1 .\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990, 1993
2 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
4 .\" Gunnar Ritter. All rights reserved.
5 .\" Copyright (c) 2012 - 2015 Steffen (Daode) Nurpmeso <sdaoden@users.sf.net>.
7 .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
8 .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
10 .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
11 .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
12 .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
13 .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
14 .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
15 .\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
16 .\" must display the following acknowledgement:
17 .\" This product includes software developed by the University of
18 .\" California, Berkeley and its contributors.
19 .\" This product includes software developed by Gunnar Ritter
20 .\" and his contributors.
21 .\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
22 .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
23 .\" without specific prior written permission.
25 .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS 'AS IS' AND
26 .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
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38 .\" S-nail(1): v14.8.2 / 2015-06-17
50 .\" If not ~/.mailrc, it breaks POSIX compatibility. And adjust main.c.
55 .ds OU [no v15-compat]
56 .ds ID [v15 behaviour may differ]
67 .Nd send and receive Internet mail
79 .Op Fl a Ar attachment
82 .Op Fl q Ar quote-file
84 .Op Fl S Ar variable Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value
89 .Op Fl - Ar mta-option ...
97 .Op Fl S Ar variable Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value
100 .Op Fl - Ar mta-option ...
106 .Op Fl L Ar spec-list
107 .Op Fl r Ar from-addr
108 .Op Fl S Ar variable Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value
111 .Op Fl - Ar mta-option ...
116 .Mx -toc -tree html pdf ps xhtml
119 .\" .Sh DESCRIPTION {{{
122 .Bd -filled -compact -offset indent
123 .Sy Compatibility note:
124 \*(UA and part of its configuration syntax will change in v15.0.
125 Until then there will exist a partial but growing number of
126 backward and forward compatibility configuration options.
127 To choose the new syntax and behaviour already today, the binary option
130 The manual will refer to it via \*(IN and \*(OU as necessary.
131 Commands and variables which will vanish in v15.0 are marked \*(OB.
135 \*(UA is a mail processing system with a command syntax reminiscent of
137 with lines replaced by messages.
138 It is intended to provide the functionality of the POSIX
140 command and offers (mostly optional) extensions for line editing, IDNA,
141 MIME, S/MIME, SMTP and POP3 (and IMAP).
142 It is usable as a mail batch language.
144 .\" .Ss "Options" {{{
147 In the following list of supported command line options,
148 .Fl D , d , E , i , N
151 are implemented by means of setting the respective option, as via
154 .Op Ar mta-option ...
156 arguments that are given at the end of the command line after a
158 separator will be passed through to the mail-transfer-agent (MTA) and
159 persist for an entire (interactive) session \(en if the setting of
161 allows their recognition;
162 MTA arguments can also be specified in the variable
163 .Va sendmail-arguments ;
164 find MTA interaction described in more detail in the documentation of
166 MTA arguments are ignored when mail is send via SMTP data transfer.
168 .Bl -tag -width ".Fl _ Ar _ccount"
173 command (see below) for
175 after the startup files have been read.
179 Attach the given file to the message.
180 The same filename conventions as described in the section
182 apply: shell word expansion is restricted to the tilde
188 Make standard input and standard output line-buffered.
192 Send blind carbon copies to the given list of addresses.
194 below goes into more detail on that.
198 Send carbon copies to the given list of addresses.
210 variable, which enables debug messages and disables message delivery.
216 variable and thus discard messages with an empty message part body.
217 This is useful for sending messages from scripts.
221 Just check if mail is present in the system mailbox.
222 If yes, return an exit status of zero, a non-zero value otherwise.
226 Save the message to send in a file named after the local part of the
227 first recipient's address.
231 Read in the contents of the user's
233 (or the specified file) for processing;
234 when \*(UA is quit, it writes undeleted messages back to this file
238 Some special conventions are recognized for the string
240 which are documented for the
245 is not a direct argument to the flag
247 but is instead taken from the command line after option processing has
251 that starts with a hyphen, prefix it with a (relative) path, as in
252 .Ql ./-hyphenbox.mbox .
256 Print a header summary of all messages and exit.
257 A configurable summary view is available via the
263 Print a short usage summary.
264 Because of widespread use a
266 argument will have the same effect.
272 variable to ignore tty interrupt signals.
275 .It Fl L Ar spec-list
276 Print a header summary of only those messages that match the given
280 .Sx "Specifying messages"
285 option has been given in addition no header summary is produced,
286 but \*(UA will instead indicate via its exit status wether
292 note that any verbose output is suppressed in this mode and must instead
293 be enabled explicitly (e.g., by using the option
300 variable and thus inhibit initial display of message headers when
301 reading mail or editing a mail folder.
308 This option should be activated for \*(UA scripts that are invoked on
309 more than one machine, because the contents of that file may differ
311 (The same behaviour can be achieved by setting the
312 .Ev NAIL_NO_SYSTEM_RC
313 environment variable.)
317 Start the message with the contents of the specified file.
318 May be given in send mode only.
322 Any folder opened will be in read-only mode.
328 is a valid address then it specifies the envelope sender address to be
331 when a message is send.
334 include a user name, comments etc., then the components will be
335 separated and the name part will be passed to the MTA individually via
339 will also be assigned to the
341 variable, just as if additionally
343 had been specified (therefore affecting SMTP data transfer, too).
345 If instead an empty string is passed as
347 then the content of the variable
349 will be evaluated and used for this purpose whenever the MTA is
351 Note that \*(UA by default, without
353 that is, neither passes
357 flags to the MTA by itself.
360 .It Fl S Ar variable Ns Op = Ns value
361 Sets the internal option
363 and, in case of a value option, assigns
366 Even though options set via
368 may be overwritten from within resource files,
369 the command line setting will be reestablished after all resource files
374 Specify the subject of the to-be-sent message.
378 The message to be sent is expected to contain a message header with
383 fields giving its recipients and
385 giving the subject of the message.
386 Recipients and subject specified on the command line are ignored.
390 Read the system mailbox of
392 (appropriate privileges presumed), and
395 in some aspects, e.g. in respect to
404 Print \*(UA's version and exit.
410 option causes some verbosity (like printing of certificate chains).
411 Using it twice increases the level of verbosity.
417 to the list of commands to be executed before normal operation starts.
421 .Va batch-exit-on-error ;
422 the only possibility to execute commands in non-interactive mode when
423 reading startup files is actively prohibited.
429 even if not in interactive mode.
433 This sets several options to prepare \*(UA for working in (most likely
434 non-interactive) batch mode:
446 It also enables processing of
447 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
448 E.g., the following should send an email message to
450 .Bd -literal -offset indent
451 $ LC_ALL=C printf 'm bob\en~s ubject\enText\en.\enx\en' | \e
452 LC_ALL=C MAILRC=/dev/null s-nail -n -#
457 This flag forces termination of option processing in order to address
458 .Dq option injection .
459 It also forcefully puts \*(UA into send mode, see
464 .\" .Ss "A starter" {{{
467 \*(UA is a direct descendant of the BSD Mail program that was introduced
468 in 1978 (itself superceeding the simpler UNIX mail program) and used
469 to introduce itself (in the Mail reference manual) as follows:
471 .Bd -ragged -offset indent
472 Mail provides a simple and friendly environment for sending and
474 It divides incoming mail into its constituent messages and allows the
475 user to deal with them in any order.
476 In addition, it provides a set of
478 -like commands for manipulating messages and sending mail.
479 Mail offers the user simple editing capabilities to ease the composition
480 of outgoing messages, as well as providing the ability to define and
481 send to names which address groups of users.
485 \*(UA is thus the user side of the Unix mail system, whereas the system
486 side (mail-transfer-agent, MTA) was traditionally taken by
492 are often used for this purpose instead.
493 If the \*(OPal SMTP feature has been built into \*(UA then the
494 system side is not a mandatory precondition for mail delivery.
497 Because \*(UA strives for compliance with POSIX
499 it is likely that some configuration settings have to be adjusted before
500 using it is a smooth experience.
503 file already bends those standard settings a bit towards more user
504 friendliness and safety, e.g., it sets the
508 options in order to suppress the automatic moving of messages to
510 that would otherwise occur (see
511 .Sx "Message states" )
514 to not remove empty files in order not to mangle file permissions when
515 files eventually get recreated.
518 option so that by default file grouping (via the
520 prefix as documented also for
525 contains some further suggestions.
528 .\" .Ss "Sending mail" {{{
531 To send a message to one or more people, using a local
532 mail-transfer-agent (MTA; the executable path can be set via
534 or the \*(OPal builtin SMTP (set and see the variable
536 transport to actually deliver the generated mail message, \*(UA can be
537 invoked with arguments which are the names of people to whom the mail
540 .Bd -literal -offset indent
541 $ \*(ua -s Subject -a attachm.ent bill@host1 'Bob <bob@host2>'
542 # But... try it in an isolated (almost) dry-run mode first
543 $ LC_ALL=C MAILRC=/dev/null \*(ua -n -dvv \e
544 -Ssmtp -Sfrom="me <he@re>" -Srecord=./sent-mails.mbox \e
545 -s Subject "(Lovely) Bob <bob@host2>"
546 $ cat ./sent-mails.mbox
550 The user is then expected to type in the message contents.
551 In this compose mode \*(UA treats lines beginning with the character
553 special \(en these are so-called
555 which can be used to read in files, process shell commands, add and edit
556 attachments and more; e.g., the tilde escape
558 will start the text editor to revise the message in it's current state,
560 allows editing of the message recipients and
562 gives an overview of available tilde escapes.
566 at the beginning of an empty line leaves
567 compose mode and causes the message to be send, whereas typing
570 twice will abort the current letter (saving the contents which yet have
575 A number of options can be used to alter default behavior; e.g.,
580 will automatically startup a text editor when compose mode is entered,
582 will cause the user to be prompted actively for carbon-copy recipients
585 option will allow leaving compose mode by writing a line consisting
590 Very important, though, is to define which
592 may be used when sending messages, usually by setting the option
595 having read the section
596 .Sx "The mime.types files"
597 to understand how the MIME-type of outgoing attachments is classified
598 and the knowledge that messages are sent asynchronously unless
600 is set: only with it MTA delivery errors will be recognizable.
603 Saving a copy of the sent messages in a
605 may also be desireable \(en as for most mailbox file targets some
606 special conventions are recognized, see the
608 command for more on that.
611 contains an example configuration for sending messages via some of the
612 well-known public mail providers.
615 Message recipients (as specified on the command line or defined in
620 may not only be email addressees but can also be names of mailboxes and
621 even complete shell command pipe specifications.
622 Proper quoting may be necessary, e.g., to embed whitespace characters.
625 is not set then only network addresses (see
627 for a description of mail addresses) and aliases may be used, though.
629 .\" When changing any of the following adjust any RECIPIENTADDRSPEC;
630 .\" grep the latter for the complete picture
634 is set the following rules are used to classify recipient addresses:
635 Any name which starts with a vertical bar
637 character specifies a pipe \(en the command string following the
639 is executed and the message is sent to its standard input;
640 Likewise, any name that starts with the character
642 (slash) or the character sequence
644 (dot slash) is treated as a file, regardless of the remaining content.
645 Any other name which contains an at sign
647 character is treated as a network address;
648 Any other name which starts with a plus sign
650 character specifies a mailbox name;
651 Any other name which contains a slash
653 character but no exclamation mark
657 character before also specifies a mailbox name;
658 What remains is treated as a network address.
660 .Bd -literal -offset indent
661 $ echo bla | \*(ua -Sexpandaddr -s test ./mbox.mbox
662 $ echo bla | \*(ua -Sexpandaddr -s test '|cat >> ./mbox.mbox'
663 $ echo safe | LC_ALL=C MAILRC=/dev/null \*(ua -n \e
664 -Sexpandaddr=fail,noalias -s test -. bob@home.net
668 It is possible to create personal distribution lists via the
670 command, so that, for instance, the user can send mail to
672 and have it go to a group of people:
675 .Dl alias cohorts bill jkf mark kridle@ucbcory ~/mail/cohorts.mbox
678 Please note that this mechanism has nothing in common with the system
679 wide aliases that may be used by the local MTA (mail-transfer-agent),
680 which are subject to the
684 and are often tracked in a file
690 Personal aliases will be expanded by \*(UA before the message is sent,
691 and are thus a convenient alternative to specifying each addressee by
695 To avoid environmental noise scripts should
697 \*(ua from any configuration files and create a script-local
698 environment, either by pointing the
700 variable to a custom configuration file, by passing the configuration in
701 environment variables, or by using the
703 command line option to specify options:
705 .Bd -literal -offset indent
706 $ env LC_ALL=C MAILRC=/dev/null password=SECRET \*(ua -n \e
708 -S 'smtp=smtps://mylogin@some.host:465' -Ssmtp-auth=login \e
709 -S 'from=scriptreply@domain' \e
710 -s 'subject' -a attachment_file \e
711 "Recipient 1 <recipient1@domain>" recipient2@domain \e
716 .\" .Ss "Reading mail" {{{
719 When invoked without addressees \*(UA enters interactive mode in which
721 When used like that the user's system mailbox is read in and a one line
722 header of each message therein is printed.
723 Note that if the mailbox is empty \*(UA will exit after printing
724 a message unless the option
733 will give a listing of all available commands and
735 will give a summary of the most useful ones.
736 If the \*(OPal documentation strings are available one can type
738 and see the actual expansion of
740 and what it's purpose is, i.e., commands can be abbreviated
741 (note that POSIX defines some abbreviations, so that the alphabetical
742 order of commands doesn't necessarily relate to the abbreviations; it is
743 possible to define overwrites with the
748 Messages are given numbers (starting at 1) which uniquely identify
749 messages; the current message \(en the
751 \(en will either be the first new message, or the first unread message,
752 or the first message of the mailbox; the option
754 will instead cause usage of the last message for this purpose.
757 Messages can be printed with the
761 By default the current message
763 is printed, but like with most other commands it is possible to give
764 a fancy message specification (see
765 .Sx "Specifying messages" ) ,
768 will display all unread messages,
773 will print the messages 1 and 5,
775 will print the messages 1 through 5, and
779 will print the last and the next message, respectively.
782 In the default setup all header fields of a message will be printed,
783 but this can be changed: either by blacklisting a list of fields via
785 or by whitelisting only a given list with the
788 .Ql Ic \:retain Ns \0date from to cc subject .
789 In order to print all header fields of a message regardless of currently
790 active ignore or retain lists, use the command
794 Dependent upon the configuration a
795 .Sx "Command line editor"
796 aims at making user experience with the many
799 When reading the system mailbox or when
803 specified a mailbox explicitly prefixed with the special
805 modifier then messages which have been read will be moved to the user's
807 file automatically when the mailbox is left, either by changing the
808 active mailbox or by quitting \*(UA (also see
809 .Sx "Message states" ) .
812 After examining a message the user can also
816 to the sender and all recipients or
818 exclusively to the sender.
819 Deletion causes \*(UA to forget about the message;
820 This is not irreversible, though, one can
822 the message by giving its number,
823 or the \*(UA session can be ended by giving the
828 To end a mail processing session one may either issue
830 to cause a full program exit, which possibly includes
831 automatic moving of read messages to
833 as well as updating the \*(OPal command line editor history file,
836 instead in order to prevent any of these actions.
839 .\" .Ss "Viewing HTML mail and MIME attachments" {{{
840 .Ss "Viewing HTML mail and MIME attachments"
842 Messages which are HTML-only get more and more common and of course many
843 messages come bundled with a bouquet of MIME attachments.
844 Whereas \*(UA \*(OPally supports a simple HTML-to-text converter to deal
845 with HTML messages (see
846 .Sx "The mime.types files" ) ,
847 it normally can't deal with any of these itself, but instead programs
848 need to become registered to deal with specific MIME types or file
850 These programs may either prepare plain text versions of their input
851 in order to enable \*(UA to display the content on the terminal,
852 or display the content themselves, for example in a graphical window.
853 The latter type of programs by default
855 \*(UA until the external viewer has terminated, but asynchronous
856 side-by-side execution is also possible, in which case \*(UA will
857 continue to display the message and remain responsive.
860 To install an external handler program for a specific MIME type set an
862 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
864 To define a handler for a specific file extension set the respective
866 variable \(en these handlers take precedence.
868 .Va mime-counter-evidence
869 can be set to improve dealing with faulty MIME part declarations as are
870 often seen in real-life messages.
871 E.g., to display a HTML message inline (that is, converted to a more
872 fancy plain text representation than the builtin converter is capable to
873 produce) with either of the text-mode browsers
877 teach \*(UA about MathML documents and make it display them as plain text
878 and to open PDF attachments in an external PDF viewer, asynchronously:
880 .Bd -literal -offset indent
881 if $features !@ HTML-FILTER
882 #set pipe-text/html="elinks -force-html -dump 1"
883 set pipe-text/html="lynx -stdin -dump -force_html"
884 # Display HTML as plain text instead
885 #set pipe-text/html=@
887 mimetype '@ application/mathml+xml mathml'
888 set pipe-application/pdf="@&cat > \e
889 \e"${NAIL_TMPDIR}/${NAIL_FILENAME}\e"; \e
890 acroread \e"${NAIL_TMPDIR}/${NAIL_FILENAME}\e"; \e
891 rm \e"${NAIL_TMPDIR}/${NAIL_FILENAME}\e""
895 Note: special care must be taken when using such commands as mail
896 viruses may be distributed by this method: if messages of type
898 or files with the extension
900 were blindly filtered through the shell, for example, a message sender
901 could easily execute arbitrary code on the system \*(UA is running on.
902 For more on MIME, also in respect to sending of messages, see the
904 .Sx "The mime.types files"
909 .\" .Ss "Mailing lists" {{{
912 \*(UA offers some support to ease handling of mailing lists.
915 promotes all given arguments to known mailing lists, and
917 sets their subscription attribute, creating them first as necessary.
922 automatically, but only resets the subscription attribute.)
923 Using the commands without arguments will print out (a subset of) all
924 currently defined mailing lists.
929 can be used to mark out messages with configured list addresses
930 in the header display.
933 \*(OPally mailing lists may also be specified as regular expressions,
934 which allows matching of many addresses with a single expression.
935 However, all fully qualified list addresses are matched via a fast
936 dictionary, whereas expressions are placed in (a) list(s) which is
937 (are) matched sequentially.
939 .Bd -literal -offset indent
940 set followup-to followup-to-honour=ask-yes reply-to-honour=ask-yes
941 mlist a1@b1.c1 a2@b2.c2 .*@lists.c3$
942 mlsubscribe a4@b4.c4 exact@lists.c3
947 .Va followup-to-honour
949 .Ql Mail-\:Followup-\:To:
950 header is honoured when the message is being replied to (via
956 controls wether this header is created when sending mails; it will be
957 created automatically for a couple of reasons, too, like when the
959 .Dq mailing list specific
964 is used to respond to a message with its
965 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
969 A difference in between the handling of known and subscribed lists is
970 that the address of the sender is usually not part of a generated
971 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
972 when addressing the latter, whereas it is for the former kind of lists.
973 Usually because there are exceptions: say, if multiple lists are
974 addressed and not all of them are subscribed lists.
976 For convenience \*(UA will, temporarily, automatically add a list
977 address that is presented in the
979 header of a message that is being responded to to the list of known
981 Shall that header have existed \*(UA will instead, dependend on the
983 .Va reply-to-honour ,
986 for this purpose in order to accept a list administrators' wish that
987 is supposed to have been manifested like that (but only if it provides
988 a single address which resides on the same domain as what is stated in
992 .\" .Ss "Resource files" {{{
995 Upon startup \*(UA reads in several resource files:
997 .Bl -tag -width ".It Pa _AIL_EXTRA_R_"
1000 System wide initialization file.
1001 Reading of this file can be suppressed, either by using the
1003 command line option, or by setting the environment variable
1004 .Ev NAIL_NO_SYSTEM_RC .
1008 File giving initial commands.
1009 A different file can be chosen by setting the environment variable
1012 .It Va NAIL_EXTRA_RC
1013 Can be used to define an optional startup file to be read after
1015 This variable is only honoured in certain circumstances (see its
1016 documentation for more).
1020 The content of these files is interpreted as follows:
1023 .Bl -bullet -compact
1025 A lines' leading whitespace is ignored.
1027 An empty line is ignored.
1029 If the line (content) starts with the number sign
1031 then it is a comment-command \(en a real command! \(en and also ignored.
1032 This command is the only form of comment that is understood.
1036 on the next line if the newline character is
1038 by preceding it with the backslash character
1040 Note that any leading whitespace of follow lines is removed:
1041 If whitespace is desired it must be placed before the backslash.
1044 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1045 # This line is a comment command. And y\e
1046 es, it is really continued here.
1053 .\" .Ss "Character sets" {{{
1054 .Ss "Character sets"
1056 \*(OP \*(UA detects the character set of the terminal by using
1057 mechanisms that are controlled by the
1062 should give an overview); the \*(UA internal variable
1064 will be set to the detected terminal character set accordingly
1065 and will thus show up in the output of the commands
1071 However, a user supplied
1073 value is not overwritten by this detection mechanism: this
1075 must be used if the detection doesn't work properly,
1076 and it may be used to adjust the name of the locale character set.
1077 E.g., on BSD systems one may use a locale with the character set
1078 ISO8859-1, which is not a valid name for this character set; to be on
1079 the safe side, one may set
1081 to the correct name, which is ISO-8859-1.
1084 Note that changing the value doesn't mean much beside that,
1085 since several aspects of the real character set are implied by the
1086 locale environment of the system,
1087 and that stays unaffected by the content of an overwritten
1090 (This is mostly an issue when interactively using \*(UA, though.
1091 It is actually possible to send mail in a completely
1093 locale environment.)
1096 If no character set conversion capabilities have been compiled into
1099 library has been found), then
1101 will be the only supported character set,
1102 it is simply assumed that it can be used to exchange 8-bit messages,
1103 and the rest of this section does not apply;
1104 it may however still be necessary to explicitly set it if automatic
1105 detection fails, since in that case it defaults to the mentioned
1109 When reading messages, their text is converted into
1111 as necessary in order to display them on the users terminal.
1112 Unprintable characters and invalid byte sequences are detected
1113 and replaced by proper substitution characters (unless the variable
1115 was set once \*(UA was started).
1117 .Va charset-unknown-8bit
1118 to deal with another hairy aspect of message interpretation.
1121 When sending messages all their parts and attachments are classified.
1122 Whereas no character set conversion is performed on those parts which
1123 appear to be binary data,
1124 the character set being used must be declared within the MIME header of
1125 an outgoing text part if it contains characters that do not conform to
1126 the set of characters that are allowed by the email standards.
1127 Permissible values for character sets can be declared using the
1131 which defines a catch-all last-resort fallback character set that is
1132 implicitly appended to the list of character-sets in
1136 When replying to a message and the variable
1137 .Va reply-in-same-charset
1138 is set then the character set of the message being replied to is tried
1140 And it is also possible to make \*(UA work even more closely related to
1141 the current locale setting automatically by using the variable
1142 .Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset ,
1143 please see there for more information.
1146 All the specified character sets are tried in order unless the
1147 conversion of the part or attachment succeeds.
1148 If none of the tried (8-bit) character sets is capable to represent the
1149 content of the part or attachment,
1150 then the message will not be sent and its text will be saved to
1152 In general, if the message
1153 .Dq Cannot convert from a to b
1154 appears, either some characters are not appropriate for the currently
1155 selected (terminal) character set,
1156 or the needed conversion is not supported by the system.
1157 In the first case, it is necessary to set an appropriate
1159 locale and/or the variable
1163 The best results are usually achieved when \*(UA is run in a UTF-8
1164 locale on a UTF-8 capable terminal, in which case the full Unicode
1165 spectrum of characters is available.
1166 In this setup characters from various countries can be displayed,
1167 while it is still possible to use more simple character sets for sending
1168 to retain maximum compatibility with older mail clients.
1171 .\" .Ss "Message states" {{{
1172 .Ss "Message states"
1174 \*(UA differentiates in between several different message states;
1175 the current state will be reflected in the header display if
1177 is configured to do so.
1178 In \*(UA message states are inspected when leaving a mailbox and may
1179 cause messages to be automatically moved to the special
1181 mailbox \(en because this may be irritating to users which are used to
1183 mail-user-agents, the default global
1189 variables in order to suppress this behaviour.
1191 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ql _reserved"
1193 Message has neither been viewed nor moved to any other state.
1194 Such messages are retained even in the system mailbox.
1197 Message has neither been viewed nor moved to any other state, but the
1198 message was present already when the mailbox has been opened last:
1199 Such messages are retained even in the system mailbox.
1202 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
1222 commands may also cause the next message to be marked as read, depending
1228 command is used, messages that are in the system mailbox or in mailboxes
1229 which were opened with the special
1233 state when the mailbox is left will be saved in
1240 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
1246 can be used to access such messages.
1249 The message has been processed by a
1251 command and it will be retained in its current location.
1254 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
1260 command is used, messages that are in the system mailbox or in mailboxes
1261 which were opened with the special
1265 state when the mailbox is left will be deleted; they will be saved in
1273 .\" .Ss "Specifying messages" {{{
1274 .Ss "Specifying messages"
1280 can be given a list of message numbers as arguments to apply to a number
1281 of messages at once.
1284 deletes messages 1 and 2,
1287 will delete the messages 1 through 5.
1288 In sorted or threaded mode (see the
1292 will delete the messages that are located between (and including)
1293 messages 1 through 5 in the sorted/threaded order, as shown in the
1295 Multiple colon modifiers can be joined into one, e.g.,
1297 The following special message names exist:
1300 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar _n_u"
1306 All old messages (any not in state
1329 All answered messages
1334 All messages marked as draft.
1336 \*(OP All messages classified as spam.
1338 \*(OP All messages with unsure spam classification.
1340 The current message, the so-called
1343 The message that was previously the current message.
1345 The parent message of the current message,
1346 that is the message with the Message-ID given in the
1348 field or the last entry of the
1350 field of the current message.
1352 The next previous undeleted message,
1353 or the next previous deleted message for the
1356 In sorted/threaded mode,
1357 the next previous such message in the sorted/threaded order.
1359 The next undeleted message,
1360 or the next deleted message for the
1363 In sorted/threaded mode,
1364 the next such message in the sorted/threaded order.
1366 The first undeleted message,
1367 or the first deleted message for the
1370 In sorted/threaded mode,
1371 the first such message in the sorted/threaded order.
1374 In sorted/threaded mode,
1375 the last message in the sorted/threaded order.
1379 selects the message addressed with
1383 is any other message specification,
1384 and all messages from the thread that begins at it.
1385 Otherwise it is identical to
1390 the thread beginning with the current message is selected.
1395 All messages that were included in the message list for the previous
1398 .It Ar / Ns Ar string
1399 All messages that contain
1401 in the subject field (case ignored).
1408 the string from the previous specification of that type is used again.
1410 .It Xo Op Ar @ Ns Ar name-list Ns
1413 All messages that contain the given case-insensitive search
1415 ession; if the \*(OPal regular expression (see
1417 support is available
1419 will be interpreted as one if any of the
1421 regular expression characters is seen.
1423 .Ar @ Ns Ar name-list
1424 part is missing, the search is restricted to the subject field body,
1427 specifies a comma-separated list of header fields to search, as in
1429 .Dl '@to,from,cc@Someone i ought to know'
1435 can be used to search in the header of the message, and the special names
1443 can be used to perform full text searches \(en whereas the former
1444 searches only the body, the latter also searches the message header.
1445 In order to search for a string that includes a
1447 (commercial at) character the
1449 is effectively non-optional, but may be given as the empty string.
1454 By default, this is a case-sensitive search for the complete email
1459 only the local part of the addresses is evaluated for the comparison.
1463 a case-sensitive search for the complete real name of a sender is
1467 expression can be used instead if substring matches are desired.
1471 \*(OP IMAP-style SEARCH expressions may also be used.
1472 This addressing mode is available with all types of folders;
1473 \*(UA will perform the search locally as necessary.
1474 Strings must be enclosed by double quotes
1476 in their entirety if they contain white space or parentheses;
1477 within the quotes, only backslash
1479 is recognized as an escape character.
1480 All string searches are case-insensitive.
1481 When the description indicates that the
1483 representation of an address field is used,
1484 this means that the search string is checked against both a list
1487 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1488 (\*qname\*q \*qsource\*q \*qlocal-part\*q \*qdomain-part\*q)
1493 and the addresses without real names from the respective header field.
1494 These search expressions can be nested using parentheses, see below for
1498 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar _n_u"
1499 .It Ar ( criterion )
1500 All messages that satisfy the given
1502 .It Ar ( criterion1 criterion2 ... criterionN )
1503 All messages that satisfy all of the given criteria.
1505 .It Ar ( or criterion1 criterion2 )
1506 All messages that satisfy either
1511 To connect more than two criteria using
1513 specifications have to be nested using additional parentheses,
1515 .Ql (or a (or b c)) ,
1519 .Ql ((a or b) and c) .
1522 operation of independent criteria on the lowest nesting level,
1523 it is possible to achieve similar effects by using three separate
1527 .It Ar ( not criterion )
1528 All messages that do not satisfy
1530 .It Ar ( bcc \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1531 All messages that contain
1533 in the envelope representation of the
1536 .It Ar ( cc \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1537 All messages that contain
1539 in the envelope representation of the
1542 .It Ar ( from \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1543 All messages that contain
1545 in the envelope representation of the
1548 .It Ar ( subject \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1549 All messages that contain
1554 .It Ar ( to \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1555 All messages that contain
1557 in the envelope representation of the
1560 .It Ar ( header name \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1561 All messages that contain
1566 .It Ar ( body \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1567 All messages that contain
1570 .It Ar ( text \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1571 All messages that contain
1573 in their header or body.
1574 .It Ar ( larger size )
1575 All messages that are larger than
1578 .It Ar ( smaller size )
1579 All messages that are smaller than
1583 .It Ar ( before date )
1584 All messages that were received before
1586 which must be in the form
1590 denotes the day of the month as one or two digits,
1592 is the name of the month \(en one of
1593 .Ql Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec ,
1596 is the year as four digits, e.g.,
1600 All messages that were received on the specified date.
1601 .It Ar ( since date )
1602 All messages that were received since the specified date.
1603 .It Ar ( sentbefore date )
1604 All messages that were sent on the specified date.
1605 .It Ar ( senton date )
1606 All messages that were sent on the specified date.
1607 .It Ar ( sentsince date )
1608 All messages that were sent since the specified date.
1610 The same criterion as for the previous search.
1611 This specification cannot be used as part of another criterion.
1612 If the previous command line contained more than one independent
1613 criterion then the last of those criteria is used.
1617 .\" .Ss "On URL syntax and credential lookup" {{{
1618 .Ss "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
1620 \*(IN For accessing protocol-specific resources, like a POP3 mailbox,
1621 usage of compact and standardized Uniform Resource Locators
1622 (URL, RFC 1738) has become omnipresent.
1623 \*(UA expects and understands URLs in the following form;
1626 denote optional parts, optional either because there also exist other
1627 ways to define the information in question or because support of the
1628 part is protocol-specific \(en e.g.,
1630 is used by the IMAP protocol but not by POP3.
1633 .Dl PROTOCOL://[USER[:PASSWORD]@]server[:port][/path]
1640 are specified as part of an URL they must be given in URL percent
1641 encoded (RFC 3986) form \(en the command
1643 can be used to perform the encoding and show the encoded value.
1644 (This doesn't really conform to any standard, but for one it isn't
1645 used for any data exchange over the internet, and second it's easier for
1646 users to simply call
1648 on a string and use that instead of having to deal with several
1649 different standards.)
1650 On the other hand, values given in variables are expected not to be URL
1654 Many variable options of \*(UA exist in multiple versions, called
1655 variable chains for the rest of this document: the plain
1660 .Ql variable-USER@HOST .
1667 had been specified in the respective URL, otherwise it refers to the plain
1673 that had been found when doing the user chain lookup as is described
1676 will never be in URL percent encoded form, wether it came from an URL or not.
1679 For example, wether an hypothetical URL
1680 .Ql smtp://hey%3Ayou@our.house
1681 had been given that includes a user, or wether the URL was
1682 .Ql smtp://our.house
1683 and the user had been found differently, to lookup the variable chain
1684 .Va smtp-use-starttls
1685 \*(UA first looks for wether
1686 .Ql smtp-\:use-\:starttls-\:hey:you@our.house
1687 is defined, then wether
1688 .Ql smtp-\:use-\:starttls-\:our.house
1689 exists before finally ending up looking at the plain variable itself.
1692 \*(UA obeys the following logic scheme when dealing with the
1693 necessary credential informations of an account:
1695 .Bl -bullet -offset indent
1699 has been given in the URL the variables
1703 are looked up; if no such variable(s) can be found then \*(UA will,
1704 when enforced by the \*(OPal variables
1705 .Va netrc-lookup-HOST
1712 specific entry which provides a
1714 name: this lookup will only succeed if unambiguous (one possible matching
1718 If there is still no
1720 then \*(UA will fall back to the user who is supposed to run \*(UA:
1721 either the name that has been given with the
1723 command line option (or, equivalently, but with less precedence, the
1724 environment variable
1727 .Ql getpwuid(getuid())
1728 a.k.a. the current login user.
1729 The identity of this user has been fixated during \*(UA startup and is
1730 known to be a valid user on the current host.
1733 Authentication: unless otherwise noted this will lookup the
1734 .Va PROTOCOL-auth-USER@HOST , PROTOCOL-auth-HOST , PROTOCOL-auth
1735 variable chain, falling back to a protocol-specific default should this
1741 has been given in the URL \(en it should be noted once that specifying
1742 the password in the URL is only syntactic sugar for the user, it'll
1743 never be part of an URL that \*(UA uses itself \(en, then if the
1745 has been found through the \*(OPal
1747 file lookup then that may have already provided the password, too.
1748 Otherwise the variable chain
1749 .Va password-USER@HOST , password-HOST , password
1752 \*(OP Then if any of the variables of the chain
1753 .Va agent-shell-lookup-USER@HOST , agent-shell-lookup-HOST , \
1755 is set the shell command specified therein is run and the output (less
1756 newline characters) will be used as the password.
1757 It is perfectly valid for such an agent to simply not return any data,
1758 in which case the password lookup is continued somewhere else;
1759 Any command failure is treated as a hard error, however.
1761 The next variable chain that is inspected is the \*(OPal
1762 .Va netrc-lookup-USER@HOST , netrc-lookup-HOST , netrc-lookup ,
1763 but this time looking only for the password (multiple user accounts
1764 for a single machine may exist as well as a fallback entry without
1765 user but with a password).
1767 If at that point there is still no password available, but the
1768 (protocols') chosen authentication type requires a password, then in
1769 interactive mode the user will be prompted on the terminal.
1774 S/MIME verification works relative to the values found in the
1778 header field(s), which means that the values of
1779 .Va smime-sign , smime-sign-cert
1781 .Va smime-sign-include-certs
1782 will not be looked up using the
1786 chains from above but instead use the corresponding values from the
1787 message that is being worked on.
1788 In unusual cases multiple and different
1792 combinations may therefore be involved \(en on the other hand those
1793 unusual cases become possible.
1794 The usual case is as short as:
1797 .Dl set smtp=smtp://USER:PASS@HOST smtp-use-starttls \e
1798 .Dl \ \ \ \ smime-sign smime-sign-cert=+smime.pair
1803 contains complete example configurations.
1806 .\" .Ss "Command line editor" {{{
1807 .Ss "Command line editor"
1809 \*(OP \*(UA can be configured to support a command line editor and
1810 command history lists which are saved in between sessions.
1811 One may link against fully-fledged external libraries
1812 .Pf ( Xr readline 6 ,
1814 ) or use \*(UA's own command line editor NCL (Nail-Command-Line)
1815 instead, which should work in all environments which comply to the
1816 ISO C standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1990/Amendment 1:1995).
1817 When an external library is used, interactive behaviour of \*(UA relies
1818 on that library and may not correspond one-to-one to what is described
1822 Regardless of the actually used command line editor history entries
1823 will be created for lines entered in command mode only, and creation of
1824 such an entry can be forcefully suppressed by starting the line with
1826 Note that history handling is by itself an optional feature and may
1827 therefore not be available.
1828 For more information see the documentation of the options
1831 .Va history-gabby-persist ,
1832 .Va line-editor-disable ,
1838 The builtin \*(UA command line editor supports the following operations;
1841 stands for the combination of the
1843 key plus the mentioned character, e.g.,
1846 .Dq hold down control key and press the A key :
1849 .Bl -tag -compact -width "Ql _M"
1851 Go to the start of the line.
1853 Move the cursor backward one character.
1855 Forward delete the character under the cursor;
1856 quits \*(UA if used on the empty line unless the
1860 Go to the end of the line.
1862 Move the cursor forward one character.
1865 Cancel current operation, full reset.
1866 If there is an active history search or tabulator expansion then this
1867 command will first reset that, reverting to the former line content;
1868 thus a second reset is needed for a full reset in this case.
1869 In all cases \*(UA will reset a possibly used multibyte character input
1875 backward delete one character.
1879 .Dq horizontal tabulator :
1880 try to expand the word before the cursor.
1882 .Dq tabulator-completion
1883 as is known from the
1885 but really means the usual \*(UA expansion, as documented for
1887 yet it involves shell expansion as a last step, too.)
1892 complete this line of input.
1894 Delete all characters from the cursor to the end of the line.
1898 \*(OP Go to the next history entry.
1903 \*(OP Go to the previous history entry.
1905 \*(OP Complete the current line from (the remaining older) history entries.
1912 Delete the characters from the one preceding the cursor to the preceding
1915 Move the cursor forward one word boundary.
1917 Move the cursor backward one word boundary.
1921 If problems with commands that are based upon rightwise movement are
1922 encountered, adjustments of the option
1923 .Va line-editor-cursor-right
1924 may solve the problem, as documented for it.
1927 If the terminal produces key sequences which are compatible with
1929 then the left and right cursor keys will map to
1933 respectively, the up and down cursor keys will map to
1937 and the Home/End/PgUp/PgDown keys will call the
1939 command with the respective arguments
1945 (i.e., perform scrolling through the header summary list).
1948 .\" .Ss "Coloured message display" {{{
1949 .Ss "Coloured message display"
1951 \*(OP \*(UA can be configured to support coloured message display,
1952 realized by emitting ANSI colour escape sequences.
1953 Colours are only used when the
1955 environment variable is set and either the terminal type can be found in
1957 or its name includes the string
1961 On top of that the binary option
1963 defines wether these colour sequences are also generated when the output
1964 of a command needs to go through the
1968 ) \(en this is not enabled by default because different pager programs
1969 need different command line switches or other configuration in order to
1970 support those colour sequences, please see the option for more details.
1973 To forcefully disable all colour support, set
1974 .Va colour-disable .
1977 Colours can be configured through font attributes
1998 Multiple specifications can be joined in a comma separated list, as in
2001 .Dl set colour-msginfo="ft=bold,fg=magenta,bg=cyan"
2004 Options to be set are
2005 .Va colour-msginfo ,
2006 .Va colour-partinfo ,
2010 .Va colour-uheader ,
2012 .Va colour-user-headers ,
2013 which is a list of headers to be colourized via
2015 instead of the default
2018 .\" }}} (DESCRIPTION)
2021 .\" .Sh COMMANDS {{{
2024 Each command is typed on a line by itself,
2025 and may take arguments following the command word.
2026 The command need not be typed in its entirety \(en
2027 the first command which matches the typed prefix is used.
2030 prints a sorted list of available commands, and the command
2034 when given an argument, will show a documentation string for the
2037 documentation strings are however \*(OP.)
2040 For commands which take message lists as arguments, the next message
2041 forward that satisfies the command's requirements will be used shall no
2042 explicit message list have been passed.
2043 If there are no messages forward of the current message,
2044 the search proceeds backwards,
2045 and if there are no good messages at all,
2047 .Dq no applicable messages
2048 and aborts the command.
2049 The arguments to commands can be quoted, using the following methods:
2052 .Bl -bullet -compact -offset indent
2054 An argument can be enclosed between paired double-quotes
2059 any white space, shell word expansion, or backslash characters (except
2060 as described next) within the quotes are treated literally as part of
2062 A double-quote will be treated literally within single-quotes and vice
2064 Inside such a quoted string the actually used quote character can be
2065 used nonetheless by escaping it with a backslash
2071 An argument that is not enclosed in quotes, as above, can usually still
2072 contain space characters if those spaces are backslash-escaped.
2075 A backslash outside of the enclosing quotes is discarded
2076 and the following character is treated literally as part of the argument.
2079 An unquoted backslash at the end of a command line is discarded and the
2080 next line continues the command.
2084 Filenames, where expected, are subsequently subjected to the following
2085 transformations, in sequence:
2088 .Bl -bullet -compact -offset indent
2090 If the filename begins with an unquoted plus sign, and the
2092 variable is defined,
2093 the plus sign will be replaced by the value of the
2095 variable followed by a slash.
2098 variable is unset or is set to null, the filename will be unchanged.
2101 Shell word expansions are applied to the filename.
2102 .\" TODO shell word expansion shell expand fexpand FEXP_NSHELL
2103 .Sy Compatibility note:
2104 on the long run support for complete shell word expansion will be
2105 replaced by an internally implemented restricted expansion mechanism in
2106 order to circumvent possible security impacts through shell expansion.
2107 Expect that a growing number of program parts only support this
2110 Meta expansions are applied to the filename: leading tilde characters
2112 will be replaced by the expansion of
2114 and any occurrence of
2118 will be replaced by the expansion of the variable, if possible;
2119 \*(UA internal as well as environmental (shell) variables can be
2120 accessed through this mechanism.
2121 In order to include a raw
2123 character precede it with a backslash
2125 to include a backslash double it.
2126 If more than a single pathname results from this expansion and the
2127 command is expecting one file, an error results.
2129 Note that in interactive display context, in order to allow simple
2130 value acceptance (typing
2132 backslash quoting is performed automatically as necessary, e.g., a file
2133 .Ql diet\e is \ecurd.txt
2134 will be displayed as
2135 .Ql diet\e\e is \e\ecurd.txt .
2139 The following commands are available:
2141 .Bl -tag -width ".Ic _ccount"
2144 The comment-command causes the entire line to be ignored.
2146 this really is a normal command which' purpose is to discard its
2149 indicating special character, which means that, e.g., trailing comments
2150 on a line are not possible.
2154 Interprets the remainder of the word as a macro name and passes it
2159 is a shorter synonym for
2160 .Ql call Ar mymacro .
2164 Print out the preceding message.
2165 If given a numeric argument n,
2166 goes to the n'th previous message and prints it.
2170 Show the current message number (the
2175 Prints a brief summary of commands.
2176 \*(OP Given an argument a synopsis for the command in question is
2178 commands can be abbreviated in general and this command can be used
2179 to see the full expansion of an abbreviation including the synopsis,
2185 and see how the display changes.
2193 ) command which follows.
2203 (ac) Creates, selects or lists (an) account(s).
2204 An account is a group of commands and variable settings which together
2205 usually arrange the environment for the purpose of creating a system login.
2206 Without any argument a listing of all defined accounts and their content
2208 A specific account can be activated by giving solely its name, resulting
2209 in the system mailbox or inbox of that account to be activated as via an
2210 explicit use of the command
2212 The two argument form is identical to defining a macro as via
2215 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2217 set folder=imaps://mylogin@imap.myisp.example
2219 set from="myname@myisp.example (My Name)"
2220 set smtp=smtp://mylogin@smtp.myisp.example
2224 creates an account named
2226 which can later be selected by specifying
2230 (case-insensitive) always exists.
2232 can be used to localize account settings \(en different to normal macros
2233 the settings will be reverted once the account is switched off.
2234 Accounts can be deleted via
2239 (a) With no arguments, prints out all currently-defined aliases.
2240 With one argument, prints out that alias.
2241 With more than one argument,
2242 creates a new alias or appends to an existing one.
2244 can be used to delete aliases.
2248 (alt) Manage a list of alternate addresses / names of the active user,
2249 members of which will be removed from recipient lists when replying to
2252 variable is not set).
2253 If arguments are given the set of alternate names is replaced by them,
2254 without arguments the current set is displayed.
2258 Takes a message list and marks each message as having been answered.
2259 This mark has no technical meaning in the mail system;
2260 it just causes messages to be marked in the header summary,
2261 and makes them specially addressable.
2265 \*(OP Only applicable to cached IMAP mailboxes;
2266 takes a message list and reads the specified messages into the IMAP
2271 Calls a macro that has been created via
2276 (ch) Change the working directory to
2278 or the given argument.
2284 \*(OP Only applicable to S/MIME signed messages.
2285 Takes a message list and a file name and saves the certificates
2286 contained within the message signatures to the named file in both
2287 human-readable and PEM format.
2288 The certificates can later be used to send encrypted messages to the
2289 respective message senders by setting
2290 .Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST
2295 (ch) Change the working directory to
2297 or the given argument.
2303 Only applicable to threaded mode.
2304 Takes a message list and makes all replies to these messages invisible
2305 in header summaries, unless they are in state
2310 \*(OP If operating in disconnected mode on an IMAP mailbox,
2311 switch to online mode and connect to the mail server while retaining
2313 See the description of the
2315 variable for more information.
2319 (C) Copy messages to files whose names are derived from the author of
2320 the respective message and don't mark them as being saved;
2321 otherwise identical to
2326 (c) Copy messages to the named file and don't mark them as being saved;
2327 otherwise identical to
2332 Print the current working directory.
2336 \*(OP For unencrypted messages this command is identical to
2338 Encrypted messages are first decrypted, if possible, and then copied.
2342 \*(OP For unencrypted messages this command is identical to
2344 Encrypted messages are first decrypted, if possible, and then copied.
2348 Without arguments the current list of macros, including their content,
2349 is printed, but otherwise a macro is defined.
2350 A macro definition is a sequence of commands in the following form:
2351 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2360 A defined macro can be invoked explicitly by using the
2364 commands, or implicitly by setting the
2367 .Va folder-hook-FOLDER
2369 Note that interpretation of
2371 depends on how (i.e.,
2373 normal macro, folder hook, account switch) the macro is invoked.
2374 Macros can be deleted via
2379 (d) Marks the given message list as
2381 Deleted messages will neither be saved in
2383 nor will they be available for most other commands.
2394 \*(OP (disco) If operating in online mode on an IMAP mailbox,
2395 switch to disconnected mode while retaining the mailbox status.
2396 See the description of the
2399 A list of messages may optionally be given as argument;
2400 the respective messages are then read into the cache before the
2401 connection is closed.
2402 Thus `disco *' makes the entire mailbox available for disconnected use.
2407 Deletes the current message and prints the next message.
2408 If there is no next message, \*(UA says
2413 Takes a message list and marks each given message as a draft.
2414 This mark has no technical meaning in the mail system;
2415 it just causes messages to be marked in the header summary,
2416 and makes them specially addressable.
2420 (ec) Echoes its arguments,
2421 resolving special names as documented for the command
2423 The escape sequences
2435 are interpreted just as they are by
2437 (proper quoting provided).
2441 (e) Point the text editor (as defined in
2443 at each message from the given list in turn.
2444 Modified contents are discarded unless the
2451 .Ic if Ns / Ns Ic elif Ns / Ns Ic else Ns / Ns Ic endif
2452 conditional \(em if the condition of a preceeding
2454 was false, check the following condition and execute the following block
2455 if it evaluates true.
2460 .Ic if Ns / Ns Ic elif Ns / Ns Ic else Ns / Ns Ic endif
2461 conditional \(em if none of the conditions of the preceeding
2465 commands was true, the
2471 (en) Marks the end of an
2472 .Ic if Ns / Ns Ic elif Ns / Ns Ic else Ns / Ns Ic endif
2473 conditional execution block.
2477 (ex or x) Exit from \*(UA without changing the active mailbox and skip
2478 any saving of messages in
2480 as well as a possibly tracked command line editor history file.
2484 Print the list of features that have been compiled into \*(UA.
2490 but open the mailbox readonly.
2494 (fi) The file command switches to a new mailbox.
2495 Without arguments it prints the complete state of the current mailbox.
2496 If an argument is given, it will write out changes (such as deletions)
2497 the user has made and open a new mailbox.
2498 Some special conventions are recognized for the
2502 .Bl -tag -compact -offset indent -width ".Ar %:__lespec"
2504 (number sign) means the previous file,
2506 (percent sign) means the invoking user's system mailbox
2511 means the system mailbox of
2513 (and never the value of
2515 regardless of its actual setting),
2517 (ampersand) means the invoking user's
2527 expands to the same value as
2529 but the file is handled as a system mailbox by, e.g., the
2533 commands, meaning that messages that have been read in the current
2534 session will be moved to the
2536 mailbox instead of simply being flagged as read.
2539 If the name matches one of the strings defined with the command
2541 it is replaced by its long form and expanded.
2542 If the name ends with
2547 it is treated as being compressed with
2552 respectively, and transparently handled through an intermediate
2553 (un)compression step (using a temporary file) with the according
2554 facility, sufficient support provided.
2555 Likewise, if the named file doesn't exist, but a file with one of the
2556 mentioned compression extensions does, then the name is automatically
2557 expanded and the compressed file is used.
2559 Otherwise, if the name ends with an extension for which
2560 .Va file-hook-load-EXTENSION
2562 .Va file-hook-save-EXTENSION
2563 variables are set, then the given hooks will be used to load and save
2565 and \*(UA will work with an intermediate temporary file.
2568 for fine-tuning the handling of MBOX files.
2572 refers to a directory with the subdirectories
2577 then it is treated as a folder in
2582 .Dl \*(IN protocol://[user[:password]@]host[:port][/path]
2583 .Dl \*(OU protocol://[user@]host[:port][/path]
2585 is taken as an Internet mailbox specification.
2586 The \*(OPally supported protocols are
2590 (POP3 with SSL/TLS encrypted transport).
2593 part is valid only for IMAP; there it defaults to
2595 Also see the section
2596 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
2600 contains special characters, in particular
2604 they must be escaped in URL notation \(en the command
2606 can be used to show the necessary conversion.
2607 The optional `path' part applies to IMAP only;
2608 if it is omitted, the default `INBOX' is used.
2610 If \*(UA is connected to an IMAP server,
2611 a name of the form `@mailbox' refers to the `mailbox' on that server,
2612 but otherwise a `@' prefix has no special meaning.
2616 Takes a message list and marks the messages as
2618 ged for urgent/special attention.
2619 This mark has no technical meaning in the mail system;
2620 it just causes messages to be highlighted in the header summary,
2621 and makes them specially addressable.
2630 With no arguments, list the names of the folders in the folder directory.
2631 With an existing folder as an argument,
2632 lists the names of folders below the named folder;
2633 e.\|g. the command `folders @' lists the folders on the base level of
2634 the current IMAP server.
2635 See also the variable
2636 .Va imap-list-depth .
2642 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
2643 recipient's address.
2649 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
2650 recipient's address.
2656 but responds to all recipients regardless of the
2661 .It Ic followupsender
2664 but responds to the sender only regardless of the
2680 (f) Takes a list of messages and prints their message headers.
2686 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the
2687 recipient's address.
2691 Takes a message and the address of a recipient
2692 and forwards the message to him.
2693 The text of the original message is included in the new one,
2694 with the value of the
2696 variable printed before.
2701 commands specify which header fields are included in the new message.
2702 Only the first part of a multipart message is included unless the
2703 .Va forward-as-attachment
2708 Specifies which header fields are to be ignored with the command
2710 This command has no effect when the
2711 .Va forward-as-attachment
2716 Specifies which header fields are to be retained with the command
2721 This command has no effect when the
2722 .Va forward-as-attachment
2727 Define or list command aliases, so-called ghosts.
2728 Without arguments a list of all currently known aliases is printed.
2729 With one argument the expansion of the given alias is shown.
2730 With two or more arguments a command alias is defined or updated: the
2731 first argument is the name under which the remaining command line should
2732 be accessible, the content of which can be just about anything.
2733 A ghost can be used everywhere a normal command can be used, but always
2734 takes precedence; any arguments that are given to the command alias are
2735 joined onto the alias content, and the resulting string forms the
2736 command line that is, in effect, executed.
2739 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2741 `ghost': no such alias: "xx"
2744 ghost xx "echo hello,"
2753 (h) Show the current group of headers, the size of which depends on
2756 If a message-specification is given the group of headers containing the
2757 first message therein is shown and the message at the top of the screen
2772 the list of history entries;
2775 argument selects and shows the respective history entry \(en
2778 to accept it, and the history entry will become the new history top.
2779 The default mode if no arguments are given is
2786 Takes a message list and marks each message therein to be saved in the
2787 user's system mailbox instead of in
2789 Does not override the
2792 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command, because a
2794 command issued after
2796 will display the following message, not the current one.
2801 (i) Part of the nestable
2802 .Ic if Ns / Ns Ic elif Ns / Ns Ic else Ns / Ns Ic endif
2803 conditional execution construct \(em if the given condition is true then
2804 the encapsulated block is executed.
2805 POSIX only supports the conditions
2810 (execute if standard input is a tty), all remaining conditions are
2811 non-portable extensions; note that falsely specified conditions cause
2812 the execution of the entire conditional construct until the
2815 command to be suppressed.
2816 The syntax of the nestable
2818 conditional execution construct requires that each condition and syntax
2819 element is surrounded by whitespace.
2821 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2830 Another condition can be any boolean value (see the section
2832 for booleans) to mark an enwrapped block as
2835 .Dq always execute .
2836 It is possible to check a variable for existence or compare its
2837 expansion against a user given value or another variable via the
2839 .Pf ( Dq variable next )
2840 conditional trigger character.
2841 The available comparison operators are
2845 (less than or equal to),
2851 (greater than or equal to),
2855 (is substring of) and
2857 (is not substring of).
2858 The values of the left and right hand side are treated as strings and
2859 are compared 8-bit byte-wise, ignoring case according to the rules of
2860 the US-ASCII encoding (therefore, dependend on the active locale,
2861 possibly producing false results for strings in the locale encoding).
2862 Except for the substring checks the comparison will instead be performed
2863 arithmetically if both, the user given value as well as the variable
2864 content, can be parsed as numbers (integers).
2865 An unset variable is treated as the empty string.
2868 When the \*(OPal regular expression support is available, the additional
2874 They treat the right hand side as a regular expression that is matched
2875 case-insensitively and according to the active
2877 locale, meaning that strings in the locale encoding should be matched
2881 Conditions can be joined via AND-OR lists (where the AND operator is
2883 and the OR operator is
2885 which have equal precedence and will be evaluated with left
2886 associativity, thus using the same syntax that is known for the
2888 It is also possible to form groups of conditions and lists by enclosing
2889 them in pairs of brackets
2890 .Ql [\ \&.\&.\&.\ ] ,
2891 which may be interlocked within each other, and also be joined via
2895 The results of individual conditions and entire groups may be modified
2896 via unary operators: the unary operator
2898 will reverse the result.
2900 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2904 if $ttycharset == "UTF-8"
2905 echo *ttycharset* is set to UTF-8, case-insensitively
2909 echo These two variables are equal
2911 if $version-major >= 15
2912 echo Running a new version..
2913 if $features =@ "regex"
2914 if $TERM =~ "^xterm\&.*"
2915 echo ..in an X terminal
2918 if [ [ true ] && [ [ $debug ] || [ $verbose ] ] ]
2921 if true && $debug || $verbose
2922 echo Left associativity, as is known from the shell
2924 if ! ! true && ! [ ! $debug && ! $verbose ]
2925 echo Unary operator support
2933 Without arguments the list of ignored header fields is printed,
2934 otherwise the given list of header fields is added to the ignore list:
2935 Header fields in the ignore list are not printed on the terminal when
2936 a message is printed.
2937 To print a message in its entirety, use the commands
2948 \*(OP Sends command strings directly to the current IMAP server.
2949 \*(UA operates always in IMAP `selected state' on the current mailbox;
2950 commands that change this will produce undesirable results and should be
2952 Useful IMAP commands are:
2953 .Bl -tag -offset indent -width ".Ic getquotearoot"
2955 Takes the name of an IMAP mailbox as an argument and creates it.
2957 (RFC 2087) Takes the name of an IMAP mailbox as an argument
2958 and prints the quotas that apply to the mailbox.
2959 Not all IMAP servers support this command.
2961 (RFC 2342) Takes no arguments and prints the Personal Namespaces,
2962 the Other User's Namespaces and the Shared Namespaces.
2963 Each namespace type is printed in parentheses;
2964 if there are multiple namespaces of the same type,
2965 inner parentheses separate them.
2966 For each namespace a prefix and a hierarchy separator is listed.
2967 Not all IMAP servers support this command.
2977 Prints the names of all available commands, alphabetically sorted.
2981 This command can be used to localize changes to variables, meaning that
2982 their state will be reverted to the former one once the covered scope
2984 It can only be used inside of macro definition blocks introduced by
2988 and is interpreted as a boolean (see
2989 .Sx "Value options" ) ;
2992 of an account is left once it is switched off again.
2993 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2994 define temporary_settings {
3009 enables change localization and calls
3011 which explicitly resets localization, then any value changes within
3013 will still be reverted by
3018 Reply to messages that come in via known
3021 .Pf ( Ic mlsubscribe )
3022 mailing lists, or pretend to do so (see
3023 .Sx "Mailing lists" ) :
3026 functionality this will actively resort and even remove message
3027 recipients in order to generate a message that is supposed to be send to
3029 For example it will also implicitly generate a
3030 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
3031 header if that seems useful, regardless of the setting of the variable
3038 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
3039 recipient's address.
3043 (m) Takes a (list of) recipient address(es) as (an) argument(s),
3044 or asks on standard input if none were given;
3045 then collects the remaining mail content and sends it out.
3049 (mb) The given message list is to be sent to
3051 when \*(UA is quit; this is the default action unless the
3054 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command, as a
3056 command issued after
3058 will display the following message, not the current one.
3062 Without any arguments the content of the MIME type cache will displayed.
3063 Otherwise each argument defines a complete MIME type specification of
3064 a type that shall be added (prepended) to the cache.
3065 In any event MIME type sources are loaded first as necessary \(en
3066 .Va mimetypes-load-control
3067 can be used to fine-tune which sources are actually loaded.
3068 Refer to the section on
3069 .Sx "The mime.types files"
3070 for more on MIME type specifications and this topic in general.
3071 MIME type unregistration and cache resets can be triggered with
3076 Without arguments the list of all currently defined mailing lists
3077 (and their attributes, if any) is printed.
3078 Otherwise all given arguments (which need not be quoted except for
3079 whitespace) will be added and henceforth be recognized as mailing lists.
3080 Mailing lists may be removed via the command
3083 If the \*(OPal regular expression support is available then mailing
3084 lists may also be specified as regular expressions (see
3090 Without arguments the list of all currently defined mailing lists which
3091 have a subscription attribute is printed.
3092 Otherwise this attribute will be set for all given mailing lists,
3093 newly creating them as necessary (as via
3095 Subscription attributes may be removed via the command
3104 but marks the messages for deletion if they were transferred
3113 but prints a form-feed
3115 in between messages.
3121 but also prints ignored header fields and all MIME parts.
3127 but moves the messages to a file named after the local part of the
3128 sender address of the first message.
3138 cache, loading the file first as necessary in the former case.
3139 Note that \*(UA will try to read the file only once, use
3140 .Ql Ic netrc Ns \:\0\:clear
3141 to unlock the next attempt.
3145 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ;
3147 .Sx "The .netrc file"
3148 documents the file format in detail.
3152 Checks for new mail in the current folder without committing any changes
3154 If new mail is present, a message is printed.
3158 the headers of each new message are also printed.
3166 Goes to the next message in sequence and types it.
3167 With an argument list, types the next matching message.
3181 If the current folder is accessed via a network connection, a
3183 command is sent, otherwise no operation is performed.
3189 but also pipes ignored header fields and all parts of MIME
3190 .Ql multipart/alternative
3195 (pi) Takes a message list and a shell command
3196 and pipes the messages through the command.
3197 Without an argument the current message is piped through the command
3204 every message is followed by a formfeed character.
3215 but also prints out ignored header fields and all parts of MIME
3216 .Ql multipart/alternative
3226 (p) Takes a message list and types out each message on the user's
3228 For MIME multipart messages, all parts with a content type of
3232 are shown, the other are hidden except for their headers.
3233 Messages are decrypted and converted to the terminal character set
3238 (q) Terminates the session, saving all undeleted, unsaved messages in
3241 preserving all messages marked with
3245 or never referenced in the system mailbox,
3246 and removing all other messages from the system mailbox.
3247 If new mail has arrived during the session,
3249 .Dq You have new mail
3251 If given while editing a mailbox file with the command line flag
3253 then the edit file is rewritten.
3254 A return to the shell is effected,
3255 unless the rewrite of edit file fails,
3256 in which case the user can escape with the exit command.
3270 Removes the named folders.
3271 The user is asked for confirmation in interactive mode.
3275 Takes the name of an existing folder
3276 and the name for the new folder
3277 and renames the first to the second one.
3278 Both folders must be of the same type
3279 and must be located on the current server for IMAP.
3283 (R) Reply to originator.
3284 Does not reply to other recipients of the original message.
3286 will exchange this command with
3291 (r) Take a message and group-responds to it by addressing the sender
3294 .Va followup-to-honour ,
3297 .Va recipients-in-cc
3298 influence response behaviour.
3301 offers special support for replying to mailing lists.
3314 but initiates a group-reply regardless of the value of
3321 but responds to the sender only regardless of the value of
3328 but does not add any header lines.
3329 This is not a way to hide the sender's identity,
3330 but useful for sending a message again to the same recipients.
3334 Takes a list of messages and a user name
3335 and sends each message to the named user.
3337 and related header fields are prepended to the new copy of the message.
3355 .It Ic respondsender
3361 (ret) Without arguments the list of retained header fields is printed,
3362 otherwise the given list of header fields is added to the retain list:
3363 Header fields in the retain list are shown on the terminal when
3364 a message is printed, all other header fields are suppressed.
3365 To print a message in its entirety, use the commands
3374 takes precedence over the mentioned.
3380 but saves the messages in a file named after the local part of the
3381 sender of the first message instead of taking a filename argument.
3385 (s) Takes a message list and a filename and appends each message in turn
3386 to the end of the file.
3387 If no filename is given, the
3390 The filename in quotes, followed by the generated character count
3391 is echoed on the user's terminal.
3392 If editing a system mailbox the messages are marked for deletion.
3393 Compressed files and IMAP mailboxes are handled as described for the
3395 command line option above.
3412 Header fields thus marked are filtered out when saving a message by
3414 or when automatically saving to
3416 This command should only be applied to header fields that do not contain
3417 information needed to decode the message,
3418 as MIME content fields do.
3419 If saving messages on an IMAP account ignoring fields makes it
3420 impossible to copy the data directly on the server,
3421 thus operation usually becomes much slower.
3433 Header fields thus marked are the only ones saved with a message when
3436 or when automatically saving to
3441 The use of this command is strongly discouraged since it may strip
3442 header fields that are needed to decode the message correctly.
3446 Takes a message list and marks all messages as having been read.
3450 (se) With no arguments, prints all variable values.
3451 Otherwise, sets an option.
3452 Arguments are of the form
3454 (no space before or after
3458 if there is no value.
3459 Quotation marks may be placed around any part of the assignment
3460 statement to quote blanks or tabs, e.g.,
3462 .Dl set indentprefix="->"
3464 If an argument begins with
3468 the effect is the same as invoking the
3470 command with the remaining part of the variable
3471 .Pf ( Ql unset save ) .
3477 except that the options are also exported into the program environment;
3478 since this task requires native host support the command will always
3479 report error if that is not available (but still act like
3482 This operation is a no-op unless all resource files have been loaded.
3488 (sh) Invokes an interactive version of the shell.
3492 Without arguments the list of all currently defined shortcuts is
3494 Otherwise all given arguments (which need not be quoted except for
3495 whitespace) are treated as pairs of shortcuts and their expansions,
3496 creating new or changing already existing shortcuts, as necessary.
3497 Shortcuts may be removed via the command
3499 The expansion strings should be in the syntax that has been described
3508 but performs neither MIME decoding nor decryption, so that the raw
3509 message text is shown.
3513 (si) Print the size in characters of each message of the given
3518 Create a sorted representation of the current folder,
3521 command and the addressing modes such that they refer to messages in the
3523 Message numbers are the same as in regular mode.
3527 a header summary in the new order is also printed.
3528 Possible sorting criteria are:
3530 .Bl -tag -compact -offset indent -width "subject"
3532 Sort the messages by their
3534 field, that is by the time they were sent.
3536 Sort messages by the value of their
3538 field, that is by the address of the sender.
3541 variable is set, the sender's real name (if any) is used.
3543 Sort the messages by their size.
3545 \*(OP Sort the message by their spam score, as has been classified by
3548 Sort the messages by their message status.
3550 Sort the messages by their subject.
3552 Create a threaded display.
3554 Sort messages by the value of their
3556 field, that is by the address of the recipient.
3559 variable is set, the recipient's real name (if any) is used.
3562 If no argument is given,
3563 the current sorting criterion is printed.
3567 (so) The source command reads commands from a file.
3571 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and clears their
3577 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and causes the
3579 to forget it has ever used them to train its Bayesian filter.
3580 Unless otherwise noted the
3582 flag of the message is inspected to chose wether a message shall be
3590 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and informs the Bayesian filter of the
3594 This also clears the
3596 flag of the messages in question.
3600 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and rates them using the configured
3601 .Va spam-interface ,
3602 without modifying the messages, but setting their
3604 flag as appropriate; because the spam rating headers are lost the rate
3605 will be forgotten once the mailbox is left.
3606 Refer to the manual section
3608 for the complete picture of spam handling in \*(UA.
3612 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and sets their
3618 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and informs the Bayesian filter of the
3624 flag of the messages in question.
3633 Create a threaded representation of the current folder,
3634 i.\|e. indent messages that are replies to other messages in the header
3635 display and change the
3637 command and the addressing modes such that they refer to messages in the
3639 Message numbers are the same as in unthreaded mode.
3643 a header summary in threaded order is also printed.
3647 (to) Takes a message list and prints the top few lines of each.
3648 The number of lines printed is controlled by the variable
3650 and defaults to five.
3654 (tou) Takes a message list and marks the messages for saving in
3656 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command,
3659 command will display the following message instead of the current one.
3663 (T) Identical to the
3674 Delete all given accounts.
3675 An error message is printed if a given account is not defined.
3678 will discard all existing accounts.
3682 (una) Takes a list of names defined by alias commands
3683 and discards the remembered groups of users.
3686 will discard all existing aliases.
3690 Takes a message list and marks each message as not having been answered.
3694 Only applicable to threaded mode.
3695 Takes a message list and makes the message and all replies to it visible
3696 in header summaries again.
3697 When a message becomes the current message,
3698 it is automatically made visible.
3699 Also when a message with collapsed replies is printed,
3700 all of these are automatically uncollapsed.
3704 Undefine all given macros.
3705 An error message is printed if a given macro is not defined.
3708 will discard all existing macros.
3712 (u) Takes a message list and marks each message as not being deleted.
3716 Takes a message list and
3722 Takes a message list and marks each message as not being
3727 Removes the header field names from the list of ignored fields for the
3732 will remove all fields.
3736 Removes the header field names from the list of retained fields for the
3741 will remove all fields.
3745 Remove all the given command
3749 will remove all ghosts.
3753 Removes the header field names from the list of ignored fields.
3756 will remove all fields.
3760 Delete all given MIME types, e.g.,
3761 .Ql unmimetype text/plain
3762 will remove all registered specifications for the MIME type
3766 will discard all existing MIME types, just as will
3768 but which also reenables cache initialization via
3769 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
3773 Forget about all the given mailing lists.
3776 will remove all lists.
3781 .It Ic unmlsubscribe
3782 Remove the subscription attribute from all given mailing lists.
3785 will clear the attribute from all lists which have it set.
3796 Takes a message list and marks each message as not having been read.
3800 Removes the header field names from the list of retained fields.
3803 will remove all fields.
3807 Removes the header field names from the list of ignored fields for
3811 will remove all fields.
3815 Removes the header field names from the list of retained fields for
3819 will remove all fields.
3823 (uns) Takes a list of option names and discards their remembered values;
3831 except that the options are also removed from the program environment;
3832 since this task requires native host support the command will always
3833 report error if that is not available (but still act like
3836 This operation is a no-op unless all resource files have been loaded.
3842 Deletes the shortcut names given as arguments.
3845 will remove all shortcuts.
3849 Disable sorted or threaded mode
3855 return to normal message order and,
3859 print a header summary.
3869 Decode the given URL-encoded string arguments and show the results.
3873 URL-encode the given arguments and show the results.
3877 Edit the values of or create the given variable(s) in the
3879 Binary variables cannot be edited.
3883 Show informations about all the given options.
3884 \*(UA knows about a finite set of known builtin variables that are
3885 subdivided further in binary and value variants;
3886 they may have special properties, like
3888 (setting may not be changed) and
3890 meaning that the value is generated on-the-fly as necessary.
3891 Beside those known variables an infinite number of unknown, so-called
3893 variables, which are expected to be able to store values, may exist.
3894 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3896 ? varshow sendwait version-major foo bar
3897 "sendwait": (73) binary: set=1 (ENVIRON=0)
3898 "version-major": (192) value, read-only, virtual:\e
3899 set=1 (ENVIRON=0) value<14>
3900 "foo": (assembled) set=1 (ENVIRON=0) value<bar>
3901 "bar": (assembled) set=0 (ENVIRON=0) value<NULL>
3906 \*(OP Takes a message list and verifies each message.
3907 If a message is not a S/MIME signed message,
3908 verification will fail for it.
3909 The verification process checks if the message was signed using a valid
3911 if the message sender's email address matches one of those contained
3912 within the certificate,
3913 and if the message content has been altered.
3917 (v) Takes a message list and invokes the display editor on each message.
3918 Modified contents are discarded unless the
3924 (w) For conventional messages the body without all headers is written.
3925 The output is decrypted and converted to its native format as necessary.
3926 If the output file exists, the text is appended.
3927 If a message is in MIME multipart format its first part is written to
3928 the specified file as for conventional messages,
3929 and the user is asked for a filename to save each other part.
3930 For convience saving of each part may be skipped by giving an empty value;
3931 the same result can also be achieved by writing it to
3933 For the second and subsequent parts a leading
3935 character causes the part to be piped to the remainder of the user input
3936 interpreted as a shell command;
3937 otherwise the user input is expanded as usually for folders,
3938 e.g., tilde expansion is performed.
3939 In non-interactive mode, only the parts of the multipart message
3940 that have a filename given in the part header are written,
3941 the others are discarded.
3942 The original message is never marked for deletion in the originating
3945 the contents of the destination file are overwritten if the file
3947 No special handling of compressed files is performed.
3956 \*(UA presents message headers in windowfuls as described under the
3959 This command scrolls to the next window of messages.
3960 If an argument is given,
3961 it specifies the window to use.
3962 A number prefixed by
3966 indicates that the window is calculated in relation to the current position.
3967 A number without a prefix specifies an absolute window number,
3970 lets \*(UA scroll to the last window of messages.
3976 but scrolls to the next or previous window that contains at least one
3985 .\" .Sh TILDE ESCAPES {{{
3988 Here is a summary of the tilde escapes,
3989 which are used to perform special functions when composing messages.
3990 Tilde escapes are only recognized at the beginning of lines.
3993 is somewhat of a misnomer since the actual escape character can be
3994 changed by adjusting the option
3997 .Bl -tag -width ".Ic __ filename"
4000 Insert the string of text in the message prefaced by a single
4002 (If the escape character has been changed,
4003 that character must be doubled
4004 in order to send it at the beginning of a line.)
4007 .It Ic ~! Ar command
4008 Execute the indicated shell
4010 then return to the message.
4014 Same effect as typing the end-of-file character.
4017 .It Ic ~: Ar \*(UA-command Ns \0or Ic ~_ Ar \*(UA-command
4018 Execute the given \*(UA command.
4019 Not all commands, however, are allowed.
4023 Write a summary of command escapes.
4026 .It Ic ~< Ar filename
4031 .It Ic ~<! Ar command
4033 is executed using the shell.
4034 Its standard output is inserted into the message.
4037 .It Ic ~@ Op Ar filename...
4038 With no arguments, edit the attachment list interactively.
4039 If an attachment's file name is left empty,
4040 that attachment is deleted from the list.
4041 When the end of the attachment list is reached,
4042 \*(UA will ask for further attachments until an empty name is given.
4043 If a given file name solely consists of the number sign
4045 followed by a valid message number of the currently active mailbox, then
4046 the given message is attached as a MIME
4048 and the rest of this section does not apply.
4050 If character set conversion has been compiled into \*(UA, then this mode
4051 gives the user the option to specify input and output character sets,
4052 unless the file extension indicates binary content, in which case \*(UA
4053 asks wether this step shall be skipped for the attachment in question.
4054 If not skipped, then the charset that succeeds to represent the
4055 attachment data will be used in the
4057 MIME parameter of the mail message:
4059 .Bl -bullet -compact
4061 If input and output character sets are specified, then the conversion is
4062 performed on the fly.
4063 The user will be asked repeatedly until the desired conversion succeeds.
4065 If only an output character set is specified, then the input is assumed
4068 charset and will be converted to the given output charset on the fly.
4069 The user will be asked repeatedly until the desired conversion succeeds.
4071 If no character sets are specified at all then the algorithm that is
4072 documented in the section
4073 .Sx "Character sets"
4074 is applied, but directly and on the fly.
4075 The user will be asked repeatedly until the desired conversion succeeds.
4077 Finally, if an input-, but no output character set is specified, then no
4078 conversion is ever performed, but the
4080 MIME parameter value will still be set to the user input.
4082 The character set selection loop can be left by typing
4084 i.e., causing an interrupt.
4085 .\" \*(OU next sentence
4086 Note that before \*(UA version 15.0 this terminates the entire
4087 current attachment selection, not only the character set selection.
4090 Without character set conversion support, \*(UA will ask for the input
4091 character set only, and it'll set the
4093 MIME parameter value to the given input, if any;
4094 if no user input is seen then the
4096 character set will be used for the parameter value instead.
4097 Note that the file extension check isn't performed in this mode, since
4098 no conversion will take place anyway.
4100 Note that in non-interactive mode, for reproduceabilities sake, there
4101 will always be two questions for each attachment, regardless of wether
4102 character set conversion is available and what the file extension is.
4103 The first asks for the filename, and the second asks for the input
4104 character set to be passed through to the corresponding MIME parameter;
4105 no conversion will be tried if there is input to the latter question,
4106 otherwise the usual conversion algorithm, as above, is applied.
4107 For message attachments, the answer to the second question is completely
4112 arguments are specified for the
4114 command they are treated as a comma separated list of files,
4115 which are all expanded and appended to the end of the attachment list.
4116 (Filenames with commas, or with leading or trailing whitespace can only
4117 be added via the command line or the first method.
4118 Message attachments can only be added via the first method;
4119 filenames which clash with message numbers can only be added via the
4120 command line or the second method.)
4121 In this mode the (text) attachments are assumed to be in
4123 encoding, and will be evaluated as documented in the section
4124 .Sx "Character sets" .
4128 Inserts the string contained in the
4131 .Ql Ic ~i Ns \0Sign ) .
4132 The escape sequences tabulator
4140 Inserts the string contained in the
4143 .Ql Ic ~i Ns \0sign ) .
4144 The escape sequences tabulator
4151 .It Ic ~b Ar name ...
4152 Add the given names to the list of blind carbon copy recipients.
4155 .It Ic ~c Ar name ...
4156 Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients.
4160 Read the file specified by the
4162 variable into the message.
4166 Invoke the text editor on the message collected so far.
4167 After the editing session is finished,
4168 the user may continue appending text to the message.
4171 .It Ic ~F Ar messages
4172 Read the named messages into the message being sent, including all
4173 message headers and MIME parts.
4174 If no messages are specified, read in the current message.
4177 .It Ic ~f Ar messages
4178 Read the named messages into the message being sent.
4179 If no messages are specified, read in the current message.
4183 lists are used to modify the message headers.
4184 For MIME multipart messages,
4185 only the first printable part is included.
4189 Edit the message header fields
4195 by typing each one in turn and allowing the user to edit the field.
4196 The default values for these fields originate from the
4197 .Va from , replyto , sender
4204 Edit the message header fields
4210 by typing each one in turn and allowing the user to edit the field.
4213 .It Ic ~i Ar variable
4214 Insert the value of the specified variable into the message,
4215 adding a newline character at the end.
4216 The message remains unaltered if the variable is unset or empty.
4217 The escape sequences tabulator
4224 .It Ic ~M Ar messages
4225 Read the named messages into the message being sent,
4228 If no messages are specified, read the current message.
4231 .It Ic ~m Ar messages
4232 Read the named messages into the message being sent,
4235 If no messages are specified, read the current message.
4239 lists are used to modify the message headers.
4240 For MIME multipart messages,
4241 only the first printable part is included.
4245 Print out the message collected so far,
4246 prefaced by the message header fields
4247 and followed by the attachment list, if any.
4251 Abort the message being sent,
4252 copying it to the file specified by the
4259 .It Ic ~R Ar filename
4260 Read the named file into the message, indented by
4264 .It Ic ~r Ar filename
4265 Read the named file into the message.
4269 Cause the named string to become the current subject field.
4272 .It Ic ~t Ar name ...
4273 Add the given name(s) to the direct recipient list.
4276 .It Ic ~U Ar messages
4277 Read in the given / current message(s) excluding all headers, indented by
4281 .It Ic ~u Ar messages
4282 Read in the given / current message(s), excluding all headers.
4286 Invoke an alternate editor (defined by the
4288 option) on the message collected so far.
4289 Usually, the alternate editor will be a screen editor.
4290 After the editor is quit,
4291 the user may resume appending text to the end of the message.
4294 .It Ic ~w Ar filename
4295 Write the message onto the named file.
4297 the message is appended to it.
4303 except that the message is not saved at all.
4306 .It Ic ~| Ar command
4307 Pipe the message through the specified filter command.
4308 If the command gives no output or terminates abnormally,
4309 retain the original text of the message.
4312 is often used as a rejustifying filter.
4317 .\" .Sh VARIABLE OPTIONS {{{
4318 .Sh "VARIABLE OPTIONS"
4320 Variables are controlled via
4324 commands; in general using
4326 can also be accomplished by prefixing a variable name with the string
4332 will have the same effect as
4334 Creation or editing of variables in an editor can also be achieved with
4337 will give more insight on the given variable(s), whereas
4339 will print a listing of all variables when called without arguments.
4340 Options are also implicitly inherited from the program
4342 and can be set explicitly via the command line option
4346 Different kind of options exist:
4347 binary options, which can only be in one of the two states
4351 as well as value options which have an assigned string value, for which
4352 proper quoting may be important upon assignment time.
4354 .\" .Ss "Initial settings" {{{
4355 .\" (Keep in sync: ./main.c:_startup(), ./nail.rc, ./nail.1:"Initial settings"!)
4356 .Ss "Initial Settings"
4358 The standard POSIX 2008/Cor 1-2013 mandates the following initial
4364 .Pf no Va autoprint ,
4378 .Pf no Va ignoreeof ,
4380 .Pf no Va keepsave ,
4382 .Pf no Va outfolder ,
4387 (note that \*(UA deviates from the standard by using
4391 special prompt escape results in
4393 being printed unless
4399 .Pf no Va sendwait ,
4408 Notes: \*(UA doesn't support the
4410 variable \(en use command line options or
4411 .Va sendmail-arguments
4412 to pass options through to a MTA.
4415 .\" .Ss "Binary options" {{{
4416 .Ss "Binary options"
4418 .Bl -tag -width ".Va _utoprin_"
4420 .It Va add-file-recipients
4421 When file or pipe recipients have been specified,
4422 mention them in the corresponding address fields of the message instead
4423 of silently stripping them from their recipient list.
4424 By default such addressees are not mentioned.
4428 Causes only the local part to be evaluated
4429 when comparing addresses.
4433 Causes messages saved in
4435 to be appended to the end rather than prepended.
4436 This should always be set.
4440 .It Va ask Ns \0or Va asksub
4441 Causes \*(UA to prompt for the subject of each message sent.
4442 If the user responds with simply a newline,
4443 no subject field will be sent.
4447 Causes the prompts for
4451 lists to appear after the message has been edited.
4455 If set, \*(UA asks for files to attach at the end of each message, shall
4456 the list be found empty at that time.
4457 An empty line finalizes the list.
4461 Causes the user to be prompted for carbon copy recipients
4462 (at the end of each message if
4466 are set) shall the list be found empty (at that time).
4467 An empty line finalizes the list.
4471 Causes the user to be prompted for blind carbon copy
4472 recipients (at the end of each message if
4476 are set) shall the list be found empty (at that time).
4477 An empty line finalizes the list.
4481 \*(OP Causes the user to be prompted if the message is to be signed at
4482 the end of each message.
4485 variable is ignored when this variable is set.
4489 Causes threads to be collapsed automatically when threaded mode is
4496 Causes the delete command to behave like
4498 thus, after deleting a message the next one will be typed automatically.
4502 \*(OB Causes threaded mode (see the
4504 command) to be entered automatically when a folder is opened.
4506 .Ql autosort=thread .
4510 Enables the substitution of
4512 by the contents of the last command line in shell escapes.
4515 .It Va batch-exit-on-error
4516 If the batch mode has been enabled via the
4518 command line option, then this variable will be consulted whenever \*(UA
4519 completes one operation (returns to the command prompt); if it is set
4520 then \*(UA will terminate if the last operation generated an error.
4524 Causes automatic display of a header summary after executing a
4530 Sets some cosmetical features to traditional BSD style;
4531 has the same affect as setting
4533 and all other variables prefixed with
4535 it also changes the meaning of the \*(UA specific
4542 Changes the letters printed in the first column of a header summary
4543 to traditional BSD style.
4547 Changes the display of columns in a header summary to traditional BSD
4552 Changes some informational messages to traditional BSD style.
4558 field to appear immediately after the
4560 field in message headers and with the
4562 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
4566 Changes the output format of the
4568 command to traditional BSD style.
4571 .It Va colour-disable
4572 \*(OP Forcefully disable usage of colours.
4573 Also see the section
4574 .Sx "Coloured message display" .
4578 \*(OP Wether colour shall be used for output that is paged through
4580 Note that pagers may need special flags, e.g.,
4588 in order to support colours; therefore \*(UA will inspect the variable
4590 \(en if that starts with the string
4592 a non-existing environment variable
4599 will optionally be set to
4601 Also see the section
4602 .Sx "Coloured message display"
4607 Prints debugging messages and disables the actual delivery of messages.
4611 \*(OP When an IMAP mailbox is selected and this variable is set,
4612 no connection to the server is initiated.
4613 Instead, data is obtained from the local cache (see
4616 Mailboxes that are not present in the cache
4617 and messages that have not yet entirely been fetched from the server
4619 to fetch all messages in a mailbox at once,
4621 .No ` Ns Li copy * /dev/null Ns '
4622 can be used while still in connected mode.
4623 Changes that are made to IMAP mailboxes in disconnected mode are queued
4624 and committed later when a connection to that server is made.
4625 This procedure is not completely reliable since it cannot be guaranteed
4626 that the IMAP unique identifiers (UIDs) on the server still match the
4627 ones in the cache at that time.
4630 when this problem occurs.
4632 .It Va disconnected-USER@HOST
4633 The specified account is handled as described for the
4636 but other accounts are not affected.
4639 .It Va disposition-notification-send
4641 .Ql Disposition-Notification-To:
4642 header (RFC 3798) with the message.
4646 .\" TODO .It Va disposition-notification-send-HOST
4648 .\".Va disposition-notification-send
4649 .\" for SMTP accounts on a specific host.
4650 .\" TODO .It Va disposition-notification-send-USER@HOST
4652 .\".Va disposition-notification-send
4653 .\"for a specific account.
4657 When dot is set, a dot
4659 on a line by itself during message input from a terminal shall be
4660 treated as end-of-message (in addition to the normal end-of-file
4666 is ignored and using a dot is the only method to terminate input mode.
4670 If this variable is set then the editor is started automatically when
4671 a message is composed in interactive mode, as if the
4677 variable is implied for this automatically spawned editor session.
4681 When a message is edited while being composed,
4682 its header is included in the editable text.
4693 fields are accepted within the header, other fields are ignored.
4697 If the mailbox is empty \*(UA normally prints
4698 .Dq \&No mail for user
4699 and exits immediately.
4700 If this option is set \*(UA starts even with an empty mailbox.
4704 This option reverses the meanings of a set of reply commands,
4705 turning the lowercase variants, which by default address all recipients
4706 included in the header of a message
4707 .Pf ( Ic reply , respond , followup )
4708 into the uppercase variants, which by default address the sender only
4709 .Pf ( Ic Reply , Respond , Followup )
4712 .Ic replysender , respondsender , followupsender
4714 .Ic replyall , respondall , followupall
4715 are not affected by the current setting of
4721 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
4722 header is generated when sending messages to known mailing lists.
4724 .Va followup-to-honour
4726 .Ic mlist , mlsubscribe , reply
4731 .It Va forward-as-attachment
4732 Original messages are normally sent as inline text with the
4735 and only the first part of a multipart message is included.
4736 With this option messages are sent as unmodified MIME
4738 attachments with all of their parts included.
4742 When replying to a message \*(UA normally removes the comment parts of
4744 which by convention contain the full names of the recipients.
4745 If this variable is set such stripping is not performed,
4746 and comments are retained.
4750 Causes the header summary to be written at startup and after commands
4751 that affect the number of messages or the order of messages in the
4752 current folder; enabled by default.
4753 The command line option
4759 .It Va history-gabby
4760 \*(OP Add more entries to the history as is normally done.
4763 .It Va history-gabby-persist
4764 \*(OP \*(UAs own NCL will not save the additional (gabby) history
4765 entries in persistent storage unless this variable is also set.
4771 This option is used to hold messages in the system mailbox by default.
4775 \*(OP Can be used to turn off the automatic conversion of domain names
4776 according to the rules of IDNA (internationalized domain names for
4778 Since the IDNA code assumes that domain names are specified with the
4780 character set, an UTF-8 locale charset is required to represent all
4781 possible international domain names (before conversion, that is).
4785 Ignore interrupt signals from the terminal while entering messages;
4786 instead echo them as
4788 characters and discard the current line.
4792 Ignore end-of-file conditions
4793 .Pf ( Ql control-D ) ,
4794 on message input, which instead can be terminated only by entering a
4797 on a line by itself or by using the
4799 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
4800 This option also applies to \*(UA command mode.
4802 .Mx Va imap-use-starttls
4803 .It Va imap-use-starttls-USER@HOST , imap-use-starttls-HOST , imap-use-starttls
4804 \*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a `STARTTLS' command to make an unencrypted
4805 IMAP session SSL/TLS encrypted.
4806 This functionality is not supported by all servers,
4807 and is not used if the session is already encrypted by the IMAPS method.
4811 If set, an empty mailbox file is not removed.
4812 This may improve the interoperability with other mail user agents
4813 when using a common folder directory, and prevents malicious users
4814 from creating fake mailboxes in a world-writable spool directory.
4815 Note this only applies to local regular (MBOX) files, other mailbox
4816 types will never be removed.
4820 When a message is saved it is usually discarded from the originating
4821 folder when \*(UA is quit.
4822 Setting this option causes all saved message to be retained.
4825 .It Va line-editor-disable
4826 Turn off any enhanced command line editing capabilities (see
4827 .Sx "Command line editor"
4832 When a message is replied to and this variable is set,
4833 it is marked as having been answered.
4834 This mark has no technical meaning in the mail system;
4835 it just causes messages to be marked in the header summary,
4836 and makes them specially addressable.
4840 \*(UA produces and expects fully RFC 4155 compliant MBOX text mailboxes.
4841 Messages which are fetched over the network or from within already
4842 existing Maildir (or any non-MBOX) mailboxes may require so-called
4844 quoting (insertion of additional
4846 characters to prevent line content misinterpretation) to be applied in
4847 order to be storable in MBOX mailboxes, however, dependent on the
4848 circumspection of the message producer.
4849 (E.g., \*(UA itself will, when newly generating messages, choose a
4850 .Pf Content-Transfer- Va encoding
4851 that prevents the necessity for such quoting \(en a necessary
4852 precondition to ensure message checksums won't change.)
4854 By default \*(UA will perform this
4856 quoting in a way that results in a MBOX file that is compatible with
4857 the loose POSIX MBOX layout, in order not to exceed the capabilities
4858 of simple applications, however.
4859 Set this option to generate MBOX files for RFC 4155 compliant
4863 .It Va message-id-disable
4864 By setting this option the generation of
4866 can be completely suppressed, effectively leaving this task up to the
4867 mail-transfer-agent (MTA) or the SMTP server.
4868 (According to RFC 5321 your SMTP server is not required to add this
4869 field by itself, so you should ensure that it accepts messages without a
4876 expansion contains the sender, the sender is removed from the expansion.
4877 Setting this option suppresses these removals.
4882 option to be passed to mail-transfer-agents (MTAs);
4883 though most of the modern MTAs don't (no longer) document this flag, no
4884 MTA is known which doesn't support it (for historical compatibility).
4887 .It Va mime-allow-text-controls
4888 When sending messages, each part of the message is MIME-inspected in
4889 order to classify the
4892 .Ql Content-Transfer-Encoding:
4895 that is required to send this part over mail transport, i.e.,
4896 a computation rather similar to what the
4898 command produces when used with the
4902 This classification however treats text files which are encoded in
4903 UTF-16 (seen for HTML files) and similar character sets as binary
4904 octet-streams, forcefully changing any
4909 .Ql application/octet-stream :
4910 If that actually happens a yet unset charset MIME parameter is set to
4912 effectively making it impossible for the receiving MUA to automatically
4913 interpret the contents of the part.
4915 If this option is set, and the data was unambiguously identified as text
4916 data at first glance (by a
4920 file extension), then the original
4922 will not be overwritten.
4925 .It Va netrc-lookup-USER@HOST , netrc-lookup-HOST , netrc-lookup
4926 \*(IN \*(OP Used to control usage of the users
4928 file for lookup of account credentials, as documented in the section
4929 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
4933 .Sx "The .netrc file"
4934 documents the file format.
4938 Causes the filename given in the
4941 and the sender-based filenames for the
4945 commands to be interpreted relative to the directory given in the
4947 variable rather than to the current directory,
4948 unless it is set to an absolute pathname.
4952 If set, each message the
4954 command prints out is followed by a formfeed character
4959 Send messages to the
4961 command without performing MIME and character set conversions.
4964 .Mx Va pop3-bulk-load
4965 .It Va pop3-bulk-load-USER@HOST , pop3-bulk-load-HOST , pop3-bulk-load
4966 \*(OP When accessing a POP3 server \*(UA loads the headers of the
4967 messages, and only requests the message bodies on user request.
4968 For the POP3 protocol this means that the message headers will be
4970 If this option is set then \*(UA will download only complete messages
4971 from the given POP3 server(s) instead.
4974 .It Va pop3-no-apop-USER@HOST , pop3-no-apop-HOST , pop3-no-apop
4975 \*(OP Unless this variable is set the
4977 authentication method will be used when connecting to a POP3 server that
4981 is that the password is not sent in clear text over the wire and that
4982 only a single packet is sent for the user/password tuple.
4984 .Va pop3-no-apop-HOST
4987 .Mx Va pop3-use-starttls
4988 .It Va pop3-use-starttls-USER@HOST , pop3-use-starttls-HOST , pop3-use-starttls
4989 \*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a
4991 command to make an unencrypted POP3 session SSL/TLS encrypted.
4992 This functionality is not supported by all servers,
4993 and is not used if the session is already encrypted by the POP3S method.
4995 .Va pop3-use-starttls-HOST
4999 .It Va print-all-chars
5000 This option causes all characters to be considered printable.
5001 It is only effective if given in a startup file.
5002 With this option set some character sequences in messages may put the
5003 user's terminal in an undefined state when printed;
5004 it should only be used as a last resort if no working system locale can
5008 .It Va print-alternatives
5009 When a MIME message part of type
5010 .Ql multipart/alternative
5011 is displayed and it contains a subpart of type
5013 other parts are normally discarded.
5014 Setting this variable causes all subparts to be displayed,
5015 just as if the surrounding part was of type
5016 .Ql multipart/mixed .
5020 Suppresses the printing of the version when first invoked.
5023 .It Va quote-as-attachment
5024 If this is set, then the original message is added in its entirety as a
5026 MIME attachment when replying to a message.
5027 Note this works regardless of the setting of
5031 .It Va recipients-in-cc
5032 On group replies, specify only the sender of the original mail in
5034 and mention the other recipients in the secondary
5036 By default all recipients of the original mail will be addressed via
5040 .It Va record-resent
5041 If both this variable and the
5048 commands save messages to the
5050 folder as it is normally only done for newly composed messages.
5053 .It Va reply-in-same-charset
5054 If this variable is set \*(UA first tries to use the same character set
5055 of the original message for replies.
5056 If this fails, the mechanism described in
5057 .Sx "Character sets"
5058 is evaluated as usual.
5061 .It Va rfc822-body-from_
5062 This variable can be used to force displaying a so-called
5064 line for messages that are embedded into an envelope mail via the
5066 MIME mechanism, for more visual convenience.
5070 When the user aborts a message with two
5074 characters, \*(UA will copy the partial letter to the file
5078 .It Va searchheaders
5079 Expand message-list specifiers in the form
5081 to all messages containing the substring
5085 The string search is case insensitive.
5088 .It Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
5089 \*(OP If this variable is set, but
5091 is not, then \*(UA acts as if
5093 had been set to the value of the variable
5095 In effect this combination passes through the message data in the
5096 character set of the current locale (given that
5098 hasn't been set manually), i.e., without converting it to the
5100 fallback character set.
5101 Thus, mail message text will be in ISO-8859-1 encoding when send from
5102 within a ISO-8859-1 locale, and in UTF-8 encoding when send from within
5104 If no character set conversion capabilities are available in \*(UA then
5105 the only supported character set is
5110 When sending a message wait until the MTA (including the builtin SMTP
5111 one) exits before accepting further commands.
5113 with this variable set errors reported by the MTA will be recognizable!
5114 If the MTA returns a non-zero exit status,
5115 the exit status of \*(ua will also be non-zero.
5119 Setting this option causes \*(UA to start at the last message instead of
5120 the first one when opening a mail folder.
5124 Causes \*(UA to use the sender's real name instead of the plain address
5125 in the header field summary and in message specifications.
5129 Causes the recipient of the message to be shown in the header summary
5130 if the message was sent by the user.
5133 .It Va skipemptybody
5134 If an outgoing message does not contain any text in its first or only
5136 do not send it but discard it silently (see also the command line option
5140 .It Va smime-force-encryption
5141 \*(OP Causes \*(UA to refuse sending unencrypted messages.
5145 \*(OP S/MIME sign outgoing messages with the user's private key and
5146 include the user's certificate as a MIME attachment.
5147 Signing a message enables a recipient to verify that the sender used
5148 a valid certificate,
5149 that the email addresses in the certificate match those in the message
5150 header and that the message content has not been altered.
5151 It does not change the message text,
5152 and people will be able to read the message as usual.
5156 .Va smime-sign-include-certs .
5159 .It Va smime-no-default-ca
5160 \*(OP Don't load default CA locations when verifying S/MIME signed
5163 .Mx Va smtp-use-starttls
5164 .It Va smtp-use-starttls-USER@HOST , smtp-use-starttls-HOST , smtp-use-starttls
5165 \*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a
5167 command to make an SMTP session SSL/TLS encrypted, i.e., to enable
5168 transport layer security.
5171 .It Va ssl-no-default-ca
5172 \*(OP Don't load default CA locations to verify SSL/TLS server
5177 \*(OP If terminal capability queries are supported and this option is
5178 set then \*(UA will try to create a terminal session when in interactive
5179 mode, which will cause a screen clearance once \*(UA is terminated again.
5181 even when supported for this to produce appealing results the used
5183 and possibly configured
5184 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
5185 applications that take control over the terminal need to have
5186 corresponding support too, e.g., the
5188 pager should be driven with the
5193 .It Va keep-content-length
5194 When (editing messages and) writing
5196 mailbox files \*(UA can be told to keep the
5200 header fields that some MUAs generate by setting this variable.
5201 Since \*(UA does neither use nor update these non-standardized header
5202 fields (which in itself shows one of their conceptual problems),
5203 stripping them should increase interoperability in between MUAs that
5204 work with with same mailbox files.
5205 Note that, if this is not set but
5206 .Va writebackedited ,
5207 as below, is, a possibly performed automatic stripping of these header
5208 fields already marks the message as being modified.
5212 Setting this option enables upward compatibility with \*(UA version 15.0
5213 in respect to which configuration options are available and how they are
5215 This manual uses \*(IN and \*(OU to refer to the new and the old way of
5216 doing things, respectively.
5220 Setting this option, also controllable via the command line option
5222 causes \*(UA to be more verbose, so that, e.g., certificate chains will
5223 be displayed on the users terminal.
5224 Setting this binary option twice increases the level of verbosity, in
5225 which case even details of the actual message delivery and protocol
5226 conversations are shown.
5229 is sufficient to disable verbosity as such.
5232 .It Va writebackedited
5233 If this variable is set messages modified using the
5237 commands are written back to the current folder when it is quit;
5238 it is only honoured for writable folders in MBOX format, though.
5239 Note that the editor will be pointed to the raw message content in that
5240 case, i.e., neither MIME decoding nor decryption will have been
5241 performed, and proper RFC 4155
5243 quoting of newly added or edited content is also left as an excercise to
5248 .\" .Ss "Value options" {{{
5251 Options with values that are generally treated as strings.
5252 To embed whitespace (space and tabulator) in a value it either needs to
5253 be escaped with a backslash character, or the entire value must be
5254 enclosed in (double or single) quotation marks;
5255 To use quotation marks identical to those used to enclose the value,
5256 escape them with a backslash character.
5257 The backslash character has no special meaning except in these cases.
5259 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5260 set 1=val\e one 2="val two" 3='val "three"' 4='val \e'four\e''
5266 Booleans are special string values that must either be set to decimal
5267 integers (in which case
5271 and any other value is true) or to any of
5276 for a false boolean and
5281 for a true boolean; matching is performed case-insensitively.
5282 And there exists a special kind of boolean, the
5284 this is expected to either name a boolean or one of the strings
5290 followed by a valid boolean, case-insensitively);
5291 if one of the latter is set then in interactive mode the user will be
5292 prompted with the default value (also used for empty user input) set to
5293 the given boolean, whereas in non-interactive the given default will
5296 .Bl -tag -width ".It Va _utoprin_"
5297 .Mx Va agent-shell-lookup
5298 .It Va agent-shell-lookup-USER@HOST , agent-shell-lookup-HOST , \
5300 \*(IN \*(OP Account passwords can be fetched via an external agent
5301 program in order to permit encrypted password storage \(en see
5302 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
5303 for more on credential lookup.
5304 If this is set then the content is interpreted as a shell command the
5305 output of which (with newline characters removed) is treated as the
5306 account password shall the command succeed (and have produced non-empty
5307 non-newline output); e.g., via
5309 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5310 $ echo PASSWORD > .pass
5312 $ eval `gpg-agent --daemon \e
5313 --pinentry-program=/usr/bin/pinentry-curses \e
5314 --max-cache-ttl 99999 --default-cache-ttl 99999`
5315 $ echo 'set agent-shell-lookup="gpg -d .pass.gpg"' \e
5319 A couple of environment variables will be set for the agent:
5321 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ev _AIL_TMPDIR[337]"
5323 The temporary directory that \*(UA uses.
5324 Usually identical to
5326 but guaranteed to be set and usable by child processes;
5327 to ensure the latter condition for
5333 for which the password is looked up.
5334 .It Ev NAIL_USER_ENC
5335 The URL percent-encoded variant of
5338 The plain machine hostname of the user account.
5339 .It Ev NAIL_HOST_PORT
5342 (hostname possibly including port) of the user account.
5347 A sequence of characters to print in the
5351 as shown in the header display; each for one type of messages (see
5352 .Sx "Message states" ) ,
5353 with the default being
5356 .Ql NU\ \ *HMFAT+\-$~
5361 environment variable are set, in the following order:
5363 .Bl -tag -compact -offset indent -width ".It Ql _"
5385 start of a collapsed thread.
5391 classified as possible spam.
5396 Specifies a list of recipients to which a blind carbon copy of each
5397 outgoing message will be sent automatically.
5401 Specifies a list of recipients to which a carbon copy of each outgoing
5402 message will be sent automatically.
5406 Causes sorted mode (see the
5408 command) to be entered automatically with the value of this option as
5409 sorting method when a folder is opened.
5413 The value that should appear in the
5417 MIME header fields when no character set conversion of the message data
5419 This defaults to US-ASCII, and the chosen character set should be
5420 US-ASCII compatible.
5424 \*(OP The default 8-bit character set that is used as an implicit last
5425 member of the variable
5427 This defaults to UTF-8.
5428 If no character set conversion capabilities are available in \*(UA then
5429 the only supported character set is
5431 Refer to the section
5432 .Sx "Character sets"
5433 for the complete picture of character set conversion in \*(UA.
5436 .It Va charset-unknown-8bit
5437 \*(OP RFC 1428 specifies conditions when internet mail gateways shall
5439 the content of a mail message by using a character set with the name
5441 Because of the unclassified nature of this character set \*(UA will not
5442 be capable to convert this character set to any other character set.
5443 If this variable is set any message part which uses the character set
5445 is assumed to really be in the character set given in the value,
5446 otherwise the (final) value of
5448 is used for this purpose.
5452 The default value for the
5458 \*(OP The colour specification for so-called
5462 .Sx "Coloured message display"
5463 for the format of the value.
5466 .It Va colour-header
5467 \*(OP The colour specification for header lines.
5470 .It Va colour-msginfo
5471 \*(OP The colour specification for the introductional message info line.
5474 .It Va colour-partinfo
5475 \*(OP The colour specification for MIME part info lines.
5479 \*(OP A comma-separated list of
5481 inals for which coloured message display can be used.
5482 Entries only need to be added if the string
5484 isn't part of the terminal name itself; the default value is
5486 .Dl cons25,linux,rxvt,rxvt-unicode,\:screen,\:sun,\:vt100,\:vt220,\:\
5490 .It Va colour-uheader
5491 \*(OP The colour specification for those header lines that have been
5493 .Va colour-user-headers
5496 .Sx "Coloured message display" .
5499 .It Va colour-user-headers
5500 A comma separated list of (case-insensitive) header names which should
5501 be colourized with the alternative
5504 The default value is
5509 In a(n interactive) terminal session, then if this valued option is set
5510 it'll be used as a threshold to determine how many lines the given
5511 output has to span before it will be displayed via the configured
5515 can be forced by setting this to the value
5517 setting it without a value will deduce the current height of the
5518 terminal screen to compute the treshold (see
5525 The date in a header summary is normally the date of the mailbox
5527 line of the message.
5528 If this variable is set, then the date as given in the
5530 field is used, converted to local time.
5531 It is possible to control the display of the date by assigning a value,
5534 function will be used to format the date accordingly.
5535 Please read your system manual for the available formats.
5538 format should not be used, because \*(UA doesn't take embedded newlines
5539 into account when calculating how many lines fit onto the screen.
5542 .It Va datefield-markout-older
5543 This option, when set in addition to
5547 messages (concept is rather comparable to the
5549 option of the POSIX utility
5551 The content interpretation is identical to
5556 Suggestion for the MIME encoding to use in outgoing text messages
5558 Valid values are the default
5559 .Ql quoted-printable ,
5564 may cause problems when transferring mail messages over channels that
5565 are not ESMTP (RFC 1869) compliant.
5566 If there is no need to encode a message,
5568 transfer mode is always used regardless of this variable.
5569 Binary data is always encoded as
5574 If defined, the first character of this option
5575 gives the character to use in place of
5578 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
5582 If set then an extended way of interpreting recipient address
5583 specifications is used \(en see the section
5586 To disallow any extended interpretation only in non-interactive mode,
5587 unless tilde commands were enabled explicitly by using one of the
5588 command line options
5592 set this to the (case-insensitive) value
5596 then the existence of extended recipient addresses is treated as a hard
5597 send error (instead of only filtering them out).
5599 In fact the value is interpreted as a comma-separated list of strings.
5600 To forbid that anything that is not a file or pipe addressee (and thus
5602 .Dq extended recipient address
5603 around here) will be treated as a network address, but to filter out
5604 aliases, too, include the value
5606 (which will be a hard error only in conjunction with
5608 note this applies to system aliases only, \*(UA internal
5610 es are not affected by this setting (only their expansion).
5614 Unless this variable is set additional mail-transfer-agent (MTA)
5615 arguments from the command line, as can be given after a
5617 separator, are ignored due to safety reasons.
5618 However, if set to the special value
5620 then the presence of additional MTA arguments is treated as a hard
5621 error that causes \*(UA to exit with failure status.
5622 A lesser strict variant is the otherwise identical
5624 which does accept such arguments in interactive mode, or if tilde
5625 commands were enabled explicitly by using one of the command line options
5632 \*(RO Information on the features compiled into \*(UA \(en the content
5633 of this variable is identical to the output of the command
5638 .It Va file-hook-load-EXTENSION , file-hook-save-EXTENSION
5639 It is possible to install file hooks which will be used by the
5641 command in order to be able to transparently handle (through an
5642 intermediate temporary file) files with specific
5644 s: the variable values can include shell snippets and are expected to
5645 write data to standard output / read data from standard input,
5647 \*(ID The variables may not be changed while there is a mailbox
5649 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5650 set file-hook-load-xy='echo >&2 XY-LOAD; gzip -cd' \e
5651 file-hook-save-xy='echo >&2 XY-SAVE; gzip -c' \e
5652 record=+null-sent.xy
5657 The name of the directory to use for storing folders of messages.
5658 All folder names that begin with
5660 refer to files below it.
5661 The same special conventions as documented for the
5663 command may be used when specifying a new value for
5665 but be aware that the expansion is fully performed immediately.
5666 E.g., if the expanded name refers to an IMAP account, all names that
5667 begin with `+' refer to IMAP mailboxes below the
5671 Note: some IMAP servers do not accept the creation of mailboxes in
5672 the hierarchy base, but require that they are created as subfolders of
5673 `INBOX' \(en with such servers a folder name of the form
5675 .Dl imaps://mylogin@imap.myisp.example/INBOX.
5677 should be used (the last character is the server's hierarchy delimiter).
5678 Folder names prefixed by `+' will then refer to folders below `INBOX',
5679 while folder names prefixed by `@' refer to folders below the hierarchy
5683 namespace command for a method to detect the appropriate prefix and
5688 When a folder is opened and this variable is set,
5689 the macro corresponding to the value of this variable is executed.
5690 The macro is also invoked when new mail arrives,
5691 but message lists for commands executed from the macro
5692 only include newly arrived messages then.
5695 are activated in a folder hook, then the covered settings will be
5696 reverted once the folder is left again.
5699 .It Va folder-hook-FOLDER
5704 Unlike other folder specifications, the fully expanded name of a folder,
5705 without metacharacters, is used to avoid ambiguities.
5706 However, if the mailbox resides under
5710 specification is tried in addition, e.g., if
5714 (and thus relative to the user's home directory) then
5715 .Pa /home/usr1/mail/sent
5717 .Ql folder-hook-/home/usr1/mail/sent
5718 first, but then followed by
5719 .Ql folder-hook-+sent .
5722 .It Va followup-to-honour
5724 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
5725 header is honoured when group-replying to a message via
5729 This is a quadoption; if set without a value it defaults to
5740 The address (or a list of addresses) to put into the
5742 field of the message header, quoting RFC 5322:
5743 the author(s) of the message, that is, the mailbox(es) of the person(s)
5744 or system(s) responsible for the writing of the message.
5745 If replying to messages these addresses are handled as if they were in
5749 If the machine's hostname is not valid at the Internet (for example at
5750 a dialup machine) then either this variable or
5755 adds even more fine-tuning capabilities),
5759 contains more than one address,
5762 variable is required (according to the standard RFC 5322).
5766 The string to print before the text of a message with the
5770 .Va forward-as-attachment
5773 .Dq -------- Original Message --------
5774 if unset; No heading is printed if it is set to the empty string.
5778 A format string to use for the header summary,
5784 introduces a format specifier that may be followed by a number
5785 indicating the field width;
5786 If the (possibly implicitly implied) field width is negative, the field
5787 is to be left-aligned.
5788 Valid format specifiers are:
5790 .Bl -tag -compact -offset indent -width "_%%_"
5792 A plain percent character.
5794 A space character but for the current message, for which it expands to
5797 A space character but for the current message, for which it expands to
5800 \*(OP The spam score of the message, as has been classified via the
5803 Prints only a replacement character if there is no spam support.
5805 Message attribute character (status flag); the actual content can be
5809 The date when the message was received.
5811 The indenting level in threaded mode.
5813 The address of the message sender.
5815 The message thread structure.
5816 (Note that this format doesn't support a field width.)
5818 The number of lines of the message.
5822 The number of octets (bytes) in the message.
5824 Message subject (if any).
5826 Message subject (if any) in double quotes.
5828 Message recipient flags: is the addressee of the message a known or
5829 subscribed mailing list \(en see
5834 The position in threaded/sorted order.
5838 .Ql %>\&%a\&%m\ %-18f\ %16d\ %4l/%\-5o\ %i%-s ,
5840 .Ql %>\&%a\&%m\ %20-f\ \ %16d\ %3l/%\-5o\ %i%-S
5850 .It Va headline-bidi
5851 Bidirectional text requires special treatment when displaying headers,
5852 because numbers (in dates or for file sizes etc.) will not affect the
5853 current text direction, in effect resulting in ugly line layouts when
5854 arabic or other right-to-left text is to be displayed.
5855 On the other hand only a minority of terminals is capable to correctly
5856 handle direction changes, so that user interaction is necessary for
5858 Note that extended host system support is required nonetheless, e.g.,
5859 detection of the terminal character set is one precondition;
5860 and this feature only works in an Unicode (i.e., UTF-8) locale.
5862 In general setting this variable will cause \*(UA to encapsulate text
5863 fields that may occur when printing
5865 (and some other fields, like dynamic expansions in
5867 with special Unicode control sequences;
5868 it is possible to fine-tune the terminal support level by assigning
5870 no value (or any value other than
5875 will make \*(UA assume that the terminal is capable to properly deal
5876 with Unicode version 6.3, in which case text is embedded in a pair of
5877 U+2068 (FIRST STRONG ISOLATE) and U+2069 (POP DIRECTIONAL ISOLATE)
5879 In addition no space on the line is reserved for these characters.
5881 Weaker support is chosen by using the value
5883 (Unicode 6.3, but reserve the room of two spaces for writing the control
5884 sequences onto the line).
5889 select Unicode 1.1 support (U+200E, LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK); the latter
5890 again reserves room for two spaces in addition.
5894 Use this string as hostname when expanding local addresses instead of
5895 the value obtained from
5906 transport is not used then it is normally the responsibility of the MTA
5907 to create these fields, \*(IN in conjunction with
5911 also influences the results;
5912 you should produce some test messages with the desired combination of
5920 .It Va imap-auth-USER@HOST , imap-auth
5921 \*(OP Sets the IMAP authentication method.
5922 Valid values are `login' for the usual password-based authentication
5924 `cram-md5', which is a password-based authentication that does not send
5925 the password over the network in clear text,
5926 and `gssapi' for GSS-API based authentication.
5930 \*(OP Enables caching of IMAP mailboxes.
5931 The value of this variable must point to a directory that is either
5932 existent or can be created by \*(UA.
5933 All contents of the cache can be deleted by \*(UA at any time;
5934 it is not safe to make assumptions about them.
5936 .Mx Va imap-keepalive
5937 .It Va imap-keepalive-USER@HOST , imap-keepalive-HOST , imap-keepalive
5938 \*(OP IMAP servers may close the connection after a period of
5939 inactivity; the standard requires this to be at least 30 minutes,
5940 but practical experience may vary.
5941 Setting this variable to a numeric `value' greater than 0 causes
5942 a `NOOP' command to be sent each `value' seconds if no other operation
5946 .It Va imap-list-depth
5947 \*(OP When retrieving the list of folders on an IMAP server, the
5949 command stops after it has reached a certain depth to avoid possible
5951 The value of this variable sets the maximum depth allowed.
5953 If the folder separator on the current IMAP server is a slash `/',
5954 this variable has no effect and the
5956 command does not descend to subfolders.
5967 option for indenting messages,
5968 in place of the normal tabulator character
5970 which is the default.
5971 Be sure to quote the value if it contains spaces or tabs.
5974 .It Va line-editor-cursor-right
5975 \*(OP If the builtin command line editor is used, actions which are
5976 based on rightwise movement may not work on some terminals.
5977 If you encounter such problems, set this variable to the terminal
5978 control sequence that is necessary to move the cursor one column to the
5982 which should work for most terminals.
5989 and other control character have to be written as shell-style escape
5997 Is used as the user's mailbox, if set.
5998 Otherwise, a system-dependent default is used.
5999 Supports a logical subset of the special conventions that are documented
6007 .It Va mime-counter-evidence
6010 field is used to decide how to handle MIME parts.
6011 Some MUAs however don't use
6013 or a similar mechanism to correctly classify content, but simply specify
6014 .Ql application/octet-stream ,
6015 even for plain text attachments like
6017 If this variable is set then \*(UA will try to classify such MIME
6018 message parts on its own, if possible, and through their file name.
6019 This variable can also be given a non-empty value, in which case the
6020 value is expected to be a number, actually a carrier of bits.
6021 Creating the bit-carrying number is a simple addition:
6022 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6023 ? !echo Value should be set to $((2 + 4))
6024 Value should be set to 6
6027 .Bl -bullet -compact
6029 If bit two is set (2) then the detected
6031 content-type will be carried along with the message and be used for
6033 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
6034 is responsible for the MIME part, shall that question arise;
6035 when displaying such a MIME part the part-info will indicate the
6036 overridden content-type by showing a plus-sign
6039 If bit three is set (4) then the counter-evidence is always produced
6040 and a positive result will be used as the MIME type, even forcefully
6041 overriding the parts given MIME type.
6043 .\"If bit four is set (8) then as a last resort the content of
6044 .\".Ql application/octet-stream
6045 .\"parts will be inspected, so that data that looks like (english) plain
6046 .\"text can be treated as such.
6050 .It Va mimetypes-load-control
6051 This option can be used to control which of the
6053 databases are loaded by \*(UA, as furtherly described in the section
6054 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
6057 is part of the option value, then the user's personal
6059 file will be loaded (if it exists); likewise the letter
6061 controls loading of the system wide
6062 .Pa /etc/mime.types ;
6063 the user file is loaded first, letter matching is case-insensitive.
6064 If this option is not set \*(UA will try to load both files instead.
6065 Incorporation of the \*(UA-builtin MIME types cannot be suppressed,
6066 but they will be matched last.
6068 More sources can be specified by using a different syntax: if the
6069 value string contains an equals sign
6071 then it is instead parsed as a comma-separated list of the described
6074 pairs; the given filenames will be expanded and loaded, and their
6075 content may use the extended syntax that is described in the section
6076 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
6079 .It Va NAIL_EXTRA_RC
6080 The name of an optional startup file to be read after
6082 This variable has an effect only if it is set in
6086 it is not imported from the environment in order to honour
6087 .Ql MAILRC=/dev/null Ns /
6090 Use this file for commands that are not understood by other POSIX
6096 A string to put at the beginning of each new message.
6097 The escape sequences tabulator
6104 .It Va NAIL_HISTFILE
6105 \*(OP If a command line editor is available then this can be set to
6106 name the (expandable) path of the location of a permanent history file.
6109 .It Va NAIL_HISTSIZE
6110 \*(OP If a command line editor is available this value restricts the
6111 amount of history entries that are saved into a set and valid
6113 A value of less than 0 disables this feature;
6114 note that loading and incorporation of
6116 upon program startup can also be suppressed by doing this.
6117 An unset or invalid value, or 0, causes a default value to be used.
6118 Dependent on the available command line editor this will also define the
6119 number of history entries in memory;
6120 it is also editor-specific wether runtime updates of this value will be
6125 A string to put at the end of each new message.
6126 The escape sequences tabulator
6134 If this variable has the value
6136 newly created local folders will be in Maildir format.
6140 Checks for new mail in the current folder each time the prompt is
6142 For IMAP mailboxes the server is then polled for new mail,
6143 which may result in delayed operation if the connection to the server is
6145 A Maildir folder must be re-scanned to determine if new mail has arrived.
6147 If this variable is set to the special value
6149 an IMAP server is not actively asked for new mail, but new mail may
6150 still be detected and announced with any other IMAP command that is sent
6152 In either case the IMAP server may send notifications about messages
6153 that have been deleted on the server by another process or client.
6155 .Dq Expunged X messages
6156 is printed regardless of this variable, and message numbers may have
6159 If this variable is set to the special value
6161 then a Maildir folder will not be rescanned completely, but only
6162 timestamp changes are detected.
6166 The value to put into the
6168 field of the message header.
6171 .It Va password-USER@HOST , password-HOST , password
6172 \*(IN Variable chain that sets a password, which is used in case none has
6173 been given in the protocol and account-specific URL;
6174 as a last resort \*(UA will ask for a password on the user's terminal if
6175 the authentication method requires a password.
6176 Specifying passwords in a startup file is generally a security risk;
6177 the file should be readable by the invoking user only.
6179 .It Va password-USER@HOST
6180 \*(OU (see the chain above for \*(IN)
6181 Set the password for
6185 If no such variable is defined for a host,
6186 the user will be asked for a password on standard input.
6187 Specifying passwords in a startup file is generally a security risk;
6188 the file should be readable by the invoking user only.
6191 .It Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
6192 When a MIME message part of type
6194 (normalized to lowercase) is displayed or quoted,
6195 its text is filtered through the value of this variable interpreted as
6199 can be used to force interpretation of the message part as plain text, e.g.,
6200 .Ql set pipe-application/pgp-signature=@
6201 will henceforth treat signatures as plain text and display them "as is".
6202 (The same can also be achieved, in a more useful context, by using the
6204 command in conjunction with a type marker.)
6206 Also, if a shell command is prefixed with
6208 then the command will only be used to prepare the MIME message part if
6209 the message is displayed by itself, but not when multiple messages are
6212 Finally, if a shell command is prefixed with
6214 then, in addition to what has been described for the plain
6216 shell command prefix, the command will be run asynchronously, i.e.,
6217 without blocking \*(UA, which may be a handy way to display a, e.g., PDF
6218 file while also continuing to read the mail message.
6219 Some information about the MIME part to be displayed is embedded into
6220 the environment of the shell command:
6222 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ev _AIL__ILENAME__ENERATED"
6225 The temporary directory that \*(UA uses.
6226 Usually identical to
6228 but guaranteed to be set and usable by child processes;
6229 to ensure the latter condition for
6233 .It Ev NAIL_FILENAME
6234 The filename, if any is set, the empty string otherwise.
6236 .It Ev NAIL_FILENAME_GENERATED
6238 .Ev \&\&NAIL_FILENAME
6239 if that isn't empty, but otherwise a combination of a random string
6242 of the MIME part, if the latter is known.
6245 The MIME content-type of the part, if known, the empty string otherwise.
6247 .It Ev NAIL_CONTENT_EVIDENCE
6249 .Va mime-counter-evidence
6250 includes the carry-around-bit (2), then this will be set to the detected
6251 MIME content-type; not only then identical to
6252 .Ev \&\&NAIL_CONTENT
6257 .It Va pipe-EXTENSION
6258 This is identical to
6259 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
6262 (normalized to lowercase using character mappings of the ASCII charset)
6263 names a file extension, e.g.,
6265 Handlers registered using this method take precedence.
6267 .Mx Va pop3-keepalive
6268 .It Va pop3-keepalive-USER@HOST , pop3-keepalive-HOST , pop3-keepalive
6269 \*(OP POP3 servers close the connection after a period of inactivity;
6270 the standard requires this to be at least 10 minutes,
6271 but practical experience may vary.
6272 Setting this variable to a numeric value greater than
6276 command to be sent each value seconds if no other operation is performed.
6280 The string printed when a command is accepted.
6281 Prompting may be prevented by either setting this to the null string
6284 The same XSI escape sequences that are understood by the
6286 command may be used within
6289 In addition, the following \*(UA specific additional sequences are
6296 is set, in which case it expands to
6300 is the default value of
6303 which will expand to
6305 if the last command failed and to
6309 which will expand to the name of the currently active
6311 if any, and to the empty string otherwise, and
6313 which will expand to the name of the currently active mailbox.
6314 (Note that the prompt buffer is size-limited, excess is cut off.)
6320 to encapsulate the expansions of the
6324 escape sequences as necessary to correctly display bidirectional text,
6325 this is not true for the final string that makes up
6327 as such, i.e., real BIDI handling is not supported.
6329 When a newer version of the
6331 .Sx "Command line editor"
6332 is used, any escape sequence must itself be encapsulated with another
6333 escape character for usage with the
6335 mechanism: \*(UA configures the control character
6341 If set, \*(UA starts a replying message with the original message
6342 prefixed by the value of the variable
6344 Normally, a heading consisting of
6345 .Dq Fromheaderfield wrote:
6346 is printed before the quotation.
6351 variable, this heading is omitted.
6354 is assigned, the headers selected by the
6355 .Ic ignore Ns / Ns Ic retain
6356 commands are printed above the message body,
6359 acts like an automatic
6365 is assigned, all headers are printed above the message body and all MIME
6366 parts are included, making
6368 act like an automatic
6371 .Va quote-as-attachment .
6375 \*(OP Can be set in addition to
6377 Setting this turns on a more fancy quotation algorithm in that leading
6378 quotation characters are compressed and overlong lines are folded.
6380 can be set to either one or two (space separated) numeric values,
6381 which are interpreted as the maximum (goal) and the minimum line length,
6382 respectively, in a spirit rather equal to the
6384 program, but line-, not paragraph-based.
6385 If not set explicitly the minimum will reflect the goal algorithmically.
6386 The goal can't be smaller than the length of
6388 plus some additional pad.
6389 Necessary adjustments take place silently.
6393 If defined, gives the pathname of the folder used to record all outgoing
6395 If not defined, then outgoing mail is not saved.
6396 When saving to this folder fails the message is not sent,
6397 but instead saved to
6401 .It Va reply_strings
6402 Can be set to a comma-separated list of (case-insensitive according to
6403 ASCII rules) strings which shall be recognized in addition to the
6406 reply message indicators \(en builtin are
6408 which is mandated by RFC 5322, as well as the german
6413 A list of addresses to put into the
6415 field of the message header.
6416 Members of this list are handled as if they were in the
6421 .It Va reply-to-honour
6424 header is honoured when replying to a message via
6428 This is a quadoption; if set without a value it defaults to
6433 When \*(UA initially prints the message headers it determines the number
6434 to print by looking at the speed of the terminal.
6435 The faster the terminal, the more it prints.
6436 This option overrides this calculation and specifies how many message
6437 headers are printed.
6438 This number is also used for scrolling with the
6444 \*(OP A comma-separated list of character set names that can be used in
6445 outgoing internet mail.
6446 The value of the variable
6448 is automatically appended to this list of character-sets.
6449 If no character set conversion capabilities are compiled into \*(UA then
6450 the only supported charset is
6453 .Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
6454 and refer to the section
6455 .Sx "Character sets"
6456 for the complete picture of character set conversion in \*(UA.
6460 An address that is put into the
6462 field of outgoing messages, quoting RFC 5322: the mailbox of the agent
6463 responsible for the actual transmission of the message.
6464 This field should normally not be used unless the
6466 field contains more than one address, on which case it is required.
6469 address is handled as if it were in the
6475 To use an alternate mail transport agent (MTA),
6476 set this option to the full pathname of the program to use.
6477 It may be necessary to set
6478 .Va sendmail-progname
6481 The MTA will be passed command line arguments from several possible
6482 sources: from the variable
6483 .Va sendmail-arguments
6484 if set, from the command line if given and the variable
6487 It'll always be passed the
6498 In conjunction with the
6500 command line option \*(UA may pass
6504 Option processing of the MTA will be terminated via a
6509 .It Va sendmail-arguments
6510 Arguments to pass through to the Mail-Transfer-Agent can be given via
6512 The content of this variable will be split up in a vector of arguments
6513 which will be joined onto other possible MTA options:
6515 .Dl set sendmail-arguments='-t -X \&"/tmp/my log\&"'
6518 .It Va sendmail-progname
6519 Many systems use a so-called
6521 environment to ensure compatibility with
6523 This works by inspecting the name that was used to invoke the mail
6525 If this variable is set then the mailwrapper (the program that is
6526 actually executed when calling
6528 will treat its contents as that name.
6534 A string for use with the
6540 A string for use with the
6546 Must correspond to the name of a readable file if set.
6547 The file's content is then appended to each singlepart message
6548 and to the first part of each multipart message.
6549 Be warned that there is no possibility to edit the signature for an
6554 \*(OP Specifies a directory with CA certificates in PEM (Privacy
6555 Enhanced Mail) format for verification of S/MIME signed messages.
6558 .It Va smime-ca-file
6559 \*(OP Specifies a file with CA certificates in PEM format for
6560 verification of S/MIME signed messages.
6563 .It Va smime-cipher-USER@HOST
6564 \*(OP Specifies a cipher to use when generating S/MIME encrypted
6565 messages for the specified account.
6566 RFC 5751 mandates a default of
6569 Possible values are (case-insensitive and) in decreasing cipher strength:
6577 (DES EDE3 CBC, 168 bits; default if
6579 isn't available) and
6583 The actually available cipher algorithms depend on the cryptographic
6584 library that \*(UA uses.
6585 \*(OP Support for more cipher algorithms may be available through
6586 dynamic loading via, e.g.,
6587 .Xr EVP_get_cipherbyname 3
6588 (OpenSSL) if \*(UA has been compiled to support this.
6591 .It Va smime-crl-file
6592 \*(OP Specifies a file that contains a CRL in PEM format to use when
6593 verifying S/MIME messages.
6596 .It Va smime-crl-dir
6597 \*(OP Specifies a directory that contains files with CRLs in PEM format
6598 to use when verifying S/MIME messages.
6601 .It Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST
6602 \*(OP If this variable is set, messages send to the given receiver are
6603 encrypted before sending.
6604 The value of the variable must be set to the name of a file that
6605 contains a certificate in PEM format.
6607 If a message is sent to multiple recipients,
6608 each of them for whom a corresponding variable is set will receive an
6609 individually encrypted message;
6610 other recipients will continue to receive the message in plain text
6612 .Va smime-force-encryption
6614 It is recommended to sign encrypted messages, i.e., to also set the
6618 .Mx Va smime-sign-cert
6619 .It Va smime-sign-cert-USER@HOST , smime-sign-cert
6620 \*(OP Points to a file in PEM format.
6621 For the purpose of signing and decryption this file needs to contain the
6622 user's private key as well as his certificate.
6626 is always derived from the value of
6628 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
6630 For the purpose of encryption the recipient's public encryption key
6631 (certificate) is expected; the command
6633 can be used to save certificates of signed messages (the section
6634 .Sx "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
6635 gives some details).
6636 This mode of operation is usually driven by the specialized form.
6638 When decrypting messages the account is derived from the recipient
6643 of the message, which are searched for addresses for which such
6645 \*(UA always uses the first address that matches,
6646 so if the same message is sent to more than one of the user's addresses
6647 using different encryption keys, decryption might fail.
6649 .Mx Va smime-sign-include-certs
6650 .It Va smime-sign-include-certs-USER@HOST , smime-sign-include-certs
6651 \*(OP If used, this is supposed to a consist of a comma-separated list
6652 of files, each of which containing a single certificate in PEM format to
6653 be included in the S/MIME message in addition to the
6656 This is most useful for long certificate chains if it is desired to aid
6657 the receiving party's verification process.
6658 Note that top level certificates may also be included in the chain but
6659 don't play a role for verification.
6661 .Va smime-sign-cert .
6665 \*(OP Normally \*(UA invokes the program defined via
6667 to transfer messages, as described in
6668 .Sx "Sending mail" .
6671 variable will instead cause SMTP network connections be made to the
6672 server specified therein in order to directly submit the message.
6673 \*(UA knows about three different
6674 .Dq SMTP protocols :
6676 .Bl -bullet -compact
6678 The plain SMTP protocol (RFC 5321) that normally lives on the
6679 server port 25 and requires setting the
6680 .Va smtp-use-starttls
6681 variable to enter a SSL/TLS encrypted session state.
6682 Assign a value like \*(IN
6683 .Ql [smtp://][user[:password]@]server[:port]
6685 .Ql [smtp://]server[:port] )
6686 to choose this protocol.
6688 Then the so-called SMTPS which is supposed to live on server port 465
6689 and is automatically SSL/TLS secured.
6690 Unfortunately it never became a standardized protocol and may thus not
6691 be supported by your hosts network service database
6692 \(en in fact the port number has already been reassigned to other
6695 SMTPS is nonetheless a commonly offered protocol and thus can be
6696 chosen by assigning a value like \*(IN
6697 .Ql smtps://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
6699 .Ql smtps://server[:port] ) ;
6700 due to the mentioned problems it is usually necessary to explicitly
6705 Finally there is the SUBMISSION protocol (RFC 6409), which usually
6706 lives on server port 587 and is practically identically to the SMTP
6707 protocol from \*(UAs point of view beside that; it requires setting the
6708 .Va smtp-use-starttls
6709 variable to enter a SSL/TLS secured session state.
6710 Assign a value like \*(IN
6711 .Ql submission://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
6713 .Ql submission://server[:port] ) .
6716 For more on credentials etc. please see
6717 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
6718 The SMTP transfer is executed in a child process, which runs
6719 asynchronously unless either the
6724 If it receives a TERM signal, it will abort and save the message to
6728 .It Va smtp-auth-USER@HOST , smtp-auth-HOST , smtp-auth
6729 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the SMTP authentication method.
6736 as well as the \*(OPal methods
6742 method doesn't need any user credentials,
6744 requires a user name and all other methods require a user name and
6752 .Va smtp-auth-password
6754 .Va smtp-auth-user ) .
6759 .Va smtp-auth-USER@HOST :
6760 may override dependend on sender address in the variable
6763 .It Va smtp-auth-password
6764 \*(OP \*(OU Sets the global fallback password for SMTP authentication.
6765 If the authentication method requires a password, but neither
6766 .Va smtp-auth-password
6768 .Va smtp-auth-password-USER@HOST
6770 \*(UA will ask for a password on the user's terminal.
6772 .It Va smtp-auth-password-USER@HOST
6774 .Va smtp-auth-password
6775 for specific values of sender addresses, dependent upon the variable
6778 .It Va smtp-auth-user
6779 \*(OP \*(OU Sets the global fallback user name for SMTP authentication.
6780 If the authentication method requires a user name, but neither
6783 .Va smtp-auth-user-USER@HOST
6785 \*(UA will ask for a user name on the user's terminal.
6787 .It Va smtp-auth-user-USER@HOST
6790 for specific values of sender addresses, dependent upon the variable
6794 .It Va smtp-hostname
6795 \*(IN Normally \*(UA uses the variable
6797 to derive the necessary
6799 information to issue a
6804 can be used to use the
6806 from the SMTP account
6813 from the content of this variable (or, if that is the empty string,
6815 or the local hostname as a last resort).
6816 This often allows using an address that is itself valid but hosted by
6817 a provider other than which (in
6819 is about to send the message.
6820 Setting this variable also influences the generated
6825 .It Va spam-interface
6826 \*(OP In order to use any of the spam-related commands (like, e.g.,
6828 the desired spam interface must be defined by setting this variable.
6829 Please refer to the manual section
6831 for the complete picture of spam handling in \*(UA.
6832 All or none of the following interfaces may be available:
6834 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ql _ilte_"
6840 .Pf ( Lk http://spamassassin.apache.org SpamAssassin )
6842 Different to the generic filter interface \*(UA will automatically add
6843 the correct arguments for a given command and has the necessary
6844 knowledge to parse the program's output.
6847 will have been compiled into the \*(UA binary if
6852 Shall it be necessary to define a specific connection type (rather than
6853 using a configuration file for that), the variable
6855 can be used as in, e.g.,
6856 .Ql -d server.example.com -p 783 .
6857 It is also possible to specify a per-user configuration via
6859 Note that this interface doesn't inspect the
6861 flag of a message for the command
6865 \*(UA will directly communicate with the
6871 stream socket as specified in
6873 It is possible to specify a per-user configuration via
6877 generic spam filter support via freely configurable hooks.
6878 This interface is ment for programs like
6882 and requires according behaviour in respect to the hooks' exit
6883 status for at least the command
6886 meaning a message is spam,
6890 for unsure and any other return value indicating a hard error);
6891 since the hooks can include shell code snippets diverting behaviour
6892 can be intercepted as necessary.
6894 .Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , spamfilter-nospam , \
6897 .Va spamfilter-spam ;
6900 contains examples for some programs.
6901 The process environment of the hooks will have the variables
6902 .Ev NAIL_TMPDIR , TMPDIR
6904 .Ev NAIL_FILENAME_GENERATED
6906 Note that spam score support for
6908 isn't supported unless the \*(OPtional regular expression support is
6910 .Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore
6917 \*(OP Messages that exceed this size won't be passed through to the
6919 .Va spam-interface .
6920 The default is 420000 bytes.
6923 .It Va spamc-command
6924 \*(OP The path to the
6928 .Va spam-interface .
6929 Note that the path is not expanded, but used
6931 A fallback path will have been compiled into the \*(UA binary if the
6932 executable had been found during compilation.
6935 .It Va spamc-arguments
6936 \*(OP Even though \*(UA deals with most arguments for the
6939 automatically, it may at least sometimes be desirable to specifiy
6940 connection-related ones via this variable, e.g.,
6941 .Ql -d server.example.com -p 783 .
6945 \*(OP Specify a username for per-user configuration files for the
6947 .Va spam-interface .
6948 If this is set to the empty string then \*(UA will use the name of the
6954 \*(OP Specify the path of the
6956 domain socket on which
6958 listens for connections for the
6960 .Va spam-interface .
6961 Note that the path is not expanded, but used
6966 \*(OP Specify a username for per-user configuration files for the
6968 .Va spam-interface .
6969 If this is set to the empty string then \*(UA will use the name of the
6978 .It Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , \
6979 spamfilter-nospam , spamfilter-rate , spamfilter-spam
6980 \*(OP Command and argument hooks for the
6982 .Va spam-interface .
6985 contains examples for some programs.
6988 .It Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore
6989 \*(OP Because of the generic nature of the
6992 spam scores are not supported for it by default, but if the \*(OPtional
6993 regular expression support is available then setting this variable can
6994 be used to overcome this restriction.
6995 It is interpreted as follows: first a number (digits) is parsed that
6996 must be followed by a semicolon
6998 and a regular expression.
6999 Then the latter is used to parse the first output line of the
7001 hook, and, in case the evaluation is successful, the group that has been
7002 specified via the number is interpreted as a floating point scan score.
7006 \*(OP Specifies a directory with CA certificates in PEM (Pricacy
7007 Enhanced Mail) for verification of of SSL/TLS server certificates.
7009 .Xr SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations 3
7010 for more information.
7014 \*(OP Specifies a file with CA certificates in PEM format for
7015 verification of SSL/TLS server certificates.
7017 .Xr SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations 3
7018 for more information.
7021 .It Va ssl-cert-USER@HOST , ssl-cert-HOST , ssl-cert
7022 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the file name for a SSL/TLS client
7023 certificate required by some servers.
7024 This is a direct interface to the
7028 function of the OpenSSL library, if available.
7030 .Mx Va ssl-cipher-list
7031 .It Va ssl-cipher-list-USER@HOST , ssl-cipher-list-HOST , ssl-cipher-list
7032 \*(OP Specifies a list of ciphers for SSL/TLS connections.
7033 This is a direct interface to the
7037 function of the OpenSSL library, if available; see
7039 for more information.
7040 By default \*(UA doesn't set a list of ciphers, which in effect will use a
7042 specific cipher (protocol standards ship with a list of acceptable
7043 ciphers), possibly cramped to what the actually used SSL/TLS library
7044 supports \(en the manual section
7045 .Sx "An example configuration"
7046 also contains a SSL/TLS use case.
7049 .It Va ssl-config-file
7050 \*(OP If this variable is set \*(UA will call
7051 .Xr CONF_modules_load_file 3
7052 to allow OpenSSL to be configured according to the host system wide
7054 If a non-empty value is given then this will be used to specify the
7055 configuration file to be used instead of the global OpenSSL default;
7056 note that in this case it is an error if the file cannot be loaded.
7057 The application name will always be passed as
7062 \*(OP Specifies a file that contains a CRL in PEM format to use when
7063 verifying SSL/TLS server certificates.
7067 \*(OP Specifies a directory that contains files with CRLs in PEM format
7068 to use when verifying SSL/TLS server certificates.
7071 .It Va ssl-key-USER@HOST , ssl-key-HOST , ssl-key
7072 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the file name for the private key of
7073 a SSL/TLS client certificate.
7074 If unset, the name of the certificate file is used.
7075 The file is expected to be in PEM format.
7076 This is a direct interface to the
7080 function of the OpenSSL library, if available.
7083 .It Va ssl-method-USER@HOST , ssl-method-HOST , ssl-method
7085 \*(OB Please use the newer and more flexible
7087 instead: if both values are set,
7089 will take precedence!
7090 Can be set to the following values, the actually used
7092 specification to which it is mapped is shown in parenthesis:
7094 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, TLSv1.2 ) ,
7096 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, TLSv1.1 ) ,
7098 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, TLSv1 )
7101 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, SSLv3 ) ;
7106 and thus includes the SSLv3 protocol.
7107 Note that SSLv2 is no longer supported at all.
7110 .It Va ssl-protocol-USER@HOST , ssl-protocol-HOST , ssl-protocol
7111 \*(OP Specify the used SSL/TLS protocol.
7112 This is a direct interface to the
7116 function of the OpenSSL library, if available;
7117 otherwise an \*(UA internal parser is used which understands the
7118 following subset of (case-insensitive) command strings:
7124 as well as the special value
7126 Multiple specifications may be given via a comma-separated list which
7127 ignores any whitespace.
7130 plus prefix will enable a protocol, a
7132 minus prefix will disable it, so that
7134 will enable only the TLSv1.2 protocol.
7136 It depends upon the used TLS/SSL library which protocols are actually
7137 supported and which protocols are used if
7139 is not set, but note that SSLv2 is no longer supported at all and
7141 Especially for older protocols explicitly securing
7143 may be worthwile, see
7144 .Sx "An example configuration" .
7148 \*(OP Gives the pathname to an entropy daemon socket, see
7150 Not all SSL/TLS libraries support this.
7153 .It Va ssl-rand-file
7154 \*(OP Gives the pathname to a file with entropy data, see
7155 .Xr RAND_load_file 3 .
7156 If the file is a regular file writable by the invoking user,
7157 new data is written to it after it has been loaded.
7160 .It Va ssl-verify-USER@HOST , ssl-verify-HOST , ssl-verify
7161 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the action to be performed if an error
7162 occurs during SSL/TLS server certificate validation.
7163 Valid (case-insensitive) values are
7165 (fail and close connection immediately),
7167 (ask whether to continue on standard input),
7169 (print a warning and continue),
7171 (do not perform validation).
7177 If only set without an assigned value, then this option inhibits the
7182 header fields that include obvious references to \*(UA.
7183 There are two pitfalls associated with this:
7184 First, the message id of outgoing messages is not known anymore.
7185 Second, an expert may still use the remaining information in the header
7186 to track down the originating mail user agent.
7191 suppression doesn't occur.
7195 If defined, gives the number of lines of a message to be printed out
7196 with the top command; normally, the first five lines are printed.
7200 The character set of the terminal \*(UA operates on,
7201 and the one and only supported character set that \*(UA can use if no
7202 character set conversion capabilities have been compiled into it,
7203 in which case it defaults to ISO-8859-1 unless it can deduce a value
7207 Refer to the section
7208 .Sx "Character sets"
7209 for the complete picture about character sets.
7212 .It Va user-HOST , user
7213 \*(IN Variable chain that sets a global fallback user name, which is
7214 used in case none has been given in the protocol and account-specific
7216 This variable defaults to the value of
7223 .It Va version , version-major , version-minor , version-update
7224 \*(RO \*(UA version information: the first variable contains a string
7225 containing the complete version identification \(en this is identical to
7226 the output of the command
7228 The latter three contain only digits: the major, minor and update
7232 .\" }}} (Variable options)
7235 .\" .Sh ENVIRONMENT {{{
7239 .Dq environment variable
7240 should be considered an indication that the following variables are
7241 either standardized as being vivid parts of process environments, or
7242 are commonly found in there.
7243 Unless otherwise explicitly noted they integrate into the normal
7244 variable handling, as documented above, from \*(UAs point of view.
7246 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ev _AILR_"
7249 The user's preferred width in column positions for the terminal screen
7251 Queried and used once on program startup.
7255 The name of the file to use for saving aborted messages.
7264 Pathname of the text editor to use in the
7268 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
7269 A default editor is used if this value is not defined.
7273 The user's home directory.
7274 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
7277 to update the value at runtime.
7284 .It Ev LANG , LC_ALL , LC_COLLATE , LC_CTYPE , LC_MESSAGES
7288 .Sx "Character sets" .
7292 The user's preferred number of lines on a page or the vertical screen
7293 or window size in lines.
7294 Queried and used once on program startup.
7298 Pathname of the directory lister to use in the
7300 command when operating on local mailboxes.
7303 (path search through
7308 The name of the user's mbox file.
7309 Supports a logical subset of the special conventions that are
7315 The fallback default is
7323 Is used as a startup file instead of
7326 When \*(UA scripts are invoked on behalf of other users,
7327 this variable should be set to
7329 to avoid side-effects from reading their configuration files.
7330 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
7333 .It Ev NAIL_NO_SYSTEM_RC
7334 If this variable is set then reading of
7336 at startup is inhibited, i.e., the same effect is achieved as if \*(UA
7337 had been started up with the option
7339 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
7343 \*(IN \*(OP This variable overrides the default location of the user's
7349 Pathname of the program to use in the more command or when the
7352 The default paginator is
7354 (path search through
7359 A list of directories that is searched by the shell when looking for
7360 commands (as such only recognized in the process environment).
7364 The shell to use for the commands
7370 and when starting subprocesses.
7371 A default shell is used if this option is not defined.
7375 Changes the letters printed in the first column of a header summary.
7379 \*(OP The terminal type for which output is to be prepared.
7383 Used as directory for temporary files instead of
7386 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
7389 to update the value at runtime.
7393 Force identification as the given user, i.e., identical to the
7395 command line option.
7396 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
7399 to update the value at runtime, but note that doing so won't trigger any
7400 of those validation checks that were performed on program startup (again).
7404 Pathname of the text editor to use in the
7408 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
7416 .Bl -tag -width ".It Pa _etc/mime.type_"
7418 File giving initial commands.
7421 System wide initialization file.
7424 .It Pa ~/.mime.types
7425 Personal MIME types, see
7426 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
7429 .It Pa /etc/mime.types
7430 System wide MIME types, see
7431 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
7435 \*(IN \*(OP The default location of the users
7437 file \(en the section
7438 .Sx "The .netrc file"
7439 documents the file format.
7442 .\" .Ss "The mime.types files" {{{
7443 .Ss "The mime.types files"
7445 When sending messages \*(UA tries to determine the content type of all
7447 When displaying message content or attachments \*(UA uses the content
7448 type to decide wether it can directly display data or wether it needs to
7449 deal with content handlers, as can be defined via
7450 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
7452 .Va pipe-EXTENSION )
7453 variables, to do so.
7456 It learns about MIME types and how to treat them by reading
7458 files, the loading of which can be controlled by setting the variable
7459 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
7462 can also be used to deal with MIME types.)
7464 files have the following syntax:
7467 .Dl type/subtype extension [extension ...]
7472 are strings describing the file contents, and one or multiple
7474 s, separated by whitespace, name the part of a filename starting after
7475 the last dot (of interest).
7476 Comments may be introduced anywhere on a line with a number sign
7478 causing the remaining line to be discarded.
7480 \*(UA also supports an extended, non-portable syntax in specially
7481 crafted files, which can be loaded via the alternative value syntax of
7482 .Va mimetypes-load-control
7483 and prepends an optional
7487 .Dl [type-marker ]type/subtype extension [extension ...]
7490 The following type markers are supported:
7493 .Bl -tag -compact -offset indent -width ".It Ar _n_u"
7495 Treat message parts with this content as plain text.
7500 Treat message parts with this content as HTML tagsoup.
7501 If the \*(OPal HTML-tagsoup-to-text converter is not available treat
7502 the content as plain text instead.
7506 but instead of falling back to plain text require an explicit content
7507 handler to be defined.
7512 for sending messages:
7513 .Va mime-allow-text-controls .
7514 For reading etc. messages:
7515 .Sx "Viewing HTML mail and MIME attachments" ,
7516 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
7517 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE ,
7518 .Va pipe-EXTENSION .
7521 .\" .Ss "The .netrc file" {{{
7522 .Ss "The .netrc file"
7526 file contains user credentials for machine accounts.
7527 The default location in the user's
7529 directory may be overridden by the
7531 environment variable.
7532 The file consists of space, tabulator or newline separated tokens.
7533 \*(UA implements a parser that supports a superset of the original BSD
7534 syntax, but users should nonetheless be aware of portability glitches
7535 of that file format, shall their
7537 be usable across multiple programs and platforms:
7540 .Bl -bullet -compact
7542 BSD doesn't support single, but only double quotation marks, e.g.,
7543 .Ql password="pass with spaces" .
7545 BSD (only?) supports escaping of single characters via a backslash
7546 (e.g., a space can be escaped via
7548 in- as well as outside of a quoted string.
7550 BSD doesn't require the final quotation mark of the final user input token.
7552 At least Hewlett-Packard seems to support a format which also allows
7553 tokens to be separated with commas \(en this format is not supported!
7555 Whereas other programs may require that the
7557 file is accessible by only the user if it contains a
7561 than anonymous, \*(UA will always require these strict permissions.
7565 Of the following list of supported tokens \*(UA only uses (and caches)
7571 .Bl -tag -width password
7572 .It Cd machine Ar name
7573 The hostname of the entries' machine, lowercase-normalized by \*(UA
7575 Any further file content, until either end-of-file or the occurrence
7580 first-class token is bound (only related) to the machine
7583 As an extension that shouldn't be the cause of any worries
7584 \*(UA supports a single wildcard prefix for
7586 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7587 machine *.example.com login USER password PASS
7588 machine pop3.example.com login USER password PASS
7589 machine smtp.example.com login USER password PASS
7595 .Ql pop3.example.com ,
7599 .Ql local.smtp.example.com .
7600 Note that in the example neither
7601 .Ql pop3.example.com
7603 .Ql smtp.example.com
7604 will be matched by the wildcard, since the exact matches take
7605 precedence (it is however faster to specify it the other way around).
7610 except that it is a fallback entry that is used shall none of the
7611 specified machines match; only one default token may be specified,
7612 and it must be the last first-class token.
7614 .It Cd login Ar name
7615 The user name on the remote machine.
7617 .It Cd password Ar string
7618 The user's password on the remote machine.
7620 .It Cd account Ar string
7621 Supply an additional account password.
7622 This is merely for FTP purposes.
7624 .It Cd macdef Ar name
7626 A macro is defined with the specified
7628 it is formed from all lines beginning with the next line and continuing
7629 until a blank line is (consecutive newline characters are) encountered.
7632 entries cannot be utilized by multiple machines, too, but must be
7633 defined following the
7635 they are intended to be used with.)
7638 exists, it is automatically run as the last step of the login process.
7639 This is merely for FTP purposes.
7646 .\" .Sh EXAMPLES {{{
7649 .\" .Ss "An example configuration" {{{
7650 .Ss "An example configuration"
7652 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7653 # This example assumes v15.0 compatibility mode
7656 # Where are the up-to-date SSL certificates?
7657 #set ssl-ca-dir=/etc/ssl/certs
7658 set ssl-ca-file=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
7660 # (Since we manage up-to-date ones explicitly, don't use any,
7661 # possibly outdated, default certificates shipped with OpenSSL
7662 set ssl-no-default-ca
7664 # Don't use protocols olders than TLS v1.2.
7665 # Change this only when the remote server doesn't support it:
7666 # maybe use ssl-protocol-HOST (or -USER@HOST) syntax to define
7667 # such explicit exceptions, then
7668 set ssl-protocol="-ALL,+TLSv1.2"
7670 # Explicitly define the list of ciphers, which may improve security,
7671 # especially with protocols older than TLS v1.2. See ciphers(1).
7672 # Hint: it is important to include "@STRENGTH": only with it the
7673 # final list will be sorted by algorithm strength.
7674 # This is an example: in reality it is possibly best to only use
7675 # ssl-cipher-list-HOST (or -USER@HOST), as necessary, again..
7676 set ssl-cipher-list="ALL:!aNULL:!MEDIUM:!LOW:\e
7677 !MD5:!RC4:!EXPORT:@STRENGTH"
7679 # Request strict transport security checks!
7680 set ssl-verify=strict
7682 # Essential setting: select allowed character sets
7683 set sendcharsets=utf-8,iso-8859-1
7685 # A very kind option: when replying to a message, first try to
7686 # use the same encoding that the original poster used herself!
7687 set reply-in-same-charset
7689 # When sending messages, wait until the Mail-Transfer-Agent finishs.
7690 # Only like this you'll be able to see errors reported through the
7691 # exit status of the MTA (including the builtin SMTP one)!
7694 # Only use builtin MIME types, no mime.types(5) files
7695 set mimetypes-load-control
7697 # Default directory where we act in (relative to $HOME)
7698 set folder=mail MBOX=+mbox.mbox record=+sent.mbox \e
7701 # Make "file mymbox" and "file myrec" go to..
7702 shortcut mymbox %:+mbox.mbox myrec +sent.mbox
7704 # Not really optional, e.g., for S/MIME
7705 set from="Your Name <youremail@domain>"
7707 # It may be necessary to set hostname and/or smtp-hostname
7708 # if the "SERVER" of smtp and "domain" of from don't match.
7709 # The `urlencode' command can be used to encode USER and PASS
7710 set smtp=(smtp[s]/submission)://[USER[:PASS]@]SERVER[:PORT] \e
7711 smtp-auth=login/plain... \e
7714 # Never refuse to start into interactive mode, and more
7716 colour-pager crt= followup-to followup-to-honour=ask-yes \e
7717 history-gabby mime-counter-evidence=6 \e
7718 prompt="\e033[31m?\e?[\e$ \e@]\e& \e033[0m" \e
7719 NAIL_HISTFILE=+.s-nailhist NAIL_HISTSIZE=-1 \e
7720 reply-to-honour=ask-yes
7722 # When `p'rinting messages, show only these headers
7723 # (use `P'rint for all headers and `S'how for raw message)
7724 retain date from to cc subject
7726 # Some mailing lists
7727 mlist @xyz-editor.xyz$ @xyzf.xyz$
7728 mlsubscribe ^xfans@xfans.xyz$
7730 # A real life example of a very huge free mail provider
7733 # (The plain smtp:// proto is optional)
7734 set smtp=USER:PASS@smtp.gmXil.com smtp-use-starttls
7735 set from="Your Name <youremail@domain>"
7738 # Here is a pretty large one which does not allow sending mails
7739 # if there is a domain name mismatch on the SMTP protocol level,
7740 # which would bite us if the value of from does not match, e.g.,
7741 # for people who have a sXXXXeforge project and want to speak
7742 # with the mailing list under their project account (in from),
7743 # still sending the message through their normal mail provider
7746 set smtp=smtps://USER:PASS@smtp.yaXXex.ru:465 \e
7747 hostname=yaXXex.com smtp-hostname=
7748 set from="Your Name <youremail@domain>"
7751 # Create some new commands so that, e.g., `ls /tmp' will..
7762 ghost llS !ls -aFlrS
7767 When storing passwords in
7769 appropriate permissions should be set on this file with
7770 .Ql $ chmod 0600 \*(ur .
7773 is available user credentials can be stored in the central
7775 file instead; e.g., here is a different version of the example account
7776 that sets up SMTP and POP3:
7778 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7782 #set agent-shell-lookup="gpg -d .pass.gpg"
7784 set smtp=smtps://smtp.yXXXXx.ru:465 \e
7785 smtp-hostname= hostname=yXXXXx.com
7786 set pop3-keepalive=240 pop3-no-apop-pop.yXXXXx.ru
7787 ghost xp fi pop3s://pop.yXXXXx.ru
7796 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7797 machine *.yXXXXx.ru login USER password PASS
7802 .Va agent-shell-lookup
7803 is available things could be diversified further by using encrypted
7804 password storage: for this, don't specify
7808 file and instead uncomment the line that defines agent lookup in the
7811 above, then create the encrypted password storage file
7814 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7817 $ eval `gpg-agent --daemon \e
7818 --pinentry-program=/usr/bin/pinentry-curses \e
7819 --max-cache-ttl 99999 --default-cache-ttl 99999`
7823 This configuration should now work just fine (use the
7825 command line option for a(n almost) dry-run):
7828 .Dl $ echo text | \*(ua -vv -AXandeX -s Subject some@where
7831 .\" .Ss "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME" {{{
7832 .Ss "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
7834 \*(OP S/MIME provides two central mechanisms:
7835 message signing and message encryption.
7836 A signed message contains some data in addition to the regular text.
7837 The data can be used to verify that the message was sent using a valid
7838 certificate, that the sender's address in the message header matches
7839 that in the certificate, and that the message text has not been altered.
7840 Signing a message does not change its regular text;
7841 it can be read regardless of whether the recipient's software is able to
7845 It is thus usually possible to sign all outgoing messages if so desired.
7846 Encryption, in contrast, makes the message text invisible for all people
7847 except those who have access to the secret decryption key.
7848 To encrypt a message, the specific recipient's public encryption key
7850 It is thus not possible to send encrypted mail to people unless their
7851 key has been retrieved from either previous communication or public key
7853 A message should always be signed before it is encrypted.
7854 Otherwise, it is still possible that the encrypted message text is
7858 A central concept to S/MIME is that of the certification authority (CA).
7859 A CA is a trusted institution that issues certificates.
7860 For each of these certificates it can be verified that it really
7861 originates from the CA, provided that the CA's own certificate is
7863 A set of CA certificates is usually delivered with OpenSSL and installed
7865 If you trust the source of your OpenSSL software installation,
7866 this offers reasonable security for S/MIME on the Internet.
7867 In general, a certificate cannot be more secure than the method its CA
7868 certificate has been retrieved with, though.
7869 Thus if you download a CA certificate from the Internet,
7870 you can only trust the messages you verify using that certificate as
7871 much as you trust the download process.
7874 The first thing you need for participating in S/MIME message exchange is
7875 your personal certificate, including a private key.
7876 The certificate contains public information, in particular your name and
7877 your email address, and the public key that is used by others to encrypt
7879 and to verify signed messages they supposedly received from you.
7880 The certificate is included in each signed message you send.
7881 The private key must be kept secret.
7882 It is used to decrypt messages that were previously encrypted with your
7883 public key, and to sign messages.
7886 For personal use it is recommended that you get a S/MIME certificate
7887 from one of the major CAs on the Internet using your WWW browser.
7888 (Many CAs offer such certificates for free.)
7889 You will usually receive a combined certificate and private key in
7890 PKCS#12 format which \*(UA does not directly accept.
7891 To convert it to PEM format, use the following shell command:
7894 .Dl $ openssl pkcs12 \-in cert.p12 \-out cert.pem \-clcerts \-nodes
7899 parameter, you can specifiy an additional
7901 for protecting the private key.
7902 \*(UA will then ask you for that pass phrase each time it signs or
7904 Afterwards you can then use
7907 .Dl set smime-sign-cert-myname@myisp.example=cert.pem
7910 to make this private key and certificate known to \*(UA.
7911 You can now sign outgoing messages, just set
7917 From each signed message you send,
7918 the recipient can fetch your certificate and use it to send encrypted
7920 Accordingly if somebody sends you a signed message, you can do the same.
7923 command to check the validity of the certificate.
7924 After that, retrieve the certificate and tell \*(UA that it should use
7928 .Dl certsave filename
7929 .Dl set smime-encrypt-USER@HOST=filename
7932 You should carefully consider if you prefer to store encrypted messages
7934 If you do, anybody who has access to your mail folders can read them,
7935 but if you do not, you might be unable to read them yourself later if
7936 you happen to lose your private key.
7939 command saves messages in decrypted form, while the
7943 commands leave them encrypted.
7946 Note that neither S/MIME signing nor encryption applies to message
7947 subjects or other header fields.
7948 Thus they may not contain sensitive information for encrypted messages,
7949 and cannot be trusted even if the message content has been verified.
7950 When sending signed messages,
7951 it is recommended to repeat any important header information in the
7955 .\" .Ss "Using CRLs with S/MIME or SSL/TLS" {{{
7956 .Ss "Using CRLs with S/MIME or SSL/TLS"
7958 \*(OP Certification authorities (CAs) issue certificate revocation
7959 lists (CRLs) on a regular basis.
7960 These lists contain the serial numbers of certificates that have been
7961 declared invalid after they have been issued.
7962 Such usually happens because the private key for the certificate has
7964 because the owner of the certificate has left the organization that is
7965 mentioned in the certificate, etc.
7966 To seriously use S/MIME or SSL/TLS verification,
7967 an up-to-date CRL is required for each trusted CA.
7968 There is otherwise no method to distinguish between valid and
7969 invalidated certificates.
7970 \*(UA currently offers no mechanism to fetch CRLs, nor to access them on
7971 the Internet, so you have to retrieve them by some external mechanism.
7974 \*(UA accepts CRLs in PEM format only;
7975 CRLs in DER format must be converted, like, e.\|g.:
7978 .Dl $ openssl crl \-inform DER \-in crl.der \-out crl.pem
7981 To tell \*(UA about the CRLs, a directory that contains all CRL files
7982 (and no other files) must be created.
7987 variables, respectively, must then be set to point to that directory.
7988 After that, \*(UA requires a CRL to be present for each CA that is used
7989 to verify a certificate.
7992 .\" .Ss "Handling spam" {{{
7995 \*(OP \*(UA can make use of several spam interfaces for the purpose of
7996 identification of, and, in general, dealing with spam messages.
7997 A precondition of most commands in order to function is that the
7999 variable is set to one of the supported interfaces.
8000 Once messages have been identified as spam their (volatile)
8002 state can be prompted: the
8006 message specifications will address respective messages and their
8008 entries will be used when displaying the
8010 in the header display.
8015 rates the given messages and sets their
8018 If the spam interface offers spam scores those can also be displayed in
8019 the header display by including the
8029 will interact with the Bayesian filter of the chosen interface and learn
8030 the given messages as
8034 respectively; the last command can be used to cause
8036 of messages; it adheres to their current
8038 state and thus reverts previous teachings.
8043 will simply set and clear, respectively, the mentioned volatile
8045 message flag, without any interaction with an interface.
8052 .Va spam-interface Ns s
8056 require a running instance of the
8058 server in order to function, started with the option
8060 shall Bayesian filter learning be possible.
8062 only works via a local path-based
8064 socket, but otherwise the following will be equivalently fine:
8066 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8067 $ spamd -i localhost:2142 -i /tmp/.spamsock -d [-L] [-l]
8068 $ spamd --listen=localhost:2142 --listen=/tmp/.spamsock \e
8069 --daemonize [--local] [--allow-tell]
8073 Thereafter \*(UA can make use of these interfaces:
8075 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8076 $ \*(ua -Sspam-interface=spamd -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
8077 -Sspamd-socket=/tmp/.spamsock -Sspamd-user=
8079 $ \*(ua -Sspam-interface=spamc -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
8080 -Sspamc-command=/usr/local/bin/spamc \e
8081 -Sspamc-arguments="-U /tmp/.spamsock" -Sspamc-user=
8083 $ \*(ua -Sspam-interface=spamc -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
8084 -Sspamc-command=/usr/local/bin/spamc \e
8085 -Sspamc-arguments="-d localhost -p 2142" -Sspamc-user=
8089 Using the generic filter approach allows usage of programs like
8093 Here is an example for the former, requiring it to be accessible via
8096 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8097 $ \*(ua -Sspam-interface=filter -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
8098 -Sspamfilter-ham="bogofilter -n" \e
8099 -Sspamfilter-noham="bogofilter -N" \e
8100 -Sspamfilter-nospam="bogofilter -S" \e
8101 -Sspamfilter-rate="bogofilter -TTu 2>/dev/null" \e
8102 -Sspamfilter-spam="bogofilter -s" \e
8103 -Sspamfilter-rate-scanscore="1;^(.+)$"
8107 Because messages must exist on local storage in order to be scored (or
8108 used for Bayesian filter training), it is possibly a good idea to
8109 perform the local spam check last:
8111 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8112 define spamdelhook {
8114 spamset (header x-dcc-brand-metrics "bulk")
8115 # Server-side spamassassin(1)
8116 spamset (header x-spam-flag "YES")
8117 del :s # TODO we HAVE to be able to do `spamrate :u ! :sS'
8123 set folder-hook-FOLDER=spamdelhook
8127 See also the documentation for the variables
8128 .Va spam-interface , spam-maxsize ,
8129 .Va spamc-command , spamc-arguments , spamc-user ,
8130 .Va spamd-socket , spamd-user ,
8131 .Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , spamfilter-nospam , \
8134 .Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore .
8139 .\" .Sh "SEE ALSO" {{{
8157 .Xr spamassassin 1 ,
8184 command appeared in Version 1 AT&T Unix.
8185 Berkeley Mail was written in 1978 by Kurt Shoens.
8186 This man page is derived from from
8187 .Dq The Mail Reference Manual
8188 originally written by Kurt Shoens.
8190 enhancements are maintained and documented by Gunnar
8193 is maintained and documented by Steffen (Daode) Nurpmeso.
8196 Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
8197 from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
8198 \(en Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
8199 Specifications Issue 6, Copyright \(co 2001-2003 by the Institute of
8200 Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group.
8201 In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original
8202 IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group
8203 Standard is the referee document.
8204 The original Standard can be obtained online at
8205 .Lk http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html OpenGroup.org
8206 Redistribution of this material is permitted so long as this notice
8214 .An "Christos Zoulas" ,
8215 .An "Gunnar Ritter" ,
8216 .An Steffen Nurpmeso Aq Mt s-nail-users@lists.sourceforge.net
8222 The character set conversion uses and relies upon the
8225 Its functionality differs widely between the various system environments
8229 Limitations with IMAP mailboxes are:
8230 It is not possible to edit messages, but it is possible to append them.
8231 Thus to edit a message, create a local copy of it, edit it, append it,
8232 and delete the original.
8233 The line count for the header display is only appropriate if the entire
8234 message has been downloaded from the server.
8235 The marking of messages as `new' is performed by the IMAP server;
8240 will not cause it to be reset, and if the
8242 variable is unset, messages that arrived during a session will not be
8243 in state `new' anymore when the folder is opened again.
8244 Also if commands queued in disconnected mode are committed,
8245 the IMAP server will delete the `new' flag for all messages in the
8247 and new messages will appear as unread when it is selected for viewing
8249 The `flagged', `answered', and `draft' attributes are usually permanent,
8250 but some IMAP servers are known to drop them without notification.
8251 Message numbers may change with IMAP every time before the prompt is
8252 printed if \*(UA is notified by the server that messages have been
8253 deleted by some other client or process.
8254 In this case, `Expunged n messages' is printed, and message numbers may
8258 Limitations with POP3 mailboxes are:
8259 It is not possible to edit messages, they can only be copied and deleted.
8260 The line count for the header display is only appropriate if the entire
8261 message has been downloaded from the server.
8262 The status field of a message is maintained by the server between
8263 connections; some servers do not update it at all, and with a server
8266 command will not cause the message status to be reset.
8271 variable have no effect.
8272 It is not possible to rename or to remove POP3 mailboxes.
8279 is typed while an IMAP or POP3 operation is in progress, \*(UA will wait
8280 until the operation can be safely aborted, and will then return to the
8281 command loop and print the prompt again.
8284 is typed while \*(UA is waiting for the operation to complete, the
8285 operation itself will be cancelled.
8286 In this case, data that has not been fetched yet will have to be fetched
8287 before the next command can be performed.
8288 If the cancelled operation was using an SSL/TLS encrypted channel,
8289 an error in the SSL transport will very likely result and render the
8290 connection unusable.
8293 As \*(UA is a mail user agent, it provides only basic SMTP services.
8294 If it fails to contact its upstream SMTP server, it will not make
8295 further attempts to transfer the message at a later time,
8296 and it does not leave other information about this condition than an
8297 error message on the terminal and an entry in
8299 This is usually not a problem if the SMTP server is located in the same
8300 local network as the computer on which \*(UA is run.
8301 However, care should be taken when using a remote server of an ISP;
8302 it might be better to set up a local SMTP server then which just acts as
8306 \*(UA immediately contacts the SMTP server (or
8308 ) even when operating in
8311 It would not make much sense for \*(UA to defer outgoing mail since SMTP
8312 servers usually provide much more elaborated delay handling than \*(UA
8313 could perform as a client.
8314 Thus the recommended setup for sending mail in
8316 mode is to configure a local SMTP server such that it sends outgoing
8317 mail as soon as an external network connection is available again,
8318 i.e., to advise it to do that from a network startup script.
8324 With IMAP, at least if the IMAP cache is used, if multiple
8328 cycles happen without an intervening change of the active mailbox then
8329 \*(UA will at some time loose the ability to keep the local state
8330 up-to-date, meaning that, e.g., messages show up with false numbers, and
8331 including the possibility that messages are accessed via numbers that
8332 are no(t longer) valid, resulting in program crashes.
8333 The solution is to change the active mailbox before that happens :).
8336 from the distribution or the repository.