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
27 .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
28 .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
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30 .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
31 .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
32 .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
33 .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
34 .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
38 .\" S-nail(1): v14.8.10 / 2016-08-20
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 Fl \: Ar mta-option ...
97 .Op Fl S Ar variable Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value
100 .Op Fl 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 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 S-nail (\*(UA) will wrap up into \%S-mailx in v15.0 (circa 2018).
125 A partial set of compatibility options exist, tagged as \*(IN and \*(OU.
126 To choose upward compatible behaviour, please set the internal variable
128 Anything which will vanish in v15.0 is tagged \*(OB, and using
130 will print warnings for many use cases of obsolete features.
134 \*(UA is a mail processing system with a command syntax reminiscent of
136 with lines replaced by messages.
137 It is intended to provide the functionality of the POSIX
139 command and offers (mostly optional) extensions for line editing, IDNA,
140 MIME, S/MIME, SMTP and POP3 (and IMAP).
141 It is usable as a mail batch language.
143 .\" .Ss "Options" {{{
146 .Bl -tag -width ".Fl _ Ar _ccount"
151 command (see below) for
153 after the startup files have been read.
157 Attach the given file to the message.
158 The same filename conventions as described in the section
160 apply: shell word expansion is restricted to the tilde
165 not be accessible but contain a
167 character, then anything after the
169 is assumed to specify the input character set and anything before
171 the filename: this is the only option to specify the input character set
172 (and don't perform any character set conversion) for text attachments
173 from the command line, not using the
175 tilde escape command.
179 Make standard input and standard output line-buffered.
183 Send blind carbon copies to the given list of addresses.
185 below goes into more detail on that.
189 Send carbon copies to the given list of addresses.
201 variable, which enables debug messages and disables message delivery.
207 variable and thus discard messages with an empty message part body.
208 This is useful for sending messages from scripts.
212 Just check if mail is present in the system mailbox.
213 If yes, return an exit status of zero, a non-zero value otherwise.
217 Save the message to send in a file named after the local part of the
218 first recipient's address (instead of in
223 Read in the contents of the user's
225 (or the specified file) for processing;
226 when \*(UA is quit, it writes undeleted messages back to this file
230 Some special conventions are recognized for the string
232 which are documented for the
237 is not a direct argument to the flag
239 but is instead taken from the command line after option processing has
243 that starts with a hyphen, prefix it with a (relative) path, as in
244 .Ql ./-hyphenbox.mbox .
248 Print a header summary of all messages and exit.
249 A configurable summary view is available via the
255 Print a short usage summary.
256 Because of widespread use a
258 argument will have the same effect.
264 variable to ignore tty interrupt signals.
267 .It Fl L Ar spec-list
268 Print a header summary of only those messages that match the given
272 .Sx "Specifying messages"
277 option has been given in addition no header summary is produced,
278 but \*(UA will instead indicate via its exit status wether
284 note that any verbose output is suppressed in this mode and must instead
285 be enabled explicitly (e.g., by using the option
292 variable and thus inhibit initial display of message headers when
293 reading mail or editing a mail folder.
300 This option should be activated for \*(UA scripts that are invoked on
301 more than one machine, because the contents of that file may differ
303 (The same behaviour can be achieved by setting the
304 .Ev NAIL_NO_SYSTEM_RC
305 environment variable.)
309 Start the message with the contents of the specified file.
310 May be given in send mode only.
314 Any folder opened will be in read-only mode.
320 is a valid address then it specifies the envelope sender address to be
323 when a message is send.
326 include a user name, comments etc., then the components will be
327 separated and the name part will be passed to the MTA individually via
331 will also be assigned to the
333 variable, just as if additionally
335 had been specified (therefore affecting SMTP data transfer, too).
337 If instead an empty string is passed as
339 then the content of the variable
341 will be evaluated and used for this purpose whenever the MTA is
343 Note that \*(UA by default, without
345 that is, neither passes
349 flags to the MTA by itself.
352 .It Fl S Ar variable Ns Op = Ns value
353 Sets the internal option
355 and, in case of a value option, assigns
358 Even though options set via
360 may be overwritten from within resource files,
361 the command line setting will be reestablished after all resource files
366 Specify the subject of the to-be-sent message.
370 The message to be sent is expected to contain a message header with
375 fields giving its recipients, which will be added to those given on the
377 If a message subject is specified via
379 then it'll be used in favour of one given on the command line.
391 Note you can also specify
395 and the envelope address possibly specified with the option
398 The following, which are normally created automatically based
399 upon the message context, can also be specified:
404 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
405 (special address massage will however still occur for the latter).
409 Read the system mailbox of
411 (appropriate privileges presumed), and
414 in some aspects, e.g. in respect to
423 Print \*(UA's version and exit.
429 option causes some verbosity (like printing of certificate chains).
430 Using it twice increases the level of verbosity.
436 to the list of commands to be executed before normal operation starts.
440 .Va batch-exit-on-error ;
441 the only possibility to execute commands in non-interactive mode when
442 reading startup files is actively prohibited.
448 even if not in interactive mode.
452 This sets several options to prepare \*(UA for working in (most likely
453 non-interactive) batch mode:
465 It also enables processing of
466 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
467 E.g., the following should send an email message to
469 .Bd -literal -offset indent
470 $ LC_ALL=C printf 'm bob\en~s ubject\enText\en.\enx\en' | \e
471 LC_ALL=C MAILRC=/dev/null s-nail -n -# -Snosave
476 This flag forces termination of option processing in order to prevent
479 It also forcefully puts \*(UA into send mode, see
484 In the above list of supported command line options,
485 .Fl D , d , E , i , N
488 are implemented by means of setting the respective option, as via
491 .Op Ar mta-option ...
493 arguments that are given at the end of the command line after a
495 separator will be passed through to the mail-transfer-agent (MTA) and
496 persist for an entire (interactive) session \(en if the setting of
498 allows their recognition;
499 MTA arguments can also be specified in the variable
500 .Va sendmail-arguments ;
501 find MTA interaction described in more detail in the documentation of
503 MTA arguments are ignored when mail is send via SMTP data transfer.
506 .\" .Ss "A starter" {{{
509 \*(UA is a direct descendant of the BSD Mail program that was introduced
510 in 1978 (itself superceeding the simpler UNIX mail program) and used
511 to introduce itself (in the Mail reference manual) as follows:
513 .Bd -ragged -offset indent
514 Mail provides a simple and friendly environment for sending and
516 It divides incoming mail into its constituent messages and allows the
517 user to deal with them in any order.
518 In addition, it provides a set of
520 -like commands for manipulating messages and sending mail.
521 Mail offers the user simple editing capabilities to ease the composition
522 of outgoing messages, as well as providing the ability to define and
523 send to names which address groups of users.
527 \*(UA is thus the user side of the Unix mail system, whereas the system
528 side (mail-transfer-agent, MTA) was traditionally taken by
534 are often used for this purpose instead.
535 If the \*(OPal SMTP feature has been built into \*(UA then the
536 system side is not a mandatory precondition for mail delivery.
539 Because \*(UA strives for compliance with POSIX
541 it is likely that some configuration settings have to be adjusted before
542 using it is a smooth experience.
545 file already bends those standard settings a bit towards more user
546 friendliness and safety, e.g., it sets the
550 options in order to suppress the automatic moving of messages to
552 that would otherwise occur (see
553 .Sx "Message states" )
556 to not remove empty files in order not to mangle file permissions when
557 files eventually get recreated.
560 option so that by default file grouping (via the
562 prefix as documented also for
567 contains some further suggestions.
570 .\" .Ss "Sending mail" {{{
573 To send a message to one or more people, using a local
574 mail-transfer-agent (MTA; the executable path can be set via
576 or the \*(OPal builtin SMTP (set and see the variable
578 transport to actually deliver the generated mail message, \*(UA can be
579 invoked with arguments which are the names of people to whom the mail
582 .Bd -literal -offset indent
583 $ \*(ua -s Subject -a attachm.ent bill@host1 'Bob <bob@host2>'
584 # But... try it in an isolated dry-run mode first
585 $ LC_ALL=C MAILRC=/dev/null \e
586 \*(ua -n -d -vv -Sfrom="me <he@re>" \e
587 -s Subject -. "(Lovely) Bob <bob@host2>"
591 The user is then expected to type in the message contents.
592 In this compose mode \*(UA treats lines beginning with the character
594 special \(en these are so-called
596 which can be used to read in files, process shell commands, add and edit
597 attachments and more; e.g., the tilde escape
599 will start the text editor to revise the message in it's current state,
601 allows editing of the message recipients and
603 gives an overview of available tilde escapes.
606 at the beginning of an empty line leaves compose mode and causes the
607 message to be send, whereas typing control-C
609 twice will abort the current letter (saving its contents in the file
617 A number of options can be used to alter default behavior; e.g.,
622 will automatically startup a text editor when compose mode is entered,
624 will cause the user to be prompted actively for carbon-copy recipients
627 option will allow leaving compose mode by writing a line consisting
632 Very important, though, is to define which
634 may be used when sending messages, usually by setting the option
637 having read the section
638 .Sx "The mime.types files"
639 to understand how the MIME-type of outgoing attachments is classified
640 and the knowledge that messages are sent asynchronously unless
642 is set: only with it MTA delivery errors will be recognizable.
647 is often necessary (e.g., in conjunction with
649 or desirable, you may want to do some dry-run tests before you go.
650 Saving a copy of the sent messages in a
652 may also be desirable \(en as for most mailbox file targets some
653 special conventions are recognized, see the
655 command for more on that.
657 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
658 will spread some light on the
660 variable chains as well as on using URLs for accessing protocol-specific
665 contains an example configuration for sending messages via some of the
666 well-known public mail providers;
667 note it also gives a compact overview on how to setup a secure SSL/TLS
671 Message recipients (as specified on the command line or defined in
676 may not only be email addressees but can also be names of mailboxes and
677 even complete shell command pipe specifications.
678 Proper quoting may be necessary, e.g., to embed whitespace characters.
679 (Recall that \*(UA deals with mail standards, therefore those define the
680 rules with which content is interpreted.)
683 is not set then only network addresses (see
685 for a description of mail addresses) and plain user names (including MTA
686 aliases) may be used, other types will be filtered out, giving a warning
689 .\" When changing any of the following adjust any RECIPIENTADDRSPEC;
690 .\" grep the latter for the complete picture
694 is set then extended recipient addresses will optionally be accepted:
695 Any name which starts with a vertical bar
697 character specifies a command pipe \(en the command string following the
699 is executed and the message is sent to its standard input;
700 Likewise, any name that starts with the character slash
702 or the character sequence dot slash
704 is treated as a file, regardless of the remaining content.
705 Any other name which contains an at sign
707 character is treated as a network address;
708 Any other name which starts with a plus sign
710 character specifies a mailbox name;
711 Any other name which contains a slash
713 character but no exclamation mark
717 character before also specifies a mailbox name;
718 What remains is treated as a network address.
720 .Bd -literal -offset indent
721 $ echo bla | \*(ua -Sexpandaddr -s test ./mbox.mbox
722 $ echo bla | \*(ua -Sexpandaddr -s test '|cat >> ./mbox.mbox'
723 $ echo safe | LC_ALL=C MAILRC=/dev/null \e
724 \*(ua -n -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait -Snosave \e
725 -Sexpandaddr=fail,-all,+addr -s test \e
730 It is possible to create personal distribution lists via the
732 command, so that, for instance, the user can send mail to
734 and have it go to a group of people:
737 .Dl alias cohorts bill jkf mark kridle@ucbcory ~/mail/cohorts.mbox
740 Please note that this mechanism has nothing in common with the system
741 wide aliases that may be used by the local MTA (mail-transfer-agent),
742 which are subject to the
746 and are often tracked in a file
752 Personal aliases will be expanded by \*(UA before the message is sent,
753 and are thus a convenient alternative to specifying each addressee by
757 To avoid environmental noise scripts should
759 \*(ua from any configuration files and create a script-local
760 environment, either by pointing the
762 variable to a custom configuration file, or by using the
764 command line option to specify options:
766 .Bd -literal -offset indent
767 $ env LC_ALL=C MAILRC=/dev/null password=NOTSECRET \e
768 \*(ua -n -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait -Snosave \e
769 -Sexpandaddr=fail,-all,+addr \e
770 -S 'smtp=smtps://mylogin@some.host:465' -Ssmtp-auth=login \e
771 -S 'from=scriptreply@domain' \e
772 -s 'subject' -a attachment_file \e
773 -. "Recipient 1 <recipient1@domain>" recipient2@domain \e
778 .\" .Ss "Reading mail" {{{
781 When invoked without addressees \*(UA enters interactive mode in which
783 When used like that the user's system mailbox is read in and a one line
784 header of each message therein is printed.
787 for an in-depth description of the different mailbox types that exist.)
788 Note that if the mailbox is empty \*(UA will exit after printing
789 a message unless the option
798 will give a listing of all available commands and
800 will give a summary of some common ones.
801 If the \*(OPal documentation strings are available one can type
803 and see the actual expansion of
805 and what it's purpose is, i.e., commands can be abbreviated
806 (note that POSIX defines some abbreviations, so that the alphabetical
807 order of commands doesn't necessarily relate to the abbreviations; it is
808 possible to define overwrites with the
813 Messages are given numbers (starting at 1) which uniquely identify
814 messages; the current message \(en the
816 \(en will either be the first new message, or the first unread message,
817 or the first message of the mailbox; the option
819 will instead cause usage of the last message for this purpose.
822 Messages can be printed with the
826 By default the current message
828 is printed, but like with most other commands it is possible to give
829 a fancy message specification (see
830 .Sx "Specifying messages" ) ,
833 will display all unread messages,
838 will print the messages 1 and 5,
840 will print the messages 1 through 5, and
844 will print the last and the next message, respectively.
847 In the default setup all header fields of a message will be printed,
848 but this can be changed: either by blacklisting a list of fields via
850 or by whitelisting only a given list with the
853 .Ql Ic \:retain Ns \0date from to cc subject .
854 In order to print all header fields of a message regardless of currently
855 active ignore or retain lists, use the command
859 controls wether and when \*(UA will use the configured
861 for printing instead of directly writing to the terminal (generally
865 Dependent upon the configuration a
866 .Sx "Command line editor"
867 aims at making user experience with the many
870 When reading the system mailbox or when
874 specified a mailbox explicitly prefixed with the special
876 modifier then messages which have been read will be moved to the user's
878 file automatically when the mailbox is left, either by changing the
879 active mailbox or by quitting \*(UA (also see
880 .Sx "Message states" ) .
883 After examining a message the user can also
887 to the sender and all recipients or
889 exclusively to the sender.
894 Note that when replying to or forwarding a message recipient addresses
895 will be stripped from comments and names unless the option
898 Deletion causes \*(UA to forget about the message;
899 This is not irreversible, though, one can
901 the message by giving its number,
902 or the \*(UA session can be ended by giving the
907 To end a mail processing session one may either issue
909 to cause a full program exit, which possibly includes
910 automatic moving of read messages to
912 as well as updating the \*(OPal command line editor history file,
915 instead in order to prevent any of these actions.
918 .\" .Ss "HTML mail and MIME attachments" {{{
919 .Ss "HTML mail and MIME attachments"
921 Messages which are HTML-only get more and more common and of course many
922 messages come bundled with a bouquet of MIME attachments.
923 Whereas \*(UA \*(OPally supports a simple HTML-to-text converter to deal
924 with HTML messages (see
925 .Sx "The mime.types files" ) ,
926 it normally can't deal with any of these itself, but instead programs
927 need to become registered to deal with specific MIME types or file
929 These programs may either prepare plain text versions of their input
930 in order to enable \*(UA to display the content on the terminal,
931 or display the content themselves, for example in a graphical window.
934 To install an external handler program for a specific MIME type set an
936 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
937 variable; to instead define a handler for a specific file extension set
940 variable \(en these handlers take precedence.
941 \*(OPally \*(UA supports mail user agent configuration as defined in
942 RFC 1524; this mechanism, documented in the section
943 .Sx "The Mailcap files" ,
944 will be queried for display or quote handlers if none of the former two
945 .\" TODO v15-compat "will be" -> "is"
946 did; it will be the sole source for handlers of other purpose.
947 A last source for handlers may be the MIME type definition itself, if
948 the \*(UA specific type-marker extension was used when defining the type
951 (Many of the builtin MIME types do so by default.)
955 .Va mime-counter-evidence
956 can be set to improve dealing with faulty MIME part declarations as are
957 often seen in real-life messages.
958 E.g., to display a HTML message inline (that is, converted to a more
959 fancy plain text representation than the builtin converter is capable to
960 produce) with either of the text-mode browsers
964 teach \*(UA about MathML documents and make it display them as plain text
965 and to open PDF attachments in an external PDF viewer, asynchronously
966 and with some other magic attached:
968 .Bd -literal -offset indent
969 if $features !@ HTML-FILTER
970 #set pipe-text/html="elinks -force-html -dump 1"
971 set pipe-text/html="lynx -stdin -dump -force_html"
972 # Display HTML as plain text instead
973 #set pipe-text/html=@
975 mimetype '@ application/mathml+xml mathml'
976 set pipe-application/pdf="@&=@ \e
977 trap \e"rm -f \e\e\e"${NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}\e\e\e"\e" EXIT;\e
978 trap \e"exit 75\e" \e INT QUIT TERM;\e
979 xpdf \e"${NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}\e""
983 Note: special care must be taken when using such commands as mail
984 viruses may be distributed by this method: if messages of type
986 or files with the extension
988 were blindly filtered through the shell, for example, a message sender
989 could easily execute arbitrary code on the system \*(UA is running on.
990 For more on MIME, also in respect to sending of messages, see the
992 .Sx "The mime.types files" ,
993 .Sx "The Mailcap files"
998 .\" .Ss "Mailing lists" {{{
1001 \*(UA offers some support to ease handling of mailing lists.
1004 promotes all given arguments to known mailing lists, and
1006 sets their subscription attribute, creating them first as necessary.
1011 automatically, but only resets the subscription attribute.)
1012 Using the commands without arguments will print out (a subset of) all
1013 currently defined mailing lists.
1018 can be used to mark out messages with configured list addresses
1019 in the header display.
1022 \*(OPally mailing lists may also be specified as regular expressions,
1023 which allows matching of many addresses with a single expression.
1024 However, all fully qualified list addresses are matched via a fast
1025 dictionary, whereas expressions are placed in (a) list(s) which is
1026 (are) matched sequentially.
1028 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1029 set followup-to followup-to-honour=ask-yes reply-to-honour=ask-yes
1030 mlist a1@b1.c1 a2@b2.c2 .*@lists.c3$
1031 mlsubscribe a4@b4.c4 exact@lists.c3
1036 .Va followup-to-honour
1038 .Ql Mail-\:Followup-\:To:
1039 header is honoured when the message is being replied to (via
1045 controls wether this header is created when sending mails; it will be
1046 created automatically for a couple of reasons, too, like when the
1048 .Dq mailing list specific
1053 is used to respond to a message with its
1054 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
1058 A difference in between the handling of known and subscribed lists is
1059 that the address of the sender is usually not part of a generated
1060 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
1061 when addressing the latter, whereas it is for the former kind of lists.
1062 Usually because there are exceptions: say, if multiple lists are
1063 addressed and not all of them are subscribed lists.
1065 For convenience \*(UA will, temporarily, automatically add a list
1066 address that is presented in the
1068 header of a message that is being responded to to the list of known
1070 Shall that header have existed \*(UA will instead, dependend on the
1072 .Va reply-to-honour ,
1075 for this purpose in order to accept a list administrators' wish that
1076 is supposed to have been manifested like that (but only if it provides
1077 a single address which resides on the same domain as what is stated in
1081 .\" .Ss "Resource files" {{{
1082 .Ss "Resource files"
1084 Upon startup \*(UA reads in several resource files:
1086 .Bl -tag -width ".It Pa _AIL_EXTRA_R_"
1089 System wide initialization file.
1090 Reading of this file can be suppressed, either by using the
1092 command line option, or by setting the environment variable
1093 .Ev NAIL_NO_SYSTEM_RC .
1097 File giving initial commands.
1098 A different file can be chosen by setting the environment variable
1101 .It Va NAIL_EXTRA_RC
1102 Can be used to define an optional startup file to be read after
1104 This variable is only honoured in certain circumstances (see its
1105 documentation for more).
1109 The content of these files is interpreted as follows:
1112 .Bl -bullet -compact
1114 A lines' leading whitespace is ignored.
1116 An empty line is ignored.
1118 If the line (content) starts with the number sign
1120 then it is a comment-command \(en a real command! \(en and also ignored.
1121 This command is the only form of comment that is understood.
1125 on the next line if the newline character is
1127 by preceding it with the backslash character
1129 Note that any leading whitespace of follow lines is removed:
1130 If whitespace is desired it must be placed before the backslash.
1133 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1134 # This line is a comment command. And y\e
1135 es, it is really continued here.
1142 .\" .Ss "Character sets" {{{
1143 .Ss "Character sets"
1145 \*(OP \*(UA detects the character set of the terminal by using
1146 mechanisms that are controlled by the
1151 should give an overview); the \*(UA internal variable
1153 will be set to the detected terminal character set accordingly
1154 and will thus show up in the output of the commands
1160 However, a user supplied
1162 value is not overwritten by this detection mechanism: this
1164 must be used if the detection doesn't work properly,
1165 and it may be used to adjust the name of the locale character set.
1166 E.g., on BSD systems one may use a locale with the character set
1167 ISO8859-1, which is not a valid name for this character set; to be on
1168 the safe side, one may set
1170 to the correct name, which is ISO-8859-1.
1173 Note that changing the value doesn't mean much beside that,
1174 since several aspects of the real character set are implied by the
1175 locale environment of the system,
1176 and that stays unaffected by the content of an overwritten
1179 (This is mostly an issue when interactively using \*(UA, though.
1180 It is actually possible to send mail in a completely
1182 locale environment.)
1185 If no character set conversion capabilities have been compiled into
1188 library has been found), then
1190 will be the only supported character set,
1191 it is simply assumed that it can be used to exchange 8-bit messages,
1192 and the rest of this section does not apply;
1193 it may however still be necessary to explicitly set it if automatic
1194 detection fails, since in that case it defaults to the mentioned
1198 When reading messages, their text is converted into
1200 as necessary in order to display them on the users terminal.
1201 Unprintable characters and invalid byte sequences are detected
1202 and replaced by proper substitution characters (unless the variable
1204 was set once \*(UA was started).
1206 .Va charset-unknown-8bit
1207 to deal with another hairy aspect of message interpretation.
1210 When sending messages all their parts and attachments are classified.
1211 Whereas no character set conversion is performed on those parts which
1212 appear to be binary data,
1213 the character set being used must be declared within the MIME header of
1214 an outgoing text part if it contains characters that do not conform to
1215 the set of characters that are allowed by the email standards.
1216 Permissible values for character sets can be declared using the
1220 which defines a catch-all last-resort fallback character set that is
1221 implicitly appended to the list of character-sets in
1225 When replying to a message and the variable
1226 .Va reply-in-same-charset
1227 is set then the character set of the message being replied to is tried
1229 And it is also possible to make \*(UA work even more closely related to
1230 the current locale setting automatically by using the variable
1231 .Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset ,
1232 please see there for more information.
1235 All the specified character sets are tried in order unless the
1236 conversion of the part or attachment succeeds.
1237 If none of the tried (8-bit) character sets is capable to represent the
1238 content of the part or attachment,
1239 then the message will not be sent and its text will be saved to
1241 In general, if the message
1242 .Dq Cannot convert from a to b
1243 appears, either some characters are not appropriate for the currently
1244 selected (terminal) character set,
1245 or the needed conversion is not supported by the system.
1246 In the first case, it is necessary to set an appropriate
1248 locale and/or the variable
1252 The best results are usually achieved when \*(UA is run in a UTF-8
1253 locale on a UTF-8 capable terminal, in which case the full Unicode
1254 spectrum of characters is available.
1255 In this setup characters from various countries can be displayed,
1256 while it is still possible to use more simple character sets for sending
1257 to retain maximum compatibility with older mail clients.
1260 .\" .Ss "Message states" {{{
1261 .Ss "Message states"
1263 \*(UA differentiates in between several different message states;
1264 the current state will be reflected in the header display if
1266 is configured to do so.
1267 In \*(UA message states are inspected when leaving a mailbox and may
1268 cause messages to be automatically moved to the special
1270 mailbox \(en because this may be irritating to users which are used to
1272 mail-user-agents, the default global
1278 variables in order to suppress this behaviour.
1280 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ql _reserved"
1282 Message has neither been viewed nor moved to any other state.
1283 Such messages are retained even in the system mailbox.
1286 Message has neither been viewed nor moved to any other state, but the
1287 message was present already when the mailbox has been opened last:
1288 Such messages are retained even in the system mailbox.
1291 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
1311 commands may also cause the next message to be marked as read, depending
1317 command is used, messages that are in the system mailbox or in mailboxes
1318 which were opened with the special
1322 state when the mailbox is left will be saved in
1329 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
1335 can be used to access such messages.
1338 The message has been processed by a
1340 command and it will be retained in its current location.
1343 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
1349 command is used, messages that are in the system mailbox or in mailboxes
1350 which were opened with the special
1354 state when the mailbox is left will be deleted; they will be saved in
1362 .\" .Ss "Specifying messages" {{{
1363 .Ss "Specifying messages"
1369 can be given a list of message numbers as arguments to apply to a number
1370 of messages at once.
1373 deletes messages 1 and 2,
1376 will delete the messages 1 through 5.
1377 In sorted or threaded mode (see the
1381 will delete the messages that are located between (and including)
1382 messages 1 through 5 in the sorted/threaded order, as shown in the
1384 Multiple colon modifiers can be joined into one, e.g.,
1386 The following special message names exist:
1388 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ar _n_u"
1394 All old messages (any not in state
1417 All answered messages
1422 All messages marked as draft.
1424 \*(OP All messages classified as spam.
1426 \*(OP All messages with unsure spam classification.
1428 The current message, the so-called
1431 The message that was previously the current message.
1433 The parent message of the current message,
1434 that is the message with the Message-ID given in the
1436 field or the last entry of the
1438 field of the current message.
1440 The next previous undeleted message,
1441 or the next previous deleted message for the
1444 In sorted/threaded mode,
1445 the next previous such message in the sorted/threaded order.
1447 The next undeleted message,
1448 or the next deleted message for the
1451 In sorted/threaded mode,
1452 the next such message in the sorted/threaded order.
1454 The first undeleted message,
1455 or the first deleted message for the
1458 In sorted/threaded mode,
1459 the first such message in the sorted/threaded order.
1462 In sorted/threaded mode,
1463 the last message in the sorted/threaded order.
1467 selects the message addressed with
1471 is any other message specification,
1472 and all messages from the thread that begins at it.
1473 Otherwise it is identical to
1478 the thread beginning with the current message is selected.
1483 All messages that were included in the message list for the previous
1486 .It Ar / Ns Ar string
1487 All messages that contain
1489 in the subject field (case ignored).
1496 the string from the previous specification of that type is used again.
1498 .It Xo Op Ar @ Ns Ar name-list Ns
1501 All messages that contain the given case-insensitive search
1503 ession; if the \*(OPal regular expression (see
1505 support is available
1507 will be interpreted as one if any of the
1509 regular expression characters is seen.
1511 .Ar @ Ns Ar name-list
1512 part is missing, the search is restricted to the subject field body,
1515 specifies a comma-separated list of header fields to search, as in
1517 .Dl '@to,from,cc@Someone i ought to know'
1519 In order to search for a string that includes a
1521 (commercial at) character the
1523 is effectively non-optional, but may be given as the empty string.
1524 Some special header fields may be abbreviated:
1538 respectively and case-insensitively.
1543 can be used to search in (all of) the header(s) of the message, and the
1552 can be used to perform full text searches \(en whereas the former
1553 searches only the body, the latter also searches the message header.
1555 This message specification performs full text comparison, but even with
1556 regular expression support it is almost impossible to write a search
1557 expression that savely matches only a specific address domain.
1558 To request that the content of the header is treated as a list of
1559 addresses, and to strip those down to the plain email address which the
1560 search expression is to be matched against, prefix the header name
1561 (abbreviation) with a tilde
1564 .Dl '@~f@@a\e.safe\e.domain\e.match$'
1568 .Dq any substring matches
1571 header, which will match addresses (too) even if
1573 is set (and POSIX says
1574 .Dq any address as shown in a header summary shall be matchable in this form ) ;
1577 variable is set, only the local part of the address is evaluated
1578 for the comparison, not ignoring case, and the setting of
1580 is completely ignored.
1581 For finer control and match boundaries use the
1583 search expression; the \*(OPal IMAP-style
1585 expression can also be used if substring matches are desired.
1589 \*(OP IMAP-style SEARCH expressions may also be used.
1590 This addressing mode is available with all types of folders;
1591 \*(UA will perform the search locally as necessary.
1592 Strings must be enclosed by double quotes
1594 in their entirety if they contain white space or parentheses;
1595 within the quotes, only backslash
1597 is recognized as an escape character.
1598 All string searches are case-insensitive.
1599 When the description indicates that the
1601 representation of an address field is used,
1602 this means that the search string is checked against both a list
1605 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1606 (\*qname\*q \*qsource\*q \*qlocal-part\*q \*qdomain-part\*q)
1611 and the addresses without real names from the respective header field.
1612 These search expressions can be nested using parentheses, see below for
1616 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar _n_u"
1617 .It Ar ( criterion )
1618 All messages that satisfy the given
1620 .It Ar ( criterion1 criterion2 ... criterionN )
1621 All messages that satisfy all of the given criteria.
1623 .It Ar ( or criterion1 criterion2 )
1624 All messages that satisfy either
1629 To connect more than two criteria using
1631 specifications have to be nested using additional parentheses,
1633 .Ql (or a (or b c)) ,
1637 .Ql ((a or b) and c) .
1640 operation of independent criteria on the lowest nesting level,
1641 it is possible to achieve similar effects by using three separate
1645 .It Ar ( not criterion )
1646 All messages that do not satisfy
1648 .It Ar ( bcc \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1649 All messages that contain
1651 in the envelope representation of the
1654 .It Ar ( cc \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1655 All messages that contain
1657 in the envelope representation of the
1660 .It Ar ( from \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1661 All messages that contain
1663 in the envelope representation of the
1666 .It Ar ( subject \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1667 All messages that contain
1672 .It Ar ( to \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1673 All messages that contain
1675 in the envelope representation of the
1678 .It Ar ( header name \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1679 All messages that contain
1684 .It Ar ( body \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1685 All messages that contain
1688 .It Ar ( text \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1689 All messages that contain
1691 in their header or body.
1692 .It Ar ( larger size )
1693 All messages that are larger than
1696 .It Ar ( smaller size )
1697 All messages that are smaller than
1701 .It Ar ( before date )
1702 All messages that were received before
1704 which must be in the form
1708 denotes the day of the month as one or two digits,
1710 is the name of the month \(en one of
1711 .Ql Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec ,
1714 is the year as four digits, e.g.,
1718 All messages that were received on the specified date.
1719 .It Ar ( since date )
1720 All messages that were received since the specified date.
1721 .It Ar ( sentbefore date )
1722 All messages that were sent on the specified date.
1723 .It Ar ( senton date )
1724 All messages that were sent on the specified date.
1725 .It Ar ( sentsince date )
1726 All messages that were sent since the specified date.
1728 The same criterion as for the previous search.
1729 This specification cannot be used as part of another criterion.
1730 If the previous command line contained more than one independent
1731 criterion then the last of those criteria is used.
1735 .\" .Ss "On URL syntax and credential lookup" {{{
1736 .Ss "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
1738 \*(IN For accessing protocol-specific resources, like POP3 mailboxes,
1739 usage of compact and standardized Uniform Resource Locators
1740 (URL, RFC 1738) has become omnipresent.
1741 \*(UA expects and understands URLs in the following form;
1744 denote optional parts, optional either because there also exist other
1745 ways to define the information in question or because support of the
1746 part is protocol-specific \(en e.g.,
1748 is used by the IMAP protocol but not by POP3.
1751 .Dl PROTOCOL://[USER[:PASSWORD]@]server[:port][/path]
1758 are specified as part of an URL they must be given in URL percent
1759 encoded (RFC 3986) form \(en the command
1761 can be used to perform the encoding and show the encoded value.
1762 (This doesn't really conform to any standard, but for one it isn't
1763 used for any data exchange over the internet, and second it's easier for
1764 users to simply call
1766 on a string and use that instead of having to deal with several
1767 different standards.)
1768 On the other hand, values given in variables are expected not to be URL
1772 Many variable options of \*(UA exist in multiple versions, called
1773 variable chains for the rest of this document: the plain
1778 .Ql variable-USER@HOST .
1785 had been specified in the respective URL, otherwise it refers to the plain
1791 that had been found when doing the user chain lookup as is described
1794 will never be in URL percent encoded form, wether it came from an URL or not.
1797 For example, wether an hypothetical URL
1798 .Ql smtp://hey%3Ayou@our.house
1799 had been given that includes a user, or wether the URL was
1800 .Ql smtp://our.house
1801 and the user had been found differently, to lookup the variable chain
1802 .Va smtp-use-starttls
1803 \*(UA first looks for wether
1804 .Ql smtp-\:use-\:starttls-\:hey:you@our.house
1805 is defined, then wether
1806 .Ql smtp-\:use-\:starttls-\:our.house
1807 exists before finally ending up looking at the plain variable itself.
1810 \*(UA obeys the following logic scheme when dealing with the
1811 necessary credential informations of an account:
1817 has been given in the URL the variables
1821 are looked up; if no such variable(s) can be found then \*(UA will,
1822 when enforced by the \*(OPal variables
1823 .Va netrc-lookup-HOST
1830 specific entry which provides a
1832 name: this lookup will only succeed if unambiguous (one possible matching
1836 If there is still no
1838 then \*(UA will fall back to the user who is supposed to run \*(UA:
1839 either the name that has been given with the
1841 command line option (or, equivalently, but with less precedence, the
1842 environment variable
1847 The identity of this user has been fixated during \*(UA startup and is
1848 known to be a valid user on the current host.
1851 Authentication: unless otherwise noted this will lookup the
1852 .Va PROTOCOL-auth-USER@HOST , PROTOCOL-auth-HOST , PROTOCOL-auth
1853 variable chain, falling back to a protocol-specific default should this
1859 has been given in the URL \(en it should be noted once that specifying
1860 the password in the URL is only syntactic sugar for the user, it'll
1861 never be part of an URL that \*(UA uses itself \(en, then if the
1863 has been found through the \*(OPal
1865 file lookup then that may have already provided the password, too.
1866 Otherwise the variable chain
1867 .Va password-USER@HOST , password-HOST , password
1870 \*(OP Then if any of the variables of the chain
1871 .Va agent-shell-lookup-USER@HOST , agent-shell-lookup-HOST , \
1873 is set the shell command specified therein is run and the output (less
1874 newline characters) will be used as the password.
1875 It is perfectly valid for such an agent to simply not return any data,
1876 in which case the password lookup is continued somewhere else;
1877 Any command failure is treated as a hard error, however.
1879 The next variable chain that is inspected is the \*(OPal
1880 .Va netrc-lookup-USER@HOST , netrc-lookup-HOST , netrc-lookup ,
1881 but this time looking only for the password (multiple user accounts
1882 for a single machine may exist as well as a fallback entry without
1883 user but with a password).
1885 If at that point there is still no password available, but the
1886 (protocols') chosen authentication type requires a password, then in
1887 interactive mode the user will be prompted on the terminal.
1892 S/MIME verification works relative to the values found in the
1896 header field(s), which means that the values of
1897 .Va smime-sign , smime-sign-cert , smime-sign-include-certs
1899 .Va smime-sign-message-digest
1900 will not be looked up using the
1904 chains from above but instead use the corresponding values from the
1905 message that is being worked on.
1906 In unusual cases multiple and different
1910 combinations may therefore be involved \(en on the other hand those
1911 unusual cases become possible.
1912 The usual case is as short as:
1915 .Dl set smtp=smtp://USER:PASS@HOST smtp-use-starttls \e
1916 .Dl \ \ \ \ smime-sign smime-sign-cert=+smime.pair
1921 contains complete example configurations.
1924 .\" .Ss "Command line editor" {{{
1925 .Ss "Command line editor"
1927 \*(OP \*(UA can be configured to support a command line editor and
1928 command history lists which are saved in between sessions.
1929 One may link against fully-fledged external libraries
1930 .Pf ( Xr readline 6 ,
1932 ) or use \*(UA's own command line editor NCL (Nail-Command-Line)
1933 instead, which should work in all environments which comply to the
1934 ISO C standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1990/Amendment 1:1995).
1935 When an external library is used, interactive behaviour of \*(UA relies
1936 on that library and may not correspond one-to-one to what is described
1940 Regardless of the actually used command line editor
1942 entries will be created for lines entered in command mode only, and
1943 creation of such an entry can be forcefully suppressed by starting the
1944 line with a space character.
1947 handling is by itself an optional feature and may therefore not be
1949 For more information see the documentation of the options
1952 .Va history-gabby-persist ,
1953 .Va line-editor-disable ,
1959 The builtin \*(UA command line editor supports the following operations;
1962 stands for the combination of the
1964 key plus the mentioned character, e.g.,
1967 .Dq hold down control key and press the A key :
1970 .Bl -tag -compact -width "Ql _M"
1972 Go to the start of the line.
1974 Move the cursor backward one character.
1976 Forward delete the character under the cursor;
1977 quits \*(UA if used on the empty line unless the
1981 Go to the end of the line.
1983 Move the cursor forward one character.
1986 Cancel current operation, full reset.
1987 If there is an active history search or tabulator expansion then this
1988 command will first reset that, reverting to the former line content;
1989 thus a second reset is needed for a full reset in this case.
1990 In all cases \*(UA will reset a possibly used multibyte character input
1996 backward delete one character.
2000 .Dq horizontal tabulator :
2001 try to expand the word before the cursor.
2003 .Dq tabulator-completion
2004 as is known from the
2006 but really means the usual \*(UA expansion, as documented for
2008 yet it involves shell expansion as a last step, too.)
2013 complete this line of input.
2015 Delete all characters from the cursor to the end of the line.
2019 \*(OP Go to the next history entry.
2024 \*(OP Go to the previous history entry.
2026 \*(OP Complete the current line from (the remaining older) history entries.
2033 Delete the characters from the one preceding the cursor to the preceding
2036 Move the cursor forward one word boundary.
2038 Move the cursor backward one word boundary.
2042 If problems with commands that are based upon rightwise movement are
2043 encountered, adjustments of the option
2044 .Va line-editor-cursor-right
2045 may solve the problem, as documented for it.
2048 If the terminal produces key sequences which are compatible with
2050 then the left and right cursor keys will map to
2054 respectively, the up and down cursor keys will map to
2058 and the Home/End/PgUp/PgDown keys will call the
2060 command with the respective arguments
2066 (i.e., perform scrolling through the header summary list).
2069 .\" .Ss "Coloured message display" {{{
2070 .Ss "Coloured message display"
2072 \*(OP \*(UA can be configured to support coloured message display,
2073 realized by emitting ANSI colour escape sequences.
2074 Colours are only used when the
2076 environment variable is set and either the terminal type can be found in
2078 or its name includes the string
2082 On top of that the binary option
2084 defines wether these colour sequences are also generated when the output
2085 of a command needs to go through the
2089 ) \(en this is not enabled by default because different pager programs
2090 need different command line switches or other configuration in order to
2091 support those colour sequences, please see the option for more details.
2094 To forcefully disable all colour support, set
2095 .Va colour-disable .
2098 Colours can be configured through font attributes
2119 Multiple specifications can be joined in a comma separated list, as in
2122 .Dl set colour-msginfo="ft=bold,fg=magenta,bg=cyan"
2125 Options to be set are
2126 .Va colour-msginfo ,
2127 .Va colour-partinfo ,
2131 .Va colour-uheader ,
2133 .Va colour-user-headers ,
2134 which is a list of headers to be colourized via
2136 instead of the default
2139 .\" }}} (DESCRIPTION)
2142 .\" .Sh COMMANDS {{{
2145 Each command is typed on a line by itself,
2146 and may take arguments following the command word.
2147 The command need not be typed in its entirety \(en
2148 the first command which matches the typed prefix is used.
2151 prints a sorted list of available commands, and the command
2155 when given an argument, will show a documentation string for the
2158 documentation strings are however \*(OPal.)
2161 For commands which take message lists as arguments, the next message
2162 forward that satisfies the command's requirements will be used shall no
2163 explicit message list have been passed.
2164 If there are no messages forward of the current message,
2165 the search proceeds backwards,
2166 and if there are no good messages at all,
2168 .Dq no applicable messages
2169 and aborts the command.
2170 The arguments to commands can be quoted, using the following methods:
2173 .Bl -bullet -compact -offset indent
2175 An argument can be enclosed between paired double-quotes
2180 any white space, shell word expansion, or backslash characters (except
2181 as described next) within the quotes are treated literally as part of
2183 A double-quote will be treated literally within single-quotes and vice
2185 Inside such a quoted string the actually used quote character can be
2186 used nonetheless by escaping it with a backslash
2192 An argument that is not enclosed in quotes, as above, can usually still
2193 contain space characters if those spaces are backslash-escaped.
2196 A backslash outside of the enclosing quotes is discarded
2197 and the following character is treated literally as part of the argument.
2200 An unquoted backslash at the end of a command line is discarded and the
2201 next line continues the command.
2205 Filenames, where expected, are subsequently subjected to the following
2206 transformations, in sequence:
2209 .Bl -bullet -compact -offset indent
2211 If the filename begins with an unquoted plus sign, and the
2213 variable is defined,
2214 the plus sign will be replaced by the value of the
2216 variable followed by a slash.
2219 variable is unset or is set to null, the filename will be unchanged.
2222 Shell word expansions are applied to the filename.
2223 .\" TODO shell word expansion shell expand fexpand FEXP_NSHELL
2224 .Sy Compatibility note:
2225 on the long run support for complete shell word expansion will be
2226 replaced by an internally implemented restricted expansion mechanism in
2227 order to circumvent possible security impacts through shell expansion.
2228 Expect that a growing number of program parts only support this
2231 Meta expansions are applied to the filename: leading tilde characters
2233 will be replaced by the expansion of
2235 and any occurrence of
2239 will be replaced by the expansion of the variable, if possible;
2240 \*(UA internal as well as environmental (shell) variables can be
2241 accessed through this mechanism.
2242 In order to include a raw
2244 character precede it with a backslash
2246 to include a backslash double it.
2247 If more than a single pathname results from this expansion and the
2248 command is expecting one file, an error results.
2250 Note that in interactive display context, in order to allow simple
2251 value acceptance (typing
2253 backslash quoting is performed automatically as necessary, e.g., a file
2254 .Ql diet\e is \ecurd.txt
2255 will be displayed as
2256 .Ql diet\e\e is \e\ecurd.txt .
2260 The following commands are available:
2262 .Bl -tag -width ".Ic _ccount"
2265 The comment-command causes the entire line to be ignored.
2267 this really is a normal command which' purpose is to discard its
2270 indicating special character, which means that, e.g., trailing comments
2271 on a line are not possible.
2275 Interprets the remainder of the word as a macro name and passes it
2280 is a shorter synonym for
2281 .Ql call Ar mymacro .
2285 Print out the preceding message.
2286 If given a numeric argument n,
2287 goes to the n'th previous message and prints it.
2291 Show the current message number (the
2296 Prints a brief summary of commands.
2297 \*(OP Given an argument a synopsis for the command in question is
2299 commands can be abbreviated in general and this command can be used
2300 to see the full expansion of an abbreviation including the synopsis,
2306 and see how the display changes.
2314 ) command which follows.
2324 (ac) Creates, selects or lists (an) account(s).
2325 An account is a group of commands and variable settings which together
2326 usually arrange the environment for the purpose of creating a system login.
2327 Without any argument a listing of all defined accounts and their content
2329 A specific account can be activated by giving solely its name, resulting
2330 in the system mailbox or inbox of that account to be activated as via an
2331 explicit use of the command
2333 The two argument form is identical to defining a macro as via
2336 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2338 set folder=imaps://mylogin@imap.myisp.example
2340 set from="myname@myisp.example (My Name)"
2341 set smtp=smtp://mylogin@smtp.myisp.example
2345 creates an account named
2347 which can later be selected by specifying
2351 (case-insensitive) always exists.
2353 can be used to localize account settings \(en different to normal macros
2354 the settings will be reverted once the account is switched off.
2355 Accounts can be deleted via
2360 (a) With no arguments, prints out all currently-defined aliases.
2361 With one argument, prints out that alias.
2362 With more than one argument,
2363 creates a new alias or appends to an existing one.
2365 can be used to delete aliases.
2369 (alt) Manage a list of alternate addresses / names of the active user,
2370 members of which will be removed from recipient lists when replying to
2373 variable is not set).
2374 If arguments are given the set of alternate names is replaced by them,
2375 without arguments the current set is displayed.
2379 Takes a message list and marks each message as having been answered.
2380 This mark has no technical meaning in the mail system;
2381 it just causes messages to be marked in the header summary,
2382 and makes them specially addressable.
2386 \*(OP Only applicable to cached IMAP mailboxes;
2387 takes a message list and reads the specified messages into the IMAP
2392 Calls a macro that has been created via
2397 (ch) Change the working directory to
2399 or the given argument.
2405 \*(OP Only applicable to S/MIME signed messages.
2406 Takes a message list and a file name and saves the certificates
2407 contained within the message signatures to the named file in both
2408 human-readable and PEM format.
2409 The certificates can later be used to send encrypted messages to the
2410 respective message senders by setting
2411 .Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST
2416 (ch) Change the working directory to
2418 or the given argument.
2424 Only applicable to threaded mode.
2425 Takes a message list and makes all replies to these messages invisible
2426 in header summaries, unless they are in state
2431 \*(OP If operating in disconnected mode on an IMAP mailbox,
2432 switch to online mode and connect to the mail server while retaining
2434 See the description of the
2436 variable for more information.
2440 (C) Copy messages to files whose names are derived from the author of
2441 the respective message and don't mark them as being saved;
2442 otherwise identical to
2447 (c) Copy messages to the named file and don't mark them as being saved;
2448 otherwise identical to
2453 Print the current working directory.
2457 \*(OP For unencrypted messages this command is identical to
2459 Encrypted messages are first decrypted, if possible, and then copied.
2463 \*(OP For unencrypted messages this command is identical to
2465 Encrypted messages are first decrypted, if possible, and then copied.
2469 Without arguments the current list of macros, including their content,
2470 is printed, but otherwise a macro is defined.
2471 A macro definition is a sequence of commands in the following form:
2472 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2481 A defined macro can be invoked explicitly by using the
2485 commands, or implicitly by setting the
2488 .Va folder-hook-FOLDER
2490 Note that interpretation of
2492 depends on how (i.e.,
2494 normal macro, folder hook, account switch) the macro is invoked.
2495 Macros can be deleted via
2500 (d) Marks the given message list as
2502 Deleted messages will neither be saved in
2504 nor will they be available for most other commands.
2515 \*(OP (disco) If operating in online mode on an IMAP mailbox,
2516 switch to disconnected mode while retaining the mailbox status.
2517 See the description of the
2520 A list of messages may optionally be given as argument;
2521 the respective messages are then read into the cache before the
2522 connection is closed.
2523 Thus `disco *' makes the entire mailbox available for disconnected use.
2528 Deletes the current message and prints the next message.
2529 If there is no next message, \*(UA says
2534 Takes a message list and marks each given message as a draft.
2535 This mark has no technical meaning in the mail system;
2536 it just causes messages to be marked in the header summary,
2537 and makes them specially addressable.
2541 (ec) Echoes its arguments,
2542 resolving special names as documented for the command
2544 The escape sequences
2556 are interpreted just as they are by
2558 (proper quoting provided).
2562 (e) Point the text editor (as defined in
2564 at each message from the given list in turn.
2565 Modified contents are discarded unless the
2572 .Ic if Ns / Ns Ic elif Ns / Ns Ic else Ns / Ns Ic endif
2573 conditional \(em if the condition of a preceeding
2575 was false, check the following condition and execute the following block
2576 if it evaluates true.
2581 .Ic if Ns / Ns Ic elif Ns / Ns Ic else Ns / Ns Ic endif
2582 conditional \(em if none of the conditions of the preceeding
2586 commands was true, the
2592 (en) Marks the end of an
2593 .Ic if Ns / Ns Ic elif Ns / Ns Ic else Ns / Ns Ic endif
2594 conditional execution block.
2598 \*(OP Since \*(UA uses the console as a user interface it can happen
2599 that messages scroll by too fast to become recognized.
2600 Optionally an error message ring queue is available which stores
2601 duplicates of any error message and notifies the user in interactive
2602 sessions whenever a new error has occurred.
2603 The queue is finite: if its maximum size is reached any new message
2604 replaces the eldest.
2607 can be used to manage this message queue: if given
2609 or no argument the queue will be displayed and cleared,
2611 will only clear all messages from the queue.
2615 (ex or x) Exit from \*(UA without changing the active mailbox and skip
2616 any saving of messages in
2618 as well as a possibly tracked command line editor history file.
2622 Print the list of features that have been compiled into \*(UA.
2628 but open the mailbox readonly.
2632 (fi) The file command switches to a new mailbox.
2633 Without arguments it prints the complete state of the current mailbox.
2634 If an argument is given, it will write out changes (such as deletions)
2635 the user has made and open a new mailbox.
2636 Some special conventions are recognized for the
2640 .Bl -tag -compact -offset indent -width ".Ar %:__lespec"
2642 (number sign) means the previous file,
2644 (percent sign) means the invoking user's system mailbox
2649 means the system mailbox of
2651 (and never the value of
2653 regardless of its actual setting),
2655 (ampersand) means the invoking user's
2665 expands to the same value as
2667 but the file is handled as a system mailbox by, e.g., the
2671 commands, meaning that messages that have been read in the current
2672 session will be moved to the
2674 mailbox instead of simply being flagged as read.
2677 If the name matches one of the strings defined with the command
2679 it is replaced by its long form and expanded.
2680 If the name ends with
2685 it is treated as being compressed with
2690 respectively, and transparently handled through an intermediate
2691 (un)compression step (using a temporary file) with the according
2692 facility, sufficient support provided.
2693 Likewise, if the named file doesn't exist, but a file with one of the
2694 mentioned compression extensions does, then the name is automatically
2695 expanded and the compressed file is used.
2697 Otherwise, if the name ends with an extension for which
2698 .Va file-hook-load-EXTENSION
2700 .Va file-hook-save-EXTENSION
2701 variables are set, then the given hooks will be used to load and save
2703 and \*(UA will work with an intermediate temporary file.
2705 MBOX files (flat file-based mailboxes) are generally locked during file
2706 operations in order to avoid inconsistencies against concurrent
2708 Mailbox files which \*(UA treats as system mailboxes will also be
2709 protected by so-called dotlock files, the traditional way of mail spool
2710 file locking: for any file
2714 will be created for the duration of the synchronization \(em
2715 as necessary a privilege-separated dotlock child process will be used
2716 to accommodate for necessary privilege adjustments in order to create
2717 the dotlock file in the same directory
2718 and with the same user and group identities as the file of interest.
2721 for fine-tuning the handling of MBOX files.
2725 refers to a directory with the subdirectories
2730 then it is treated as a folder in
2735 .Dl \*(IN protocol://[user[:password]@]host[:port][/path]
2736 .Dl \*(OU protocol://[user@]host[:port][/path]
2738 is taken as an Internet mailbox specification.
2739 The \*(OPally supported protocols are
2743 (POP3 with SSL/TLS encrypted transport).
2746 part is valid only for IMAP; there it defaults to
2748 Also see the section
2749 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
2753 contains special characters, in particular
2757 they must be escaped in URL notation \(en the command
2759 can be used to show the necessary conversion.
2760 The optional `path' part applies to IMAP only;
2761 if it is omitted, the default `INBOX' is used.
2763 If \*(UA is connected to an IMAP server,
2764 a name of the form `@mailbox' refers to the `mailbox' on that server,
2765 but otherwise a `@' prefix has no special meaning.
2769 Takes a message list and marks the messages as
2771 ged for urgent/special attention.
2772 This mark has no technical meaning in the mail system;
2773 it just causes messages to be highlighted in the header summary,
2774 and makes them specially addressable.
2783 With no arguments, list the names of the folders in the folder directory.
2784 With an existing folder as an argument,
2785 lists the names of folders below the named folder;
2786 e.\|g. the command `folders @' lists the folders on the base level of
2787 the current IMAP server.
2788 See also the variable
2789 .Va imap-list-depth .
2795 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
2796 recipient's address (instead of in
2803 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
2804 recipient's address (instead of in
2811 but responds to all recipients regardless of the
2816 .It Ic followupsender
2819 but responds to the sender only regardless of the
2835 (f) Takes a list of messages and prints their message headers
2836 (which qualifies this command as \*(UAs search facility).
2842 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the
2843 recipient's address (instead of in
2848 Takes a message and the address of a recipient
2849 and forwards the message to him.
2850 The text of the original message is included in the new one,
2851 with the value of the
2853 variable printed before.
2858 commands specify which header fields are included in the new message.
2859 Only the first part of a multipart message is included unless the
2860 .Va forward-as-attachment
2864 is set recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names etc.
2868 Specifies which header fields are to be ignored with the command
2870 This command has no effect when the
2871 .Va forward-as-attachment
2876 Specifies which header fields are to be retained with the command
2881 This command has no effect when the
2882 .Va forward-as-attachment
2887 Define or list command aliases, so-called ghosts.
2888 Without arguments a list of all currently known aliases is printed.
2889 With one argument the expansion of the given alias is shown.
2890 With two or more arguments a command alias is defined or updated: the
2891 first argument is the name under which the remaining command line should
2892 be accessible, the content of which can be just about anything.
2893 A ghost can be used everywhere a normal command can be used, but always
2894 takes precedence; any arguments that are given to the command alias are
2895 joined onto the alias content, and the resulting string forms the
2896 command line that is, in effect, executed.
2899 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2901 `ghost': no such alias: "xx"
2904 ghost xx "echo hello,"
2913 (h) Show the current group of headers, the size of which depends on
2916 If a message-specification is given the group of headers containing the
2917 first message therein is shown and the message at the top of the screen
2932 the list of history entries;
2935 argument selects and shows the respective history entry \(en
2938 to accept it, and the history entry will become the new history top.
2939 The default mode if no arguments are given is
2946 Takes a message list and marks each message therein to be saved in the
2947 user's system mailbox instead of in
2949 Does not override the
2952 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command, because a
2954 command issued after
2956 will display the following message, not the current one.
2961 (i) Part of the nestable
2962 .Ic if Ns / Ns Ic elif Ns / Ns Ic else Ns / Ns Ic endif
2963 conditional execution construct \(em if the given condition is true then
2964 the encapsulated block is executed.
2965 POSIX only supports the conditions
2970 (execute if standard input is a tty), all remaining conditions are
2971 non-portable extensions; note that falsely specified conditions cause
2972 the execution of the entire conditional construct until the
2975 command to be suppressed.
2976 The syntax of the nestable
2978 conditional execution construct requires that each condition and syntax
2979 element is surrounded by whitespace.
2981 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2990 Another condition can be any boolean value (see the section
2992 for booleans) to mark an enwrapped block as
2995 .Dq always execute .
2996 It is possible to check a variable for existence or compare its
2997 expansion against a user given value or another variable via the
2999 .Pf ( Dq variable next )
3000 conditional trigger character.
3001 The available comparison operators are
3005 (less than or equal to),
3011 (greater than or equal to),
3015 (is substring of) and
3017 (is not substring of).
3018 The values of the left and right hand side are treated as strings and
3019 are compared 8-bit byte-wise, ignoring case according to the rules of
3020 the US-ASCII encoding (therefore, dependend on the active locale,
3021 possibly producing false results for strings in the locale encoding).
3022 Except for the substring checks the comparison will instead be performed
3023 arithmetically if both, the user given value as well as the variable
3024 content, can be parsed as numbers (integers).
3025 An unset variable is treated as the empty string.
3028 When the \*(OPal regular expression support is available, the additional
3034 They treat the right hand side as a regular expression that is matched
3035 case-insensitively and according to the active
3037 locale, meaning that strings in the locale encoding should be matched
3041 Conditions can be joined via AND-OR lists (where the AND operator is
3043 and the OR operator is
3045 which have equal precedence and will be evaluated with left
3046 associativity, thus using the same syntax that is known for the
3048 It is also possible to form groups of conditions and lists by enclosing
3049 them in pairs of brackets
3050 .Ql [\ \&.\&.\&.\ ] ,
3051 which may be interlocked within each other, and also be joined via
3055 The results of individual conditions and entire groups may be modified
3056 via unary operators: the unary operator
3058 will reverse the result.
3060 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3064 if $ttycharset == "UTF-8"
3065 echo *ttycharset* is set to UTF-8, case-insensitively
3069 echo These two variables are equal
3071 if $version-major >= 15
3072 echo Running a new version..
3073 if $features =@ "regex"
3074 if $TERM =~ "^xterm\&.*"
3075 echo ..in an X terminal
3078 if [ [ true ] && [ [ $debug ] || [ $verbose ] ] ]
3081 if true && $debug || $verbose
3082 echo Left associativity, as is known from the shell
3084 if ! ! true && ! [ ! $debug && ! $verbose ]
3085 echo Unary operator support
3093 Without arguments the list of ignored header fields is printed,
3094 otherwise the given list of header fields is added to the ignore list:
3095 Header fields in the ignore list are not printed on the terminal when
3096 a message is printed.
3097 To print a message in its entirety, use the commands
3108 \*(OP Sends command strings directly to the current IMAP server.
3109 \*(UA operates always in IMAP `selected state' on the current mailbox;
3110 commands that change this will produce undesirable results and should be
3112 Useful IMAP commands are:
3113 .Bl -tag -offset indent -width ".Ic getquotearoot"
3115 Takes the name of an IMAP mailbox as an argument and creates it.
3117 (RFC 2087) Takes the name of an IMAP mailbox as an argument
3118 and prints the quotas that apply to the mailbox.
3119 Not all IMAP servers support this command.
3121 (RFC 2342) Takes no arguments and prints the Personal Namespaces,
3122 the Other User's Namespaces and the Shared Namespaces.
3123 Each namespace type is printed in parentheses;
3124 if there are multiple namespaces of the same type,
3125 inner parentheses separate them.
3126 For each namespace a prefix and a hierarchy separator is listed.
3127 Not all IMAP servers support this command.
3137 Prints the names of all available commands, alphabetically sorted.
3141 This command can be used to localize changes to variables, meaning that
3142 their state will be reverted to the former one once the covered scope
3144 It can only be used inside of macro definition blocks introduced by
3148 and is interpreted as a boolean (see
3149 .Sx "Value options" ) ;
3152 of an account is left once it is switched off again.
3153 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3154 define temporary_settings {
3169 enables change localization and calls
3171 which explicitly resets localization, then any value changes within
3173 will still be reverted by
3178 Reply to messages that come in via known
3181 .Pf ( Ic mlsubscribe )
3182 mailing lists, or pretend to do so (see
3183 .Sx "Mailing lists" ) :
3186 functionality this will actively resort and even remove message
3187 recipients in order to generate a message that is supposed to be send to
3189 For example it will also implicitly generate a
3190 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
3191 header if that seems useful, regardless of the setting of the variable
3198 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
3199 recipient's address (instead of in
3204 (m) Takes a (list of) recipient address(es) as (an) argument(s),
3205 or asks on standard input if none were given;
3206 then collects the remaining mail content and sends it out.
3210 (mb) The given message list is to be sent to
3212 when \*(UA is quit; this is the default action unless the
3215 \*(ID This command can only be used in a system mailbox (see
3220 Without any arguments the content of the MIME type cache will displayed.
3221 Otherwise each argument defines a complete MIME type specification of
3222 a type that shall be added (prepended) to the cache.
3223 In any event MIME type sources are loaded first as necessary \(en
3224 .Va mimetypes-load-control
3225 can be used to fine-tune which sources are actually loaded.
3226 Refer to the section on
3227 .Sx "The mime.types files"
3228 for more on MIME type specifications and this topic in general.
3229 MIME type unregistration and cache resets can be triggered with
3234 Without arguments the list of all currently defined mailing lists
3235 (and their attributes, if any) is printed.
3236 Otherwise all given arguments (which need not be quoted except for
3237 whitespace) will be added and henceforth be recognized as mailing lists.
3238 Mailing lists may be removed via the command
3241 If the \*(OPal regular expression support is available then mailing
3242 lists may also be specified as regular expressions (see
3248 Without arguments the list of all currently defined mailing lists which
3249 have a subscription attribute is printed.
3250 Otherwise this attribute will be set for all given mailing lists,
3251 newly creating them as necessary (as via
3253 Subscription attributes may be removed via the command
3262 but moves the messages to a file named after the local part of the
3263 sender address of the first message (instead of in
3270 but marks the messages for deletion if they were transferred
3277 but also prints ignored header fields and all MIME parts.
3285 on the given messages, even in non-interactive mode and as long as the
3286 standard output is a terminal.
3298 cache, loading the file first as necessary in the former case.
3299 Note that \*(UA will try to read the file only once, use
3300 .Ql Ic netrc Ns \:\0\:clear
3301 to unlock the next attempt.
3305 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ;
3307 .Sx "The .netrc file"
3308 documents the file format in detail.
3312 Checks for new mail in the current folder without committing any changes
3314 If new mail is present, a message is printed.
3318 the headers of each new message are also printed.
3326 Goes to the next message in sequence and types it.
3327 With an argument list, types the next matching message.
3341 If the current folder is accessed via a network connection, a
3343 command is sent, otherwise no operation is performed.
3349 but also prints ignored header fields and all MIME parts.
3357 on the given messages, even in non-interactive mode and as long as the
3358 standard output is a terminal.
3366 but also pipes ignored header fields and all parts of MIME
3367 .Ql multipart/alternative
3372 (pi) Takes a message list and a shell command
3373 and pipes the messages through the command.
3374 Without an argument the current message is piped through the command
3381 every message is followed by a formfeed character.
3392 but also prints out ignored header fields and all parts of MIME
3393 .Ql multipart/alternative
3403 (p) Takes a message list and types out each message on the user's
3405 For MIME multipart messages, all parts with a content type of
3409 are shown, the other are hidden except for their headers.
3410 Messages are decrypted and converted to the terminal character set
3415 (q) Terminates the session, saving all undeleted, unsaved messages in
3418 preserving all messages marked with
3422 or never referenced in the system mailbox,
3423 and removing all other messages from the system mailbox.
3424 If new mail has arrived during the session,
3426 .Dq You have new mail
3428 If given while editing a mailbox file with the command line flag
3430 then the edit file is rewritten.
3431 A return to the shell is effected,
3432 unless the rewrite of edit file fails,
3433 in which case the user can escape with the exit command.
3447 Removes the named folders.
3448 The user is asked for confirmation in interactive mode.
3452 Takes the name of an existing folder
3453 and the name for the new folder
3454 and renames the first to the second one.
3455 Both folders must be of the same type
3456 and must be located on the current server for IMAP.
3460 (R) Reply to originator.
3461 Does not reply to other recipients of the original message.
3463 will exchange this command with
3467 is set the recipient address will be stripped from comments, names etc.
3471 (r) Take a message and group-responds to it by addressing the sender
3474 .Va followup-to-honour ,
3477 .Va recipients-in-cc
3478 influence response behaviour.
3481 offers special support for replying to mailing lists.
3484 is set recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names etc.
3497 but initiates a group-reply regardless of the value of
3504 but responds to the sender only regardless of the value of
3511 but does not add any header lines.
3512 This is not a way to hide the sender's identity,
3513 but useful for sending a message again to the same recipients.
3517 Takes a list of messages and a user name
3518 and sends each message to the named user.
3520 and related header fields are prepended to the new copy of the message.
3538 .It Ic respondsender
3544 (ret) Without arguments the list of retained header fields is printed,
3545 otherwise the given list of header fields is added to the retain list:
3546 Header fields in the retain list are shown on the terminal when
3547 a message is printed, all other header fields are suppressed.
3548 To print a message in its entirety, use the commands
3557 takes precedence over the mentioned.
3563 but saves the messages in a file named after the local part of the
3564 sender of the first message instead of (in
3566 and) taking a filename argument.
3570 (s) Takes a message list and a filename and appends each message in turn
3571 to the end of the file.
3572 If no filename is given, the
3575 The filename in quotes, followed by the generated character count
3576 is echoed on the user's terminal.
3577 If editing a system mailbox the messages are marked for deletion.
3578 Compressed files and IMAP mailboxes are handled as described for the
3580 command line option above.
3597 Header fields thus marked are filtered out when saving a message by
3599 or when automatically saving to
3601 This command should only be applied to header fields that do not contain
3602 information needed to decode the message,
3603 as MIME content fields do.
3604 If saving messages on an IMAP account ignoring fields makes it
3605 impossible to copy the data directly on the server,
3606 thus operation usually becomes much slower.
3618 Header fields thus marked are the only ones saved with a message when
3621 or when automatically saving to
3626 The use of this command is strongly discouraged since it may strip
3627 header fields that are needed to decode the message correctly.
3631 Takes a message list and marks all messages as having been read.
3635 (se) Without arguments this command prints all options and, for
3636 non-binary options, values that are currently known to \*(UA.
3637 Setting any of the options
3641 changes the output format to BSD style, otherwise a properly quoted
3642 listing is produced.
3647 has been set twice then the listing is modified to mark out assembled
3650 Otherwise modifies (set and unsets) the given options.
3651 Arguments are of the form
3653 (no space before or after
3657 if there is no value.
3658 Quotation marks may be placed around any part of the assignment
3659 statement to quote blanks or tabs, e.g.,
3661 .Dl set indentprefix="->"
3663 If an argument begins with
3667 the effect is the same as invoking the
3669 command with the remaining part of the variable
3670 .Pf ( Ql unset save ) .
3676 except that the options are also exported into the program environment;
3677 since this task requires native host support the command will always
3678 report error if that is not available (but still act like
3681 This operation is a no-op unless all resource files have been loaded.
3687 (sh) Invokes an interactive version of the shell.
3691 Without arguments the list of all currently defined shortcuts is
3693 Otherwise all given arguments (which need not be quoted except for
3694 whitespace) are treated as pairs of shortcuts and their expansions,
3695 creating new or changing already existing shortcuts, as necessary.
3696 Shortcuts may be removed via the command
3698 The expansion strings should be in the syntax that has been described
3707 but performs neither MIME decoding nor decryption, so that the raw
3708 message text is shown.
3712 (si) Print the size in characters of each message of the given
3717 Create a sorted representation of the current folder,
3720 command and the addressing modes such that they refer to messages in the
3722 Message numbers are the same as in regular mode.
3726 a header summary in the new order is also printed.
3727 Possible sorting criteria are:
3729 .Bl -tag -compact -offset indent -width "subject"
3731 Sort the messages by their
3733 field, that is by the time they were sent.
3735 Sort messages by the value of their
3737 field, that is by the address of the sender.
3740 variable is set, the sender's real name (if any) is used.
3742 Sort the messages by their size.
3744 \*(OP Sort the message by their spam score, as has been classified by
3747 Sort the messages by their message status.
3749 Sort the messages by their subject.
3751 Create a threaded display.
3753 Sort messages by the value of their
3755 field, that is by the address of the recipient.
3758 variable is set, the recipient's real name (if any) is used.
3761 If no argument is given,
3762 the current sorting criterion is printed.
3766 (so) The source command reads commands from a file.
3772 is that this command will not generate an error if the given file
3773 argument cannot be opened successfully.
3774 This can matter in, e.g., resource files, since loading of those is
3775 stopped when an error is encountered.
3779 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and clears their
3785 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and causes the
3787 to forget it has ever used them to train its Bayesian filter.
3788 Unless otherwise noted the
3790 flag of the message is inspected to chose wether a message shall be
3798 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and informs the Bayesian filter of the
3802 This also clears the
3804 flag of the messages in question.
3808 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and rates them using the configured
3809 .Va spam-interface ,
3810 without modifying the messages, but setting their
3812 flag as appropriate; because the spam rating headers are lost the rate
3813 will be forgotten once the mailbox is left.
3814 Refer to the manual section
3816 for the complete picture of spam handling in \*(UA.
3820 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and sets their
3826 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and informs the Bayesian filter of the
3832 flag of the messages in question.
3841 Create a threaded representation of the current folder,
3842 i.\|e. indent messages that are replies to other messages in the header
3843 display and change the
3845 command and the addressing modes such that they refer to messages in the
3847 Message numbers are the same as in unthreaded mode.
3851 a header summary in threaded order is also printed.
3855 (to) Takes a message list and prints the top few lines of each.
3856 The number of lines printed is controlled by the variable
3858 and defaults to five.
3862 (tou) Takes a message list and marks the messages for saving in
3864 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command,
3867 command will display the following message instead of the current one.
3871 (T) Identical to the
3882 Delete all given accounts.
3883 An error message is printed if a given account is not defined.
3886 will discard all existing accounts.
3890 (una) Takes a list of names defined by alias commands
3891 and discards the remembered groups of users.
3894 will discard all existing aliases.
3898 Takes a message list and marks each message as not having been answered.
3902 Only applicable to threaded mode.
3903 Takes a message list and makes the message and all replies to it visible
3904 in header summaries again.
3905 When a message becomes the current message,
3906 it is automatically made visible.
3907 Also when a message with collapsed replies is printed,
3908 all of these are automatically uncollapsed.
3912 Undefine all given macros.
3913 An error message is printed if a given macro is not defined.
3916 will discard all existing macros.
3920 (u) Takes a message list and marks each message as not being deleted.
3924 Takes a message list and
3930 Takes a message list and marks each message as not being
3935 Removes the header field names from the list of ignored fields for the
3940 will remove all fields.
3944 Removes the header field names from the list of retained fields for the
3949 will remove all fields.
3953 Remove all the given command
3957 will remove all ghosts.
3961 Removes the header field names from the list of ignored fields.
3964 will remove all fields.
3968 Delete all given MIME types, e.g.,
3969 .Ql unmimetype text/plain
3970 will remove all registered specifications for the MIME type
3974 will discard all existing MIME types, just as will
3976 but which also reenables cache initialization via
3977 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
3981 Forget about all the given mailing lists.
3984 will remove all lists.
3989 .It Ic unmlsubscribe
3990 Remove the subscription attribute from all given mailing lists.
3993 will clear the attribute from all lists which have it set.
4004 Takes a message list and marks each message as not having been read.
4008 Removes the header field names from the list of retained fields.
4011 will remove all fields.
4015 Removes the header field names from the list of ignored fields for
4019 will remove all fields.
4023 Removes the header field names from the list of retained fields for
4027 will remove all fields.
4031 (uns) Takes a list of option names and discards their remembered values;
4039 except that the options are also removed from the program environment;
4040 since this task requires native host support the command will always
4041 report error if that is not available (but still act like
4044 This operation is a no-op unless all resource files have been loaded.
4050 Deletes the shortcut names given as arguments.
4053 will remove all shortcuts.
4057 Disable sorted or threaded mode
4063 return to normal message order and,
4067 print a header summary.
4077 Decode the given URL-encoded string arguments and show the results.
4081 URL-encode the given arguments and show the results.
4085 Edit the values of or create the given variable(s) in the
4087 Binary variables cannot be edited.
4091 Show informations about all the given options.
4092 \*(UA knows about a finite set of known builtin variables that are
4093 subdivided further in binary and value variants;
4094 they may have special properties, like
4096 (setting may not be changed) and
4098 meaning that the value is generated on-the-fly as necessary.
4099 Beside those known variables an infinite number of unknown, so-called
4101 variables, which are expected to be able to store values, may exist.
4102 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4104 ? varshow sendwait version-major foo bar
4105 "sendwait": (73) binary: set=1 (ENVIRON=0)
4106 "version-major": (192) value, read-only, virtual:\e
4107 set=1 (ENVIRON=0) value<14>
4108 "foo": (assembled) set=1 (ENVIRON=0) value<bar>
4109 "bar": (assembled) set=0 (ENVIRON=0) value<NULL>
4114 \*(OP Takes a message list and verifies each message.
4115 If a message is not a S/MIME signed message,
4116 verification will fail for it.
4117 The verification process checks if the message was signed using a valid
4119 if the message sender's email address matches one of those contained
4120 within the certificate,
4121 and if the message content has been altered.
4125 (v) Takes a message list and invokes the display editor on each message.
4126 Modified contents are discarded unless the
4132 (w) For conventional messages the body without all headers is written.
4133 The output is decrypted and converted to its native format as necessary.
4134 If the output file exists, the text is appended.
4135 If a message is in MIME multipart format its first part is written to
4136 the specified file as for conventional messages,
4137 and the user is asked for a filename to save each other part.
4138 For convience saving of each part may be skipped by giving an empty value;
4139 the same result can also be achieved by writing it to
4141 For the second and subsequent parts a leading
4143 character causes the part to be piped to the remainder of the user input
4144 interpreted as a shell command;
4145 otherwise the user input is expanded as usually for folders,
4146 e.g., tilde expansion is performed.
4147 In non-interactive mode, only the parts of the multipart message
4148 that have a filename given in the part header are written,
4149 the others are discarded.
4150 The original message is never marked for deletion in the originating
4153 the contents of the destination file are overwritten if the file
4155 No special handling of compressed files is performed.
4164 \*(UA presents message headers in windowfuls as described under the
4167 This command scrolls to the next window of messages.
4168 If an argument is given,
4169 it specifies the window to use.
4170 A number prefixed by
4174 indicates that the window is calculated in relation to the current position.
4175 A number without a prefix specifies an absolute window number,
4178 lets \*(UA scroll to the last window of messages.
4184 but scrolls to the next or previous window that contains at least one
4193 .\" .Sh TILDE ESCAPES {{{
4196 Here is a summary of the tilde escapes,
4197 which are used to perform special functions when composing messages.
4198 Tilde escapes are only recognized at the beginning of lines.
4201 is somewhat of a misnomer since the actual escape character can be
4202 changed by adjusting the option
4205 .Bl -tag -width ".Ic __ filename"
4208 Insert the string of text in the message prefaced by a single
4210 (If the escape character has been changed,
4211 that character must be doubled
4212 in order to send it at the beginning of a line.)
4215 .It Ic ~! Ar command
4216 Execute the indicated shell
4218 then return to the message.
4222 Same effect as typing the end-of-file character.
4225 .It Ic ~: Ar \*(UA-command Ns \0or Ic ~_ Ar \*(UA-command
4226 Execute the given \*(UA command.
4227 Not all commands, however, are allowed.
4231 Write a summary of command escapes.
4234 .It Ic ~< Ar filename
4239 .It Ic ~<! Ar command
4241 is executed using the shell.
4242 Its standard output is inserted into the message.
4245 .It Ic ~@ Op Ar filename...
4246 With no arguments, edit the attachment list interactively.
4247 If an attachment's file name is left empty,
4248 that attachment is deleted from the list.
4249 When the end of the attachment list is reached,
4250 \*(UA will ask for further attachments until an empty name is given.
4251 If a given file name solely consists of the number sign
4253 followed by a valid message number of the currently active mailbox, then
4254 the given message is attached as a MIME
4256 and the rest of this section does not apply.
4258 If character set conversion has been compiled into \*(UA, then this mode
4259 gives the user the option to specify input and output character sets,
4260 unless the file extension indicates binary content, in which case \*(UA
4261 asks wether this step shall be skipped for the attachment in question.
4262 If not skipped, then the charset that succeeds to represent the
4263 attachment data will be used in the
4265 MIME parameter of the mail message:
4267 .Bl -bullet -compact
4269 If input and output character sets are specified, then the conversion is
4270 performed on the fly.
4271 The user will be asked repeatedly until the desired conversion succeeds.
4273 If only an output character set is specified, then the input is assumed
4276 charset and will be converted to the given output charset on the fly.
4277 The user will be asked repeatedly until the desired conversion succeeds.
4279 If no character sets are specified at all then the algorithm that is
4280 documented in the section
4281 .Sx "Character sets"
4282 is applied, but directly and on the fly.
4283 The user will be asked repeatedly until the desired conversion succeeds.
4285 Finally, if an input-, but no output character set is specified, then no
4286 conversion is ever performed, but the
4288 MIME parameter value will still be set to the user input.
4290 The character set selection loop can be left by typing
4292 i.e., causing an interrupt.
4293 .\" \*(OU next sentence
4294 Note that before \*(UA version 15.0 this terminates the entire
4295 current attachment selection, not only the character set selection.
4298 Without character set conversion support, \*(UA will ask for the input
4299 character set only, and it'll set the
4301 MIME parameter value to the given input, if any;
4302 if no user input is seen then the
4304 character set will be used for the parameter value instead.
4305 Note that the file extension check isn't performed in this mode, since
4306 no conversion will take place anyway.
4308 Note that in non-interactive mode, for reproduceabilities sake, there
4309 will always be two questions for each attachment, regardless of wether
4310 character set conversion is available and what the file extension is.
4311 The first asks for the filename, and the second asks for the input
4312 character set to be passed through to the corresponding MIME parameter;
4313 no conversion will be tried if there is input to the latter question,
4314 otherwise the usual conversion algorithm, as above, is applied.
4315 For message attachments, the answer to the second question is completely
4320 arguments are specified for the
4322 command they are treated as a comma separated list of files,
4323 which are all expanded and appended to the end of the attachment list.
4324 (Filenames with commas, or with leading or trailing whitespace can only
4325 be added via the command line or the first method.
4326 Message attachments can only be added via the first method;
4327 filenames which clash with message numbers can only be added via the
4328 command line or the second method.)
4329 In this mode the (text) attachments are assumed to be in
4331 encoding, and will be evaluated as documented in the section
4332 .Sx "Character sets" .
4336 Inserts the string contained in the
4339 .Ql Ic ~i Ns \0Sign ) .
4340 The escape sequences tabulator
4348 Inserts the string contained in the
4351 .Ql Ic ~i Ns \0sign ) .
4352 The escape sequences tabulator
4359 .It Ic ~b Ar name ...
4360 Add the given names to the list of blind carbon copy recipients.
4363 .It Ic ~c Ar name ...
4364 Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients.
4368 Read the file specified by the
4370 variable into the message.
4374 Invoke the text editor on the message collected so far.
4375 After the editing session is finished,
4376 the user may continue appending text to the message.
4379 .It Ic ~F Ar messages
4380 Read the named messages into the message being sent, including all
4381 message headers and MIME parts.
4382 If no messages are specified, read in the current message.
4385 .It Ic ~f Ar messages
4386 Read the named messages into the message being sent.
4387 If no messages are specified, read in the current message.
4391 lists are used to modify the message headers.
4392 For MIME multipart messages,
4393 only the first printable part is included.
4397 Edit the message header fields
4403 by typing each one in turn and allowing the user to edit the field.
4404 The default values for these fields originate from the
4405 .Va from , replyto , sender
4412 Edit the message header fields
4418 by typing each one in turn and allowing the user to edit the field.
4421 .It Ic ~i Ar variable
4422 Insert the value of the specified variable into the message,
4423 adding a newline character at the end.
4424 The message remains unaltered if the variable is unset or empty.
4425 The escape sequences tabulator
4432 .It Ic ~M Ar messages
4433 Read the named messages into the message being sent,
4436 If no messages are specified, read the current message.
4439 .It Ic ~m Ar messages
4440 Read the named messages into the message being sent,
4443 If no messages are specified, read the current message.
4447 lists are used to modify the message headers.
4448 For MIME multipart messages,
4449 only the first printable part is included.
4453 Print out the message collected so far,
4454 prefaced by the message header fields
4455 and followed by the attachment list, if any.
4459 Abort the message being sent,
4460 copying it to the file specified by the
4467 .It Ic ~R Ar filename
4468 Read the named file into the message, indented by
4472 .It Ic ~r Ar filename
4473 Read the named file into the message.
4477 Cause the named string to become the current subject field.
4480 .It Ic ~t Ar name ...
4481 Add the given name(s) to the direct recipient list.
4484 .It Ic ~U Ar messages
4485 Read in the given / current message(s) excluding all headers, indented by
4489 .It Ic ~u Ar messages
4490 Read in the given / current message(s), excluding all headers.
4494 Invoke an alternate editor (defined by the
4496 option) on the message collected so far.
4497 Usually, the alternate editor will be a screen editor.
4498 After the editor is quit,
4499 the user may resume appending text to the end of the message.
4502 .It Ic ~w Ar filename
4503 Write the message onto the named file.
4505 the message is appended to it.
4511 except that the message is not saved at all.
4514 .It Ic ~| Ar command
4515 Pipe the message through the specified filter command.
4516 If the command gives no output or terminates abnormally,
4517 retain the original text of the message.
4520 is often used as a rejustifying filter.
4525 .\" .Sh VARIABLE OPTIONS {{{
4526 .Sh "VARIABLE OPTIONS"
4528 Variables are controlled via
4532 commands; in general using
4534 can also be accomplished by prefixing a variable name with the string
4540 will have the same effect as
4542 Creation or editing of variables in an editor can also be achieved with
4545 will give more insight on the given variable(s), whereas
4547 will print a listing of all variables when called without arguments.
4548 Options are also implicitly inherited from the program
4550 and can be set explicitly via the command line option
4554 Different kind of options exist:
4555 binary options, which can only be in one of the two states
4559 as well as value options which have an assigned string value, for which
4560 proper quoting may be important upon assignment time.
4562 .\" .Ss "Initial settings" {{{
4563 .\" (Keep in sync: ./main.c:_startup(), ./nail.rc, ./nail.1:"Initial settings"!)
4564 .Ss "Initial Settings"
4566 The standard POSIX 2008/Cor 1-2013 mandates the following initial
4572 .Pf no Va autoprint ,
4586 .Pf no Va ignoreeof ,
4588 .Pf no Va keepsave ,
4590 .Pf no Va outfolder ,
4595 (note that \*(UA deviates from the standard by using
4599 special prompt escape results in
4601 being printed unless
4607 .Pf no Va sendwait ,
4616 Notes: \*(UA doesn't support the
4618 variable \(en use command line options or
4619 .Va sendmail-arguments
4620 to pass options through to a MTA.
4621 And the default global
4623 file (which is loaded unless the
4625 command line flag has been used or the
4626 .Ev NAIL_NO_SYSTEM_RC
4627 environment variable is set) bends those initial settings a bit, e.g.,
4633 to name a few, calls
4635 etc., and should thus be taken into account.
4638 .\" .Ss "Binary options" {{{
4639 .Ss "Binary options"
4641 .Bl -tag -width ".Va _utoprin_"
4643 .It Va add-file-recipients
4644 When file or pipe recipients have been specified,
4645 mention them in the corresponding address fields of the message instead
4646 of silently stripping them from their recipient list.
4647 By default such addressees are not mentioned.
4651 Causes only the local part to be evaluated
4652 when comparing addresses.
4656 Causes messages saved in
4658 to be appended to the end rather than prepended.
4659 This should always be set.
4663 .It Va ask Ns \0or Va asksub
4664 Causes \*(UA to prompt for the subject of each message sent.
4665 If the user responds with simply a newline,
4666 no subject field will be sent.
4670 Causes the prompts for
4674 lists to appear after the message has been edited.
4678 If set, \*(UA asks for files to attach at the end of each message, shall
4679 the list be found empty at that time.
4680 An empty line finalizes the list.
4684 Causes the user to be prompted for carbon copy recipients
4685 (at the end of each message if
4689 are set) shall the list be found empty (at that time).
4690 An empty line finalizes the list.
4694 Causes the user to be prompted for blind carbon copy
4695 recipients (at the end of each message if
4699 are set) shall the list be found empty (at that time).
4700 An empty line finalizes the list.
4704 \*(OP Causes the user to be prompted if the message is to be signed at
4705 the end of each message.
4708 variable is ignored when this variable is set.
4712 Causes threads to be collapsed automatically when threaded mode is
4719 Causes the delete command to behave like
4721 thus, after deleting a message the next one will be typed automatically.
4725 \*(OB Causes threaded mode (see the
4727 command) to be entered automatically when a folder is opened.
4729 .Ql autosort=thread .
4733 Enables the substitution of
4735 by the contents of the last command line in shell escapes.
4738 .It Va batch-exit-on-error
4739 If the batch mode has been enabled via the
4741 command line option, then this variable will be consulted whenever \*(UA
4742 completes one operation (returns to the command prompt); if it is set
4743 then \*(UA will terminate if the last operation generated an error.
4747 Causes automatic display of a header summary after executing a
4753 Sets some cosmetical features to traditional BSD style;
4754 has the same affect as setting
4756 and all other variables prefixed with
4758 it also changes the meaning of the \*(UA specific
4765 Changes the letters printed in the first column of a header summary
4766 to traditional BSD style.
4770 Changes the display of columns in a header summary to traditional BSD
4775 Changes some informational messages to traditional BSD style.
4781 field to appear immediately after the
4783 field in message headers and with the
4785 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
4789 Changes the output format of the
4791 command to traditional BSD style.
4794 .It Va colour-disable
4795 \*(OP Forcefully disable usage of colours.
4796 Also see the section
4797 .Sx "Coloured message display" .
4801 \*(OP Wether colour shall be used for output that is paged through
4803 Note that pagers may need special flags, e.g.,
4811 in order to support colours; therefore \*(UA will inspect the variable
4813 \(en if that starts with the string
4815 a non-existing environment variable
4822 will optionally be set to
4824 Also see the section
4825 .Sx "Coloured message display"
4830 Prints debugging messages and disables the actual delivery of messages.
4838 \*(OP When an IMAP mailbox is selected and this variable is set,
4839 no connection to the server is initiated.
4840 Instead, data is obtained from the local cache (see
4843 Mailboxes that are not present in the cache
4844 and messages that have not yet entirely been fetched from the server
4846 to fetch all messages in a mailbox at once,
4848 .No ` Ns Li copy * /dev/null Ns '
4849 can be used while still in connected mode.
4850 Changes that are made to IMAP mailboxes in disconnected mode are queued
4851 and committed later when a connection to that server is made.
4852 This procedure is not completely reliable since it cannot be guaranteed
4853 that the IMAP unique identifiers (UIDs) on the server still match the
4854 ones in the cache at that time.
4857 when this problem occurs.
4859 .It Va disconnected-USER@HOST
4860 The specified account is handled as described for the
4863 but other accounts are not affected.
4866 .It Va disposition-notification-send
4868 .Ql Disposition-Notification-To:
4869 header (RFC 3798) with the message.
4873 .\" TODO .It Va disposition-notification-send-HOST
4875 .\".Va disposition-notification-send
4876 .\" for SMTP accounts on a specific host.
4877 .\" TODO .It Va disposition-notification-send-USER@HOST
4879 .\".Va disposition-notification-send
4880 .\"for a specific account.
4884 When dot is set, a dot
4886 on a line by itself during message input from a terminal shall be
4887 treated as end-of-message (in addition to the normal end-of-file
4893 is ignored and using a dot is the only method to terminate input mode.
4896 .It Va dotlock-ignore-error
4897 \*(OP Synchronization of mailboxes which \*(UA treats as system
4898 mailboxes (see the command
4900 will be protected with so-called dotlock files\(emthe traditional mail
4901 spool file locking method\(emin addition to system file locking.
4902 Because \*(UA ships with a privilege-separated dotlock creation program
4903 that should always be able to create such a dotlock file there is no
4904 good reason to ignore dotlock file creation errors, and thus these are
4905 fatal unless this variable is set.
4909 If this variable is set then the editor is started automatically when
4910 a message is composed in interactive mode, as if the
4916 variable is implied for this automatically spawned editor session.
4920 When a message is edited while being composed,
4921 its header is included in the editable text.
4932 fields are accepted within the header, other fields are ignored.
4936 If the mailbox is empty \*(UA normally prints
4937 .Dq \&No mail for user
4938 and exits immediately.
4939 If this option is set \*(UA starts even with an empty mailbox.
4943 This option reverses the meanings of a set of reply commands,
4944 turning the lowercase variants, which by default address all recipients
4945 included in the header of a message
4946 .Pf ( Ic reply , respond , followup )
4947 into the uppercase variants, which by default address the sender only
4948 .Pf ( Ic Reply , Respond , Followup )
4951 .Ic replysender , respondsender , followupsender
4953 .Ic replyall , respondall , followupall
4954 are not affected by the current setting of
4960 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
4961 header is generated when sending messages to known mailing lists.
4963 .Va followup-to-honour
4965 .Ic mlist , mlsubscribe , reply
4970 .It Va forward-as-attachment
4971 Original messages are normally sent as inline text with the
4974 and only the first part of a multipart message is included.
4975 With this option messages are sent as unmodified MIME
4977 attachments with all of their parts included.
4981 When replying to or forwarding a message \*(UA normally removes the
4982 comment and name parts of email addresses.
4983 If this variable is set such stripping is not performed,
4984 and comments, names etc. are retained.
4988 Causes the header summary to be written at startup and after commands
4989 that affect the number of messages or the order of messages in the
4990 current folder; enabled by default.
4991 The command line option
4997 .It Va history-gabby
4998 \*(OP Add more entries to the history as is normally done.
5001 .It Va history-gabby-persist
5002 \*(OP \*(UA's own NCL will not save the additional (gabby) history
5003 entries in persistent storage unless this variable is also set.
5009 This option is used to hold messages in the system mailbox by default.
5013 \*(OP Can be used to turn off the automatic conversion of domain names
5014 according to the rules of IDNA (internationalized domain names for
5016 Since the IDNA code assumes that domain names are specified with the
5018 character set, an UTF-8 locale charset is required to represent all
5019 possible international domain names (before conversion, that is).
5023 Ignore interrupt signals from the terminal while entering messages;
5024 instead echo them as
5026 characters and discard the current line.
5030 Ignore end-of-file conditions
5031 .Pf ( Ql control-D ) ,
5032 on message input, which instead can be terminated only by entering a
5035 on a line by itself or by using the
5037 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
5038 This option also applies to \*(UA command mode.
5040 .Mx Va imap-use-starttls
5041 .It Va imap-use-starttls-USER@HOST , imap-use-starttls-HOST , imap-use-starttls
5042 \*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a `STARTTLS' command to make an unencrypted
5043 IMAP session SSL/TLS encrypted.
5044 This functionality is not supported by all servers,
5045 and is not used if the session is already encrypted by the IMAPS method.
5049 If set, an empty mailbox file is not removed.
5050 This may improve the interoperability with other mail user agents
5051 when using a common folder directory, and prevents malicious users
5052 from creating fake mailboxes in a world-writable spool directory.
5053 Note this only applies to local regular (MBOX) files, other mailbox
5054 types will never be removed.
5058 When a message is saved it is usually discarded from the originating
5059 folder when \*(UA is quit.
5060 Setting this option causes all saved message to be retained.
5063 .It Va line-editor-disable
5064 Turn off any enhanced command line editing capabilities (see
5065 .Sx "Command line editor"
5070 When a message is replied to and this variable is set,
5071 it is marked as having been answered.
5072 This mark has no technical meaning in the mail system;
5073 it just causes messages to be marked in the header summary,
5074 and makes them specially addressable.
5078 \*(UA produces and expects fully RFC 4155 compliant MBOX text mailboxes.
5079 Messages which are fetched over the network or from within already
5080 existing Maildir (or any non-MBOX) mailboxes may require so-called
5082 quoting (insertion of additional
5084 characters to prevent line content misinterpretation) to be applied in
5085 order to be storable in MBOX mailboxes, however, dependent on the
5086 circumspection of the message producer.
5087 (E.g., \*(UA itself will, when newly generating messages, choose a
5088 .Pf Content-Transfer- Va encoding
5089 that prevents the necessity for such quoting \(en a necessary
5090 precondition to ensure message checksums won't change.)
5092 By default \*(UA will perform this
5094 quoting in a way that results in a MBOX file that is compatible with
5095 the loose POSIX MBOX layout, in order not to exceed the capabilities
5096 of simple applications, however.
5097 Set this option to generate MBOX files for RFC 4155 compliant
5101 .It Va message-id-disable
5102 By setting this option the generation of
5104 can be completely suppressed, effectively leaving this task up to the
5105 mail-transfer-agent (MTA) or the SMTP server.
5106 (According to RFC 5321 your SMTP server is not required to add this
5107 field by itself, so you should ensure that it accepts messages without a
5114 expansion contains the sender, the sender is removed from the expansion.
5115 Setting this option suppresses these removals.
5120 option to be passed to mail-transfer-agents (MTAs);
5121 though most of the modern MTAs don't (no longer) document this flag, no
5122 MTA is known which doesn't support it (for historical compatibility).
5125 .It Va mime-allow-text-controls
5126 When sending messages, each part of the message is MIME-inspected in
5127 order to classify the
5130 .Ql Content-Transfer-Encoding:
5133 that is required to send this part over mail transport, i.e.,
5134 a computation rather similar to what the
5136 command produces when used with the
5140 This classification however treats text files which are encoded in
5141 UTF-16 (seen for HTML files) and similar character sets as binary
5142 octet-streams, forcefully changing any
5147 .Ql application/octet-stream :
5148 If that actually happens a yet unset charset MIME parameter is set to
5150 effectively making it impossible for the receiving MUA to automatically
5151 interpret the contents of the part.
5153 If this option is set, and the data was unambiguously identified as text
5154 data at first glance (by a
5158 file extension), then the original
5160 will not be overwritten.
5163 .It Va mime-alternative-favour-rich
5164 \*(BY If this variable is set then rich MIME alternative parts (e.g.,
5165 HTML) will be preferred in favour of included plain text versions when
5166 displaying messages, provided that a handler exists which produces
5167 output that can be (re)integrated into \*(UA's normal visual display.
5168 (E.g., at the time of this writing some newsletters ship their full
5169 content only in the rich HTML part, whereas the plain text part only
5170 contains topic subjects.)
5173 .It Va netrc-lookup-USER@HOST , netrc-lookup-HOST , netrc-lookup
5174 \*(IN \*(OP Used to control usage of the users
5176 file for lookup of account credentials, as documented in the section
5177 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
5181 .Sx "The .netrc file"
5182 documents the file format.
5186 Causes the filename given in the
5189 and the sender-based filenames for the
5193 commands to be interpreted relative to the directory given in the
5195 variable rather than to the current directory,
5196 unless it is set to an absolute pathname.
5200 If set, each message the
5202 command prints out is followed by a formfeed character
5207 Send messages to the
5209 command without performing MIME and character set conversions.
5212 .Mx Va pop3-bulk-load
5213 .It Va pop3-bulk-load-USER@HOST , pop3-bulk-load-HOST , pop3-bulk-load
5214 \*(OP When accessing a POP3 server \*(UA loads the headers of the
5215 messages, and only requests the message bodies on user request.
5216 For the POP3 protocol this means that the message headers will be
5218 If this option is set then \*(UA will download only complete messages
5219 from the given POP3 server(s) instead.
5222 .It Va pop3-no-apop-USER@HOST , pop3-no-apop-HOST , pop3-no-apop
5223 \*(OP Unless this variable is set the
5225 authentication method will be used when connecting to a POP3 server that
5229 is that the password is not sent in clear text over the wire and that
5230 only a single packet is sent for the user/password tuple.
5232 .Va pop3-no-apop-HOST
5235 .Mx Va pop3-use-starttls
5236 .It Va pop3-use-starttls-USER@HOST , pop3-use-starttls-HOST , pop3-use-starttls
5237 \*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a
5239 command to make an unencrypted POP3 session SSL/TLS encrypted.
5240 This functionality is not supported by all servers,
5241 and is not used if the session is already encrypted by the POP3S method.
5243 .Va pop3-use-starttls-HOST
5247 .It Va print-all-chars
5248 This option causes all characters to be considered printable.
5249 It is only effective if given in a startup file.
5250 With this option set some character sequences in messages may put the
5251 user's terminal in an undefined state when printed;
5252 it should only be used as a last resort if no working system locale can
5256 .It Va print-alternatives
5257 When a MIME message part of type
5258 .Ql multipart/alternative
5259 is displayed and it contains a subpart of type
5261 other parts are normally discarded.
5262 Setting this variable causes all subparts to be displayed,
5263 just as if the surrounding part was of type
5264 .Ql multipart/mixed .
5268 Suppresses the printing of the version when first invoked.
5271 .It Va quote-as-attachment
5272 If this is set, then the original message is added in its entirety as a
5274 MIME attachment when replying to a message.
5275 Note this works regardless of the setting of
5279 .It Va recipients-in-cc
5280 On group replies, specify only the sender of the original mail in
5282 and mention the other recipients in the secondary
5284 By default all recipients of the original mail will be addressed via
5288 .It Va record-resent
5289 If both this variable and the
5296 commands save messages to the
5298 folder as it is normally only done for newly composed messages.
5301 .It Va reply-in-same-charset
5302 If this variable is set \*(UA first tries to use the same character set
5303 of the original message for replies.
5304 If this fails, the mechanism described in
5305 .Sx "Character sets"
5306 is evaluated as usual.
5309 .It Va rfc822-body-from_
5310 This variable can be used to force displaying a so-called
5312 line for messages that are embedded into an envelope mail via the
5314 MIME mechanism, for more visual convenience.
5318 Enable saving of (partial) messages in
5320 upon interrupt or delivery error.
5323 .It Va searchheaders
5324 Expand message-list specifiers in the form
5326 to all messages containing the substring
5330 The string search is case insensitive.
5333 .It Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
5334 \*(OP If this variable is set, but
5336 is not, then \*(UA acts as if
5338 had been set to the value of the variable
5340 In effect this combination passes through the message data in the
5341 character set of the current locale (given that
5343 hasn't been set manually), i.e., without converting it to the
5345 fallback character set.
5346 Thus, mail message text will be in ISO-8859-1 encoding when send from
5347 within a ISO-8859-1 locale, and in UTF-8 encoding when send from within
5349 If no character set conversion capabilities are available in \*(UA then
5350 the only supported character set is
5355 When sending a message wait until the MTA (including the builtin SMTP
5356 one) exits before accepting further commands.
5358 with this variable set errors reported by the MTA will be recognizable!
5359 If the MTA returns a non-zero exit status,
5360 the exit status of \*(ua will also be non-zero.
5364 Setting this option causes \*(UA to start at the last message instead of
5365 the first one when opening a mail folder.
5369 Causes \*(UA to use the sender's real name instead of the plain address
5370 in the header field summary and in message specifications.
5374 Causes the recipient of the message to be shown in the header summary
5375 if the message was sent by the user.
5378 .It Va skipemptybody
5379 If an outgoing message does not contain any text in its first or only
5381 do not send it but discard it silently (see also the command line option
5385 .It Va smime-force-encryption
5386 \*(OP Causes \*(UA to refuse sending unencrypted messages.
5390 \*(OP S/MIME sign outgoing messages with the user's private key and
5391 include the user's certificate as a MIME attachment.
5392 Signing a message enables a recipient to verify that the sender used
5393 a valid certificate,
5394 that the email addresses in the certificate match those in the message
5395 header and that the message content has not been altered.
5396 It does not change the message text,
5397 and people will be able to read the message as usual.
5399 .Va smime-sign-cert , smime-sign-include-certs
5401 .Va smime-sign-message-digest .
5404 .It Va smime-no-default-ca
5405 \*(OP Don't load default CA locations when verifying S/MIME signed
5408 .Mx Va smtp-use-starttls
5409 .It Va smtp-use-starttls-USER@HOST , smtp-use-starttls-HOST , smtp-use-starttls
5410 \*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a
5412 command to make an SMTP session SSL/TLS encrypted, i.e., to enable
5413 transport layer security.
5416 .It Va ssl-no-default-ca
5417 \*(OP Don't load default CA locations to verify SSL/TLS server
5422 \*(OP If terminal capability queries are supported and this option is
5423 set then \*(UA will try to switch to the
5424 .Dq alternate screen
5425 when in interactive mode, so that the terminal will go back to the
5426 normal screen, leaving all the text there intact, when \*(UA exits.
5428 even when supported for this to produce appealing results the used
5430 and possibly configured
5431 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
5432 applications that take control over the terminal need to have
5433 corresponding support too, e.g., the
5435 pager should be driven with the
5440 .It Va keep-content-length
5441 When (editing messages and) writing
5443 mailbox files \*(UA can be told to keep the
5447 header fields that some MUAs generate by setting this variable.
5448 Since \*(UA does neither use nor update these non-standardized header
5449 fields (which in itself shows one of their conceptual problems),
5450 stripping them should increase interoperability in between MUAs that
5451 work with with same mailbox files.
5452 Note that, if this is not set but
5453 .Va writebackedited ,
5454 as below, is, a possibly performed automatic stripping of these header
5455 fields already marks the message as being modified.
5459 Setting this option enables upward compatibility with \*(UA version 15.0
5460 in respect to which configuration options are available and how they are
5462 This manual uses \*(IN and \*(OU to refer to the new and the old way of
5463 doing things, respectively.
5467 Setting this option, also controllable via the command line option
5469 causes \*(UA to be more verbose, so that, e.g., certificate chains will
5470 be displayed on the users terminal.
5471 Setting this binary option twice increases the level of verbosity, in
5472 which case even details of the actual message delivery and protocol
5473 conversations are shown.
5476 is sufficient to disable verbosity as such.
5479 .It Va writebackedited
5480 If this variable is set messages modified using the
5484 commands are written back to the current folder when it is quit;
5485 it is only honoured for writable folders in MBOX format, though.
5486 Note that the editor will be pointed to the raw message content in that
5487 case, i.e., neither MIME decoding nor decryption will have been
5488 performed, and proper RFC 4155
5490 quoting of newly added or edited content is also left as an excercise to
5495 .\" .Ss "Value options" {{{
5498 Options with values that are generally treated as strings.
5499 To embed whitespace (space and tabulator) in a value it either needs to
5500 be escaped with a backslash character, or the entire value must be
5501 enclosed in (double or single) quotation marks;
5502 To use quotation marks identical to those used to enclose the value,
5503 escape them with a backslash character.
5504 The backslash character has no special meaning except in these cases.
5506 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5507 set 1=val\e one 2="val two" 3='val "three"' 4='val \e'four\e''
5513 Booleans are special string values that must either be set to decimal
5514 integers (in which case
5518 and any other value is true) or to any of
5523 for a false boolean and
5528 for a true boolean; matching is performed case-insensitively.
5529 And there exists a special kind of boolean, the
5531 this is expected to either name a boolean or one of the strings
5537 followed by a valid boolean, case-insensitively);
5538 if one of the latter is set then in interactive mode the user will be
5539 prompted with the default value (also used for empty user input) set to
5540 the given boolean, whereas in non-interactive the given default will
5543 .Bl -tag -width ".It Va _utoprin_"
5544 .Mx Va agent-shell-lookup
5545 .It Va agent-shell-lookup-USER@HOST , agent-shell-lookup-HOST , \
5547 \*(IN \*(OP Account passwords can be fetched via an external agent
5548 program in order to permit encrypted password storage \(en see
5549 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
5550 for more on credential lookup.
5551 If this is set then the content is interpreted as a shell command the
5552 output of which (with newline characters removed) is treated as the
5553 account password shall the command succeed (and have produced non-empty
5554 non-newline output); e.g., via
5556 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5557 $ echo PASSWORD > .pass
5559 $ eval `gpg-agent --daemon \e
5560 --pinentry-program=/usr/bin/pinentry-curses \e
5561 --max-cache-ttl 99999 --default-cache-ttl 99999`
5562 $ echo 'set agent-shell-lookup="gpg -d .pass.gpg"' \e
5566 A couple of environment variables will be set for the agent:
5568 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ev _AIL_TMPDIR[337]"
5570 The temporary directory that \*(UA uses.
5571 Usually identical to
5573 but guaranteed to be set and usable by child processes;
5574 to ensure the latter condition for
5580 for which the password is looked up.
5581 .It Ev NAIL_USER_ENC
5582 The URL percent-encoded variant of
5585 The plain machine hostname of the user account.
5586 .It Ev NAIL_HOST_PORT
5589 (hostname possibly including port) of the user account.
5594 A sequence of characters to print in the
5598 as shown in the header display; each for one type of messages (see
5599 .Sx "Message states" ) ,
5600 with the default being
5603 .Ql NU\ \ *HMFAT+\-$~
5608 environment variable are set, in the following order:
5610 .Bl -tag -compact -offset indent -width ".It Ql _"
5632 start of a collapsed thread.
5638 classified as possible spam.
5643 Specifies a list of recipients to which a blind carbon copy of each
5644 outgoing message will be sent automatically.
5648 Specifies a list of recipients to which a carbon copy of each outgoing
5649 message will be sent automatically.
5653 Causes sorted mode (see the
5655 command) to be entered automatically with the value of this option as
5656 sorting method when a folder is opened.
5660 The value that should appear in the
5664 MIME header fields when no character set conversion of the message data
5666 This defaults to US-ASCII, and the chosen character set should be
5667 US-ASCII compatible.
5671 \*(OP The default 8-bit character set that is used as an implicit last
5672 member of the variable
5674 This defaults to UTF-8.
5675 If no character set conversion capabilities are available in \*(UA then
5676 the only supported character set is
5678 Refer to the section
5679 .Sx "Character sets"
5680 for the complete picture of character set conversion in \*(UA.
5683 .It Va charset-unknown-8bit
5684 \*(OP RFC 1428 specifies conditions when internet mail gateways shall
5686 the content of a mail message by using a character set with the name
5688 Because of the unclassified nature of this character set \*(UA will not
5689 be capable to convert this character set to any other character set.
5690 If this variable is set any message part which uses the character set
5692 is assumed to really be in the character set given in the value,
5693 otherwise the (final) value of
5695 is used for this purpose.
5699 The default value for the
5705 \*(OP The colour specification for so-called
5709 .Sx "Coloured message display"
5710 for the format of the value.
5713 .It Va colour-header
5714 \*(OP The colour specification for header lines.
5717 .It Va colour-msginfo
5718 \*(OP The colour specification for the introductional message info line.
5721 .It Va colour-partinfo
5722 \*(OP The colour specification for MIME part info lines.
5726 \*(OP A comma-separated list of
5728 inals for which coloured message display can be used.
5729 Entries only need to be added if the string
5731 isn't part of the terminal name itself; the default value is
5733 .Dl cons25,linux,rxvt,rxvt-unicode,\:screen,\:sun,\:vt100,\:vt220,\:\
5737 .It Va colour-uheader
5738 \*(OP The colour specification for those header lines that have been
5740 .Va colour-user-headers
5743 .Sx "Coloured message display" .
5746 .It Va colour-user-headers
5747 A comma separated list of (case-insensitive) header names which should
5748 be colourized with the alternative
5751 The default value is
5756 In a(n interactive) terminal session, then if this valued option is set
5757 it'll be used as a threshold to determine how many lines the given
5758 output has to span before it will be displayed via the configured
5762 can be forced by setting this to the value
5764 setting it without a value will deduce the current height of the
5765 terminal screen to compute the treshold (see
5772 The date in a header summary is normally the date of the mailbox
5774 line of the message.
5775 If this variable is set, then the date as given in the
5777 field is used, converted to local time.
5778 It is possible to control the display of the date by assigning a value,
5781 function will be used to format the date accordingly.
5782 Please read your system manual for the available formats.
5785 format should not be used, because \*(UA doesn't take embedded newlines
5786 into account when calculating how many lines fit onto the screen.
5789 .It Va datefield-markout-older
5790 This option, when set in addition to
5794 messages (concept is rather comparable to the
5796 option of the POSIX utility
5798 The content interpretation is identical to
5803 Suggestion for the MIME encoding to use in outgoing text messages
5805 Valid values are the default
5806 .Ql quoted-printable ,
5811 may cause problems when transferring mail messages over channels that
5812 are not ESMTP (RFC 1869) compliant.
5813 If there is no need to encode a message,
5815 transfer mode is always used regardless of this variable.
5816 Binary data is always encoded as
5821 If defined, the first character of this option
5822 gives the character to use in place of
5825 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
5829 If not set then file and command pipeline targets are not allowed,
5830 and any such address will be filtered out, giving a warning message.
5831 If set without a value then all possible recipient address
5832 specifications will be accepted \(en see the section
5835 To accept them, but only in interactive mode, or when tilde commands
5836 were enabled explicitly by using one of the command line options
5840 set this to the (case-insensitive) value
5842 (note right now this is actually like setting
5843 .Ql restrict,-all,+name,+addr ) .
5845 In fact the value is interpreted as a comma-separated list of values.
5848 then the existence of disallowed specifications is treated as a hard
5849 send error instead of only filtering them out.
5850 The remaining values specify wether a specific type of recipient
5851 address specification is allowed (optionally indicated by a plus sign
5853 prefix) or disallowed (prefixed with a hyphen
5857 addresses all possible address specifications,
5861 command pipeline targets,
5863 plain user names and (MTA) aliases (\*(OB
5865 may be used as an alternative syntax to
5870 These kind of values are interpreted in the given order, so that
5871 .Ql restrict,\:fail,\:+file,\:-all,\:+addr
5872 will cause hard errors for any non-network address recipient address
5873 unless \*(UA is in interactive mode or has been started with the
5877 command line option; in the latter case(s) any address may be used, then.
5881 Unless this variable is set additional mail-transfer-agent (MTA)
5882 arguments from the command line, as can be given after a
5884 separator, are ignored due to safety reasons.
5885 However, if set to the special value
5887 then the presence of additional MTA arguments is treated as a hard
5888 error that causes \*(UA to exit with failure status.
5889 A lesser strict variant is the otherwise identical
5891 which does accept such arguments in interactive mode, or if tilde
5892 commands were enabled explicitly by using one of the command line options
5899 \*(RO Information on the features compiled into \*(UA \(en the content
5900 of this variable is identical to the output of the command
5905 .It Va file-hook-load-EXTENSION , file-hook-save-EXTENSION
5906 It is possible to install file hooks which will be used by the
5908 command in order to be able to transparently handle (through an
5909 intermediate temporary file) files with specific
5911 s: the variable values can include shell snippets and are expected to
5912 write data to standard output / read data from standard input,
5914 \*(ID The variables may not be changed while there is a mailbox
5916 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5917 set file-hook-load-xy='echo >&2 XY-LOAD; gzip -cd' \e
5918 file-hook-save-xy='echo >&2 XY-SAVE; gzip -c' \e
5919 record=+null-sent.xy
5924 The name of the directory to use for storing folders of messages.
5925 All folder names that begin with
5927 refer to files below it.
5928 The same special conventions as documented for the
5930 command may be used when specifying a new value for
5932 but be aware that the expansion is fully performed immediately.
5933 E.g., if the expanded name refers to an IMAP account, all names that
5934 begin with `+' refer to IMAP mailboxes below the
5938 Note: some IMAP servers do not accept the creation of mailboxes in
5939 the hierarchy base, but require that they are created as subfolders of
5940 `INBOX' \(en with such servers a folder name of the form
5942 .Dl imaps://mylogin@imap.myisp.example/INBOX.
5944 should be used (the last character is the server's hierarchy delimiter).
5945 Folder names prefixed by `+' will then refer to folders below `INBOX',
5946 while folder names prefixed by `@' refer to folders below the hierarchy
5950 namespace command for a method to detect the appropriate prefix and
5955 When a folder is opened and this variable is set,
5956 the macro corresponding to the value of this variable is executed.
5957 The macro is also invoked when new mail arrives,
5958 but message lists for commands executed from the macro
5959 only include newly arrived messages then.
5962 are activated in a folder hook, then the covered settings will be
5963 reverted once the folder is left again.
5966 .It Va folder-hook-FOLDER
5971 Unlike other folder specifications, the fully expanded name of a folder,
5972 without metacharacters, is used to avoid ambiguities.
5973 However, if the mailbox resides under
5977 specification is tried in addition, e.g., if
5981 (and thus relative to the user's home directory) then
5982 .Pa /home/usr1/mail/sent
5984 .Ql folder-hook-/home/usr1/mail/sent
5985 first, but then followed by
5986 .Ql folder-hook-+sent .
5989 .It Va followup-to-honour
5991 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
5992 header is honoured when group-replying to a message via
5996 This is a quadoption; if set without a value it defaults to
6007 The address (or a list of addresses) to put into the
6009 field of the message header, quoting RFC 5322:
6010 the author(s) of the message, that is, the mailbox(es) of the person(s)
6011 or system(s) responsible for the writing of the message.
6012 If replying to messages these addresses are handled as if they were in
6016 If the machine's hostname is not valid at the Internet (for example at
6017 a dialup machine) then either this variable or
6022 adds even more fine-tuning capabilities),
6026 contains more than one address,
6029 variable is required (according to the standard RFC 5322).
6033 The string to print before the text of a message with the
6037 .Va forward-as-attachment
6040 .Dq -------- Original Message --------
6041 if unset; No heading is printed if it is set to the empty string.
6045 A format string to use for the header summary,
6051 introduces a format specifier that may be followed by a number
6052 indicating the field width;
6053 If the (possibly implicitly implied) field width is negative, the field
6054 is to be left-aligned.
6055 Valid format specifiers are:
6057 .Bl -tag -compact -offset indent -width "_%%_"
6059 A plain percent character.
6061 A space character but for the current message, for which it expands to
6064 A space character but for the current message, for which it expands to
6067 \*(OP The spam score of the message, as has been classified via the
6070 Prints only a replacement character if there is no spam support.
6072 Message attribute character (status flag); the actual content can be
6076 The date when the message was received.
6078 The indenting level in threaded mode.
6080 The address of the message sender.
6082 The message thread structure.
6083 (Note that this format doesn't support a field width.)
6085 The number of lines of the message.
6089 The number of octets (bytes) in the message.
6091 Message subject (if any).
6093 Message subject (if any) in double quotes.
6095 Message recipient flags: is the addressee of the message a known or
6096 subscribed mailing list \(en see
6101 The position in threaded/sorted order.
6105 .Ql %>\&%a\&%m\ %-18f\ %16d\ %4l/%\-5o\ %i%-s ,
6107 .Ql %>\&%a\&%m\ %20-f\ \ %16d\ %3l/%\-5o\ %i%-S
6117 .It Va headline-bidi
6118 Bidirectional text requires special treatment when displaying headers,
6119 because numbers (in dates or for file sizes etc.) will not affect the
6120 current text direction, in effect resulting in ugly line layouts when
6121 arabic or other right-to-left text is to be displayed.
6122 On the other hand only a minority of terminals is capable to correctly
6123 handle direction changes, so that user interaction is necessary for
6125 Note that extended host system support is required nonetheless, e.g.,
6126 detection of the terminal character set is one precondition;
6127 and this feature only works in an Unicode (i.e., UTF-8) locale.
6129 In general setting this variable will cause \*(UA to encapsulate text
6130 fields that may occur when printing
6132 (and some other fields, like dynamic expansions in
6134 with special Unicode control sequences;
6135 it is possible to fine-tune the terminal support level by assigning
6137 no value (or any value other than
6142 will make \*(UA assume that the terminal is capable to properly deal
6143 with Unicode version 6.3, in which case text is embedded in a pair of
6144 U+2068 (FIRST STRONG ISOLATE) and U+2069 (POP DIRECTIONAL ISOLATE)
6146 In addition no space on the line is reserved for these characters.
6148 Weaker support is chosen by using the value
6150 (Unicode 6.3, but reserve the room of two spaces for writing the control
6151 sequences onto the line).
6156 select Unicode 1.1 support (U+200E, LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK); the latter
6157 again reserves room for two spaces in addition.
6161 Use this string as hostname when expanding local addresses instead of
6162 the value obtained from
6173 transport is not used then it is normally the responsibility of the MTA
6174 to create these fields, \*(IN in conjunction with
6178 also influences the results;
6179 you should produce some test messages with the desired combination of
6187 .It Va imap-auth-USER@HOST , imap-auth
6188 \*(OP Sets the IMAP authentication method.
6189 Valid values are `login' for the usual password-based authentication
6191 `cram-md5', which is a password-based authentication that does not send
6192 the password over the network in clear text,
6193 and `gssapi' for GSS-API based authentication.
6197 \*(OP Enables caching of IMAP mailboxes.
6198 The value of this variable must point to a directory that is either
6199 existent or can be created by \*(UA.
6200 All contents of the cache can be deleted by \*(UA at any time;
6201 it is not safe to make assumptions about them.
6203 .Mx Va imap-keepalive
6204 .It Va imap-keepalive-USER@HOST , imap-keepalive-HOST , imap-keepalive
6205 \*(OP IMAP servers may close the connection after a period of
6206 inactivity; the standard requires this to be at least 30 minutes,
6207 but practical experience may vary.
6208 Setting this variable to a numeric `value' greater than 0 causes
6209 a `NOOP' command to be sent each `value' seconds if no other operation
6213 .It Va imap-list-depth
6214 \*(OP When retrieving the list of folders on an IMAP server, the
6216 command stops after it has reached a certain depth to avoid possible
6218 The value of this variable sets the maximum depth allowed.
6220 If the folder separator on the current IMAP server is a slash `/',
6221 this variable has no effect and the
6223 command does not descend to subfolders.
6234 option for indenting messages,
6235 in place of the normal tabulator character
6237 which is the default.
6238 Be sure to quote the value if it contains spaces or tabs.
6241 .It Va line-editor-cursor-right
6242 \*(OP If the builtin command line editor is used, actions which are
6243 based on rightwise movement may not work on some terminals.
6244 If you encounter such problems, set this variable to the terminal
6245 control sequence that is necessary to move the cursor one column to the
6249 which should work for most terminals.
6256 and other control character have to be written as shell-style escape
6264 Is used as the user's mailbox, if set.
6265 Otherwise, a system-dependent default is used.
6266 Supports a logical subset of the special conventions that are documented
6274 .It Va mime-counter-evidence
6277 field is used to decide how to handle MIME parts.
6278 Some MUAs however don't use
6280 or a similar mechanism to correctly classify content, but simply specify
6281 .Ql application/octet-stream ,
6282 even for plain text attachments like
6284 If this variable is set then \*(UA will try to classify such MIME
6285 message parts on its own, if possible, for example via a possibly
6286 existent attachment filename.
6287 A non-empty value may also be given, in which case a number is expected,
6288 actually a carrier of bits.
6289 Creating the bit-carrying number is a simple addition:
6290 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6291 ? !echo Value should be set to $((2 + 4 + 8))
6292 Value should be set to 14
6295 .Bl -bullet -compact
6297 If bit two is set (2) then the detected
6299 content-type will be carried along with the message and be used for
6301 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
6302 is responsible for the MIME part, shall that question arise;
6303 when displaying such a MIME part the part-info will indicate the
6304 overridden content-type by showing a plus-sign
6307 If bit three is set (4) then the counter-evidence is always produced
6308 and a positive result will be used as the MIME type, even forcefully
6309 overriding the parts given MIME type.
6311 If bit four is set (8) then as a last resort the actual content of
6312 .Ql application/octet-stream
6313 parts will be inspected, so that data which looks like plain text can be
6318 .It Va mimetypes-load-control
6319 This option can be used to control which of the
6321 databases are loaded by \*(UA, as furtherly described in the section
6322 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
6325 is part of the option value, then the user's personal
6327 file will be loaded (if it exists); likewise the letter
6329 controls loading of the system wide
6330 .Pa /etc/mime.types ;
6331 directives found in the user file take precedence, letter matching is
6333 If this option is not set \*(UA will try to load both files.
6334 Incorporation of the \*(UA-builtin MIME types cannot be suppressed,
6335 but they will be matched last.
6337 More sources can be specified by using a different syntax: if the
6338 value string contains an equals sign
6340 then it is instead parsed as a comma-separated list of the described
6343 pairs; the given filenames will be expanded and loaded, and their
6344 content may use the extended syntax that is described in the section
6345 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
6346 Directives found in such files always take precedence (are prepended to
6347 the MIME type cache).
6350 .It Va NAIL_EXTRA_RC
6351 The name of an optional startup file to be read after
6353 This variable has an effect only if it is set in
6357 it is not imported from the environment in order to honour
6358 .Ql MAILRC=/dev/null Ns /
6361 Use this file for commands that are not understood by other POSIX
6367 A string to put at the beginning of each new message.
6368 The escape sequences tabulator
6375 .It Va NAIL_HISTFILE
6376 \*(OP If a command line editor is available then this can be set to
6377 name the (expandable) path of the location of a permanent history file.
6380 .It Va NAIL_HISTSIZE
6381 \*(OP If a command line editor is available this value restricts the
6382 amount of history entries that are saved into a set and valid
6384 A value of less than 0 disables this feature;
6385 note that loading and incorporation of
6387 upon program startup can also be suppressed by doing this.
6388 An unset or invalid value, or 0, causes a default value to be used.
6389 Dependent on the available command line editor this will also define the
6390 number of history entries in memory;
6391 it is also editor-specific wether runtime updates of this value will be
6396 A string to put at the end of each new message.
6397 The escape sequences tabulator
6405 If this variable has the value
6407 newly created local folders will be in Maildir format.
6411 Checks for new mail in the current folder each time the prompt is
6413 For IMAP mailboxes the server is then polled for new mail,
6414 which may result in delayed operation if the connection to the server is
6416 A Maildir folder must be re-scanned to determine if new mail has arrived.
6418 If this variable is set to the special value
6420 an IMAP server is not actively asked for new mail, but new mail may
6421 still be detected and announced with any other IMAP command that is sent
6423 In either case the IMAP server may send notifications about messages
6424 that have been deleted on the server by another process or client.
6426 .Dq Expunged X messages
6427 is printed regardless of this variable, and message numbers may have
6430 If this variable is set to the special value
6432 then a Maildir folder will not be rescanned completely, but only
6433 timestamp changes are detected.
6437 The value to put into the
6439 field of the message header.
6442 .It Va password-USER@HOST , password-HOST , password
6443 \*(IN Variable chain that sets a password, which is used in case none has
6444 been given in the protocol and account-specific URL;
6445 as a last resort \*(UA will ask for a password on the user's terminal if
6446 the authentication method requires a password.
6447 Specifying passwords in a startup file is generally a security risk;
6448 the file should be readable by the invoking user only.
6450 .It Va password-USER@HOST
6451 \*(OU (see the chain above for \*(IN)
6452 Set the password for
6456 If no such variable is defined for a host,
6457 the user will be asked for a password on standard input.
6458 Specifying passwords in a startup file is generally a security risk;
6459 the file should be readable by the invoking user only.
6463 .It Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
6464 When a MIME message part of type
6466 (case-insensitive) is displayed or quoted,
6467 its text is filtered through the value of this variable interpreted as
6471 forces interpretation of the message part as plain text, e.g.,
6472 .Ql set pipe-application/xml=@
6473 will henceforth display XML
6475 (The same could also be achieved by adding a MIME type marker with the
6478 And \*(OPally MIME type handlers may be defined via
6479 .Sx "The Mailcap files"
6480 \(em corresponding flag strings are shown in parenthesis below.)
6485 can in fact be used to adjust usage and behaviour of a following shell
6486 command specification by appending trigger characters to it, e.g., the
6487 following hypothetical command specification could be used:
6488 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6489 set pipe-X/Y="@*!++=@vim ${NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}"
6493 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql __"
6495 Simply by using the special
6497 prefix the MIME type (shell command) handler will only be invoked to
6498 display or convert the MIME part if the message is addressed directly
6499 and alone by itself.
6500 Use this trigger to disable this and always invoke the handler
6501 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-always ) .
6504 If set the handler will not be invoked when a message is to be quoted,
6505 but only when it will be displayed
6506 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-noquote ) .
6509 The command will be run asynchronously, i.e., without blocking \*(UA,
6510 which may be a handy way to display a, e.g., PDF file while also
6511 continuing to read the mail message
6512 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-async ) .
6513 Asynchronous execution implies
6517 The command must be run on an interactive terminal, \*(UA will
6518 temporarily release the terminal to it
6519 .Pf ( Cd needsterminal ) .
6520 This flag is mutual exclusive with
6522 will only be used in interactive mode and implies
6526 Request creation of a zero-sized temporary file, the absolute pathname
6527 of which will be made accessable via the environment variable
6528 .Ev NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY
6529 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-tmpfile ) .
6530 If this trigger is given twice then the file will be unlinked
6531 automatically by \*(UA when the command loop is entered again at latest
6532 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink ) .
6533 (Don't use this for asynchronous handlers.)
6536 Normally the MIME part content is passed to the handler via standard
6537 input; if this flag is set then the data will instead be written into
6538 .Ev NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY
6539 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill ) ,
6540 the creation of which is implied; note however that in order to cause
6541 deletion of the temporary file you still have to use two plus signs
6546 To avoid ambiguities with normal shell command content you can use
6547 another at-sign to forcefully terminate interpretation of remaining
6549 (Any character not in this list will have the same effect.)
6553 Some information about the MIME part to be displayed is embedded into
6554 the environment of the shell command:
6557 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ev _AIL__ILENAME__ENERATED"
6560 The MIME content-type of the part, if known, the empty string otherwise.
6563 .It Ev NAIL_CONTENT_EVIDENCE
6565 .Va mime-counter-evidence
6566 includes the carry-around-bit (2), then this will be set to the detected
6567 MIME content-type; not only then identical to
6568 .Ev \&\&NAIL_CONTENT
6572 .It Ev NAIL_FILENAME
6573 The filename, if any is set, the empty string otherwise.
6576 .It Ev NAIL_FILENAME_GENERATED
6580 .It Ev NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY
6581 If temporary file creation has been requested through the command prefix
6582 this variable will be set and contain the absolute pathname of the
6587 The temporary directory that \*(UA uses.
6588 Usually identical to
6590 but guaranteed to be set and usable by child processes;
6591 to ensure the latter condition for
6598 .It Va pipe-EXTENSION
6599 This is identical to
6600 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
6603 (normalized to lowercase using character mappings of the ASCII charset)
6604 names a file extension, e.g.,
6606 Handlers registered using this method take precedence.
6608 .Mx Va pop3-keepalive
6609 .It Va pop3-keepalive-USER@HOST , pop3-keepalive-HOST , pop3-keepalive
6610 \*(OP POP3 servers close the connection after a period of inactivity;
6611 the standard requires this to be at least 10 minutes,
6612 but practical experience may vary.
6613 Setting this variable to a numeric value greater than
6617 command to be sent each value seconds if no other operation is performed.
6621 The string printed when a command is accepted.
6622 Prompting may be prevented by either setting this to the null string
6625 The same XSI escape sequences that are understood by the
6627 command may be used within
6630 In addition, the following \*(UA specific additional sequences are
6637 is set, in which case it expands to
6641 is the default value of
6644 which will expand to
6646 if the last command failed and to
6650 which will expand to the name of the currently active
6652 if any, and to the empty string otherwise, and
6654 which will expand to the name of the currently active mailbox.
6655 (Note that the prompt buffer is size-limited, excess is cut off.)
6661 to encapsulate the expansions of the
6665 escape sequences as necessary to correctly display bidirectional text,
6666 this is not true for the final string that makes up
6668 as such, i.e., real BIDI handling is not supported.
6670 When a newer version of the
6672 .Sx "Command line editor"
6673 is used, any escape sequence must itself be encapsulated with another
6674 escape character for usage with the
6676 mechanism: \*(UA configures the control character
6682 If set, \*(UA starts a replying message with the original message
6683 prefixed by the value of the variable
6685 Normally, a heading consisting of
6686 .Dq Fromheaderfield wrote:
6687 is printed before the quotation.
6692 variable, this heading is omitted.
6695 is assigned, the headers selected by the
6696 .Ic ignore Ns / Ns Ic retain
6697 commands are printed above the message body,
6700 acts like an automatic
6706 is assigned, all headers are printed above the message body and all MIME
6707 parts are included, making
6709 act like an automatic
6712 .Va quote-as-attachment .
6716 \*(OP Can be set in addition to
6718 Setting this turns on a more fancy quotation algorithm in that leading
6719 quotation characters are compressed and overlong lines are folded.
6721 can be set to either one or two (space separated) numeric values,
6722 which are interpreted as the maximum (goal) and the minimum line length,
6723 respectively, in a spirit rather equal to the
6725 program, but line-, not paragraph-based.
6726 If not set explicitly the minimum will reflect the goal algorithmically.
6727 The goal can't be smaller than the length of
6729 plus some additional pad.
6730 Necessary adjustments take place silently.
6734 If defined, gives the pathname of the folder used to record all outgoing
6736 If not defined, then outgoing mail is not saved.
6737 When saving to this folder fails the message is not sent,
6738 but instead saved to
6742 .It Va reply_strings
6743 Can be set to a comma-separated list of (case-insensitive according to
6744 ASCII rules) strings which shall be recognized in addition to the
6747 reply message indicators \(en builtin are
6749 which is mandated by RFC 5322, as well as the german
6754 A list of addresses to put into the
6756 field of the message header.
6757 Members of this list are handled as if they were in the
6762 .It Va reply-to-honour
6765 header is honoured when replying to a message via
6769 This is a quadoption; if set without a value it defaults to
6774 When \*(UA initially prints the message headers it determines the number
6775 to print by looking at the speed of the terminal.
6776 The faster the terminal, the more it prints.
6777 This option overrides this calculation and specifies how many message
6778 headers are printed.
6779 This number is also used for scrolling with the
6785 \*(OP A comma-separated list of character set names that can be used in
6786 outgoing internet mail.
6787 The value of the variable
6789 is automatically appended to this list of character-sets.
6790 If no character set conversion capabilities are compiled into \*(UA then
6791 the only supported charset is
6794 .Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
6795 and refer to the section
6796 .Sx "Character sets"
6797 for the complete picture of character set conversion in \*(UA.
6801 An address that is put into the
6803 field of outgoing messages, quoting RFC 5322: the mailbox of the agent
6804 responsible for the actual transmission of the message.
6805 This field should normally not be used unless the
6807 field contains more than one address, on which case it is required.
6810 address is handled as if it were in the
6816 To use an alternate mail transport agent (MTA),
6817 set this option to the full pathname of the program to use.
6818 It may be necessary to set
6819 .Va sendmail-progname
6822 The MTA will be passed command line arguments from several possible
6823 sources: from the variable
6824 .Va sendmail-arguments
6825 if set, from the command line if given and the variable
6828 Argument processing of the MTA will be terminated with a
6832 The otherwise occurring implicit usage of the following MTA command line
6833 arguments can be disabled by setting the boolean option
6834 .Va sendmail-no-default-arguments
6835 (which will also disable passing
6839 (for not treating a line with only a dot
6841 character as the end of input),
6849 option is set); in conjunction with the
6851 command line option \*(UA will also pass
6857 .It Va sendmail-arguments
6858 Arguments to pass through to the Mail-Transfer-Agent can be given via
6860 The content of this variable will be split up in a vector of arguments
6861 which will be joined onto other possible MTA options:
6863 .Dl set sendmail-arguments='-t -X \&"/tmp/my log\&"'
6866 .It Va sendmail-no-default-arguments
6867 \*(BY Unless this option is set \*(UA will pass some well known
6868 standard command line options to the defined
6870 program, see there for more.
6873 .It Va sendmail-progname
6874 Many systems use a so-called
6876 environment to ensure compatibility with
6878 This works by inspecting the name that was used to invoke the mail
6880 If this variable is set then the mailwrapper (the program that is
6881 actually executed when calling
6883 will treat its contents as that name.
6889 A string for use with the
6895 A string for use with the
6901 Must correspond to the name of a readable file if set.
6902 The file's content is then appended to each singlepart message
6903 and to the first part of each multipart message.
6904 Be warned that there is no possibility to edit the signature for an
6909 \*(OP Specifies a directory with CA certificates in PEM (Privacy
6910 Enhanced Mail) format for verification of S/MIME signed messages.
6913 .It Va smime-ca-file
6914 \*(OP Specifies a file with CA certificates in PEM format for
6915 verification of S/MIME signed messages.
6918 .It Va smime-cipher-USER@HOST , smime-cipher
6919 \*(OP Specifies the cipher to use when generating S/MIME encrypted
6920 messages (for the specified account).
6921 RFC 5751 mandates a default of
6924 Possible values are (case-insensitive and) in decreasing cipher strength:
6932 (DES EDE3 CBC, 168 bits; default if
6934 isn't available) and
6938 The actually available cipher algorithms depend on the cryptographic
6939 library that \*(UA uses.
6940 \*(OP Support for more cipher algorithms may be available through
6941 dynamic loading via, e.g.,
6942 .Xr EVP_get_cipherbyname 3
6943 (OpenSSL) if \*(UA has been compiled to support this.
6946 .It Va smime-crl-dir
6947 \*(OP Specifies a directory that contains files with CRLs in PEM format
6948 to use when verifying S/MIME messages.
6951 .It Va smime-crl-file
6952 \*(OP Specifies a file that contains a CRL in PEM format to use when
6953 verifying S/MIME messages.
6956 .It Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST
6957 \*(OP If this variable is set, messages send to the given receiver are
6958 encrypted before sending.
6959 The value of the variable must be set to the name of a file that
6960 contains a certificate in PEM format.
6962 If a message is sent to multiple recipients,
6963 each of them for whom a corresponding variable is set will receive an
6964 individually encrypted message;
6965 other recipients will continue to receive the message in plain text
6967 .Va smime-force-encryption
6969 It is recommended to sign encrypted messages, i.e., to also set the
6973 .Mx Va smime-sign-cert
6974 .It Va smime-sign-cert-USER@HOST , smime-sign-cert
6975 \*(OP Points to a file in PEM format.
6976 For the purpose of signing and decryption this file needs to contain the
6977 user's private key as well as his certificate.
6981 is always derived from the value of
6983 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
6985 For the purpose of encryption the recipient's public encryption key
6986 (certificate) is expected; the command
6988 can be used to save certificates of signed messages (the section
6989 .Sx "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
6990 gives some details).
6991 This mode of operation is usually driven by the specialized form.
6993 When decrypting messages the account is derived from the recipient
6998 of the message, which are searched for addresses for which such
7000 \*(UA always uses the first address that matches,
7001 so if the same message is sent to more than one of the user's addresses
7002 using different encryption keys, decryption might fail.
7004 .Mx Va smime-sign-include-certs
7005 .It Va smime-sign-include-certs-USER@HOST , smime-sign-include-certs
7006 \*(OP If used, this is supposed to a consist of a comma-separated list
7007 of files, each of which containing a single certificate in PEM format to
7008 be included in the S/MIME message in addition to the
7011 This is most useful for long certificate chains if it is desired to aid
7012 the receiving party's verification process.
7013 Note that top level certificates may also be included in the chain but
7014 don't play a role for verification.
7016 .Va smime-sign-cert .
7017 Remember that for this
7019 refers to the variable
7021 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
7024 .Mx Va smime-sign-message-digest
7025 .It Va smime-sign-message-digest-USER@HOST , smime-sign-message-digest
7026 \*(OP Specifies the message digest to use when signing S/MIME messages.
7027 RFC 5751 mandates a default of
7029 Possible values are (case-insensitive and) in decreasing cipher strength:
7037 The actually available message digest algorithms depend on the
7038 cryptographic library that \*(UA uses.
7039 \*(OP Support for more message digest algorithms may be available
7040 through dynamic loading via, e.g.,
7041 .Xr EVP_get_digestbyname 3
7042 (OpenSSL) if \*(UA has been compiled to support this.
7043 Remember that for this
7045 refers to the variable
7047 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
7052 \*(OP Normally \*(UA invokes the program defined via
7054 to transfer messages, as described in
7055 .Sx "Sending mail" .
7058 variable will instead cause SMTP network connections be made to the
7059 server specified therein in order to directly submit the message.
7060 \*(UA knows about three different
7061 .Dq SMTP protocols :
7063 .Bl -bullet -compact
7065 The plain SMTP protocol (RFC 5321) that normally lives on the
7066 server port 25 and requires setting the
7067 .Va smtp-use-starttls
7068 variable to enter a SSL/TLS encrypted session state.
7069 Assign a value like \*(IN
7070 .Ql [smtp://][user[:password]@]server[:port]
7072 .Ql [smtp://]server[:port] )
7073 to choose this protocol.
7075 Then the so-called SMTPS which is supposed to live on server port 465
7076 and is automatically SSL/TLS secured.
7077 Unfortunately it never became a standardized protocol and may thus not
7078 be supported by your hosts network service database
7079 \(en in fact the port number has already been reassigned to other
7082 SMTPS is nonetheless a commonly offered protocol and thus can be
7083 chosen by assigning a value like \*(IN
7084 .Ql smtps://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
7086 .Ql smtps://server[:port] ) ;
7087 due to the mentioned problems it is usually necessary to explicitly
7092 Finally there is the SUBMISSION protocol (RFC 6409), which usually
7093 lives on server port 587 and is practically identically to the SMTP
7094 protocol from \*(UA's point of view beside that; it requires setting the
7095 .Va smtp-use-starttls
7096 variable to enter a SSL/TLS secured session state.
7097 Assign a value like \*(IN
7098 .Ql submission://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
7100 .Ql submission://server[:port] ) .
7103 For more on credentials etc. please see
7104 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
7105 The SMTP transfer is executed in a child process, which runs
7106 asynchronously unless either the
7111 If it receives a TERM signal, it will abort and save the message to
7115 .It Va smtp-auth-USER@HOST , smtp-auth-HOST , smtp-auth
7116 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the SMTP authentication method.
7123 as well as the \*(OPal methods
7129 method doesn't need any user credentials,
7131 requires a user name and all other methods require a user name and
7139 .Va smtp-auth-password
7141 .Va smtp-auth-user ) .
7146 .Va smtp-auth-USER@HOST :
7147 may override dependend on sender address in the variable
7150 .It Va smtp-auth-password
7151 \*(OP \*(OU Sets the global fallback password for SMTP authentication.
7152 If the authentication method requires a password, but neither
7153 .Va smtp-auth-password
7155 .Va smtp-auth-password-USER@HOST
7157 \*(UA will ask for a password on the user's terminal.
7159 .It Va smtp-auth-password-USER@HOST
7161 .Va smtp-auth-password
7162 for specific values of sender addresses, dependent upon the variable
7165 .It Va smtp-auth-user
7166 \*(OP \*(OU Sets the global fallback user name for SMTP authentication.
7167 If the authentication method requires a user name, but neither
7170 .Va smtp-auth-user-USER@HOST
7172 \*(UA will ask for a user name on the user's terminal.
7174 .It Va smtp-auth-user-USER@HOST
7177 for specific values of sender addresses, dependent upon the variable
7181 .It Va smtp-hostname
7182 \*(IN Normally \*(UA uses the variable
7184 to derive the necessary
7186 information to issue a
7191 can be used to use the
7193 from the SMTP account
7200 from the content of this variable (or, if that is the empty string,
7202 or the local hostname as a last resort).
7203 This often allows using an address that is itself valid but hosted by
7204 a provider other than which (in
7206 is about to send the message.
7207 Setting this variable also influences the generated
7212 .It Va spam-interface
7213 \*(OP In order to use any of the spam-related commands (like, e.g.,
7215 the desired spam interface must be defined by setting this variable.
7216 Please refer to the manual section
7218 for the complete picture of spam handling in \*(UA.
7219 All or none of the following interfaces may be available:
7221 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ql _ilte_"
7227 .Pf ( Lk http://spamassassin.apache.org SpamAssassin )
7229 Different to the generic filter interface \*(UA will automatically add
7230 the correct arguments for a given command and has the necessary
7231 knowledge to parse the program's output.
7234 will have been compiled into the \*(UA binary if
7239 Shall it be necessary to define a specific connection type (rather than
7240 using a configuration file for that), the variable
7242 can be used as in, e.g.,
7243 .Ql -d server.example.com -p 783 .
7244 It is also possible to specify a per-user configuration via
7246 Note that this interface doesn't inspect the
7248 flag of a message for the command
7252 \*(UA will directly communicate with the
7258 stream socket as specified in
7260 It is possible to specify a per-user configuration via
7264 generic spam filter support via freely configurable hooks.
7265 This interface is ment for programs like
7269 and requires according behaviour in respect to the hooks' exit
7270 status for at least the command
7273 meaning a message is spam,
7277 for unsure and any other return value indicating a hard error);
7278 since the hooks can include shell code snippets diverting behaviour
7279 can be intercepted as necessary.
7281 .Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , spamfilter-nospam , \
7284 .Va spamfilter-spam ;
7287 contains examples for some programs.
7288 The process environment of the hooks will have the variables
7289 .Ev NAIL_TMPDIR , TMPDIR
7291 .Ev NAIL_FILENAME_GENERATED
7293 Note that spam score support for
7295 isn't supported unless the \*(OPtional regular expression support is
7297 .Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore
7304 \*(OP Messages that exceed this size won't be passed through to the
7306 .Va spam-interface .
7307 The default is 420000 bytes.
7310 .It Va spamc-command
7311 \*(OP The path to the
7315 .Va spam-interface .
7316 Note that the path is not expanded, but used
7318 A fallback path will have been compiled into the \*(UA binary if the
7319 executable had been found during compilation.
7322 .It Va spamc-arguments
7323 \*(OP Even though \*(UA deals with most arguments for the
7326 automatically, it may at least sometimes be desirable to specifiy
7327 connection-related ones via this variable, e.g.,
7328 .Ql -d server.example.com -p 783 .
7332 \*(OP Specify a username for per-user configuration files for the
7334 .Va spam-interface .
7335 If this is set to the empty string then \*(UA will use the name of the
7341 \*(OP Specify the path of the
7343 domain socket on which
7345 listens for connections for the
7347 .Va spam-interface .
7348 Note that the path is not expanded, but used
7353 \*(OP Specify a username for per-user configuration files for the
7355 .Va spam-interface .
7356 If this is set to the empty string then \*(UA will use the name of the
7365 .It Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , \
7366 spamfilter-nospam , spamfilter-rate , spamfilter-spam
7367 \*(OP Command and argument hooks for the
7369 .Va spam-interface .
7372 contains examples for some programs.
7375 .It Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore
7376 \*(OP Because of the generic nature of the
7379 spam scores are not supported for it by default, but if the \*(OPtional
7380 regular expression support is available then setting this variable can
7381 be used to overcome this restriction.
7382 It is interpreted as follows: first a number (digits) is parsed that
7383 must be followed by a semicolon
7385 and a regular expression.
7386 Then the latter is used to parse the first output line of the
7388 hook, and, in case the evaluation is successful, the group that has been
7389 specified via the number is interpreted as a floating point scan score.
7393 \*(OP Specifies a directory with CA certificates in PEM (Pricacy
7394 Enhanced Mail) for verification of of SSL/TLS server certificates.
7396 .Xr SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations 3
7397 for more information.
7401 \*(OP Specifies a file with CA certificates in PEM format for
7402 verification of SSL/TLS server certificates.
7404 .Xr SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations 3
7405 for more information.
7408 .It Va ssl-cert-USER@HOST , ssl-cert-HOST , ssl-cert
7409 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the file name for a SSL/TLS client
7410 certificate required by some servers.
7411 This is a direct interface to the
7415 function of the OpenSSL library, if available.
7417 .Mx Va ssl-cipher-list
7418 .It Va ssl-cipher-list-USER@HOST , ssl-cipher-list-HOST , ssl-cipher-list
7419 \*(OP Specifies a list of ciphers for SSL/TLS connections.
7420 This is a direct interface to the
7424 function of the OpenSSL library, if available; see
7426 for more information.
7427 By default \*(UA doesn't set a list of ciphers, which in effect will use a
7429 specific cipher (protocol standards ship with a list of acceptable
7430 ciphers), possibly cramped to what the actually used SSL/TLS library
7431 supports \(en the manual section
7432 .Sx "An example configuration"
7433 also contains a SSL/TLS use case.
7436 .It Va ssl-config-file
7437 \*(OP If this variable is set \*(UA will call
7438 .Xr CONF_modules_load_file 3
7439 to allow OpenSSL to be configured according to the host system wide
7441 If a non-empty value is given then this will be used to specify the
7442 configuration file to be used instead of the global OpenSSL default;
7443 note that in this case it is an error if the file cannot be loaded.
7444 The application name will always be passed as
7449 \*(OP Specifies a file that contains a CRL in PEM format to use when
7450 verifying SSL/TLS server certificates.
7454 \*(OP Specifies a directory that contains files with CRLs in PEM format
7455 to use when verifying SSL/TLS server certificates.
7458 .It Va ssl-key-USER@HOST , ssl-key-HOST , ssl-key
7459 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the file name for the private key of
7460 a SSL/TLS client certificate.
7461 If unset, the name of the certificate file is used.
7462 The file is expected to be in PEM format.
7463 This is a direct interface to the
7467 function of the OpenSSL library, if available.
7470 .It Va ssl-method-USER@HOST , ssl-method-HOST , ssl-method
7472 \*(OB Please use the newer and more flexible
7474 instead: if both values are set,
7476 will take precedence!
7477 Can be set to the following values, the actually used
7479 specification to which it is mapped is shown in parenthesis:
7481 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, TLSv1.2 ) ,
7483 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, TLSv1.1 ) ,
7485 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, TLSv1 )
7488 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, SSLv3 ) ;
7493 and thus includes the SSLv3 protocol.
7494 Note that SSLv2 is no longer supported at all.
7497 .It Va ssl-protocol-USER@HOST , ssl-protocol-HOST , ssl-protocol
7498 \*(OP Specify the used SSL/TLS protocol.
7499 This is a direct interface to the
7503 function of the OpenSSL library, if available;
7504 otherwise an \*(UA internal parser is used which understands the
7505 following subset of (case-insensitive) command strings:
7511 as well as the special value
7513 Multiple specifications may be given via a comma-separated list which
7514 ignores any whitespace.
7517 plus prefix will enable a protocol, a
7519 minus prefix will disable it, so that
7521 will enable only the TLSv1.2 protocol.
7523 It depends upon the used TLS/SSL library which protocols are actually
7524 supported and which protocols are used if
7526 is not set, but note that SSLv2 is no longer supported at all and
7528 Especially for older protocols explicitly securing
7530 may be worthwile, see
7531 .Sx "An example configuration" .
7535 \*(OP Gives the pathname to an entropy daemon socket, see
7537 Not all SSL/TLS libraries support this.
7540 .It Va ssl-rand-file
7541 \*(OP Gives the pathname to a file with entropy data, see
7542 .Xr RAND_load_file 3 .
7543 If the file is a regular file writable by the invoking user,
7544 new data is written to it after it has been loaded.
7547 .It Va ssl-verify-USER@HOST , ssl-verify-HOST , ssl-verify
7548 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the action to be performed if an error
7549 occurs during SSL/TLS server certificate validation.
7550 Valid (case-insensitive) values are
7552 (fail and close connection immediately),
7554 (ask whether to continue on standard input),
7556 (print a warning and continue),
7558 (do not perform validation).
7564 If only set without an assigned value, then this option inhibits the
7569 header fields that include obvious references to \*(UA.
7570 There are two pitfalls associated with this:
7571 First, the message id of outgoing messages is not known anymore.
7572 Second, an expert may still use the remaining information in the header
7573 to track down the originating mail user agent.
7578 suppression doesn't occur.
7582 If defined, gives the number of lines of a message to be printed out
7583 with the top command; normally, the first five lines are printed.
7587 The character set of the terminal \*(UA operates on,
7588 and the one and only supported character set that \*(UA can use if no
7589 character set conversion capabilities have been compiled into it,
7590 in which case it defaults to ISO-8859-1 unless it can deduce a value
7594 Refer to the section
7595 .Sx "Character sets"
7596 for the complete picture about character sets.
7599 .It Va user-HOST , user
7600 \*(IN Variable chain that sets a global fallback user name, which is
7601 used in case none has been given in the protocol and account-specific
7603 This variable defaults to the value of
7610 .It Va version , version-major , version-minor , version-update
7611 \*(RO \*(UA version information: the first variable contains a string
7612 containing the complete version identification \(en this is identical to
7613 the output of the command
7615 The latter three contain only digits: the major, minor and update
7619 .\" }}} (Variable options)
7622 .\" .Sh ENVIRONMENT {{{
7626 .Dq environment variable
7627 should be considered an indication that the following variables are
7628 either standardized as being vivid parts of process environments, or
7629 are commonly found in there.
7630 Unless otherwise explicitly noted they integrate into the normal
7631 variable handling, as documented above, from \*(UAs' point of view.
7633 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ev _AILR_"
7636 The user's preferred width in column positions for the terminal screen
7638 Queried and used once on program startup.
7642 The name of the file to use for saving aborted messages if
7644 is set; this defaults to
7652 Pathname of the text editor to use in the
7656 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
7657 A default editor is used if this value is not defined.
7661 The user's home directory.
7662 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
7665 to update the value at runtime.
7672 .It Ev LANG , LC_ALL , LC_COLLATE , LC_CTYPE , LC_MESSAGES
7676 .Sx "Character sets" .
7680 The user's preferred number of lines on a page or the vertical screen
7681 or window size in lines.
7682 Queried and used once on program startup.
7686 Pathname of the directory lister to use in the
7688 command when operating on local mailboxes.
7691 (path search through
7696 \*(OP Overrides the default path search for
7697 .Sx "The Mailcap files" ,
7698 which is defined in the standard RFC 1524 as
7699 .Ql ~/.mailcap:\:/etc/mailcap:\:/usr/etc/mailcap:\:/usr/local/etc/mailcap .
7700 .\" TODO we should have a mailcaps-default virtual RDONLY option!
7701 (\*(UA makes it a configuration option, however.)
7702 Note this is not a search path, but a path search.
7706 Is used as a startup file instead of
7709 When \*(UA scripts are invoked on behalf of other users,
7710 this variable should be set to
7712 to avoid side-effects from reading their configuration files.
7713 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
7717 The name of the user's mbox file.
7718 Supports a logical subset of the special conventions that are
7724 The fallback default is
7731 .It Ev NAIL_NO_SYSTEM_RC
7732 If this variable is set then reading of
7734 at startup is inhibited, i.e., the same effect is achieved as if \*(UA
7735 had been started up with the option
7737 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
7741 \*(IN \*(OP This variable overrides the default location of the user's
7747 Pathname of the program to use in the more command or when the
7750 The default paginator is
7752 (path search through
7757 A list of directories that is searched by the shell when looking for
7758 commands (as such only recognized in the process environment).
7762 The shell to use for the commands
7768 and when starting subprocesses.
7769 A default shell is used if this option is not defined.
7773 Changes the letters printed in the first column of a header summary.
7777 \*(OP The terminal type for which output is to be prepared.
7781 Used as directory for temporary files instead of
7784 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
7787 to update the value at runtime.
7791 Force identification as the given user, i.e., identical to the
7793 command line option.
7794 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
7797 to update the value at runtime, but note that doing so won't trigger any
7798 of those validation checks that were performed on program startup (again).
7802 Pathname of the text editor to use in the
7806 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
7814 .Bl -tag -width ".It Pa _etc/mime.type_"
7816 File giving initial commands.
7819 System wide initialization file.
7823 \*(OP Personal MIME type handler definition file, see
7824 .Sx "The Mailcap files" .
7825 (RFC 1524 location, the actual path is a configuration option.)
7829 \*(OP System wide MIME type handler definition file, see
7830 .Sx "The Mailcap files" .
7831 (RFC 1524 location, the actual path is a configuration option.)
7834 .It Pa ~/.mime.types
7835 Personal MIME types, see
7836 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
7839 .It Pa /etc/mime.types
7840 System wide MIME types, see
7841 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
7845 \*(IN \*(OP The default location of the users
7847 file \(en the section
7848 .Sx "The .netrc file"
7849 documents the file format.
7852 .\" .Ss "The mime.types files" {{{
7853 .Ss "The mime.types files"
7855 When sending messages \*(UA tries to determine the content type of all
7857 When displaying message content or attachments \*(UA uses the content
7858 type to decide wether it can directly display data or wether it needs to
7859 deal with content handlers.
7860 It learns about MIME types and how to treat them by reading
7862 files, the loading of which can be controlled by setting the variable
7863 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
7866 can also be used to deal with MIME types.)
7868 files have the following syntax:
7871 .Dl type/subtype extension [extension ...]
7876 are strings describing the file contents, and one or multiple
7878 s, separated by whitespace, name the part of a filename starting after
7879 the last dot (of interest).
7880 Comments may be introduced anywhere on a line with a number sign
7882 causing the remaining line to be discarded.
7884 \*(UA also supports an extended, non-portable syntax in specially
7885 crafted files, which can be loaded via the alternative value syntax of
7886 .Va mimetypes-load-control
7887 and prepends an optional
7891 .Dl [type-marker ]type/subtype extension [extension ...]
7894 The following type markers are supported:
7897 .Bl -tag -compact -offset indent -width ".It Ar _n_u"
7899 Treat message parts with this content as plain text.
7904 Treat message parts with this content as HTML tagsoup.
7905 If the \*(OPal HTML-tagsoup-to-text converter is not available treat
7906 the content as plain text instead.
7910 but instead of falling back to plain text require an explicit content
7911 handler to be defined.
7916 for sending messages:
7918 .Va mime-allow-text-controls ,
7919 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
7920 For reading etc. messages:
7921 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ,
7922 .Sx "The Mailcap files" ,
7924 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
7925 .Va mimetypes-load-control ,
7926 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE ,
7927 .Va pipe-EXTENSION .
7930 .\" .Ss "The Mailcap files" {{{
7931 .Ss "The Mailcap files"
7934 .Dq User Agent Configuration Mechanism
7935 which \*(UA \*(OPally supports.
7936 It defines a file format to be used to inform mail user agent programs
7937 about the locally-installed facilities for handling various data
7938 formats, i.e., about commands and how they can be used to display, edit
7939 etc. MIME part contents, as well as a default path search that includes
7940 multiple possible locations of
7944 environment variable that can be used to overwrite that (repeating here
7945 that it is not a search path, but instead a path search specification).
7946 Any existing files will be loaded in sequence, appending any content to
7947 the list of MIME type handler directives.
7951 files consist of a set of newline separated entries.
7952 Comment lines start with a number sign
7954 (in the first column!) and are ignored.
7955 Empty lines are also ignored.
7956 All other lines form individual entries that must adhere to the syntax
7958 To extend a single entry (not comment) its line can be continued on
7959 follow lines if newline characters are
7961 by preceding them with the backslash character
7963 The standard doesn't specify how leading whitespace of follow lines is
7964 to be treated, therefore \*(UA retains it.
7968 entries consist of a number of semicolon
7970 separated fields, and the backslash
7972 character can be used to escape any following character including
7973 semicolon and itself.
7974 The first two fields are mandatory and must occur in the specified
7975 order, the remaining fields are optional and may appear in any order.
7976 Leading and trailing whitespace of content is ignored (removed).
7979 The first field defines the MIME
7981 the entry is about to handle (case-insensitively, and no backslash
7982 escaping is possible in this field).
7983 If the subtype is specified as an asterisk
7985 the entry is ment to match all subtypes of the named type, e.g.,
7987 would match any audio type.
7988 The second field defines the shell command which shall be used to
7990 MIME parts of the given type; it is implicitly called the
7997 shell commands message (MIME part) data is passed via standard input
7998 unless the given shell command includes one or more instances of the
8001 in which case these instances will be replaced with a temporary filename
8002 and the data will have been stored in the file that is being pointed to.
8005 shell commands data is assumed to be generated on standard output unless
8006 the given command includes (one ore multiple)
8008 In any case any given
8010 format is replaced with a(n already) properly quoted filename.
8011 Note that when a command makes use of a temporary file via
8013 then \*(UA will remove it again, as if the
8014 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile ,
8015 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill
8017 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
8018 flags had been set; see below for more.
8021 The optional fields either define a shell command or an attribute (flag)
8022 value, the latter being a single word and the former being a keyword
8023 naming the field followed by an equals sign
8025 succeeded by a shell command, and as usual for any
8027 content any whitespace surrounding the equals sign will be removed, too.
8028 Optional fields include the following:
8031 .Bl -tag -width textualnewlines
8033 A program that can be used to compose a new body or body part in the
8040 field, but is to be used when the composing program needs to specify the
8042 header field to be applied to the composed data.
8046 A program that can be used to edit a body or body part in the given
8051 A program that can be used to print a message or body part in the given
8056 Specifies a program to be run to test some condition, e.g., the machine
8057 architecture, or the window system in use, to determine whether or not
8058 this mailcap entry applies.
8059 If the test fails, a subsequent mailcap entry should be sought; also see
8060 .Cd x-mailx-test-once .
8062 .It Cd needsterminal
8063 This flag field indicates that the given shell command must be run on
8064 an interactive terminal.
8065 \*(UA will temporarily release the terminal to the given command in
8066 interactive mode, in non-interactive mode this entry will be entirely
8067 ignored; this flag implies
8068 .Cd x-mailx-noquote .
8070 .It Cd copiousoutput
8071 A flag field which indicates that the output of the
8073 command will be an extended stream of textual output that can be
8074 (re)integrated into \*(UA's normal visual display.
8075 It is mutually exclusive with
8078 .Cd x-mailx-always .
8080 .It Cd textualnewlines
8081 A flag field which indicates that this type of data is line-oriented and
8084 all newlines should be converted to canonical form (CRLF) before
8085 encoding, and will be in that form after decoding.
8089 This field gives a file name format, in which
8091 will be replaced by a random string, the joined combination of which
8092 will be used as the filename denoted by
8093 .Ev NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY .
8094 One could specify that a GIF file being passed to an image viewer should
8095 have a name ending in
8098 .Ql nametemplate=%s.gif .
8099 Note that \*(UA ignores the name template unless that solely specifies
8100 a filename suffix that consists of (ASCII) alphabetic and numeric
8101 characters, the underscore and dot only.
8104 Names a file, in X11 bitmap (xbm) format, which points to an appropriate
8105 icon to be used to visually denote the presence of this kind of data.
8106 This field is not used by \*(UA.
8109 A textual description that describes this type of data.
8111 .It Cd x-mailx-always
8112 Extension flag field that denotes that the given
8114 command shall be executed even if multiple messages will be displayed
8116 Normally messages which require external viewers that produce output
8117 which doesn't integrate into \*(UA's visual display (i.e., don't have
8119 set) have to be addressed directly and individually.
8120 (To avoid cases where, e.g., a thousand PDF viewer instances are spawned
8123 .It Cd x-mailx-even-if-not-interactive
8124 An extension flag test field \(em by default handlers without
8126 are entirely ignored in non-interactive mode, but if this flag is set
8127 then their use will be considered.
8128 It is an error if this flag is set for commands that use the flag
8131 .It Cd x-mailx-noquote
8132 An extension flag field that indicates that even a
8135 command shall not be used to generate message quotes
8136 (as it would be by default).
8138 .It Cd x-mailx-async
8139 Extension flag field that denotes that the given
8141 command shall be executed asynchronously, without blocking \*(UA.
8142 Cannot be used in conjunction with
8145 .It Cd x-mailx-test-once
8146 Extension flag which denotes wether the given
8148 command shall be evaluated once only and the (boolean) result be cached.
8149 This is handy if some global unchanging condition is to be queried, like
8150 .Dq running under the X Window System .
8152 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile
8153 Extension flag field that requests creation of a zero-sized temporary
8154 file, the name of which is to be placed in the environment variable
8155 .Ev NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY .
8156 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
8160 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill
8161 Normally the MIME part content is passed to the handler via standard
8162 input; if this flag is set then the data will instead be written into
8164 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile .
8165 In order to cause deletion of the temporary file you will have to set
8166 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
8168 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
8172 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
8173 Extension flag field that requests that the temporary file shall be
8174 deleted automatically when the command loop is entered again at latest.
8175 (Don't use this for asynchronous handlers.)
8176 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
8178 format, or without also setting
8181 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill .
8183 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-keep
8186 implies the three tmpfile related flags above, but if you want, e.g.,
8188 and deal with the temporary file yourself, you can add in this flag to
8190 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink .
8195 The standard includes the possibility to define any number of additional
8196 entry fields, prefixed by
8198 Flag fields apply to the entire
8200 entry \(em in some unusual cases, this may not be desirable, but
8201 differentiation can be accomplished via separate entries, taking
8202 advantage of the fact that subsequent entries are searched if an earlier
8203 one does not provide enough information.
8206 command needs to specify the
8210 command shall not, the following will help out the latter (with enabled
8214 level \*(UA will show informations about handler evaluation):
8216 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8217 application/postscript; ps-to-terminal %s; needsterminal
8218 application/postscript; ps-to-terminal %s; compose=idraw %s
8222 In fields any occurrence of the format string
8224 will be replaced by the
8227 Named parameters from the
8229 field may be placed in the command execution line using
8231 followed by the parameter name and a closing
8234 The entire parameter should appear as a single command line argument,
8235 regardless of embedded spaces; thus:
8237 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8239 Content-type: multipart/mixed; boundary=42
8242 multipart/*; /usr/local/bin/showmulti \e
8243 %t %{boundary} ; composetyped = /usr/local/bin/makemulti
8245 # Executed shell command
8246 /usr/local/bin/showmulti multipart/mixed 42
8250 .\" TODO v15: Mailcap: %n,%F
8251 Note that \*(UA doesn't support handlers for multipart MIME parts as
8252 shown in this example (as of today).
8253 \*(UA doesn't support the additional formats
8257 An example file, also showing how to properly deal with the expansion of
8259 which includes any quotes that are necessary to make it a valid shell
8260 argument by itself and thus will cause undesired behaviour when placed
8261 in additional user-provided quotes:
8263 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8265 text/richtext; richtext %s; copiousoutput
8267 text/x-perl; perl -cWT %s
8271 trap "rm -f ${infile}" EXIT\e; \e
8272 trap "exit 75" INT QUIT TERM\e; \e
8274 x-mailx-async; x-mailx-tmpfile-keep
8276 application/*; echo "This is \e"%t\e" but \e
8277 is 50 \e% Greek to me" \e; < %s head -c 1024 | cat -vET; \e
8278 copiousoutput; x-mailx-noquote
8283 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ,
8284 .Sx "The mime.types files" ,
8287 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
8288 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE ,
8289 .Va pipe-EXTENSION .
8292 .\" .Ss "The .netrc file" {{{
8293 .Ss "The .netrc file"
8297 file contains user credentials for machine accounts.
8298 The default location in the user's
8300 directory may be overridden by the
8302 environment variable.
8303 The file consists of space, tabulator or newline separated tokens.
8304 \*(UA implements a parser that supports a superset of the original BSD
8305 syntax, but users should nonetheless be aware of portability glitches
8306 of that file format, shall their
8308 be usable across multiple programs and platforms:
8311 .Bl -bullet -compact
8313 BSD doesn't support single, but only double quotation marks, e.g.,
8314 .Ql password="pass with spaces" .
8316 BSD (only?) supports escaping of single characters via a backslash
8317 (e.g., a space can be escaped via
8319 in- as well as outside of a quoted string.
8321 BSD doesn't require the final quotation mark of the final user input token.
8323 At least Hewlett-Packard seems to support a format which also allows
8324 tokens to be separated with commas \(en this format is not supported!
8326 Whereas other programs may require that the
8328 file is accessible by only the user if it contains a
8334 \*(UA will always require these strict permissions.
8338 Of the following list of supported tokens \*(UA only uses (and caches)
8344 .Bl -tag -width password
8345 .It Cd machine Ar name
8346 The hostname of the entries' machine, lowercase-normalized by \*(UA
8348 Any further file content, until either end-of-file or the occurrence
8353 first-class token is bound (only related) to the machine
8356 As an extension that shouldn't be the cause of any worries
8357 \*(UA supports a single wildcard prefix for
8359 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8360 machine *.example.com login USER password PASS
8361 machine pop3.example.com login USER password PASS
8362 machine smtp.example.com login USER password PASS
8368 .Ql pop3.example.com ,
8372 .Ql local.smtp.example.com .
8373 Note that in the example neither
8374 .Ql pop3.example.com
8376 .Ql smtp.example.com
8377 will be matched by the wildcard, since the exact matches take
8378 precedence (it is however faster to specify it the other way around).
8383 except that it is a fallback entry that is used shall none of the
8384 specified machines match; only one default token may be specified,
8385 and it must be the last first-class token.
8387 .It Cd login Ar name
8388 The user name on the remote machine.
8390 .It Cd password Ar string
8391 The user's password on the remote machine.
8393 .It Cd account Ar string
8394 Supply an additional account password.
8395 This is merely for FTP purposes.
8397 .It Cd macdef Ar name
8399 A macro is defined with the specified
8401 it is formed from all lines beginning with the next line and continuing
8402 until a blank line is (consecutive newline characters are) encountered.
8405 entries cannot be utilized by multiple machines, too, but must be
8406 defined following the
8408 they are intended to be used with.)
8411 exists, it is automatically run as the last step of the login process.
8412 This is merely for FTP purposes.
8419 .\" .Sh EXAMPLES {{{
8422 .\" .Ss "An example configuration" {{{
8423 .Ss "An example configuration"
8425 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8426 # This example assumes v15.0 compatibility mode
8429 # Where are the up-to-date SSL certificates?
8430 #set ssl-ca-dir=/etc/ssl/certs
8431 set ssl-ca-file=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
8433 # (Since we manage up-to-date ones explicitly, don't use any,
8434 # possibly outdated, default certificates shipped with OpenSSL
8435 set ssl-no-default-ca
8437 # Don't use protocols olders than TLS v1.2.
8438 # Change this only when the remote server doesn't support it:
8439 # maybe use ssl-protocol-HOST (or -USER@HOST) syntax to define
8440 # such explicit exceptions, then
8441 set ssl-protocol="-ALL,+TLSv1.2"
8443 # Explicitly define the list of ciphers, which may improve security,
8444 # especially with protocols older than TLS v1.2. See ciphers(1).
8445 # Hint: it is important to include "@STRENGTH": only with it the
8446 # final list will be sorted by algorithm strength.
8447 # This is an example: in reality it is possibly best to only use
8448 # ssl-cipher-list-HOST (or -USER@HOST), as necessary, again..
8449 set ssl-cipher-list="ALL:!aNULL:!MEDIUM:!LOW:\e
8450 !MD5:!RC4:!EXPORT:@STRENGTH"
8452 # Request strict transport security checks!
8453 set ssl-verify=strict
8455 # Essential setting: select allowed character sets
8456 set sendcharsets=utf-8,iso-8859-1
8458 # A very kind option: when replying to a message, first try to
8459 # use the same encoding that the original poster used herself!
8460 set reply-in-same-charset
8462 # When replying to or forwarding a message the comment and name
8463 # parts of email addresses are removed unless this variable is set
8466 # When sending messages, wait until the Mail-Transfer-Agent finishs.
8467 # Only like this you'll be able to see errors reported through the
8468 # exit status of the MTA (including the builtin SMTP one)!
8471 # Only use builtin MIME types, no mime.types(5) files
8472 set mimetypes-load-control
8474 # Default directory where we act in (relative to $HOME)
8475 set folder=mail MBOX=+mbox.mbox record=+sent.mbox \e
8478 # Make "file mymbox" and "file myrec" go to..
8479 shortcut mymbox %:+mbox.mbox myrec +sent.mbox
8481 # Not really optional, e.g., for S/MIME
8482 set from="Your Name <youremail@domain>"
8484 # It may be necessary to set hostname and/or smtp-hostname
8485 # if the "SERVER" of smtp and "domain" of from don't match.
8486 # The `urlencode' command can be used to encode USER and PASS
8487 set smtp=(smtp[s]/submission)://[USER[:PASS]@]SERVER[:PORT] \e
8488 smtp-auth=login/plain... \e
8491 # Never refuse to start into interactive mode, and more
8493 colour-pager crt= followup-to followup-to-honour=ask-yes \e
8494 history-gabby mime-counter-evidence=0xE \e
8495 prompt="\e033[31m?\e?[\e$ \e@]\e& \e033[0m" \e
8496 NAIL_HISTFILE=+.s-nailhist NAIL_HISTSIZE=-1 \e
8497 reply-to-honour=ask-yes
8499 # When `p'rinting messages, show only these headers
8500 # (use `P'rint for all headers and `S'how for raw message)
8501 retain date from to cc subject
8503 # Some mailing lists
8504 mlist @xyz-editor.xyz$ @xyzf.xyz$
8505 mlsubscribe ^xfans@xfans.xyz$
8507 # A real life example of a very huge free mail provider
8510 set from="Your Name <youremail@domain>"
8511 # (The plain smtp:// proto is optional)
8512 set smtp=USER:PASS@smtp.gmXil.com smtp-use-starttls
8515 # Here is a pretty large one which does not allow sending mails
8516 # if there is a domain name mismatch on the SMTP protocol level,
8517 # which would bite us if the value of from does not match, e.g.,
8518 # for people who have a sXXXXeforge project and want to speak
8519 # with the mailing list under their project account (in from),
8520 # still sending the message through their normal mail provider
8523 set from="Your Name <youremail@domain>"
8524 set smtp=smtps://USER:PASS@smtp.yaXXex.ru:465 \e
8525 hostname=yaXXex.com smtp-hostname=
8528 # Create some new commands so that, e.g., `ls /tmp' will..
8539 ghost llS !ls -aFlrS
8542 # We don't support gpg(1) directly yet. But simple --clearsign'd
8543 # message parts can be dealt with as follows:
8546 set pipe-text/plain="@*#++=@\e
8547 < \e"${NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}\e" awk \e
8548 -v TMPFILE=\e"${NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}\e" '\e
8550 /^-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----/,/^$/ {\e
8553 print \e"--- GPG --verify ---\e";\e
8554 system(\e"gpg --verify \e" TMPFILE \e" 2>&1\e");\e
8555 print \e"--- GPG --verify ---\e";\e
8559 /^-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----/,\e
8560 /^-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----/ {\e
8570 !printf 'Key IDs to gpg --recv-keys: ';\e
8572 gpg --recv-keys ${keyids};
8578 When storing passwords in
8580 appropriate permissions should be set on this file with
8581 .Ql $ chmod 0600 \*(ur .
8584 is available user credentials can be stored in the central
8586 file instead; e.g., here is a different version of the example account
8587 that sets up SMTP and POP3:
8589 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8592 set from="Your Name <youremail@domain>"
8594 #set agent-shell-lookup="gpg -d .pass.gpg"
8596 set smtp=smtps://smtp.yXXXXx.ru:465 \e
8597 smtp-hostname= hostname=yXXXXx.com
8598 set pop3-keepalive=240 pop3-no-apop-pop.yXXXXx.ru
8599 ghost xp fi pop3s://pop.yXXXXx.ru
8608 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8609 machine *.yXXXXx.ru login USER password PASS
8614 .Va agent-shell-lookup
8615 is available things could be diversified further by using encrypted
8616 password storage: for this, don't specify
8620 file and instead uncomment the line that defines agent lookup in the
8623 above, then create the encrypted password storage file
8626 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8629 $ eval `gpg-agent --daemon \e
8630 --pinentry-program=/usr/bin/pinentry-curses \e
8631 --max-cache-ttl 99999 --default-cache-ttl 99999`
8635 This configuration should now work just fine (use the
8637 command line option for a(n almost) dry-run):
8640 .Dl $ echo text | \*(ua -vv -AXandeX -s Subject some@where
8643 .\" .Ss "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME" {{{
8644 .Ss "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
8646 \*(OP S/MIME provides two central mechanisms:
8647 message signing and message encryption.
8648 A signed message contains some data in addition to the regular text.
8649 The data can be used to verify that the message was sent using a valid
8650 certificate, that the sender's address in the message header matches
8651 that in the certificate, and that the message text has not been altered.
8652 Signing a message does not change its regular text;
8653 it can be read regardless of whether the recipient's software is able to
8657 It is thus usually possible to sign all outgoing messages if so desired.
8658 Encryption, in contrast, makes the message text invisible for all people
8659 except those who have access to the secret decryption key.
8660 To encrypt a message, the specific recipient's public encryption key
8662 It is therefore not possible to send encrypted mail to people unless their
8663 key has been retrieved from either previous communication or public key
8665 A message should always be signed before it is encrypted.
8666 Otherwise, it is still possible that the encrypted message text is
8670 A central concept to S/MIME is that of the certification authority (CA).
8671 A CA is a trusted institution that issues certificates.
8672 For each of these certificates it can be verified that it really
8673 originates from the CA, provided that the CA's own certificate is
8675 A set of CA certificates is usually delivered with OpenSSL and installed
8677 If you trust the source of your OpenSSL software installation,
8678 this offers reasonable security for S/MIME on the Internet.
8680 .Va ssl-no-default-ca
8684 .Va smime-ca-dir . )
8685 In general, a certificate cannot be more secure than the method its CA
8686 certificate has been retrieved with, though.
8687 Thus if you download a CA certificate from the Internet,
8688 you can only trust the messages you verify using that certificate as
8689 much as you trust the download process.
8692 The first thing you need for participating in S/MIME message exchange is
8693 your personal certificate, including a private key.
8694 The certificate contains public information, in particular your name and
8695 your email address(es), and the public key that is used by others to
8696 encrypt messages for you,
8697 and to verify signed messages they supposedly received from you.
8698 The certificate is included in each signed message you send.
8699 The private key must be kept secret.
8700 It is used to decrypt messages that were previously encrypted with your
8701 public key, and to sign messages.
8704 For personal use it is recommended that you get a S/MIME certificate
8705 from one of the major CAs on the Internet using your WWW browser.
8706 Many CAs offer such certificates for free.
8708 .Lk https://www.CAcert.org
8709 which issues client and server certificates to members of their
8710 community for free; their root certificate
8711 .Pf ( Lk https://\:www.cacert.org/\:certs/\:root.crt )
8712 is often not in the default set of trusted CA root certificates, though,
8713 which means you will have to download their root certificate separately
8714 and ensure it is part of our S/MIME certificate validation chain by
8717 or as a vivid member of the
8719 But let's take a step-by-step tour on how to setup S/MIME with
8720 a certificate from CAcert.org despite this situation!
8723 First of all you will have to become a member of the CAcert.org
8724 community, simply by registrating yourself via the web interface.
8725 Once you are, create and verify all email addresses you want to be able
8726 to create signed and encrypted messages for/with using the corresponding
8727 entries of the web interface.
8728 Now ready to create S/MIME certificates, so let's create a new
8729 .Dq client certificate ,
8730 ensure to include all email addresses that should be covered by the
8731 certificate in the following web form, and also to use your name as the
8735 Create a private key and a certificate request on your local computer
8736 (please see the manual pages of the used commands for more in-depth
8737 knowledge on what the used arguments etc. do):
8740 .Dl openssl req -nodes -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout key.pem -out creq.pem
8743 Afterwards copy-and-paste the content of
8745 into the certificate-request (CSR) field of the web form on the
8746 CAcert.org website (you may need to unfold some
8747 .Dq advanced options
8748 to see the corresponding text field).
8749 This last step will ensure that your private key (which never left your
8750 box) and the certificate belong together (through the public key that
8751 will find its way into the certificate via the certificate-request).
8752 You are now ready and can create your CAcert certified certificate.
8753 Download and store or copy-and-paste it as
8758 In order to use your new S/MIME setup you will have to create
8759 a combined private key/public key (certificate) file:
8762 .Dl cat key.pem pub.crt > ME@HERE.com.paired
8765 This is the file \*(UA will work with.
8766 If you have created your private key with a passphrase then \*(UA will
8767 ask you for it whenever a message is signed or decrypted.
8768 Set the following variables to henceforth use S/MIME (setting
8770 is of interest for verification only):
8772 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8773 set smime-ca-file=ALL-TRUSTED-ROOT-CERTS-HERE \e
8774 smime-sign-cert=ME@HERE.com.paired \e
8775 smime-sign-message-digest=SHA256 \e
8780 From each signed message you send, the recipient can fetch your
8781 certificate and use it to send encrypted mail back to you.
8782 Accordingly if somebody sends you a signed message, you can do the same,
8785 command to check the validity of the certificate.
8788 Options of interest for S/MIME signing:
8792 .Va smime-crl-file ,
8793 .Va smime-no-default-ca ,
8795 .Va smime-sign-cert ,
8796 .Va smime-sign-include-certs
8798 .Va smime-sign-message-digest .
8801 After it has been verified save the certificate via
8803 and tell \*(UA that it should use it for encryption for further
8804 communication with that somebody:
8806 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8808 set smime-encrypt-USER@HOST=FILENAME \e
8809 smime-cipher-USER@HOST=AES256
8813 Additional options of interest for S/MIME en- and decryption:
8816 .Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST .
8819 You should carefully consider if you prefer to store encrypted messages
8821 If you do, anybody who has access to your mail folders can read them,
8822 but if you do not, you might be unable to read them yourself later if
8823 you happen to lose your private key.
8826 command saves messages in decrypted form, while the
8830 commands leave them encrypted.
8833 Note that neither S/MIME signing nor encryption applies to message
8834 subjects or other header fields yet.
8835 Thus they may not contain sensitive information for encrypted messages,
8836 and cannot be trusted even if the message content has been verified.
8837 When sending signed messages,
8838 it is recommended to repeat any important header information in the
8842 .\" .Ss "Using CRLs with S/MIME or SSL/TLS" {{{
8843 .Ss "Using CRLs with S/MIME or SSL/TLS"
8845 \*(OP Certification authorities (CAs) issue certificate revocation
8846 lists (CRLs) on a regular basis.
8847 These lists contain the serial numbers of certificates that have been
8848 declared invalid after they have been issued.
8849 Such usually happens because the private key for the certificate has
8851 because the owner of the certificate has left the organization that is
8852 mentioned in the certificate, etc.
8853 To seriously use S/MIME or SSL/TLS verification,
8854 an up-to-date CRL is required for each trusted CA.
8855 There is otherwise no method to distinguish between valid and
8856 invalidated certificates.
8857 \*(UA currently offers no mechanism to fetch CRLs, nor to access them on
8858 the Internet, so you have to retrieve them by some external mechanism.
8861 \*(UA accepts CRLs in PEM format only;
8862 CRLs in DER format must be converted, like, e.\|g.:
8865 .Dl $ openssl crl \-inform DER \-in crl.der \-out crl.pem
8868 To tell \*(UA about the CRLs, a directory that contains all CRL files
8869 (and no other files) must be created.
8874 variables, respectively, must then be set to point to that directory.
8875 After that, \*(UA requires a CRL to be present for each CA that is used
8876 to verify a certificate.
8879 .\" .Ss "Handling spam" {{{
8882 \*(OP \*(UA can make use of several spam interfaces for the purpose of
8883 identification of, and, in general, dealing with spam messages.
8884 A precondition of most commands in order to function is that the
8886 variable is set to one of the supported interfaces.
8887 Once messages have been identified as spam their (volatile)
8889 state can be prompted: the
8893 message specifications will address respective messages and their
8895 entries will be used when displaying the
8897 in the header display.
8902 rates the given messages and sets their
8905 If the spam interface offers spam scores those can also be displayed in
8906 the header display by including the
8916 will interact with the Bayesian filter of the chosen interface and learn
8917 the given messages as
8921 respectively; the last command can be used to cause
8923 of messages; it adheres to their current
8925 state and thus reverts previous teachings.
8930 will simply set and clear, respectively, the mentioned volatile
8932 message flag, without any interface interaction.
8939 .Va spam-interface Ns s
8943 require a running instance of the
8945 server in order to function, started with the option
8947 shall Bayesian filter learning be possible.
8949 only works via a local path-based
8951 socket, but otherwise the following will be equivalently fine:
8953 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8954 $ spamd -i localhost:2142 -i /tmp/.spamsock -d [-L] [-l]
8955 $ spamd --listen=localhost:2142 --listen=/tmp/.spamsock \e
8956 --daemonize [--local] [--allow-tell]
8960 Thereafter \*(UA can make use of these interfaces:
8962 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8963 $ \*(ua -Sspam-interface=spamd -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
8964 -Sspamd-socket=/tmp/.spamsock -Sspamd-user=
8966 $ \*(ua -Sspam-interface=spamc -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
8967 -Sspamc-command=/usr/local/bin/spamc \e
8968 -Sspamc-arguments="-U /tmp/.spamsock" -Sspamc-user=
8970 $ \*(ua -Sspam-interface=spamc -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
8971 -Sspamc-command=/usr/local/bin/spamc \e
8972 -Sspamc-arguments="-d localhost -p 2142" -Sspamc-user=
8976 Using the generic filter approach allows usage of programs like
8980 Here is an example for the former, requiring it to be accessible via
8983 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8984 $ \*(ua -Sspam-interface=filter -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
8985 -Sspamfilter-ham="bogofilter -n" \e
8986 -Sspamfilter-noham="bogofilter -N" \e
8987 -Sspamfilter-nospam="bogofilter -S" \e
8988 -Sspamfilter-rate="bogofilter -TTu 2>/dev/null" \e
8989 -Sspamfilter-spam="bogofilter -s" \e
8990 -Sspamfilter-rate-scanscore="1;^(.+)$"
8994 Because messages must exist on local storage in order to be scored (or
8995 used for Bayesian filter training), it is possibly a good idea to
8996 perform the local spam check last:
8998 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8999 define spamdelhook {
9001 spamset (header x-dcc-brand-metrics "bulk")
9002 # Server-side spamassassin(1)
9003 spamset (header x-spam-flag "YES")
9004 del :s # TODO we HAVE to be able to do `spamrate :u ! :sS'
9010 set folder-hook-FOLDER=spamdelhook
9014 See also the documentation for the variables
9015 .Va spam-interface , spam-maxsize ,
9016 .Va spamc-command , spamc-arguments , spamc-user ,
9017 .Va spamd-socket , spamd-user ,
9018 .Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , spamfilter-nospam , \
9021 .Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore .
9029 .\" .Ss "\*(UA shortly hangs on startup" {{{
9030 .Ss "\*(UA shortly hangs on startup"
9032 This can have two reasons, one is the necessity to wait for a file lock
9033 and can't be helped, the other being that \*(UA calls the function
9035 in order to query the nodename of the box (sometimes the real one is
9036 needed instead of the one represented by the internal variable
9038 You may have varying success by ensuring that the real hostname and
9042 or, more generally, that the name service is properly setup \(en
9045 return what you'd expect?
9048 .\" .Ss "I can't login to Google mail a.k.a. GMail" {{{
9049 .Ss "I can't login to Google mail a.k.a. GMail"
9051 Since 2014 some free service providers classify programs as
9053 unless they use a special authentification method (OAuth 2.0) which
9054 wasn't standardized for non-HTTP protocol authentication token query
9055 until August 2015 (RFC 7628).
9058 Different to Kerberos / GSSAPI, which is developed since the mid of the
9059 1980s, where a user can easily create a local authentication ticket for
9060 her- and himself with the locally installed
9062 program, that protocol has no such local part but instead requires
9063 a world-wide-web query to create or fetch a token; since there is no
9064 local cache this query has to be performed whenever \*(UA is invoked
9065 from the command line (in interactive sessions situation may differ).
9068 \*(UA doesn't support OAuth.
9069 Because of this it is necessary to declare \*(UA a
9071 (on the providers account web page) in order to read and send mail.
9072 However, it also seems possible to take the following steps instead:
9077 give the provider the number of a mobile phone,
9080 .Dq 2-Step Verification ,
9082 create an application specific password (16 characters), and
9084 use that special password instead of your real Google account password in
9085 S-nail (for more on that see the section
9086 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) .
9092 .\" .Sh "SEE ALSO" {{{
9110 .Xr spamassassin 1 ,
9137 command appeared in Version 1 AT&T Unix.
9138 Berkeley Mail was written in 1978 by Kurt Shoens.
9139 This man page is derived from from
9140 .Dq The Mail Reference Manual
9141 originally written by Kurt Shoens.
9143 enhancements are maintained and documented by Gunnar
9146 is maintained and documented by Steffen (Daode) Nurpmeso.
9149 Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
9150 from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
9151 \(en Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
9152 Specifications Issue 6, Copyright \(co 2001-2003 by the Institute of
9153 Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group.
9154 In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original
9155 IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group
9156 Standard is the referee document.
9157 The original Standard can be obtained online at
9158 .Lk http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html OpenGroup.org
9159 Redistribution of this material is permitted so long as this notice
9167 .An "Christos Zoulas" ,
9168 .An "Gunnar Ritter" ,
9169 .An "Steffen Nurpmeso" Aq Mt s-nail-users@lists.sourceforge.net
9171 .Mt s-mailx@sdaoden.eu ) .
9177 The character set conversion uses and relies upon the
9180 Its functionality differs widely between the various system environments
9184 Limitations with IMAP mailboxes are:
9185 It is not possible to edit messages, but it is possible to append them.
9186 Thus to edit a message, create a local copy of it, edit it, append it,
9187 and delete the original.
9188 The line count for the header display is only appropriate if the entire
9189 message has been downloaded from the server.
9190 The marking of messages as `new' is performed by the IMAP server;
9195 will not cause it to be reset, and if the
9197 variable is unset, messages that arrived during a session will not be
9198 in state `new' anymore when the folder is opened again.
9199 Also if commands queued in disconnected mode are committed,
9200 the IMAP server will delete the `new' flag for all messages in the
9202 and new messages will appear as unread when it is selected for viewing
9204 The `flagged', `answered', and `draft' attributes are usually permanent,
9205 but some IMAP servers are known to drop them without notification.
9206 Message numbers may change with IMAP every time before the prompt is
9207 printed if \*(UA is notified by the server that messages have been
9208 deleted by some other client or process.
9209 In this case, `Expunged n messages' is printed, and message numbers may
9213 Limitations with POP3 mailboxes are:
9214 It is not possible to edit messages, they can only be copied and deleted.
9215 The line count for the header display is only appropriate if the entire
9216 message has been downloaded from the server.
9217 The status field of a message is maintained by the server between
9218 connections; some servers do not update it at all, and with a server
9221 command will not cause the message status to be reset.
9226 variable have no effect.
9227 It is not possible to rename or to remove POP3 mailboxes.
9234 is typed while an IMAP or POP3 operation is in progress, \*(UA will wait
9235 until the operation can be safely aborted, and will then return to the
9236 command loop and print the prompt again.
9239 is typed while \*(UA is waiting for the operation to complete, the
9240 operation itself will be cancelled.
9241 In this case, data that has not been fetched yet will have to be fetched
9242 before the next command can be performed.
9243 If the cancelled operation was using an SSL/TLS encrypted channel,
9244 an error in the SSL transport will very likely result and render the
9245 connection unusable.
9248 As \*(UA is a mail user agent, it provides only basic SMTP services.
9249 If it fails to contact its upstream SMTP server, it will not make
9250 further attempts to transfer the message at a later time,
9251 and it does not leave other information about this condition than an
9252 error message on the terminal and an entry in
9254 This is usually not a problem if the SMTP server is located in the same
9255 local network as the computer on which \*(UA is run.
9256 However, care should be taken when using a remote server of an ISP;
9257 it might be better to set up a local SMTP server then which just acts as
9261 \*(UA immediately contacts the SMTP server (or
9263 ) even when operating in
9266 It would not make much sense for \*(UA to defer outgoing mail since SMTP
9267 servers usually provide much more elaborated delay handling than \*(UA
9268 could perform as a client.
9269 Thus the recommended setup for sending mail in
9271 mode is to configure a local SMTP server such that it sends outgoing
9272 mail as soon as an external network connection is available again,
9273 i.e., to advise it to do that from a network startup script.
9279 With IMAP, at least if the IMAP cache is used, if multiple
9283 cycles happen without an intervening change of the active mailbox then
9284 \*(UA will at some time loose the ability to keep the local state
9285 up-to-date, meaning that, e.g., messages show up with false numbers, and
9286 including the possibility that messages are accessed via numbers that
9287 are no(t longer) valid, resulting in program crashes.
9288 The solution is to change the active mailbox before that happens :).
9291 from the distribution or the repository.
9293 After deleting some message of a POP3 mailbox the header summary falsely
9294 claims that there are no messages to display, you need to perform
9295 a scroll or dot movement to restore proper state.
9297 In threaded display a power user may encounter crashes very
9298 occasionally (this is may and very).