPally a SMTP a.k.a. SUBMISSION protocol URL, e.g., \*(IN
9896 .Dl smtps?://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
9899 .Ql [smtp://]server[:port] . )
9900 The default has been chosen at compile time.
9901 All supported data transfers are executed in child processes, which
9902 run asynchronously and without supervision unless either the
9907 If such a child receives a TERM signal, it will abort and
9914 For a file-based MTA it may be necessary to set
9916 in in order to choose the right target of a modern
9919 It will be passed command line arguments from several possible sources:
9922 if set, from the command line if given and the variable
9925 Argument processing of the MTA will be terminated with a
9930 The otherwise occurring implicit usage of the following MTA command
9931 line arguments can be disabled by setting the boolean variable
9932 .Va mta-no-default-arguments
9933 (which will also disable passing
9937 (for not treating a line with only a dot
9939 character as the end of input),
9947 variable is set); in conjunction with the
9949 command line option \*(UA will also (not) pass
9955 \*(OPally \*(UA can send mail over SMTP a.k.a. SUBMISSION network
9956 connections to a single defined smart host by setting this variable to
9957 a SMTP or SUBMISSION URL (see
9958 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) .
9959 An authentication scheme can be specified via the variable chain
9961 Encrypted network connections are \*(OPally available, the section
9962 .Sx "Encrypted network communication"
9963 should give an overview and provide links to more information on this.
9964 Note that with some mail providers it may be necessary to set the
9966 variable in order to use a specific combination of
9971 \*(UA also supports forwarding of all network traffic over a specified
9973 The following SMTP variants may be used:
9977 The plain SMTP protocol (RFC 5321) that normally lives on the
9978 server port 25 and requires setting the
9979 .Va smtp-use-starttls
9980 variable to enter a SSL/TLS encrypted session state.
9981 Assign a value like \*(IN
9982 .Ql smtp://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
9984 .Ql smtp://server[:port] )
9985 to choose this protocol.
9987 The so-called SMTPS which is supposed to live on server port 465
9988 and is automatically SSL/TLS secured.
9989 Unfortunately it never became a standardized protocol and may thus not
9990 be supported by your hosts network service database
9991 \(en in fact the port number has already been reassigned to other
9994 SMTPS is nonetheless a commonly offered protocol and thus can be
9995 chosen by assigning a value like \*(IN
9996 .Ql smtps://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
9998 .Ql smtps://server[:port] ) ;
9999 due to the mentioned problems it is usually necessary to explicitly
10000 specify the port as
10004 The SUBMISSION protocol (RFC 6409) lives on server port 587 and
10005 is identically to the SMTP protocol from \*(UA's point of view;
10006 it requires setting
10007 .Va smtp-use-starttls
10008 to enter a SSL/TLS secured session state; e.g., \*(IN
10009 .Ql submission://[user[:password]@]server[:port] .
10011 The SUBMISSIONS protocol (RFC 8314) that lives on server port 465 and is
10012 SSL/TLS secured by default.
10013 It can be chosen by assigning a value like \*(IN
10014 .Ql submissions://[user[:password]@]server[:port] .
10015 Due to the problems mentioned for SMTPS above and the fact that
10016 SUBMISSIONS is new and a successor that lives on the same port as the
10017 historical engineering mismanagement named SMTPS, it is usually
10018 necessary to explicitly specify the port as
10024 .It Va mta-arguments
10025 Arguments to pass through to a file-based
10027 can be given via this variable, which is parsed according to
10028 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
10029 into an array of arguments, and which will be joined onto MTA options
10030 from other sources, and then passed individually to the MTA:
10031 .Ql ? wysh set mta-arguments='-t -X \&"/tmp/my log\&"' .
10034 .It Va mta-no-default-arguments
10035 \*(BO Unless this variable is set \*(UA will pass some well known
10036 standard command line options to a file-based
10038 (Mail-Transfer-Agent), see there for more.
10041 .It Va mta-no-receiver-arguments
10042 \*(BO By default a file-based
10044 will be passed all receiver addresses on the command line.
10045 This variable can be set to suppress any such argument.
10049 Many systems use a so-called
10051 environment to ensure compatibility with
10053 This works by inspecting the name that was used to invoke the mail
10055 If this variable is set then the mailwrapper (the program that is
10056 actually executed when calling the file-based
10058 will treat its contents as that name.
10060 .Mx Va netrc-lookup
10061 .It Va netrc-lookup-USER@HOST , netrc-lookup-HOST , netrc-lookup
10062 \*(BO\*(IN\*(OP Used to control usage of the user's
10064 file for lookup of account credentials, as documented in the section
10065 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
10066 and for the command
10069 .Sx "The .netrc file"
10070 documents the file format.
10082 then \*(UA will read the output of a shell pipe instead of the user's
10084 file if this variable is set (to the desired shell command).
10085 This can be used to, e.g., store
10088 .Ql ? set netrc-pipe='gpg -qd ~/.netrc.pgp' .
10092 If this variable has the value
10094 newly created local folders will be in Maildir instead of MBOX format.
10098 Checks for new mail in the current folder each time the prompt is shown.
10099 A Maildir folder must be re-scanned to determine if new mail has arrived.
10100 If this variable is set to the special value
10102 then a Maildir folder will not be rescanned completely, but only
10103 timestamp changes are detected.
10107 \*(BO Causes the filename given in the
10110 and the sender-based filenames for the
10114 commands to be interpreted relative to the directory given in the
10116 variable rather than to the current directory,
10117 unless it is set to an absolute pathname.
10119 .Mx Va on-account-cleanup
10120 .It Va on-account-cleanup-ACCOUNT , Va on-account-cleanup
10121 Macro hook which will be called once an
10123 is left, as the very last step before unrolling per-account
10125 This hook is run even in case of fatal errors, and it is advisable to
10126 perform only absolutely necessary actions, like cleaning up
10129 The specialized form is used in favour of the generic one if found.
10132 .It Va on-compose-cleanup
10133 Macro hook which will be called after the message has been sent (or not,
10134 in case of failures), as the very last step before unrolling compose mode
10136 This hook is run even in case of fatal errors, and it is advisable to
10137 perform only absolutely necessary actions, like cleaning up
10141 For compose mode hooks that may affect the message content please see
10142 .Va on-compose-enter , on-compose-leave , on-compose-splice .
10143 \*(ID This hook exists because
10144 .Ic alias , alternates , commandalias , shortcut ,
10145 to name a few, are not covered by
10147 changes applied in compose mode will continue to be in effect thereafter.
10152 .It Va on-compose-enter , on-compose-leave
10153 Macro hooks which will be called once compose mode is entered,
10154 and after composing has been finished, but before a set
10155 .Va message-inject-tail
10156 has been injected etc., respectively.
10158 are enabled for these hooks, and changes on variables will be forgotten
10159 after the message has been sent.
10160 .Va on-compose-cleanup
10161 can be used to perform other necessary cleanup steps.
10163 The following (read-only) variables will be set temporarily during
10164 execution of the macros to represent respective message headers, to
10165 the empty string otherwise; most of them correspond to according virtual
10166 message headers that can be accessed via
10169 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
10171 .Va on-compose-splice
10175 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Va mailx_subject"
10176 .It Va mailx-command
10177 The command that generates the message.
10178 .It Va mailx-subject
10182 .It Va mailx-sender
10184 .It Va mailx-to , mailx-cc , mailx-bcc
10185 The list of receiver addresses as a space-separated list.
10186 .It Va mailx-raw-to , mailx-raw-cc , mailx-raw-bcc
10187 The list of receiver addresses before any mangling (due to, e.g.,
10190 .Va recipients-in-cc )
10191 as a space-separated list.
10192 .It Va mailx-orig-from
10193 When replying, forwarding or resending, this will be set to the
10195 of the given message.
10196 .It Va mailx-orig-to , mailx-orig-cc , mailx-orig-bcc
10197 When replying, forwarding or resending, this will be set to the
10198 receivers of the given message.
10202 Here is am example that injects a signature via
10203 .Va message-inject-tail ;
10205 .Va on-compose-splice
10206 to simply inject the file of desire via
10210 may be a better approach.
10212 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10214 vput ! i cat ~/.mysig
10216 vput vexpr message-inject-tail trim-end $i
10220 readctl create ~/.mysig
10224 vput vexpr message-inject-tail trim-end $i
10226 readctl remove ~/.mysig
10229 set on-compose-leave=t_ocl
10235 .It Va on-compose-splice , on-compose-splice-shell
10236 These hooks run once the normal compose mode is finished, but before the
10237 .Va on-compose-leave
10238 macro hook is called, the
10239 .Va message-inject-tail
10241 Both hooks will be executed in a subprocess, with their input and output
10242 connected to \*(UA such that they can act as if they would be an
10244 The difference in between them is that the latter is a
10246 command, whereas the former is a normal \*(UA macro, but which is
10247 restricted to a small set of commands (the
10251 will indicate said capability).
10253 are enabled for these hooks (in the parent process), causing any setting
10254 to be forgotten after the message has been sent;
10255 .Va on-compose-cleanup
10256 can be used to perform other cleanup as necessary.
10259 During execution of these hooks \*(UA will temporarily forget whether it
10260 has been started in interactive mode, (a restricted set of)
10261 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
10262 will always be available, and for guaranteed reproducibilities sake
10266 will be set to their defaults.
10267 The compose mode command
10269 has been especially designed for scriptability (via these hooks).
10270 The first line the hook will read on its standard input is the protocol
10271 version of said command escape, currently
10273 backward incompatible protocol changes have to be expected.
10276 Care must be taken to avoid deadlocks and other false control flow:
10277 if both involved processes wait for more input to happen at the
10278 same time, or one does not expect more input but the other is stuck
10279 waiting for consumption of its output, etc.
10280 There is no automatic synchronization of the hook: it will not be
10281 stopped automatically just because it, e.g., emits
10283 The hooks will however receive a termination signal if the parent enters
10284 an error condition.
10285 \*(ID Protection against and interaction with signals is not yet given;
10286 it is likely that in the future these scripts will be placed in an
10287 isolated session, which is signalled in its entirety as necessary.
10289 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10290 define ocs_signature {
10292 echo '~< ~/.mysig' # '~<! fortune pathtofortunefile'
10294 set on-compose-splice=ocs_signature
10296 wysh set on-compose-splice-shell=$'\e
10298 printf "hello $version! Headers: ";\e
10299 echo \e'~^header list\e';\e
10300 read status result;\e
10301 echo "status=$status result=$result";\e
10306 echo Splice protocol version is $version
10307 echo '~^h l'; read hl; vput vexpr es substring "${hl}" 0 1
10309 echoerr 'Cannot read header list'; echo '~x'; xit
10311 if [ "$hl" @i!% ' cc' ]
10312 echo '~^h i cc Diet is your <mirr.or>'; read es;\e
10313 vput vexpr es substring "${es}" 0 1
10315 echoerr 'Cannot insert Cc: header'; echo '~x'
10316 # (no xit, macro finishs anyway)
10320 set on-compose-splice=ocsm
10325 .It Va on-resend-cleanup
10327 .Va on-compose-cleanup ,
10328 but is only triggered by
10332 .It Va on-resend-enter
10334 .Va on-compose-enter ,
10335 but is only triggered by
10340 \*(BO If set, each message feed through the command given for
10342 is followed by a formfeed character
10346 .It Va password-USER@HOST , password-HOST , password
10347 \*(IN Variable chain that sets a password, which is used in case none has
10348 been given in the protocol and account-specific URL;
10349 as a last resort \*(UA will ask for a password on the user's terminal if
10350 the authentication method requires a password.
10351 Specifying passwords in a startup file is generally a security risk;
10352 the file should be readable by the invoking user only.
10354 .It Va password-USER@HOST
10355 \*(OU (see the chain above for \*(IN)
10356 Set the password for
10360 If no such variable is defined for a host,
10361 the user will be asked for a password on standard input.
10362 Specifying passwords in a startup file is generally a security risk;
10363 the file should be readable by the invoking user only.
10367 \*(BO Send messages to the
10369 command without performing MIME and character set conversions.
10373 .It Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
10374 When a MIME message part of type
10376 (case-insensitive) is displayed or quoted,
10377 its text is filtered through the value of this variable interpreted as
10379 Note that only parts which can be displayed inline as plain text (see
10380 .Cd copiousoutput )
10381 are displayed unless otherwise noted, other MIME parts will only be
10382 considered by and for the command
10386 The special value commercial at
10388 forces interpretation of the message part as plain text, e.g.,
10389 .Ql set pipe-application/xml=@
10390 will henceforth display XML
10392 (The same could also be achieved by adding a MIME type marker with the
10395 And \*(OPally MIME type handlers may be defined via
10396 .Sx "The Mailcap files"
10397 \(em these directives,
10399 has already been used, should be referred to for further documentation.
10404 can in fact be used as a trigger character to adjust usage and behaviour
10405 of a following shell command specification more thoroughly by appending
10406 more special characters which refer to further mailcap directives, e.g.,
10407 the following hypothetical command specification could be used:
10409 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10410 ? set pipe-X/Y='@!++=@vim ${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}'
10414 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql __"
10416 The command produces plain text to be integrated in \*(UAs output:
10417 .Cd copiousoutput .
10420 If set the handler will not be invoked when a message is to be quoted,
10421 but only when it will be displayed:
10422 .Cd x-mailx-noquote .
10425 Run the command asynchronously, i.e., without blocking \*(UA:
10426 .Cd x-mailx-async .
10429 The command must be run on an interactive terminal, \*(UA will
10430 temporarily release the terminal to it:
10431 .Cd needsterminal .
10434 Request creation of a zero-sized temporary file, the absolute pathname
10435 of which will be made accessible via the environment variable
10436 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY :
10437 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile .
10438 If given twice then the file will be unlinked automatically by \*(UA
10439 when the command loop is entered again at latest:
10440 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink .
10443 Normally the MIME part content is passed to the handler via standard
10444 input; if this flag is set then the data will instead be written into
10445 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY
10446 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill ) ,
10447 the creation of which is implied; note however that in order to cause
10448 deletion of the temporary file you still have to use two plus signs
10453 To avoid ambiguities with normal shell command content you can use
10454 another commercial at to forcefully terminate interpretation of
10455 remaining characters.
10456 (Any character not in this list will have the same effect.)
10460 Some information about the MIME part to be displayed is embedded into
10461 the environment of the shell command:
10464 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ev _AIL__ILENAME__ENERATED"
10466 .It Ev MAILX_CONTENT
10467 The MIME content-type of the part, if known, the empty string otherwise.
10470 .It Ev MAILX_CONTENT_EVIDENCE
10472 .Va mime-counter-evidence
10473 includes the carry-around-bit (2), then this will be set to the detected
10474 MIME content-type; not only then identical to
10475 .Ev \&\&MAILX_CONTENT
10479 .It Ev MAILX_EXTERNAL_BODY_URL
10481 .Ql message/external-body access-type=url
10482 will store the access URL in this variable, it is empty otherwise.
10483 URL targets should not be activated automatically, without supervision.
10486 .It Ev MAILX_FILENAME
10487 The filename, if any is set, the empty string otherwise.
10490 .It Ev MAILX_FILENAME_GENERATED
10494 .It Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY
10495 If temporary file creation has been requested through the command prefix
10496 this variable will be set and contain the absolute pathname of the
10502 .It Va pipe-EXTENSION
10503 This is identical to
10504 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
10507 (normalized to lowercase using character mappings of the ASCII charset)
10508 names a file extension, e.g.,
10510 Handlers registered using this method take precedence.
10513 .It Va pop3-auth-USER@HOST , pop3-auth-HOST , pop3-auth
10514 \*(OP\*(IN Variable chain that sets the POP3 authentication method.
10515 The only possible value as of now is
10517 which is thus the default.
10519 .Mx Va pop3-bulk-load
10520 .It Va pop3-bulk-load-USER@HOST , pop3-bulk-load-HOST , pop3-bulk-load
10521 \*(BO\*(OP When accessing a POP3 server \*(UA loads the headers of
10522 the messages, and only requests the message bodies on user request.
10523 For the POP3 protocol this means that the message headers will be
10525 If this variable is set then \*(UA will download only complete messages
10526 from the given POP3 server(s) instead.
10528 .Mx Va pop3-keepalive
10529 .It Va pop3-keepalive-USER@HOST , pop3-keepalive-HOST , pop3-keepalive
10530 \*(OP POP3 servers close the connection after a period of inactivity;
10531 the standard requires this to be at least 10 minutes,
10532 but practical experience may vary.
10533 Setting this variable to a numeric value greater than
10537 command to be sent each value seconds if no other operation is performed.
10539 .Mx Va pop3-no-apop
10540 .It Va pop3-no-apop-USER@HOST , pop3-no-apop-HOST , pop3-no-apop
10541 \*(BO\*(OP Unless this variable is set the
10543 authentication method will be used when connecting to a POP3 server that
10544 advertises support.
10547 is that the password is not sent in clear text over the wire and that
10548 only a single packet is sent for the user/password tuple.
10550 .Va pop3-no-apop-HOST
10553 .Mx Va pop3-use-starttls
10554 .It Va pop3-use-starttls-USER@HOST , pop3-use-starttls-HOST , pop3-use-starttls
10555 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a
10557 command to make an unencrypted POP3 session SSL/TLS encrypted.
10558 This functionality is not supported by all servers,
10559 and is not used if the session is already encrypted by the POP3S method.
10561 .Va pop3-use-starttls-HOST
10567 \*(BO This flag enables POSIX mode, which changes behaviour of \*(UA
10568 where that deviates from standardized behaviour.
10569 It will be set implicitly before the
10570 .Sx "Resource files"
10571 are loaded if the environment variable
10572 .Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT
10573 is set, and adjusting any of those two will be reflected by the other
10575 The following behaviour is covered and enforced by this mechanism:
10578 .Bl -bullet -compact
10580 In non-interactive mode, any error encountered while loading resource
10581 files during program startup will cause a program exit, whereas in
10582 interactive mode such errors will stop loading of the currently loaded
10583 (stack of) file(s, i.e., recursively).
10584 These exits can be circumvented on a per-command base by using
10587 .Sx "Command modifiers" ,
10588 for each command which shall be allowed to fail.
10592 will replace the list of alternate addresses instead of appending to it.
10595 The variable inserting
10596 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
10602 will expand embedded character sequences
10604 horizontal tabulator and
10607 \*(ID For compatibility reasons this step will always be performed.
10610 Upon changing the active
10614 will be displayed even if
10621 implies the behaviour described by
10627 is extended to cover any empty mailbox, not only empty
10629 .Sx "primary system mailbox" Ns
10630 es: they will be removed when they are left in empty state otherwise.
10635 .It Va print-alternatives
10636 \*(BO When a MIME message part of type
10637 .Ql multipart/alternative
10638 is displayed and it contains a subpart of type
10640 other parts are normally discarded.
10641 Setting this variable causes all subparts to be displayed,
10642 just as if the surrounding part was of type
10643 .Ql multipart/mixed .
10647 The string used as a prompt in interactive mode.
10648 Whenever the variable is evaluated the value is treated as if specified
10649 within dollar-single-quotes (see
10650 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ) .
10651 This (post-assignment, i.e., second) expansion can be used to embed
10652 status information, for example
10657 .Va mailbox-display .
10659 In order to embed characters which should not be counted when
10660 calculating the visual width of the resulting string, enclose the
10661 characters of interest in a pair of reverse solidus escaped brackets:
10663 a slot for coloured prompts is also available with the \*(OPal command
10665 Prompting may be prevented by setting this to the null string
10667 .Ql set noprompt ) .
10671 This string is used for secondary prompts, but is otherwise identical to
10678 \*(BO Suppresses the printing of the version when first invoked.
10682 If set, \*(UA starts a replying message with the original message
10683 prefixed by the value of the variable
10685 Normally, a heading consisting of
10686 .Dq Fromheaderfield wrote:
10687 is put before the quotation.
10692 variable, this heading is omitted.
10695 is assigned, only the headers selected by the
10698 selection are put above the message body,
10701 acts like an automatic
10703 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
10707 is assigned, all headers are put above the message body and all MIME
10708 parts are included, making
10710 act like an automatic
10713 .Va quote-as-attachment .
10716 .It Va quote-as-attachment
10717 \*(BO Add the original message in its entirety as a
10719 MIME attachment when replying to a message.
10720 Note this works regardless of the setting of
10725 Can be set to a string consisting of non-whitespace ASCII characters
10726 which shall be treated as quotation leaders, the default being
10731 \*(OP Can be set in addition to
10733 Setting this turns on a more fancy quotation algorithm in that leading
10734 quotation characters
10735 .Pf ( Va quote-chars )
10736 are compressed and overlong lines are folded.
10738 can be set to either one or two (space separated) numeric values,
10739 which are interpreted as the maximum (goal) and the minimum line length,
10740 respectively, in a spirit rather equal to the
10742 program, but line-, not paragraph-based.
10743 If not set explicitly the minimum will reflect the goal algorithmically.
10744 The goal cannot be smaller than the length of
10746 plus some additional pad.
10747 Necessary adjustments take place silently.
10750 .It Va r-option-implicit
10751 \*(BO Setting this option evaluates the contents of
10753 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
10755 and passes the results onto the used (file-based) MTA as described for the
10757 option (empty argument case).
10760 .It Va recipients-in-cc
10767 are by default merged into the new
10769 If this variable is set, only the original
10773 the rest is merged into
10778 Unless this variable is defined, no copies of outgoing mail will be saved.
10779 If defined it gives the pathname, subject to the usual
10780 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
10781 of a folder where all new, replied-to or forwarded messages are saved:
10782 when saving to this folder fails the message is not sent, but instead
10786 The standard defines that relative (fully expanded) paths are to be
10787 interpreted relative to the current directory
10789 to force interpretation relative to
10792 needs to be set in addition.
10795 .It Va record-files
10796 \*(BO If this variable is set the meaning of
10798 will be extended to cover messages which target only file and pipe
10801 These address types will not appear in recipient lists unless
10802 .Va add-file-recipients
10806 .It Va record-resent
10807 \*(BO If this variable is set the meaning of
10809 will be extended to also cover the
10816 .It Va reply-in-same-charset
10817 \*(BO If this variable is set \*(UA first tries to use the same
10818 character set of the original message for replies.
10819 If this fails, the mechanism described in
10820 .Sx "Character sets"
10821 is evaluated as usual.
10824 .It Va reply-strings
10825 Can be set to a comma-separated list of (case-insensitive according to
10826 ASCII rules) strings which shall be recognized in addition to the
10827 built-in strings as
10829 reply message indicators \(en built-in are
10831 which is mandated by RFC 5322, as well as the german
10836 which often has been seen in the wild;
10837 I.e., the separating colon has to be specified explicitly.
10841 A list of addresses to put into the
10843 field of the message header.
10844 Members of this list are handled as if they were in the
10853 .It Va reply-to-honour
10856 header is honoured when replying to a message via
10860 This is a quadoption; if set without a value it defaults to
10864 .It Va rfc822-body-from_
10865 \*(BO This variable can be used to force displaying a so-called
10867 line for messages that are embedded into an envelope mail via the
10869 MIME mechanism, for more visual convenience.
10873 \*(BO Enable saving of (partial) messages in
10875 upon interrupt or delivery error.
10879 The number of lines that represents a
10888 line display and scrolling via
10890 If this variable is not set \*(UA falls back to a calculation based upon
10891 the detected terminal window size and the baud rate: the faster the
10892 terminal, the more will be shown.
10893 Overall screen dimensions and pager usage is influenced by the
10894 environment variables
10902 .It Va searchheaders
10903 \*(BO Expand message-list specifiers in the form
10905 to all messages containing the substring
10907 in the header field
10909 The string search is case insensitive.
10912 .It Va sendcharsets
10913 \*(OP A comma-separated list of character set names that can be used in
10914 outgoing internet mail.
10915 The value of the variable
10917 is automatically appended to this list of character sets.
10918 If no character set conversion capabilities are compiled into \*(UA then
10919 the only supported charset is
10922 .Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
10923 and refer to the section
10924 .Sx "Character sets"
10925 for the complete picture of character set conversion in \*(UA.
10928 .It Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
10929 \*(BO\*(OP If this variable is set, but
10931 is not, then \*(UA acts as if
10933 had been set to the value of the variable
10935 In effect this combination passes through the message data in the
10936 character set of the current locale encoding:
10937 therefore mail message text will be (assumed to be) in ISO-8859-1
10938 encoding when send from within a ISO-8859-1 locale, and in UTF-8
10939 encoding when send from within an UTF-8 locale.
10943 never comes into play as
10945 is implicitly assumed to be 8-bit and capable to represent all files the
10946 user may specify (as is the case when no character set conversion
10947 support is available in \*(UA and the only supported character set is
10949 .Sx "Character sets" ) .
10950 This might be a problem for scripts which use the suggested
10952 setting, since in this case the character set is US-ASCII by definition,
10953 so that it is better to also override
10959 An address that is put into the
10961 field of outgoing messages, quoting RFC 5322: the mailbox of the agent
10962 responsible for the actual transmission of the message.
10963 This field should normally not be used unless the
10965 field contains more than one address, on which case it is required.
10968 address is handled as if it were in the
10972 .Va r-option-implicit .
10975 \*(OB Predecessor of
10978 .It Va sendmail-arguments
10979 \*(OB Predecessor of
10980 .Va mta-arguments .
10982 .It Va sendmail-no-default-arguments
10983 \*(OB\*(BO Predecessor of
10984 .Va mta-no-default-arguments .
10986 .It Va sendmail-progname
10987 \*(OB Predecessor of
10992 \*(BO When sending a message wait until the
10994 (including the built-in SMTP one) exits before accepting further commands.
10996 with this variable set errors reported by the MTA will be recognizable!
10997 If the MTA returns a non-zero exit status,
10998 the exit status of \*(UA will also be non-zero.
11002 \*(BO This setting causes \*(UA to start at the last message
11003 instead of the first one when opening a mail folder, as well as with
11010 \*(BO Causes \*(UA to use the sender's real name instead of the plain
11011 address in the header field summary and in message specifications.
11015 \*(BO Causes the recipient of the message to be shown in the header
11016 summary if the message was sent by the user.
11023 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
11025 .Va message-inject-tail ,
11026 .Va on-compose-leave
11028 .Va on-compose-splice .
11035 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
11037 .Va message-inject-tail ,
11038 .Va on-compose-leave
11040 .Va on-compose-splice .
11045 .Va on-compose-splice
11047 .Va on-compose-splice-shell
11049 .Va on-compose-leave
11051 .Va message-inject-tail
11055 .It Va skipemptybody
11056 \*(BO If an outgoing message does not contain any text in its first or
11057 only message part, do not send it but discard it silently (see also the
11058 command line option
11063 .It Va smime-ca-dir , smime-ca-file
11064 \*(OP Specify the location of trusted CA certificates in PEM (Privacy
11065 Enhanced Mail) for the purpose of verification of S/MIME signed messages.
11067 documents the necessary preparation steps to use the former.
11068 The set of CA certificates which are built into the SSL/TLS library can
11069 be explicitly turned off by setting
11070 .Va smime-ca-no-defaults ,
11071 and further fine-tuning is possible via
11072 .Va smime-ca-flags .
11075 .It Va smime-ca-flags
11076 \*(OP Can be used to fine-tune behaviour of the X509 CA certificate
11077 storage, and the certificate verification that is used.
11078 The actual values and their meanings are documented for
11082 .It Va smime-ca-no-defaults
11083 \*(BO\*(OP Do not load the default CA locations that are built into the
11084 used to SSL/TLS library to verify S/MIME signed messages.
11086 .Mx Va smime-cipher
11087 .It Va smime-cipher-USER@HOST , smime-cipher
11088 \*(OP Specifies the cipher to use when generating S/MIME encrypted
11089 messages (for the specified account).
11090 RFC 5751 mandates a default of
11093 Possible values are (case-insensitive and) in decreasing cipher strength:
11101 (DES EDE3 CBC, 168 bits; default if
11103 is not available) and
11105 (DES CBC, 56 bits).
11107 The actually available cipher algorithms depend on the cryptographic
11108 library that \*(UA uses.
11109 \*(OP Support for more cipher algorithms may be available through
11110 dynamic loading via, e.g.,
11111 .Xr EVP_get_cipherbyname 3
11112 (OpenSSL) if \*(UA has been compiled to support this.
11115 .It Va smime-crl-dir
11116 \*(OP Specifies a directory that contains files with CRLs in PEM format
11117 to use when verifying S/MIME messages.
11120 .It Va smime-crl-file
11121 \*(OP Specifies a file that contains a CRL in PEM format to use when
11122 verifying S/MIME messages.
11125 .It Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST
11126 \*(OP If this variable is set, messages send to the given receiver are
11127 encrypted before sending.
11128 The value of the variable must be set to the name of a file that
11129 contains a certificate in PEM format.
11131 If a message is sent to multiple recipients,
11132 each of them for whom a corresponding variable is set will receive an
11133 individually encrypted message;
11134 other recipients will continue to receive the message in plain text
11136 .Va smime-force-encryption
11138 It is recommended to sign encrypted messages, i.e., to also set the
11143 .It Va smime-force-encryption
11144 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to refuse sending unencrypted messages.
11148 \*(BO\*(OP S/MIME sign outgoing messages with the user's private key
11149 and include the user's certificate as a MIME attachment.
11150 Signing a message enables a recipient to verify that the sender used
11151 a valid certificate,
11152 that the email addresses in the certificate match those in the message
11153 header and that the message content has not been altered.
11154 It does not change the message text,
11155 and people will be able to read the message as usual.
11157 .Va smime-sign-cert , smime-sign-include-certs
11159 .Va smime-sign-message-digest .
11161 .Mx Va smime-sign-cert
11162 .It Va smime-sign-cert-USER@HOST , smime-sign-cert
11163 \*(OP Points to a file in PEM format.
11164 For the purpose of signing and decryption this file needs to contain the
11165 user's private key, followed by his certificate.
11167 For message signing
11169 is always derived from the value of
11171 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
11173 For the purpose of encryption the recipient's public encryption key
11174 (certificate) is expected; the command
11176 can be used to save certificates of signed messages (the section
11177 .Sx "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
11178 gives some details).
11179 This mode of operation is usually driven by the specialized form.
11181 When decrypting messages the account is derived from the recipient
11186 of the message, which are searched for addresses for which such
11188 \*(UA always uses the first address that matches,
11189 so if the same message is sent to more than one of the user's addresses
11190 using different encryption keys, decryption might fail.
11192 For signing and decryption purposes it is possible to use encrypted
11193 keys, and the pseudo-host(s)
11194 .Ql USER@HOST.smime-cert-key
11195 for the private key
11197 .Ql USER@HOST.smime-cert-cert
11198 for the certificate stored in the same file)
11199 will be used for performing any necessary password lookup,
11200 therefore the lookup can be automated via the mechanisms described in
11201 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
11202 For example, the hypothetical address
11204 could be driven with a private key / certificate pair path defined in
11205 .Va \&\&smime-sign-cert-bob@exam.ple ,
11206 and needed passwords would then be looked up via the pseudo hosts
11207 .Ql bob@exam.ple.smime-cert-key
11209 .Ql bob@exam.ple.smime-cert-cert ) .
11210 To include intermediate certificates, use
11211 .Va smime-sign-include-certs .
11213 .Mx Va smime-sign-include-certs
11214 .It Va smime-sign-include-certs-USER@HOST , smime-sign-include-certs
11215 \*(OP If used, this is supposed to a consist of a comma-separated list
11216 of files, each of which containing a single certificate in PEM format to
11217 be included in the S/MIME message in addition to the
11218 .Va smime-sign-cert
11220 This can be used to include intermediate certificates of the certificate
11221 authority, in order to allow the receiver's S/MIME implementation to
11222 perform a verification of the entire certificate chain, starting from
11223 a local root certificate, over the intermediate certificates, down to the
11224 .Va smime-sign-cert .
11225 Even though top level certificates may also be included in the chain,
11226 they won't be used for the verification on the receiver's side.
11228 For the purpose of the mechanisms involved here,
11230 refers to the content of the internal variable
11232 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
11235 .Ql USER@HOST.smime-include-certs
11236 will be used for performing password lookups for these certificates,
11237 shall they have been given one, therefore the lookup can be automated
11238 via the mechanisms described in
11239 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
11241 .Mx Va smime-sign-message-digest
11242 .It Va smime-sign-message-digest-USER@HOST , smime-sign-message-digest
11243 \*(OP Specifies the message digest to use when signing S/MIME messages.
11244 RFC 5751 mandates a default of
11246 Possible values are (case-insensitive and) in decreasing cipher strength:
11254 The actually available message digest algorithms depend on the
11255 cryptographic library that \*(UA uses.
11256 \*(OP Support for more message digest algorithms may be available
11257 through dynamic loading via, e.g.,
11258 .Xr EVP_get_digestbyname 3
11259 (OpenSSL) if \*(UA has been compiled to support this.
11260 Remember that for this
11262 refers to the variable
11264 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
11268 \*(OB\*(OP To use the built-in SMTP transport, specify a SMTP URL in
11270 \*(ID For compatibility reasons a set
11272 is used in preference of
11276 .It Va smtp-auth-USER@HOST , smtp-auth-HOST , smtp-auth
11277 \*(OP Variable chain that controls the SMTP
11279 authentication method, possible values are
11285 as well as the \*(OPal methods
11291 method does not need any user credentials,
11293 requires a user name and all other methods require a user name and
11301 .Va smtp-auth-password
11303 .Va smtp-auth-user ) .
11308 .Va smtp-auth-USER@HOST :
11309 may override dependent on sender address in the variable
11312 .It Va smtp-auth-password
11313 \*(OP\*(OU Sets the global fallback password for SMTP authentication.
11314 If the authentication method requires a password, but neither
11315 .Va smtp-auth-password
11317 .Va smtp-auth-password-USER@HOST
11319 \*(UA will ask for a password on the user's terminal.
11321 .It Va smtp-auth-password-USER@HOST
11323 .Va smtp-auth-password
11324 for specific values of sender addresses, dependent upon the variable
11327 .It Va smtp-auth-user
11328 \*(OP\*(OU Sets the global fallback user name for SMTP authentication.
11329 If the authentication method requires a user name, but neither
11332 .Va smtp-auth-user-USER@HOST
11334 \*(UA will ask for a user name on the user's terminal.
11336 .It Va smtp-auth-user-USER@HOST
11339 for specific values of sender addresses, dependent upon the variable
11343 .It Va smtp-hostname
11344 \*(OP\*(IN Normally \*(UA uses the variable
11346 to derive the necessary
11348 information in order to issue a
11355 can be used to use the
11357 from the SMTP account
11364 from the content of this variable (or, if that is the empty string,
11366 or the local hostname as a last resort).
11367 This often allows using an address that is itself valid but hosted by
11368 a provider other than which (in
11370 is about to send the message.
11371 Setting this variable also influences generated
11376 If the \*(OPal IDNA support is available (see
11378 variable assignment is aborted when a necessary conversion fails.
11380 .Mx Va smtp-use-starttls
11381 .It Va smtp-use-starttls-USER@HOST , smtp-use-starttls-HOST , smtp-use-starttls
11382 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a
11384 command to make an SMTP
11386 session SSL/TLS encrypted, i.e., to enable transport layer security.
11389 .It Va socks-proxy-USER@HOST , socks-proxy-HOST , socks-proxy
11390 \*(OP If this is set to the hostname (SOCKS URL) of a SOCKS5 server then
11391 \*(UA will proxy all of its network activities through it.
11392 This can be used to proxy SMTP, POP3 etc. network traffic through the
11393 Tor anonymizer, for example.
11394 The following would create a local SOCKS proxy on port 10000 that
11395 forwards to the machine
11397 and from which the network traffic is actually instantiated:
11398 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11399 # Create local proxy server in terminal 1 forwarding to HOST
11400 $ ssh -D 10000 USER@HOST
11401 # Then, start a client that uses it in terminal 2
11402 $ \*(uA -Ssocks-proxy-USER@HOST=localhost:10000
11406 .It Va spam-interface
11407 \*(OP In order to use any of the spam-related commands (like, e.g.,
11409 the desired spam interface must be defined by setting this variable.
11410 Please refer to the manual section
11411 .Sx "Handling spam"
11412 for the complete picture of spam handling in \*(UA.
11413 All or none of the following interfaces may be available:
11415 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ql _ilte_"
11421 .Pf ( Lk http://spamassassin.apache.org SpamAssassin )
11423 Different to the generic filter interface \*(UA will automatically add
11424 the correct arguments for a given command and has the necessary
11425 knowledge to parse the program's output.
11426 A default value for
11428 will have been compiled into the \*(UA binary if
11432 during compilation.
11433 Shall it be necessary to define a specific connection type (rather than
11434 using a configuration file for that), the variable
11435 .Va spamc-arguments
11436 can be used as in, e.g.,
11437 .Ql -d server.example.com -p 783 .
11438 It is also possible to specify a per-user configuration via
11440 Note that this interface does not inspect the
11442 flag of a message for the command
11446 generic spam filter support via freely configurable hooks.
11447 This interface is meant for programs like
11449 and requires according behaviour in respect to the hooks' exit
11450 status for at least the command
11453 meaning a message is spam,
11457 for unsure and any other return value indicating a hard error);
11458 since the hooks can include shell code snippets diverting behaviour
11459 can be intercepted as necessary.
11461 .Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , spamfilter-nospam , \
11464 .Va spamfilter-spam ;
11466 .Sx "Handling spam"
11467 contains examples for some programs.
11468 The process environment of the hooks will have the variable
11469 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_GENERATED
11471 Note that spam score support for
11473 is not supported unless the \*(OPtional regular expression support is
11475 .Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore
11481 .It Va spam-maxsize
11482 \*(OP Messages that exceed this size will not be passed through to the
11484 .Va spam-interface .
11485 If unset or 0, the default of 420000 bytes is used.
11488 .It Va spamc-command
11489 \*(OP The path to the
11493 .Va spam-interface .
11494 Note that the path is not expanded, but used
11496 A fallback path will have been compiled into the \*(UA binary if the
11497 executable had been found during compilation.
11500 .It Va spamc-arguments
11501 \*(OP Even though \*(UA deals with most arguments for the
11504 automatically, it may at least sometimes be desirable to specify
11505 connection-related ones via this variable, e.g.,
11506 .Ql -d server.example.com -p 783 .
11510 \*(OP Specify a username for per-user configuration files for the
11512 .Va spam-interface .
11513 If this is set to the empty string then \*(UA will use the name of the
11522 .It Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , \
11523 spamfilter-nospam , spamfilter-rate , spamfilter-spam
11524 \*(OP Command and argument hooks for the
11526 .Va spam-interface .
11528 .Sx "Handling spam"
11529 contains examples for some programs.
11532 .It Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore
11533 \*(OP Because of the generic nature of the
11536 spam scores are not supported for it by default, but if the \*(OPnal
11537 regular expression support is available then setting this variable can
11538 be used to overcome this restriction.
11539 It is interpreted as follows: first a number (digits) is parsed that
11540 must be followed by a semicolon
11542 and an extended regular expression.
11543 Then the latter is used to parse the first output line of the
11544 .Va spamfilter-rate
11545 hook, and, in case the evaluation is successful, the group that has been
11546 specified via the number is interpreted as a floating point scan score.
11550 .It Va ssl-ca-dir-USER@HOST , ssl-ca-dir-HOST , ssl-ca-dir ,\
11551 ssl-ca-file-USER@HOST , ssl-ca-file-HOST , ssl-ca-file
11552 \*(OP Directory and file, respectively, pools of trusted CA certificates
11553 in PEM (Privacy Enhanced Mail) format, for the purpose of verification
11554 of SSL/TLS server certificates.
11555 Concurrent use is possible, the file is loaded once needed first, the
11556 directory lookup is performed anew as a last resort whenever necessary.
11557 The CA certificate pool built into the SSL/TLS library can be disabled via
11558 .Va ssl-ca-no-defaults ,
11559 further fine-tuning is possible via
11561 Note the directory search variant requires the certificate files to
11562 adhere special filename conventions, please see
11563 .Xr SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations 3
11570 .Mx Va ssl-ca-flags
11571 .It Va ssl-ca-flags-USER@HOST , ssl-ca-flags-HOST , ssl-ca-flags
11572 \*(OP Can be used to fine-tune behaviour of the X509 CA certificate
11573 storage, and the certificate verification that is used (also see
11575 The value is expected to consist of a comma-separated list of
11576 configuration directives, with any intervening whitespace being ignored.
11577 The directives directly map to flags that can be passed to
11578 .Xr X509_STORE_set_flags 3 ,
11579 which are usually defined in a file
11580 .Pa openssl/x509_vfy.h ,
11581 and the availability of which depends on the used SSL/TLS library
11582 version: a directive without mapping is ignored (error log subject to
11584 Directives currently understood (case-insensitively) include:
11587 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Cd BaNg"
11588 .It Cd no-alt-chains
11589 If the initial chain is not trusted, do not attempt to build an
11591 Setting this flag will make OpenSSL certificate verification match that
11592 of older OpenSSL versions, before automatic building and checking of
11593 alternative chains has been implemented; also see
11594 .Cd trusted-first .
11595 .It Cd no-check-time
11596 Do not check certificate/CRL validity against current time.
11597 .It Cd partial-chain
11598 By default partial, incomplete chains which cannot be verified up to the
11599 chain top, a self-signed root certificate, will not verify.
11600 With this flag set, a chain succeeds to verify if at least one signing
11601 certificate of the chain is in any of the configured trusted stores of
11603 The OpenSSL manual page
11604 .Xr SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations 3
11605 gives some advise how to manage your own trusted store of CA certificates.
11607 Disable workarounds for broken certificates.
11608 .It Cd trusted-first
11609 Try building a chain using issuers in the trusted store first to avoid
11610 problems with server-sent legacy intermediate certificates.
11611 Newer versions of OpenSSL support alternative chain checking and enable
11612 it by default, resulting in the same behaviour; also see
11613 .Cd no-alt-chains .
11617 .Mx Va ssl-ca-no-defaults
11618 .It Va ssl-ca-no-defaults-USER@HOST , ssl-ca-no-defaults-HOST ,\
11620 \*(BO\*(OP Do not load the default CA locations that are built into the
11621 used to SSL/TLS library to verify SSL/TLS server certificates.
11624 .It Va ssl-cert-USER@HOST , ssl-cert-HOST , ssl-cert
11625 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
11628 .Va ssl-config-pairs .
11630 .Mx Va ssl-cipher-list
11631 .It Va ssl-cipher-list-USER@HOST , ssl-cipher-list-HOST , ssl-cipher-list
11632 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
11635 .Va ssl-config-pairs .
11638 .It Va ssl-config-file
11639 \*(OP If this variable is set
11640 .Xr CONF_modules_load_file 3
11642 .Ql +modules-load-file
11645 is used to allow resource file based configuration of the SSL/TLS library.
11646 This happens once the library is used first, which may also be early
11647 during startup (logged with
11649 If a non-empty value is given then the given file, after performing
11650 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
11651 will be used instead of the global OpenSSL default, and it is an error
11652 if the file cannot be loaded.
11653 The application name will always be passed as
11655 Some SSL/TLS libraries support application-specific configuration via
11656 resource files loaded like this, please see
11657 .Va ssl-config-module .
11659 .Mx Va ssl-config-module
11660 .It Va ssl-config-module-USER@HOST , ssl-config-module-HOST ,\
11662 \*(OP If file based application-specific configuration via
11663 .Va ssl-config-file
11664 is available, announced as
11668 indicating availability of
11669 .Xr SSL_CTX_config 3 ,
11670 then, it becomes possible to use a central SSL/TLS configuration file
11671 for all programs, including \*(uA, e.g.:
11672 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11673 # Register a configuration section for \*(uA
11674 \*(uA = mailx_master
11675 # The top configuration section creates a relation
11676 # in between dynamic SSL configuration and an actual
11677 # program specific configuration section
11679 ssl_conf = mailx_ssl_config
11680 # Well that actual program specific configuration section
11681 # now can map individual ssl-config-module names to sections,
11682 # e.g., ssl-config-module=account_xy
11684 account_xy = mailx_account_xy
11685 account_yz = mailx_account_yz
11687 MinProtocol = TLSv1.2
11690 CipherString = TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:
11691 MinProtocol = TLSv1.1
11696 .Mx Va ssl-config-pairs
11697 .It Va ssl-config-pairs-USER@HOST , ssl-config-pairs-HOST , ssl-config-pairs
11698 \*(OP The value of this variable chain will be interpreted as
11699 a comma-separated list of directive/value pairs.
11700 Directives and values need to be separated by equals signs
11702 any whitespace surrounding pair members is removed.
11703 Keys are (usually) case-insensitive.
11704 Different to when placing these pairs in a
11705 .Va ssl-config-module
11707 .Va ssl-config-file ,
11710 need to be escaped with a reverse solidus
11712 when included in pairs; also different: if the equals sign
11714 is preceded with an asterisk
11716 .Sx "Filename transformations"
11717 will be performed on the value; it is an error if these fail.
11718 Unless proper support is announced by
11720 .Pf ( Ql +conf-ctx )
11721 only the keys below are supported, otherwise the pairs will be used
11722 directly as arguments to the function
11723 .Xr SSL_CONF_cmd 3 .
11726 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Cd C_rtificate"
11728 Filename of a SSL/TLS client certificate (chain) required by some servers.
11729 Fallback support via
11730 .Xr SSL_CTX_use_certificate_chain_file 3 .
11731 .Sx "Filename transformations"
11733 .\" v15compat: remove the next sentence
11735 if you use this you need to specify the private key via
11740 .It Cd CipherString
11741 A list of ciphers for SSL/TLS connections, see
11743 By default no list of ciphers is set, resulting in a
11744 .Cd Protocol Ns - Ns
11745 specific list of ciphers (the protocol standards define lists of
11746 acceptable ciphers; possibly cramped by the used SSL/TLS library).
11747 Fallback support via
11748 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_cipher_list 3 .
11750 .It Cd Ciphersuites
11751 A list of ciphers used for TLSv1.3 connections, see
11753 These will be joined onto the list of ciphers from
11758 .Ql +ctx-set-ciphersuites ,
11760 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_ciphersuites 3 .
11763 A list of supported elliptic curves, if applicable.
11764 By default no curves are set.
11765 Fallback support via
11766 .Xr SSL_CTX_set1_curves_list 3 ,
11769 .It Cd MaxProtocol , MinProtocol
11770 The maximum and minimum supported SSL/TLS versions, respectively.
11774 .Ql +ctx-set-maxmin-proto ,
11776 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_max_proto_version 3
11778 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_min_proto_version 3 ;
11779 these fallbacks use an internal parser which understands the strings
11785 and the special value
11787 which disables the given limit.
11790 Various flags to set.
11792 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_options 3 ,
11793 in which case any other value but (exactly)
11795 results in an error.
11798 Filename of the private key in PEM format of a SSL/TLS client certificate.
11799 If unset, the name of the certificate file is used.
11800 .Sx "Filename transformations"
11803 .Xr SSL_CTX_use_PrivateKey_file 3 .
11804 .\" v15compat: remove the next sentence
11806 if you use this you need to specify the certificate (chain) via
11812 The used SSL/TLS protocol.
11818 .Ql ctx-set-maxmin-proto
11825 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_options 3 ,
11826 driven via an internal parser which understands the strings
11832 and the special value
11834 Multiple protocols may be given as a comma-separated list, any
11835 whitespace is ignored, an optional plus sign
11837 prefix enables, a hyphen-minus
11839 prefix disables a protocol, so that
11841 enables only the TLSv1.2 protocol.
11847 .It Va ssl-crl-dir , ssl-crl-file
11848 \*(OP Specify a directory / a file, respectively that contains a CRL in
11849 PEM format to use when verifying SSL/TLS server certificates.
11852 .It Va ssl-curves-USER@HOST , ssl-curves-HOST , ssl-curves
11853 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
11856 .Va ssl-config-pairs .
11859 .It Va ssl-features
11860 \*(OP\*(RO This expands to a comma separated list of the TLS/SSL library
11861 identity and optional TLS/SSL library features.
11862 Currently supported identities are
11866 (OpenSSL v1.1.x series)
11869 (elder OpenSSL series, other clones).
11870 Optional features are preceded with a plus sign
11872 when available, and with a hyphen-minus
11875 .Ql modules-load-file
11876 .Pf ( Va ssl-config-file ) ,
11878 .Pf ( Va ssl-config-pairs ) ,
11880 .Pf ( Va ssl-config-module ) ,
11881 .Ql ctx-set-maxmin-proto
11882 .Pf ( Va ssl-config-pairs )
11885 .Pf ( Va ssl-rand-egd ) .
11888 .It Va ssl-key-USER@HOST , ssl-key-HOST , ssl-key
11889 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
11892 .Va ssl-config-pairs .
11894 .It Va ssl-method-USER@HOST , ssl-method-HOST , ssl-method
11895 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
11898 .Va ssl-config-pairs .
11900 .Mx Va ssl-protocol
11901 .It Va ssl-protocol-USER@HOST , ssl-protocol-HOST , ssl-protocol
11902 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
11905 .Va ssl-config-pairs .
11908 .It Va ssl-rand-egd
11909 \*(OP Gives the pathname to an entropy daemon socket, see
11911 Not all SSL/TLS libraries support this,
11913 announces availability with
11917 .It Va ssl-rand-file
11918 \*(OP Gives the filename to a file with random entropy data, see
11919 .Xr RAND_load_file 3 .
11920 If this variable is not set, or set to the empty string, or if the
11921 .Sx "Filename transformations"
11923 .Xr RAND_file_name 3
11924 will be used to create the filename.
11925 If the SSL PRNG was seeded successfully
11926 The file will be updated
11927 .Pf ( Xr RAND_write_file 3 )
11928 if and only if seeding and buffer stirring succeeds.
11929 This variable is only used if
11931 is not set (or not supported by the SSL/TLS library).
11934 .It Va ssl-verify-USER@HOST , ssl-verify-HOST , ssl-verify
11935 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the action to be performed if an error
11936 occurs during SSL/TLS server certificate validation against the
11937 specified or default trust stores
11940 or the SSL/TLS library built-in defaults (unless usage disallowed via
11941 .Va ssl-ca-no-defaults ) ,
11942 and as fine-tuned via
11944 Valid (case-insensitive) values are
11946 (fail and close connection immediately),
11948 (ask whether to continue on standard input),
11950 (show a warning and continue),
11952 (do not perform validation).
11958 If only set without an assigned value, then this setting inhibits the
11964 header fields that include obvious references to \*(UA.
11965 There are two pitfalls associated with this:
11966 First, the message id of outgoing messages is not known anymore.
11967 Second, an expert may still use the remaining information in the header
11968 to track down the originating mail user agent.
11969 If set to the value
11975 suppression does not occur.
11978 .It Va system-mailrc
11979 \*(RO The compiled in path of the system wide initialization file
11981 .Sx "Resource files" :
11987 (\*(OP) This specifies a comma-separated list of
11992 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" ,
11993 escape commas with reverse solidus) to be used to overwrite or define
11996 this variable will only be queried once at program startup and can
11997 thus only be specified in resource files or on the command line.
12000 String capabilities form
12002 pairs and are expected unless noted otherwise.
12003 Numerics have to be notated as
12005 where the number is expected in normal decimal notation.
12006 Finally, booleans do not have any value but indicate a true or false
12007 state simply by being defined or not; this indeed means that \*(UA
12008 does not support undefining an existing boolean.
12009 String capability values will undergo some expansions before use:
12010 for one notations like
12013 .Ql control-LETTER ,
12014 and for clarification purposes
12016 can be used to specify
12018 (the control notation
12020 could lead to misreadings when a left bracket follows, which it does for
12021 the standard CSI sequence);
12022 finally three letter octal sequences, as in
12025 To specify that a terminal supports 256-colours, and to define sequences
12026 that home the cursor and produce an audible bell, one might write:
12028 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12029 ? set termcap='Co#256,home=\eE[H,bel=^G'
12033 The following terminal capabilities are or may be meaningful for the
12034 operation of the built-in line editor or \*(UA in general:
12037 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Cd yay"
12039 .It Cd colors Ns \0or Cd Co
12041 numeric capability specifying the maximum number of colours.
12042 Note that \*(UA does not actually care about the terminal beside that,
12043 but always emits ANSI / ISO 6429 escape sequences.
12046 .It Cd rmcup Ns \0or Cd te Ns \0/ Cd smcup Ns \0or Cd ti
12049 .Cd enter_ca_mode ,
12050 respectively: exit and enter the alternative screen ca-mode,
12051 effectively turning \*(UA into a fullscreen application.
12052 This must be enabled explicitly by setting
12053 .Va termcap-ca-mode .
12055 .It Cd smkx Ns \0or Cd ks Ns \0/ Cd rmkx Ns \0or Cd ke
12059 respectively: enable and disable the keypad.
12060 This is always enabled if available, because it seems even keyboards
12061 without keypads generate other key codes for, e.g., cursor keys in that
12062 case, and only if enabled we see the codes that we are interested in.
12064 .It Cd ed Ns \0or Cd cd
12068 .It Cd clear Ns \0or Cd cl
12070 clear the screen and home cursor.
12071 (Will be simulated via
12076 .It Cd home Ns \0or Cd ho
12081 .It Cd el Ns \0or Cd ce
12083 clear to the end of line.
12084 (Will be simulated via
12086 plus repetitions of space characters.)
12088 .It Cd hpa Ns \0or Cd ch
12089 .Cd column_address :
12090 move the cursor (to the given column parameter) in the current row.
12091 (Will be simulated via
12097 .Cd carriage_return :
12098 move to the first column in the current row.
12099 The default built-in fallback is
12102 .It Cd cub1 Ns \0or Cd le
12104 move the cursor left one space (non-destructively).
12105 The default built-in fallback is
12108 .It Cd cuf1 Ns \0or Cd nd
12110 move the cursor right one space (non-destructively).
12111 The default built-in fallback is
12113 which is used by most terminals.
12121 Many more capabilities which describe key-sequences are documented for
12126 .It Va termcap-ca-mode
12127 \*(OP Allow usage of the
12131 terminal capabilities, see
12134 this variable will only be queried once at program startup and can
12135 thus only be specified in resource files or on the command line.
12138 .It Va termcap-disable
12139 \*(OP Disable any interaction with a terminal control library.
12140 If set only some generic fallback built-ins and possibly the content of
12142 describe the terminal to \*(UA.
12144 this variable will only be queried once at program startup and can
12145 thus only be specified in resource files or on the command line.
12149 If defined, gives the number of lines of a message to be displayed
12152 if unset, the first five lines are printed, if set to 0 the variable
12155 If the value is negative then its absolute value will be used for
12156 unsigned right shifting (see
12164 \*(BO If set then the
12166 command series will strip adjacent empty lines and quotations.
12170 The character set of the terminal \*(UA operates on,
12171 and the one and only supported character set that \*(UA can use if no
12172 character set conversion capabilities have been compiled into it,
12173 in which case it defaults to ISO-8859-1.
12174 Otherwise it defaults to UTF-8.
12175 Sufficient locale support provided the default will be preferably
12176 deduced from the locale environment if that is set (e.g.,
12178 see there for more); runtime locale changes will be reflected by
12180 except during the program startup phase and if
12182 had been used to freeze the given value.
12183 Refer to the section
12184 .Sx "Character sets"
12185 for the complete picture about character sets.
12188 .It Va typescript-mode
12189 \*(BO A special multiplex variable that disables all variables and
12190 settings which result in behaviour that interferes with running \*(UA in
12193 .Va colour-disable ,
12194 .Va line-editor-disable
12195 and (before startup completed only)
12196 .Va termcap-disable .
12197 Unsetting it does not restore the former state of the covered settings.
12201 For a safe-by-default policy the process file mode creation mask
12205 on program startup by default.
12206 Child processes inherit the file mode creation mask of their parent, and
12207 by setting this variable to an empty value no change will be applied,
12208 and the inherited value will be used.
12209 Otherwise the given value will be made the new file mode creation mask.
12212 .It Va user-HOST , user
12213 \*(IN Variable chain that sets a global fallback user name, which is
12214 used in case none has been given in the protocol and account-specific
12216 This variable defaults to the name of the user who runs \*(UA.
12220 \*(BO Setting this enables upward compatibility with \*(UA
12221 version 15.0 in respect to which configuration options are available and
12222 how they are handled.
12223 This manual uses \*(IN and \*(OU to refer to the new and the old way of
12224 doing things, respectively.
12228 \*(BO This setting, also controllable via the command line option
12230 causes \*(UA to be more verbose, e.g., it will display obsoletion
12231 warnings and SSL/TLS certificate chains.
12232 Even though marked \*(BO this option may be set twice in order to
12233 increase the level of verbosity even more, in which case even details of
12234 the actual message delivery and protocol conversations are shown.
12237 is sufficient to disable verbosity as such.
12244 .It Va version , version-date , \
12245 version-hexnum , version-major , version-minor , version-update
12246 \*(RO \*(UA version information: the first variable is a string with
12247 the complete version identification, the second the release date in ISO
12248 8601 notation without time.
12249 The third is a 32-bit hexadecimal number with the upper 8 bits storing
12250 the major, followed by the minor and update version numbers which occupy
12252 The latter three variables contain only decimal digits: the major, minor
12253 and update version numbers.
12254 The output of the command
12256 will include this information.
12259 .It Va writebackedited
12260 If this variable is set messages modified using the
12264 commands are written back to the current folder when it is quit;
12265 it is only honoured for writable folders in MBOX format, though.
12266 Note that the editor will be pointed to the raw message content in that
12267 case, i.e., neither MIME decoding nor decryption will have been
12268 performed, and proper RFC 4155
12270 quoting of newly added or edited content is also left as an exercise to
12273 .\" }}} (Variables)
12275 .\" }}} (INTERNAL VARIABLES)
12278 .\" .Sh ENVIRONMENT {{{
12282 .Dq environment variable
12283 should be considered an indication that these variables are either
12284 standardized as vivid parts of process environments, or that they are
12285 commonly found in there.
12286 The process environment is inherited from the
12288 once \*(UA is started, and unless otherwise explicitly noted handling of
12289 the following variables transparently integrates into that of the
12290 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
12291 from \*(UA's point of view.
12292 This means that, e.g., they can be managed via
12296 causing automatic program environment updates (to be inherited by
12297 newly created child processes).
12300 In order to transparently integrate other environment variables equally
12301 they need to be imported (linked) with the command
12303 This command can also be used to set and unset non-integrated
12304 environment variables from scratch, sufficient system support provided.
12305 The following example, applicable to a POSIX shell, sets the
12307 environment variable for \*(UA only, and beforehand exports the
12309 in order to affect any further processing in the running shell:
12311 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12312 $ EDITOR="vim -u ${HOME}/.vimrc"
12314 $ COLUMNS=80 \*(uA -R
12317 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ev BaNg"
12320 The user's preferred width in column positions for the terminal screen
12322 Queried and used once on program startup, actively managed for child
12323 processes and the MLE (see
12324 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
12325 in interactive mode thereafter.
12326 Ignored in non-interactive mode, which always uses 80 columns, unless in
12332 The name of the (mailbox)
12334 to use for saving aborted messages if
12336 is set; this defaults to
12340 is set no output will be generated, otherwise the contents of the file
12345 Pathname of the text editor to use for the
12349 .Pf (see\0 Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ) ;
12351 is used for a more display oriented editor.
12355 The user's home directory.
12356 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
12357 The calling user's home directory will be used instead if this directory
12358 does not exist, is not accessible or cannot be read;
12359 it will always be used for the root user.
12360 (No test for being writable is performed to allow usage by
12361 non-privileged users within read-only jails, but dependent on the
12362 variable settings this directory is a default write target, e.g. for
12370 .It Ev LC_ALL , LC_CTYPE , LANG
12371 \*(OP The (names in lookup order of the)
12375 which indicates the used
12376 .Sx "Character sets" .
12377 Runtime changes trigger automatic updates of the entire locale system,
12378 which includes updating
12380 (except during startup if the variable has been frozen via
12385 The user's preferred number of lines on a page or the vertical screen
12386 or window size in lines.
12387 Queried and used once on program startup, actively managed for child
12388 processes in interactive mode thereafter.
12389 Ignored in non-interactive mode, which always uses 24 lines, unless in
12395 Pathname of the directory lister to use in the
12397 command when operating on local mailboxes.
12400 (path search through
12405 Upon startup \*(UA will actively ensure that this variable refers to the
12406 name of the user who runs \*(UA, in order to be able to pass a verified
12407 name to any newly created child process.
12411 Is used as the user's
12413 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
12417 This is assumed to be an absolute pathname.
12421 \*(OP Overrides the default path search for
12422 .Sx "The Mailcap files" ,
12423 which is defined in the standard RFC 1524 as
12424 .Ql ~/.mailcap:\:/etc/mailcap:\:/usr/etc/mailcap:\:/usr/local/etc/mailcap .
12425 .\" TODO we should have a mailcaps-default virtual RDONLY option!
12426 (\*(UA makes it a configuration option, however.)
12427 Note this is not a search path, but a path search.
12431 Is used as a startup file instead of
12434 In order to avoid side-effects from configuration files scripts should
12435 either set this variable to
12439 command line option should be used.
12442 .It Ev MAILX_NO_SYSTEM_RC
12443 If this variable is set then reading of
12446 .Va system-mailrc )
12447 at startup is inhibited, i.e., the same effect is achieved as if \*(UA
12448 had been started up with the option
12450 (and according argument) or
12452 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
12456 The name of the user's
12458 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
12460 A logical subset of the special
12461 .Sx "Filename transformations"
12467 Traditionally this MBOX is used as the file to save messages from the
12469 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
12470 that have been read.
12472 .Sx "Message states" .
12476 \*(IN\*(OP This variable overrides the default location of the user's
12482 Pathname of the program to use for backing the command
12486 variable enforces usage of a pager for output.
12487 The default paginator is
12489 (path search through
12492 \*(UA inspects the contents of this variable: if its contains the string
12494 then a non-existing environment variable
12501 will optionally be set to
12508 A colon-separated list of directories that is searched by the shell when
12509 looking for commands, e.g.,
12510 .Ql /bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin .
12513 .It Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT
12514 This variable is automatically looked for upon startup, see
12520 The shell to use for the commands
12525 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
12526 and when starting subprocesses.
12527 A default shell is used if this environment variable is not defined.
12530 .It Ev SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
12531 Specifies a time in seconds since the Unix epoch (1970-01-01) to be
12532 used in place of the current time.
12533 This variable is looked up upon program startup, and its existence will
12534 switch \*(UA to a reproducible mode
12535 .Pf ( Lk https://reproducible-builds.org )
12536 which uses deterministic random numbers, a special fixated pseudo
12539 This operation mode is used for development and by software packagers.
12540 \*(ID Currently an invalid setting is only ignored, rather than causing
12541 a program abortion.
12543 .Dl $ SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH=`date +%s` \*(uA
12547 \*(OP The terminal type for which output is to be prepared.
12548 For extended colour and font control please refer to
12549 .Sx "Coloured display" ,
12550 and for terminal management in general to
12551 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" .
12555 Except for the root user this variable defines the directory for
12556 temporary files to be used instead of
12558 (or the given compile-time constant) if set, existent, accessible as
12559 well as read- and writable.
12560 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment,
12561 but \*(UA will ensure at startup that this environment variable is
12562 updated to contain a usable temporary directory.
12568 (see there), but this variable is not standardized, should therefore not
12569 be used, and is only corrected if already set.
12573 Pathname of the text editor to use for the
12577 .Pf (see\0 Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ) ;
12579 is used for a less display oriented editor.
12589 .Bl -tag -width ".It Pa BaNg"
12591 User-specific file giving initial commands, one of the
12592 .Sx "Resource files" .
12593 The actual value is read from
12597 System wide initialization file, one of the
12598 .Sx "Resource files" .
12599 The actual value is read from
12600 .Va system-mailrc .
12604 \*(OP Personal MIME type handler definition file, see
12605 .Sx "The Mailcap files" .
12606 This location is part of the RFC 1524 standard search path, which is
12607 a configuration option and can be overridden via
12611 .It Pa /etc/mailcap
12612 \*(OP System wide MIME type handler definition file, see
12613 .Sx "The Mailcap files" .
12614 This location is part of the RFC 1524 standard search path, which is
12615 a configuration option and can be overridden via
12619 The default value for
12624 Personal MIME types, see
12625 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
12629 System wide MIME types, see
12630 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
12634 \*(IN\*(OP The default location of the user's
12636 file \(en the section
12637 .Sx "The .netrc file"
12638 documents the file format.
12639 The actually used path can be overridden via
12649 .\" .Ss "Resource files" {{{
12650 .Ss "Resource files"
12652 Upon startup \*(UA reads in several resource files, in order:
12654 .Bl -tag -width ".It Pa BaNg"
12657 System wide initialization file
12658 .Pf ( Va system-mailrc ) .
12659 Reading of this file can be suppressed, either by using the
12661 (and according argument) or
12663 command line options, or by setting the
12666 .Ev MAILX_NO_SYSTEM_RC .
12670 File giving initial commands.
12671 A different file can be chosen by setting the
12675 Reading of this file can be suppressed with the
12677 command line option.
12679 .It Va mailx-extra-rc
12680 Defines a startup file to be read after all other resource files.
12681 It can be used to specify settings that are not understood by other
12683 implementations, for example.
12684 This variable is only honoured when defined in a resource file, e.g.,
12686 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" .
12690 The content of these files is interpreted as follows:
12693 .Bl -bullet -compact
12695 The whitespace characters space, tabulator and newline,
12696 as well as those defined by the variable
12698 are removed from the beginning and end of input lines.
12700 Empty lines are ignored.
12702 Any other line is interpreted as a command.
12703 It may be spread over multiple input lines if the newline character is
12705 by placing a reverse solidus character
12707 as the last character of the line; whereas any leading whitespace of
12708 follow lines is ignored, trailing whitespace before a escaped newline
12709 remains in the input.
12711 If the line (content) starts with the number sign
12713 then it is a comment-command and also ignored.
12714 (The comment-command is a real command, which does nothing, and
12715 therefore the usual follow lines mechanism applies!)
12719 Unless \*(UA is about to enter interactive mode syntax errors that occur
12720 while loading these files are treated as errors and cause program exit.
12721 More files with syntactically equal content can be
12723 The following, saved in a file, would be an examplary content:
12725 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12726 # This line is a comment command. And y\e
12727 es, it is really continued here.
12734 .\" .Ss "The mime.types files" {{{
12735 .Ss "The mime.types files"
12738 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments"
12739 \*(UA needs to learn about MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions)
12740 media types in order to classify message and attachment content.
12741 One source for them are
12743 files, the loading of which can be controlled by setting the variable
12744 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
12745 Another is the command
12747 which also offers access to \*(UAs MIME type cache.
12749 files have the following syntax:
12751 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12752 type/subtype extension [extension ...]
12753 # E.g., text/html html htm
12759 define the MIME media type, as standardized in RFC 2046:
12761 is used to declare the general type of data, while the
12763 specifies a specific format for that type of data.
12764 One or multiple filename
12766 s, separated by whitespace, can be bound to the media type format.
12767 Comments may be introduced anywhere on a line with a number sign
12769 causing the remaining line to be discarded.
12771 \*(UA also supports an extended, non-portable syntax in especially
12772 crafted files, which can be loaded via the alternative value syntax of
12773 .Va mimetypes-load-control ,
12774 and prepends an optional
12778 .Dl [type-marker ]type/subtype extension [extension ...]
12781 The following type markers are supported:
12784 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar _n_u"
12786 Treat message parts with this content as plain text.
12791 Treat message parts with this content as HTML tagsoup.
12792 If the \*(OPal HTML-tagsoup-to-text converter is not available treat
12793 the content as plain text instead.
12797 but instead of falling back to plain text require an explicit content
12798 handler to be defined.
12800 If no handler can be found a text message is displayed which says so.
12801 This can be annoying, for example signatures serve a contextual purpose,
12802 their content is of no use by itself.
12803 This marker will avoid displaying the text message.
12808 for sending messages:
12810 .Va mime-allow-text-controls ,
12811 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
12812 For reading etc. messages:
12813 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ,
12814 .Sx "The Mailcap files" ,
12816 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
12817 .Va mimetypes-load-control ,
12818 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE ,
12819 .Va pipe-EXTENSION .
12822 .\" .Ss "The Mailcap files" {{{
12823 .Ss "The Mailcap files"
12825 .\" TODO MAILCAP DISABLED
12826 .Sy This feature is not available in v14.9.0, sorry!
12828 .Dq User Agent Configuration Mechanism
12829 which \*(UA \*(OPally supports (see
12830 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ) .
12831 It defines a file format to be used to inform mail user agent programs
12832 about the locally-installed facilities for handling various data
12833 formats, i.e., about commands and how they can be used to display, edit
12834 et cetera MIME part contents, as well as a default path search that
12835 includes multiple possible locations of
12839 environment variable that can be used to overwrite that (repeating here
12840 that it is not a search path, but instead a path search specification).
12841 Any existing files will be loaded in sequence, appending any content to
12842 the list of MIME type handler directives.
12846 files consist of a set of newline separated entries.
12847 Comment lines start with a number sign
12849 (in the first column!) and are ignored.
12850 Empty lines are also ignored.
12851 All other lines form individual entries that must adhere to the syntax
12853 To extend a single entry (not comment) its line can be continued on
12854 follow lines if newline characters are
12856 by preceding them with the reverse solidus character
12858 The standard does not specify how leading whitespace of follow lines
12859 is to be treated, therefore \*(UA retains it.
12863 entries consist of a number of semicolon
12865 separated fields, and the reverse solidus
12867 character can be used to escape any following character including
12868 semicolon and itself.
12869 The first two fields are mandatory and must occur in the specified
12870 order, the remaining fields are optional and may appear in any order.
12871 Leading and trailing whitespace of content is ignored (removed).
12874 The first field defines the MIME
12876 the entry is about to handle (case-insensitively, and no reverse solidus
12877 escaping is possible in this field).
12878 If the subtype is specified as an asterisk
12880 the entry is meant to match all subtypes of the named type, e.g.,
12882 would match any audio type.
12883 The second field defines the shell command which shall be used to
12885 MIME parts of the given type; it is implicitly called the
12892 shell commands message (MIME part) data is passed via standard input
12893 unless the given shell command includes one or more instances of the
12896 in which case these instances will be replaced with a temporary filename
12897 and the data will have been stored in the file that is being pointed to.
12900 shell commands data is assumed to be generated on standard output unless
12901 the given command includes (one ore multiple)
12903 In any case any given
12905 format is replaced with a(n already) properly quoted filename.
12906 Note that when a command makes use of a temporary file via
12908 then \*(UA will remove it again, as if the
12909 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile ,
12910 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill
12912 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
12913 flags had been set; see below for more.
12916 The optional fields either define a shell command or an attribute (flag)
12917 value, the latter being a single word and the former being a keyword
12918 naming the field followed by an equals sign
12920 succeeded by a shell command, and as usual for any
12922 content any whitespace surrounding the equals sign will be removed, too.
12923 Optional fields include the following:
12926 .Bl -tag -width ".It Cd BaNg"
12928 A program that can be used to compose a new body or body part in the
12930 (Currently unused.)
12932 .It Cd composetyped
12935 field, but is to be used when the composing program needs to specify the
12937 header field to be applied to the composed data.
12938 (Currently unused.)
12941 A program that can be used to edit a body or body part in the given
12943 (Currently unused.)
12946 A program that can be used to print a message or body part in the given
12948 (Currently unused.)
12951 Specifies a program to be run to test some condition, e.g., the machine
12952 architecture, or the window system in use, to determine whether or not
12953 this mailcap entry applies.
12954 If the test fails, a subsequent mailcap entry should be sought; also see
12955 .Cd x-mailx-test-once .
12958 .It Cd needsterminal
12959 This flag field indicates that the given shell command must be run on
12960 an interactive terminal.
12961 \*(UA will temporarily release the terminal to the given command in
12962 interactive mode, in non-interactive mode this entry will be entirely
12963 ignored; this flag implies
12964 .Cd x-mailx-noquote .
12967 .It Cd copiousoutput
12968 A flag field which indicates that the output of the
12970 command will be an extended stream of textual output that can be
12971 (re)integrated into \*(UA's normal visual display.
12972 It is mutually exclusive with
12973 .Cd needsterminal .
12975 .It Cd textualnewlines
12976 A flag field which indicates that this type of data is line-oriented and
12977 that, if encoded in
12979 all newlines should be converted to canonical form (CRLF) before
12980 encoding, and will be in that form after decoding.
12981 (Currently unused.)
12983 .It Cd nametemplate
12984 This field gives a filename format, in which
12986 will be replaced by a random string, the joined combination of which
12987 will be used as the filename denoted by
12988 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY .
12989 One could specify that a GIF file being passed to an image viewer should
12990 have a name ending in
12993 .Ql nametemplate=%s.gif .
12994 Note that \*(UA ignores the name template unless that solely specifies
12995 a filename suffix that consists of (ASCII) alphabetic and numeric
12996 characters, the underscore and dot only.
12999 Names a file, in X11 bitmap (xbm) format, which points to an appropriate
13000 icon to be used to visually denote the presence of this kind of data.
13001 This field is not used by \*(UA.
13004 A textual description that describes this type of data.
13007 .It Cd x-mailx-even-if-not-interactive
13008 An extension flag test field \(em by default handlers without
13010 are entirely ignored in non-interactive mode, but if this flag is set
13011 then their use will be considered.
13012 It is an error if this flag is set for commands that use the flag
13013 .Cd needsterminal .
13016 .It Cd x-mailx-noquote
13017 An extension flag field that indicates that even a
13020 command shall not be used to generate message quotes
13021 (as it would be by default).
13024 .It Cd x-mailx-async
13025 Extension flag field that denotes that the given
13027 command shall be executed asynchronously, without blocking \*(UA.
13028 Cannot be used in conjunction with
13029 .Cd needsterminal .
13032 .It Cd x-mailx-test-once
13033 Extension flag which denotes whether the given
13035 command shall be evaluated once only and the (boolean) result be cached.
13036 This is handy if some global unchanging condition is to be queried, like
13037 .Dq running under the X Window System .
13040 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile
13041 Extension flag field that requests creation of a zero-sized temporary
13042 file, the name of which is to be placed in the environment variable
13043 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY .
13044 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
13049 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill
13050 Normally the MIME part content is passed to the handler via standard
13051 input; if this flag is set then the data will instead be written into
13053 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile .
13054 In order to cause deletion of the temporary file you will have to set
13055 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
13057 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
13062 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
13063 Extension flag field that requests that the temporary file shall be
13064 deleted automatically when the command loop is entered again at latest.
13065 (Do not use this for asynchronous handlers.)
13066 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
13068 format, or in conjunction with
13069 .Cd x-mailx-async ,
13070 or without also setting
13071 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile
13073 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill .
13076 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-keep
13079 implies the three tmpfile related flags above, but if you want, e.g.,
13081 and deal with the temporary file yourself, you can add in this flag to
13083 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink .
13088 The standard includes the possibility to define any number of additional
13089 entry fields, prefixed by
13091 Flag fields apply to the entire
13093 entry \(em in some unusual cases, this may not be desirable, but
13094 differentiation can be accomplished via separate entries, taking
13095 advantage of the fact that subsequent entries are searched if an earlier
13096 one does not provide enough information.
13099 command needs to specify the
13103 command shall not, the following will help out the latter (with enabled
13107 level \*(UA will show information about handler evaluation):
13109 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13110 application/postscript; ps-to-terminal %s; needsterminal
13111 application/postscript; ps-to-terminal %s; compose=idraw %s
13115 In fields any occurrence of the format string
13117 will be replaced by the
13120 Named parameters from the
13122 field may be placed in the command execution line using
13124 followed by the parameter name and a closing
13127 The entire parameter should appear as a single command line argument,
13128 regardless of embedded spaces; thus:
13130 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13132 Content-type: multipart/mixed; boundary=42
13135 multipart/*; /usr/local/bin/showmulti \e
13136 %t %{boundary} ; composetyped = /usr/local/bin/makemulti
13138 # Executed shell command
13139 /usr/local/bin/showmulti multipart/mixed 42
13143 .\" TODO v15: Mailcap: %n,%F
13144 Note that \*(UA does not support handlers for multipart MIME parts as
13145 shown in this example (as of today).
13146 \*(UA does not support the additional formats
13150 An example file, also showing how to properly deal with the expansion of
13152 which includes any quotes that are necessary to make it a valid shell
13153 argument by itself and thus will cause undesired behaviour when placed
13154 in additional user-provided quotes:
13156 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13158 text/richtext; richtext %s; copiousoutput
13160 text/x-perl; perl -cWT %s
13162 application/pdf; \e
13164 trap "rm -f ${infile}" EXIT\e; \e
13165 trap "exit 75" INT QUIT TERM\e; \e
13167 x-mailx-async; x-mailx-tmpfile-keep
13169 application/*; echo "This is \e"%t\e" but \e
13170 is 50 \e% Greek to me" \e; < %s head -c 1024 | cat -vet; \e
13171 copiousoutput; x-mailx-noquote
13176 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ,
13177 .Sx "The mime.types files" ,
13180 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
13181 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE ,
13182 .Va pipe-EXTENSION .
13185 .\" .Ss "The .netrc file" {{{
13186 .Ss "The .netrc file"
13190 file contains user credentials for machine accounts.
13191 The default location
13193 may be overridden by the
13195 environment variable.
13196 It is possible to load encrypted
13198 files by using an appropriate value in
13202 The file consists of space, tabulator or newline separated tokens.
13203 \*(UA implements a parser that supports a superset of the original BSD
13204 syntax, but users should nonetheless be aware of portability glitches
13205 of that file format, shall their
13207 be usable across multiple programs and platforms:
13210 .Bl -bullet -compact
13212 BSD does not support single, but only double quotation marks, e.g.,
13213 .Ql password="pass with spaces" .
13215 BSD (only?) supports escaping of single characters via a reverse solidus
13216 (e.g., a space can be escaped via
13218 in- as well as outside of a quoted string.
13220 BSD does not require a final quotation mark of the last user input token.
13222 The original BSD (Berknet) parser also supported a format which allowed
13223 tokens to be separated with commas \(en whereas at least Hewlett-Packard
13224 still seems to support this syntax, \*(UA does not!
13226 As a non-portable extension some widely-used programs support
13227 shell-style comments: if an input line starts, after any amount of
13228 whitespace, with a number sign
13230 then the rest of the line is ignored.
13232 Whereas other programs may require that the
13234 file is accessible by only the user if it contains a
13236 token for any other
13240 \*(UA will always require these strict permissions.
13244 Of the following list of supported tokens \*(UA only uses (and caches)
13249 At runtime the command
13251 can be used to control \*(UA's
13255 .Bl -tag -width ".It Cd BaNg"
13256 .It Cd machine Ar name
13257 The hostname of the entries' machine, lowercase-normalized by \*(UA
13259 Any further file content, until either end-of-file or the occurrence
13264 first-class token is bound (only related) to the machine
13267 As an extension that should not be the cause of any worries
13268 \*(UA supports a single wildcard prefix for
13270 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13271 machine *.example.com login USER password PASS
13272 machine pop3.example.com login USER password PASS
13273 machine smtp.example.com login USER password PASS
13279 .Ql pop3.example.com ,
13283 .Ql local.smtp.example.com .
13284 Note that in the example neither
13285 .Ql pop3.example.com
13287 .Ql smtp.example.com
13288 will be matched by the wildcard, since the exact matches take
13289 precedence (it is however faster to specify it the other way around).
13292 This is the same as
13294 except that it is a fallback entry that is used shall none of the
13295 specified machines match; only one default token may be specified,
13296 and it must be the last first-class token.
13298 .It Cd login Ar name
13299 The user name on the remote machine.
13301 .It Cd password Ar string
13302 The user's password on the remote machine.
13304 .It Cd account Ar string
13305 Supply an additional account password.
13306 This is merely for FTP purposes.
13308 .It Cd macdef Ar name
13310 A macro is defined with the specified
13312 it is formed from all lines beginning with the next line and continuing
13313 until a blank line is (consecutive newline characters are) encountered.
13316 entries cannot be utilized by multiple machines, too, but must be
13317 defined following the
13319 they are intended to be used with.)
13322 exists, it is automatically run as the last step of the login process.
13323 This is merely for FTP purposes.
13330 .\" .Sh EXAMPLES {{{
13333 .\" .Ss "An example configuration" {{{
13334 .Ss "An example configuration"
13336 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13337 # This example assumes v15.0 compatibility mode
13340 # Request strict SSL/TLS transport security checks
13341 set ssl-verify=strict
13343 # Where are the up-to-date SSL/TLS certificates?
13344 # (Since we manage up-to-date ones explicitly, do not use any,
13345 # possibly outdated, default certificates shipped with OpenSSL)
13346 #set ssl-ca-dir=/etc/ssl/certs
13347 set ssl-ca-file=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
13348 set ssl-ca-no-defaults
13349 #set ssl-ca-flags=partial-chain
13350 wysh set smime-ca-file="${ssl-ca-file}" \e
13351 smime-ca-no-defaults #smime-ca-flags="${ssl-ca-flags}"
13353 # This could be outsourced to a central configuration file via
13354 # ssl-config-file plus ssl-config-module if the used library allows.
13355 # CipherString: explicitly define the list of ciphers, which may
13356 # improve security, especially with protocols older than TLS v1.2.
13357 # See ciphers(1). Possibly best to only use ssl-cipher-list-HOST
13358 # (or -USER@HOST), as necessary, again..
13359 # Note that TLSv1.3 uses Ciphersuites= instead, which will join
13360 # with CipherString (if protocols older than v1.3 are allowed)
13361 # Curves: especially with TLSv1.3 curves selection may be desired.
13362 # MinProtocol,MaxProtocol: do not use protocols older than TLS v1.2.
13363 # Change this only when the remote server does not support it:
13364 # maybe use chain support via ssl-config-pairs-HOST / -USER@HOST
13365 # to define such explicit exceptions, then, e.g.
13366 # MinProtocol=TLSv1.1
13367 if [ "$ssl-features" =% +ctx-set-maxmin-proto ]
13368 wysh set ssl-config-pairs='\e
13369 CipherString=TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:@STRENGTH,\e
13370 Curves=P-521:P-384:P-256,\e
13371 MinProtocol=TLSv1.1'
13373 wysh set ssl-config-pairs='\e
13374 CipherString=TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:@STRENGTH,\e
13375 Curves=P-521:P-384:P-256,\e
13376 Protocol=-ALL\e,+TLSv1.1 \e, +TLSv1.2\e, +TLSv1.3'
13379 # Essential setting: select allowed character sets
13380 set sendcharsets=utf-8,iso-8859-1
13382 # A very kind option: when replying to a message, first try to
13383 # use the same encoding that the original poster used herself!
13384 set reply-in-same-charset
13386 # When replying, do not merge From: and To: of the original message
13387 # into To:. Instead old From: -> new To:, old To: -> merge Cc:.
13388 set recipients-in-cc
13390 # When sending messages, wait until the Mail-Transfer-Agent finishs.
13391 # Only like this you will be able to see errors reported through the
13392 # exit status of the MTA (including the built-in SMTP one)!
13395 # Only use built-in MIME types, no mime.types(5) files
13396 set mimetypes-load-control
13398 # Default directory where we act in (relative to $HOME)
13400 # A leading "+" (often) means: under *folder*
13401 # *record* is used to save copies of sent messages
13402 set MBOX=+mbox.mbox DEAD=+dead.txt \e
13403 record=+sent.mbox record-files record-resent
13405 # Make "file mymbox" and "file myrec" go to..
13406 shortcut mymbox %:+mbox.mbox myrec +sent.mbox
13408 # Not really optional, e.g., for S/MIME
13409 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
13411 # It may be necessary to set hostname and/or smtp-hostname
13412 # if the "SERVER" of mta and "domain" of from do not match.
13413 # The `urlencode' command can be used to encode USER and PASS
13414 set mta=(smtps?|submission)://[USER[:PASS]@]SERVER[:PORT] \e
13415 smtp-auth=login/plain... \e
13418 # Never refuse to start into interactive mode, and more
13420 colour-pager crt= \e
13421 followup-to followup-to-honour=ask-yes fullnames \e
13422 history-file=+.\*(uAhist history-size=-1 history-gabby \e
13423 mime-counter-evidence=0b1111 \e
13424 prompt='?\e$?!\e$!/\e$^ERRNAME[\e$account#\e$mailbox-display]? ' \e
13425 reply-to-honour=ask-yes \e
13428 # Only include the selected header fields when typing messages
13429 headerpick type retain from_ date from to cc subject \e
13430 message-id mail-followup-to reply-to
13431 # ...when forwarding messages
13432 headerpick forward retain subject date from to cc
13433 # ...when saving message, etc.
13434 #headerpick save ignore ^Original-.*$ ^X-.*$
13436 # Some mailing lists
13437 mlist '@xyz-editor\e.xyz$' '@xyzf\e.xyz$'
13438 mlsubscribe '^xfans@xfans\e.xyz$'
13440 # Handle a few file extensions (to store MBOX databases)
13441 filetype bz2 'bzip2 -dc' 'bzip2 -zc' \e
13442 gz 'gzip -dc' 'gzip -c' xz 'xz -dc' 'xz -zc' \e
13443 zst 'zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc' \e
13444 zst.pgp 'gpg -d | zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc | gpg -e'
13446 # A real life example of a very huge free mail provider
13447 # Instead of directly placing content inside `account',
13448 # we `define' a macro: like that we can switch "accounts"
13449 # from within *on-compose-splice*, for example!
13451 set folder=~/spool/XooglX inbox=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
13452 set from='Your Name <address@examp.ple>'
13454 set pop3-no-apop-pop.gmXil.com
13455 shortcut pop %:pop3s://pop.gmXil.com
13456 shortcut imap %:imaps://imap.gmXil.com
13457 # Or, entirely IMAP based setup
13458 #set folder=imaps://imap.gmail.com record="+[Gmail]/Sent Mail" \e
13459 # imap-cache=~/spool/cache
13461 set mta=smtp://USER:PASS@smtp.gmXil.com smtp-use-starttls
13463 set mta=smtps://USER:PASS@smtp.gmail.com:465
13469 # Here is a pretty large one which does not allow sending mails
13470 # if there is a domain name mismatch on the SMTP protocol level,
13471 # which would bite us if the value of from does not match, e.g.,
13472 # for people who have a sXXXXeforge project and want to speak
13473 # with the mailing list under their project account (in from),
13474 # still sending the message through their normal mail provider
13476 set folder=~/spool/XandeX inbox=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
13477 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
13479 shortcut pop %:pop3s://pop.yaXXex.com
13480 shortcut imap %:imaps://imap.yaXXex.com
13482 set mta=smtps://USER:PASS@smtp.yaXXex.com:465 \e
13483 hostname=yaXXex.com smtp-hostname=
13489 # Create some new commands so that, e.g., `ls /tmp' will..
13490 commandalias lls '!ls ${LS_COLOUR_FLAG} -aFlrS'
13491 commandalias llS '!ls ${LS_COLOUR_FLAG} -aFlS'
13493 set pipe-message/external-body='@* echo $MAILX_EXTERNAL_BODY_URL'
13495 # We do not support gpg(1) directly yet. But simple --clearsign'd
13496 # message parts can be dealt with as follows:
13499 wysh set pipe-text/plain=$'@*#++=@\e
13500 < "${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}" awk \e
13501 -v TMPFILE="${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}" \e'\e
13503 /^-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----/,/^$/ {\e
13506 print "--- GPG --verify ---";\e
13507 system("gpg --verify " TMPFILE " 2>&1");\e
13508 print "--- GPG --verify ---";\e
13512 /^-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----/,\e
13513 /^-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----/{\e
13520 commandalias V '\e'call V
13524 When storing passwords in
13526 appropriate permissions should be set on this file with
13527 .Ql $ chmod 0600 \*(ur .
13530 is available user credentials can be stored in the central
13532 file instead; e.g., here is a different version of the example account
13533 that sets up SMTP and POP3:
13535 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13537 set folder=~/spool/XandeX inbox=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
13538 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
13540 # Load an encrypted ~/.netrc by uncommenting the next line
13541 #set netrc-pipe='gpg -qd ~/.netrc.pgp'
13543 set mta=smtps://smtp.yXXXXx.ru:465 \e
13544 smtp-hostname= hostname=yXXXXx.com
13545 set pop3-keepalive=240 pop3-no-apop-pop.yXXXXx.ru
13546 commandalias xp fi pop3s://pop.yXXXXx.ru
13558 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13559 machine *.yXXXXx.ru login USER password PASS
13563 This configuration should now work just fine:
13566 .Dl $ echo text | \*(uA -dvv -AXandeX -s Subject user@exam.ple
13569 .\" .Ss "S/MIME step by step" {{{
13570 .Ss "S/MIME step by step"
13572 \*(OP The first thing you need for participating in S/MIME message
13573 exchange is your personal certificate, including a private key.
13574 The certificate contains public information, in particular your name and
13575 your email address(es), and the public key that is used by others to
13576 encrypt messages for you,
13577 and to verify signed messages they supposedly received from you.
13578 The certificate is included in each signed message you send.
13579 The private key must be kept secret.
13580 It is used to decrypt messages that were previously encrypted with your
13581 public key, and to sign messages.
13584 For personal use it is recommended that you get a S/MIME certificate
13585 from one of the major CAs on the Internet using your WWW browser.
13586 Many CAs offer such certificates for free.
13588 .Lk https://www.CAcert.org
13589 which issues client and server certificates to members of their
13590 community for free; their root certificate
13591 .Pf ( Lk https://\:www.cacert.org/\:certs/\:root.crt )
13592 is often not in the default set of trusted CA root certificates, though,
13593 which means you will have to download their root certificate separately
13594 and ensure it is part of our S/MIME certificate validation chain by
13597 or as a vivid member of the
13598 .Va smime-ca-file .
13599 But let us take a step-by-step tour on how to setup S/MIME with
13600 a certificate from CAcert.org despite this situation!
13603 First of all you will have to become a member of the CAcert.org
13604 community, simply by registrating yourself via the web interface.
13605 Once you are, create and verify all email addresses you want to be able
13606 to create signed and encrypted messages for/with using the corresponding
13607 entries of the web interface.
13608 Now ready to create S/MIME certificates, so let us create a new
13609 .Dq client certificate ,
13610 ensure to include all email addresses that should be covered by the
13611 certificate in the following web form, and also to use your name as the
13615 Create a private key and a certificate request on your local computer
13616 (please see the manual pages of the used commands for more in-depth
13617 knowledge on what the used arguments etc. do):
13620 .Dl $ openssl req -nodes -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout key.pem -out creq.pem
13623 Afterwards copy-and-paste the content of
13625 into the certificate-request (CSR) field of the web form on the
13626 CAcert.org website (you may need to unfold some
13627 .Dq advanced options
13628 to see the corresponding text field).
13629 This last step will ensure that your private key (which never left your
13630 box) and the certificate belong together (through the public key that
13631 will find its way into the certificate via the certificate-request).
13632 You are now ready and can create your CAcert certified certificate.
13633 Download and store or copy-and-paste it as
13638 In order to use your new S/MIME setup a combined private key/public key
13639 (certificate) file has to be created:
13642 .Dl $ cat key.pem pub.crt > ME@HERE.com.paired
13645 This is the file \*(UA will work with.
13646 If you have created your private key with a passphrase then \*(UA will
13647 ask you for it whenever a message is signed or decrypted.
13648 Set the following variables to henceforth use S/MIME (setting
13650 is of interest for verification only):
13652 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13653 ? set smime-ca-file=ALL-TRUSTED-ROOT-CERTS-HERE \e
13654 smime-sign-cert=ME@HERE.com.paired \e
13655 smime-sign-message-digest=SHA256 \e
13661 .\" .Ss "Using CRLs with S/MIME or SSL/TLS" {{{
13662 .Ss "Using CRLs with S/MIME or SSL/TLS"
13664 \*(OP Certification authorities (CAs) issue certificate revocation
13665 lists (CRLs) on a regular basis.
13666 These lists contain the serial numbers of certificates that have been
13667 declared invalid after they have been issued.
13668 Such usually happens because the private key for the certificate has
13670 because the owner of the certificate has left the organization that is
13671 mentioned in the certificate, etc.
13672 To seriously use S/MIME or SSL/TLS verification,
13673 an up-to-date CRL is required for each trusted CA.
13674 There is otherwise no method to distinguish between valid and
13675 invalidated certificates.
13676 \*(UA currently offers no mechanism to fetch CRLs, nor to access them on
13677 the Internet, so they have to be retrieved by some external mechanism.
13680 \*(UA accepts CRLs in PEM format only;
13681 CRLs in DER format must be converted, like, e.\|g.:
13684 .Dl $ openssl crl \-inform DER \-in crl.der \-out crl.pem
13687 To tell \*(UA about the CRLs, a directory that contains all CRL files
13688 (and no other files) must be created.
13693 variables, respectively, must then be set to point to that directory.
13694 After that, \*(UA requires a CRL to be present for each CA that is used
13695 to verify a certificate.
13704 In general it is a good idea to turn on
13710 twice) if something does not work well.
13711 Very often a diagnostic message can be produced that leads to the
13712 problems' solution.
13714 .\" .Ss "\*(UA shortly hangs on startup" {{{
13715 .Ss "\*(UA shortly hangs on startup"
13717 This can have two reasons, one is the necessity to wait for a file lock
13718 and cannot be helped, the other being that \*(UA calls the function
13720 in order to query the nodename of the box (sometimes the real one is
13721 needed instead of the one represented by the internal variable
13723 One may have varying success by ensuring that the real hostname and
13727 or, more generally, that the name service is properly setup \(en
13730 return the expected value?
13731 Does this local hostname have a domain suffix?
13732 RFC 6762 standardized the link-local top-level domain
13734 try again after adding an (additional) entry with this extension.
13737 .\" .Ss "I cannot login to Google mail aka GMail" {{{
13738 .Ss "I cannot login to Google mail aka GMail"
13740 Since 2014 some free service providers classify programs as
13742 unless they use a special authentication method (OAuth 2.0) which
13743 was not standardized for non-HTTP protocol authentication token query
13744 until August 2015 (RFC 7628).
13747 Different to Kerberos / GSSAPI, which is developed since the mid of the
13748 1980s, where a user can easily create a local authentication ticket for
13749 her- and himself with the locally installed
13751 program, that protocol has no such local part but instead requires
13752 a world-wide-web query to create or fetch a token; since there is no
13753 local cache this query would have to be performed whenever \*(UA is
13754 invoked (in interactive sessions situation may differ).
13757 \*(UA does not support OAuth.
13758 Because of this it is necessary to declare \*(UA a
13759 .Dq less secure app
13760 (on the providers account web page) in order to read and send mail.
13761 However, it also seems possible to take the following steps instead:
13766 give the provider the number of a mobile phone,
13769 .Dq 2-Step Verification ,
13771 create an application specific password (16 characters), and
13773 use that special password instead of the real Google account password in
13774 \*(UA (for more on that see the section
13775 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) .
13779 .\" .Ss "Not \(dqdefunctional\(dq, but the editor key does not work" {{{
13780 .Ss "Not \(dqdefunctional\(dq, but the editor key does not work"
13782 It can happen that the terminal library (see
13783 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor",
13786 reports different codes than the terminal really sends, in which case
13787 \*(UA will tell that a key binding is functional, but will not be able to
13788 recognize it because the received data does not match anything expected.
13789 Especially without the \*(OPal terminal capability library support one
13790 reason for this may be that the (possibly even non-existing) keypad
13791 is not turned on and the resulting layout reports the keypad control
13792 codes for the normal keyboard keys.
13797 ings will show the byte sequences that are expected.
13800 To overcome the situation, use, e.g., the program
13802 in conjunction with the command line option
13804 if available, to see the byte sequences which are actually produced
13805 by keypresses, and use the variable
13807 to make \*(UA aware of them.
13808 E.g., the terminal this is typed on produces some false sequences, here
13809 an example showing the shifted home key:
13811 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13814 # 1B 5B=[ 31=1 3B=; 32=2 48=H
13819 ? \*(uA -v -Stermcap='kHOM=\eE[H'
13826 .\" .Ss "Can \*(UA git-send-email?" {{{
13827 .Ss "Can \*(UA git-send-email?"
13830 Put (at least parts of) the following in your
13833 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13835 smtpserver = /usr/bin/s-mailx
13836 smtpserveroption = -t
13837 #smtpserveroption = -Sexpandaddr
13838 smtpserveroption = -Athe-account-you-need
13841 suppressfrom = false
13842 assume8bitEncoding = UTF-8
13845 chainreplyto = true
13856 .\" .Sh "IMAP CLIENT" {{{
13859 \*(OPally there is IMAP client support available.
13860 This part of the program is obsolete and will vanish in v15 with the
13861 large MIME and I/O layer rewrite, because it uses old-style blocking I/O
13862 and makes excessive use of signal based long code jumps.
13863 Support can hopefully be readded later based on a new-style I/O, with
13864 SysV signal handling.
13865 In fact the IMAP support had already been removed from the codebase, but
13866 was reinstantiated on user demand: in effect the IMAP code is at the
13867 level of \*(UA v14.8.16 (with
13869 being the sole exception), and should be treated with some care.
13876 protocol prefixes, and an IMAP-based
13879 IMAP URLs (paths) undergo inspections and possible transformations
13880 before use (and the command
13882 can be used to manually apply them to any given argument).
13883 Hierarchy delimiters are normalized, a step which is configurable via the
13885 variable chain, but defaults to the first seen delimiter otherwise.
13886 \*(UA supports internationalised IMAP names, and en- and decodes the
13887 names from and to the
13889 as necessary and possible.
13890 If a mailbox name is expanded (see
13891 .Sx "Filename transformations" )
13892 to an IMAP mailbox, all names that begin with `+' then refer to IMAP
13893 mailboxes below the
13895 target box, while folder names prefixed by `@' refer to folders below
13896 the hierarchy base, e.g., the following lists all folders below the
13897 current one when in an IMAP mailbox:
13901 Note: some IMAP servers do not accept the creation of mailboxes in
13902 the hierarchy base, but require that they are created as subfolders of
13903 `INBOX' \(en with such servers a folder name of the form
13905 .Dl imaps://mylogin@imap.myisp.example/INBOX.
13907 should be used (the last character is the server's hierarchy
13909 The following IMAP-specific commands exist:
13912 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ic BaNg"
13915 Only applicable to cached IMAP mailboxes;
13916 takes a message list and reads the specified messages into the IMAP
13921 If operating in disconnected mode on an IMAP mailbox,
13922 switch to online mode and connect to the mail server while retaining
13923 the mailbox status.
13924 See the description of the
13926 variable for more information.
13930 If operating in online mode on an IMAP mailbox,
13931 switch to disconnected mode while retaining the mailbox status.
13932 See the description of the
13935 A list of messages may optionally be given as argument;
13936 the respective messages are then read into the cache before the
13937 connection is closed, thus
13939 makes the entire mailbox available for disconnected use.
13943 Sends command strings directly to the current IMAP server.
13944 \*(UA operates always in IMAP `selected state' on the current mailbox;
13945 commands that change this will produce undesirable results and should be
13947 Useful IMAP commands are:
13948 .Bl -tag -offset indent -width ".Ic getquotearoot"
13950 Takes the name of an IMAP mailbox as an argument and creates it.
13952 (RFC 2087) Takes the name of an IMAP mailbox as an argument
13953 and prints the quotas that apply to the mailbox.
13954 Not all IMAP servers support this command.
13956 (RFC 2342) Takes no arguments and prints the Personal Namespaces,
13957 the Other User's Namespaces and the Shared Namespaces.
13958 Each namespace type is printed in parentheses;
13959 if there are multiple namespaces of the same type,
13960 inner parentheses separate them.
13961 For each namespace a prefix and a hierarchy separator is listed.
13962 Not all IMAP servers support this command.
13967 Perform IMAP path transformations.
13971 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) ,
13972 and manages the error number
13974 The first argument specifies the operation:
13976 normalizes hierarchy delimiters (see
13978 and converts the strings from the locale
13980 to the internationalized variant used by IMAP,
13982 performs the reverse operation.
13987 The following IMAP-specific internal variables exist:
13990 .Bl -tag -width ".It Va BaNg"
13992 .It Va disconnected
13993 \*(BO When an IMAP mailbox is selected and this variable is set,
13994 no connection to the server is initiated.
13995 Instead, data is obtained from the local cache (see
13998 Mailboxes that are not present in the cache
13999 and messages that have not yet entirely been fetched from the server
14001 to fetch all messages in a mailbox at once,
14003 .No ` Ns Li copy * /dev/null Ns '
14004 can be used while still in connected mode.
14005 Changes that are made to IMAP mailboxes in disconnected mode are queued
14006 and committed later when a connection to that server is made.
14007 This procedure is not completely reliable since it cannot be guaranteed
14008 that the IMAP unique identifiers (UIDs) on the server still match the
14009 ones in the cache at that time.
14012 when this problem occurs.
14014 .It Va disconnected-USER@HOST
14015 The specified account is handled as described for the
14018 but other accounts are not affected.
14021 .It Va imap-auth-USER@HOST , imap-auth
14022 Sets the IMAP authentication method.
14023 Valid values are `login' for the usual password-based authentication
14025 `cram-md5', which is a password-based authentication that does not send
14026 the password over the network in clear text,
14027 and `gssapi' for GSS-API based authentication.
14031 Enables caching of IMAP mailboxes.
14032 The value of this variable must point to a directory that is either
14033 existent or can be created by \*(UA.
14034 All contents of the cache can be deleted by \*(UA at any time;
14035 it is not safe to make assumptions about them.
14038 .It Va imap-delim-USER@HOST , imap-delim-HOST , imap-delim
14039 The hierarchy separator used by the IMAP server.
14040 Whenever an IMAP path is specified it will undergo normalization.
14041 One of the normalization steps is the squeezing and adjustment of
14042 hierarchy separators.
14043 If this variable is set, any occurrence of any character of the given
14044 value that exists in the path will be replaced by the first member of
14045 the value; an empty value will cause the default to be used, it is
14047 If not set, we will reuse the first hierarchy separator character that
14048 is discovered in a user-given mailbox name.
14050 .Mx Va imap-keepalive
14051 .It Va imap-keepalive-USER@HOST , imap-keepalive-HOST , imap-keepalive
14052 IMAP servers may close the connection after a period of
14053 inactivity; the standard requires this to be at least 30 minutes,
14054 but practical experience may vary.
14055 Setting this variable to a numeric `value' greater than 0 causes
14056 a `NOOP' command to be sent each `value' seconds if no other operation
14060 .It Va imap-list-depth
14061 When retrieving the list of folders on an IMAP server, the
14063 command stops after it has reached a certain depth to avoid possible
14065 The value of this variable sets the maximum depth allowed.
14067 If the folder separator on the current IMAP server is a slash `/',
14068 this variable has no effect and the
14070 command does not descend to subfolders.
14072 .Mx Va imap-use-starttls
14073 .It Va imap-use-starttls-USER@HOST , imap-use-starttls-HOST , imap-use-starttls
14074 Causes \*(UA to issue a `STARTTLS' command to make an unencrypted
14075 IMAP session SSL/TLS encrypted.
14076 This functionality is not supported by all servers,
14077 and is not used if the session is already encrypted by the IMAPS method.
14083 .\" .Sh "SEE ALSO" {{{
14093 .Xr spamassassin 1 ,
14102 .Xr mailwrapper 8 ,
14108 .\" .Sh HISTORY {{{
14111 M. Douglas McIlroy writes in his article
14112 .Dq A Research UNIX Reader: Annotated Excerpts \
14113 from the Programmer's Manual, 1971-1986
14116 command already appeared in First Edition
14120 .Bd -ragged -offset indent
14121 Electronic mail was there from the start.
14122 Never satisfied with its exact behavior, everybody touched it at one
14123 time or another: to assure the safety of simultaneous access, to improve
14124 privacy, to survive crashes, to exploit uucp, to screen out foreign
14125 freeloaders, or whatever.
14126 Not until v7 did the interface change (Thompson).
14127 Later, as mail became global in its reach, Dave Presotto took charge and
14128 brought order to communications with a grab-bag of external networks
14134 Mail was written in 1978 by Kurt Shoens and developed as part of the
14137 distribution until 1995.
14138 Mail has then seen further development in open source
14140 variants, noticeably by Christos Zoulas in
14142 Based upon this Nail, later Heirloom Mailx, was developed by Gunnar
14143 Ritter in the years 2000 until 2008.
14144 Since 2012 S-nail is maintained by Steffen (Daode) Nurpmeso.
14145 This man page is derived from
14146 .Dq The Mail Reference Manual
14147 that was originally written by Kurt Shoens.
14155 .An "Kurt Shoens" ,
14156 .An "Edward Wang" ,
14157 .An "Keith Bostic" ,
14158 .An "Christos Zoulas" ,
14159 .An "Gunnar Ritter" .
14160 \*(UA is developed by
14161 .An "Steffen Nurpmeso" Aq steffen@sdaoden.eu .
14164 .\" .Sh CAVEATS {{{
14167 \*(ID Interrupting an operation via
14171 from anywhere else but a command prompt is very problematic and likely
14172 to leave the program in an undefined state: many library functions
14173 cannot deal with the
14175 that this software (still) performs; even though efforts have been taken
14176 to address this, no sooner but in v15 it will have been worked out:
14177 interruptions have not been disabled in order to allow forceful breakage
14178 of hanging network connections, for example (all this is unrelated to
14182 The SMTP and POP3 protocol support of \*(UA is very basic.
14183 Also, if it fails to contact its upstream SMTP server, it will not make
14184 further attempts to transfer the message at a later time (setting
14189 If this is a concern, it might be better to set up a local SMTP server
14190 that is capable of message queuing.
14197 After deleting some message of a POP3 mailbox the header summary falsely
14198 claims that there are no messages to display, one needs to perform
14199 a scroll or dot movement to restore proper state.
14205 mode a power user may encounter crashes very occasionally (this is may
14210 in the source repository lists future directions.
14213 Please report bugs to the
14215 address, e.g., from within \*(uA:
14216 .\" v15-compat: drop eval as `mail' will expand variable?
14217 .Ql ? Ns \| Ic eval Ns \| Ic mail Ns \| $contact-mail .
14218 Including the output of the command
14220 may be helpful, e.g.,
14222 .Bd -literal -offset indent
14223 ? vput version xy; wysh set escape=!; eval mail $contact-mail
14230 Information on the web at
14231 .Ql $ \*(uA -X 'echo Ns \| $ Ns Va contact-web Ns ' -Xx .