1 .\"@ nail.1 - S-nail(1) reference manual.
3 .\" Copyright (c) 2000-2008 Gunnar Ritter, Freiburg i. Br., Germany.
4 .\" Copyright (c) 2012 - 2017 Steffen (Daode) Nurpmeso <steffen@sdaoden.eu>.
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7 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
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34 .\"@ S-nail v14.9.3 / 2017-08-03
46 .\" If not ~/.mailrc, it breaks POSIX compatibility. And adjust main.c.
51 .ds OU [no v15-compat]
52 .ds ID [v15 behaviour may differ]
53 .ds NQ [Only new quoting rules]
64 .Nd send and receive Internet mail
70 .\" Keep in SYNC: ./nail.1:"SYNOPSIS, main()
79 .Op : Ns Fl a Ar attachment Ns \&:
80 .Op : Ns Fl b Ar bcc-addr Ns \&:
81 .Op : Ns Fl c Ar cc-addr Ns \&:
82 .Op Fl M Ar type | Fl m Ar file | Fl q Ar file | Fl t
85 .Fl S Ar var Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value Ns
88 .Op : Ns Fl X Ar cmd Ns \&:
90 .Pf : Ar to-addr Ns \&:
91 .Op Fl Fl \~ Ns : Ns Ar mta-option Ns \&:
100 .Op Fl r Ar from-addr
102 .Fl S Ar var Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value Ns
105 .Op : Ns Fl X Ar cmd Ns \&:
106 .Op Fl Fl \~ Ns : Ns Ar mta-option Ns \&:
115 .Op Fl r Ar from-addr
117 .Fl S Ar var Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value Ns
119 .Op : Ns Fl X Ar cmd Ns \&:
121 .Op Fl Fl \~ Ns : Ns Ar mta-option Ns \&:
127 .Mx -toc -tree html pdf ps xhtml
130 .\" .Sh DESCRIPTION {{{
133 .Bd -filled -compact -offset indent
134 .Sy Compatibility note:
135 S-nail (\*(UA) will wrap up into \%S-mailx in v15.0 (circa 2019).
136 Backward incompatibility has to be expected \(en
139 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
140 rules, for example, and shell metacharacters will become meaningful.
141 New and old behaviour is flagged \*(IN and \*(OU, and setting
144 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
145 will choose new behaviour when applicable.
146 \*(OB flags what will vanish, and enabling
150 enables obsoletion warnings.
154 \*(UA provides a simple and friendly environment for sending and
156 It is intended to provide the functionality of the POSIX
158 command, but is MIME capable and optionally offers extensions for
159 line editing, S/MIME, SMTP and POP3, among others.
160 \*(UA divides incoming mail into its constituent messages and allows
161 the user to deal with them in any order.
165 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
166 for manipulating messages and sending mail.
167 It provides the user simple editing capabilities to ease the composition
168 of outgoing messages, and increasingly powerful and reliable
169 non-interactive scripting capabilities.
171 .\" .Ss "Options" {{{
174 .Bl -tag -width ".It Fl BaNg"
177 Explicitly control which of the
181 d (loaded): if the letter
183 is (case-insensitively) part of the
187 is sourced, likewise the letter
189 controls sourcing of the user's personal
191 file, whereas the letters
195 explicitly forbid sourcing of any resource files.
196 Scripts should use this option: to avoid environmental noise they should
198 from any configuration and create a script-specific environment, setting
200 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
203 and running configurating commands via
205 This option overrides
212 command for the given user email
214 after program startup is complete (all resource files are loaded, any
216 setting is being established; only
218 commands have not been evaluated yet).
219 Being a special incarnation of
221 macros for the purpose of bundling longer-lived
223 tings, activating such an email account also switches to the accounts
225 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
230 .It Fl a Ar file Ns Op Ar =input-charset Ns Op Ar #output-charset
233 to the message (for compose mode opportunities refer to
237 .Sx "Filename transformations"
240 will be performed, but shell word expansion is restricted to the tilde
244 not be accessible but contain a
246 character, then anything before the
248 will be used as the filename, anything thereafter as a character set
251 If an input character set is specified,
252 .Mx -ix "character set specification"
253 but no output character set, then the given input character set is fixed
254 as-is, and no conversion will be applied;
255 giving the empty string or the special string hyphen-minus
257 will be treated as if
259 has been specified (the default).
261 If an output character set has also been given then the conversion will
262 be performed exactly as specified and on-the-fly, not considering the
263 file's type and content.
264 As an exception, if the output character set is specified as the empty
265 string or hyphen-minus
267 then the default conversion algorithm (see
268 .Sx "Character sets" )
269 is applied (therefore no conversion is performed on-the-fly,
271 will be MIME-classified and its contents will be inspected first) \(em
272 without support for character set conversions
274 does not include the term
276 only this argument is supported.
279 (\*(OB: \*(UA will always use line-buffered output, to gain
280 line-buffered input even in batch mode enable batch mode via
285 Send a blind carbon copy to
292 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
294 The option may be used multiple times.
296 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
300 Send carbon copies to the given receiver, if so allowed by
302 May be used multiple times.
307 the internal variable
309 which enables debug messages and disables message delivery,
310 among others; effectively turns almost any operation into a dry-run.
316 and thus discard messages with an empty message part body.
317 This command line option is \*(OB.
321 Just check if mail is present (in the system
323 or the one specified via
325 if yes, return an exit status of zero, a non-zero value otherwise.
326 To restrict the set of mails to consider in this evaluation a message
327 specification can be added with the option
332 Save the message to send in a file named after the local part of the
333 first recipient's address (instead of in
338 Read in the contents of the user's
340 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
342 (or the specified file) for processing;
343 when \*(UA is quit, it writes undeleted messages back to this file
349 argument will undergo some special
350 .Sx "Filename transformations"
355 is not an argument to the flag
357 but is instead taken from the command line after option processing has
361 that starts with a hyphen-minus, prefix with a relative path, as in
362 .Ql ./-hyphenbox.mbox .
368 and exit; a configurable summary view is available via the
374 Show a short usage summary.
380 to ignore tty interrupt signals.
386 of all messages that match the given
390 .Sx "Specifying messages"
395 option has been given in addition no header summary is produced,
396 but \*(UA will instead indicate via its exit status whether
402 note that any verbose output is suppressed in this mode and must instead
403 be enabled explicitly (e.g., by using the option
408 Special send mode that will flag standard input with the MIME
412 and use it as the main message body.
413 \*(ID Using this option will bypass processing of
414 .Va message-inject-head
416 .Va message-inject-tail .
422 Special send mode that will MIME classify the specified
424 and use it as the main message body.
425 \*(ID Using this option will bypass processing of
426 .Va message-inject-head
428 .Va message-inject-tail .
434 inhibit the initial display of message headers when reading mail or
439 for the internal variable
444 Standard flag that inhibits reading the system wide
449 allows more control over the startup sequence; also see
450 .Sx "Resource files" .
454 Special send mode that will initialize the message body with the
455 contents of the specified
457 which may be standard input
459 only in non-interactive context.
467 opened will be in read-only mode.
471 .It Fl r Ar from-addr
472 Whereas the source address that appears in the
474 header of a message (or in the
476 header if the former contains multiple addresses) is honoured by the
477 builtin SMTP transport, it is not used by a file-based
479 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) for the RFC 5321 reverse-path used for relaying
480 and delegating a message to its destination(s), for delivery errors
481 etc., but it instead uses the local identity of the initiating user.
484 When this command line option is used the given
486 will be assigned to the internal variable
488 but in addition the command line option
489 .Fl \&\&f Ar from-addr
490 will be passed to a file-based
492 whenever a message is sent.
495 include a user name the address components will be separated and
496 the name part will be passed to a file-based
502 If an empty string is passed as
504 then the content of the variable
506 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
508 will be evaluated and used for this purpose whenever the file-based
517 command line options are used when contacting a file-based MTA, unless
518 this automatic deduction is enforced by
520 ing the internal variable
521 .Va r-option-implicit .
524 Remarks: many default installations and sites disallow overriding the
525 local user identity like this unless either the MTA has been configured
526 accordingly or the user is member of a group with special privileges.
530 .It Fl S Ar var Ns Op = Ns value
534 iable and, in case of a non-boolean variable which has a value, assign
536 to it; in case the operation fails the program will exit if the variables
542 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
546 may be overwritten from within resource files,
547 the command line setting will be reestablished after all resource files
549 (\*(ID In the future such a setting may instead become
551 until the startup is complete.)
555 Specify the subject of the message to be sent.
556 Newline (NL) and carriage-return (CR) bytes are invalid and will be
557 normalized to space (SP) characters.
561 The message given (on standard input) is expected to contain, separated
562 from the message body by an empty line, a message header with
567 fields giving its recipients, which will be added to any recipients
568 specified on the command line.
569 If a message subject is specified via
571 then it will be used in favour of one given on the command line.
587 .Ql Mail-Followup-To: ,
588 by default created automatically dependent on message context, will
589 be used if specified (a special address massage will however still occur
591 Any other custom header field (also see
595 is passed through entirely
596 unchanged, and in conjunction with the options
600 it is possible to embed
601 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
609 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
612 appropriate privileges presumed; effectively identical to
613 .Ql Fl \&\&f Ns \0%user .
622 will also show the list of
624 .Ql $ \*(uA -Xversion -Xx .
629 ting the internal variable
631 enables display of some informational context messages.
632 Using it twice increases the level of verbosity.
636 Add the given (or multiple for a multiline argument)
638 to the list of commands to be executed,
639 as a last step of program startup, before normal operation starts.
640 This is the only possibility to execute commands in non-interactive mode
641 when reading startup files is actively prohibited.
642 The commands will be evaluated as a unit, just as via
652 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
653 in compose mode even in non-interactive use cases.
654 This can be used to, e.g., automatically format the composed message
655 text before sending the message:
656 .Bd -literal -offset indent
657 $ ( echo 'line one. Word. Word2.';\e
658 echo '~| /usr/bin/fmt -tuw66' ) |\e
659 LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d~:/ -Sttycharset=utf-8 bob@exam.ple
664 Enables batch mode: standard input is made line buffered, the complete
665 set of (interactive) commands is available, processing of
666 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
667 is enabled in compose mode, and diverse
668 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
669 are adjusted for batch necessities, exactly as if done via
685 The following prepares an email message in a batched dry run:
686 .Bd -literal -offset indent
687 $ LC_ALL=C printf 'm bob\en~s ubject\enText\en~.\enx\en' |\e
688 LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d#:/ -X'alias bob bob@exam.ple'
693 This flag forces termination of option processing in order to prevent
696 It also forcefully puts \*(UA into send mode, see
697 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
703 arguments and all receivers established via
707 are subject to the checks established by
710 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" .
713 allows their recognition all
715 arguments given at the end of the command line after a
717 separator will be passed through to a file-based
719 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) and persist for the entire session.
721 constraints do not apply to the content of
725 .\" .Ss "A starter" {{{
728 \*(UA is a direct descendant of
730 Mail, itself a successor of the Research
733 .Dq was there from the start
736 It thus represents the user side of the
738 mail system, whereas the system side (Mail-Transfer-Agent, MTA) was
739 traditionally taken by
741 and most MTAs provide a binary of this name for compatibility purposes.
746 of \*(UA then the system side is not a mandatory precondition for mail
750 Because \*(UA strives for compliance with POSIX
752 it is likely that some configuration settings have to be adjusted before
753 using it is a smooth experience.
754 (Rather complete configuration examples can be found in the section
758 resource file bends those standard imposed settings of the
759 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
760 a bit towards more user friendliness and safety already.
768 in order to suppress the automatic moving of messages to the
770 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
772 that would otherwise occur (see
773 .Sx "Message states" ) ,
776 to not remove empty system MBOX mailbox files in order not to mangle
777 file permissions when files eventually get recreated (all empty (MBOX)
778 mailbox files will be removed unless this variable is set whenever
780 .Pf a.k.a.\0 Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT
781 mode has been enabled).
786 in order to synchronize \*(UA with the exit status report of the used
793 to enter interactive startup even if the initial mailbox is empty,
795 to allow editing of headers as well as
797 to not strip down addresses in compose mode, and
799 to include the message that is being responded to when
805 The file mode creation mask can be explicitly managed via the variable
807 Sufficient system support provided symbolic links will not be followed
808 when files are opened for writing.
809 Files and shell pipe output can be
811 d for evaluation, also during startup from within the
812 .Sx "Resource files" .
815 .\" .Ss "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" {{{
816 .Ss "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode"
818 To send a message to one or more people, using a local or a built-in
820 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) transport to actually deliver the generated mail
821 message, \*(UA can be invoked with arguments which are the names of
822 people to whom the mail will be sent, and the command line options
826 can be used to add (blind) carbon copy receivers:
828 .Bd -literal -offset indent
830 $ \*(uA -s ubject -a ttach.txt bill@exam.ple
832 # But... try it in an isolated dry-run mode (-d) first
833 $ LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d -:/ -Ssendwait -Sttycharset=utf8 \e
834 -b bcc@exam.ple -c cc@exam.ple \e
836 '(Lovely) Bob <bob@exam.ple>' eric@exam.ple
839 $ LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d -:/ -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait -Sttycharset=utf8 \e
840 -S mta=smtps://mylogin@exam.ple:465 -Ssmtp-auth=none \e
841 -S from=scriptreply@exam.ple \e
847 If standard input is a terminal rather than the message to be sent,
848 the user is expected to type in the message contents.
849 In this compose mode \*(UA treats lines beginning with the character
851 special \(en these are so-called
852 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ,
853 which can be used to read in files, process shell commands, add and edit
854 attachments and more; e.g., the command escape
856 will start the text editor to revise the message in its current state,
858 allows editing of the most important message headers, with
860 custom headers can be created (more specifically than with
863 gives an overview of most other available command escapes.
866 will leave compose mode and send the message once it is completed.
870 at the beginning of an empty line has the same effect, whereas typing
873 twice will abort the current letter (saving its contents in the file
884 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
885 can be used to alter default behavior.
886 E.g., messages are sent asynchronously, without supervision, unless the
889 is set, therefore send errors will not be recognizable until then.
894 will automatically startup a text editor when compose mode is entered,
896 allows editing of headers additionally to plain body content, whereas
900 will cause the user to be prompted actively for (blind) carbon-copy
901 recipients, respectively, whereas (the default)
903 will request confirmation whether the message shall be send.
906 Especially when using public mail provider accounts with the SMTP
908 it is often necessary to set
912 (even finer control via
913 .Va smtp-hostname ) ,
914 which (even if empty) also causes creation of
921 Saving a copy of sent messages in a
923 mailbox may be desirable \(en as for most mailbox
925 targets the value will undergo
926 .Sx "Filename transformations" .
929 for the purpose of arranging a complete environment of settings that can
930 be switched to with a single command or command line option may be
933 has example configurations for some of the well-known public mail
934 providers, and also gives a compact overview on how to setup a secure
935 SSL/TLS environment.)
940 sandbox dry-run tests will prove correctness.
944 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
945 will spread light on the different ways of how to specify user email
946 account credentials, the
948 variable chains, and accessing protocol-specific resources,
951 goes into the details of character encodings, and how to use them for
952 interpreting the input data given in
954 and representing messages and MIME part contents in
956 and reading the section
957 .Sx "The mime.types files"
958 should help to understand how the MIME-type of outgoing attachments are
959 classified, and what can be done for fine-tuning.
960 Over the wire a configurable
962 .Pf ( Ql Content-Transfer-Encoding: )
963 may be applied to the message data.
966 Message recipients (as specified on the command line or defined in
971 may not only be email addressees but can also be names of mailboxes and
972 even complete shell command pipe specifications.
975 is not set then only network addresses (see
977 for a description of mail addresses) and plain user names (including MTA
978 aliases) may be used, other types will be filtered out, giving a warning
982 can be used to generate standard compliant network addresses.
984 .\" When changing any of the following adjust any RECIPIENTADDRSPEC;
985 .\" grep the latter for the complete picture
989 is set then extended recipient addresses will optionally be accepted:
990 Any name which starts with a vertical bar
992 character specifies a command pipe \(en the command string following the
994 is executed and the message is sent to its standard input;
995 Likewise, any name that starts with the character solidus
997 or the character sequence dot solidus
999 is treated as a file, regardless of the remaining content;
1000 likewise a name that solely consists of a hyphen-minus
1002 Any other name which contains a commercial at
1004 character is treated as a network address;
1005 Any other name which starts with a plus sign
1007 character specifies a mailbox name;
1008 Any other name which contains a solidus
1010 character but no exclamation mark
1014 character before also specifies a mailbox name;
1015 What remains is treated as a network address.
1017 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1018 $ echo bla | \*(uA -Sexpandaddr -s test ./mbox.mbox
1019 $ echo bla | \*(uA -Sexpandaddr -s test '|cat >> ./mbox.mbox'
1020 $ echo safe | LC_ALL=C \e
1021 \*(uA -:/ -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait -Sttycharset=utf8 \e
1022 -Sexpandaddr=fail,-all,+addr,failinvaddr -s test \e
1027 It is possible to create personal distribution lists via the
1029 command, so that, for instance, the user can send mail to
1031 and have it go to a group of people.
1032 These aliases have nothing in common with the system wide aliases that
1033 may be used by the MTA, which are subject to the
1037 and are often tracked in a file
1043 Personal aliases will be expanded by \*(UA before the message is sent,
1044 and are thus a convenient alternative to specifying each addressee by
1045 itself; they correlate with the active set of
1052 .Dl alias cohorts bill jkf mark kridle@ucbcory ~/mail/cohorts.mbox
1055 .Va on-compose-enter , on-compose-leave
1057 .Va on-compose-cleanup
1058 hook variables may be set to
1060 d macros to automatically adjust some settings dependent
1061 on receiver, sender or subject contexts, and via the
1062 .Va on-compose-splice
1064 .Va on-compose-splice-shell
1065 variables, the former also to be set to a
1067 d macro, increasingly powerful mechanisms to perform automated message
1068 adjustments, including signature creation, are available.
1069 (\*(ID These hooks work for commands which newly create messages, namely
1070 .Ic forward , mail , reply
1075 for now provide only the hooks
1078 .Va on-resend-cleanup . )
1081 To avoid environmental noise scripts should
1083 \*(UA from any configuration files and create a script-local
1084 environment, ideally with the command line options
1086 to disable any configuration file in conjunction with repetitions of
1088 to specify variables:
1090 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1091 $ env LC_ALL=C \*(uA -:/ \e
1092 -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait -Sttycharset=utf-8 \e
1093 -Sexpandaddr=fail,-all,failinvaddr \e
1094 -S mta=smtps://mylogin@exam.ple:465 -Ssmtp-auth=login \e
1095 -S from=scriptreply@exam.ple \e
1096 -s 'Subject to go' -a attachment_file \e
1098 'Recipient 1 <rec1@exam.ple>' rec2@exam.ple \e
1103 As shown, scripts can
1105 a locale environment, the above specifies the all-compatible 7-bit clean
1108 but will nonetheless take and send UTF-8 in the message text by using
1110 In interactive mode, which is introduced in the next section, messages
1111 can be sent by calling the
1113 command with a list of recipient addresses:
1115 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1116 $ \*(uA -d -Squiet -Semptystart
1117 "/var/spool/mail/user": 0 messages
1118 ? mail "Recipient 1 <rec1@exam.ple>", rec2@exam.ple
1120 ? # Will do the right thing (tm)
1121 ? m rec1@exam.ple rec2@exam.ple
1125 .\" .Ss "On reading mail, and interactive mode" {{{
1126 .Ss "On reading mail, and interactive mode"
1128 When invoked without addressees \*(UA enters interactive mode in which
1130 When used like that the user's system
1132 (for more on mailbox types please see the command
1134 is read in and a one line header of each message therein is displayed if
1138 The visual style of this summary of
1140 can be adjusted through the variable
1142 and the possible sorting criterion via
1148 can be performed with the command
1150 If the initially opened mailbox is empty \*(UA will instead exit
1151 immediately (after displaying a message) unless the variable
1160 will give a listing of all available commands and
1162 will give a summary of some common ones.
1163 If the \*(OPal documentation strings are available one can type
1166 and see the actual expansion of
1168 and what its purpose is, i.e., commands can be abbreviated
1169 (note that POSIX defines some abbreviations, so that the alphabetical
1170 order of commands does not necessarily relate to the abbreviations; it is
1171 however possible to define overwrites with
1172 .Ic commandalias ) .
1173 These commands can also produce a more
1178 Messages are given numbers (starting at 1) which uniquely identify
1179 messages; the current message \(en the
1181 \(en will either be the first new message, or the first unread message,
1182 or the first message of the mailbox; the internal variable
1184 will instead cause usage of the last message for this purpose.
1189 ful of header summaries containing the
1193 will display only the summaries of the given messages, defaulting to the
1197 Message content can be displayed with the command
1204 controls whether and when \*(UA will use the configured
1206 for display instead of directly writing to the user terminal
1208 the sole difference to the command
1210 which will always use the
1214 will instead only show the first
1216 of a message (maybe even compressed if
1219 Message display experience may improve by setting and adjusting
1220 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
1222 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" .
1225 By default the current message
1227 is displayed, but like with many other commands it is possible to give
1228 a fancy message specification (see
1229 .Sx "Specifying messages" ) ,
1232 will display all unread messages,
1237 will type the messages 1 and 5,
1239 will type the messages 1 through 5, and
1243 will display the last and the next message, respectively.
1246 (a more substantial alias for
1248 will display a header summary of the given message specification list
1249 instead of their content, e.g., the following will search for subjects:
1252 .Dl ? from "'@Some subject to search for'"
1255 In the default setup all header fields of a message will be
1257 d, but fields can be white- or blacklisted for a variety of
1258 applications by using the command
1260 e.g., to restrict their display to a very restricted set for
1262 .Ql Ic \:headerpick Cd \:type retain Ar \:from to cc subject .
1263 In order to display all header fields of a message regardless of
1264 currently active ignore or retain lists, use the commands
1269 will show the raw message content.
1270 Note that historically the global
1272 not only adjusts the list of displayed headers, but also sets
1276 Dependent upon the configuration a line editor (see the section
1277 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
1278 aims at making the user experience with the many
1281 When reading the system
1287 specified a mailbox explicitly prefixed with the special
1289 modifier (propagating the mailbox to a
1291 .Sx "primary system mailbox" ) ,
1292 then messages which have been read will be automatically moved to a
1294 .Sx "secondary mailbox" ,
1297 file, when the mailbox is left, either by changing the
1298 active mailbox or by quitting \*(UA (also see
1299 .Sx "Message states" )
1300 \(en this automatic moving from a system or primary to the secondary
1301 mailbox is not performed when the variable
1304 Messages can also be explicitly
1306 d to other mailboxes, whereas
1308 keeps the original message.
1310 can be used to write out data content of specific parts of messages.
1313 After examining a message the user can
1315 to the sender and all recipients (which will also be placed in
1318 .Va recipients-in-cc
1321 exclusively to the sender(s).
1323 ing a message will allow editing the new message: the original message
1324 will be contained in the message body, adjusted according to
1330 messages: the former will add a series of
1332 headers, whereas the latter will not; different to newly created
1333 messages editing is not possible and no copy will be saved even with
1335 unless the additional variable
1338 When sending, replying or forwarding messages comments and full names
1339 will be stripped from recipient addresses unless the internal variable
1342 Of course messages can be
1344 and they can spring into existence again via
1346 or when the \*(UA session is ended via the
1351 To end a mail processing session one may either issue
1353 to cause a full program exit, which possibly includes
1354 automatic moving of read messages to the
1356 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
1358 as well as updating the \*(OPal line editor
1362 instead in order to prevent any of these actions.
1365 .\" .Ss "HTML mail and MIME attachments" {{{
1366 .Ss "HTML mail and MIME attachments"
1368 Messages which are HTML-only become more and more common and of course
1369 many messages come bundled with a bouquet of MIME (Multipurpose Internet
1370 Mail Extensions) parts for, e.g., attachments.
1371 To get a notion of MIME types, \*(UA will first read
1372 .Sx "The mime.types files"
1373 (as configured and allowed by
1374 .Va mimetypes-load-control ) ,
1375 and then add onto that types registered directly with
1377 It (normally) has a default set of types built-in, too.
1378 To improve interaction with faulty MIME part declarations which are
1379 often seen in real-life messages, setting
1380 .Va mime-counter-evidence
1381 will allow \*(UA to verify the given assertion and possibly provide
1382 an alternative MIME type.
1385 Whereas \*(UA \*(OPally supports a simple HTML-to-text converter for
1386 HTML messages, it cannot handle MIME types other than plain text itself.
1387 Instead programs need to become registered to deal with specific MIME
1388 types or file extensions.
1389 These programs may either prepare plain text versions of their input in
1390 order to enable \*(UA to integrate their output neatlessly in its own
1391 message visualization (a mode which is called
1392 .Cd copiousoutput ) ,
1393 or display the content themselves, for example in an external graphical
1394 window: such handlers will only be considered by and for the command
1398 To install a handler program for a specific MIME type an according
1399 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
1400 variable needs to be set; to instead define a handler for a specific
1401 file extension the respective
1403 variable can be used \(en these handlers take precedence.
1404 \*(OPally \*(UA supports mail user agent configuration as defined in
1405 RFC 1524; this mechanism (see
1406 .Sx "The Mailcap files" )
1407 will be queried for display or quote handlers if none of the former two
1408 .\" TODO v15-compat "will be" -> "is"
1409 did; it will be the sole source for handlers of other purpose.
1410 A last source for handlers is the MIME type definition itself, when
1411 a (\*(UA specific) type-marker was registered with the command
1413 (which many built-in MIME types do).
1416 E.g., to display a HTML message inline (that is, converted to a more
1417 fancy plain text representation than the built-in converter is capable to
1418 produce) with either of the text-mode browsers
1422 teach \*(UA about MathML documents and make it display them as plain
1423 text, and to open PDF attachments in an external PDF viewer,
1424 asynchronously and with some other magic attached:
1426 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1427 ? if [ "$features" !% +filter-html-tagsoup ]
1428 ? #set pipe-text/html='@* elinks -force-html -dump 1'
1429 ? set pipe-text/html='@* lynx -stdin -dump -force_html'
1430 ? # Display HTML as plain text instead
1431 ? #set pipe-text/html=@
1433 ? mimetype @ application/mathml+xml mathml
1434 ? wysh set pipe-application/pdf='@&=@ \e
1435 trap "rm -f \e"${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}\e"" EXIT;\e
1436 trap "trap \e"\e" INT QUIT TERM; exit 1" INT QUIT TERM;\e
1437 mupdf "${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}"'
1441 .\" .Ss "Mailing lists" {{{
1444 \*(UA offers some support to ease handling of mailing lists.
1447 promotes all given arguments to known mailing lists, and
1449 sets their subscription attribute, creating them first as necessary.
1454 automatically, but only resets the subscription attribute.)
1455 Using the commands without arguments will show (a subset of) all
1456 currently defined mailing lists.
1461 can be used to mark out messages with configured list addresses
1462 in the header display.
1465 \*(OPally mailing lists may also be specified as (extended) regular
1466 expressions, which allows matching of many addresses with a single
1468 However, all fully qualified list addresses are matched via a fast
1469 dictionary, whereas expressions are placed in (a) list(s) which is
1470 (are) matched sequentially.
1472 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1473 ? set followup-to followup-to-honour=ask-yes \e
1474 reply-to-honour=ask-yes
1475 ? wysh mlist a1@b1.c1 a2@b2.c2 '.*@lists\e.c3$'
1476 ? mlsubscribe a4@b4.c4 exact@lists.c3
1481 .Va followup-to-honour
1483 .Ql Mail-\:Followup-\:To:
1484 header is honoured when the message is being replied to (via
1490 controls whether this header is created when sending mails; it will be
1491 created automatically for a couple of reasons, too, like when the
1493 .Dq mailing list specific
1498 is used to respond to a message with its
1499 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
1503 A difference in between the handling of known and subscribed lists is
1504 that the address of the sender is usually not part of a generated
1505 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
1506 when addressing the latter, whereas it is for the former kind of lists.
1507 Usually because there are exceptions: say, if multiple lists are
1508 addressed and not all of them are subscribed lists.
1510 For convenience \*(UA will, temporarily, automatically add a list
1511 address that is presented in the
1513 header of a message that is being responded to to the list of known
1515 Shall that header have existed \*(UA will instead, dependent on the
1517 .Va reply-to-honour ,
1520 for this purpose in order to accept a list administrators' wish that
1521 is supposed to have been manifested like that (but only if it provides
1522 a single address which resides on the same domain as what is stated in
1526 .\" .Ss "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME" {{{
1527 .Ss "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
1529 \*(OP S/MIME provides two central mechanisms:
1530 message signing and message encryption.
1531 A signed message contains some data in addition to the regular text.
1532 The data can be used to verify that the message was sent using a valid
1533 certificate, that the sender's address in the message header matches
1534 that in the certificate, and that the message text has not been altered.
1535 Signing a message does not change its regular text;
1536 it can be read regardless of whether the recipient's software is able to
1538 It is thus usually possible to sign all outgoing messages if so desired.
1541 Encryption, in contrast, makes the message text invisible for all people
1542 except those who have access to the secret decryption key.
1543 To encrypt a message, the specific recipient's public encryption key
1545 It is therefore not possible to send encrypted mail to people unless their
1546 key has been retrieved from either previous communication or public key
1548 A message should always be signed before it is encrypted.
1549 Otherwise, it is still possible that the encrypted message text is
1553 A central concept to S/MIME is that of the certification authority (CA).
1554 A CA is a trusted institution that issues certificates.
1555 For each of these certificates it can be verified that it really
1556 originates from the CA, provided that the CA's own certificate is
1558 A set of CA certificates is usually delivered with OpenSSL and installed
1560 If you trust the source of your OpenSSL software installation,
1561 this offers reasonable security for S/MIME on the Internet.
1563 .Va smime-ca-no-defaults
1564 to avoid using the default certificates and point
1568 to a trusted pool of certificates.
1569 In general, a certificate cannot be more secure than the method its CA
1570 certificate has been retrieved with.
1573 This trusted pool of certificates is used by the command
1575 to ensure that the given S/MIME messages can be trusted.
1576 If so, verified sender certificates that were embedded in signed
1577 messages can be saved locally with the command
1579 and used by \*(UA to encrypt further communication with these senders:
1581 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1583 ? set smime-encrypt-USER@HOST=FILENAME \e
1584 smime-cipher-USER@HOST=AES256
1588 To sign outgoing messages in order to allow receivers to verify the
1589 origin of these messages a personal S/MIME certificate is required.
1590 \*(UA supports password-protected personal certificates (and keys),
1591 for more on this, and its automatization, please see the section
1592 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
1594 .Sx "S/MIME step by step"
1595 shows examplarily how such a private certificate can be obtained.
1596 In general, if such a private key plus certificate
1598 is available, all that needs to be done is to set some variables:
1600 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1601 ? set smime-sign-cert=ME@HERE.com.paired \e
1602 smime-sign-message-digest=SHA256 \e
1607 Variables of interest for S/MIME in general are
1610 .Va smime-ca-flags ,
1611 .Va smime-ca-no-defaults ,
1613 .Va smime-crl-file .
1614 For S/MIME signing of interest are
1616 .Va smime-sign-cert ,
1617 .Va smime-sign-include-certs
1619 .Va smime-sign-message-digest .
1620 Additional variables of interest for S/MIME en- and decryption:
1623 .Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST .
1626 \*(ID Note that neither S/MIME signing nor encryption applies to
1627 message subjects or other header fields yet.
1628 Thus they may not contain sensitive information for encrypted messages,
1629 and cannot be trusted even if the message content has been verified.
1630 When sending signed messages,
1631 it is recommended to repeat any important header information in the
1635 .\" .Ss "On URL syntax and credential lookup" {{{
1636 .Ss "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
1638 \*(IN For accessing protocol-specific resources usage of Uniform
1639 Resource Locators (URL, RFC 1738) has become omnipresent.
1640 \*(UA expects and understands URLs in the following form;
1643 denote optional parts, optional either because there also exist other
1644 ways to define the information in question or because support of the
1645 part is protocol-specific (e.g.,
1647 is used by the local maildir and the IMAP protocol, but not by POP3);
1652 are specified they must be given in URL percent encoded form (RFC 3986;
1658 .Dl PROTOCOL://[USER[:PASSWORD]@]server[:port][/path]
1661 Note that these \*(UA URLs most often do not conform to any real
1662 standard, but instead represent a normalized variant of RFC 1738 \(en
1663 they are not used in data exchange but only meant as a compact,
1664 easy-to-use way of defining and representing information in
1665 a well-known notation.
1668 Many internal variables of \*(UA exist in multiple versions, called
1669 variable chains for the rest of this document: the plain
1674 .Ql variable-USER@HOST .
1681 had been specified in the respective URL, otherwise it refers to the plain
1687 that had been found when doing the user chain lookup as is described
1690 will never be in URL percent encoded form, whether it came from an URL
1691 or not; i.e., variable chain name extensions of
1692 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
1693 must not be URL percent encoded.
1696 For example, whether an hypothetical URL
1697 .Ql smtp://hey%3Ayou@our.house
1698 had been given that includes a user, or whether the URL was
1699 .Ql smtp://our.house
1700 and the user had been found differently, to lookup the variable chain
1701 .Va smtp-use-starttls
1702 \*(UA first looks for whether
1703 .Ql smtp-\:use-\:starttls-\:hey:you@our.house
1704 is defined, then whether
1705 .Ql smtp-\:use-\:starttls-\:our.house
1706 exists before finally ending up looking at the plain variable itself.
1709 \*(UA obeys the following logic scheme when dealing with the
1710 necessary credential information of an account:
1716 has been given in the URL the variables
1720 are looked up; if no such variable(s) can be found then \*(UA will,
1721 when enforced by the \*(OPal variables
1722 .Va netrc-lookup-HOST
1729 specific entry which provides a
1731 name: this lookup will only succeed if unambiguous (one possible matching
1734 It is possible to load encrypted
1739 If there is still no
1741 then \*(UA will fall back to the user who is supposed to run \*(UA,
1742 the identity of which has been fixated during \*(UA startup and is
1743 known to be a valid user on the current host.
1746 Authentication: unless otherwise noted this will lookup the
1747 .Va PROTOCOL-auth-USER@HOST , PROTOCOL-auth-HOST , PROTOCOL-auth
1748 variable chain, falling back to a protocol-specific default should this
1754 has been given in the URL, then if the
1756 has been found through the \*(OPal
1758 that may have already provided the password, too.
1759 Otherwise the variable chain
1760 .Va password-USER@HOST , password-HOST , password
1761 is looked up and used if existent.
1763 Afterwards the complete \*(OPal variable chain
1764 .Va netrc-lookup-USER@HOST , netrc-lookup-HOST , netrc-lookup
1768 cache is searched for a password only (multiple user accounts for
1769 a single machine may exist as well as a fallback entry without user
1770 but with a password).
1772 If at that point there is still no password available, but the
1773 (protocols') chosen authentication type requires a password, then in
1774 interactive mode the user will be prompted on the terminal.
1779 S/MIME verification works relative to the values found in the
1783 header field(s), which means that the values of
1784 .Va smime-sign , smime-sign-cert , smime-sign-include-certs
1786 .Va smime-sign-message-digest
1787 will not be looked up using the
1791 chains from above but instead use the corresponding values from the
1792 message that is being worked on.
1793 In unusual cases multiple and different
1797 combinations may therefore be involved \(en on the other hand those
1798 unusual cases become possible.
1799 The usual case is as short as:
1801 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1802 set mta=smtp://USER:PASS@HOST smtp-use-starttls \e
1803 smime-sign smime-sign-cert=+smime.pair
1809 contains complete example configurations.
1812 .\" .Ss "Encrypted network communication" {{{
1813 .Ss "Encrypted network communication"
1815 SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) a.k.a. its successor TLS (Transport Layer
1816 Security) are protocols which aid in securing communication by providing
1817 a safely initiated and encrypted network connection.
1818 A central concept to SSL/TLS is that of certificates: as part of each
1819 network connection setup a (set of) certificates will be exchanged, and
1820 by using those the identity of the network peer can be cryptographically
1822 SSL/TLS works by using a locally installed pool of trusted certificates,
1823 and verifying the connection peer succeeds if that provides
1824 a certificate which has been issued or is trusted by any certificate in
1825 the trusted local pool.
1828 The local pool of trusted so-called CA (Certification Authority)
1829 certificates is usually delivered with the used SSL/TLS library (e.g.,
1830 OpenSSL), and will be selected automatically.
1831 It is also possible to create and use an own pool of trusted certificates.
1832 If this is desired, set
1833 .Va ssl-ca-no-defaults
1834 to avoid using the default certificate pool, and point
1838 to a trusted pool of certificates.
1839 A certificate cannot be more secure than the method its CA certificate
1840 has been retrieved with.
1843 It depends on the used protocol whether encrypted communication is
1844 possible, and which configuration steps have to be taken to enable it.
1845 Some protocols, e.g., POP3S, are implicitly encrypted, others, like
1846 POP3, can upgrade a plain text connection if so requested: POP3 offers
1848 which will be used if the variable
1849 .Va pop3-use-starttls
1850 (which is a variable chain, as documented in
1851 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup")
1854 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1855 shortcut encpop1 pop3s://pop1.exam.ple
1857 shortcut encpop2 pop3://pop2.exam.ple
1858 set pop3-use-starttls-pop2.exam.ple
1860 set mta=smtps://smtp.exam.ple:465
1861 set mta=smtp://smtp.exam.ple smtp-use-starttls
1865 Normally that is all there is to do, however plenty of knobs exist to
1866 adjust settings shall the necessity or desire arise.
1867 E.g., it is possible to fine-tune certificate verification via
1869 Also interesting may be the possibility to configure the allowed
1871 s that a communication channel may use: whereas in the past hints of
1872 how to restrict the set of protocols to highly secure ones were
1873 indicated, as of the time of this writing the allowed protocols, or at
1875 .Va ssl-cipher-list ,
1876 may need to become relaxed in order to be able to connect to some
1878 E.g., the following example settings allows connection of a
1880 which uses OpenSSL 0.9.8za from June 2014:
1882 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1883 set ssl-protocol-LION=ALL,-SSLv3,-TLSv1
1884 set ssl-cipher-list-LION=TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:\e
1885 ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA:\e
1886 DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:@STRENGTH
1892 can be used and should be referred to when creating a custom cipher list.
1893 Variables of interest for SSL/TLS in general are
1897 .Va ssl-ca-no-defaults ,
1899 .Va ssl-cipher-list ,
1900 .Va ssl-config-file ,
1911 .\" .Ss "Character sets" {{{
1912 .Ss "Character sets"
1914 \*(OP \*(UA detects the character set of the terminal by using
1915 mechanisms that are controlled by the
1917 environment variable
1922 in that order, see there).
1923 The internal variable
1925 will be set to the detected terminal character set accordingly,
1926 and will thus show up in the output of commands like, e.g.,
1932 However, the user may give a value for
1934 during startup, so that it is possible to send mail in a completely
1936 locale environment, an option which can be used to generate and send,
1937 e.g., 8-bit UTF-8 input data in a pure 7-bit US-ASCII
1939 environment (an example of this can be found in the section
1940 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" ) .
1941 Changing the value does not mean much beside that, because several
1942 aspects of the real character set are implied by the locale environment
1943 of the system, which stays unaffected by
1947 Messages and attachments which consist of 7-bit clean data will be
1948 classified as consisting of
1951 This is a problem if the
1953 character set is a multibyte character set that is also 7-bit clean.
1954 For example, the Japanese character set ISO-2022-JP is 7-bit clean but
1955 capable to encode the rich set of Japanese Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana
1956 characters: in order to notify receivers of this character set the mail
1957 message must be MIME encoded so that the character set ISO-2022-JP can
1959 To achieve this, the variable
1961 must be set to ISO-2022-JP.
1962 (Today a better approach regarding email is the usage of UTF-8, which
1963 uses 8-bit bytes for non-US-ASCII data.)
1966 If the \*(OPal character set conversion capabilities are not available
1968 does not include the term
1972 will be the only supported character set,
1973 it is simply assumed that it can be used to exchange 8-bit messages
1974 (over the wire an intermediate, configurable
1977 and the rest of this section does not apply;
1978 it may however still be necessary to explicitly set it if automatic
1979 detection fails, since in that case it defaults to
1980 .\" (Keep in SYNC: ./nail.1:"Character sets", ./config.h:CHARSET_*!)
1981 LATIN1 a.k.a. ISO-8859-1.
1984 \*(OP When reading messages, their text is converted into
1986 as necessary in order to display them on the users terminal.
1987 Unprintable characters and invalid byte sequences are detected
1988 and replaced by proper substitution characters.
1989 Character set mappings for source character sets can be established with
1992 which may be handy to work around faulty character set catalogues (e.g.,
1993 to add a missing LATIN1 to ISO-8859-1 mapping), or to enforce treatment
1994 of one character set as another one (e.g., to interpret LATIN1 as CP1252).
1996 .Va charset-unknown-8bit
1997 to deal with another hairy aspect of message interpretation.
2000 When sending messages all their parts and attachments are classified.
2001 Whereas no character set conversion is performed on those parts which
2002 appear to be binary data,
2003 the character set being used must be declared within the MIME header of
2004 an outgoing text part if it contains characters that do not conform to
2005 the set of characters that are allowed by the email standards.
2006 Permissible values for character sets used in outgoing messages can be
2011 which defines a catch-all last-resort fallback character set that is
2012 implicitly appended to the list of character sets in
2016 When replying to a message and the variable
2017 .Va reply-in-same-charset
2018 is set, then the character set of the message being replied to
2019 is tried first (still being a subject of
2020 .Ic charsetalias ) .
2021 And it is also possible to make \*(UA work even more closely related to
2022 the current locale setting automatically by using the variable
2023 .Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset ,
2024 please see there for more information.
2027 All the specified character sets are tried in order unless the
2028 conversion of the part or attachment succeeds.
2029 If none of the tried (8-bit) character sets is capable to represent the
2030 content of the part or attachment,
2031 then the message will not be sent and its text will optionally be
2035 In general, if a message saying
2036 .Dq cannot convert from a to b
2037 appears, either some characters are not appropriate for the currently
2038 selected (terminal) character set,
2039 or the needed conversion is not supported by the system.
2040 In the first case, it is necessary to set an appropriate
2042 locale and/or the variable
2046 The best results are usually achieved when \*(UA is run in a UTF-8
2047 locale on an UTF-8 capable terminal, in which case the full Unicode
2048 spectrum of characters is available.
2049 In this setup characters from various countries can be displayed,
2050 while it is still possible to use more simple character sets for sending
2051 to retain maximum compatibility with older mail clients.
2054 On the other hand the POSIX standard defines a locale-independent 7-bit
2055 .Dq portable character set
2056 that should be used when overall portability is an issue, the even more
2057 restricted subset named
2058 .Dq portable filename character set
2059 consists of A-Z, a-z, 0-9, period
2067 .\" .Ss "Message states" {{{
2068 .Ss "Message states"
2070 \*(UA differentiates in between several different message states;
2071 the current state will be reflected in header summary displays if
2073 is configured to do so (via the internal variable
2075 and messages can also be selected and be acted upon depending on their
2077 .Sx "Specifying messages" ) .
2078 When operating on the system
2082 .Sx "primary system mailbox" ,
2083 special actions, like the automatic moving of messages to the
2085 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
2087 may be applied when the mailbox is left (also implicitly via
2088 a successful exit of \*(UA, but not if the special command
2090 is used) \(en however, because this may be irritating to users which
2093 mail-user-agents, the default global
2099 variables in order to suppress this behaviour.
2101 .Bl -hang -width ".It Ql new"
2103 Message has neither been viewed nor moved to any other state.
2104 Such messages are retained even in the
2106 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
2109 Message has neither been viewed nor moved to any other state, but the
2110 message was present already when the mailbox has been opened last:
2111 Such messages are retained even in the
2113 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
2116 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
2135 will always try to automatically
2141 logical message, and may thus mark multiple messages as read, the
2143 command will do so if the internal variable
2148 command is used, messages that are in a
2150 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
2153 state when the mailbox is left will be saved in the
2155 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
2157 unless the internal variable
2162 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
2168 can be used to access such messages.
2171 The message has been processed by a
2173 command and it will be retained in its current location.
2176 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
2182 command is used, messages that are in a
2184 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
2187 state when the mailbox is left will be deleted; they will be saved in the
2189 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
2191 when the internal variable
2197 In addition to these message states, flags which otherwise have no
2198 technical meaning in the mail system except allowing special ways of
2199 addressing them when
2200 .Sx "Specifying messages"
2201 can be set on messages.
2202 These flags are saved with messages and are thus persistent, and are
2203 portable between a set of widely used MUAs.
2205 .Bl -hang -width ".It Ic answered"
2207 Mark messages as having been answered.
2209 Mark messages as being a draft.
2211 Mark messages which need special attention.
2215 .\" .Ss "Specifying messages" {{{
2216 .Ss "Specifying messages"
2223 can be given a list of message numbers as arguments to apply to a number
2224 of messages at once.
2227 deletes messages 1 and 2,
2230 will delete the messages 1 through 5.
2231 In sorted or threaded mode (see the
2235 will delete the messages that are located between (and including)
2236 messages 1 through 5 in the sorted/threaded order, as shown in the
2239 The following special message names exist:
2242 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ar BaNg"
2244 The current message, the so-called
2248 The message that was previously the current message.
2251 The parent message of the current message,
2252 that is the message with the Message-ID given in the
2254 field or the last entry of the
2256 field of the current message.
2259 The next previous undeleted message,
2260 or the next previous deleted message for the
2263 In sorted/threaded mode,
2264 the next previous such message in the sorted/threaded order.
2267 The next undeleted message,
2268 or the next deleted message for the
2271 In sorted/threaded mode,
2272 the next such message in the sorted/threaded order.
2275 The first undeleted message,
2276 or the first deleted message for the
2279 In sorted/threaded mode,
2280 the first such message in the sorted/threaded order.
2284 In sorted/threaded mode,
2285 the last message in the sorted/threaded order.
2289 selects the message addressed with
2293 is any other message specification,
2294 and all messages from the thread that begins at it.
2295 Otherwise it is identical to
2300 the thread beginning with the current message is selected.
2305 All messages that were included in the
2306 .Sx "Message list arguments"
2307 of the previous command.
2310 An inclusive range of message numbers.
2311 Selectors that may also be used as endpoints include any of
2316 .Dq any substring matches
2319 header, which will match addresses (too) even if
2321 is set (and POSIX says
2322 .Dq any address as shown in a header summary shall be matchable in this form ) ;
2325 variable is set, only the local part of the address is evaluated
2326 for the comparison, not ignoring case, and the setting of
2328 is completely ignored.
2329 For finer control and match boundaries use the
2333 .It Ar / Ns Ar string
2334 All messages that contain
2336 in the subject field (case ignored).
2343 the string from the previous specification of that type is used again.
2345 .It Xo Op Ar @ Ns Ar name-list Ns
2348 All messages that contain the given case-insensitive search
2350 ession; if the \*(OPal regular expression (see
2352 support is available
2354 will be interpreted as (an extended) one if any of the
2356 (extended) regular expression characters is seen: in this case this
2357 should match strings correctly which are in the locale
2361 .Ar @ Ns Ar name-list
2362 part is missing, the search is restricted to the subject field body,
2365 specifies a comma-separated list of header fields to search, as in
2367 .Dl '@to,from,cc@Someone i ought to know'
2369 In order to search for a string that includes a
2371 (commercial at) character the
2373 is effectively non-optional, but may be given as the empty string.
2374 Some special header fields may be abbreviated:
2388 respectively and case-insensitively.
2393 can be used to search in (all of) the header(s) of the message, and the
2402 can be used to perform full text searches \(en whereas the former
2403 searches only the body, the latter also searches the message header.
2405 This message specification performs full text comparison, but even with
2406 regular expression support it is almost impossible to write a search
2407 expression that savely matches only a specific address domain.
2408 To request that the content of the header is treated as a list of
2409 addresses, and to strip those down to the plain email address which the
2410 search expression is to be matched against, prefix the header name
2411 (abbreviation) with a tilde
2414 .Dl @~f@@a\e.safe\e.domain\e.match$
2417 All messages of state
2421 is one or multiple of the following colon modifiers:
2423 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar :M"
2428 Old messages (any not in state
2450 messages (cf. the variable
2451 .Va markanswered ) .
2456 \*(OP Messages classified as spam (see
2457 .Sx "Handling spam" . )
2459 \*(OP Messages with unsure spam classification.
2465 \*(OP IMAP-style SEARCH expressions may also be used.
2466 This addressing mode is available with all types of mailbox
2468 s; \*(UA will perform the search locally as necessary.
2469 Strings must be enclosed by double quotes
2471 in their entirety if they contain whitespace or parentheses;
2472 within the quotes, only reverse solidus
2474 is recognized as an escape character.
2475 All string searches are case-insensitive.
2476 When the description indicates that the
2478 representation of an address field is used,
2479 this means that the search string is checked against both a list
2482 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2483 (\*qname\*q \*qsource\*q \*qlocal-part\*q \*qdomain-part\*q)
2488 and the addresses without real names from the respective header field.
2489 These search expressions can be nested using parentheses, see below for
2493 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar _n_u"
2494 .It Ar ( criterion )
2495 All messages that satisfy the given
2497 .It Ar ( criterion1 criterion2 ... criterionN )
2498 All messages that satisfy all of the given criteria.
2500 .It Ar ( or criterion1 criterion2 )
2501 All messages that satisfy either
2506 To connect more than two criteria using
2508 specifications have to be nested using additional parentheses,
2510 .Ql (or a (or b c)) ,
2514 .Ql ((a or b) and c) .
2517 operation of independent criteria on the lowest nesting level,
2518 it is possible to achieve similar effects by using three separate
2522 .It Ar ( not criterion )
2523 All messages that do not satisfy
2525 .It Ar ( bcc \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2526 All messages that contain
2528 in the envelope representation of the
2531 .It Ar ( cc \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2532 All messages that contain
2534 in the envelope representation of the
2537 .It Ar ( from \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2538 All messages that contain
2540 in the envelope representation of the
2543 .It Ar ( subject \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2544 All messages that contain
2549 .It Ar ( to \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2550 All messages that contain
2552 in the envelope representation of the
2555 .It Ar ( header name \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2556 All messages that contain
2561 .It Ar ( body \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2562 All messages that contain
2565 .It Ar ( text \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2566 All messages that contain
2568 in their header or body.
2569 .It Ar ( larger size )
2570 All messages that are larger than
2573 .It Ar ( smaller size )
2574 All messages that are smaller than
2578 .It Ar ( before date )
2579 All messages that were received before
2581 which must be in the form
2585 denotes the day of the month as one or two digits,
2587 is the name of the month \(en one of
2588 .Ql Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec ,
2591 is the year as four digits, e.g.,
2595 All messages that were received on the specified date.
2596 .It Ar ( since date )
2597 All messages that were received since the specified date.
2598 .It Ar ( sentbefore date )
2599 All messages that were sent on the specified date.
2600 .It Ar ( senton date )
2601 All messages that were sent on the specified date.
2602 .It Ar ( sentsince date )
2603 All messages that were sent since the specified date.
2605 The same criterion as for the previous search.
2606 This specification cannot be used as part of another criterion.
2607 If the previous command line contained more than one independent
2608 criterion then the last of those criteria is used.
2612 .\" .Ss "On terminal control and line editor" {{{
2613 .Ss "On terminal control and line editor"
2615 \*(OP Terminal control will be realized through one of the standard
2617 libraries, either the
2619 or, alternatively, the
2621 both of which will be initialized to work with the environment variable
2623 Terminal control will enhance or enable interactive usage aspects, e.g.,
2624 .Sx "Coloured display" ,
2625 and extend behaviour of the Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE), which may learn the
2626 byte-sequences of keys like the cursor and function keys.
2629 The internal variable
2631 can be used to overwrite settings or to learn (correct(ed)) keycodes.
2632 \*(UA may also become a fullscreen application by entering the
2633 so-called ca-mode and switching to an alternative exclusive screen
2634 (content) shall the terminal support it and the internal variable
2636 has been set explicitly.
2637 Actual interaction with the chosen library can be disabled completely by
2638 setting the internal variable
2639 .Va termcap-disable ;
2641 will be queried regardless, which is true even if the \*(OPal library
2642 support has not been enabled at configuration time as long as some other
2643 \*(OP which (may) query terminal control sequences has been enabled.
2646 \*(OP The built-in Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE) should work in all
2647 environments which comply to the ISO C standard
2649 and will support wide glyphs if possible (the necessary functionality
2650 had been removed from ISO C, but was included in
2652 Prevent usage of a line editor in interactive mode by setting the
2654 .Va line-editor-disable .
2655 Especially if the \*(OPal terminal control support is missing setting
2656 entries in the internal variable
2658 will help shall the MLE misbehave, see there for more.
2659 The MLE can support a little bit of
2665 feature is available then input from line editor prompts will be saved
2666 in a history list that can be searched in and be expanded from.
2667 Such saving can be prevented by prefixing input with any amount of
2669 Aspects of history, like allowed content and maximum size, as well as
2670 whether history shall be saved persistently, can be configured with the
2674 .Va history-gabby-persist
2679 The MLE supports a set of editing and control commands.
2680 By default (as) many (as possible) of these will be assigned to a set of
2681 single-letter control codes, which should work on any terminal (and can
2682 be generated by holding the
2684 key while pressing the key of desire, e.g.,
2688 command is available then the MLE commands can also be accessed freely
2689 by assigning the command name, which is shown in parenthesis in the list
2690 below, to any desired key-sequence, and the MLE will instead and also use
2692 to establish its built-in key bindings
2693 (more of them if the \*(OPal terminal control is available),
2694 an action which can then be suppressed completely by setting
2695 .Va line-editor-no-defaults .
2696 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
2697 notation is used in the following;
2698 combinations not mentioned either cause job control signals or do not
2699 generate a (unique) keycode:
2703 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql \eBa"
2705 Go to the start of the line
2707 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-home ) .
2710 Move the cursor backward one character
2712 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-bwd ) .
2715 Forward delete the character under the cursor;
2716 quits \*(UA if used on the empty line unless the internal variable
2720 .Pf ( Cd mle-del-fwd ) .
2723 Go to the end of the line
2725 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-end ) .
2728 Move the cursor forward one character
2730 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-fwd ) .
2733 Cancel current operation, full reset.
2734 If there is an active history search or tabulator expansion then this
2735 command will first reset that, reverting to the former line content;
2736 thus a second reset is needed for a full reset in this case
2738 .Pf ( Cd mle-reset ) .
2741 Backspace: backward delete one character
2743 .Pf ( Cd mle-del-bwd ) .
2747 Horizontal tabulator:
2748 try to expand the word before the cursor, supporting the usual
2749 .Sx "Filename transformations"
2751 .Pf ( Cd mle-complete ) .
2753 .Cd mle-quote-rndtrip .
2757 commit the current line
2759 .Pf ( Cd mle-commit ) .
2762 Cut all characters from the cursor to the end of the line
2764 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-end ) .
2769 .Pf ( Cd mle-repaint ) .
2772 \*(OP Go to the next history entry
2774 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-fwd ) .
2777 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
2781 \*(OP Go to the previous history entry
2783 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-bwd ) .
2786 Toggle roundtrip mode shell quotes, where produced,
2789 .Pf ( Cd mle-quote-rndtrip ) .
2790 This setting is temporary, and will be forgotten once the command line
2791 is committed; also see
2795 \*(OP Complete the current line from (the remaining) older history entries
2797 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-srch-bwd ) .
2800 \*(OP Complete the current line from (the remaining) newer history entries
2802 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-srch-fwd ) .
2805 Paste the snarf buffer
2807 .Pf ( Cd mle-paste ) .
2815 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-line ) .
2818 Prompts for a Unicode character (its hexadecimal number) to be inserted
2820 .Pf ( Cd mle-prompt-char ) .
2821 Note this command needs to be assigned to a single-letter control code
2822 in order to become recognized and executed during input of
2823 a key-sequence (only three single-letter control codes can be used for
2824 that shortcut purpose); this control code is special-treated and cannot
2825 be part of any other sequence, because any occurrence will perform the
2827 function immediately.
2830 Cut the characters from the one preceding the cursor to the preceding
2833 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-word-bwd ) .
2836 Move the cursor forward one word boundary
2838 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-word-fwd ) .
2841 Move the cursor backward one word boundary
2843 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-word-bwd ) .
2846 Escape: reset a possibly used multibyte character input state machine
2847 and \*(OPally a lingering, incomplete key binding
2849 .Pf ( Cd mle-cancel ) .
2850 This command needs to be assigned to a single-letter control code in
2851 order to become recognized and executed during input of a key-sequence
2852 (only three single-letter control codes can be used for that shortcut
2854 This control code may also be part of a multi-byte sequence, but if
2855 a sequence is active and the very control code is currently also an
2856 expected input, then it will first be consumed by the active sequence.
2859 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
2863 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
2867 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
2871 Cut the characters from the one after the cursor to the succeeding word
2874 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-word-fwd ) .
2885 this will immediately reset a possibly active search etc.
2890 ring the audible bell.
2894 .\" .Ss "Coloured display" {{{
2895 .Ss "Coloured display"
2897 \*(OP \*(UA can be configured to support a coloured display and font
2898 attributes by emitting ANSI a.k.a. ISO 6429 SGR (select graphic
2899 rendition) escape sequences.
2900 Usage of colours and font attributes solely depends upon the
2901 capability of the detected terminal type that is defined by the
2902 environment variable
2904 and which can be fine-tuned by the user via the internal variable
2908 On top of what \*(UA knows about the terminal the boolean variable
2910 defines whether the actually applicable colour and font attribute
2911 sequences should also be generated when output is going to be paged
2912 through the external program defined by the environment variable
2917 This is not enabled by default because different pager programs need
2918 different command line switches or other configuration in order to
2919 support those sequences.
2920 \*(UA however knows about some widely used pagers and in a clean
2921 environment it is often enough to simply set
2923 please refer to that variable for more on this topic.
2928 is set then any active usage of colour and font attribute sequences
2929 is suppressed, but without affecting possibly established
2934 To define and control colours and font attributes a single multiplexer
2935 command family exists:
2937 shows or defines colour mappings for the given colour type (e.g.,
2940 can be used to remove mappings of a given colour type.
2941 Since colours are only available in interactive mode, it may make
2942 sense to conditionalize the colour setup by encapsulating it with
2945 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2946 if terminal && [ "$features" =% +colour ]
2947 colour iso view-msginfo ft=bold,fg=green
2948 colour iso view-header ft=bold,fg=red from,subject
2949 colour iso view-header fg=red
2951 uncolour iso view-header from,subject
2952 colour iso view-header ft=bold,fg=magenta,bg=cyan
2953 colour 256 view-header ft=bold,fg=208,bg=230 "subject,from"
2954 colour mono view-header ft=bold
2955 colour mono view-header ft=bold,ft=reverse subject,from
2960 .\" .Ss "Handling spam" {{{
2963 \*(OP \*(UA can make use of several spam interfaces for the purpose of
2964 identification of, and, in general, dealing with spam messages.
2965 A precondition of most commands in order to function is that the
2967 variable is set to one of the supported interfaces.
2968 Once messages have been identified as spam their (volatile)
2970 state can be prompted: the
2974 message specifications will address respective messages and their
2976 entries will be used when displaying the
2978 in the header display.
2983 rates the given messages and sets their
2986 If the spam interface offers spam scores those can also be displayed in
2987 the header display by including the
2997 will interact with the Bayesian filter of the chosen interface and learn
2998 the given messages as
3002 respectively; the last command can be used to cause
3004 of messages; it adheres to their current
3006 state and thus reverts previous teachings.
3011 will simply set and clear, respectively, the mentioned volatile
3013 message flag, without any interface interaction.
3022 requires a running instance of the
3024 server in order to function, started with the option
3026 shall Bayesian filter learning be possible.
3028 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3029 $ spamd -i localhost:2142 -i /tmp/.spamsock -d [-L] [-l]
3030 $ spamd --listen=localhost:2142 --listen=/tmp/.spamsock \e
3031 --daemonize [--local] [--allow-tell]
3035 Thereafter \*(UA can make use of these interfaces:
3037 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3038 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=spamc -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
3039 -Sspamc-command=/usr/local/bin/spamc \e
3040 -Sspamc-arguments="-U /tmp/.spamsock" -Sspamc-user=
3042 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=spamc -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
3043 -Sspamc-command=/usr/local/bin/spamc \e
3044 -Sspamc-arguments="-d localhost -p 2142" -Sspamc-user=
3048 Using the generic filter approach allows usage of programs like
3050 Here is an example, requiring it to be accessible via
3053 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3054 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=filter -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
3055 -Sspamfilter-ham="bogofilter -n" \e
3056 -Sspamfilter-noham="bogofilter -N" \e
3057 -Sspamfilter-nospam="bogofilter -S" \e
3058 -Sspamfilter-rate="bogofilter -TTu 2>/dev/null" \e
3059 -Sspamfilter-spam="bogofilter -s" \e
3060 -Sspamfilter-rate-scanscore="1;^(.+)$"
3064 Because messages must exist on local storage in order to be scored (or
3065 used for Bayesian filter training), it is possibly a good idea to
3066 perform the local spam check last.
3067 Spam can be checked automatically when opening specific folders by
3068 setting a specialized form of the internal variable
3071 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3072 define spamdelhook {
3074 spamset (header x-dcc-brand-metrics "bulk")
3075 # Server-side spamassassin(1)
3076 spamset (header x-spam-flag "YES")
3077 del :s # TODO we HAVE to be able to do `spamrate :u ! :sS'
3083 set folder-hook-SOMEFOLDER=spamdelhook
3087 See also the documentation for the variables
3088 .Va spam-interface , spam-maxsize ,
3089 .Va spamc-command , spamc-arguments , spamc-user ,
3090 .Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , spamfilter-nospam , \
3093 .Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore .
3096 .\" }}} (DESCRIPTION)
3099 .\" .Sh COMMANDS {{{
3102 \*(UA reads input in lines.
3103 An unquoted reverse solidus
3105 at the end of a command line
3107 the newline character: it is discarded and the next line of input is
3108 used as a follow-up line, with all leading whitespace removed;
3109 once an entire line is completed, the whitespace characters
3110 .Cm space , tabulator , newline
3111 as well as those defined by the variable
3113 are removed from the beginning and end.
3114 Placing any whitespace characters at the beginning of a line will
3115 prevent a possible addition of the command line to the \*(OPal
3119 The beginning of such input lines is then scanned for the name of
3120 a known command: command names may be abbreviated, in which case the
3121 first command that matches the given prefix will be used.
3122 .Sx "Command modifiers"
3123 may prefix a command in order to modify its behaviour.
3124 A name may also be a
3126 which will become expanded until no more expansion is possible.
3127 Once the command that shall be executed is known, the remains of the
3128 input line will be interpreted according to command-specific rules,
3129 documented in the following.
3132 This behaviour is different to the
3134 ell, which is a programming language with syntactic elements of clearly
3135 defined semantics, and therefore capable to sequentially expand and
3136 evaluate individual elements of a line.
3137 \*(UA will never be able to handle
3138 .Ql ? set one=value two=$one
3139 in a single statement, because the variable assignment is performed by
3147 can be used to show the list of all commands, either alphabetically
3148 sorted or in prefix search order (these do not match, also because the
3149 POSIX standard prescribes a set of abbreviations).
3150 \*(OPally the command
3154 when given an argument, will show a documentation string for the
3155 command matching the expanded argument, as in
3157 which should be a shorthand of
3159 with these documentation strings both commands support a more
3161 listing mode which includes the argument type of the command and other
3162 information which applies; a handy suggestion might thus be:
3164 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3166 # Before v15: need to enable sh(1)ell-style on _entire_ line!
3167 localopts 1;wysh set verbose;ignerr eval "${@}";return ${?}
3169 ? commandalias xv '\ecall __xv'
3173 .\" .Ss "Command modifiers" {{{
3174 .Ss "Command modifiers"
3176 Commands may be prefixed by one or multiple command modifiers.
3180 The modifier reverse solidus
3183 to be placed first, prevents
3185 expansions on the remains of the line, e.g.,
3187 will always evaluate the command
3189 even if an (command)alias of the same name exists.
3191 content may itself contain further command modifiers, including
3192 an initial reverse solidus to prevent further expansions.
3198 indicates that any error generated by the following command should be
3199 ignored by the state machine and not cause a program exit with enabled
3201 or for the standardized exit cases in
3206 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
3207 will be set to the real exit status of the command regardless.
3212 does yet not implement any functionality.
3217 does yet not implement any functionality.
3220 Some commands support the
3223 modifier: if used, they expect the name of a variable, which can itself
3224 be a variable, i.e., shell expansion is applied, as their first
3225 argument, and will place their computation result in it instead of the
3226 default location (it is usually written to standard output).
3228 The given name will be tested for being a valid
3230 variable name, and may therefore only consist of upper- and lowercase
3231 characters, digits, and the underscore; the hyphen-minus may be used as
3232 a non-portable extension; digits may not be used as first, hyphen-minus
3233 may not be used as last characters.
3234 In addition the name may either not be one of the known
3235 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
3236 or must otherwise refer to a writable (non-boolean) value variable.
3237 The actual put operation may fail nonetheless, e.g., if the variable
3238 expects a number argument only a number will be accepted.
3239 Any error during these operations causes the command as such to fail,
3240 and the error number
3243 .Va ^ERR Ns -NOTSUP ,
3250 Last, but not least, the modifier
3253 can be used for some old and established commands to choose the new
3254 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
3255 rules over the traditional
3256 .Sx "Old-style argument quoting" .
3260 .\" .Ss "Message list arguments" {{{
3261 .Ss "Message list arguments"
3263 Some commands expect arguments that represent messages (actually
3264 their symbolic message numbers), as has been documented above under
3265 .Sx "Specifying messages"
3267 If no explicit message list has been specified, the next message
3268 forward that satisfies the command's requirements will be used,
3269 and if there are no messages forward of the current message,
3270 the search proceeds backwards;
3271 if there are no good messages at all to be found, an error message is
3272 shown and the command is aborted.
3275 .\" .Ss "Old-style argument quoting" {{{
3276 .Ss "Old-style argument quoting"
3278 \*(ID This section documents the old, traditional style of quoting
3279 non-message-list arguments to commands which expect this type of
3280 arguments: whereas still used by the majority of such commands, the new
3281 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
3282 may be available even for those via
3285 .Sx "Command modifiers" .
3286 Nonetheless care must be taken, because only new commands have been
3287 designed with all the capabilities of the new quoting rules in mind,
3288 which can, e.g., generate control characters.
3291 .Bl -bullet -offset indent
3293 An argument can be enclosed between paired double-quotes
3298 any whitespace, shell word expansion, or reverse solidus characters
3299 (except as described next) within the quotes are treated literally as
3300 part of the argument.
3301 A double-quote will be treated literally within single-quotes and vice
3303 Inside such a quoted string the actually used quote character can be
3304 used nonetheless by escaping it with a reverse solidus
3310 An argument that is not enclosed in quotes, as above, can usually still
3311 contain space characters if those spaces are reverse solidus escaped, as in
3315 A reverse solidus outside of the enclosing quotes is discarded
3316 and the following character is treated literally as part of the argument.
3320 .\" .Ss "Shell-style argument quoting" {{{
3321 .Ss "Shell-style argument quoting"
3323 Commands which don't expect message-list arguments use
3325 ell-style, and therefore POSIX standardized, argument parsing and
3327 \*(ID Most new commands only support these new rules and are flagged
3328 \*(NQ, some elder ones can use them with the command modifier
3330 in the future only this type of argument quoting will remain.
3333 A command line is parsed from left to right and an input token is
3334 completed whenever an unquoted, otherwise ignored, metacharacter is seen.
3335 Metacharacters are vertical bar
3341 as well as all characters from the variable
3344 .Cm space , tabulator , newline .
3345 The additional metacharacters left and right parenthesis
3347 and less-than and greater-than signs
3351 supports are not used, and are treated as ordinary characters: for one
3352 these characters are a vivid part of email addresses, and it seems
3353 highly unlikely that their function will become meaningful to \*(UA.
3355 .Bd -filled -offset indent
3356 .Sy Compatibility note:
3357 \*(ID Please note that even many new-style commands do not yet honour
3359 to parse their arguments: whereas the
3361 ell is a language with syntactic elements of clearly defined semantics,
3362 \*(UA parses entire input lines and decides on a per-command base what
3363 to do with the rest of the line.
3364 This also means that whenever an unknown command is seen all that \*(UA
3365 can do is cancellation of the processing of the remains of the line.
3367 It also often depends on an actual subcommand of a multiplexer command
3368 how the rest of the line should be treated, and until v15 we are not
3369 capable to perform this deep inspection of arguments.
3370 Nonetheless, at least the following commands which work with positional
3371 parameters fully support
3373 for an almost shell-compatible field splitting:
3374 .Ic call , call_if , read , vpospar , xcall .
3378 Any unquoted number sign
3380 at the beginning of a new token starts a comment that extends to the end
3381 of the line, and therefore ends argument processing.
3382 An unquoted dollar sign
3384 will cause variable expansion of the given name, which must be a valid
3386 ell-style variable name (see
3388 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
3391 (shell) variables can be accessed through this mechanism, brace
3392 enclosing the name is supported (i.e., to subdivide a token).
3395 Whereas the metacharacters
3396 .Cm space , tabulator , newline
3397 only complete an input token, vertical bar
3403 also act as control operators and perform control functions.
3404 For now supported is semicolon
3406 which terminates a single command, therefore sequencing the command line
3407 and making the remainder of the line a subject to reevaluation.
3408 With sequencing, multiple command argument types and quoting rules may
3409 therefore apply to a single line, which can become problematic before
3410 v15: e.g., the first of the following will cause surprising results.
3413 .Dl ? echo one; set verbose; echo verbose=$verbose.
3414 .Dl ? echo one; wysh set verbose; echo verbose=$verbose.
3417 Quoting is a mechanism that will remove the special meaning of
3418 metacharacters and reserved words, and will prevent expansion.
3419 There are four quoting mechanisms: the escape character, single-quotes,
3420 double-quotes and dollar-single-quotes:
3423 .Bl -bullet -offset indent
3425 The literal value of any character can be preserved by preceding it
3426 with the escape character reverse solidus
3430 Arguments which are enclosed in
3431 .Ql 'single-\:quotes'
3432 retain their literal value.
3433 A single-quote cannot occur within single-quotes.
3436 The literal value of all characters enclosed in
3437 .Ql \(dqdouble-\:quotes\(dq
3438 is retained, with the exception of dollar sign
3440 which will cause variable expansion, as above, backquote (grave accent)
3442 (which not yet means anything special), reverse solidus
3444 which will escape any of the characters dollar sign
3446 (to prevent variable expansion), backquote (grave accent)
3450 (to prevent ending the quote) and reverse solidus
3452 (to prevent escaping, i.e., to embed a reverse solidus character as-is),
3453 but has no special meaning otherwise.
3456 Arguments enclosed in
3457 .Ql $'dollar-\:single-\:quotes'
3458 extend normal single quotes in that reverse solidus escape sequences are
3459 expanded as follows:
3461 .Bl -tag -compact -width "Ql \eNNN"
3463 bell control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 BEL).
3465 backspace control characer (ASCII and ISO-10646 BS).
3467 escape control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 ESC).
3471 form feed control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 FF).
3473 line feed control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 LF).
3475 carriage return control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 CR).
3477 horizontal tabulator control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 HT).
3479 vertical tabulator control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 VT).
3481 emits a reverse solidus character.
3485 double quote (escaping is optional).
3487 eight-bit byte with the octal value
3489 (one to three octal digits), optionally prefixed by an additional
3491 A 0 byte will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
3493 eight-bit byte with the hexadecimal value
3495 (one or two hexadecimal characters).
3496 A 0 byte will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
3498 the Unicode / ISO-10646 character with the hexadecimal codepoint value
3500 (one to eight hexadecimal digits) \(em note that Unicode defines the
3501 maximum codepoint ever to be supported as
3506 This escape is only supported in locales that support Unicode (see
3507 .Sx "Character sets" ) ,
3508 in other cases the sequence will remain unexpanded unless the given code
3509 point is ASCII compatible or (if the \*(OPal character set conversion is
3510 available) can be represented in the current locale.
3511 The character NUL will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
3515 except it takes only one to four hexadecimal digits.
3517 Emits the non-printable (ASCII and compatible) C0 control codes
3518 0 (NUL) to 31 (US), and 127 (DEL).
3519 Printable representations of ASCII control codes can be created by
3520 mapping them to a different part of the ASCII character set, which is
3521 possible by adding the number 64 for the codes 0 to 31, e.g., 7 (BEL) is
3522 .Ql 7 + 64 = 71 = G .
3523 The real operation is a bitwise logical XOR with 64 (bit 7 set, see
3525 thus also covering code 127 (DEL), which is mapped to 63 (question mark):
3526 .Ql ? vexpr ^ 127 64 .
3528 Whereas historically circumflex notation has often been used for
3529 visualization purposes of control codes, e.g.,
3531 the reverse solidus notation has been standardized:
3533 Some control codes also have standardized (ISO-10646, ISO C) aliases,
3534 as shown above (e.g.,
3538 whenever such an alias exists it will be used for display purposes.
3539 The control code NUL
3541 a non-standard extension) will suppress further output for the remains
3542 of the token (which may extend beyond the current quote), or, depending
3543 on the context, the remains of all arguments for the current command.
3545 Non-standard extension: expand the given variable name, as above.
3546 Brace enclosing the name is supported.
3548 Not yet supported, just to raise awareness: Non-standard extension.
3555 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3556 ? echo 'Quotes '${HOME}' and 'tokens" differ!"# no comment
3557 ? echo Quotes ${HOME} and tokens differ! # comment
3558 ? echo Don"'"t you worry$'\ex21' The sun shines on us. $'\eu263A'
3562 .\" .Ss "Raw data arguments for codec commands" {{{
3563 .Ss "Raw data arguments for codec commands"
3565 A special set of commands, which all have the string
3567 in their name, e.g.,
3571 take raw string data as input, which means that the content of the
3572 command input line is passed completely unexpanded and otherwise
3573 unchanged: like this the effect of the actual codec is visible without
3574 any noise of possible shell quoting rules etc., i.e., the user can input
3575 one-to-one the desired or questionable data.
3576 To gain a level of expansion, the entire command line can be
3580 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3581 ? vput shcodec res encode /usr/Sch\[:o]nes Wetter/heute.txt
3583 $'/usr/Sch\eu00F6nes Wetter/heute.txt'
3585 $'/usr/Sch\eu00F6nes Wetter/heute.txt'
3586 ? eval shcodec d $res
3587 /usr/Sch\[:o]nes Wetter/heute.txt
3591 .\" .Ss "Filename transformations" {{{
3592 .Ss "Filename transformations"
3594 Filenames, where expected, and unless documented otherwise, are
3595 subsequently subject to the following filename transformations, in
3598 .Bl -bullet -offset indent
3600 If the given name is a registered
3602 it will be replaced with the expanded shortcut.
3605 The filename is matched against the following patterns or strings:
3607 .Bl -hang -compact -width ".Ar %user"
3609 (Number sign) is expanded to the previous file.
3611 (Percent sign) is replaced by the invoking
3612 .Mx -ix "primary system mailbox"
3613 user's primary system mailbox, which either is the (itself expandable)
3615 if that is set, the standardized absolute pathname indicated by
3617 if that is set, or a built-in compile-time default otherwise.
3619 Expands to the primary system mailbox of
3621 (and never the value of
3623 regardless of its actual setting).
3625 (Ampersand) is replaced with the invoking users
3626 .Mx -ix "secondary mailbox"
3627 secondary mailbox, the
3634 directory (if that variable is set).
3636 Expands to the same value as
3638 but has special meaning when used with, e.g., the command
3640 the file will be treated as a primary system mailbox by, e.g., the
3644 commands, meaning that messages that have been read in the current
3645 session will be moved to the
3647 mailbox instead of simply being flagged as read.
3651 Meta expansions are applied to the resulting filename, as applicable to
3652 the resulting file access protocol (also see
3653 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) .
3654 If the fully expanded filename results in multiple pathnames and the
3655 command is expecting only one file, an error results.
3657 For the file-protocol, a leading tilde
3659 character will be replaced by the expansion of
3661 except when followed by a valid user name, in which case the home
3662 directory of the given user is used instead.
3664 In addition a shell expansion as if specified in double-quotes (see
3665 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" )
3666 is applied, so that any occurrence of
3670 will be replaced by the expansion of the variable, if possible;
3671 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
3674 (shell) variables can be accessed through this mechanism.
3676 In interactive context, in order to allow simple value acceptance (via
3678 arguments will usually be displayed in a properly quoted form, e.g., a file
3679 .Ql diet\e is \ecurd.txt
3681 .Ql 'diet\e is \ecurd.txt' .
3685 .\" .Ss "Commands" {{{
3688 The following commands are available:
3690 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ic BaNg"
3697 command which follows, replacing unescaped exclamation marks with the
3698 previously executed command if the internal variable
3701 This command supports
3704 .Sx "Command modifiers" ,
3705 and manages the error number
3707 A 0 or positive exit status
3709 reflects the exit status of the command, negative ones that
3710 an error happened before the command was executed, or that the program
3711 did not exit cleanly, but, e.g., due to a signal: the error number is
3712 .Va ^ERR Ns -CHILD ,
3716 In conjunction with the
3718 modifier the following special cases exist:
3719 a negative exit status occurs if the collected data could not be stored
3720 in the given variable, which is a
3722 error that should otherwise not occur.
3723 .Va ^ERR Ns -CANCELED
3724 indicates that no temporary file could be created to collect the command
3725 output at first glance.
3726 In case of catchable out-of-memory situations
3728 will occur and \*(UA will try to store the empty string, just like with
3729 all other detected error conditions.
3734 The comment-command causes the entire line to be ignored.
3736 this really is a normal command which' purpose is to discard its
3739 indicating special character, which means that, e.g., trailing comments
3740 on a line are not possible.
3744 Goes to the next message in sequence and types it
3750 Display the preceding message, or the n'th previous message if given
3751 a numeric argument n.
3755 Show the current message number (the
3760 Show a brief summary of commands.
3761 \*(OP Given an argument a synopsis for the command in question is
3762 shown instead; commands can be abbreviated in general and this command
3763 can be used to see the full expansion of an abbreviation including the
3764 synopsis, try, e.g.,
3769 and see how the output changes.
3770 This mode also supports a more
3772 output, which will provide the informations documented for
3783 .It Ic account , unaccount
3784 (ac, una) Creates, selects or lists (an) account(s).
3785 Accounts are special incarnations of
3787 macros and group commands and variable settings which together usually
3788 arrange the environment for the purpose of creating an email account.
3789 Different to normal macros settings which are covered by
3791 \(en here by default enabled! \(en will not be reverted before the
3796 (case-insensitive) always exists, and all but it can be deleted by the
3797 latter command, and in one operation with the special name
3799 Also for all but it a possibly set
3800 .Va on-account-cleanup
3801 hook is called once they are left.
3803 Without arguments a listing of all defined accounts is shown.
3804 With one argument the given account is activated: the system
3806 of that account will be activated (as via
3808 a possibly installed
3810 will be run, and the internal variable
3813 The two argument form is identical to defining a macro as via
3815 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3817 set folder=~/mail inbox=+syste.mbox record=+sent.mbox
3818 set from='(My Name) myname@myisp.example'
3819 set mta=smtp://mylogin@smtp.myisp.example
3826 Perform email address codec transformations on raw-data argument, rather
3827 according to email standards (RFC 5322; \*(ID will furtherly improve).
3831 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) ,
3832 and manages the error number
3834 The first argument must be either
3835 .Ar [+[+[+]]]e[ncode] ,
3839 and specifies the operation to perform on the rest of the line.
3842 Decoding will show how a standard-compliant MUA will display the given
3843 argument, which should be an email address.
3844 Please be aware that most MUAs have difficulties with the address
3845 standards, and vary wildly when (comments) in parenthesis,
3847 strings, or quoted-pairs, as below, become involved.
3848 \*(ID \*(UA currently does not perform decoding when displaying addresses.
3851 Skinning is identical to decoding but only outputs the plain address,
3852 without any string, comment etc. components.
3853 Another difference is that it may fail with the error number
3857 if decoding fails to find a(n) (valid) email address, in which case the
3858 unmodified input will be output again.
3861 Encoding supports four different modes, lesser automated versions can be
3862 chosen by prefixing one, two or three plus signs: the standard imposes
3863 a special meaning on some characters, which thus have to be transformed
3864 to so-called quoted-pairs by pairing them with a reverse solidus
3866 in order to remove the special meaning; this might change interpretation
3867 of the entire argument from what has been desired, however!
3868 Specify one plus sign to remark that parenthesis shall be left alone,
3869 two for not turning double quotation marks into quoted-pairs, and three
3870 for also leaving any user-specified reverse solidus alone.
3871 The result will always be valid, if a successful exit status is reported.
3872 \*(ID Addresses need to be specified in between angle brackets
3875 if the construct becomes more difficult, otherwise the current parser
3876 will fail; it is not smart enough to guess right.
3878 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3879 ? addrc enc "Hey, you",<diet@exam.ple>\e out\e there
3880 "\e"Hey, you\e", \e\e out\e\e there" <diet@exam.ple>
3881 ? addrc d "\e"Hey, you\e", \e\e out\e\e there" <diet@exam.ple>
3882 "Hey, you", \e out\e there <diet@exam.ple>
3883 ? addrc s "\e"Hey, you\e", \e\e out\e\e there" <diet@exam.ple>
3890 .It Ic alias , unalias
3891 (a, una) Aliases are a method of creating personal distribution lists
3892 that map a single alias name to none to multiple real receivers;
3893 these aliases become expanded after message composing is completed.
3894 The latter command removes the given list of aliases, the special name
3896 will discard all existing aliases.
3898 The former command shows all currently defined aliases when used without
3899 arguments, and with one argument the expansion of the given alias.
3900 With more than one argument, creates or appends to the alias name given
3901 as the first argument the remaining arguments.
3902 Alias names adhere to the Postfix MTA
3904 rules and are thus restricted to alphabetic characters, digits, the
3905 underscore, hyphen-minus, the number sign, colon and commercial at,
3906 the last character can also be the dollar sign; the regular expression:
3907 .Ql [[:alnum:]_#:@-]+$? .
3908 As extensions the exclamation mark
3913 .Dq any character that has the high bit set
3918 .It Ic alternates , unalternates
3919 \*(NQ (alt) Manage a list of alternate addresses or names of the active user,
3920 members of which will be removed from recipient lists.
3921 The latter command removes the given list of alternates, the special name
3923 will discard all existing aliases.
3924 The former command manages the error number
3926 and shows the current set of alternates when used without arguments; in
3927 this mode it supports
3930 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
3931 Otherwise the given arguments (after being checked for validity) are
3932 appended to the list of alternate names; in
3934 mode they replace that list instead.
3935 There is a set of implicit alternates which is formed of the values of
3944 .It Ic answered , unanswered
3945 Take a message lists and mark each message as having been answered,
3946 having not been answered, respectively.
3947 Messages will be marked answered when being
3949 to automatically if the
3953 .Sx "Message states" .
3958 .It Ic bind , unbind
3959 \*(OP\*(NQ The bind command extends the MLE (see
3960 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
3961 with freely configurable key bindings.
3962 The latter command removes from the given context the given key binding,
3963 both of which may be specified as a wildcard
3967 will remove all bindings of all contexts.
3968 Due to initialization order unbinding will not work for built-in key
3969 bindings upon program startup, however: please use
3970 .Va line-editor-no-defaults
3971 for this purpose instead.
3974 With one argument the former command shows all key bindings for the
3975 given context, specifying an asterisk
3977 will show the bindings of all contexts; a more verbose listing will be
3978 produced if either of
3983 With two or more arguments a binding is (re)established:
3984 the first argument is the context to which the binding shall apply,
3985 the second argument is a comma-separated list of the
3987 which form the binding, and any remaining arguments form the expansion.
3988 To indicate that a binding shall not be auto-committed, but that the
3989 expansion shall instead be furtherly editable by the user, a commercial at
3991 (that will be removed) can be placed last in the expansion, from which
3992 leading and trailing whitespace will finally be removed.
3993 Reverse solidus cannot be used as the last character of expansion.
3996 Contexts define when a binding applies, i.e., a binding will not be seen
3997 unless the context for which it is defined for is currently active.
3998 This is not true for the shared binding
4000 which is the foundation for all other bindings and as such always
4001 applies, its bindings, however, only apply secondarily.
4002 The available contexts are the shared
4006 context which is used in all not otherwise documented situations, and
4008 which applies to compose mode only.
4012 which form the binding are specified as a comma-separated list of
4013 byte-sequences, where each list entry corresponds to one key(press).
4014 A list entry may, indicated by a leading colon character
4016 also refer to the name of a terminal capability; several dozen names
4017 will be compiled in and may be specified either by their
4019 or, if existing, by their
4021 name, regardless of the actually used \*(OPal terminal control library.
4022 It is possible to use any capability, as long as the name is resolvable
4023 by the \*(OPal control library or was defined via the internal variable
4025 Input sequences are not case-normalized, so that an exact match is
4026 required to update or remove a binding.
4029 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4030 ? bind base $'\eE',d mle-snarf-word-fwd # Esc(ape)
4031 ? bind base $'\eE',$'\ec?' mle-snarf-word-bwd # Esc, Delete
4032 ? bind default $'\ecA',:khome,w 'echo An editable binding@'
4033 ? bind default a,b,c rm -irf / @ # Another editable binding
4034 ? bind default :kf1 File %
4035 ? bind compose :kf1 ~e
4039 Note that the entire comma-separated list is first parsed (over) as a
4040 shell-token with whitespace as the field separator, before being parsed
4041 and expanded for real with comma as the field separator, therefore
4042 whitespace needs to be properly quoted, see
4043 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" .
4044 Using Unicode reverse solidus escape sequences renders a binding
4045 defunctional if the locale does not support Unicode (see
4046 .Sx "Character sets" ) ,
4047 and using terminal capabilities does so if no (corresponding) terminal
4048 control support is (currently) available.
4051 The following terminal capability names are built-in and can be used in
4053 or (if available) the two-letter
4056 See the respective manual for a list of capabilities.
4059 can be used to show all the capabilities of
4061 or the given terminal type;
4064 flag will also show supported (non-standard) extensions.
4067 .Bl -tag -compact -width kcuuf_or_kcuuf
4068 .It Cd kbs Ns \0or Cd kb
4070 .It Cd kdch1 Ns \0or Cd kD
4072 .It Cd kDC Ns \0or Cd *4
4073 \(em shifted variant.
4074 .It Cd kel Ns \0or Cd kE
4075 Clear to end of line.
4076 .It Cd kext Ns \0or Cd @9
4078 .It Cd kich1 Ns \0or Cd kI
4080 .It Cd kIC Ns \0or Cd #3
4081 \(em shifted variant.
4082 .It Cd khome Ns \0or Cd kh
4084 .It Cd kHOM Ns \0or Cd #2
4085 \(em shifted variant.
4086 .It Cd kend Ns \0or Cd @7
4088 .It Cd knp Ns \0or Cd kN
4090 .It Cd kpp Ns \0or Cd kP
4092 .It Cd kcub1 Ns \0or Cd kl
4093 Left cursor (with more modifiers: see below).
4094 .It Cd kLFT Ns \0or Cd #4
4095 \(em shifted variant.
4096 .It Cd kcuf1 Ns \0or Cd kr
4097 Right cursor (ditto).
4098 .It Cd kRIT Ns \0or Cd %i
4099 \(em shifted variant.
4100 .It Cd kcud1 Ns \0or Cd kd
4101 Down cursor (ditto).
4103 \(em shifted variant (only terminfo).
4104 .It Cd kcuu1 Ns \0or Cd ku
4107 \(em shifted variant (only terminfo).
4108 .It Cd kf0 Ns \0or Cd k0
4110 Add one for each function key up to
4115 .It Cd kf10 Ns \0or Cd k;
4117 .It Cd kf11 Ns \0or Cd F1
4119 Add one for each function key up to
4127 Some terminals support key-modifier combination extensions, e.g.,
4129 For example, the delete key,
4131 in its shifted variant, the name is mutated to
4133 then a number is appended for the states
4145 .Ql Shift+Alt+Control
4147 The same for the left cursor key,
4149 .Cd KLFT , KLFT3 , KLFT4 , KLFT5 , KLFT6 , KLFT7 , KLFT8 .
4152 It is advisable to use an initial escape or other control character (e.g.,
4154 for bindings which describe user key combinations (as opposed to purely
4155 terminal capability based ones), in order to avoid ambiguities whether
4156 input belongs to key sequences or not; it also reduces search time.
4159 may help shall keys and sequences be falsely recognized.
4164 \*(NQ Calls the given macro, which must have been created via
4169 Parameters given to macros are implicitly local to the macro's scope, and
4170 may be accessed via special (positional) parameters, e.g.,
4175 The positional parameters may be removed by
4177 ing them off the stack (exceeding the supported number of arguments
4179 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW ) ,
4180 and are otherwise controllable via
4185 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
4186 can be reverted before the current level regains control by setting
4188 for called macro(s) (or in them, of course).
4189 Macro execution can be terminated at any time by calling
4193 Calling macros recursively will at some time excess the stack size
4194 limit, causing a hard program abortion; if recursively calling a macro
4195 is the last command of the current macro, consider to use the command
4197 which will first release all resources of the current macro before
4198 replacing the current macro with the called one.
4199 Numeric and string operations can be performed via
4203 may be helpful to recreate argument lists.
4205 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4207 echo Parameter 1 of ${#} is ${1}, all: ${*} / ${@}
4210 call exmac Hello macro exmac!
4218 if the given macro has been created via
4220 but doesn't fail nor warn if the macro doesn't exist.
4224 (ch) Change the working directory to
4226 or the given argument.
4232 \*(OP Only applicable to S/MIME signed messages.
4233 Takes a message list and a filename and saves the certificates
4234 contained within the message signatures to the named file in both
4235 human-readable and PEM format.
4236 The certificates can later be used to send encrypted messages to the
4237 respective message senders by setting
4238 .Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST
4243 .It Ic charsetalias , uncharsetalias
4244 \*(NQ Manage (character set conversion) character set alias mappings,
4245 as documented in the section
4246 .Sx "Character sets" .
4247 Character set aliases are expanded recursively, but no expansion is
4248 performed on values of the user-settable variables, e.g.,
4250 These are effectively no-operations if character set conversion
4251 is not available (i.e., no
4255 Without arguments the list of all currently defined aliases is shown,
4256 with one argument the expansion of the given alias.
4257 Otherwise all given arguments are treated as pairs of character sets and
4258 their desired target alias name, creating new or changing already
4259 existing aliases, as necessary.
4261 The latter deletes all aliases given as arguments, the special argument
4263 will remove all aliases.
4267 (ch) Change the working directory to
4269 or the given argument.
4275 .It Ic collapse , uncollapse
4276 Only applicable to threaded mode.
4277 Takes a message list and makes all replies to these messages invisible
4278 in header summaries, except for
4282 Also when a message with collapsed replies is displayed,
4283 all of these are automatically uncollapsed.
4284 The latter command undoes collapsing.
4289 .It Ic colour , uncolour
4290 \*(OP\*(NQ Manage colour mappings of and for a
4291 .Sx "Coloured display" .
4292 The type of colour is given as the (case-insensitive) first argument,
4293 which must be one of
4295 for 256-colour terminals,
4300 for the standard 8-colour ANSI / ISO 6429 color palette and
4304 for monochrome terminals.
4305 Monochrome terminals cannot deal with colours, but only (some) font
4309 Without further arguments the list of all currently defined mappings
4310 for the given colour type is shown (as a special case giving
4314 will show the mappings of all types).
4315 Otherwise the second argument defines the mappable slot, and the third
4316 argument a (comma-separated list of) colour and font attribute
4317 specification(s), and the optional fourth argument can be used to
4318 specify a precondition: if conditioned mappings exist they are tested in
4319 (creation) order unless a (case-insensitive) match has been found, and
4320 the default mapping (if any has been established) will only be chosen as
4322 The types of precondition available depend on the mappable slot (see
4323 .Sx "Coloured display"
4324 for some examples), the following of which exist:
4327 Mappings prefixed with
4329 are used for the \*(OPal built-in Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE, see
4330 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
4331 and do not support preconditions.
4333 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
4335 This mapping is used for the position indicator that is visible when
4336 a line cannot be fully displayed on the screen.
4343 Mappings prefixed with
4345 are used in header summaries, and they all understand the preconditions
4347 (the current message) and
4349 for elder messages (only honoured in conjunction with
4350 .Va datefield-markout-older ) .
4352 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
4354 This mapping is used for the
4356 that can be created with the
4360 formats of the variable
4363 For the complete header summary line except the
4365 and the thread structure.
4367 For the thread structure which can be created with the
4369 format of the variable
4374 Mappings prefixed with
4376 are used when displaying messages.
4378 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
4380 This mapping is used for so-called
4382 lines, which are MBOX file format specific header lines.
4385 A comma-separated list of headers to which the mapping applies may be
4386 given as a precondition; if the \*(OPal regular expression support is
4387 available then if any of the
4389 (extended) regular expression characters is seen the precondition will
4390 be evaluated as (an extended) one.
4392 For the introductional message info line.
4393 .It Ar view-partinfo
4394 For MIME part info lines.
4398 The following (case-insensitive) colour definitions and font attributes
4399 are understood, multiple of which can be specified in a comma-separated
4409 It is possible (and often applicable) to specify multiple font
4410 attributes for a single mapping.
4413 foreground colour attribute:
4423 To specify a 256-color mode a decimal number colour specification in
4424 the range 0 to 255, inclusive, is supported, and interpreted as follows:
4426 .Bl -tag -compact -width "999 - 999"
4428 the standard ISO 6429 colors, as above.
4430 high intensity variants of the standard colors.
4432 216 colors in tuples of 6.
4434 grayscale from black to white in 24 steps.
4436 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4438 fg() { printf "\e033[38;5;${1}m($1)"; }
4439 bg() { printf "\e033[48;5;${1}m($1)"; }
4441 while [ $i -lt 256 ]; do fg $i; i=$(($i + 1)); done
4442 printf "\e033[0m\en"
4444 while [ $i -lt 256 ]; do bg $i; i=$(($i + 1)); done
4445 printf "\e033[0m\en"
4449 background colour attribute (see
4451 for possible values).
4457 will remove for the given colour type (the special type
4459 selects all) the given mapping; if the optional precondition argument is
4460 given only the exact tuple of mapping and precondition is removed.
4463 will remove all mappings (no precondition allowed), thus
4465 will remove all established mappings.
4470 .It Ic commandalias , uncommandalias
4471 \*(NQ Define or list, and remove, respectively, command aliases.
4472 An (command)alias can be used everywhere a normal command can be used,
4473 but always takes precedence: any arguments that are given to the command
4474 alias are joined onto the alias expansion, and the resulting string
4475 forms the command line that is, in effect, executed.
4476 The latter command removes all given aliases, the special name
4478 will remove all existing aliases.
4479 When used without arguments the former shows a list of all currently
4480 known aliases, with one argument only the expansion of the given one.
4482 With two or more arguments a command alias is defined or updated: the
4483 first argument is the name under which the remaining command line should
4484 be accessible, the content of which can be just about anything.
4485 An alias may itself expand to another alias, but to avoid expansion loops
4486 further expansion will be prevented if an alias refers to itself or if
4487 an expansion depth limit is reached.
4488 Explicit expansion prevention is available via reverse solidus
4491 .Sx "Command modifiers" .
4492 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4494 \*(uA: `commandalias': no such alias: xx
4495 ? commandalias xx echo hello,
4497 commandalias xx 'echo hello,'
4506 (C) Copy messages to files whose names are derived from the author of
4507 the respective message and do not mark them as being saved;
4508 otherwise identical to
4513 (c) Copy messages to the named file and do not mark them as being saved;
4514 otherwise identical to
4519 Show the name of the current working directory, as reported by
4524 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
4525 The return status is tracked via
4530 \*(OP For unencrypted messages this command is identical to
4532 Encrypted messages are first decrypted, if possible, and then copied.
4536 \*(OP For unencrypted messages this command is identical to
4538 Encrypted messages are first decrypted, if possible, and then copied.
4542 .It Ic define , undefine
4543 Without arguments the current list of macros, including their content,
4544 is shown, otherwise a macro is defined, replacing an existing macro of
4546 A macro definition is a sequence of commands in the following form:
4547 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4556 A defined macro can be invoked explicitly by using the
4561 commands, or implicitly if a macro hook is triggered, e.g., a
4563 It is possible to localize adjustments, like creation, deletion and
4565 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
4568 command; the scope which is localized depends on how (i.e.,
4570 normal macro, folder hook, hook,
4572 switch) the macro is invoked.
4573 Execution of a macro body can be stopped from within by calling
4577 ed macro, given positional parameters can be
4579 ed, or become completely replaced, removed etc. via
4582 The latter command deletes the given macro, the special name
4584 will discard all existing macros.
4585 Creation and deletion of (a) macro(s) can be performed from within
4590 .It Ic delete , undelete
4591 (d, u) Marks the given message list as being or not being
4593 respectively; if no argument has been specified then the usual search
4594 for a visible message is performed, as documented for
4595 .Sx "Message list arguments" ,
4596 showing only the next input prompt if the search fails.
4597 Deleted messages will neither be saved in the
4599 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
4601 nor will they be available for most other commands.
4604 variable is set, the new
4606 or the last message restored, respectively, is automatically
4616 Superseded by the multiplexer
4622 Delete the given messages and automatically
4626 if one exists, regardless of the setting of
4633 up or down by one message when given
4637 argument, respectively.
4641 .It Ic draft , undraft
4642 Take message lists and mark each given message as being draft, or not
4643 being draft, respectively, as documented in the section
4644 .Sx "Message states" .
4648 \*(NQ (ec) Echoes arguments to standard output and writes a trailing
4649 newline, whereas the otherwise identical
4652 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
4654 .Sx "Filename transformations"
4655 are applied to the expanded arguments.
4661 except that is echoes to standard error.
4664 In interactive sessions the \*(OPal message ring queue for
4666 will be used instead, if available.
4672 but does not write a trailing newline.
4678 but does not write a trailing newline.
4682 (e) Point the text editor (as defined in
4684 at each message from the given list in turn.
4685 Modified contents are discarded unless the
4687 variable is set, and are not used unless the mailbox can be written to
4688 and the editor returns a successful exit status.
4693 .Ic if Ns \0/\: Ic elif Ns \0/\: Ic else Ns \0/\: Ic endif
4694 conditional \(em if the condition of a preceding
4696 was false, check the following condition and execute the following block
4697 if it evaluates true.
4702 .Ic if Ns \0/\: Ic elif Ns \0/\: Ic else Ns \0/\: Ic endif
4703 conditional \(em if none of the conditions of the preceding
4707 commands was true, the
4713 (en) Marks the end of an
4714 .Ic if Ns \0/\: Ic elif Ns \0/\: Ic else Ns \0/\: Ic endif
4715 conditional execution block.
4720 \*(NQ \*(UA has a strict notion about which variables are
4721 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
4722 and which are managed in the program
4724 Since some of the latter are a vivid part of \*(UAs functioning,
4725 however, they are transparently integrated into the normal handling of
4726 internal variables via
4730 To integrate other environment variables of choice into this
4731 transparent handling, and also to export internal variables into the
4732 process environment where they normally are not, a
4734 needs to become established with this command, as in, e.g.,
4737 .Dl environ link PERL5LIB TZ
4740 Afterwards changing such variables with
4742 will cause automatic updates of the program environment, and therefore
4743 be inherited by newly created child processes.
4744 Sufficient system support provided (it was in BSD as early as 1987, and
4745 is standardized since Y2K) removing such variables with
4747 will remove them also from the program environment, but in any way
4748 the knowledge they ever have been
4751 Note that this implies that
4753 may cause loss of such links.
4758 will remove an existing link, but leaves the variables as such intact.
4759 Additionally the subcommands
4763 are provided, which work exactly the same as the documented commands
4767 but (additionally un)link the variable(s) with the program environment
4768 and thus immediately export them to, or remove them from (if possible),
4769 respectively, the program environment.
4774 \*(OP Since \*(UA uses the console as a user interface it can happen
4775 that messages scroll by too fast to become recognized.
4776 An error message ring queue is available which stores duplicates of any
4777 error message and notifies the user in interactive sessions whenever
4778 a new error has occurred.
4779 The queue is finite: if its maximum size is reached any new message
4780 replaces the eldest.
4783 can be used to manage this message queue: if given
4785 or no argument the queue will be displayed and cleared,
4787 will only clear all messages from the queue.
4791 \*(NQ Construct a command by concatenating the arguments, separated with
4792 a single space character, and then evaluate the result.
4793 This command passes through the exit status
4797 of the evaluated command; also see
4799 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4810 call yyy '\ecall xxx' "b\e$'\et'u ' "
4818 (ex or x) Exit from \*(UA without changing the active mailbox and skip
4819 any saving of messages in the
4821 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
4823 as well as a possibly tracked line editor
4825 The optional status number argument will be passed through to
4827 \*(ID For now it can happen that the given status will be overwritten,
4828 later this will only occur if a later error needs to be reported onto an
4829 otherwise success indicating status.
4835 but open the mailbox read-only.
4840 (fi) The file command switches to a new mailbox.
4841 Without arguments it shows status information of the current mailbox.
4842 If an argument is given, it will write out changes (such as deletions)
4843 the user has made, open a new mailbox, update the internal variables
4844 .Va mailbox-resolved
4846 .Va mailbox-display ,
4847 and optionally display a summary of
4854 .Sx "Filename transformations"
4855 will be applied to the
4859 prefixes are, i.e., URL syntax is understood, e.g.,
4860 .Ql maildir:///tmp/mdirbox :
4861 if a protocol prefix is used the mailbox type is fixated and neither
4862 the auto-detection (read on) nor the
4865 \*(OPally URLs can also be used to access network resources, which may
4866 be accessed securely via
4867 .Sx "Encrypted network communication"
4868 if so supported, and it is possible to proxy all network traffic over
4869 a SOCKS5 server given via
4873 .Dl \*(IN protocol://[user[:password]@]host[:port][/path]
4874 .Dl \*(OU protocol://[user@]host[:port][/path]
4877 \*(OPally supported network protocols are
4881 (POP3 with SSL/TLS encrypted transport),
4887 part is valid only for IMAP; there it defaults to
4889 Network URLs require a special encoding as documented in the section
4890 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
4893 If the resulting file protocol (MBOX database)
4895 is located on a local filesystem then the list of all registered
4897 s is traversed in order to see whether a transparent intermediate
4898 conversion step is necessary to handle the given mailbox, in which case
4899 \*(UA will use the found hook to load and save data into and from
4900 a temporary file, respectively.
4901 Changing hooks will not affect already opened mailboxes.
4902 For example, the following creates hooks for the
4904 compression tool and a combined compressed and encrypted format:
4906 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4908 gzip 'gzip -dc' 'gzip -c' \e
4909 zst.pgp 'gpg -d | zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc | gpg -e'
4913 MBOX database files are generally locked during file operations in order
4914 to avoid inconsistencies due to concurrent modifications.
4915 \*(OPal Mailbox files which \*(UA treats as the system
4920 .Sx "primary system mailbox" Ns
4921 es in general will also be protected by so-called dotlock files, the
4922 traditional way of mail spool file locking: for any file
4926 will be created for the duration of the synchronization \(em
4927 as necessary a privilege-separated dotlock child process will be used
4928 to accommodate for necessary privilege adjustments in order to create
4929 the dotlock file in the same directory
4930 and with the same user and group identities as the file of interest.
4933 \*(UA by default uses tolerant POSIX rules when reading MBOX database
4934 files, but it will detect invalid message boundaries in this mode and
4935 complain (even more with
4937 if any is seen: in this case
4939 can be used to create a valid MBOX database from the invalid input.
4942 If no protocol has been fixated, and
4944 refers to a directory with the subdirectories
4949 then it is treated as a folder in
4952 The maildir format stores each message in its own file, and has been
4953 designed so that file locking is not necessary when reading or writing
4957 \*(ID If no protocol has been fixated and no existing file has
4958 been found, the variable
4960 controls the format of mailboxes yet to be created.
4965 .It Ic filetype , unfiletype
4966 \*(NQ Define or list, and remove, respectively, file handler hooks,
4967 which provide (shell) commands that enable \*(UA to load and save MBOX
4968 files from and to files with the registered file extensions;
4969 it will use an intermediate temporary file to store the plain data.
4970 The latter command removes the hooks for all given extensions,
4972 will remove all existing handlers.
4974 When used without arguments the former shows a list of all currently
4975 defined file hooks, with one argument the expansion of the given alias.
4976 Otherwise three arguments are expected, the first specifying the file
4977 extension for which the hook is meant, and the second and third defining
4978 the load- and save commands, respectively, to deal with the file type,
4979 both of which must read from standard input and write to standard
4981 Changing hooks will not affect already opened mailboxes (\*(ID except below).
4982 \*(ID For now too much work is done, and files are oftened read in twice
4983 where once would be sufficient: this can cause problems if a filetype is
4984 changed while such a file is opened; this was already so with the
4985 built-in support of .gz etc. in Heirloom, and will vanish in v15.
4986 \*(ID For now all handler strings are passed to the
4987 .Ev SHELL for evaluation purposes; in the future a
4989 prefix to load and save commands may mean to bypass this shell instance:
4990 placing a leading space will avoid any possible misinterpretations.
4991 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4992 ? filetype bz2 'bzip2 -dc' 'bzip2 -zc' \e
4993 gz 'gzip -dc' 'gzip -c' xz 'xz -dc' 'xz -zc' \e
4994 zst 'zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc' \e
4995 zst.pgp 'gpg -d | zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc | gpg -e'
4996 ? set record=+sent.zst.pgp
5001 .It Ic flag , unflag
5002 Take message lists and mark the messages as being flagged, or not being
5003 flagged, respectively, for urgent/special attention.
5005 .Sx "Message states" .
5014 With no arguments, list the names of the folders in the folder directory.
5015 With an existing folder as an argument,
5016 lists the names of folders below the named folder.
5022 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
5023 recipient's address (instead of in
5030 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
5031 recipient's address (instead of in
5038 but responds to all recipients regardless of the
5043 .It Ic followupsender
5046 but responds to the sender only regardless of the
5054 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the
5055 recipient's address (instead of in
5060 Takes a message and the address of a recipient
5061 and forwards the message to him.
5062 The text of the original message is included in the new one,
5063 with the value of the
5064 .Va forward-inject-head
5065 variable preceding it.
5066 To filter the included header fields to the desired subset use the
5068 slot of the white- and blacklisting command
5070 Only the first part of a multipart message is included unless
5071 .Va forward-as-attachment ,
5072 and recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names
5073 etc. unless the internal variable
5077 This may generate the errors
5078 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
5079 if no receiver has been specified,
5081 if some addressees where rejected by
5084 if no applicable messages have been given,
5086 if multiple messages have been specified,
5088 if an I/O error occurs,
5090 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
5096 (f) Takes a list of message specifications and displays a summary of
5097 their message headers, exactly as via
5099 An alias of this command is
5102 .Sx "Specifying messages" .
5113 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
5117 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
5120 .It Ic ghost , unghost
5123 .Ic uncommandalias .
5127 .It Ic headerpick , unheaderpick
5128 \*(NQ Multiplexer command to manage white- and blacklisting
5129 selections of header fields for a variety of applications.
5130 Without arguments the set of contexts that have settings is displayed.
5131 When given arguments, the first argument is the context to which the
5132 command applies, one of (case-insensitive)
5134 for display purposes (via, e.g.,
5137 for selecting which headers shall be stored persistently when
5143 ing messages (note that MIME related etc. header fields should not be
5144 ignored in order to not destroy usability of the message in this case),
5146 for stripping down messages when
5148 ing message (has no effect if
5149 .Va forward-as-attachment
5152 for defining user-defined set of fields for the command
5155 The current settings of the given context are displayed if it is the
5157 A second argument denotes the type of restriction that is to be chosen,
5158 it may be (a case-insensitive prefix of)
5162 for white- and blacklisting purposes, respectively.
5163 Establishing a whitelist suppresses inspection of the corresponding
5166 If no further argument is given the current settings of the given type
5167 will be displayed, otherwise the remaining arguments specify header
5168 fields, which \*(OPally may be given as regular expressions, to be added
5170 The special wildcard field (asterisk,
5172 will establish a (fast) shorthand setting which covers all fields.
5174 The latter command always takes three or more arguments and can be used
5175 to remove selections, i.e., from the given context, the given type of
5176 list, all the given headers will be removed, the special argument
5178 will remove all headers.
5182 (h) Show the current group of headers, the size of which depends on
5185 and the style of which can be adjusted with the variable
5187 If a message-specification is given the group of headers containing the
5188 first message therein is shown and the message at the top of the screen
5201 (this mode also supports a more
5205 the list of history entries;
5208 argument selects and evaluates the respective history entry,
5209 which will become the new history top; a negative number is used as an
5210 offset to the current command, e.g.,
5212 will select the last command, the history top.
5213 The default mode if no arguments are given is
5216 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor"
5217 for more on this topic.
5223 Takes a message list and marks each message therein to be saved in the
5228 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
5230 Does not override the
5233 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command, because a
5235 command issued after
5237 will display the following message, not the current one.
5242 (i) Part of the nestable
5243 .Ic if Ns \0/\: Ic elif Ns \0/\: Ic else Ns \0/\: Ic endif
5244 conditional execution construct \(em if the given condition is true then
5245 the encapsulated block is executed.
5246 The POSIX standards supports the (case-insensitive) conditions
5251 end, all remaining conditions are non-portable extensions.
5252 \*(ID These commands do not yet use
5253 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
5254 and therefore do not know about input tokens, so that syntax
5255 elements have to be surrounded by whitespace; in v15 \*(UA will inspect
5256 all conditions bracket group wise and consider the tokens, representing
5257 values and operators, therein, which also means that variables will
5258 already have been expanded at that time (just like in the shell).
5260 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5269 The (case-insensitive) condition
5271 erminal will evaluate to true if the standard input is a terminal, i.e.,
5272 in interactive sessions.
5273 Another condition can be any boolean value (see the section
5274 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
5275 for textual boolean representations) to mark an enwrapped block as
5278 .Dq always execute .
5279 (It shall be remarked that a faulty condition skips all branches until
5284 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
5285 will be used, and this command will simply interpret expanded tokens.)
5286 It is possible to check
5287 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
5290 variables for existence or compare their expansion against a user given
5291 value or another variable by using the
5293 .Pf ( Dq variable next )
5294 conditional trigger character;
5295 a variable on the right hand side may be signalled using the same
5297 Variable names may be enclosed in a pair of matching braces.
5298 When this mode has been triggered, several operators are available:
5301 Integer operators treat the arguments on the left and right hand side of
5302 the operator as integral numbers and compare them arithmetically.
5303 It is an error if any of the operands is not a valid integer, an empty
5304 argument (which implies it had been quoted) is treated as if it were 0.
5305 Available operators are
5309 (less than or equal to),
5315 (greater than or equal to), and
5320 String data operators compare the left and right hand side according to
5321 their textual content.
5322 Unset variables are treated as the empty string.
5323 The behaviour of string operators can be adjusted by prefixing the
5324 operator with the modifier trigger commercial at
5326 followed by none to multiple modifiers: for now supported is
5328 which turns the comparison into a case-insensitive one: this is
5329 implied if no modifier follows the trigger.
5332 Available string operators are
5336 (less than or equal to),
5342 (greater than or equal to),
5346 (is substring of) and
5348 (is not substring of).
5349 By default these operators work on bytes and (therefore) do not take
5350 into account character set specifics.
5351 If the case-insensitivity modifier has been used, case is ignored
5352 according to the rules of the US-ASCII encoding, i.e., bytes are
5356 When the \*(OPal regular expression support is available, the additional
5362 They treat the right hand side as an extended regular expression that is
5363 matched according to the active locale (see
5364 .Sx "Character sets" ) ,
5365 i.e., character sets should be honoured correctly.
5368 Conditions can be joined via AND-OR lists (where the AND operator is
5370 and the OR operator is
5372 which have equal precedence and will be evaluated with left
5373 associativity, thus using the same syntax that is known for the
5375 It is also possible to form groups of conditions and lists by enclosing
5376 them in pairs of brackets
5377 .Ql [\ \&.\&.\&.\ ] ,
5378 which may be interlocked within each other, and also be joined via
5382 The results of individual conditions and entire groups may be modified
5383 via unary operators: the unary operator
5385 will reverse the result.
5387 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5388 # (This not in v15, there [ -n "$debug"]!)
5392 if [ "$ttycharset" == UTF-8 ] || [ "$ttycharset" @i== UTF8 ]
5393 echo *ttycharset* is UTF-8, the former case-sensitive!
5396 if [ "${t1}" == "${t2}" ]
5397 echo These two variables are equal
5399 if [ "$features" =% +regex ] && [ "$TERM" @i=~ "^xterm\&.*" ]
5400 echo ..in an X terminal
5402 if [ [ true ] && [ [ "${debug}" != '' ] || \e
5403 [ "$verbose" != '' ] ] ]
5406 if true && [ "$debug" != '' ] || [ "${verbose}" != '' ]
5407 echo Left associativity, as is known from the shell
5416 Superseded by the multiplexer
5421 Shows the names of all available commands, alphabetically sorted.
5422 If given any non-whitespace argument the list will be shown in the order
5423 in which command prefixes are searched.
5424 \*(OP In conjunction with a set variable
5426 additional information will be provided for each command: the argument
5427 type will be indicated, the documentation string will be shown,
5428 and the set of command flags will show up:
5430 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql BaNg"
5431 .It Ql "vput modifier"
5432 command supports the command modifier
5434 .It Ql "errno in *!*"
5435 the error number is tracked in
5438 commands needs an active mailbox, a
5440 .It Ql "ok: batch or interactive"
5441 command may only be used in interactive or
5444 .It Ql "ok: send mode"
5445 command can be used in send mode.
5446 .It Ql "not ok: compose mode"
5447 command is not available when in compose mode.
5448 .It Ql "not ok: during startup"
5449 command cannot be used during program startup, e.g., while loading
5450 .Sx "Resource files" .
5451 .It Ql "ok: in subprocess"
5452 command is allowed to be used when running in a subprocess instance,
5453 e.g., from within a macro that is called via
5454 .Va on-compose-splice .
5460 This command can be used to localize changes to (linked)
5463 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
5464 meaning that their state will be reverted to the former one once the
5467 \*(ID Note in the future the coverage may be extended to none or any of
5477 It can only be used inside of macro definition blocks introduced by
5481 The covered scope of an
5483 is left once a different account is activated, and some macros, notably
5484 .Va folder-hook Ns s ,
5485 use their own specific notion of covered scope, here it will be extended
5486 until the folder is left again.
5489 This setting stacks up: i.e., if
5491 enables change localization and calls
5493 which explicitly resets localization, then any value changes within
5495 will still be reverted when the scope of
5498 (Caveats: if in this example
5500 changes to a different
5502 which sets some variables that are already covered by localizations,
5503 their scope will be extended, and in fact leaving the
5505 will (thus) restore settings in (likely) global scope which actually
5506 were defined in a local, macro private context!)
5509 This command takes one or two arguments, the optional first one
5510 specifies an attribute that may be one of
5512 which refers to the current scope and is thus the default,
5514 which causes any macro that is being
5516 ed to be started with localization enabled by default, as well as
5518 which (if enabled) disallows any called macro to turn off localization:
5519 like this it can be ensured that once the current scope regains control,
5520 any changes made in deeper levels have been reverted.
5521 The latter two are mutually exclusive.
5522 The (second) argument is interpreted as a boolean (string, see
5523 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" )
5524 and states whether the given attribute shall be turned on or off.
5526 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5527 define temporary_settings {
5528 set possibly_global_option1
5533 set possibly_global_option2
5540 Reply to messages that come in via known
5543 .Pf ( Ic mlsubscribe )
5544 mailing lists, or pretend to do so (see
5545 .Sx "Mailing lists" ) :
5548 functionality this will actively resort and even remove message
5549 recipients in order to generate a message that is supposed to be sent to
5551 For example it will also implicitly generate a
5552 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
5553 header if that seems useful, regardless of the setting of the variable
5555 For more documentation please refer to
5556 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
5558 This may generate the errors
5559 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
5560 if no receiver has been specified,
5562 if some addressees where rejected by
5565 if no applicable messages have been given,
5567 if an I/O error occurs,
5569 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
5572 Any error stops processing of further messages.
5578 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
5579 recipient's address (instead of in
5584 (m) Takes a (list of) recipient address(es) as (an) argument(s),
5585 or asks on standard input if none were given;
5586 then collects the remaining mail content and sends it out.
5587 Unless the internal variable
5589 is set recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names etc.
5590 For more documentation please refer to
5591 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
5593 This may generate the errors
5594 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
5595 if no receiver has been specified,
5597 if some addressees where rejected by
5600 if no applicable messages have been given,
5602 if multiple messages have been specified,
5604 if an I/O error occurs,
5606 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
5612 (mb) The given message list is to be sent to the
5614 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
5616 when \*(UA is quit; this is the default action unless the variable
5619 \*(ID This command can only be used in a
5621 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
5625 .It Ic mimetype , unmimetype
5626 Without arguments the content of the MIME type cache will displayed;
5627 a more verbose listing will be produced if either of
5632 When given arguments they will be joined, interpreted as shown in
5633 .Sx "The mime.types files"
5635 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ) ,
5636 and the resulting entry will be added (prepended) to the cache.
5637 In any event MIME type sources are loaded first as necessary \(en
5638 .Va mimetypes-load-control
5639 can be used to fine-tune which sources are actually loaded.
5641 The latter command deletes all specifications of the given MIME type, thus
5642 .Ql ? unmimetype text/plain
5643 will remove all registered specifications for the MIME type
5647 will discard all existing MIME types, just as will
5649 but which also reenables cache initialization via
5650 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
5654 .It Ic mlist , unmlist
5655 The latter command removes all given mailing-lists, the special name
5657 can be used to remove all registered lists.
5658 The former will list all currently defined mailing lists (and their
5659 attributes, if any) when used without arguments; a more verbose listing
5660 will be produced if either of
5665 Otherwise all given arguments will be added and henceforth be recognized
5667 If the \*(OPal regular expression support is available then mailing
5668 lists may also be specified as (extended) regular expressions (see
5674 \*(ID Only available in interactive mode, this command allows to display
5675 MIME parts which require external MIME handler programs to run which do
5676 not integrate in \*(UAs normal
5679 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ) .
5680 (\*(ID No syntax to directly address parts, this restriction may vanish.)
5681 The user will be asked for each non-text part of the given message in
5682 turn whether the registered handler shall be used to display the part.
5686 .It Ic mlsubscribe , unmlsubscribe
5687 The latter command removes the subscription attribute from all given
5688 mailing-lists, the special name
5690 can be used to do so for any registered list.
5691 The former will list all currently defined mailing lists which have
5692 a subscription attribute when used without arguments; a more verbose
5693 listing will be produced if either of
5698 Otherwise this attribute will be set for all given mailing lists,
5699 newly creating them as necessary (as via
5708 but moves the messages to a file named after the local part of the
5709 sender address of the first message (instead of in
5716 but marks the messages for deletion if they were transferred
5723 but also displays header fields which would not pass the
5725 selection, and all MIME parts.
5733 on the given messages, even in non-interactive mode and as long as the
5734 standard output is a terminal.
5740 \*(OP When used without arguments or if
5742 has been given the content of the
5744 cache is shown, loading it first as necessary.
5747 then the cache will only be initialized and
5749 will remove its contents.
5750 Note that \*(UA will try to load the file only once, use
5751 .Ql Ic \&\&netrc Ns \:\0\:clear
5752 to unlock further attempts.
5757 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ;
5759 .Sx "The .netrc file"
5760 documents the file format in detail.
5764 Checks for new mail in the current folder without committing any changes
5766 If new mail is present, a message is shown.
5770 the headers of each new message are also shown.
5771 This command is not available for all mailbox types.
5779 Goes to the next message in sequence and types it.
5780 With an argument list, types the next matching message.
5794 If the current folder is accessed via a network connection, a
5796 command is sent, otherwise no operation is performed.
5802 but also displays header fields which would not pass the
5804 selection, and all MIME parts.
5812 on the given messages, even in non-interactive mode and as long as the
5813 standard output is a terminal.
5821 but also pipes header fields which would not pass the
5823 selection, and all parts of MIME
5824 .Ql multipart/alternative
5829 (pi) Takes a message list and a shell command
5830 and pipes the messages through the command.
5831 Without an argument the current message is piped through the command
5838 every message is followed by a formfeed character.
5859 (q) Terminates the session, saving all undeleted, unsaved messages in
5862 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
5864 preserving all messages marked with
5868 or never referenced in the system
5870 and removing all other messages from the
5872 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
5873 If new mail has arrived during the session,
5875 .Dq You have new mail
5877 If given while editing a mailbox file with the command line option
5879 then the edit file is rewritten.
5880 A return to the shell is effected,
5881 unless the rewrite of edit file fails,
5882 in which case the user can escape with the exit command.
5883 The optional status number argument will be passed through to
5885 \*(ID For now it can happen that the given status will be overwritten,
5886 later this will only occur if a later error needs to be reported onto an
5887 otherwise success indicating status.
5891 \*(NQ Read a line from standard input, or the channel set active via
5893 and assign the data, which will be splitted as indicated by
5895 to the given variables.
5896 The variable names are checked by the same rules as documented for
5898 and the same error codes will be seen in
5902 indicates the number of bytes read, it will be
5904 with the error number
5908 in case of I/O errors, or
5911 If there are more fields than variables, assigns successive fields to the
5912 last given variable.
5913 If there are less fields than variables, assigns the empty string to the
5915 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5918 ? echo "<$a> <$b> <$c>"
5920 ? wysh set ifs=:; read a b c;unset ifs
5921 hey2.0,:"'you ",:world!:mars.:
5922 ? echo $?/$^ERRNAME / <$a><$b><$c>
5923 0/NONE / <hey2.0,><"'you ",><world!:mars.:><><>
5928 \*(NQ Read anything from standard input, or the channel set active via
5930 and assign the data to the given variable.
5931 The variable name is checked by the same rules as documented for
5933 and the same error codes will be seen in
5937 indicates the number of bytes read, it will be
5939 with the error number
5943 in case of I/O errors, or
5946 \*(ID The input data length is restricted to 31-bits.
5950 \*(NQ Manages input channels for
5954 to be used to avoid complicated or impracticable code, like calling
5956 from within a macro in non-interactive mode.
5957 Without arguments, or when the first argument is
5959 a listing of all known channels is printed.
5960 Channels can otherwise be
5962 d, and existing channels can be
5966 d by giving the string used for creation.
5968 The channel name is expected to be a file descriptor number, or,
5969 if parsing the numeric fails, an input file name that undergoes
5970 .Sx "Filename transformations" .
5971 E.g. (this example requires a modern shell):
5972 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5973 $ LC_ALL=C printf 'echon "hey, "\enread a\enyou\enecho $a' |\e
5976 $ LC_ALL=C printf 'echon "hey, "\enread a\enecho $a' |\e
5977 LC_ALL=C 6<<< 'you' \*(uA -R#X'readctl create 6'
5991 Removes the named files or directories.
5992 If a name refer to a mailbox, e.g., a Maildir mailbox, then a mailbox
5993 type specific removal will be performed, deleting the complete mailbox.
5994 The user is asked for confirmation in interactive mode.
5998 Takes the name of an existing folder
5999 and the name for the new folder
6000 and renames the first to the second one.
6001 Both folders must be of the same type.
6005 (R) Replies to only the sender of each message of the given message
6006 list, by using the first message as the template to quote, for the
6010 will exchange this command with
6012 Unless the internal variable
6014 is set the recipient address will be stripped from comments, names etc.
6016 headers will be inspected if
6020 This may generate the errors
6021 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
6022 if no receiver has been specified,
6024 if some addressees where rejected by
6027 if no applicable messages have been given,
6029 if an I/O error occurs,
6031 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
6037 (r) Take a message and group-responds to it by addressing the sender
6038 and all recipients, subject to
6042 .Va followup-to-honour ,
6045 .Va recipients-in-cc
6046 influence response behaviour.
6047 Unless the internal variable
6049 is set recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names etc.
6059 offers special support for replying to mailing lists.
6060 For more documentation please refer to
6061 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
6063 This may generate the errors
6064 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
6065 if no receiver has been specified,
6067 if some addressees where rejected by
6070 if no applicable messages have been given,
6072 if an I/O error occurs,
6074 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
6077 Any error stops processing of further messages.
6083 but initiates a group-reply regardless of the value of
6090 but responds to the sender only regardless of the value of
6097 but does not add any header lines.
6098 This is not a way to hide the sender's identity,
6099 but useful for sending a message again to the same recipients.
6103 Takes a list of messages and a user name
6104 and sends each message to the named user.
6106 and related header fields are prepended to the new copy of the message.
6109 is only performed if
6113 This may generate the errors
6114 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
6115 if no receiver has been specified,
6117 if some addressees where rejected by
6120 if no applicable messages have been given,
6122 if an I/O error occurs,
6124 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
6127 Any error stops processing of further messages.
6145 .It Ic respondsender
6151 (ret) Superseded by the multiplexer
6156 Only available inside the scope of a
6160 this will stop evaluation of any further macro content, and return
6161 execution control to the caller.
6162 The two optional parameters must be specified as positive decimal
6163 numbers and default to the value 0:
6164 the first argument specifies the signed 32-bit return value (stored in
6166 \*(ID and later extended to signed 64-bit),
6167 the second the signed 32-bit error number (stored in
6171 a non-0 exit status may cause the program to exit.
6177 but saves the messages in a file named after the local part of the
6178 sender of the first message instead of (in
6180 and) taking a filename argument; the variable
6182 is inspected to decide on the actual storage location.
6186 (s) Takes a message list and a filename and appends each message in turn
6187 to the end of the file.
6188 If no filename is given, the
6190 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
6193 The filename in quotes, followed by the generated character count
6194 is echoed on the user's terminal.
6197 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
6198 the messages are marked for deletion.
6199 .Sx "Filename transformations"
6201 To filter the saved header fields to the desired subset use the
6203 slot of the white- and blacklisting command
6207 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6211 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6215 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6220 Takes a message specification (list) and displays a header summary of
6221 all matching messages, as via
6223 This command is an alias of
6226 .Sx "Specifying messages" .
6230 Takes a message list and marks all messages as having been read.
6236 (se, \*(NQ uns) The latter command will delete all given variables,
6237 the former, when used without arguments, will show all variables which
6238 are currently known to \*(UA.
6239 A more verbose listing will be produced if
6245 Remarks: the list mode will not automatically link-in known
6247 variables, but only explicit addressing will, e.g., via
6249 using a variable in an
6251 condition or a string passed to
6255 ting, as well as some program-internal use cases.
6258 Otherwise the given variables (and arguments) are set or adjusted.
6259 Arguments are of the form
6261 (no space before or after
6265 if there is no value, i.e., a boolean variable.
6266 \*(ID In conjunction with the
6269 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
6270 can be used to quote arguments as necessary.
6271 \*(ID Otherwise quotation marks may be placed around any part of the
6272 assignment statement to quote blanks or tabs.
6275 .Dl ? wysh set indentprefix=' -> '
6278 If an argument begins with
6282 the effect is the same as invoking the
6284 command with the remaining part of the variable
6285 .Pf ( Ql unset save ) .
6290 that is known to map to an environment variable will automatically cause
6291 updates in the program environment (unsetting a variable in the
6292 environment requires corresponding system support) \(em use the command
6294 for further environmental control.
6299 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
6306 Apply shell quoting rules to the given raw-data arguments.
6310 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
6311 The first argument specifies the operation:
6315 cause shell quoting to be applied to the remains of the line, and
6316 expanded away thereof, respectively.
6317 If the former is prefixed with a plus-sign, the quoted result will not
6318 be roundtrip enabled, and thus can be decoded only in the very same
6319 environment that was used to perform the encode; also see
6320 .Cd mle-quote-rndtrip .
6321 If the coding operation fails the error number
6324 .Va ^ERR Ns -CANCELED ,
6325 and the unmodified input is used as the result; the error number may
6326 change again due to output or result storage errors.
6330 \*(NQ (sh) Invokes an interactive version of the shell,
6331 and returns its exit status.
6335 .It Ic shortcut , unshortcut
6336 Without arguments the list of all currently defined shortcuts is
6337 shown, with one argument the expansion of the given shortcut.
6338 Otherwise all given arguments are treated as pairs of shortcuts and
6339 their expansions, creating new or changing already existing shortcuts,
6341 The latter command will remove all given shortcuts, the special name
6343 will remove all registered shortcuts.
6347 \*(NQ Shift the positional parameter stack (starting at
6349 by the given number (which must be a positive decimal),
6350 or 1 if no argument has been given.
6351 It is an error if the value exceeds the number of positional parameters.
6352 If the given number is 0, no action is performed, successfully.
6353 The stack as such can be managed via
6355 Note this command will fail in
6357 and hook macros unless the positional parameter stack has been
6358 explicitly created in the current context via
6365 but performs neither MIME decoding nor decryption, so that the raw
6366 message text is shown.
6370 (si) Shows the size in characters of each message of the given
6375 \*(NQ Sleep for the specified number of seconds (and optionally
6376 milliseconds), by default interruptably.
6377 If a third argument is given the sleep will be uninterruptible,
6378 otherwise the error number
6382 if the sleep has been interrupted.
6383 The command will fail and the error number will be
6384 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW
6385 if the given duration(s) overflow the time datatype, and
6387 if the given durations are no valid integers.
6392 .It Ic sort , unsort
6393 The latter command disables sorted or threaded mode, returns to normal
6394 message order and, if the
6397 displays a header summary.
6398 The former command shows the current sorting criterion when used without
6399 an argument, but creates a sorted representation of the current folder
6400 otherwise, and changes the
6402 command and the addressing modes such that they refer to messages in
6404 Message numbers are the same as in regular mode.
6408 a header summary in the new order is also displayed.
6409 Automatic folder sorting can be enabled by setting the
6411 variable, as in, e.g.,
6412 .Ql set autosort=thread .
6413 Possible sorting criterions are:
6416 .Bl -tag -compact -width "subject"
6418 Sort the messages by their
6420 field, that is by the time they were sent.
6422 Sort messages by the value of their
6424 field, that is by the address of the sender.
6427 variable is set, the sender's real name (if any) is used.
6429 Sort the messages by their size.
6431 \*(OP Sort the message by their spam score, as has been classified by
6434 Sort the messages by their message status.
6436 Sort the messages by their subject.
6438 Create a threaded display.
6440 Sort messages by the value of their
6442 field, that is by the address of the recipient.
6445 variable is set, the recipient's real name (if any) is used.
6451 \*(NQ (so) The source command reads commands from the given file.
6452 .Sx "Filename transformations"
6454 If the given expanded argument ends with a vertical bar
6456 then the argument will instead be interpreted as a shell command and
6457 \*(UA will read the output generated by it.
6458 Dependent on the settings of
6462 and also dependent on whether the command modifier
6464 had been used, encountering errors will stop sourcing of the given input.
6467 cannot be used from within macros that execute as
6468 .Va folder-hook Ns s
6471 i.e., it can only be called from macros that were
6476 \*(NQ The difference to
6478 (beside not supporting pipe syntax aka shell command input) is that
6479 this command will not generate an error nor warn if the given file
6480 argument cannot be opened successfully.
6484 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and clears their
6490 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and causes the
6492 to forget it has ever used them to train its Bayesian filter.
6493 Unless otherwise noted the
6495 flag of the message is inspected to chose whether a message shall be
6503 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and informs the Bayesian filter of the
6507 This also clears the
6509 flag of the messages in question.
6513 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and rates them using the configured
6514 .Va spam-interface ,
6515 without modifying the messages, but setting their
6517 flag as appropriate; because the spam rating headers are lost the rate
6518 will be forgotten once the mailbox is left.
6519 Refer to the manual section
6521 for the complete picture of spam handling in \*(UA.
6525 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and sets their
6531 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and informs the Bayesian filter of the
6537 flag of the messages in question.
6553 slot for white- and blacklisting header fields.
6557 (to) Takes a message list and types out the first
6559 lines of each message on the users' terminal.
6560 Unless a special selection has been established for the
6564 command, the only header fields that are displayed are
6575 It is possible to apply compression to what is displayed by setting
6577 Messages are decrypted and converted to the terminal character set
6582 (tou) Takes a message list and marks the messages for saving in the
6584 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
6586 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command,
6589 command will display the following message instead of the current one.
6595 but also displays header fields which would not pass the
6597 selection, and all visualizable parts of MIME
6598 .Ql multipart/alternative
6603 (t) Takes a message list and types out each message on the users terminal.
6604 The display of message headers is selectable via
6606 For MIME multipart messages, all parts with a content type of
6608 all parts which have a registered MIME type handler (see
6609 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" )
6610 which produces plain text output, and all
6612 parts are shown, others are hidden except for their headers.
6613 Messages are decrypted and converted to the terminal character set
6617 can be used to display parts which are not displayable as plain text.
6660 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6664 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6669 Superseded by the multiplexer
6680 .It Ic unmlsubscribe
6691 Takes a message list and marks each message as not having been read.
6695 Superseded by the multiplexer
6699 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6703 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6725 Perform URL percent codec operations on the raw-data argument, rather
6726 according to RFC 3986.
6730 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) ,
6731 and manages the error number
6733 This is a character set agnostic and thus locale dependent operation,
6734 and it may decode bytes which are invalid in the current
6736 \*(ID This command does not know about URLs beside that.
6738 The first argument specifies the operation:
6742 perform plain URL percent en- and decoding, respectively.
6746 perform a slightly modified operation which should be better for
6747 pathnames: it does not allow a tilde
6749 and will neither accept hyphen-minus
6753 as an initial character.
6754 The remains of the line form the URL data which is to be converted.
6755 If the coding operation fails the error number
6758 .Va ^ERR Ns -CANCELED ,
6759 and the unmodified input is used as the result; the error number may
6760 change again due to output or result storage errors.
6764 \*(NQ Edit the values of or create the given variable(s) in the
6766 Boolean variables cannot be edited, and variables can also not be
6772 \*(NQ This command produces the same output as the listing mode of
6776 ity adjustments, but only for the given variables.
6780 \*(OP Takes a message list and verifies each message.
6781 If a message is not a S/MIME signed message,
6782 verification will fail for it.
6783 The verification process checks if the message was signed using a valid
6785 if the message sender's email address matches one of those contained
6786 within the certificate,
6787 and if the message content has been altered.
6800 \*(NQ Evaluate arguments according to a given operator.
6801 This is a multiplexer command which can be used to perform signed 64-bit
6802 numeric calculations as well as byte string and string operations.
6803 It uses polish notation, i.e., the operator is the first argument and
6804 defines the number and type, and the meaning of the remaining arguments.
6805 An empty argument is replaced with a 0 if a number is expected.
6809 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
6812 The result that is shown in case of errors is always
6814 for usage errors and numeric operations, and the empty string for byte
6815 string and string operations;
6816 if the latter two fail to provide result data for
6818 errors, e.g., when a search operation failed, they also set the
6821 .Va ^ERR Ns -NODATA .
6822 Except when otherwise noted numeric arguments are parsed as signed 64-bit
6823 numbers, and errors will be reported in the error number
6825 as the numeric error
6826 .Va ^ERR Ns -RANGE .
6829 Numeric operations work on one or two signed 64-bit integers.
6830 One integer is expected by assignment (equals sign
6832 which does nothing but parsing the argument, thus detecting validity and
6833 possible overflow conditions, and unary not (tilde
6835 which creates the bitwise complement.
6836 Two integers are used by addition (plus sign
6838 subtraction (hyphen-minus
6840 multiplication (asterisk
6844 and modulo (percent sign
6846 as well as for the bitwise operators logical or (vertical bar
6849 bitwise and (ampersand
6852 bitwise xor (circumflex
6854 the bitwise signed left- and right shifts
6857 as well as for the unsigned right shift
6861 All numeric operators can be suffixed with a commercial at
6865 this will turn the operation into a saturated one, which means that
6866 overflow errors and division and modulo by zero are no longer reported
6867 via the exit status, but the result will linger at the minimum or
6868 maximum possible value, instead of overflowing (or trapping).
6869 This is true also for the argument parse step.
6870 For the bitwise shifts, the saturated maximum is 63.
6871 Any catched overflow will be reported via the error number
6874 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW .
6877 Character set agnostic string functions have no notion of locale
6878 settings and character sets.
6880 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm random"
6883 .Sx "Filename transformations"
6886 Generates a random string of the given length, or of
6888 bytes (a constant from
6890 if the value 0 is given; the random string will be base64url encoded
6891 according to RFC 4648, and thus be usable as a (portable) filename.
6895 Byte string operations work on 8-bit bytes and have no notion of locale
6896 settings and character sets, effectively assuming ASCII data.
6899 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm length"
6901 Queries the length of the given argument.
6904 Calculates the Chris Torek hash of the given argument.
6907 Byte-searches in the first for the second argument.
6908 Shows the resulting 0-based offset shall it have been found.
6913 but works case-insensitively according to the rules of the ASCII
6917 Creates a substring of its first argument.
6918 The second argument is the 0-based starting offset, a negative one
6919 counts from the end;
6920 the optional third argument specifies the length of the desired result,
6921 a negative length leaves off the given number of bytes at the end of the
6922 original string, by default the entire string is used;
6923 this operation tries to work around faulty arguments (set
6925 for error logs), but reports them via the error number
6928 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW .
6931 Trim away whitespace characters from both ends of the argument.
6934 Trim away whitespace characters from the begin of the argument.
6937 Trim away whitespace characters from the end of the argument.
6942 String operations work, sufficient support provided, according to the
6943 active user's locale encoding and character set (see
6944 .Sx "Character sets" ) .
6947 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm regex"
6949 (One-way) Converts the argument to something safely printable on the
6953 \*(OP A string operation that will try to match the first argument with
6954 the regular expression given as the second argument.
6955 If the optional third argument has been given then instead of showing
6956 the match offset a replacement operation is performed: the third
6957 argument is treated as if specified via dollar-single-quote (see
6958 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ) ,
6959 and any occurrence of a positional parameter, e.g.,
6961 is replaced by the corresponding match group of the regular expression:
6962 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6963 ? vexpr -@ +1 -9223372036854775808
6964 ? vput vexpr res ir bananarama \e
6965 (.*)NanA(.*) '\e${1}au\e$2'
6970 On otherwise identical case-insensitive equivalent to
6977 \*(NQ Manage the positional parameter stack (see
6981 If the first argument is
6983 then the positional parameter stack of the current context, or the
6984 global one, if there is none, is cleared.
6987 then the remaining arguments will be used to (re)create the stack,
6988 if the parameter stack size limit is excessed an
6989 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW
6993 If the first argument is
6995 a round-trip capable representation of the stack contents is created,
6996 with each quoted parameter separated from each other with the first
6999 and followed by the first character of
7001 if that is not empty and not identical to the first.
7002 If that results in no separation at all a
7008 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
7009 I.e., the subcommands
7013 can be used (in conjunction with
7015 to (re)create an argument stack from and to a single variable losslessly.
7017 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7018 ? vpospar set hey, "'you ", world!
7019 ? echo $#: <${1}><${2}><${3}>
7020 ? vput vpospar x quote
7022 ? echo $#: <${1}><${2}><${3}>
7023 ? eval vpospar set ${x}
7024 ? echo $#: <${1}><${2}><${3}>
7030 (v) Takes a message list and invokes the display editor on each message.
7031 Modified contents are discarded unless the
7033 variable is set, and are not used unless the mailbox can be written to
7034 and the editor returns a successful exit status.
7038 (w) For conventional messages the body without all headers is written.
7039 The original message is never marked for deletion in the originating
7041 The output is decrypted and converted to its native format as necessary.
7042 If the output file exists, the text is appended.
7043 If a message is in MIME multipart format its first part is written to
7044 the specified file as for conventional messages, handling of the remains
7045 depends on the execution mode.
7046 No special handling of compressed files is performed.
7048 In interactive mode the user is consecutively asked for the filenames of
7049 the processed parts.
7050 For convience saving of each part may be skipped by giving an empty
7051 value, the same result as writing it to
7053 Shell piping the part content by specifying a leading vertical bar
7055 character for the filename is supported.
7056 Other user input undergoes the usual
7057 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
7058 and contents of the destination file are overwritten if the file
7061 \*(ID In non-interactive mode any part which does not specify a filename
7062 is ignored, and suspicious parts of filenames of the remaining parts are
7063 URL percent encoded (as via
7065 to prevent injection of malicious character sequences, resulting in
7066 a filename that will be written into the current directory.
7067 Existing files will not be overwritten, instead the part number or
7068 a dot are appended after a number sign
7070 to the name until file creation succeeds (or fails due to other
7075 \*(NQ The sole difference to
7077 is that the new macro is executed in place of the current one, which
7078 will not regain control: all resources of the current macro will be
7080 This implies that any setting covered by
7082 will be forgotten and covered variables will become cleaned up.
7083 If this command is not used from within a
7085 ed macro it will silently be (a more expensive variant of)
7095 \*(NQ \*(UA presents message headers in
7097 fuls as described under the
7100 Without arguments this command scrolls to the next window of messages,
7101 likewise if the argument is
7105 scrolls to the last,
7107 scrolls to the first, and
7112 A number argument prefixed by
7116 indicates that the window is calculated in relation to the current
7117 position, and a number without a prefix specifies an absolute position.
7123 but scrolls to the next or previous window that contains at least one
7134 .\" .Sh COMMAND ESCAPES {{{
7135 .Sh "COMMAND ESCAPES"
7137 Here is a summary of the command escapes available in compose mode,
7138 which are used to perform special functions when composing messages.
7139 Command escapes are only recognized at the beginning of lines, and
7140 consist of a trigger (escape) and a command character.
7141 The actual escape character can be set via the internal variable
7143 it defaults to the tilde
7145 Otherwise ignored whitespace characters following the escape character
7146 will prevent a possible addition of the command line to the \*(OPal
7150 Unless otherwise noted all compose mode command escapes ensure proper
7151 updates of the variables which represent the error number
7157 is set they will, unless stated otherwise, error out message compose
7158 mode and cause a progam exit if an operation fails.
7159 It is however possible to place the character hyphen-minus
7161 after (possible whitespace following) the escape character, which has an
7162 effect equivalent to the command modifier
7164 If the \*(OPal key bindings are available it is possible to create
7166 ings specifically for the compose mode.
7169 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ic BaNg"
7172 Insert the string of text in the message prefaced by a single
7174 (If the escape character has been changed,
7175 that character must be doubled instead.)
7178 .It Ic ~! Ar command
7179 Execute the indicated shell
7181 which follows, replacing unescaped exclamation marks with the previously
7182 executed command if the internal variable
7184 is set, then return to the message.
7188 Same effect as typing the end-of-file character.
7191 .It Ic ~: Ar \*(UA-command Ns \0or Ic ~_ Ar \*(UA-command
7192 Execute the given \*(UA command.
7193 Not all commands, however, are allowed.
7196 .It Ic ~< Ar filename
7201 .It Ic ~<! Ar command
7203 is executed using the shell.
7204 Its standard output is inserted into the message.
7208 Write a summary of command escapes.
7211 .It Ic ~@ Op Ar filename...
7212 Append or edit the list of attachments.
7213 Does not manage the error number
7219 instead if this is a concern).
7222 arguments is expected as shell tokens (see
7223 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ;
7224 token-separating commas are ignored, too), to be
7225 interpreted as documented for the command line option
7227 with the message number exception as below.
7231 arguments the attachment list is edited, entry by entry;
7232 if a filename is left empty, that attachment is deleted from the list;
7233 once the end of the list is reached either new attachments may be
7234 entered or the session can be quit by committing an empty
7238 For all mode, if a given filename solely consists of the number sign
7240 followed by a valid message number of the currently active mailbox, then
7241 the given message is attached as a
7244 As the shell comment character the number sign must be quoted.
7247 .It Ic ~| Ar command
7248 Pipe the message through the specified filter command.
7249 If the command gives no output or terminates abnormally,
7250 retain the original text of the message.
7253 is often used as a rejustifying filter.
7257 .It Ic ~^ Ar cmd Op Ar subcmd Op Ar arg3 Op Ar arg4
7258 Low-level command meant for scripted message access, i.e., for
7259 .Va on-compose-splice
7261 .Va on-compose-splice-shell .
7262 The used protocol is likely subject to changes, and therefore the
7263 mentioned hooks receive the used protocol version as an initial line.
7264 In general the first field of a response line represents a status code
7265 which specifies whether a command was successful or not, whether result
7266 data is to be expected, and if, the format of the result data.
7267 Does not manage the error number
7271 because errors are reported via the protocol
7272 (hard errors like I/O failures cannot be handled).
7273 This command has read-only access to several virtual pseudo headers in
7274 the \*(UA private namespace, which may not exist (except for the first):
7278 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Va BaNg"
7279 .It Ql Mailx-Command:
7280 The name of the command that generates the message, one of
7288 .It Ql Mailx-Raw-To:
7289 .It Ql Mailx-Raw-Cc:
7290 .It Ql Mailx-Raw-Bcc:
7291 Represent the frozen initial state of these headers before any
7292 transformation (e.g.,
7295 .Va recipients-in-cc
7298 .It Ql Mailx-Orig-From:
7299 .It Ql Mailx-Orig-To:
7300 .It Ql Mailx-Orig-Cc:
7301 .It Ql Mailx-Orig-Bcc:
7302 The values of said headers of the original message which has been
7304 .Ic reply , forward , resend .
7308 The status codes are:
7312 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql 210"
7314 Status ok; the remains of the line are the result.
7317 Status ok; the rest of the line is optionally used for more status.
7318 What follows are lines of result addresses, terminated by an empty line.
7319 The address lines consist of two fields, the first of which is the
7320 plain address, e.g.,
7322 separated by a single ASCII SP space from the second which contains the
7323 unstripped address, even if that is identical to the first field, e.g.,
7324 .Ql (Lovely) Bob <bob@exam.ple> .
7325 All the input, including the empty line, must be consumed before further
7326 commands can be issued.
7329 Status ok; the rest of the line is optionally used for more status.
7330 What follows are lines of furtherly unspecified string content,
7331 terminated by an empty line.
7332 All the input, including the empty line, must be consumed before further
7333 commands can be issued.
7336 Syntax error; invalid command.
7339 Syntax error in parameters or arguments.
7342 Error: an argument fails verification.
7343 For example an invalid address has been specified, or an attempt was
7344 made to modify anything in \*(UA's own namespace.
7347 Error: an otherwise valid argument is rendered invalid due to context.
7348 For example, a second address is added to a header which may consist of
7349 a single address only.
7354 If a command indicates failure then the message will have remained
7356 Most commands can fail with
7358 if required arguments are missing (false command usage).
7359 The following (case-insensitive) commands are supported:
7362 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm header"
7364 This command allows listing, inspection, and editing of message headers.
7365 Header name case is not normalized, and case-insensitive comparison
7366 should be used when matching names.
7367 The second argument specifies the subcommand to apply, one of:
7369 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm remove"
7371 Without a third argument a list of all yet existing headers is given via
7373 this command is the default command of
7375 if no second argument has been given.
7376 A third argument restricts output to the given header only, which may
7379 if no such field is defined.
7382 Shows the content of the header given as the third argument.
7383 Dependent on the header type this may respond with
7387 any failure results in
7391 This will remove all instances of the header given as the third
7396 if no such header can be found, and
7398 on \*(UA namespace violations.
7401 This will remove from the header given as the third argument the
7402 instance at the list position (counting from one!) given with the fourth
7407 if the list position argument is not a number or on \*(UA namespace
7410 if no such header instance exists.
7413 Create a new or an additional instance of the header given in the third
7414 argument, with the header body content as given in the fourth argument
7415 (the remains of the line).
7418 if the third argument specifies a free-form header field name that is
7419 invalid, or if body content extraction fails to succeed,
7421 if any extracted address does not pass syntax and/or security checks or
7422 on \*(UA namespace violations, and
7424 to indicate prevention of excessing a single-instance header \(em note that
7426 can be appended to (a space separator will be added automatically first).
7429 is returned upon success, followed by the name of the header and the list
7430 position of the newly inserted instance.
7431 The list position is always 1 for single-instance header fields.
7432 All free-form header fields are managed in a single list.
7437 This command allows listing, removal and addition of message attachments.
7438 The second argument specifies the subcommand to apply, one of:
7440 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm remove"
7442 List all attachments via
7446 if no attachments exist.
7447 This command is the default command of
7449 if no second argument has been given.
7452 This will remove the attachment given as the third argument, and report
7456 if no such attachment can be found.
7457 If there exists any path component in the given argument, then an exact
7458 match of the path which has been used to create the attachment is used
7459 directly, but if only the basename of that path matches then all
7460 attachments are traversed to find an exact match first, and the removal
7461 occurs afterwards; if multiple basenames match, a
7464 Message attachments are treated as absolute pathnames.
7466 If no path component exists in the given argument, then all attachments
7467 will be searched for
7469 parameter matches as well as for matches of the basename of the path
7470 which has been used when the attachment has been created; multiple
7475 This will interpret the third argument as a number and remove the
7476 attachment at that list position (counting from one!), reporting
7480 if the argument is not a number or
7482 if no such attachment exists.
7485 Adds the attachment given as the third argument, specified exactly as
7486 documented for the command line option
7488 and supporting the message number extension as documented for
7492 upon success, with the index of the new attachment following,
7494 if the given file cannot be opened,
7496 if an on-the-fly performed character set conversion fails, otherwise
7498 is reported; this is also reported if character set conversion is
7499 requested but not available.
7502 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
7504 and prints any known attributes of the first found attachment via
7508 if no such attachment can be found.
7509 The attributes are written as lines of keyword and value tuples, the
7510 keyword being separated from the rest of the line with an ASCII SP space
7514 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
7516 and is otherwise identical to
7519 .It Cm attribute-set
7520 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
7522 and will assign the attribute given as the fourth argument, which is
7523 expected to be a value tuple of keyword and other data, separated by
7524 a ASCII SP space or TAB tabulator character.
7525 If the value part is empty, then the given attribute is removed, or
7526 reset to a default value if existence of the attribute is crucial.
7530 upon success, with the index of the found attachment following,
7532 for message attachments or if the given keyword is invalid, and
7534 if no such attachment can be found.
7535 The following keywords may be used (case-insensitively):
7537 .Bl -hang -compact -width ".It Ql filename"
7539 Sets the filename of the MIME part, i.e., the name that is used for
7540 display and when (suggesting a name for) saving (purposes).
7541 .It Ql content-description
7542 Associate some descriptive information to the attachment's content, used
7543 in favour of the plain filename by some MUAs.
7545 May be used for uniquely identifying MIME entities in several contexts;
7546 this expects a special reference address format as defined in RFC 2045
7549 upon address content verification failure.
7551 Defines the media type/subtype of the part, which is managed
7552 automatically, but can be overwritten.
7553 .It Ql content-disposition
7554 Automatically set to the string
7558 .It Cm attribute-set-at
7559 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
7561 and is otherwise identical to
7570 .Ql Ic ~i Ns \| Va Sign .
7575 .Ql Ic ~i Ns \| Va sign .
7578 .It Ic ~b Ar name ...
7579 Add the given names to the list of blind carbon copy recipients.
7582 .It Ic ~c Ar name ...
7583 Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients.
7587 Read the file specified by the
7589 variable into the message.
7593 Invoke the text editor on the message collected so far.
7594 After the editing session is finished,
7595 the user may continue appending text to the message.
7598 .It Ic ~F Ar messages
7599 Read the named messages into the message being sent, including all
7600 message headers and MIME parts.
7601 If no messages are specified, read in the current message, the
7605 .It Ic ~f Ar messages
7606 Read the named messages into the message being sent.
7607 If no messages are specified, read in the current message, the
7609 Strips down the list of header fields according to the
7611 white- and blacklist selection of
7613 For MIME multipart messages,
7614 only the first displayable part is included.
7618 Edit the message header fields
7623 by typing each one in turn and allowing the user to edit the field.
7624 The default values for these fields originate from the
7632 Edit the message header fields
7638 by typing each one in turn and allowing the user to edit the field.
7641 .It Ic ~I Ar variable
7642 Insert the value of the specified variable into the message.
7643 The message remains unaltered if the variable is unset or empty.
7644 Any embedded character sequences
7646 horizontal tabulator and
7648 line feed are expanded in
7650 mode; otherwise the expansion should occur at
7652 time by using the command modifier
7656 .It Ic ~i Ar variable
7657 Insert the value of the specified variable followed by a newline
7658 character into the message.
7659 The message remains unaltered if the variable is unset or empty.
7660 Any embedded character sequences
7662 horizontal tabulator and
7664 line feed are expanded in
7666 mode; otherwise the expansion should occur at
7668 time by using the command modifier
7672 .It Ic ~M Ar messages
7673 Read the named messages into the message being sent,
7676 If no messages are specified, read the current message, the
7680 .It Ic ~m Ar messages
7681 Read the named messages into the message being sent,
7684 If no messages are specified, read the current message, the
7686 Strips down the list of header fields according to the
7688 white- and blacklist selection of
7690 For MIME multipart messages,
7691 only the first displayable part is included.
7695 Display the message collected so far,
7696 prefaced by the message header fields
7697 and followed by the attachment list, if any.
7701 Abort the message being sent,
7702 copying it to the file specified by the
7709 .It Ic ~R Ar filename
7712 but indent each line that has been read by
7716 .It Ic ~r Ar filename Op Ar HERE-delimiter
7717 Read the named file, object to the usual
7718 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
7719 into the message; if (the expanded)
7723 then standard input is used, e.g., for pasting purposes.
7724 Only in this latter mode
7726 may be given: if it is data will be read in until the given
7728 is seen on a line by itself, and encountering EOF is an error; the
7730 is a required argument in non-interactive mode; if it is single-quote
7731 quoted then the pasted content will not be expanded, \*(ID otherwise
7732 a future version of \*(UA may perform shell-style expansion on the content.
7736 Cause the named string to become the current subject field.
7737 Newline (NL) and carriage-return (CR) bytes are invalid and will be
7738 normalized to space (SP) characters.
7741 .It Ic ~t Ar name ...
7742 Add the given name(s) to the direct recipient list.
7745 .It Ic ~U Ar messages
7746 Read in the given / current message(s) excluding all headers, indented by
7750 .It Ic ~u Ar messages
7751 Read in the given / current message(s), excluding all headers.
7755 Invoke an alternate editor (defined by the
7757 environment variable) on the message collected so far.
7758 Usually, the alternate editor will be a screen editor.
7759 After the editor is quit,
7760 the user may resume appending text to the end of the message.
7763 .It Ic ~w Ar filename
7764 Write the message onto the named file, which is object to the usual
7765 .Sx "Filename transformations" .
7767 the message is appended to it.
7773 except that the message is not saved at all.
7779 .\" .Sh INTERNAL VARIABLES {{{
7780 .Sh "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
7782 Internal \*(UA variables are controlled via the
7786 commands; prefixing a variable name with the string
7790 has the same effect as using
7796 Creation or editing of variables can be performed in the
7801 will give more insight on the given variable(s), and
7803 when called without arguments, will show a listing of all variables.
7804 Both commands support a more
7807 Some well-known variables will also become inherited from the
7810 implicitly, others can be imported explicitly with the command
7812 and henceforth share said properties.
7815 Two different kinds of internal variables exist.
7816 There are boolean variables, which can only be in one of the two states
7820 and value variables with a(n optional) string value.
7821 For the latter proper quoting is necessary upon assignment time, the
7822 introduction of the section
7824 documents the supported quoting rules.
7826 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7827 ? wysh set one=val\e 1 two="val 2" \e
7828 three='val "3"' four=$'val \e'4\e''; \e
7829 varshow one two three four; \e
7830 unset one two three four
7834 Dependent upon the actual option the string values will be interpreted
7835 as numbers, colour names, normal text etc., but there also exists
7836 a special kind of string value, the
7837 .Dq boolean string ,
7838 which must either be a decimal integer (in which case
7842 and any other value is true) or any of the (case-insensitive) strings
7848 for a false boolean and
7854 for a true boolean; a special kind of boolean string is the
7856 which is a boolean string that can optionally be prefixed with the
7857 (case-insensitive) term
7861 which causes prompting of the user in interactive mode, with the given
7862 boolean as the default value.
7864 .\" .Ss "Initial settings" {{{
7865 .\" (Keep in SYNC: ./nail.h:okeys, ./nail.rc, ./nail.1:"Initial settings")
7866 .Ss "Initial settings"
7868 The standard POSIX 2008/Cor 2-2016 mandates the following initial
7874 .Pf no Va autoprint ,
7888 .Pf no Va ignoreeof ,
7890 .Pf no Va keepsave ,
7892 .Pf no Va outfolder ,
7900 .Pf no Va sendwait ,
7909 Notes: \*(UA does not support the
7911 variable \(en use command line options or
7913 to pass options through to a
7915 And the default global
7917 file, which is loaded unless the
7919 (with according argument) or
7921 command line options have been used, or the
7922 .Ev MAILX_NO_SYSTEM_RC
7923 environment variable is set (see
7924 .Sx "Resource files" )
7925 bends those initial settings a bit, e.g., it sets the variables
7930 to name a few, establishes a default
7932 selection etc., and should thus be taken into account.
7935 .\" .Ss "Variables" {{{
7938 .Bl -tag -width ".It Va BaNg"
7942 \*(RO The exit status of the last command, or the
7947 This status has a meaning in the state machine: in conjunction with
7949 any non-0 exit status will cause a program exit, and in
7951 mode any error while loading (any of the) resource files will have the
7955 .Sx "Command modifiers" ,
7956 can be used to instruct the state machine to ignore errors.
7960 \*(RO The current error number
7961 .Pf ( Xr errno 3 ) ,
7962 which is set after an error occurred; it is also available via
7964 and the error name and documentation string can be queried via
7968 \*(ID This machinery is new and the error number is only really usable
7969 if a command explicitly states that it manages the variable
7971 for others errno will be used in case of errors, or
7973 if that is 0: it thus may or may not reflect the real error.
7974 The error number may be set with the command
7980 \*(RO This is a multiplexer variable which performs dynamic expansion of
7981 the requested state or condition, of which there are:
7984 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Va BaNg"
7988 .It Va ^ERR , ^ERRDOC , ^ERRNAME
7989 The number, documentation, and name of the current
7991 respectively, which is usually set after an error occurred.
7992 \*(ID This machinery is new and is usually reliable only if a command
7993 explicitly states that it manages the variable
7995 which is effectively identical to
7997 Each of those variables can be suffixed with a hyphen minus followed by
7998 a name or number, in which case the expansion refers to the given error.
7999 Note this is a direct mapping of (a subset of) the system error values:
8000 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8002 eval echo \e$1: \e$^ERR-$1: \e$^ERRNAME-$1: \e$^ERRDOC-$1
8003 vput vexpr i + "$1" 1
8015 \*(RO Expands all positional parameters (see
8017 separated by a space character.
8018 \*(ID The special semantics of the equally named special parameter of the
8020 are not yet supported.
8024 \*(RO Expands all positional parameters (see
8026 separated by a space character.
8027 If placed in double quotation marks, each positional parameter is
8028 properly quoted to expand to a single parameter again.
8032 \*(RO Expands to the number of positional parameters, i.e., the size of
8033 the positional parameter stack in decimal.
8037 \*(RO Inside the scope of a
8041 ed macro this expands to the name of the calling macro, or to the empty
8042 string if the macro is running from top-level.
8043 For the \*(OPal regular expression search and replace operator of
8045 this expands to the entire matching expression.
8046 It represents the program name in global context.
8050 \*(RO Access of the positional parameter stack.
8051 All further parameters can be accessed with this syntax, too, e.g.,
8054 etc.; positional parameters can be shifted off the stack by calling
8056 The parameter stack contains, e.g., the arguments of a
8060 d macro, the matching groups of the \*(OPal regular expression search
8061 and replace expression of
8063 and can be explicitly created or overwritten with the command
8068 \*(RO Is set to the active
8072 .It Va add-file-recipients
8073 \*(BO When file or pipe recipients have been specified,
8074 mention them in the corresponding address fields of the message instead
8075 of silently stripping them from their recipient list.
8076 By default such addressees are not mentioned.
8080 \*(BO Causes only the local part to be evaluated
8081 when comparing addresses.
8085 \*(BO Causes messages saved in the
8087 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
8089 to be appended to the end rather than prepended.
8090 This should always be set.
8094 \*(BO Causes the prompts for
8098 lists to appear after the message has been edited.
8102 \*(BO If set, \*(UA asks for files to attach at the end of each message.
8103 An empty line finalizes the list.
8107 \*(BO Causes the user to be prompted for carbon copy recipients
8108 (at the end of each message if
8116 \*(BO Causes the user to be prompted for blind carbon copy
8117 recipients (at the end of each message if
8125 \*(BO Causes the user to be prompted for confirmation to send the
8126 message or reenter compose mode after having been shown an envelope
8128 This is by default enabled.
8132 \*(BO\*(OP Causes the user to be prompted if the message is to be
8133 signed at the end of each message.
8136 variable is ignored when this variable is set.
8140 .\" The alternative *ask* is not documented on purpose
8141 \*(BO Causes \*(UA to prompt for the subject upon entering compose mode
8142 unless a subject already exists.
8146 A sequence of characters to display in the
8150 as shown in the display of
8152 each for one type of messages (see
8153 .Sx "Message states" ) ,
8154 with the default being
8157 .Ql NU\ \ *HMFAT+\-$~
8160 variable is set, in the following order:
8162 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql _"
8184 start of a collapsed thread.
8186 an uncollapsed thread (TODO ignored for now).
8190 classified as possible spam.
8196 Specifies a list of recipients to which a blind carbon copy of each
8197 outgoing message will be sent automatically.
8201 Specifies a list of recipients to which a carbon copy of each outgoing
8202 message will be sent automatically.
8206 \*(BO Causes threads to be collapsed automatically when threaded mode
8213 \*(BO Enable automatic
8215 ing of a(n existing)
8221 commands, e.g., the message that becomes the new
8223 is shown automatically, as via
8230 Causes sorted mode (see the
8232 command) to be entered automatically with the value of this variable as
8233 sorting method when a folder is opened, e.g.,
8234 .Ql set autosort=thread .
8238 \*(BO Enables the substitution of all not (reverse-solidus) escaped
8241 characters by the contents of the last executed command for the
8243 shell escape command and
8245 one of the compose mode
8246 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
8247 If this variable is not set no reverse solidus stripping is performed.
8251 \*(OP Terminals generate multi-byte sequences for certain forms of
8252 input, for example for function and other special keys.
8253 Some terminals however do not write these multi-byte sequences as
8254 a whole, but byte-by-byte, and the latter is what \*(UA actually reads.
8255 This variable specifies the timeout in milliseconds that the MLE (see
8256 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
8257 waits for more bytes to arrive unless it considers a sequence
8263 \*(BO Sets some cosmetical features to traditional BSD style;
8264 has the same affect as setting
8266 and all other variables prefixed with
8268 it also changes the behaviour of
8270 (which does not exist in BSD).
8274 \*(BO Changes the letters shown in the first column of a header
8275 summary to traditional BSD style.
8279 \*(BO Changes the display of columns in a header summary to traditional
8284 \*(BO Changes some informational messages to traditional BSD style.
8290 field to appear immediately after the
8292 field in message headers and with the
8294 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
8298 .It Va build-os , build-osenv
8299 \*(RO The operating system \*(UA has been build for, usually taken from
8305 respectively, the former being lowercased.
8309 The value that should appear in the
8313 MIME header fields when no character set conversion of the message data
8315 This defaults to US-ASCII, and the chosen character set should be
8316 US-ASCII compatible.
8320 \*(OP The default 8-bit character set that is used as an implicit last
8321 member of the variable
8323 This defaults to UTF-8 if character set conversion capabilities are
8324 available, and to ISO-8859-1 otherwise, in which case the only supported
8327 and this variable is effectively ignored.
8328 Refer to the section
8329 .Sx "Character sets"
8330 for the complete picture of character set conversion in \*(UA.
8333 .It Va charset-unknown-8bit
8334 \*(OP RFC 1428 specifies conditions when internet mail gateways shall
8336 the content of a mail message by using a character set with the name
8338 Because of the unclassified nature of this character set \*(UA will not
8339 be capable to convert this character set to any other character set.
8340 If this variable is set any message part which uses the character set
8342 is assumed to really be in the character set given in the value,
8343 otherwise the (final) value of
8345 is used for this purpose.
8347 This variable will also be taken into account if a MIME type (see
8348 .Sx "The mime.types files" )
8349 of a MIME message part that uses the
8351 character set is forcefully treated as text.
8355 The default value for the
8360 .It Va colour-disable
8361 \*(BO\*(OP Forcefully disable usage of colours.
8362 Also see the section
8363 .Sx "Coloured display" .
8367 \*(BO\*(OP Whether colour shall be used for output that is paged through
8369 Note that pagers may need special command line options, e.g.,
8377 in order to support colours.
8378 Often doing manual adjustments is unnecessary since \*(UA may perform
8379 adjustments dependent on the value of the environment variable
8381 (see there for more).
8385 .It Va contact-mail , contact-web
8386 \*(RO Addresses for contact per email and web, respectively, e.g., for
8387 bug reports, suggestions, or help regarding \*(UA.
8388 The former can be used directly:
8389 .Ql ? Ns \| Ic eval Ns \| Ic mail Ns \| $contact-mail .
8393 In a(n interactive) terminal session, then if this valued variable is
8394 set it will be used as a threshold to determine how many lines the given
8395 output has to span before it will be displayed via the configured
8399 can be forced by setting this to the value
8401 setting it without a value will deduce the current height of the
8402 terminal screen to compute the treshold (see
8407 \*(ID At the moment this uses the count of lines of the message in wire
8408 format, which, dependent on the
8410 of the message, is unrelated to the number of display lines.
8411 (The software is old and historically the relation was a given thing.)
8415 Define a set of custom headers to be injected into newly composed or
8416 forwarded messages; it is also possible to create custom headers in
8419 which can be automated by setting one of the hooks
8420 .Va on-compose-splice
8422 .Va on-compose-splice-shell .
8423 The value is interpreted as a comma-separated list of custom headers to
8424 be injected, to include commas in the header bodies escape them with
8426 \*(ID Overwriting of automatically managed headers is neither supported
8429 .Dl ? set customhdr='Hdr1: Body1-1\e, Body1-2, Hdr2: Body2'
8433 Controls the appearance of the
8435 date and time format specification of the
8437 variable, that is used, for example, when viewing the summary of
8439 If unset, then the local receiving date is used and displayed
8440 unformatted, otherwise the message sending
8442 It is possible to assign a
8444 format string and control formatting, but embedding newlines via the
8446 format is not supported, and will result in display errors.
8448 .Ql %Y-%m-%d %H:%M ,
8450 .Va datefield-markout-older .
8453 .It Va datefield-markout-older
8454 Only used in conjunction with
8456 Can be used to create a visible distinction of messages dated more than
8457 a day in the future, or older than six months, a concept comparable to the
8459 option of the POSIX utility
8461 If set to the empty string, then the plain month, day and year of the
8463 will be displayed, but a
8465 format string to control formatting can be assigned.
8471 \*(BO Enables debug messages and obsoletion warnings, disables the
8472 actual delivery of messages and also implies
8478 .It Va disposition-notification-send
8480 .Ql Disposition-Notification-To:
8481 header (RFC 3798) with the message.
8485 .\" TODO .It Va disposition-notification-send-HOST
8487 .\".Va disposition-notification-send
8488 .\" for SMTP accounts on a specific host.
8489 .\" TODO .It Va disposition-notification-send-USER@HOST
8491 .\".Va disposition-notification-send
8492 .\"for a specific account.
8496 \*(BO When dot is set, a period
8498 on a line by itself during message input in (interactive or batch
8500 compose mode will be treated as end-of-message (in addition to the
8501 normal end-of-file condition).
8502 This behaviour is implied in
8508 .It Va dotlock-ignore-error
8509 \*(BO\*(OP Synchronization of mailboxes which \*(UA treats as
8511 .Sx "primary system mailbox" Ns
8512 es (see, e.g., the notes on
8513 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
8514 as well as the documentation of
8516 will be protected with so-called dotlock files\(emthe traditional mail
8517 spool file locking method\(emin addition to system file locking.
8518 Because \*(UA ships with a privilege-separated dotlock creation program
8519 that should always be able to create such a dotlock file there is no
8520 good reason to ignore dotlock file creation errors, and thus these are
8521 fatal unless this variable is set.
8525 \*(BO If this variable is set then the editor is started automatically
8526 when a message is composed in interactive mode, as if the
8528 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
8532 variable is implied for this automatically spawned editor session.
8536 \*(BO When a message is edited while being composed,
8537 its header is included in the editable text.
8541 \*(BO When entering interactive mode \*(UA normally writes
8542 .Dq \&No mail for user
8543 and exits immediately if a mailbox is empty or does not exist.
8544 If this variable is set \*(UA starts even with an empty or non-existent
8545 mailbox (the latter behaviour furtherly depends upon
8551 \*(BO Let each command with a non-0 exit status, including every
8555 s a non-0 status, cause a program exit unless prefixed by
8558 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
8560 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ,
8561 but which use a different modifier for ignoring the error.
8562 Please refer to the variable
8564 for more on this topic.
8568 The first character of this value defines the escape character for
8569 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
8571 The default value is the character tilde
8573 If set to the empty string, command escapes are disabled.
8577 If not set then file and command pipeline targets are not allowed,
8578 and any such address will be filtered out, giving a warning message.
8579 If set without a value then all possible recipient address
8580 specifications will be accepted \(en see the section
8581 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode"
8583 To accept them, but only in interactive mode, or when tilde commands
8584 were enabled explicitly by using one of the command line options
8588 set this to the (case-insensitive) value
8590 (it actually acts like
8591 .Ql restrict,-all,+name,+addr ,
8592 so that care for ordering issues must be taken) .
8594 In fact the value is interpreted as a comma-separated list of values.
8597 then the existence of disallowed specifications is treated as a hard
8598 send error instead of only filtering them out.
8599 The remaining values specify whether a specific type of recipient
8600 address specification is allowed (optionally indicated by a plus sign
8602 prefix) or disallowed (prefixed with a hyphen-minus
8606 addresses all possible address specifications,
8610 command pipeline targets,
8612 plain user names and (MTA) aliases and
8615 These kind of values are interpreted in the given order, so that
8616 .Ql restrict,\:fail,\:+file,\:-all,\:+addr
8617 will cause hard errors for any non-network address recipient address
8618 unless \*(UA is in interactive mode or has been started with the
8622 command line option; in the latter case(s) any address may be used, then.
8624 Historically invalid network addressees are silently stripped off.
8625 To change this so that any encountered invalid email address causes
8626 a hard error it must be ensured that
8628 is an entry in the above list.
8629 Setting this automatically enables network addressees
8630 (it actually acts like
8631 .Ql failinvaddr,+addr ,
8632 so that care for ordering issues must be taken) .
8636 Unless this variable is set additional
8638 (Mail-Transfer-Agent)
8639 arguments from the command line, as can be given after a
8641 separator, are ignored due to safety reasons.
8642 However, if set to the special (case-insensitive) value
8644 then the presence of additional MTA arguments is treated as a hard
8645 error that causes \*(UA to exit with failure status.
8646 A lesser strict variant is the otherwise identical
8648 which does accept such arguments in interactive mode, or if tilde
8649 commands were enabled explicitly by using one of the command line options
8656 \*(RO String giving a list of features \*(UA, preceded with a plus sign
8658 if the feature is available, and a hyphen-minus
8661 The output of the command
8663 will include this information in a more pleasant output.
8667 \*(BO This setting reverses the meanings of a set of reply commands,
8668 turning the lowercase variants, which by default address all recipients
8669 included in the header of a message
8670 .Pf ( Ic reply , respond , followup )
8671 into the uppercase variants, which by default address the sender only
8672 .Pf ( Ic Reply , Respond , Followup )
8675 .Ic replysender , respondsender , followupsender
8677 .Ic replyall , respondall , followupall
8678 are not affected by the current setting of
8683 The default path under which mailboxes are to be saved:
8684 filenames that begin with the plus sign
8686 will have the plus sign replaced with the value of this variable if set,
8687 otherwise the plus sign will remain unchanged when doing
8688 .Sx "Filename transformations" ;
8691 for more on this topic.
8692 The value supports a subset of transformations itself, and if the
8693 non-empty value does not start with a solidus
8697 will be prefixed automatically.
8698 Once the actual value is evaluated first, the internal variable
8700 will be updated for caching purposes.
8703 .It Va folder-hook-FOLDER , Va folder-hook
8706 macro which will be called whenever a
8709 The macro will also be invoked when new mail arrives,
8710 but message lists for commands executed from the macro
8711 only include newly arrived messages then.
8713 are activated by default in a folder hook, causing the covered settings
8714 to be reverted once the folder is left again.
8716 The specialized form will override the generic one if
8718 matches the file that is opened.
8719 Unlike other folder specifications, the fully expanded name of a folder,
8720 without metacharacters, is used to avoid ambiguities.
8721 However, if the mailbox resides under
8725 specification is tried in addition, e.g., if
8729 (and thus relative to the user's home directory) then
8730 .Pa /home/usr1/mail/sent
8732 .Ql folder-hook-/home/usr1/mail/sent
8733 first, but then followed by
8734 .Ql folder-hook-+sent .
8737 .It Va folder-resolved
8738 \*(RO Set to the fully resolved path of
8740 once that evaluation has occurred; rather internal.
8744 \*(BO Controls whether a
8745 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
8746 header is generated when sending messages to known mailing lists.
8748 .Va followup-to-honour
8750 .Ic mlist , mlsubscribe , reply
8755 .It Va followup-to-honour
8757 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
8758 header is honoured when group-replying to a message via
8762 This is a quadoption; if set without a value it defaults to
8772 .It Va forward-as-attachment
8773 \*(BO Original messages are normally sent as inline text with the
8776 and only the first part of a multipart message is included.
8777 With this setting enabled messages are sent as unmodified MIME
8779 attachments with all of their parts included.
8782 .It Va forward-inject-head
8783 The string to put before the text of a message with the
8785 command instead of the default
8786 .Dq -------- Original Message -------- .
8787 No heading is put if it is set to the empty string.
8788 This variable is ignored if the
8789 .Va forward-as-attachment
8794 The address (or a list of addresses) to put into the
8796 field of the message header, quoting RFC 5322:
8797 the author(s) of the message, that is, the mailbox(es) of the person(s)
8798 or system(s) responsible for the writing of the message.
8801 ing to messages these addresses are handled as if they were in the
8805 If the machine's hostname is not valid at the Internet (for example at
8806 a dialup machine) then either this variable or
8808 (\*(IN and with a defined SMTP protocol in
8811 adds even more fine-tuning capabilities),
8815 contains more than one address,
8818 variable is required (according to the standard RFC 5322).
8820 If a file-based MTA is used, then
8822 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
8824 can nonetheless be enforced to appear as the envelope sender address at
8825 the MTA protocol level (the RFC 5321 reverse-path), either by using the
8827 command line option (with an empty argument; see there for the complete
8828 picture on this topic), or by setting the internal variable
8829 .Va r-option-implicit .
8833 \*(BO Due to historical reasons comments and name parts of email
8834 addresses are removed by default when sending mail, replying to or
8835 forwarding a message.
8836 If this variable is set such stripping is not performed.
8839 \*(OB Predecessor of
8840 .Va forward-inject-head .
8844 \*(BO Causes the header summary to be written at startup and after
8845 commands that affect the number of messages or the order of messages in
8850 mode a header summary will also be displayed on folder changes.
8851 The command line option
8859 A format string to use for the summary of
8861 similar to the ones used for
8864 Format specifiers in the given string start with a percent sign
8866 and may be followed by an optional decimal number indicating the field
8867 width \(em if that is negative, the field is to be left-aligned.
8868 Valid format specifiers are:
8871 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql _%%_"
8873 A plain percent sign.
8876 a space character but for the current message
8878 for which it expands to
8882 a space character but for the current message
8884 for which it expands to
8887 \*(OP The spam score of the message, as has been classified via the
8890 Shows only a replacement character if there is no spam support.
8892 Message attribute character (status flag); the actual content can be
8896 The date found in the
8898 header of the message when
8900 is set (the default), otherwise the date when the message was received.
8901 Formatting can be controlled by assigning a
8906 The indenting level in threaded mode.
8908 The address of the message sender.
8910 The message thread tree structure.
8911 (Note that this format does not support a field width.)
8913 The number of lines of the message, if available.
8917 The number of octets (bytes) in the message, if available.
8919 Message subject (if any).
8921 Message subject (if any) in double quotes.
8923 Message recipient flags: is the addressee of the message a known or
8924 subscribed mailing list \(en see
8929 The position in threaded/sorted order.
8933 .Ql %>\&%a\&%m\ %-18f\ %16d\ %4l/%\-5o\ %i%-s ,
8935 .Ql %>\&%a\&%m\ %20-f\ \ %16d\ %3l/%\-5o\ %i%-S
8946 .It Va headline-bidi
8947 Bidirectional text requires special treatment when displaying headers,
8948 because numbers (in dates or for file sizes etc.) will not affect the
8949 current text direction, in effect resulting in ugly line layouts when
8950 arabic or other right-to-left text is to be displayed.
8951 On the other hand only a minority of terminals is capable to correctly
8952 handle direction changes, so that user interaction is necessary for
8954 Note that extended host system support is required nonetheless, e.g.,
8955 detection of the terminal character set is one precondition;
8956 and this feature only works in an Unicode (i.e., UTF-8) locale.
8958 In general setting this variable will cause \*(UA to encapsulate text
8959 fields that may occur when displaying
8961 (and some other fields, like dynamic expansions in
8963 with special Unicode control sequences;
8964 it is possible to fine-tune the terminal support level by assigning
8966 no value (or any value other than
8971 will make \*(UA assume that the terminal is capable to properly deal
8972 with Unicode version 6.3, in which case text is embedded in a pair of
8973 U+2068 (FIRST STRONG ISOLATE) and U+2069 (POP DIRECTIONAL ISOLATE)
8975 In addition no space on the line is reserved for these characters.
8977 Weaker support is chosen by using the value
8979 (Unicode 6.3, but reserve the room of two spaces for writing the control
8980 sequences onto the line).
8985 select Unicode 1.1 support (U+200E, LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK); the latter
8986 again reserves room for two spaces in addition.
8990 \*(OP If a line editor is available then this can be set to
8991 name the (expandable) path of the location of a permanent history file.
8996 .It Va history-gabby
8997 \*(BO\*(OP Add more entries to the history as is normally done.
9000 .It Va history-gabby-persist
9001 \*(BO\*(OP \*(UA's own MLE will not save the additional
9003 entries in persistent storage unless this variable is set.
9004 On the other hand it will not loose the knowledge of whether
9005 a persistent entry was gabby or not.
9011 \*(OP Setting this variable imposes a limit on the number of concurrent
9013 If set to the value 0 then no further history entries will be added, and
9014 loading and incorporation of the
9016 upon program startup can also be suppressed by doing this.
9017 Runtime changes will not be reflected, but will affect the number of
9018 entries saved to permanent storage.
9022 \*(BO This setting controls whether messages are held in the system
9024 and it is set by default.
9028 Use this string as hostname when expanding local addresses instead of
9029 the value obtained from
9033 It is used, e.g., in
9037 fields, as well as when generating
9039 MIME part related unique ID fields.
9040 Setting it to the empty string will cause the normal hostname to be
9041 used, but nonetheless enables creation of said ID fields.
9042 \*(IN in conjunction with the built-in SMTP
9045 also influences the results:
9046 one should produce some test messages with the desired combination of
9055 \*(BO\*(OP Can be used to turn off the automatic conversion of domain
9056 names according to the rules of IDNA (internationalized domain names
9058 Since the IDNA code assumes that domain names are specified with the
9060 character set, an UTF-8 locale charset is required to represent all
9061 possible international domain names (before conversion, that is).
9065 The input field separator that is used (\*(ID by some functions) to
9066 determine where to split input data.
9068 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It MMM"
9070 Unsetting is treated as assigning the default value,
9073 If set to the empty value, no field splitting will be performed.
9075 If set to a non-empty value, all whitespace characters are extracted
9076 and assigned to the variable
9080 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It MMM"
9083 will be ignored at the beginning and end of input.
9084 Diverging from POSIX shells default whitespace is removed in addition,
9085 which is owed to the entirely different line content extraction rules.
9087 Each occurrence of a character of
9089 will cause field-splitting, any adjacent
9091 characters will be skipped.
9096 \*(RO Automatically deduced from the whitespace characters in
9101 \*(BO Ignore interrupt signals from the terminal while entering
9102 messages; instead echo them as
9104 characters and discard the current line.
9108 \*(BO Ignore end-of-file conditions
9109 .Pf ( Ql control-D )
9110 in compose mode on message input and in interactive command input.
9111 If set an interactive command input session can only be left by
9112 explicitly using one of the commands
9116 and message input in compose mode can only be terminated by entering
9119 on a line by itself or by using the
9121 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ;
9122 Setting this implies the behaviour that
9130 If this is set to a non-empty string it will specify the users
9132 .Sx "primary system mailbox" ,
9135 and the system-dependent default, and (thus) be used to replace
9138 .Sx "Filename transformations" ;
9141 for more on this topic.
9142 The value supports a subset of transformations itself.
9150 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
9153 option for indenting messages,
9154 in place of the normal tabulator character
9156 which is the default.
9157 Be sure to quote the value if it contains spaces or tabs.
9161 \*(BO If set, an empty
9163 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
9164 file is not removed.
9165 Note that, in conjunction with
9167 mode any empty file will be removed unless this variable is set.
9168 This may improve the interoperability with other mail user agents
9169 when using a common folder directory, and prevents malicious users
9170 from creating fake mailboxes in a world-writable spool directory.
9171 \*(ID Only local regular (MBOX) files are covered, Maildir or other
9172 mailbox types will never be removed, even if empty.
9175 .It Va keep-content-length
9176 \*(BO When (editing messages and) writing MBOX mailbox files \*(UA can
9181 header fields that some MUAs generate by setting this variable.
9182 Since \*(UA does neither use nor update these non-standardized header
9183 fields (which in itself shows one of their conceptual problems),
9184 stripping them should increase interoperability in between MUAs that
9185 work with with same mailbox files.
9186 Note that, if this is not set but
9187 .Va writebackedited ,
9188 as below, is, a possibly performed automatic stripping of these header
9189 fields already marks the message as being modified.
9190 \*(ID At some future time \*(UA will be capable to rewrite and apply an
9192 to modified messages, and then those fields will be stripped silently.
9196 \*(BO When a message is saved it is usually discarded from the
9197 originating folder when \*(UA is quit.
9198 This setting causes all saved message to be retained.
9201 .It Va line-editor-disable
9202 \*(BO Turn off any enhanced line editing capabilities (see
9203 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor"
9207 .It Va line-editor-no-defaults
9208 \*(BO\*(OP Do not establish any default key binding.
9212 Error log message prefix string
9213 .Pf ( Ql "\*(uA: " ) .
9216 .It Va mailbox-display
9217 \*(RO The name of the current mailbox
9219 possibly abbreviated for display purposes.
9222 .It Va mailbox-resolved
9223 \*(RO The fully resolved path of the current mailbox.
9226 .It Va mailx-extra-rc
9227 An additional startup file that is loaded as the last of the
9228 .Sx "Resource files" .
9229 Use this file for commands that are not understood by other POSIX
9231 implementations, i.e., mostly anything which is not covered by
9232 .Sx "Initial settings" .
9236 \*(BO When a message is replied to and this variable is set,
9237 it is marked as having been
9240 .Sx "Message states" .
9244 \*(BO When opening MBOX mailbox databases \*(UA by default uses tolerant
9245 POSIX rules for detecting message boundaries (so-called
9247 lines) due to compatibility reasons, instead of the stricter rules that
9248 have been standardized in RFC 4155.
9249 This behaviour can be switched to the stricter RFC 4155 rules by
9250 setting this variable.
9251 (This is never necessary for any message newly generated by \*(UA,
9252 it only applies to messages generated by buggy or malicious MUAs, or may
9253 occur in old MBOX databases: \*(UA itself will choose a proper
9255 to avoid false interpretation of
9257 content lines in the MBOX database.)
9259 This may temporarily be handy when \*(UA complains about invalid
9261 lines when opening a MBOX: in this case setting this variable and
9262 re-opening the mailbox in question may correct the result.
9263 If so, copying the entire mailbox to some other file, as in
9264 .Ql copy * SOME-FILE ,
9265 will perform proper, all-compatible
9267 quoting for all detected messages, resulting in a valid MBOX mailbox.
9268 Finally the variable can be unset again:
9269 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9271 localopts yes; wysh set mbox-rfc4155;\e
9272 wysh File "${1}"; eval copy * "${2}"
9274 call mboxfix /tmp/bad.mbox /tmp/good.mbox
9279 \*(BO Internal development variable.
9282 .It Va message-id-disable
9283 \*(BO By setting this variable the generation of
9285 can be completely suppressed, effectively leaving this task up to the
9287 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) or the SMTP server.
9288 (According to RFC 5321 a SMTP server is not required to add this
9289 field by itself, so it should be ensured that it accepts messages without
9291 This variable also affects automatic generation of
9296 .It Va message-inject-head
9297 A string to put at the beginning of each new message, followed by a newline.
9298 \*(OB The escape sequences tabulator
9302 are understood (use the
9306 ting the variable(s) instead).
9309 .It Va message-inject-tail
9310 A string to put at the end of each new message, followed by a newline.
9311 \*(OB The escape sequences tabulator
9315 are understood (use the
9319 ting the variable(s) instead).
9323 \*(BO Usually, when an
9325 expansion contains the sender, the sender is removed from the expansion.
9326 Setting this option suppresses these removals.
9331 option to be passed through to the
9333 (Mail-Transfer-Agent); though most of the modern MTAs no longer document
9334 this flag, no MTA is known which does not support it (for historical
9338 .It Va mime-allow-text-controls
9339 \*(BO When sending messages, each part of the message is MIME-inspected
9340 in order to classify the
9343 .Ql Content-Transfer-Encoding:
9346 that is required to send this part over mail transport, i.e.,
9347 a computation rather similar to what the
9349 command produces when used with the
9353 This classification however treats text files which are encoded in
9354 UTF-16 (seen for HTML files) and similar character sets as binary
9355 octet-streams, forcefully changing any
9360 .Ql application/octet-stream :
9361 If that actually happens a yet unset charset MIME parameter is set to
9363 effectively making it impossible for the receiving MUA to automatically
9364 interpret the contents of the part.
9366 If this variable is set, and the data was unambiguously identified as
9367 text data at first glance (by a
9371 file extension), then the original
9373 will not be overwritten.
9376 .It Va mime-alternative-favour-rich
9377 \*(BO If this variable is set then rich MIME alternative parts (e.g.,
9378 HTML) will be preferred in favour of included plain text versions when
9379 displaying messages, provided that a handler exists which produces
9380 output that can be (re)integrated into \*(UA's normal visual display.
9381 (E.g., at the time of this writing some newsletters ship their full
9382 content only in the rich HTML part, whereas the plain text part only
9383 contains topic subjects.)
9386 .It Va mime-counter-evidence
9389 field is used to decide how to handle MIME parts.
9390 Some MUAs, however, do not use
9391 .Sx "The mime.types files"
9393 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" )
9394 or a similar mechanism to correctly classify content, but specify an
9395 unspecific MIME type
9396 .Pf ( Ql application/octet-stream )
9397 even for plain text attachments.
9398 If this variable is set then \*(UA will try to re-classify such MIME
9399 message parts, if possible, for example via a possibly existing
9400 attachment filename.
9401 A non-empty value may also be given, in which case a number is expected,
9402 actually a carrier of bits.
9403 Creating the bit-carrying number is a simple addition:
9404 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9405 ? !echo Value should be set to $((2 + 4 + 8))
9406 Value should be set to 14
9409 .Bl -bullet -compact
9411 If bit two is set (2) then the detected
9413 will be carried along with the message and be used for deciding which
9414 MIME handler is to be used, for example;
9415 when displaying such a MIME part the part-info will indicate the
9416 overridden content-type by showing a plus sign
9419 If bit three is set (4) then the counter-evidence is always produced
9420 and a positive result will be used as the MIME type, even forcefully
9421 overriding the parts given MIME type.
9423 If bit four is set (8) then as a last resort the actual content of
9424 .Ql application/octet-stream
9425 parts will be inspected, so that data which looks like plain text can be
9430 .It Va mime-encoding
9432 .Ql Content-Transfer-Encoding
9433 to use in outgoing text messages and message parts, where applicable.
9434 (7-bit clean text messages are sent as-is, without a transfer encoding.)
9437 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql _%%_"
9440 8-bit transport effectively causes the raw data be passed through
9441 unchanged, but may cause problems when transferring mail messages over
9442 channels that are not ESMTP (RFC 1869) compliant.
9443 Also, several input data constructs are not allowed by the
9444 specifications and may cause a different transfer-encoding to be used.
9445 .It Ql quoted-printable
9447 Quoted-printable encoding is 7-bit clean and has the property that ASCII
9448 characters are passed through unchanged, so that an english message can
9449 be read as-is; it is also acceptible for other single-byte locales that
9450 share many characters with ASCII, like, e.g., ISO-8859-1.
9451 The encoding will cause a large overhead for messages in other character
9452 sets: e.g., it will require up to twelve (12) bytes to encode a single
9453 UTF-8 character of four (4) bytes.
9455 .Pf (Or\0 Ql b64 . )
9456 The default encoding, it is 7-bit clean and will always be used for
9458 This encoding has a constant input:output ratio of 3:4, regardless of
9459 the character set of the input data it will encode three bytes of input
9460 to four bytes of output.
9461 This transfer-encoding is not human readable without performing
9466 .It Va mimetypes-load-control
9467 Can be used to control which of
9468 .Sx "The mime.types files"
9469 are loaded: if the letter
9471 is part of the option value, then the user's personal
9473 file will be loaded (if it exists); likewise the letter
9475 controls loading of the system wide
9476 .Pa /etc/mime.types ;
9477 directives found in the user file take precedence, letter matching is
9479 If this variable is not set \*(UA will try to load both files.
9480 Incorporation of the \*(UA-built-in MIME types cannot be suppressed,
9481 but they will be matched last (the order can be listed via
9484 More sources can be specified by using a different syntax: if the
9485 value string contains an equals sign
9487 then it is instead parsed as a comma-separated list of the described
9490 pairs; the given filenames will be expanded and loaded, and their
9491 content may use the extended syntax that is described in the section
9492 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
9493 Directives found in such files always take precedence (are prepended to
9494 the MIME type cache).
9499 To choose an alternate Mail-Transfer-Agent, set this option to either
9500 the full pathname of an executable (optionally prefixed with a
9502 protocol indicator), or \*(OPally a SMTP protocol URL, e.g., \*(IN
9504 .Dl smtps?://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
9507 .Ql [smtp://]server[:port] . )
9508 The default has been chosen at compile time.
9509 All supported data transfers are executed in child processes, which
9510 run asynchronously and without supervision unless either the
9515 If such a child receives a TERM signal, it will abort and
9522 For a file-based MTA it may be necessary to set
9524 in in order to choose the right target of a modern
9527 It will be passed command line arguments from several possible sources:
9530 if set, from the command line if given and the variable
9533 Argument processing of the MTA will be terminated with a
9538 The otherwise occurring implicit usage of the following MTA command
9539 line arguments can be disabled by setting the boolean variable
9540 .Va mta-no-default-arguments
9541 (which will also disable passing
9545 (for not treating a line with only a dot
9547 character as the end of input),
9555 variable is set); in conjunction with the
9557 command line option \*(UA will also (not) pass
9563 \*(OPally \*(UA can send mail over SMTP network connections to a single
9564 defined SMTP smart host by specifying a SMTP URL as the value (see
9565 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) .
9566 Encrypted network connections are \*(OPally available, the section
9567 .Sx "Encrypted network communication"
9568 should give an overview and provide links to more information on this.
9569 \*(UA also supports forwarding of all network traffic over a specified
9571 Note that with some mail providers it may be necessary to set the
9573 variable in order to use a specific combination of
9578 The following SMTP variants may be used:
9582 The plain SMTP protocol (RFC 5321) that normally lives on the
9583 server port 25 and requires setting the
9584 .Va smtp-use-starttls
9585 variable to enter a SSL/TLS encrypted session state.
9586 Assign a value like \*(IN
9587 .Ql smtp://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
9589 .Ql smtp://server[:port] )
9590 to choose this protocol.
9592 The so-called SMTPS which is supposed to live on server port 465
9593 and is automatically SSL/TLS secured.
9594 Unfortunately it never became a standardized protocol and may thus not
9595 be supported by your hosts network service database
9596 \(en in fact the port number has already been reassigned to other
9599 SMTPS is nonetheless a commonly offered protocol and thus can be
9600 chosen by assigning a value like \*(IN
9601 .Ql smtps://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
9603 .Ql smtps://server[:port] ) ;
9604 due to the mentioned problems it is usually necessary to explicitly
9609 Finally there is the SUBMISSION protocol (RFC 6409), which usually
9610 lives on server port 587 and is practically identically to the SMTP
9611 protocol from \*(UA's point of view beside that; it requires setting the
9612 .Va smtp-use-starttls
9613 variable to enter a SSL/TLS secured session state.
9614 Assign a value like \*(IN
9615 .Ql submission://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
9617 .Ql submission://server[:port] ) .
9622 .It Va mta-arguments
9623 Arguments to pass through to a file-based
9625 can be given via this variable, which is parsed according to
9626 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
9627 into an array of arguments, and which will be joined onto MTA options
9628 from other sources, and then passed individually to the MTA:
9629 .Ql ? wysh set mta-arguments='-t -X \&"/tmp/my log\&"' .
9632 .It Va mta-no-default-arguments
9633 \*(BO Unless this variable is set \*(UA will pass some well known
9634 standard command line options to a file-based
9636 (Mail-Transfer-Agent), see there for more.
9640 Many systems use a so-called
9642 environment to ensure compatibility with
9644 This works by inspecting the name that was used to invoke the mail
9646 If this variable is set then the mailwrapper (the program that is
9647 actually executed when calling the file-based
9649 will treat its contents as that name.
9652 .It Va netrc-lookup-USER@HOST , netrc-lookup-HOST , netrc-lookup
9653 \*(BO\*(IN\*(OP Used to control usage of the users
9655 file for lookup of account credentials, as documented in the section
9656 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
9660 .Sx "The .netrc file"
9661 documents the file format.
9673 then \*(UA will read the output of a shell pipe instead of the users
9675 file if this variable is set (to the desired shell command).
9676 This can be used to, e.g., store
9679 .Ql ? set netrc-pipe='gpg -qd ~/.netrc.pgp' .
9683 If this variable has the value
9685 newly created local folders will be in Maildir instead of MBOX format.
9689 Checks for new mail in the current folder each time the prompt is shown.
9690 A Maildir folder must be re-scanned to determine if new mail has arrived.
9691 If this variable is set to the special value
9693 then a Maildir folder will not be rescanned completely, but only
9694 timestamp changes are detected.
9698 \*(BO Causes the filename given in the
9701 and the sender-based filenames for the
9705 commands to be interpreted relative to the directory given in the
9707 variable rather than to the current directory,
9708 unless it is set to an absolute pathname.
9710 .Mx Va on-account-cleanup
9711 .It Va on-account-cleanup-ACCOUNT , Va on-account-cleanup
9712 Macro hook which will be called once an
9714 is left, as the very last step before unrolling per-account
9716 This hook is run even in case of fatal errors, and it is advisable to
9717 perform only absolutely necessary actions, like cleaning up
9720 The specialized form is used in favour of the generic one if found.
9723 .It Va on-compose-cleanup
9724 Macro hook which will be called after the message has been sent (or not,
9725 in case of failures), as the very last step before unrolling compose mode
9727 This hook is run even in case of fatal errors, and it is advisable to
9728 perform only absolutely necessary actions, like cleaning up
9732 For compose mode hooks that may affect the message content please see
9733 .Va on-compose-enter , on-compose-leave , on-compose-splice .
9734 \*(ID This hook exists because
9735 .Ic alias , alternates , commandalias , shortcut ,
9736 to name a few, are not covered by
9738 changes applied in compose mode will continue to be in effect thereafter.
9743 .It Va on-compose-enter , on-compose-leave
9744 Macro hooks which will be called once compose mode is entered,
9745 and after composing has been finished, but before a set
9746 .Va message-inject-tail
9747 has been injected etc., respectively.
9749 are enabled for these hooks, and changes on variables will be forgotten
9750 after the message has been sent.
9751 .Va on-compose-cleanup
9752 can be used to perform other necessary cleanup steps.
9754 The following (read-only) variables will be set temporarily during
9755 execution of the macros to represent the according message headers, or
9756 the empty string for non-existent; they correspond to accoding virtual
9757 temporary message headers that can be accessed (also from within
9758 .Va on-compose-splice
9762 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" :
9765 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Va mailx_subject"
9766 .It Va mailx-command
9767 The command that generates the message.
9768 .It Va mailx-subject
9774 .It Va mailx-to , mailx-cc , mailx-bcc
9775 The list of receiver addresses as a space-separated list.
9776 .It Va mailx-raw-to , mailx-raw-cc , mailx-raw-bcc
9777 The list of receiver addresses before any mangling (due to, e.g.,
9780 .Va recipients-in-cc )
9781 as a space-separated list.
9782 .It Va mailx-orig-from
9783 When replying, forwarding or resending, this will be set to the
9785 of the given message.
9786 .It Va mailx-orig-to , mailx-orig-cc , mailx-orig-bcc
9787 When replying, forwarding or resending, this will be set to the
9788 receivers of the given message.
9792 Here is am example that injects a signature via
9793 .Va message-inject-tail ;
9795 .Va on-compose-splice
9796 to simply inject the file of desire via
9800 may be a better approach.
9802 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9804 vput ! i cat ~/.mysig
9806 vput vexpr message-inject-tail trim-end $i
9810 readctl create ~/.mysig
9814 vput vexpr message-inject-tail trim-end $i
9816 readctl remove ~/.mysig
9819 set on-compose-leave=t_ocl
9825 .It Va on-compose-splice , on-compose-splice-shell
9826 These hooks run once the normal compose mode is finished, but before the
9827 .Va on-compose-leave
9828 macro hook is called, the
9829 .Va message-inject-tail
9831 Both hooks will be executed in a subprocess, with their input and output
9832 connected to \*(UA such that they can act as if they would be an
9834 The difference in between them is that the latter is a
9836 command, whereas the former is a normal \*(UA macro, but which is
9837 restricted to a small set of commands (the
9841 will indicate said capability).
9843 are enabled for these hooks (in the parent process), causing any setting
9844 to be forgotten after the message has been sent;
9845 .Va on-compose-cleanup
9846 can be used to perform other cleanup as necessary.
9849 During execution of these hooks \*(UA will temporarily forget whether it
9850 has been started in interactive mode, (a restricted set of)
9851 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
9852 will always be available, and for guaranteed reproducibilities sake
9856 will be set to their defaults.
9857 The compose mode command
9859 has been especially designed for scriptability (via these hooks).
9860 The first line the hook will read on its standard input is the protocol
9861 version of said command escape, currently
9863 backward incompatible protocol changes have to be expected.
9866 Care must be taken to avoid deadlocks and other false control flow:
9867 if both involved processes wait for more input to happen at the
9868 same time, or one does not expect more input but the other is stuck
9869 waiting for consumption of its output, etc.
9870 There is no automatic synchronization of the hook: it will not be
9871 stopped automatically just because it, e.g., emits
9873 The hooks will however receive a termination signal if the parent enters
9875 \*(ID Protection against and interaction with signals is not yet given;
9876 it is likely that in the future these scripts will be placed in an
9877 isolated session, which is signalled in its entirety as necessary.
9879 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9880 define ocs_signature {
9882 echo '~< ~/.mysig' # '~<! fortune pathtofortunefile'
9884 set on-compose-splice=ocs_signature
9886 wysh set on-compose-splice-shell=$'\e
9888 printf "hello $version! Headers: ";\e
9889 echo \e'~^header list\e';\e
9890 read status result;\e
9891 echo "status=$status result=$result";\e
9896 echo Splice protocol version is $version
9897 echo '~^h l'; read hl; vput vexpr es substring "${hl}" 0 1
9899 echoerr 'Cannot read header list'; echo '~x'; xit
9901 if [ "$hl" @i!% ' cc' ]
9902 echo '~^h i cc Diet is your <mirr.or>'; read es;\e
9903 vput vexpr es substring "${es}" 0 1
9905 echoerr 'Cannot insert Cc: header'; echo '~x'
9906 # (no xit, macro finishs anyway)
9910 set on-compose-splice=ocsm
9915 .It Va on-resend-cleanup
9917 .Va on-compose-cleanup ,
9918 but is only triggered by
9922 .It Va on-resend-enter
9924 .Va on-compose-enter ,
9925 but is only triggered by
9930 \*(BO If set, each message feed through the command given for
9932 is followed by a formfeed character
9936 .It Va password-USER@HOST , password-HOST , password
9937 \*(IN Variable chain that sets a password, which is used in case none has
9938 been given in the protocol and account-specific URL;
9939 as a last resort \*(UA will ask for a password on the user's terminal if
9940 the authentication method requires a password.
9941 Specifying passwords in a startup file is generally a security risk;
9942 the file should be readable by the invoking user only.
9944 .It Va password-USER@HOST
9945 \*(OU (see the chain above for \*(IN)
9946 Set the password for
9950 If no such variable is defined for a host,
9951 the user will be asked for a password on standard input.
9952 Specifying passwords in a startup file is generally a security risk;
9953 the file should be readable by the invoking user only.
9957 \*(BO Send messages to the
9959 command without performing MIME and character set conversions.
9963 .It Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
9964 When a MIME message part of type
9966 (case-insensitive) is displayed or quoted,
9967 its text is filtered through the value of this variable interpreted as
9969 Note that only parts which can be displayed inline as plain text (see
9971 are displayed unless otherwise noted, other MIME parts will only be
9972 considered by and for the command
9976 The special value commercial at
9978 forces interpretation of the message part as plain text, e.g.,
9979 .Ql set pipe-application/xml=@
9980 will henceforth display XML
9982 (The same could also be achieved by adding a MIME type marker with the
9985 And \*(OPally MIME type handlers may be defined via
9986 .Sx "The Mailcap files"
9987 \(em these directives,
9989 has already been used, should be referred to for further documentation.
9994 can in fact be used as a trigger character to adjust usage and behaviour
9995 of a following shell command specification more thoroughly by appending
9996 more special characters which refer to further mailcap directives, e.g.,
9997 the following hypothetical command specification could be used:
9999 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10000 ? set pipe-X/Y='@!++=@vim ${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}'
10004 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql __"
10006 The command produces plain text to be integrated in \*(UAs output:
10007 .Cd copiousoutput .
10010 If set the handler will not be invoked when a message is to be quoted,
10011 but only when it will be displayed:
10012 .Cd x-mailx-noquote .
10015 Run the command asynchronously, i.e., without blocking \*(UA:
10016 .Cd x-mailx-async .
10019 The command must be run on an interactive terminal, \*(UA will
10020 temporarily release the terminal to it:
10021 .Cd needsterminal .
10024 Request creation of a zero-sized temporary file, the absolute pathname
10025 of which will be made accessible via the environment variable
10026 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY :
10027 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile .
10028 If given twice then the file will be unlinked automatically by \*(UA
10029 when the command loop is entered again at latest:
10030 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink .
10033 Normally the MIME part content is passed to the handler via standard
10034 input; if this flag is set then the data will instead be written into
10035 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY
10036 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill ) ,
10037 the creation of which is implied; note however that in order to cause
10038 deletion of the temporary file you still have to use two plus signs
10043 To avoid ambiguities with normal shell command content you can use
10044 another commercial at to forcefully terminate interpretation of
10045 remaining characters.
10046 (Any character not in this list will have the same effect.)
10050 Some information about the MIME part to be displayed is embedded into
10051 the environment of the shell command:
10054 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ev _AIL__ILENAME__ENERATED"
10056 .It Ev MAILX_CONTENT
10057 The MIME content-type of the part, if known, the empty string otherwise.
10060 .It Ev MAILX_CONTENT_EVIDENCE
10062 .Va mime-counter-evidence
10063 includes the carry-around-bit (2), then this will be set to the detected
10064 MIME content-type; not only then identical to
10065 .Ev \&\&MAILX_CONTENT
10069 .It Ev MAILX_FILENAME
10070 The filename, if any is set, the empty string otherwise.
10073 .It Ev MAILX_FILENAME_GENERATED
10077 .It Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY
10078 If temporary file creation has been requested through the command prefix
10079 this variable will be set and contain the absolute pathname of the
10085 .It Va pipe-EXTENSION
10086 This is identical to
10087 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
10090 (normalized to lowercase using character mappings of the ASCII charset)
10091 names a file extension, e.g.,
10093 Handlers registered using this method take precedence.
10096 .It Va pop3-auth-USER@HOST , pop3-auth-HOST , pop3-auth
10097 \*(OP\*(IN Variable chain that sets the POP3 authentication method.
10098 The only possible value as of now is
10100 which is thus the default.
10102 .Mx Va pop3-bulk-load
10103 .It Va pop3-bulk-load-USER@HOST , pop3-bulk-load-HOST , pop3-bulk-load
10104 \*(BO\*(OP When accessing a POP3 server \*(UA loads the headers of
10105 the messages, and only requests the message bodies on user request.
10106 For the POP3 protocol this means that the message headers will be
10108 If this variable is set then \*(UA will download only complete messages
10109 from the given POP3 server(s) instead.
10111 .Mx Va pop3-keepalive
10112 .It Va pop3-keepalive-USER@HOST , pop3-keepalive-HOST , pop3-keepalive
10113 \*(OP POP3 servers close the connection after a period of inactivity;
10114 the standard requires this to be at least 10 minutes,
10115 but practical experience may vary.
10116 Setting this variable to a numeric value greater than
10120 command to be sent each value seconds if no other operation is performed.
10122 .Mx Va pop3-no-apop
10123 .It Va pop3-no-apop-USER@HOST , pop3-no-apop-HOST , pop3-no-apop
10124 \*(BO\*(OP Unless this variable is set the
10126 authentication method will be used when connecting to a POP3 server that
10127 advertises support.
10130 is that the password is not sent in clear text over the wire and that
10131 only a single packet is sent for the user/password tuple.
10133 .Va pop3-no-apop-HOST
10136 .Mx Va pop3-use-starttls
10137 .It Va pop3-use-starttls-USER@HOST , pop3-use-starttls-HOST , pop3-use-starttls
10138 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a
10140 command to make an unencrypted POP3 session SSL/TLS encrypted.
10141 This functionality is not supported by all servers,
10142 and is not used if the session is already encrypted by the POP3S method.
10144 .Va pop3-use-starttls-HOST
10150 \*(BO This flag enables POSIX mode, which changes behaviour of \*(UA
10151 where that deviates from standardized behaviour.
10152 It will be set implicitly before the
10153 .Sx "Resource files"
10154 are loaded if the environment variable
10155 .Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT
10156 is set, and adjusting any of those two will be reflected by the other
10158 The following behaviour is covered and enforced by this mechanism:
10161 .Bl -bullet -compact
10163 In non-interactive mode, any error encountered while loading resource
10164 files during program startup will cause a program exit, whereas in
10165 interactive mode such errors will stop loading of the currently loaded
10166 (stack of) file(s, i.e., recursively).
10167 These exits can be circumvented on a per-command base by using
10170 .Sx "Command modifiers" ,
10171 for each command which shall be allowed to fail.
10175 will replace the list of alternate addresses instead of appending to it.
10178 The variable inserting
10179 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
10185 will expand embedded character sequences
10187 horizontal tabulator and
10190 \*(ID For compatibility reasons this step will always be performed.
10193 Upon changing the active
10197 will be displayed even if
10204 implies the behaviour described by
10210 is extended to cover any empty mailbox, not only empty
10212 .Sx "primary system mailbox" Ns
10213 es: they will be removed when they are left in empty state otherwise.
10218 .It Va print-alternatives
10219 \*(BO When a MIME message part of type
10220 .Ql multipart/alternative
10221 is displayed and it contains a subpart of type
10223 other parts are normally discarded.
10224 Setting this variable causes all subparts to be displayed,
10225 just as if the surrounding part was of type
10226 .Ql multipart/mixed .
10230 The string used as a prompt in interactive mode.
10231 Whenever the variable is evaluated the value is expanded as via
10232 dollar-single-quote expansion (see
10233 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ) .
10234 This (post-assignment, i.e., second) expansion can be used to embed
10235 status information, for example
10240 .Va mailbox-display .
10242 In order to embed characters which should not be counted when
10243 calculating the visual width of the resulting string, enclose the
10244 characters of interest in a pair of reverse solidus escaped brackets:
10246 a slot for coloured prompts is also available with the \*(OPal command
10248 Prompting may be prevented by setting this to the null string
10250 .Ql set noprompt ) .
10254 This string is used for secondary prompts, but is otherwise identical to
10261 \*(BO Suppresses the printing of the version when first invoked.
10265 If set, \*(UA starts a replying message with the original message
10266 prefixed by the value of the variable
10268 Normally, a heading consisting of
10269 .Dq Fromheaderfield wrote:
10270 is put before the quotation.
10275 variable, this heading is omitted.
10278 is assigned, only the headers selected by the
10281 selection are put above the message body,
10284 acts like an automatic
10286 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
10290 is assigned, all headers are put above the message body and all MIME
10291 parts are included, making
10293 act like an automatic
10296 .Va quote-as-attachment .
10299 .It Va quote-as-attachment
10300 \*(BO Add the original message in its entirety as a
10302 MIME attachment when replying to a message.
10303 Note this works regardless of the setting of
10308 \*(OP Can be set in addition to
10310 Setting this turns on a more fancy quotation algorithm in that leading
10311 quotation characters are compressed and overlong lines are folded.
10313 can be set to either one or two (space separated) numeric values,
10314 which are interpreted as the maximum (goal) and the minimum line length,
10315 respectively, in a spirit rather equal to the
10317 program, but line-, not paragraph-based.
10318 If not set explicitly the minimum will reflect the goal algorithmically.
10319 The goal cannot be smaller than the length of
10321 plus some additional pad.
10322 Necessary adjustments take place silently.
10325 .It Va r-option-implicit
10326 \*(BO Setting this option evaluates the contents of
10328 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
10330 and passes the results onto the used (file-based) MTA as described for the
10332 option (empty argument case).
10335 .It Va recipients-in-cc
10342 are by default merged into the new
10344 If this variable is set, only the original
10348 the rest is merged into
10353 Unless this variable is defined, no copies of outgoing mail will be saved.
10354 If defined it gives the pathname, subject to the usual
10355 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
10356 of a folder where all new, replied-to or forwarded messages are saved:
10357 when saving to this folder fails the message is not sent, but instead
10361 The standard defines that relative (fully expanded) paths are to be
10362 interpreted relative to the current directory
10364 to force interpretation relative to
10367 needs to be set in addition.
10370 .It Va record-files
10371 \*(BO If this variable is set the meaning of
10373 will be extended to cover messages which target only file and pipe
10376 These address types will not appear in recipient lists unless
10377 .Va add-file-recipients
10381 .It Va record-resent
10382 \*(BO If this variable is set the meaning of
10384 will be extended to also cover the
10391 .It Va reply-in-same-charset
10392 \*(BO If this variable is set \*(UA first tries to use the same
10393 character set of the original message for replies.
10394 If this fails, the mechanism described in
10395 .Sx "Character sets"
10396 is evaluated as usual.
10399 .It Va reply-strings
10400 Can be set to a comma-separated list of (case-insensitive according to
10401 ASCII rules) strings which shall be recognized in addition to the
10402 built-in strings as
10404 reply message indicators \(en built-in are
10406 which is mandated by RFC 5322, as well as the german
10411 which often has been seen in the wild;
10412 I.e., the separating colon has to be specified explicitly.
10416 A list of addresses to put into the
10418 field of the message header.
10419 Members of this list are handled as if they were in the
10428 .It Va reply-to-honour
10431 header is honoured when replying to a message via
10435 This is a quadoption; if set without a value it defaults to
10439 .It Va rfc822-body-from_
10440 \*(BO This variable can be used to force displaying a so-called
10442 line for messages that are embedded into an envelope mail via the
10444 MIME mechanism, for more visual convenience.
10448 \*(BO Enable saving of (partial) messages in
10450 upon interrupt or delivery error.
10454 The number of lines that represents a
10463 line display and scrolling via
10465 If this variable is not set \*(UA falls back to a calculation based upon
10466 the detected terminal window size and the baud rate: the faster the
10467 terminal, the more will be shown.
10468 Overall screen dimensions and pager usage is influenced by the
10469 environment variables
10477 .It Va searchheaders
10478 \*(BO Expand message-list specifiers in the form
10480 to all messages containing the substring
10482 in the header field
10484 The string search is case insensitive.
10487 .It Va sendcharsets
10488 \*(OP A comma-separated list of character set names that can be used in
10489 outgoing internet mail.
10490 The value of the variable
10492 is automatically appended to this list of character sets.
10493 If no character set conversion capabilities are compiled into \*(UA then
10494 the only supported charset is
10497 .Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
10498 and refer to the section
10499 .Sx "Character sets"
10500 for the complete picture of character set conversion in \*(UA.
10503 .It Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
10504 \*(BO\*(OP If this variable is set, but
10506 is not, then \*(UA acts as if
10508 had been set to the value of the variable
10510 In effect this combination passes through the message data in the
10511 character set of the current locale encoding:
10512 therefore mail message text will be (assumed to be) in ISO-8859-1
10513 encoding when send from within a ISO-8859-1 locale, and in UTF-8
10514 encoding when send from within an UTF-8 locale.
10518 never comes into play as
10520 is implicitly assumed to be 8-bit and capable to represent all files the
10521 user may specify (as is the case when no character set conversion
10522 support is available in \*(UA and the only supported character set is
10524 .Sx "Character sets" ) .
10525 This might be a problem for scripts which use the suggested
10527 setting, since in this case the character set is US-ASCII by definition,
10528 so that it is better to also override
10534 An address that is put into the
10536 field of outgoing messages, quoting RFC 5322: the mailbox of the agent
10537 responsible for the actual transmission of the message.
10538 This field should normally not be used unless the
10540 field contains more than one address, on which case it is required.
10543 address is handled as if it were in the
10547 .Va r-option-implicit .
10550 \*(OB Predecessor of
10553 .It Va sendmail-arguments
10554 \*(OB Predecessor of
10555 .Va mta-arguments .
10557 .It Va sendmail-no-default-arguments
10558 \*(OB\*(BO Predecessor of
10559 .Va mta-no-default-arguments .
10561 .It Va sendmail-progname
10562 \*(OB Predecessor of
10567 \*(BO When sending a message wait until the
10569 (including the built-in SMTP one) exits before accepting further commands.
10571 with this variable set errors reported by the MTA will be recognizable!
10572 If the MTA returns a non-zero exit status,
10573 the exit status of \*(UA will also be non-zero.
10577 \*(BO This setting causes \*(UA to start at the last message
10578 instead of the first one when opening a mail folder.
10582 \*(BO Causes \*(UA to use the sender's real name instead of the plain
10583 address in the header field summary and in message specifications.
10587 \*(BO Causes the recipient of the message to be shown in the header
10588 summary if the message was sent by the user.
10595 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
10597 .Va message-inject-tail ,
10598 .Va on-compose-leave
10600 .Va on-compose-splice .
10607 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
10609 .Va message-inject-tail ,
10610 .Va on-compose-leave
10612 .Va on-compose-splice .
10617 .Va on-compose-splice
10619 .Va on-compose-splice-shell
10621 .Va on-compose-leave
10623 .Va message-inject-tail
10627 .It Va skipemptybody
10628 \*(BO If an outgoing message does not contain any text in its first or
10629 only message part, do not send it but discard it silently (see also the
10630 command line option
10635 .It Va smime-ca-dir , smime-ca-file
10636 \*(OP Specify the location of trusted CA certificates in PEM (Privacy
10637 Enhanced Mail) format as a directory and a file, respectively, for the
10638 purpose of verification of S/MIME signed messages.
10639 It is possible to set both, the file will be loaded immediately, the
10640 directory will be searched whenever no match has yet been found.
10641 The set of CA certificates which are built into the SSL/TLS library can
10642 be explicitly turned off by setting
10643 .Va smime-ca-no-defaults ,
10644 and further fine-tuning is possible via
10645 .Va smime-ca-flags .
10648 .It Va smime-ca-flags
10649 \*(OP Can be used to fine-tune behaviour of the X509 CA certificate
10650 storage, and the certificate verification that is used.
10651 The actual values and their meanings are documented for
10655 .It Va smime-ca-no-defaults
10656 \*(BO\*(OP Do not load the default CA locations that are built into the
10657 used to SSL/TLS library to verify S/MIME signed messages.
10659 .Mx Va smime-cipher
10660 .It Va smime-cipher-USER@HOST , smime-cipher
10661 \*(OP Specifies the cipher to use when generating S/MIME encrypted
10662 messages (for the specified account).
10663 RFC 5751 mandates a default of
10666 Possible values are (case-insensitive and) in decreasing cipher strength:
10674 (DES EDE3 CBC, 168 bits; default if
10676 is not available) and
10678 (DES CBC, 56 bits).
10680 The actually available cipher algorithms depend on the cryptographic
10681 library that \*(UA uses.
10682 \*(OP Support for more cipher algorithms may be available through
10683 dynamic loading via, e.g.,
10684 .Xr EVP_get_cipherbyname 3
10685 (OpenSSL) if \*(UA has been compiled to support this.
10688 .It Va smime-crl-dir
10689 \*(OP Specifies a directory that contains files with CRLs in PEM format
10690 to use when verifying S/MIME messages.
10693 .It Va smime-crl-file
10694 \*(OP Specifies a file that contains a CRL in PEM format to use when
10695 verifying S/MIME messages.
10698 .It Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST
10699 \*(OP If this variable is set, messages send to the given receiver are
10700 encrypted before sending.
10701 The value of the variable must be set to the name of a file that
10702 contains a certificate in PEM format.
10704 If a message is sent to multiple recipients,
10705 each of them for whom a corresponding variable is set will receive an
10706 individually encrypted message;
10707 other recipients will continue to receive the message in plain text
10709 .Va smime-force-encryption
10711 It is recommended to sign encrypted messages, i.e., to also set the
10716 .It Va smime-force-encryption
10717 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to refuse sending unencrypted messages.
10721 \*(BO\*(OP S/MIME sign outgoing messages with the user's private key
10722 and include the user's certificate as a MIME attachment.
10723 Signing a message enables a recipient to verify that the sender used
10724 a valid certificate,
10725 that the email addresses in the certificate match those in the message
10726 header and that the message content has not been altered.
10727 It does not change the message text,
10728 and people will be able to read the message as usual.
10730 .Va smime-sign-cert , smime-sign-include-certs
10732 .Va smime-sign-message-digest .
10734 .Mx Va smime-sign-cert
10735 .It Va smime-sign-cert-USER@HOST , smime-sign-cert
10736 \*(OP Points to a file in PEM format.
10737 For the purpose of signing and decryption this file needs to contain the
10738 user's private key, followed by his certificate.
10740 For message signing
10742 is always derived from the value of
10744 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
10746 For the purpose of encryption the recipient's public encryption key
10747 (certificate) is expected; the command
10749 can be used to save certificates of signed messages (the section
10750 .Sx "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
10751 gives some details).
10752 This mode of operation is usually driven by the specialized form.
10754 When decrypting messages the account is derived from the recipient
10759 of the message, which are searched for addresses for which such
10761 \*(UA always uses the first address that matches,
10762 so if the same message is sent to more than one of the user's addresses
10763 using different encryption keys, decryption might fail.
10765 For signing and decryption purposes it is possible to use encrypted
10766 keys, and the pseudo-host(s)
10767 .Ql USER@HOST.smime-cert-key
10768 for the private key
10770 .Ql USER@HOST.smime-cert-cert
10771 for the certificate stored in the same file)
10772 will be used for performing any necessary password lookup,
10773 therefore the lookup can be automatized via the mechanisms described in
10774 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
10775 For example, the hypothetical address
10777 could be driven with a private key / certificate pair path defined in
10778 .Va \&\&smime-sign-cert-bob@exam.ple ,
10779 and needed passwords would then be looked up via the pseudo hosts
10780 .Ql bob@exam.ple.smime-cert-key
10782 .Ql bob@exam.ple.smime-cert-cert ) .
10783 To include intermediate certificates, use
10784 .Va smime-sign-include-certs .
10786 .Mx Va smime-sign-include-certs
10787 .It Va smime-sign-include-certs-USER@HOST , smime-sign-include-certs
10788 \*(OP If used, this is supposed to a consist of a comma-separated list
10789 of files, each of which containing a single certificate in PEM format to
10790 be included in the S/MIME message in addition to the
10791 .Va smime-sign-cert
10793 This can be used to include intermediate certificates of the certificate
10794 authority, in order to allow the receiver's S/MIME implementation to
10795 perform a verification of the entire certificate chain, starting from
10796 a local root certificate, over the intermediate certificates, down to the
10797 .Va smime-sign-cert .
10798 Even though top level certificates may also be included in the chain,
10799 they won't be used for the verification on the receiver's side.
10801 For the purpose of the mechanisms involved here,
10803 refers to the content of the internal variable
10805 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
10808 .Ql USER@HOST.smime-include-certs
10809 will be used for performing password lookups for these certificates,
10810 shall they have been given one, therefore the lookup can be automatized
10811 via the mechanisms described in
10812 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
10814 .Mx Va smime-sign-message-digest
10815 .It Va smime-sign-message-digest-USER@HOST , smime-sign-message-digest
10816 \*(OP Specifies the message digest to use when signing S/MIME messages.
10817 RFC 5751 mandates a default of
10819 Possible values are (case-insensitive and) in decreasing cipher strength:
10827 The actually available message digest algorithms depend on the
10828 cryptographic library that \*(UA uses.
10829 \*(OP Support for more message digest algorithms may be available
10830 through dynamic loading via, e.g.,
10831 .Xr EVP_get_digestbyname 3
10832 (OpenSSL) if \*(UA has been compiled to support this.
10833 Remember that for this
10835 refers to the variable
10837 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
10841 \*(OB\*(OP To use the built-in SMTP transport, specify a SMTP URL in
10843 \*(ID For compatibility reasons a set
10845 is used in preference of
10849 .It Va smtp-auth-USER@HOST , smtp-auth-HOST , smtp-auth
10850 \*(OP Variable chain that controls the SMTP
10852 authentication method, possible values are
10858 as well as the \*(OPal methods
10864 method does not need any user credentials,
10866 requires a user name and all other methods require a user name and
10874 .Va smtp-auth-password
10876 .Va smtp-auth-user ) .
10881 .Va smtp-auth-USER@HOST :
10882 may override dependent on sender address in the variable
10885 .It Va smtp-auth-password
10886 \*(OP\*(OU Sets the global fallback password for SMTP authentication.
10887 If the authentication method requires a password, but neither
10888 .Va smtp-auth-password
10890 .Va smtp-auth-password-USER@HOST
10892 \*(UA will ask for a password on the user's terminal.
10894 .It Va smtp-auth-password-USER@HOST
10896 .Va smtp-auth-password
10897 for specific values of sender addresses, dependent upon the variable
10900 .It Va smtp-auth-user
10901 \*(OP\*(OU Sets the global fallback user name for SMTP authentication.
10902 If the authentication method requires a user name, but neither
10905 .Va smtp-auth-user-USER@HOST
10907 \*(UA will ask for a user name on the user's terminal.
10909 .It Va smtp-auth-user-USER@HOST
10912 for specific values of sender addresses, dependent upon the variable
10916 .It Va smtp-hostname
10917 \*(OP\*(IN Normally \*(UA uses the variable
10919 to derive the necessary
10921 information in order to issue a
10928 can be used to use the
10930 from the SMTP account
10937 from the content of this variable (or, if that is the empty string,
10939 or the local hostname as a last resort).
10940 This often allows using an address that is itself valid but hosted by
10941 a provider other than which (in
10943 is about to send the message.
10944 Setting this variable also influences generated
10950 .Mx Va smtp-use-starttls
10951 .It Va smtp-use-starttls-USER@HOST , smtp-use-starttls-HOST , smtp-use-starttls
10952 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a
10954 command to make an SMTP
10956 session SSL/TLS encrypted, i.e., to enable transport layer security.
10959 .It Va socks-proxy-USER@HOST , socks-proxy-HOST , socks-proxy
10960 \*(OP If this is set to the hostname (SOCKS URL) of a SOCKS5 server then
10961 \*(UA will proxy all of its network activities through it.
10962 This can be used to proxy SMTP, POP3 etc. network traffic through the
10963 Tor anonymizer, for example.
10964 The following would create a local SOCKS proxy on port 10000 that
10965 forwards to the machine
10967 and from which the network traffic is actually instantiated:
10968 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10969 # Create local proxy server in terminal 1 forwarding to HOST
10970 $ ssh -D 10000 USER@HOST
10971 # Then, start a client that uses it in terminal 2
10972 $ \*(uA -Ssocks-proxy-USER@HOST=localhost:10000
10976 .It Va spam-interface
10977 \*(OP In order to use any of the spam-related commands (like, e.g.,
10979 the desired spam interface must be defined by setting this variable.
10980 Please refer to the manual section
10981 .Sx "Handling spam"
10982 for the complete picture of spam handling in \*(UA.
10983 All or none of the following interfaces may be available:
10985 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ql _ilte_"
10991 .Pf ( Lk http://spamassassin.apache.org SpamAssassin )
10993 Different to the generic filter interface \*(UA will automatically add
10994 the correct arguments for a given command and has the necessary
10995 knowledge to parse the program's output.
10996 A default value for
10998 will have been compiled into the \*(UA binary if
11002 during compilation.
11003 Shall it be necessary to define a specific connection type (rather than
11004 using a configuration file for that), the variable
11005 .Va spamc-arguments
11006 can be used as in, e.g.,
11007 .Ql -d server.example.com -p 783 .
11008 It is also possible to specify a per-user configuration via
11010 Note that this interface does not inspect the
11012 flag of a message for the command
11016 generic spam filter support via freely configurable hooks.
11017 This interface is meant for programs like
11019 and requires according behaviour in respect to the hooks' exit
11020 status for at least the command
11023 meaning a message is spam,
11027 for unsure and any other return value indicating a hard error);
11028 since the hooks can include shell code snippets diverting behaviour
11029 can be intercepted as necessary.
11031 .Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , spamfilter-nospam , \
11034 .Va spamfilter-spam ;
11036 .Sx "Handling spam"
11037 contains examples for some programs.
11038 The process environment of the hooks will have the variable
11039 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_GENERATED
11041 Note that spam score support for
11043 is not supported unless the \*(OPtional regular expression support is
11045 .Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore
11051 .It Va spam-maxsize
11052 \*(OP Messages that exceed this size will not be passed through to the
11054 .Va spam-interface .
11055 If unset or 0, the default of 420000 bytes is used.
11058 .It Va spamc-command
11059 \*(OP The path to the
11063 .Va spam-interface .
11064 Note that the path is not expanded, but used
11066 A fallback path will have been compiled into the \*(UA binary if the
11067 executable had been found during compilation.
11070 .It Va spamc-arguments
11071 \*(OP Even though \*(UA deals with most arguments for the
11074 automatically, it may at least sometimes be desirable to specify
11075 connection-related ones via this variable, e.g.,
11076 .Ql -d server.example.com -p 783 .
11080 \*(OP Specify a username for per-user configuration files for the
11082 .Va spam-interface .
11083 If this is set to the empty string then \*(UA will use the name of the
11092 .It Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , \
11093 spamfilter-nospam , spamfilter-rate , spamfilter-spam
11094 \*(OP Command and argument hooks for the
11096 .Va spam-interface .
11098 .Sx "Handling spam"
11099 contains examples for some programs.
11102 .It Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore
11103 \*(OP Because of the generic nature of the
11106 spam scores are not supported for it by default, but if the \*(OPnal
11107 regular expression support is available then setting this variable can
11108 be used to overcome this restriction.
11109 It is interpreted as follows: first a number (digits) is parsed that
11110 must be followed by a semicolon
11112 and an extended regular expression.
11113 Then the latter is used to parse the first output line of the
11114 .Va spamfilter-rate
11115 hook, and, in case the evaluation is successful, the group that has been
11116 specified via the number is interpreted as a floating point scan score.
11120 .It Va ssl-ca-dir , ssl-ca-file
11121 \*(OP Specify the location of trusted CA certificates in PEM (Privacy
11122 Enhanced Mail) format as a directory and a file, respectively, for the
11123 purpose of verification of SSL/TLS server certificates.
11124 It is possible to set both, the file will be loaded immediately, the
11125 directory will be searched whenever no match has yet been found.
11126 The set of CA certificates which are built into the SSL/TLS library can
11127 be explicitly turned off by setting
11128 .Va ssl-ca-no-defaults ,
11129 and further fine-tuning is possible via
11132 .Xr SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations 3
11133 for more information.
11134 \*(UA will try to use the TLS/SNI (ServerNameIndication) extension when
11135 establishing TLS connections to servers identified with hostnames.
11139 .It Va ssl-ca-flags
11140 \*(OP Can be used to fine-tune behaviour of the X509 CA certificate
11141 storage, and the certificate verification that is used (also see
11143 The value is expected to consist of a comma-separated list of
11144 configuration directives, with any intervening whitespace being ignored.
11145 The directives directly map to flags that can be passed to
11146 .Xr X509_STORE_set_flags 3 ,
11147 which are usually defined in a file
11148 .Pa openssl/x509_vfy.h ,
11149 and the availability of which depends on the used SSL/TLS library
11150 version: a directive without mapping is ignored (error log subject to
11152 Directives currently understood (case-insensitively) include:
11155 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Cd BaNg"
11156 .It Cd no-alt-chains
11157 If the initial chain is not trusted, do not attempt to build an
11159 Setting this flag will make OpenSSL certificate verification match that
11160 of older OpenSSL versions, before automatic building and checking of
11161 alternative chains has been implemented; also see
11162 .Cd trusted-first .
11163 .It Cd no-check-time
11164 Do not check certificate/CRL validity against current time.
11165 .It Cd partial-chain
11166 By default partial, incomplete chains which cannot be verified up to the
11167 chain top, a self-signed root certificate, will not verify.
11168 With this flag set, a chain succeeds to verify if at least one signing
11169 certificate of the chain is in any of the configured trusted stores of
11171 The OpenSSL manual page
11172 .Xr SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations 3
11173 gives some advise how to manage your own trusted store of CA certificates.
11175 Disable workarounds for broken certificates.
11176 .It Cd trusted-first
11177 Try building a chain using issuers in the trusted store first to avoid
11178 problems with server-sent legacy intermediate certificates.
11179 Newer versions of OpenSSL support alternative chain checking and enable
11180 it by default, resulting in the same behaviour; also see
11181 .Cd no-alt-chains .
11186 .It Va ssl-ca-no-defaults
11187 \*(BO\*(OP Do not load the default CA locations that are built into the
11188 used to SSL/TLS library to verify SSL/TLS server certificates.
11191 .It Va ssl-cert-USER@HOST , ssl-cert-HOST , ssl-cert
11192 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the filename for a SSL/TLS client
11193 certificate required by some servers.
11194 This is a direct interface to the
11198 function of the OpenSSL library, if available.
11200 .Mx Va ssl-cipher-list
11201 .It Va ssl-cipher-list-USER@HOST , ssl-cipher-list-HOST , ssl-cipher-list
11202 \*(OP Specifies a list of ciphers for SSL/TLS connections.
11203 This is a direct interface to the
11207 function of the OpenSSL library, if available; see
11210 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_cipher_list 3
11211 for more information.
11212 By default \*(UA does not set a list of ciphers, in effect using a
11214 specific cipher (protocol standards ship with a list of acceptable
11215 ciphers), possibly cramped to what the actually used SSL/TLS library
11216 supports \(en the manual section
11217 .Sx "An example configuration"
11218 also contains a SSL/TLS use case.
11221 .It Va ssl-config-file
11222 \*(OP If this variable is set \*(UA will call
11223 .Xr CONF_modules_load_file 3
11224 to allow OpenSSL to be configured according to the host system wide
11226 If a non-empty value is given then this will be used to specify the
11227 configuration file to be used instead of the global OpenSSL default;
11228 note that in this case it is an error if the file cannot be loaded.
11229 The application name will always be passed as
11233 .It Va ssl-curves-USER@HOST , ssl-curves-HOST , ssl-curves
11234 \*(OP Specifies a list of supported curves for SSL/TLS connections.
11235 This is a direct interface to the
11239 function of the OpenSSL library, if available; see
11240 .Xr SSL_CTX_set1_curves_list 3
11241 for more information.
11242 By default \*(UA does not set a list of curves.
11246 .It Va ssl-crl-dir , ssl-crl-file
11247 \*(OP Specify a directory / a file, respectively that contains a CRL in
11248 PEM format to use when verifying SSL/TLS server certificates.
11251 .It Va ssl-key-USER@HOST , ssl-key-HOST , ssl-key
11252 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the filename for the private key of
11253 a SSL/TLS client certificate.
11254 If unset, the name of the certificate file is used.
11255 The file is expected to be in PEM format.
11256 This is a direct interface to the
11260 function of the OpenSSL library, if available.
11262 .It Va ssl-method-USER@HOST , ssl-method-HOST , ssl-method
11263 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the newer and more flexible
11265 instead: if both values are set,
11267 will take precedence!
11268 Can be set to the following values, the actually used
11270 specification to which it is mapped is shown in parenthesis:
11272 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, TLSv1.2 ) ,
11274 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, TLSv1.1 ) ,
11276 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, TLSv1 )
11279 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, SSLv3 ) ;
11284 and thus includes the SSLv3 protocol.
11285 Note that SSLv2 is no longer supported at all.
11287 .Mx Va ssl-protocol
11288 .It Va ssl-protocol-USER@HOST , ssl-protocol-HOST , ssl-protocol
11289 \*(OP Specify the used SSL/TLS protocol.
11290 This is a direct interface to the
11294 function of the OpenSSL library, if available;
11295 otherwise an \*(UA internal parser is used which understands the
11296 following subset of (case-insensitive) command strings:
11302 as well as the special value
11304 Multiple specifications may be given via a comma-separated list which
11305 ignores any whitespace.
11308 plus sign prefix will enable a protocol, a
11310 hyphen-minus prefix will disable it, so that
11312 will enable only the TLSv1.2 protocol.
11314 It depends upon the used TLS/SSL library which protocols are actually
11315 supported and which protocols are used if
11317 is not set, but note that SSLv2 is no longer supported at all and
11319 Especially for older protocols explicitly securing
11320 .Va ssl-cipher-list
11321 may be worthwile, see
11322 .Sx "An example configuration" .
11325 .It Va ssl-rand-egd
11326 \*(OP Gives the pathname to an entropy daemon socket, see
11328 Not all SSL/TLS libraries support this.
11331 .It Va ssl-rand-file
11332 \*(OP Gives the filename to a file with random entropy data, see
11333 .Xr RAND_load_file 3 .
11334 If this variable is not set, or set to the empty string, or if the
11335 .Sx "Filename transformations"
11337 .Xr RAND_file_name 3
11338 will be used to create the filename if, and only if,
11340 documents that the SSL PRNG is not yet sufficiently seeded.
11341 If \*(UA successfully seeded the SSL PRNG then it will update the file
11342 .Pf ( Xr RAND_write_file 3 ) .
11343 This variable is only used if
11345 is not set (or not supported by the SSL/TLS library).
11348 .It Va ssl-verify-USER@HOST , ssl-verify-HOST , ssl-verify
11349 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the action to be performed if an error
11350 occurs during SSL/TLS server certificate validation against the
11351 specified or default trust stores
11354 or the SSL/TLS library built-in defaults (unless usage disallowed via
11355 .Va ssl-ca-no-defaults ) ,
11356 and as fine-tuned via
11358 Valid (case-insensitive) values are
11360 (fail and close connection immediately),
11362 (ask whether to continue on standard input),
11364 (show a warning and continue),
11366 (do not perform validation).
11372 If only set without an assigned value, then this setting inhibits the
11378 header fields that include obvious references to \*(UA.
11379 There are two pitfalls associated with this:
11380 First, the message id of outgoing messages is not known anymore.
11381 Second, an expert may still use the remaining information in the header
11382 to track down the originating mail user agent.
11383 If set to the value
11389 suppression does not occur.
11394 (\*(OP) This specifies a comma-separated list of
11399 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" ,
11400 escape commas with reverse solidus) to be used to overwrite or define
11403 this variable will only be queried once at program startup and can
11404 thus only be specified in resource files or on the command line.
11407 String capabilities form
11409 pairs and are expected unless noted otherwise.
11410 Numerics have to be notated as
11412 where the number is expected in normal decimal notation.
11413 Finally, booleans do not have any value but indicate a true or false
11414 state simply by being defined or not; this indeed means that \*(UA
11415 does not support undefining an existing boolean.
11416 String capability values will undergo some expansions before use:
11417 for one notations like
11420 .Ql control-LETTER ,
11421 and for clarification purposes
11423 can be used to specify
11425 (the control notation
11427 could lead to misreadings when a left bracket follows, which it does for
11428 the standard CSI sequence);
11429 finally three letter octal sequences, as in
11432 To specify that a terminal supports 256-colours, and to define sequences
11433 that home the cursor and produce an audible bell, one might write:
11435 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11436 ? set termcap='Co#256,home=\eE[H,bel=^G'
11440 The following terminal capabilities are or may be meaningful for the
11441 operation of the built-in line editor or \*(UA in general:
11444 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Cd yay"
11446 .It Cd colors Ns \0or Cd Co
11448 numeric capability specifying the maximum number of colours.
11449 Note that \*(UA does not actually care about the terminal beside that,
11450 but always emits ANSI / ISO 6429 escape sequences.
11453 .It Cd rmcup Ns \0or Cd te Ns \0/ Cd smcup Ns \0or Cd ti
11456 .Cd enter_ca_mode ,
11457 respectively: exit and enter the alternative screen ca-mode,
11458 effectively turning \*(UA into a fullscreen application.
11459 This must be enabled explicitly by setting
11460 .Va termcap-ca-mode .
11462 .It Cd smkx Ns \0or Cd ks Ns \0/ Cd rmkx Ns \0or Cd ke
11466 respectively: enable and disable the keypad.
11467 This is always enabled if available, because it seems even keyboards
11468 without keypads generate other key codes for, e.g., cursor keys in that
11469 case, and only if enabled we see the codes that we are interested in.
11471 .It Cd ed Ns \0or Cd cd
11475 .It Cd clear Ns \0or Cd cl
11477 clear the screen and home cursor.
11478 (Will be simulated via
11483 .It Cd home Ns \0or Cd ho
11488 .It Cd el Ns \0or Cd ce
11490 clear to the end of line.
11491 (Will be simulated via
11493 plus repetitions of space characters.)
11495 .It Cd hpa Ns \0or Cd ch
11496 .Cd column_address :
11497 move the cursor (to the given column parameter) in the current row.
11498 (Will be simulated via
11504 .Cd carriage_return :
11505 move to the first column in the current row.
11506 The default built-in fallback is
11509 .It Cd cub1 Ns \0or Cd le
11511 move the cursor left one space (non-destructively).
11512 The default built-in fallback is
11515 .It Cd cuf1 Ns \0or Cd nd
11517 move the cursor right one space (non-destructively).
11518 The default built-in fallback is
11520 which is used by most terminals.
11528 Many more capabilities which describe key-sequences are documented for
11533 .It Va termcap-ca-mode
11534 \*(OP Allow usage of the
11538 terminal capabilities, effectively turning \*(UA into a fullscreen
11539 application, as documented for
11542 this variable will only be queried once at program startup and can
11543 thus only be specified in resource files or on the command line.
11546 .It Va termcap-disable
11547 \*(OP Disable any interaction with a terminal control library.
11548 If set only some generic fallback built-ins and possibly the content of
11550 describe the terminal to \*(UA.
11552 this variable will only be queried once at program startup and can
11553 thus only be specified in resource files or on the command line.
11557 If defined, gives the number of lines of a message to be displayed
11560 if unset, the first five lines are printed, if set to 0 the variable
11563 If the value is negative then its absolute value will be used for
11564 unsigned right shifting (see
11572 \*(BO If set then the
11574 command series will strip adjacent empty lines and quotations.
11578 The character set of the terminal \*(UA operates on,
11579 and the one and only supported character set that \*(UA can use if no
11580 character set conversion capabilities have been compiled into it,
11581 in which case it defaults to ISO-8859-1 unless it can deduce a value
11582 from the locale specified in the
11584 environment variable (if supported, see there for more).
11585 It defaults to UTF-8 if conversion is available.
11586 Refer to the section
11587 .Sx "Character sets"
11588 for the complete picture about character sets.
11591 .It Va typescript-mode
11592 \*(BO A special multiplex variable that disables all variables and
11593 settings which result in behaviour that interferes with running \*(UA in
11596 .Va colour-disable ,
11597 .Va line-editor-disable
11598 and (before startup completed only)
11599 .Va termcap-disable .
11600 Unsetting it does not restore the former state of the covered settings.
11604 For a safety-by-default policy \*(UA sets its process
11608 but this variable can be used to override that:
11609 set it to an empty value to do not change the (current) setting (on
11610 startup), otherwise the process file mode creation mask is updated to
11612 Child processes inherit the process file mode creation mask.
11615 .It Va user-HOST , user
11616 \*(IN Variable chain that sets a global fallback user name, which is
11617 used in case none has been given in the protocol and account-specific
11619 This variable defaults to the name of the user who runs \*(UA.
11623 \*(BO Setting this enables upward compatibility with \*(UA
11624 version 15.0 in respect to which configuration options are available and
11625 how they are handled.
11626 This manual uses \*(IN and \*(OU to refer to the new and the old way of
11627 doing things, respectively.
11631 \*(BO This setting, also controllable via the command line option
11633 causes \*(UA to be more verbose, e.g., it will display obsoletion
11634 warnings and SSL/TLS certificate chains.
11635 Even though marked \*(BO this option may be set twice in order to
11636 increase the level of verbosity even more, in which case even details of
11637 the actual message delivery and protocol conversations are shown.
11640 is sufficient to disable verbosity as such.
11647 .It Va version , version-date , version-major , version-minor , version-update
11648 \*(RO \*(UA version information: the first variable contains a string
11649 containing the complete version identification, the latter three contain
11650 only digits: the major, minor and update version numbers.
11651 The date is in ISO 8601 notation.
11652 The output of the command
11654 will include this information.
11657 .It Va writebackedited
11658 If this variable is set messages modified using the
11662 commands are written back to the current folder when it is quit;
11663 it is only honoured for writable folders in MBOX format, though.
11664 Note that the editor will be pointed to the raw message content in that
11665 case, i.e., neither MIME decoding nor decryption will have been
11666 performed, and proper RFC 4155
11668 quoting of newly added or edited content is also left as an excercise to
11671 .\" }}} (Variables)
11673 .\" }}} (INTERNAL VARIABLES)
11676 .\" .Sh ENVIRONMENT {{{
11680 .Dq environment variable
11681 should be considered an indication that these variables are either
11682 standardized as vivid parts of process environments, or that they are
11683 commonly found in there.
11684 The process environment is inherited from the
11686 once \*(UA is started, and unless otherwise explicitly noted handling of
11687 the following variables transparently integrates into that of the
11688 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
11689 from \*(UA's point of view.
11690 This means that, e.g., they can be managed via
11694 causing automatic program environment updates (to be inherited by
11695 newly created child processes).
11698 In order to transparently integrate other environment variables equally
11699 they need to be imported (linked) with the command
11701 This command can also be used to set and unset non-integrated
11702 environment variables from scratch, sufficient system support provided.
11703 The following example, applicable to a POSIX shell, sets the
11705 environment variable for \*(UA only, and beforehand exports the
11707 in order to affect any further processing in the running shell:
11709 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11710 $ EDITOR="vim -u ${HOME}/.vimrc"
11712 $ COLUMNS=80 \*(uA -R
11715 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ev BaNg"
11718 The user's preferred width in column positions for the terminal screen
11720 Queried and used once on program startup, actively managed for child
11721 processes and the MLE (see
11722 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
11723 in interactive mode thereafter.
11724 Ignored in non-interactive mode, which always uses 80 columns, unless in
11730 The name of the (mailbox)
11732 to use for saving aborted messages if
11734 is set; this defaults to
11741 is set no output will be generated, otherwise the contents of the file
11746 Pathname of the text editor to use in the
11750 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
11751 A default editor is used if this value is not defined.
11755 The user's home directory.
11756 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
11757 The calling user's home directory will be used instead if this directory
11758 does not exist, is not accessible or cannot be read.
11759 (No test for being writable is performed to allow usage by
11760 non-privileged users within read-only jails, but dependent on the
11761 variable settings this directory is a default write target, e.g. for
11769 .It Ev LC_ALL , LC_CTYPE , LANG
11770 \*(OP The (names in lookup order of the)
11774 which indicates the used
11775 .Sx "Character sets" .
11776 Runtime changes trigger automatic updates of the entire locale system,
11777 updating and overwriting also a
11783 The user's preferred number of lines on a page or the vertical screen
11784 or window size in lines.
11785 Queried and used once on program startup, actively managed for child
11786 processes in interactive mode thereafter.
11787 Ignored in non-interactive mode, which always uses 24 lines, unless in
11793 Pathname of the directory lister to use in the
11795 command when operating on local mailboxes.
11798 (path search through
11803 Upon startup \*(UA will actively ensure that this variable refers to the
11804 name of the user who runs \*(UA, in order to be able to pass a verified
11805 name to any newly created child process.
11809 Is used as the users
11811 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
11815 This is assumed to be an absolute pathname.
11819 \*(OP Overrides the default path search for
11820 .Sx "The Mailcap files" ,
11821 which is defined in the standard RFC 1524 as
11822 .Ql ~/.mailcap:\:/etc/mailcap:\:/usr/etc/mailcap:\:/usr/local/etc/mailcap .
11823 .\" TODO we should have a mailcaps-default virtual RDONLY option!
11824 (\*(UA makes it a configuration option, however.)
11825 Note this is not a search path, but a path search.
11829 Is used as a startup file instead of
11832 When \*(UA scripts are invoked on behalf of other users,
11833 either this variable should be set to
11837 command line option should be used in order to avoid side-effects from
11838 reading their configuration files.
11839 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
11842 .It Ev MAILX_NO_SYSTEM_RC
11843 If this variable is set then reading of
11845 at startup is inhibited, i.e., the same effect is achieved as if \*(UA
11846 had been started up with the option
11848 (and according argument) or
11850 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
11854 The name of the users
11856 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
11858 A logical subset of the special
11859 .Sx "Filename transformations"
11865 Traditionally this MBOX is used as the file to save messages from the
11867 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
11868 that have been read.
11870 .Sx "Message states" .
11874 \*(IN\*(OP This variable overrides the default location of the user's
11880 Pathname of the program to use for backing the command
11884 variable enforces usage of a pager for output.
11885 The default paginator is
11887 (path search through
11890 \*(UA inspects the contents of this variable: if its contains the string
11892 then a non-existing environment variable
11899 will optionally be set to
11906 A colon-separated list of directories that is searched by the shell when
11907 looking for commands, e.g.,
11908 .Ql /bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin .
11911 .It Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT
11912 This variable is automatically looked for upon startup, see
11918 The shell to use for the commands
11923 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
11924 and when starting subprocesses.
11925 A default shell is used if this environment variable is not defined.
11928 .It Ev SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
11929 This specifies a time in seconds since the Unix epoch (1970-01-01) to be
11930 used in place of the current time.
11931 This variable is looked up upon program startup, and its existence will
11932 switch \*(UA to a completely reproducible mode which causes
11933 deterministic random numbers, a special fixed (non-existent?)
11935 and more to be used and set.
11936 It is to be used during development or by software packagers.
11937 \*(ID Currently an invalid setting is only ignored, rather than causing
11938 a program abortion.
11940 .Dl $ SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH=`date +%s` \*(uA
11944 \*(OP The terminal type for which output is to be prepared.
11945 For extended colour and font control please refer to
11946 .Sx "Coloured display" ,
11947 and for terminal management in general to
11948 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" .
11952 Used as directory for temporary files instead of
11954 if set, existent, accessible as well as read- and writable.
11955 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment,
11956 but \*(UA will ensure at startup that this environment variable is
11957 updated to contain a usable temporary directory.
11963 (see there), but this variable is not standardized, should therefore not
11964 be used, and is only corrected if already set.
11968 Pathname of the text editor to use in the
11972 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
11982 .Bl -tag -width ".It Pa BaNg"
11984 File giving initial commands, one of the
11985 .Sx "Resource files" .
11988 System wide initialization file, one of the
11989 .Sx "Resource files" .
11993 \*(OP Personal MIME type handler definition file, see
11994 .Sx "The Mailcap files" .
11995 This location is part of the RFC 1524 standard search path, which is
11996 a configuration option and can be overridden via
12000 .It Pa /etc/mailcap
12001 \*(OP System wide MIME type handler definition file, see
12002 .Sx "The Mailcap files" .
12003 This location is part of the RFC 1524 standard search path, which is
12004 a configuration option and can be overridden via
12008 The default value for
12010 The actually used path is a configuration option.
12013 .It Pa ~/.mime.types
12014 Personal MIME types, see
12015 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
12016 The actually used path is a configuration option.
12019 .It Pa /etc/mime.types
12020 System wide MIME types, see
12021 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
12022 The actually used path is a configuration option.
12026 \*(IN\*(OP The default location of the users
12028 file \(en the section
12029 .Sx "The .netrc file"
12030 documents the file format.
12031 The actually used path is a configuration option and can be overridden via
12038 The actually used path is a compile-time constant.
12042 .\" .Ss "Resource files" {{{
12043 .Ss "Resource files"
12045 Upon startup \*(UA reads in several resource files:
12047 .Bl -tag -width ".It Pa BaNg"
12050 System wide initialization file.
12051 Reading of this file can be suppressed, either by using the
12053 (and according argument) or
12055 command line options, or by setting the
12058 .Ev MAILX_NO_SYSTEM_RC .
12062 File giving initial commands.
12063 A different file can be chosen by setting the
12067 Reading of this file can be suppressed with the
12069 command line option.
12071 .It Va mailx-extra-rc
12072 Defines a startup file to be read after all other resource files.
12073 It can be used to specify settings that are not understood by other
12075 implementations, for example.
12076 This variable is only honoured when defined in a resource file, e.g.,
12078 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" .
12082 The content of these files is interpreted as follows:
12085 .Bl -bullet -compact
12087 The whitespace characters space, tabulator and newline,
12088 as well as those defined by the variable
12090 are removed from the beginning and end of input lines.
12092 Empty lines are ignored.
12094 Any other line is interpreted as a command.
12095 It may be spread over multiple input lines if the newline character is
12097 by placing a reverse solidus character
12099 as the last character of the line; whereas any leading whitespace of
12100 follow lines is ignored, trailing whitespace before a escaped newline
12101 remains in the input.
12103 If the line (content) starts with the number sign
12105 then it is a comment-command and also ignored.
12106 (The comment-command is a real command, which does nothing, and
12107 therefore the usual follow lines mechanism applies!)
12111 Unless \*(UA is about to enter interactive mode syntax errors that occur
12112 while loading these files are treated as errors and cause program exit.
12113 More files with syntactically equal content can be
12115 The following, saved in a file, would be an examplary content:
12117 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12118 # This line is a comment command. And y\e
12119 es, it is really continued here.
12126 .\" .Ss "The mime.types files" {{{
12127 .Ss "The mime.types files"
12130 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments"
12131 \*(UA needs to learn about MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions)
12132 media types in order to classify message and attachment content.
12133 One source for them are
12135 files, the loading of which can be controlled by setting the variable
12136 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
12137 Another is the command
12139 which also offers access to \*(UAs MIME type cache.
12141 files have the following syntax:
12143 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12144 type/subtype extension [extension ...]
12145 # E.g., text/html html htm
12151 define the MIME media type, as standardized in RFC 2046:
12153 is used to declare the general type of data, while the
12155 specifies a specific format for that type of data.
12156 One or multiple filename
12158 s, separated by whitespace, can be bound to the media type format.
12159 Comments may be introduced anywhere on a line with a number sign
12161 causing the remaining line to be discarded.
12163 \*(UA also supports an extended, non-portable syntax in especially
12164 crafted files, which can be loaded via the alternative value syntax of
12165 .Va mimetypes-load-control ,
12166 and prepends an optional
12170 .Dl [type-marker ]type/subtype extension [extension ...]
12173 The following type markers are supported:
12176 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar _n_u"
12178 Treat message parts with this content as plain text.
12183 Treat message parts with this content as HTML tagsoup.
12184 If the \*(OPal HTML-tagsoup-to-text converter is not available treat
12185 the content as plain text instead.
12189 but instead of falling back to plain text require an explicit content
12190 handler to be defined.
12192 If no handler can be found a text message is displayed which says so.
12193 This can be annoying, for example signatures serve a contextual purpose,
12194 their content is of no use by itself.
12195 This marker will avoid displaying the text message.
12200 for sending messages:
12202 .Va mime-allow-text-controls ,
12203 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
12204 For reading etc. messages:
12205 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ,
12206 .Sx "The Mailcap files" ,
12208 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
12209 .Va mimetypes-load-control ,
12210 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE ,
12211 .Va pipe-EXTENSION .
12214 .\" .Ss "The Mailcap files" {{{
12215 .Ss "The Mailcap files"
12217 .\" TODO MAILCAP DISABLED
12218 .Sy This feature is not available in v14.9.0, sorry!
12220 .Dq User Agent Configuration Mechanism
12221 which \*(UA \*(OPally supports (see
12222 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ) .
12223 It defines a file format to be used to inform mail user agent programs
12224 about the locally-installed facilities for handling various data
12225 formats, i.e., about commands and how they can be used to display, edit
12226 et cetera MIME part contents, as well as a default path search that
12227 includes multiple possible locations of
12231 environment variable that can be used to overwrite that (repeating here
12232 that it is not a search path, but instead a path search specification).
12233 Any existing files will be loaded in sequence, appending any content to
12234 the list of MIME type handler directives.
12238 files consist of a set of newline separated entries.
12239 Comment lines start with a number sign
12241 (in the first column!) and are ignored.
12242 Empty lines are also ignored.
12243 All other lines form individual entries that must adhere to the syntax
12245 To extend a single entry (not comment) its line can be continued on
12246 follow lines if newline characters are
12248 by preceding them with the reverse solidus character
12250 The standard does not specify how leading whitespace of follow lines
12251 is to be treated, therefore \*(UA retains it.
12255 entries consist of a number of semicolon
12257 separated fields, and the reverse solidus
12259 character can be used to escape any following character including
12260 semicolon and itself.
12261 The first two fields are mandatory and must occur in the specified
12262 order, the remaining fields are optional and may appear in any order.
12263 Leading and trailing whitespace of content is ignored (removed).
12266 The first field defines the MIME
12268 the entry is about to handle (case-insensitively, and no reverse solidus
12269 escaping is possible in this field).
12270 If the subtype is specified as an asterisk
12272 the entry is meant to match all subtypes of the named type, e.g.,
12274 would match any audio type.
12275 The second field defines the shell command which shall be used to
12277 MIME parts of the given type; it is implicitly called the
12284 shell commands message (MIME part) data is passed via standard input
12285 unless the given shell command includes one or more instances of the
12288 in which case these instances will be replaced with a temporary filename
12289 and the data will have been stored in the file that is being pointed to.
12292 shell commands data is assumed to be generated on standard output unless
12293 the given command includes (one ore multiple)
12295 In any case any given
12297 format is replaced with a(n already) properly quoted filename.
12298 Note that when a command makes use of a temporary file via
12300 then \*(UA will remove it again, as if the
12301 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile ,
12302 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill
12304 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
12305 flags had been set; see below for more.
12308 The optional fields either define a shell command or an attribute (flag)
12309 value, the latter being a single word and the former being a keyword
12310 naming the field followed by an equals sign
12312 succeeded by a shell command, and as usual for any
12314 content any whitespace surrounding the equals sign will be removed, too.
12315 Optional fields include the following:
12318 .Bl -tag -width ".It Cd BaNg"
12320 A program that can be used to compose a new body or body part in the
12322 (Currently unused.)
12324 .It Cd composetyped
12327 field, but is to be used when the composing program needs to specify the
12329 header field to be applied to the composed data.
12330 (Currently unused.)
12333 A program that can be used to edit a body or body part in the given
12335 (Currently unused.)
12338 A program that can be used to print a message or body part in the given
12340 (Currently unused.)
12343 Specifies a program to be run to test some condition, e.g., the machine
12344 architecture, or the window system in use, to determine whether or not
12345 this mailcap entry applies.
12346 If the test fails, a subsequent mailcap entry should be sought; also see
12347 .Cd x-mailx-test-once .
12350 .It Cd needsterminal
12351 This flag field indicates that the given shell command must be run on
12352 an interactive terminal.
12353 \*(UA will temporarily release the terminal to the given command in
12354 interactive mode, in non-interactive mode this entry will be entirely
12355 ignored; this flag implies
12356 .Cd x-mailx-noquote .
12359 .It Cd copiousoutput
12360 A flag field which indicates that the output of the
12362 command will be an extended stream of textual output that can be
12363 (re)integrated into \*(UA's normal visual display.
12364 It is mutually exclusive with
12365 .Cd needsterminal .
12367 .It Cd textualnewlines
12368 A flag field which indicates that this type of data is line-oriented and
12369 that, if encoded in
12371 all newlines should be converted to canonical form (CRLF) before
12372 encoding, and will be in that form after decoding.
12373 (Currently unused.)
12375 .It Cd nametemplate
12376 This field gives a filename format, in which
12378 will be replaced by a random string, the joined combination of which
12379 will be used as the filename denoted by
12380 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY .
12381 One could specify that a GIF file being passed to an image viewer should
12382 have a name ending in
12385 .Ql nametemplate=%s.gif .
12386 Note that \*(UA ignores the name template unless that solely specifies
12387 a filename suffix that consists of (ASCII) alphabetic and numeric
12388 characters, the underscore and dot only.
12391 Names a file, in X11 bitmap (xbm) format, which points to an appropriate
12392 icon to be used to visually denote the presence of this kind of data.
12393 This field is not used by \*(UA.
12396 A textual description that describes this type of data.
12399 .It Cd x-mailx-even-if-not-interactive
12400 An extension flag test field \(em by default handlers without
12402 are entirely ignored in non-interactive mode, but if this flag is set
12403 then their use will be considered.
12404 It is an error if this flag is set for commands that use the flag
12405 .Cd needsterminal .
12408 .It Cd x-mailx-noquote
12409 An extension flag field that indicates that even a
12412 command shall not be used to generate message quotes
12413 (as it would be by default).
12416 .It Cd x-mailx-async
12417 Extension flag field that denotes that the given
12419 command shall be executed asynchronously, without blocking \*(UA.
12420 Cannot be used in conjunction with
12421 .Cd needsterminal .
12424 .It Cd x-mailx-test-once
12425 Extension flag which denotes whether the given
12427 command shall be evaluated once only and the (boolean) result be cached.
12428 This is handy if some global unchanging condition is to be queried, like
12429 .Dq running under the X Window System .
12432 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile
12433 Extension flag field that requests creation of a zero-sized temporary
12434 file, the name of which is to be placed in the environment variable
12435 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY .
12436 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
12441 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill
12442 Normally the MIME part content is passed to the handler via standard
12443 input; if this flag is set then the data will instead be written into
12445 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile .
12446 In order to cause deletion of the temporary file you will have to set
12447 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
12449 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
12454 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
12455 Extension flag field that requests that the temporary file shall be
12456 deleted automatically when the command loop is entered again at latest.
12457 (Do not use this for asynchronous handlers.)
12458 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
12460 format, or in conjunction with
12461 .Cd x-mailx-async ,
12462 or without also setting
12463 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile
12465 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill .
12468 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-keep
12471 implies the three tmpfile related flags above, but if you want, e.g.,
12473 and deal with the temporary file yourself, you can add in this flag to
12475 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink .
12480 The standard includes the possibility to define any number of additional
12481 entry fields, prefixed by
12483 Flag fields apply to the entire
12485 entry \(em in some unusual cases, this may not be desirable, but
12486 differentiation can be accomplished via separate entries, taking
12487 advantage of the fact that subsequent entries are searched if an earlier
12488 one does not provide enough information.
12491 command needs to specify the
12495 command shall not, the following will help out the latter (with enabled
12499 level \*(UA will show information about handler evaluation):
12501 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12502 application/postscript; ps-to-terminal %s; needsterminal
12503 application/postscript; ps-to-terminal %s; compose=idraw %s
12507 In fields any occurrence of the format string
12509 will be replaced by the
12512 Named parameters from the
12514 field may be placed in the command execution line using
12516 followed by the parameter name and a closing
12519 The entire parameter should appear as a single command line argument,
12520 regardless of embedded spaces; thus:
12522 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12524 Content-type: multipart/mixed; boundary=42
12527 multipart/*; /usr/local/bin/showmulti \e
12528 %t %{boundary} ; composetyped = /usr/local/bin/makemulti
12530 # Executed shell command
12531 /usr/local/bin/showmulti multipart/mixed 42
12535 .\" TODO v15: Mailcap: %n,%F
12536 Note that \*(UA does not support handlers for multipart MIME parts as
12537 shown in this example (as of today).
12538 \*(UA does not support the additional formats
12542 An example file, also showing how to properly deal with the expansion of
12544 which includes any quotes that are necessary to make it a valid shell
12545 argument by itself and thus will cause undesired behaviour when placed
12546 in additional user-provided quotes:
12548 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12550 text/richtext; richtext %s; copiousoutput
12552 text/x-perl; perl -cWT %s
12554 application/pdf; \e
12556 trap "rm -f ${infile}" EXIT\e; \e
12557 trap "exit 75" INT QUIT TERM\e; \e
12559 x-mailx-async; x-mailx-tmpfile-keep
12561 application/*; echo "This is \e"%t\e" but \e
12562 is 50 \e% Greek to me" \e; < %s head -c 1024 | cat -vET; \e
12563 copiousoutput; x-mailx-noquote
12568 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ,
12569 .Sx "The mime.types files" ,
12572 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
12573 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE ,
12574 .Va pipe-EXTENSION .
12577 .\" .Ss "The .netrc file" {{{
12578 .Ss "The .netrc file"
12582 file contains user credentials for machine accounts.
12583 The default location in the user's
12585 directory may be overridden by the
12587 environment variable.
12588 The file consists of space, tabulator or newline separated tokens.
12589 \*(UA implements a parser that supports a superset of the original BSD
12590 syntax, but users should nonetheless be aware of portability glitches
12591 of that file format, shall their
12593 be usable across multiple programs and platforms:
12596 .Bl -bullet -compact
12598 BSD does not support single, but only double quotation marks, e.g.,
12599 .Ql password="pass with spaces" .
12601 BSD (only?) supports escaping of single characters via a reverse solidus
12602 (e.g., a space can be escaped via
12604 in- as well as outside of a quoted string.
12606 BSD does not require a final quotation mark of the last user input token.
12608 The original BSD (Berknet) parser also supported a format which allowed
12609 tokens to be separated with commas \(en whereas at least Hewlett-Packard
12610 still seems to support this syntax, \*(UA does not!
12612 As a non-portable extension some widely-used programs support
12613 shell-style comments: if an input line starts, after any amount of
12614 whitespace, with a number sign
12616 then the rest of the line is ignored.
12618 Whereas other programs may require that the
12620 file is accessible by only the user if it contains a
12622 token for any other
12626 \*(UA will always require these strict permissions.
12630 Of the following list of supported tokens \*(UA only uses (and caches)
12635 At runtime the command
12637 can be used to control \*(UA's
12641 .Bl -tag -width ".It Cd BaNg"
12642 .It Cd machine Ar name
12643 The hostname of the entries' machine, lowercase-normalized by \*(UA
12645 Any further file content, until either end-of-file or the occurrence
12650 first-class token is bound (only related) to the machine
12653 As an extension that should not be the cause of any worries
12654 \*(UA supports a single wildcard prefix for
12656 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12657 machine *.example.com login USER password PASS
12658 machine pop3.example.com login USER password PASS
12659 machine smtp.example.com login USER password PASS
12665 .Ql pop3.example.com ,
12669 .Ql local.smtp.example.com .
12670 Note that in the example neither
12671 .Ql pop3.example.com
12673 .Ql smtp.example.com
12674 will be matched by the wildcard, since the exact matches take
12675 precedence (it is however faster to specify it the other way around).
12678 This is the same as
12680 except that it is a fallback entry that is used shall none of the
12681 specified machines match; only one default token may be specified,
12682 and it must be the last first-class token.
12684 .It Cd login Ar name
12685 The user name on the remote machine.
12687 .It Cd password Ar string
12688 The user's password on the remote machine.
12690 .It Cd account Ar string
12691 Supply an additional account password.
12692 This is merely for FTP purposes.
12694 .It Cd macdef Ar name
12696 A macro is defined with the specified
12698 it is formed from all lines beginning with the next line and continuing
12699 until a blank line is (consecutive newline characters are) encountered.
12702 entries cannot be utilized by multiple machines, too, but must be
12703 defined following the
12705 they are intended to be used with.)
12708 exists, it is automatically run as the last step of the login process.
12709 This is merely for FTP purposes.
12716 .\" .Sh EXAMPLES {{{
12719 .\" .Ss "An example configuration" {{{
12720 .Ss "An example configuration"
12722 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12723 # This example assumes v15.0 compatibility mode
12726 # Request strict transport security checks!
12727 set ssl-verify=strict
12729 # Where are the up-to-date SSL certificates?
12730 # (Since we manage up-to-date ones explicitly, do not use any,
12731 # possibly outdated, default certificates shipped with OpenSSL)
12732 #set ssl-ca-dir=/etc/ssl/certs
12733 set ssl-ca-file=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
12734 set ssl-ca-no-defaults
12735 #set ssl-ca-flags=partial-chain
12736 wysh set smime-ca-file="${ssl-ca-file}" \e
12737 smime-ca-no-defaults #smime-ca-flags="${ssl-ca-flags}"
12739 # Do not use protocols older than TLS v1.2.
12740 # Change this only when the remote server does not support it:
12741 # maybe use ssl-protocol-HOST (or -USER@HOST) syntax to define
12742 # such explicit exceptions, then, e.g.
12743 # set ssl-protocol-exam.ple='-ALL,+TLSv1.1'
12744 set ssl-protocol='-ALL,+TLSv1.2'
12746 # Explicitly define the list of ciphers, which may improve security,
12747 # especially with protocols older than TLS v1.2. See ciphers(1).
12748 # Including "@STRENGTH" will sort the final list by algorithm strength.
12749 # In reality it is possibly best to only use ssl-cipher-list-HOST
12750 # (or -USER@HOST), as necessary, again..
12751 set ssl-cipher-list=TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:@STRENGTH
12753 # - TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:\e
12754 # ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA:\e
12755 # DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:@STRENGTH
12756 # -ALL:!aNULL:!eNULL:!MEDIUM:!LOW:!MD5:!RC4:!EXPORT:@STRENGTH
12757 # Especially with TLSv1.3 curves selection may be desired:
12758 #set ssl-curves=P-521:P-384:P-256
12760 # Essential setting: select allowed character sets
12761 set sendcharsets=utf-8,iso-8859-1
12763 # A very kind option: when replying to a message, first try to
12764 # use the same encoding that the original poster used herself!
12765 set reply-in-same-charset
12767 # When replying, do not merge From: and To: of the original message
12768 # into To:. Instead old From: -> new To:, old To: -> merge Cc:.
12769 set recipients-in-cc
12771 # When sending messages, wait until the Mail-Transfer-Agent finishs.
12772 # Only like this you will be able to see errors reported through the
12773 # exit status of the MTA (including the built-in SMTP one)!
12776 # Only use built-in MIME types, no mime.types(5) files
12777 set mimetypes-load-control
12779 # Default directory where we act in (relative to $HOME)
12781 # A leading "+" (often) means: under *folder*
12782 # *record* is used to save copies of sent messages
12783 set MBOX=+mbox.mbox DEAD=+dead.txt \e
12784 record=+sent.mbox record-files record-resent
12786 # Make "file mymbox" and "file myrec" go to..
12787 shortcut mymbox %:+mbox.mbox myrec +sent.mbox
12789 # Not really optional, e.g., for S/MIME
12790 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
12792 # It may be necessary to set hostname and/or smtp-hostname
12793 # if the "SERVER" of mta and "domain" of from do not match.
12794 # The `urlencode' command can be used to encode USER and PASS
12795 set mta=(smtps?|submission)://[USER[:PASS]@]SERVER[:PORT] \e
12796 smtp-auth=login/plain... \e
12799 # Never refuse to start into interactive mode, and more
12801 colour-pager crt= \e
12802 followup-to followup-to-honour=ask-yes fullnames \e
12803 history-file=+.\*(uAhist history-size=-1 history-gabby \e
12804 mime-counter-evidence=0xE \e
12805 prompt='?\e$?!\e$!/\e$^ERRNAME[\e$account#\e$mailbox-display]? ' \e
12806 reply-to-honour=ask-yes \e
12809 # Only include the selected header fields when typing messages
12810 headerpick type retain from_ date from to cc subject \e
12811 message-id mail-followup-to reply-to
12812 # ...when forwarding messages
12813 headerpick forward retain subject date from to cc
12814 # ...when saving message, etc.
12815 #headerpick save ignore ^Original-.*$ ^X-.*$
12817 # Some mailing lists
12818 mlist '@xyz-editor\e.xyz$' '@xyzf\e.xyz$'
12819 mlsubscribe '^xfans@xfans\e.xyz$'
12821 # Handle a few file extensions (to store MBOX databases)
12822 filetype bz2 'bzip2 -dc' 'bzip2 -zc' \e
12823 gz 'gzip -dc' 'gzip -c' xz 'xz -dc' 'xz -zc' \e
12824 zst 'zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc' \e
12825 zst.pgp 'gpg -d | zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc | gpg -e'
12827 # A real life example of a very huge free mail provider
12828 # Instead of directly placing content inside `account',
12829 # we `define' a macro: like that we can switch "accounts"
12830 # from within *on-compose-splice*, for example!
12832 set folder=~/spool/XooglX inbox=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
12833 set from='Your Name <address@examp.ple>'
12835 set pop3-no-apop-pop.gmXil.com
12836 shortcut pop %:pop3s://pop.gmXil.com
12837 shortcut imap %:imaps://imap.gmXil.com
12839 set mta=smtp://USER:PASS@smtp.gmXil.com smtp-use-starttls
12841 set mta=smtps://USER:PASS@smtp.gmail.com:465
12847 # Here is a pretty large one which does not allow sending mails
12848 # if there is a domain name mismatch on the SMTP protocol level,
12849 # which would bite us if the value of from does not match, e.g.,
12850 # for people who have a sXXXXeforge project and want to speak
12851 # with the mailing list under their project account (in from),
12852 # still sending the message through their normal mail provider
12854 set folder=~/spool/XandeX inbox=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
12855 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
12857 shortcut pop %:pop3s://pop.yaXXex.com
12858 shortcut imap %:imaps://imap.yaXXex.com
12860 set mta=smtps://USER:PASS@smtp.yaXXex.com:465 \e
12861 hostname=yaXXex.com smtp-hostname=
12867 # Create some new commands so that, e.g., `ls /tmp' will..
12868 commandalias lls '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFlrS'
12869 commandalias llS '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFlS'
12871 # We do not support gpg(1) directly yet. But simple --clearsign'd
12872 # message parts can be dealt with as follows:
12875 wysh set pipe-text/plain=$'@*#++=@\e
12876 < "${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}" awk \e
12877 -v TMPFILE="${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}" \e'\e
12879 /^-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----/,/^$/ {\e
12882 print "--- GPG --verify ---";\e
12883 system("gpg --verify " TMPFILE " 2>&1");\e
12884 print "--- GPG --verify ---";\e
12888 /^-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----/,\e
12889 /^-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----/{\e
12896 commandalias V '\e'call V
12900 When storing passwords in
12902 appropriate permissions should be set on this file with
12903 .Ql $ chmod 0600 \*(ur .
12906 is available user credentials can be stored in the central
12908 file instead; e.g., here is a different version of the example account
12909 that sets up SMTP and POP3:
12911 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12913 set folder=~/spool/XandeX inbox=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
12914 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
12916 # Load an encrypted ~/.netrc by uncommenting the next line
12917 #set netrc-pipe='gpg -qd ~/.netrc.pgp'
12919 set mta=smtps://smtp.yXXXXx.ru:465 \e
12920 smtp-hostname= hostname=yXXXXx.com
12921 set pop3-keepalive=240 pop3-no-apop-pop.yXXXXx.ru
12922 commandalias xp fi pop3s://pop.yXXXXx.ru
12934 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12935 machine *.yXXXXx.ru login USER password PASS
12939 This configuration should now work just fine:
12942 .Dl $ echo text | \*(uA -dvv -AXandeX -s Subject user@exam.ple
12945 .\" .Ss "S/MIME step by step" {{{
12946 .Ss "S/MIME step by step"
12948 \*(OP The first thing you need for participating in S/MIME message
12949 exchange is your personal certificate, including a private key.
12950 The certificate contains public information, in particular your name and
12951 your email address(es), and the public key that is used by others to
12952 encrypt messages for you,
12953 and to verify signed messages they supposedly received from you.
12954 The certificate is included in each signed message you send.
12955 The private key must be kept secret.
12956 It is used to decrypt messages that were previously encrypted with your
12957 public key, and to sign messages.
12960 For personal use it is recommended that you get a S/MIME certificate
12961 from one of the major CAs on the Internet using your WWW browser.
12962 Many CAs offer such certificates for free.
12964 .Lk https://www.CAcert.org
12965 which issues client and server certificates to members of their
12966 community for free; their root certificate
12967 .Pf ( Lk https://\:www.cacert.org/\:certs/\:root.crt )
12968 is often not in the default set of trusted CA root certificates, though,
12969 which means you will have to download their root certificate separately
12970 and ensure it is part of our S/MIME certificate validation chain by
12973 or as a vivid member of the
12974 .Va smime-ca-file .
12975 But let us take a step-by-step tour on how to setup S/MIME with
12976 a certificate from CAcert.org despite this situation!
12979 First of all you will have to become a member of the CAcert.org
12980 community, simply by registrating yourself via the web interface.
12981 Once you are, create and verify all email addresses you want to be able
12982 to create signed and encrypted messages for/with using the corresponding
12983 entries of the web interface.
12984 Now ready to create S/MIME certificates, so let us create a new
12985 .Dq client certificate ,
12986 ensure to include all email addresses that should be covered by the
12987 certificate in the following web form, and also to use your name as the
12991 Create a private key and a certificate request on your local computer
12992 (please see the manual pages of the used commands for more in-depth
12993 knowledge on what the used arguments etc. do):
12996 .Dl $ openssl req -nodes -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout key.pem -out creq.pem
12999 Afterwards copy-and-paste the content of
13001 into the certificate-request (CSR) field of the web form on the
13002 CAcert.org website (you may need to unfold some
13003 .Dq advanced options
13004 to see the corresponding text field).
13005 This last step will ensure that your private key (which never left your
13006 box) and the certificate belong together (through the public key that
13007 will find its way into the certificate via the certificate-request).
13008 You are now ready and can create your CAcert certified certificate.
13009 Download and store or copy-and-paste it as
13014 In order to use your new S/MIME setup a combined private key/public key
13015 (certificate) file has to be created:
13018 .Dl $ cat key.pem pub.crt > ME@HERE.com.paired
13021 This is the file \*(UA will work with.
13022 If you have created your private key with a passphrase then \*(UA will
13023 ask you for it whenever a message is signed or decrypted.
13024 Set the following variables to henceforth use S/MIME (setting
13026 is of interest for verification only):
13028 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13029 ? set smime-ca-file=ALL-TRUSTED-ROOT-CERTS-HERE \e
13030 smime-sign-cert=ME@HERE.com.paired \e
13031 smime-sign-message-digest=SHA256 \e
13037 .\" .Ss "Using CRLs with S/MIME or SSL/TLS" {{{
13038 .Ss "Using CRLs with S/MIME or SSL/TLS"
13040 \*(OP Certification authorities (CAs) issue certificate revocation
13041 lists (CRLs) on a regular basis.
13042 These lists contain the serial numbers of certificates that have been
13043 declared invalid after they have been issued.
13044 Such usually happens because the private key for the certificate has
13046 because the owner of the certificate has left the organization that is
13047 mentioned in the certificate, etc.
13048 To seriously use S/MIME or SSL/TLS verification,
13049 an up-to-date CRL is required for each trusted CA.
13050 There is otherwise no method to distinguish between valid and
13051 invalidated certificates.
13052 \*(UA currently offers no mechanism to fetch CRLs, nor to access them on
13053 the Internet, so they have to be retrieved by some external mechanism.
13056 \*(UA accepts CRLs in PEM format only;
13057 CRLs in DER format must be converted, like, e.\|g.:
13060 .Dl $ openssl crl \-inform DER \-in crl.der \-out crl.pem
13063 To tell \*(UA about the CRLs, a directory that contains all CRL files
13064 (and no other files) must be created.
13069 variables, respectively, must then be set to point to that directory.
13070 After that, \*(UA requires a CRL to be present for each CA that is used
13071 to verify a certificate.
13080 In general it is a good idea to turn on
13086 twice) if something does not work well.
13087 Very often a diagnostic message can be produced that leads to the
13088 problems' solution.
13090 .\" .Ss "\*(UA shortly hangs on startup" {{{
13091 .Ss "\*(UA shortly hangs on startup"
13093 This can have two reasons, one is the necessity to wait for a file lock
13094 and cannot be helped, the other being that \*(UA calls the function
13096 in order to query the nodename of the box (sometimes the real one is
13097 needed instead of the one represented by the internal variable
13099 One may have varying success by ensuring that the real hostname and
13103 or, more generally, that the name service is properly setup \(en
13106 return the expected value?
13107 Does this local hostname have a domain suffix?
13108 RFC 6762 standardized the link-local top-level domain
13110 try again after adding an (additional) entry with this extension.
13113 .\" .Ss "I cannot login to Google mail aka GMail" {{{
13114 .Ss "I cannot login to Google mail aka GMail"
13116 Since 2014 some free service providers classify programs as
13118 unless they use a special authentification method (OAuth 2.0) which
13119 was not standardized for non-HTTP protocol authentication token query
13120 until August 2015 (RFC 7628).
13123 Different to Kerberos / GSSAPI, which is developed since the mid of the
13124 1980s, where a user can easily create a local authentication ticket for
13125 her- and himself with the locally installed
13127 program, that protocol has no such local part but instead requires
13128 a world-wide-web query to create or fetch a token; since there is no
13129 local cache this query would have to be performed whenever \*(UA is
13130 invoked (in interactive sessions situation may differ).
13133 \*(UA does not support OAuth.
13134 Because of this it is necessary to declare \*(UA a
13135 .Dq less secure app
13136 (on the providers account web page) in order to read and send mail.
13137 However, it also seems possible to take the following steps instead:
13142 give the provider the number of a mobile phone,
13145 .Dq 2-Step Verification ,
13147 create an application specific password (16 characters), and
13149 use that special password instead of the real Google account password in
13150 \*(UA (for more on that see the section
13151 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) .
13155 .\" .Ss "Not \(dqdefunctional\(dq, but the editor key does not work" {{{
13156 .Ss "Not \(dqdefunctional\(dq, but the editor key does not work"
13158 It can happen that the terminal library (see
13159 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor",
13162 reports different codes than the terminal really sends, in which case
13163 \*(UA will tell that a key binding is functional, but will not be able to
13164 recognize it because the received data does not match anything expected.
13165 Especially without the \*(OPal terminal capability library support one
13166 reason for this may be that the (possibly even non-existing) keypad
13167 is not turned on and the resulting layout reports the keypad control
13168 codes for the normal keyboard keys.
13173 ings will show the byte sequences that are expected.
13176 To overcome the situation, use, e.g., the program
13178 in conjunction with the command line option
13180 if available, to see the byte sequences which are actually produced
13181 by keypresses, and use the variable
13183 to make \*(UA aware of them.
13184 E.g., the terminal this is typed on produces some false sequences, here
13185 an example showing the shifted home key:
13187 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13190 # 1B 5B=[ 31=1 3B=; 32=2 48=H
13195 ? \*(uA -v -Stermcap='kHOM=\eE[H'
13205 .\" .Sh "IMAP CLIENT" {{{
13208 \*(OPally there is IMAP client support available.
13209 This part of the program is obsolete and will vanish in v15 with the
13210 large MIME and I/O layer rewrite, because it uses old-style blocking I/O
13211 and makes excessive use of signal based long code jumps.
13212 Support can hopefully be readded later based on a new-style I/O, with
13213 SysV signal handling.
13214 In fact the IMAP support had already been removed from the codebase, but
13215 was reinstantiated on user demand: in effect the IMAP code is at the
13216 level of \*(UA v14.8.16 (with
13218 being the sole exception), and should be treated with some care.
13225 protocol prefixes, and an IMAP-based
13228 IMAP URLs (paths) undergo inspections and possible transformations
13229 before use (and the command
13231 can be used to manually apply them to any given argument).
13232 Hierarchy delimiters are normalized, a step which is configurable via the
13234 variable chain, but defaults to the first seen delimiter otherwise.
13235 \*(UA supports internationalised IMAP names, and en- and decodes the
13236 names from and to the
13238 as necessary and possible.
13239 If a mailbox name is expanded (see
13240 .Sx "Filename transformations" )
13241 to an IMAP mailbox, all names that begin with `+' then refer to IMAP
13242 mailboxes below the
13244 target box, while folder names prefixed by `@' refer to folders below
13245 the hierarchy base.
13248 Note: some IMAP servers do not accept the creation of mailboxes in
13249 the hierarchy base, but require that they are created as subfolders of
13250 `INBOX' \(en with such servers a folder name of the form
13252 .Dl imaps://mylogin@imap.myisp.example/INBOX.
13254 should be used (the last character is the server's hierarchy
13256 The following IMAP-specific commands exist:
13259 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ic BaNg"
13262 Only applicable to cached IMAP mailboxes;
13263 takes a message list and reads the specified messages into the IMAP
13268 If operating in disconnected mode on an IMAP mailbox,
13269 switch to online mode and connect to the mail server while retaining
13270 the mailbox status.
13271 See the description of the
13273 variable for more information.
13277 If operating in online mode on an IMAP mailbox,
13278 switch to disconnected mode while retaining the mailbox status.
13279 See the description of the
13282 A list of messages may optionally be given as argument;
13283 the respective messages are then read into the cache before the
13284 connection is closed, thus
13286 makes the entire mailbox available for disconnected use.
13290 Sends command strings directly to the current IMAP server.
13291 \*(UA operates always in IMAP `selected state' on the current mailbox;
13292 commands that change this will produce undesirable results and should be
13294 Useful IMAP commands are:
13295 .Bl -tag -offset indent -width ".Ic getquotearoot"
13297 Takes the name of an IMAP mailbox as an argument and creates it.
13299 (RFC 2087) Takes the name of an IMAP mailbox as an argument
13300 and prints the quotas that apply to the mailbox.
13301 Not all IMAP servers support this command.
13303 (RFC 2342) Takes no arguments and prints the Personal Namespaces,
13304 the Other User's Namespaces and the Shared Namespaces.
13305 Each namespace type is printed in parentheses;
13306 if there are multiple namespaces of the same type,
13307 inner parentheses separate them.
13308 For each namespace a prefix and a hierarchy separator is listed.
13309 Not all IMAP servers support this command.
13314 Perform IMAP path transformations.
13318 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) ,
13319 and manages the error number
13321 The first argument specifies the operation:
13323 normalizes hierarchy delimiters (see
13325 and converts the strings from the locale
13327 to the internationalized variant used by IMAP,
13329 performs the reverse operation.
13334 The following IMAP-specific internal variables exist:
13337 .Bl -tag -width ".It Va BaNg"
13339 .It Va disconnected
13340 \*(BO When an IMAP mailbox is selected and this variable is set,
13341 no connection to the server is initiated.
13342 Instead, data is obtained from the local cache (see
13345 Mailboxes that are not present in the cache
13346 and messages that have not yet entirely been fetched from the server
13348 to fetch all messages in a mailbox at once,
13350 .No ` Ns Li copy * /dev/null Ns '
13351 can be used while still in connected mode.
13352 Changes that are made to IMAP mailboxes in disconnected mode are queued
13353 and committed later when a connection to that server is made.
13354 This procedure is not completely reliable since it cannot be guaranteed
13355 that the IMAP unique identifiers (UIDs) on the server still match the
13356 ones in the cache at that time.
13359 when this problem occurs.
13361 .It Va disconnected-USER@HOST
13362 The specified account is handled as described for the
13365 but other accounts are not affected.
13368 .It Va imap-auth-USER@HOST , imap-auth
13369 Sets the IMAP authentication method.
13370 Valid values are `login' for the usual password-based authentication
13372 `cram-md5', which is a password-based authentication that does not send
13373 the password over the network in clear text,
13374 and `gssapi' for GSS-API based authentication.
13378 Enables caching of IMAP mailboxes.
13379 The value of this variable must point to a directory that is either
13380 existent or can be created by \*(UA.
13381 All contents of the cache can be deleted by \*(UA at any time;
13382 it is not safe to make assumptions about them.
13385 .It Va imap-delim-USER@HOST , imap-delim-HOST , imap-delim
13386 The hierarchy separator used by the IMAP server.
13387 Whenever an IMAP path is specified it will undergo normalization.
13388 One of the normalization steps is the squeezing and adjustment of
13389 hierarchy separators.
13390 If this variable is set, any occurrence of any character of the given
13391 value that exists in the path will be replaced by the first member of
13392 the value; an empty value will cause the default to be used, it is
13394 If not set, we will reuse the first hierarchy separator character that
13395 is discovered in a user-given mailbox name.
13397 .Mx Va imap-keepalive
13398 .It Va imap-keepalive-USER@HOST , imap-keepalive-HOST , imap-keepalive
13399 IMAP servers may close the connection after a period of
13400 inactivity; the standard requires this to be at least 30 minutes,
13401 but practical experience may vary.
13402 Setting this variable to a numeric `value' greater than 0 causes
13403 a `NOOP' command to be sent each `value' seconds if no other operation
13407 .It Va imap-list-depth
13408 When retrieving the list of folders on an IMAP server, the
13410 command stops after it has reached a certain depth to avoid possible
13412 The value of this variable sets the maximum depth allowed.
13414 If the folder separator on the current IMAP server is a slash `/',
13415 this variable has no effect and the
13417 command does not descend to subfolders.
13419 .Mx Va imap-use-starttls
13420 .It Va imap-use-starttls-USER@HOST , imap-use-starttls-HOST , imap-use-starttls
13421 Causes \*(UA to issue a `STARTTLS' command to make an unencrypted
13422 IMAP session SSL/TLS encrypted.
13423 This functionality is not supported by all servers,
13424 and is not used if the session is already encrypted by the IMAPS method.
13430 .\" .Sh "SEE ALSO" {{{
13440 .Xr spamassassin 1 ,
13449 .Xr mailwrapper 8 ,
13455 .\" .Sh HISTORY {{{
13458 M. Douglas McIlroy writes in his article
13459 .Dq A Research UNIX Reader: Annotated Excerpts \
13460 from the Programmer's Manual, 1971-1986
13463 command already appeared in First Edition
13467 .Bd -ragged -offset indent
13468 Electronic mail was there from the start.
13469 Never satisfied with its exact behavior, everybody touched it at one
13470 time or another: to assure the safety of simultaneous access, to improve
13471 privacy, to survive crashes, to exploit uucp, to screen out foreign
13472 freeloaders, or whatever.
13473 Not until v7 did the interface change (Thompson).
13474 Later, as mail became global in its reach, Dave Presotto took charge and
13475 brought order to communications with a grab-bag of external networks
13481 Mail was written in 1978 by Kurt Shoens and developed as part of the
13484 distribution until 1995.
13485 Mail has then seen further development in open source
13487 variants, noticeably by Christos Zoulas in
13489 Based upon this Nail, later Heirloom Mailx, was developed by Gunnar
13490 Ritter in the years 2000 until 2008.
13491 Since 2012 S-nail is maintained by Steffen (Daode) Nurpmeso.
13492 This man page is derived from
13493 .Dq The Mail Reference Manual
13494 that was originally written by Kurt Shoens.
13502 .An "Kurt Shoens" ,
13503 .An "Edward Wang" ,
13504 .An "Keith Bostic" ,
13505 .An "Christos Zoulas" ,
13506 .An "Gunnar Ritter" .
13507 \*(UA is developed by
13508 .An "Steffen Nurpmeso" Aq steffen@sdaoden.eu .
13511 .\" .Sh CAVEATS {{{
13514 \*(ID Interrupting an operation via
13518 from anywhere else but a command prompt is very problematic and likely
13519 to leave the program in an undefined state: many library functions
13520 cannot deal with the
13522 that this software (still) performs; even though efforts have been taken
13523 to address this, no sooner but in v15 it will have been worked out:
13524 interruptions have not been disabled in order to allow forceful breakage
13525 of hanging network connections, for example (all this is unrelated to
13529 The SMTP and POP3 protocol support of \*(UA is very basic.
13530 Also, if it fails to contact its upstream SMTP server, it will not make
13531 further attempts to transfer the message at a later time (setting
13536 If this is a concern, it might be better to set up a local SMTP server
13537 that is capable of message queuing.
13544 After deleting some message of a POP3 mailbox the header summary falsely
13545 claims that there are no messages to display, one needs to perform
13546 a scroll or dot movement to restore proper state.
13548 In threaded display a power user may encounter crashes very
13549 occasionally (this is may and very).
13553 in the source repository lists future directions.
13556 Please report bugs to the
13558 address, e.g., from within \*(uA:
13559 .\" v15-compat: drop eval as `mail' will expand variable?
13560 .Ql ? Ns \| Ic eval Ns \| Ic mail Ns \| $contact-mail .
13561 More information is available on the web:
13562 .Ql $ \*(uA -X 'echo Ns \| $ Ns Va contact-web Ns ' -Xx .