1 .\"@ nail.1 - S-nail(1) reference manual.
3 .\" Copyright (c) 2000-2008 Gunnar Ritter, Freiburg i. Br., Germany.
4 .\" Copyright (c) 2012 - 2017 Steffen (Daode) Nurpmeso <steffen@sdaoden.eu>.
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34 .\"@ S-nail v14.9.6 / 2017-12-05
46 .\" If not ~/.mailrc, it breaks POSIX compatibility. And adjust main.c.
51 .ds OU [no v15-compat]
52 .ds ID [v15 behaviour may differ]
53 .ds NQ [Only new quoting rules]
64 .Nd send and receive Internet mail
70 .\" Keep in SYNC: ./nail.1:"SYNOPSIS, main()
79 .Op : Ns Fl a Ar attachment Ns \&:
80 .Op : Ns Fl b Ar bcc-addr Ns \&:
81 .Op : Ns Fl c Ar cc-addr Ns \&:
82 .Op Fl M Ar type | Fl m Ar file | Fl q Ar file | Fl t
85 .Fl S Ar var Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value Ns
88 .Op : Ns Fl X Ar cmd Ns \&:
90 .Pf : Ar to-addr Ns \&:
91 .Op Fl Fl \~ Ns : Ns Ar mta-option Ns \&:
100 .Op Fl r Ar from-addr
102 .Fl S Ar var Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value Ns
105 .Op : Ns Fl X Ar cmd Ns \&:
106 .Op Fl Fl \~ Ns : Ns Ar mta-option Ns \&:
115 .Op Fl r Ar from-addr
117 .Fl S Ar var Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value Ns
119 .Op : Ns Fl X Ar cmd Ns \&:
121 .Op Fl Fl \~ Ns : Ns Ar mta-option Ns \&:
127 .Mx -toc -tree html pdf ps xhtml
130 .\" .Sh DESCRIPTION {{{
133 .Bd -filled -compact -offset indent
134 .Sy Compatibility note:
135 S-nail (\*(UA) will wrap up into \%S-mailx in v15.0 (circa 2020).
136 Backward incompatibility has to be expected \(en
139 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
140 rules, for example, and shell metacharacters will become meaningful.
141 New and old behaviour is flagged \*(IN and \*(OU, and setting
144 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
145 will choose new behaviour when applicable.
146 \*(OB flags what will vanish, and enabling
150 enables obsoletion warnings.
154 \*(UA provides a simple and friendly environment for sending and
156 It is intended to provide the functionality of the POSIX
158 command, but is MIME capable and optionally offers extensions for
159 line editing, S/MIME, SMTP and POP3, among others.
160 \*(UA divides incoming mail into its constituent messages and allows
161 the user to deal with them in any order.
165 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
166 for manipulating messages and sending mail.
167 It provides the user simple editing capabilities to ease the composition
168 of outgoing messages, and increasingly powerful and reliable
169 non-interactive scripting capabilities.
171 .\" .Ss "Options" {{{
174 .Bl -tag -width ".It Fl BaNg"
177 Explicitly control which of the
181 d (loaded): if the letter
183 is (case-insensitively) part of the
187 is sourced, likewise the letter
189 controls sourcing of the user's personal
191 file, whereas the letters
195 explicitly forbid sourcing of any resource files.
196 Scripts should use this option: to avoid environmental noise they should
198 from any configuration and create a script-specific environment, setting
200 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
203 and running configurating commands via
205 This option overrides
212 command for the given user email
214 after program startup is complete (all resource files are loaded, any
216 setting is being established; only
218 commands have not been evaluated yet).
219 Being a special incarnation of
221 macros for the purpose of bundling longer-lived
223 tings, activating such an email account also switches to the accounts
225 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
230 .It Fl a Ar file Ns Op Ar =input-charset Ns Op Ar #output-charset
233 to the message (for compose mode opportunities refer to
237 .Sx "Filename transformations"
240 will be performed, except that shell variables are not expanded.
243 not be accessible but contain a
245 character, then anything before the
247 will be used as the filename, anything thereafter as a character set
250 If an input character set is specified,
251 .Mx -ix "character set specification"
252 but no output character set, then the given input character set is fixed
253 as-is, and no conversion will be applied;
254 giving the empty string or the special string hyphen-minus
256 will be treated as if
258 has been specified (the default).
260 If an output character set has also been given then the conversion will
261 be performed exactly as specified and on-the-fly, not considering the
262 file's type and content.
263 As an exception, if the output character set is specified as the empty
264 string or hyphen-minus
266 then the default conversion algorithm (see
267 .Sx "Character sets" )
268 is applied (therefore no conversion is performed on-the-fly,
270 will be MIME-classified and its contents will be inspected first) \(em
271 without support for character set conversions
273 does not include the term
275 only this argument is supported.
278 (\*(OB: \*(UA will always use line-buffered output, to gain
279 line-buffered input even in batch mode enable batch mode via
284 Send a blind carbon copy to
291 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
293 The option may be used multiple times.
295 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
299 Send carbon copies to the given receiver, if so allowed by
301 May be used multiple times.
306 the internal variable
308 which enables debug messages and disables message delivery,
309 among others; effectively turns almost any operation into a dry-run.
315 and thus discard messages with an empty message part body.
316 This command line option is \*(OB.
320 Just check if mail is present (in the system
322 or the one specified via
324 if yes, return an exit status of zero, a non-zero value otherwise.
325 To restrict the set of mails to consider in this evaluation a message
326 specification can be added with the option
331 Save the message to send in a file named after the local part of the
332 first recipient's address (instead of in
337 Read in the contents of the user's
339 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
341 (or the specified file) for processing;
342 when \*(UA is quit, it writes undeleted messages back to this file
348 argument will undergo some special
349 .Sx "Filename transformations"
354 is not an argument to the flag
356 but is instead taken from the command line after option processing has
360 that starts with a hyphen-minus, prefix with a relative path, as in
361 .Ql ./-hyphenbox.mbox .
367 and exit; a configurable summary view is available via the
373 Show a short usage summary.
379 to ignore tty interrupt signals.
385 of all messages that match the given
389 .Sx "Specifying messages"
394 option has been given in addition no header summary is produced,
395 but \*(UA will instead indicate via its exit status whether
401 note that any verbose output is suppressed in this mode and must instead
402 be enabled explicitly (e.g., by using the option
407 Special send mode that will flag standard input with the MIME
411 and use it as the main message body.
412 \*(ID Using this option will bypass processing of
413 .Va message-inject-head
415 .Va message-inject-tail .
421 Special send mode that will MIME classify the specified
423 and use it as the main message body.
424 \*(ID Using this option will bypass processing of
425 .Va message-inject-head
427 .Va message-inject-tail .
433 inhibit the initial display of message headers when reading mail or
438 for the internal variable
443 Standard flag that inhibits reading the system wide
448 allows more control over the startup sequence; also see
449 .Sx "Resource files" .
453 Special send mode that will initialize the message body with the
454 contents of the specified
456 which may be standard input
458 only in non-interactive context.
466 opened will be in read-only mode.
470 .It Fl r Ar from-addr
471 Whereas the source address that appears in the
473 header of a message (or in the
475 header if the former contains multiple addresses) is honoured by the
476 builtin SMTP transport, it is not used by a file-based
478 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) for the RFC 5321 reverse-path used for relaying
479 and delegating a message to its destination(s), for delivery errors
480 etc., but it instead uses the local identity of the initiating user.
483 When this command line option is used the given
485 will be assigned to the internal variable
487 but in addition the command line option
488 .Fl \&\&f Ar from-addr
489 will be passed to a file-based
491 whenever a message is sent.
494 include a user name the address components will be separated and
495 the name part will be passed to a file-based
501 If an empty string is passed as
503 then the content of the variable
505 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
507 will be evaluated and used for this purpose whenever the file-based
516 command line options are used when contacting a file-based MTA, unless
517 this automatic deduction is enforced by
519 ing the internal variable
520 .Va r-option-implicit .
523 Remarks: many default installations and sites disallow overriding the
524 local user identity like this unless either the MTA has been configured
525 accordingly or the user is member of a group with special privileges.
529 .It Fl S Ar var Ns Op = Ns value
531 (or, with a prefix string
534 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
537 iable and optionally assign
540 If the operation fails the program will exit if any of
545 Settings established via
547 cannot be changed from within
549 or an account switch initiated by
551 They will become mutable again before commands registered via
557 Specify the subject of the message to be sent.
558 Newline (NL) and carriage-return (CR) bytes are invalid and will be
559 normalized to space (SP) characters.
563 The message given (on standard input) is expected to contain, separated
564 from the message body by an empty line, a message header with
569 fields giving its recipients, which will be added to any recipients
570 specified on the command line.
571 If a message subject is specified via
573 then it will be used in favour of one given on the command line.
589 .Ql Mail-Followup-To: ,
590 by default created automatically dependent on message context, will
591 be used if specified (a special address massage will however still occur
593 Any other custom header field (also see
597 is passed through entirely
598 unchanged, and in conjunction with the options
602 it is possible to embed
603 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
611 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
614 appropriate privileges presumed; effectively identical to
615 .Ql Fl \&\&f Ns \0%user .
624 will also show the list of
626 .Ql $ \*(uA -Xversion -Xx .
631 ting the internal variable
633 enables display of some informational context messages.
634 Using it twice increases the level of verbosity.
638 Add the given (or multiple for a multiline argument)
640 to the list of commands to be executed,
641 as a last step of program startup, before normal operation starts.
642 This is the only possibility to execute commands in non-interactive mode
643 when reading startup files is actively prohibited.
644 The commands will be evaluated as a unit, just as via
654 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
655 in compose mode even in non-interactive use cases.
656 This can be used to, e.g., automatically format the composed message
657 text before sending the message:
658 .Bd -literal -offset indent
659 $ ( echo 'line one. Word. Word2.';\e
660 echo '~| /usr/bin/fmt -tuw66' ) |\e
661 LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d~:/ -Sttycharset=utf-8 bob@exam.ple
666 Enables batch mode: standard input is made line buffered, the complete
667 set of (interactive) commands is available, processing of
668 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
669 is enabled in compose mode, and diverse
670 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
671 are adjusted for batch necessities, exactly as if done via
687 The following prepares an email message in a batched dry run:
688 .Bd -literal -offset indent
689 $ LC_ALL=C printf 'm bob\en~s ubject\enText\en~.\enx\en' |\e
690 LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d#:/ -X'alias bob bob@exam.ple'
695 This flag forces termination of option processing in order to prevent
698 It also forcefully puts \*(UA into send mode, see
699 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
705 arguments and all receivers established via
709 are subject to the checks established by
712 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" .
715 allows their recognition all
717 arguments given at the end of the command line after a
719 separator will be passed through to a file-based
721 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) and persist for the entire session.
723 constraints do not apply to the content of
727 .\" .Ss "A starter" {{{
730 \*(UA is a direct descendant of
732 Mail, itself a successor of the Research
735 .Dq was there from the start
738 It thus represents the user side of the
740 mail system, whereas the system side (Mail-Transfer-Agent, MTA) was
741 traditionally taken by
743 and most MTAs provide a binary of this name for compatibility purposes.
748 of \*(UA then the system side is not a mandatory precondition for mail
752 Because \*(UA strives for compliance with POSIX
754 it is likely that some configuration settings have to be adjusted before
755 using it is a smooth experience.
756 (Rather complete configuration examples can be found in the section
761 .Sx "Resource files" ,
762 bends those standard imposed settings of the
763 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
764 a bit towards more user friendliness and safety already.
772 in order to suppress the automatic moving of messages to the
774 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
776 that would otherwise occur (see
777 .Sx "Message states" ) ,
780 to not remove empty system MBOX mailbox files in order not to mangle
781 file permissions when files eventually get recreated (all empty (MBOX)
782 mailbox files will be removed unless this variable is set whenever
784 .Pf a.k.a.\0 Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT
785 mode has been enabled).
790 in order to synchronize \*(UA with the exit status report of the used
797 to enter interactive startup even if the initial mailbox is empty,
799 to allow editing of headers as well as
801 to not strip down addresses in compose mode, and
803 to include the message that is being responded to when
805 ing, which is indented by an
807 that also deviates from standard imposed settings.
808 .Va mime-counter-evidence
809 is fully enabled, too.
813 The file mode creation mask can be managed explicitly via the variable
815 Sufficient system support provided symbolic links will not be followed
816 when files are opened for writing.
817 Files and shell pipe output can be
819 d for evaluation, also during startup from within the
820 .Sx "Resource files" .
823 .\" .Ss "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" {{{
824 .Ss "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode"
826 To send a message to one or more people, using a local or built-in
828 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) transport to actually deliver the generated mail
829 message, \*(UA can be invoked with arguments which are the names of
830 people to whom the mail will be sent, and the command line options
834 can be used to add (blind) carbon copy receivers:
836 .Bd -literal -offset indent
838 $ \*(uA -s ubject -a ttach.txt bill@exam.ple
840 # But... try it in an isolated dry-run mode (-d) first
841 $ LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d -:/ -Ssendwait -Sttycharset=utf8 \e
842 -b bcc@exam.ple -c cc@exam.ple \e
844 '(Lovely) Bob <bob@exam.ple>' eric@exam.ple
847 $ LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d -:/ -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait -Sttycharset=utf8 \e
848 -S mta=smtps://mylogin@exam.ple:465 -Ssmtp-auth=none \e
849 -S from=scriptreply@exam.ple \e
855 If standard input is a terminal rather than the message to be sent,
856 the user is expected to type in the message contents.
857 In this compose mode \*(UA treats lines beginning with the character
859 special \(en these are so-called
860 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ,
861 which can be used to read in files, process shell commands, add and edit
862 attachments and more; e.g., the command escape
864 will start the text editor to revise the message in its current state,
866 allows editing of the most important message headers, with
868 custom headers can be created (more specifically than with
871 gives an overview of most other available command escapes.
874 will leave compose mode and send the message once it is completed.
878 at the beginning of an empty line has the same effect, whereas typing
881 twice will abort the current letter (saving its contents in the file
892 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
893 can be used to alter default behavior.
894 E.g., messages are sent asynchronously, without supervision, unless the
897 is set, therefore send errors will not be recognizable until then.
902 will automatically startup a text editor when compose mode is entered,
904 allows editing of headers additionally to plain body content,
908 will cause the user to be prompted actively for (blind) carbon-copy
909 recipients, respectively, and (the default)
911 will request confirmation whether the message shall be sent.
914 The envelope sender address is defined by
916 explicitly defining an originating
918 may be desirable, especially with the builtin SMTP Mail-Transfer-Agent
921 for outgoing message and MIME part content are configurable via
923 whereas input data is assumed to be in
925 Message data will be passed over the wire in a
927 MIME parts a.k.a. attachments need to be assigned a
930 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
931 Saving a copy of sent messages in a
933 mailbox may be desirable \(en as for most mailbox
935 targets the value will undergo
936 .Sx "Filename transformations" .
941 sandbox dry-run tests will prove correctness.
944 Message recipients (as specified on the command line or defined in
949 may not only be email addressees but can also be names of mailboxes and
950 even complete shell command pipe specifications.
953 is not set then only network addresses (see
955 for a description of mail addresses) and plain user names (including MTA
956 aliases) may be used, other types will be filtered out, giving a warning
960 can be used to generate standard compliant network addresses.
962 .\" When changing any of the following adjust any RECIPIENTADDRSPEC;
963 .\" grep the latter for the complete picture
967 is set then extended recipient addresses will optionally be accepted:
968 Any name which starts with a vertical bar
970 character specifies a command pipe \(en the command string following the
972 is executed and the message is sent to its standard input;
973 Likewise, any name that starts with the character solidus
975 or the character sequence dot solidus
977 is treated as a file, regardless of the remaining content;
978 likewise a name that solely consists of a hyphen-minus
980 Any other name which contains a commercial at
982 character is treated as a network address;
983 Any other name which starts with a plus sign
985 character specifies a mailbox name;
986 Any other name which contains a solidus
988 character but no exclamation mark
992 character before also specifies a mailbox name;
993 What remains is treated as a network address.
995 .Bd -literal -offset indent
996 $ echo bla | \*(uA -Sexpandaddr -s test ./mbox.mbox
997 $ echo bla | \*(uA -Sexpandaddr -s test '|cat >> ./mbox.mbox'
998 $ echo safe | LC_ALL=C \e
999 \*(uA -:/ -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait -Sttycharset=utf8 \e
1000 -Sexpandaddr=fail,-all,+addr,failinvaddr -s test \e
1005 It is possible to create personal distribution lists via the
1007 command, so that, for instance, the user can send mail to
1009 and have it go to a group of people.
1010 These aliases have nothing in common with the system wide aliases that
1011 may be used by the MTA, which are subject to the
1015 and are often tracked in a file
1021 Personal aliases will be expanded by \*(UA before the message is sent,
1022 and are thus a convenient alternative to specifying each addressee by
1023 itself; they correlate with the active set of
1030 .Dl alias cohorts bill jkf mark kridle@ucbcory ~/mail/cohorts.mbox
1033 .Va on-compose-enter , on-compose-leave
1035 .Va on-compose-cleanup
1036 hook variables may be set to
1038 d macros to automatically adjust some settings dependent
1039 on receiver, sender or subject contexts, and via the
1040 .Va on-compose-splice
1042 .Va on-compose-splice-shell
1043 variables, the former also to be set to a
1045 d macro, increasingly powerful mechanisms to perform automatized message
1046 adjustments, including signature creation, are available.
1047 (\*(ID These hooks work for commands which newly create messages, namely
1048 .Ic forward , mail , reply
1053 for now provide only the hooks
1056 .Va on-resend-cleanup . )
1059 For the purpose of arranging a complete environment of settings that can
1060 be switched to with a single command or command line option there are
1062 Alternatively it is also possible to use a flat configuration, making use
1063 of so-called variable chains which automatically pick
1067 context-dependent variable variants: for example addressing
1068 .Ql Ic File Ns \& pop3://yaa@exam.ple
1070 .Va \&\&pop3-no-apop-yaa@exam.ple ,
1071 .Va \&\&pop3-no-apop-exam.ple
1076 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
1078 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" .
1081 To avoid environmental noise scripts should
1083 \*(UA from any configuration files and create a script-local
1084 environment, ideally with the command line options
1086 to disable any configuration file in conjunction with repetitions of
1088 to specify variables:
1090 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1091 $ env LC_ALL=C \*(uA -:/ \e
1092 -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait -Sttycharset=utf-8 \e
1093 -Sexpandaddr=fail,-all,failinvaddr \e
1094 -S mta=smtps://mylogin@exam.ple:465 -Ssmtp-auth=login \e
1095 -S from=scriptreply@exam.ple \e
1096 -s 'Subject to go' -a attachment_file \e
1098 'Recipient 1 <rec1@exam.ple>' rec2@exam.ple \e
1103 As shown, scripts can
1105 a locale environment, the above specifies the all-compatible 7-bit clean
1108 but will nonetheless take and send UTF-8 in the message text by using
1110 In interactive mode, which is introduced in the next section, messages
1111 can be sent by calling the
1113 command with a list of recipient addresses:
1115 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1116 $ \*(uA -d -Squiet -Semptystart
1117 "/var/spool/mail/user": 0 messages
1118 ? mail "Recipient 1 <rec1@exam.ple>", rec2@exam.ple
1120 ? # Will do the right thing (tm)
1121 ? m rec1@exam.ple rec2@exam.ple
1125 .\" .Ss "On reading mail, and interactive mode" {{{
1126 .Ss "On reading mail, and interactive mode"
1128 When invoked without addressees \*(UA enters interactive mode in which
1130 When used like that the user's system
1132 (for more on mailbox types please see the command
1134 is read in and a one line header of each message therein is displayed if
1138 The visual style of this summary of
1140 can be adjusted through the variable
1142 and the possible sorting criterion via
1148 can be performed with the command
1150 If the initially opened mailbox is empty \*(UA will instead exit
1151 immediately (after displaying a message) unless the variable
1160 will give a listing of all available commands and
1162 will give a summary of some common ones.
1163 If the \*(OPal documentation strings are available (see
1168 and see the actual expansion of
1170 and what its purpose is, i.e., commands can be abbreviated
1171 (note that POSIX defines some abbreviations, so that the alphabetical
1172 order of commands does not necessarily relate to the abbreviations; it is
1173 however possible to define overwrites with
1174 .Ic commandalias ) .
1175 These commands can also produce a more
1180 Messages are given numbers (starting at 1) which uniquely identify
1181 messages; the current message \(en the
1183 \(en will either be the first new message, or the first unread message,
1184 or the first message of the mailbox; the internal variable
1186 will instead cause usage of the last message for this purpose.
1191 ful of header summaries containing the
1195 will display only the summaries of the given messages, defaulting to the
1199 Message content can be displayed with the command
1206 controls whether and when \*(UA will use the configured
1208 for display instead of directly writing to the user terminal
1210 the sole difference to the command
1212 which will always use the
1216 will instead only show the first
1218 of a message (maybe even compressed if
1221 Message display experience may improve by setting and adjusting
1222 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
1224 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" .
1227 By default the current message
1229 is displayed, but like with many other commands it is possible to give
1230 a fancy message specification (see
1231 .Sx "Specifying messages" ) ,
1234 will display all unread messages,
1239 will type the messages 1 and 5,
1241 will type the messages 1 through 5, and
1245 will display the last and the next message, respectively.
1248 (a more substantial alias for
1250 will display a header summary of the given message specification list
1251 instead of their content, e.g., the following will search for subjects:
1254 .Dl ? from "'@Some subject to search for'"
1257 In the default setup all header fields of a message will be
1259 d, but fields can be white- or blacklisted for a variety of
1260 applications by using the command
1262 e.g., to restrict their display to a very restricted set for
1264 .Ql Ic \:headerpick Cd \:type retain Ar \:from to cc subject .
1265 In order to display all header fields of a message regardless of
1266 currently active ignore or retain lists, use the commands
1271 will show the raw message content.
1272 Note that historically the global
1274 not only adjusts the list of displayed headers, but also sets
1278 Dependent upon the configuration a line editor (see the section
1279 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
1280 aims at making the user experience with the many
1283 When reading the system
1289 specified a mailbox explicitly prefixed with the special
1291 modifier (propagating the mailbox to a
1293 .Sx "primary system mailbox" ) ,
1294 then messages which have been read will be automatically moved to a
1296 .Sx "secondary mailbox" ,
1299 file, when the mailbox is left, either by changing the
1300 active mailbox or by quitting \*(UA (also see
1301 .Sx "Message states" )
1302 \(en this automatic moving from a system or primary to the secondary
1303 mailbox is not performed when the variable
1306 Messages can also be explicitly
1308 d to other mailboxes, whereas
1310 keeps the original message.
1312 can be used to write out data content of specific parts of messages.
1315 After examining a message the user can
1317 to the sender and all recipients (which will also be placed in
1320 .Va recipients-in-cc
1323 exclusively to the sender(s).
1325 ing a message will allow editing the new message: the original message
1326 will be contained in the message body, adjusted according to
1332 messages: the former will add a series of
1334 headers, whereas the latter will not; different to newly created
1335 messages editing is not possible and no copy will be saved even with
1337 unless the additional variable
1340 When sending, replying or forwarding messages comments and full names
1341 will be stripped from recipient addresses unless the internal variable
1344 Of course messages can be
1346 and they can spring into existence again via
1348 or when the \*(UA session is ended via the
1353 To end a mail processing session one may either issue
1355 to cause a full program exit, which possibly includes
1356 automatic moving of read messages to the
1358 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
1360 as well as updating the \*(OPal (see
1366 instead in order to prevent any of these actions.
1369 .\" .Ss "HTML mail and MIME attachments" {{{
1370 .Ss "HTML mail and MIME attachments"
1372 Messages which are HTML-only become more and more common and of course
1373 many messages come bundled with a bouquet of MIME (Multipurpose Internet
1374 Mail Extensions) parts for, e.g., attachments.
1375 To get a notion of MIME types, \*(UA will first read
1376 .Sx "The mime.types files"
1377 (as configured and allowed by
1378 .Va mimetypes-load-control ) ,
1379 and then add onto that types registered directly with
1381 It (normally) has a default set of types built-in, too.
1382 To improve interaction with faulty MIME part declarations which are
1383 often seen in real-life messages, setting
1384 .Va mime-counter-evidence
1385 will allow \*(UA to verify the given assertion and possibly provide
1386 an alternative MIME type.
1389 Whereas \*(UA \*(OPally supports a simple HTML-to-text converter for
1390 HTML messages, it cannot handle MIME types other than plain text itself.
1391 Instead programs need to become registered to deal with specific MIME
1392 types or file extensions.
1393 These programs may either prepare plain text versions of their input in
1394 order to enable \*(UA to integrate their output neatlessly in its own
1395 message visualization (a mode which is called
1396 .Cd copiousoutput ) ,
1397 or display the content themselves, for example in an external graphical
1398 window: such handlers will only be considered by and for the command
1402 To install a handler program for a specific MIME type an according
1403 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
1404 variable needs to be set; to instead define a handler for a specific
1405 file extension the respective
1407 variable can be used \(en these handlers take precedence.
1408 \*(OPally \*(UA supports mail user agent configuration as defined in
1409 RFC 1524; this mechanism (see
1410 .Sx "The Mailcap files" )
1411 will be queried for display or quote handlers if none of the former two
1412 .\" TODO v15-compat "will be" -> "is"
1413 did; it will be the sole source for handlers of other purpose.
1414 A last source for handlers is the MIME type definition itself, when
1415 a (\*(UA specific) type-marker was registered with the command
1417 (which many built-in MIME types do).
1420 E.g., to display a HTML message inline (that is, converted to a more
1421 fancy plain text representation than the built-in converter is capable to
1422 produce) with either of the text-mode browsers
1426 teach \*(UA about MathML documents and make it display them as plain
1427 text, and to open PDF attachments in an external PDF viewer,
1428 asynchronously and with some other magic attached:
1430 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1431 ? if [ "$features" !% +filter-html-tagsoup ]
1432 ? #set pipe-text/html='@* elinks -force-html -dump 1'
1433 ? set pipe-text/html='@* lynx -stdin -dump -force_html'
1434 ? # Display HTML as plain text instead
1435 ? #set pipe-text/html=@
1437 ? mimetype @ application/mathml+xml mathml
1438 ? wysh set pipe-application/pdf='@&=@ \e
1439 trap "rm -f \e"${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}\e"" EXIT;\e
1440 trap "trap \e"\e" INT QUIT TERM; exit 1" INT QUIT TERM;\e
1441 mupdf "${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}"'
1445 .\" .Ss "Mailing lists" {{{
1448 \*(UA offers some support to ease handling of mailing lists.
1451 promotes all given arguments to known mailing lists, and
1453 sets their subscription attribute, creating them first as necessary.
1458 automatically, but only resets the subscription attribute.)
1459 Using the commands without arguments will show (a subset of) all
1460 currently defined mailing lists.
1465 can be used to mark out messages with configured list addresses
1466 in the header display.
1469 If the \*(OPal regular expression support is available a mailing list
1470 specification that contains any of the
1472 regular expression characters
1476 will be interpreted as one, which allows matching of many addresses with
1477 a single expression.
1478 However, all fully qualified list addresses are matched via a fast
1479 dictionary, whereas expressions are placed in (a) list(s) which is
1480 (are) matched sequentially.
1482 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1483 ? set followup-to followup-to-honour=ask-yes \e
1484 reply-to-honour=ask-yes
1485 ? wysh mlist a1@b1.c1 a2@b2.c2 '.*@lists\e.c3$'
1486 ? mlsubscribe a4@b4.c4 exact@lists.c3
1491 .Va followup-to-honour
1493 .Ql Mail-\:Followup-\:To:
1494 header is honoured when the message is being replied to (via
1500 controls whether this header is created when sending mails; it will be
1501 created automatically for a couple of reasons, too, like when the
1503 .Dq mailing list specific
1508 is used to respond to a message with its
1509 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
1513 A difference in between the handling of known and subscribed lists is
1514 that the address of the sender is usually not part of a generated
1515 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
1516 when addressing the latter, whereas it is for the former kind of lists.
1517 Usually because there are exceptions: say, if multiple lists are
1518 addressed and not all of them are subscribed lists.
1520 For convenience \*(UA will, temporarily, automatically add a list
1521 address that is presented in the
1523 header of a message that is being responded to to the list of known
1525 Shall that header have existed \*(UA will instead, dependent on the
1527 .Va reply-to-honour ,
1530 for this purpose in order to accept a list administrators' wish that
1531 is supposed to have been manifested like that (but only if it provides
1532 a single address which resides on the same domain as what is stated in
1536 .\" .Ss "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME" {{{
1537 .Ss "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
1539 \*(OP S/MIME provides two central mechanisms:
1540 message signing and message encryption.
1541 A signed message contains some data in addition to the regular text.
1542 The data can be used to verify that the message was sent using a valid
1543 certificate, that the sender's address in the message header matches
1544 that in the certificate, and that the message text has not been altered.
1545 Signing a message does not change its regular text;
1546 it can be read regardless of whether the recipient's software is able to
1548 It is thus usually possible to sign all outgoing messages if so desired.
1551 Encryption, in contrast, makes the message text invisible for all people
1552 except those who have access to the secret decryption key.
1553 To encrypt a message, the specific recipient's public encryption key
1555 It is therefore not possible to send encrypted mail to people unless their
1556 key has been retrieved from either previous communication or public key
1558 A message should always be signed before it is encrypted.
1559 Otherwise, it is still possible that the encrypted message text is
1563 A central concept to S/MIME is that of the certification authority (CA).
1564 A CA is a trusted institution that issues certificates.
1565 For each of these certificates it can be verified that it really
1566 originates from the CA, provided that the CA's own certificate is
1568 A set of CA certificates is usually delivered with OpenSSL and installed
1570 If you trust the source of your OpenSSL software installation,
1571 this offers reasonable security for S/MIME on the Internet.
1573 .Va smime-ca-no-defaults
1574 to avoid using the default certificates and point
1578 to a trusted pool of certificates.
1579 In general, a certificate cannot be more secure than the method its CA
1580 certificate has been retrieved with.
1583 This trusted pool of certificates is used by the command
1585 to ensure that the given S/MIME messages can be trusted.
1586 If so, verified sender certificates that were embedded in signed
1587 messages can be saved locally with the command
1589 and used by \*(UA to encrypt further communication with these senders:
1591 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1593 ? set smime-encrypt-USER@HOST=FILENAME \e
1594 smime-cipher-USER@HOST=AES256
1598 To sign outgoing messages in order to allow receivers to verify the
1599 origin of these messages a personal S/MIME certificate is required.
1600 \*(UA supports password-protected personal certificates (and keys),
1601 for more on this, and its automatization, please see the section
1602 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
1604 .Sx "S/MIME step by step"
1605 shows examplarily how such a private certificate can be obtained.
1606 In general, if such a private key plus certificate
1608 is available, all that needs to be done is to set some variables:
1610 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1611 ? set smime-sign-cert=ME@HERE.com.paired \e
1612 smime-sign-message-digest=SHA256 \e
1617 Variables of interest for S/MIME in general are
1620 .Va smime-ca-flags ,
1621 .Va smime-ca-no-defaults ,
1623 .Va smime-crl-file .
1624 For S/MIME signing of interest are
1626 .Va smime-sign-cert ,
1627 .Va smime-sign-include-certs
1629 .Va smime-sign-message-digest .
1630 Additional variables of interest for S/MIME en- and decryption:
1633 .Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST .
1636 \*(ID Note that neither S/MIME signing nor encryption applies to
1637 message subjects or other header fields yet.
1638 Thus they may not contain sensitive information for encrypted messages,
1639 and cannot be trusted even if the message content has been verified.
1640 When sending signed messages,
1641 it is recommended to repeat any important header information in the
1645 .\" .Ss "On URL syntax and credential lookup" {{{
1646 .Ss "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
1648 \*(IN For accessing protocol-specific resources usage of Uniform
1649 Resource Locators (URL, RFC 1738) has become omnipresent.
1650 \*(UA expects and understands URLs in the following form;
1653 denote optional parts, optional either because there also exist other
1654 ways to define the information in question or because support of the
1655 part is protocol-specific (e.g.,
1657 is used by the local maildir and the IMAP protocol, but not by POP3);
1662 are specified they must be given in URL percent encoded form (RFC 3986;
1668 .Dl PROTOCOL://[USER[:PASSWORD]@]server[:port][/path]
1671 Note that these \*(UA URLs most often do not conform to any real
1672 standard, but instead represent a normalized variant of RFC 1738 \(en
1673 they are not used in data exchange but only meant as a compact,
1674 easy-to-use way of defining and representing information in
1675 a well-known notation.
1678 Many internal variables of \*(UA exist in multiple versions, called
1679 variable chains for the rest of this document: the plain
1684 .Ql variable-USER@HOST .
1691 had been specified in the respective URL, otherwise it refers to the plain
1697 that had been found when doing the user chain lookup as is described
1700 will never be in URL percent encoded form, whether it came from an URL
1701 or not; i.e., variable chain name extensions of
1702 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
1703 must not be URL percent encoded.
1706 For example, whether an hypothetical URL
1707 .Ql smtp://hey%3Ayou@our.house
1708 had been given that includes a user, or whether the URL was
1709 .Ql smtp://our.house
1710 and the user had been found differently, to lookup the variable chain
1711 .Va smtp-use-starttls
1712 \*(UA first looks for whether
1713 .Ql smtp-\:use-\:starttls-\:hey:you@our.house
1714 is defined, then whether
1715 .Ql smtp-\:use-\:starttls-\:our.house
1716 exists before finally ending up looking at the plain variable itself.
1719 \*(UA obeys the following logic scheme when dealing with the
1720 necessary credential information of an account:
1726 has been given in the URL the variables
1730 are looked up; if no such variable(s) can be found then \*(UA will,
1731 when enforced by the \*(OPal variables
1732 .Va netrc-lookup-HOST
1739 specific entry which provides a
1741 name: this lookup will only succeed if unambiguous (one possible matching
1744 It is possible to load encrypted
1749 If there is still no
1751 then \*(UA will fall back to the user who is supposed to run \*(UA,
1752 the identity of which has been fixated during \*(UA startup and is
1753 known to be a valid user on the current host.
1756 Authentication: unless otherwise noted this will lookup the
1757 .Va PROTOCOL-auth-USER@HOST , PROTOCOL-auth-HOST , PROTOCOL-auth
1758 variable chain, falling back to a protocol-specific default should this
1764 has been given in the URL, then if the
1766 has been found through the \*(OPal
1768 that may have already provided the password, too.
1769 Otherwise the variable chain
1770 .Va password-USER@HOST , password-HOST , password
1771 is looked up and used if existent.
1773 Afterwards the complete \*(OPal variable chain
1774 .Va netrc-lookup-USER@HOST , netrc-lookup-HOST , netrc-lookup
1778 cache is searched for a password only (multiple user accounts for
1779 a single machine may exist as well as a fallback entry without user
1780 but with a password).
1782 If at that point there is still no password available, but the
1783 (protocols') chosen authentication type requires a password, then in
1784 interactive mode the user will be prompted on the terminal.
1789 S/MIME verification works relative to the values found in the
1793 header field(s), which means that the values of
1794 .Va smime-sign , smime-sign-cert , smime-sign-include-certs
1796 .Va smime-sign-message-digest
1797 will not be looked up using the
1801 chains from above but instead use the corresponding values from the
1802 message that is being worked on.
1803 In unusual cases multiple and different
1807 combinations may therefore be involved \(en on the other hand those
1808 unusual cases become possible.
1809 The usual case is as short as:
1811 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1812 set mta=smtp://USER:PASS@HOST smtp-use-starttls \e
1813 smime-sign smime-sign-cert=+smime.pair
1819 contains complete example configurations.
1822 .\" .Ss "Encrypted network communication" {{{
1823 .Ss "Encrypted network communication"
1825 SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) a.k.a. its successor TLS (Transport Layer
1826 Security) are protocols which aid in securing communication by providing
1827 a safely initiated and encrypted network connection.
1828 A central concept of SSL/TLS is that of certificates: as part of each
1829 network connection setup a (set of) certificates will be exchanged, and
1830 by using those the identity of the network peer can be cryptographically
1832 SSL/TLS works by using a locally installed pool of trusted certificates,
1833 and verifying the connection peer succeeds if that provides
1834 a certificate which has been issued or is trusted by any certificate in
1835 the trusted local pool.
1838 The local pool of trusted so-called CA (Certification Authority)
1839 certificates is usually delivered with the used SSL/TLS library, and
1840 will be selected automatically, but it is also possible to create and
1841 use an own pool of trusted certificates.
1842 If this is desired, set
1843 .Va ssl-ca-no-defaults
1844 to avoid using the default certificate pool, and point
1848 to a trusted pool of certificates.
1849 A certificate cannot be more secure than the method its CA certificate
1850 has been retrieved with.
1853 It depends on the used protocol whether encrypted communication is
1854 possible, and which configuration steps have to be taken to enable it.
1855 Some protocols, e.g., POP3S, are implicitly encrypted, others, like
1856 POP3, can upgrade a plain text connection if so requested: POP3 offers
1858 which will be used if the variable (chain)
1859 .Va pop3-use-starttls
1862 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1863 shortcut encpop1 pop3s://pop1.exam.ple
1865 shortcut encpop2 pop3://pop2.exam.ple
1866 set pop3-use-starttls-pop2.exam.ple
1868 set mta=smtps://smtp.exam.ple:465
1869 set mta=smtp://smtp.exam.ple smtp-use-starttls
1873 Normally that is all there is to do, given that SSL/TLS libraries try to
1874 provide safe defaults, plenty of knobs however exist to adjust settings.
1875 For example certificate verification settings can be fine-tuned via
1877 and the SSL/TLS configuration basics are accessible via
1878 .Va ssl-config-pairs ,
1879 e.g., to specify the allowed protocols or cipher lists that
1880 a communication channel may use.
1881 In the past hints of how to restrict the set of protocols to highly
1882 secure ones were indicated, as of the time of this writing the allowed
1883 protocols or cipher list may need to become relaxed in order to be able
1884 to connect to some servers; the following example allows connecting to a
1886 that uses OpenSSL 0.9.8za from June 2014 (refer to
1887 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
1888 for more on variable chains):
1890 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1891 wysh set ssl-config-pairs-lion@exam.ple='MinProtocol=TLSv1.1,\e
1892 CipherList=TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:\e
1893 ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA:\e
1894 DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:@STRENGTH'
1900 can be used and should be referred to when creating a custom cipher list.
1901 Variables of interest for SSL/TLS in general are
1905 .Va ssl-ca-no-defaults ,
1906 .Va ssl-config-file ,
1907 .Va ssl-config-module ,
1908 .Va ssl-config-pairs ,
1916 .\" .Ss "Character sets" {{{
1917 .Ss "Character sets"
1919 \*(OP \*(UA detects the character set of the terminal by using
1920 mechanisms that are controlled by the
1922 environment variable
1927 in that order, see there).
1928 The internal variable
1930 will be set to the detected terminal character set accordingly,
1931 and will thus show up in the output of commands like, e.g.,
1937 However, the user may give a value for
1939 during startup, so that it is possible to send mail in a completely
1941 locale environment, an option which can be used to generate and send,
1942 e.g., 8-bit UTF-8 input data in a pure 7-bit US-ASCII
1944 environment (an example of this can be found in the section
1945 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" ) .
1946 Changing the value does not mean much beside that, because several
1947 aspects of the real character set are implied by the locale environment
1948 of the system, which stays unaffected by
1952 Messages and attachments which consist of 7-bit clean data will be
1953 classified as consisting of
1956 This is a problem if the
1958 character set is a multibyte character set that is also 7-bit clean.
1959 For example, the Japanese character set ISO-2022-JP is 7-bit clean but
1960 capable to encode the rich set of Japanese Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana
1961 characters: in order to notify receivers of this character set the mail
1962 message must be MIME encoded so that the character set ISO-2022-JP can
1964 To achieve this, the variable
1966 must be set to ISO-2022-JP.
1967 (Today a better approach regarding email is the usage of UTF-8, which
1968 uses 8-bit bytes for non-US-ASCII data.)
1971 If the \*(OPal character set conversion capabilities are not available
1973 does not include the term
1977 will be the only supported character set,
1978 it is simply assumed that it can be used to exchange 8-bit messages
1979 (over the wire an intermediate, configurable
1982 and the rest of this section does not apply;
1983 it may however still be necessary to explicitly set it if automatic
1984 detection fails, since in that case it defaults to
1985 .\" (Keep in SYNC: ./nail.1:"Character sets", ./config.h:CHARSET_*!)
1986 LATIN1 a.k.a. ISO-8859-1.
1989 \*(OP When reading messages, their text is converted into
1991 as necessary in order to display them on the users terminal.
1992 Unprintable characters and invalid byte sequences are detected
1993 and replaced by proper substitution characters.
1994 Character set mappings for source character sets can be established with
1997 which may be handy to work around faulty character set catalogues (e.g.,
1998 to add a missing LATIN1 to ISO-8859-1 mapping), or to enforce treatment
1999 of one character set as another one (e.g., to interpret LATIN1 as CP1252).
2001 .Va charset-unknown-8bit
2002 to deal with another hairy aspect of message interpretation.
2005 When sending messages all their parts and attachments are classified.
2006 Whereas no character set conversion is performed on those parts which
2007 appear to be binary data,
2008 the character set being used must be declared within the MIME header of
2009 an outgoing text part if it contains characters that do not conform to
2010 the set of characters that are allowed by the email standards.
2011 Permissible values for character sets used in outgoing messages can be
2016 which defines a catch-all last-resort fallback character set that is
2017 implicitly appended to the list of character sets in
2021 When replying to a message and the variable
2022 .Va reply-in-same-charset
2023 is set, then the character set of the message being replied to
2024 is tried first (still being a subject of
2025 .Ic charsetalias ) .
2026 And it is also possible to make \*(UA work even more closely related to
2027 the current locale setting automatically by using the variable
2028 .Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset ,
2029 please see there for more information.
2032 All the specified character sets are tried in order unless the
2033 conversion of the part or attachment succeeds.
2034 If none of the tried (8-bit) character sets is capable to represent the
2035 content of the part or attachment,
2036 then the message will not be sent and its text will optionally be
2040 In general, if a message saying
2041 .Dq cannot convert from a to b
2042 appears, either some characters are not appropriate for the currently
2043 selected (terminal) character set,
2044 or the needed conversion is not supported by the system.
2045 In the first case, it is necessary to set an appropriate
2047 locale and/or the variable
2051 The best results are usually achieved when \*(UA is run in a UTF-8
2052 locale on an UTF-8 capable terminal, in which case the full Unicode
2053 spectrum of characters is available.
2054 In this setup characters from various countries can be displayed,
2055 while it is still possible to use more simple character sets for sending
2056 to retain maximum compatibility with older mail clients.
2059 On the other hand the POSIX standard defines a locale-independent 7-bit
2060 .Dq portable character set
2061 that should be used when overall portability is an issue, the even more
2062 restricted subset named
2063 .Dq portable filename character set
2064 consists of A-Z, a-z, 0-9, period
2072 .\" .Ss "Message states" {{{
2073 .Ss "Message states"
2075 \*(UA differentiates in between several different message states;
2076 the current state will be reflected in header summary displays if
2078 is configured to do so (via the internal variable
2080 and messages can also be selected and be acted upon depending on their
2082 .Sx "Specifying messages" ) .
2083 When operating on the system
2087 .Sx "primary system mailbox" ,
2088 special actions, like the automatic moving of messages to the
2090 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
2092 may be applied when the mailbox is left (also implicitly via
2093 a successful exit of \*(UA, but not if the special command
2095 is used) \(en however, because this may be irritating to users which
2098 mail-user-agents, the default global
2104 variables in order to suppress this behaviour.
2106 .Bl -hang -width ".It Ql new"
2108 Message has neither been viewed nor moved to any other state.
2109 Such messages are retained even in the
2111 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
2114 Message has neither been viewed nor moved to any other state, but the
2115 message was present already when the mailbox has been opened last:
2116 Such messages are retained even in the
2118 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
2121 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
2140 will always try to automatically
2146 logical message, and may thus mark multiple messages as read, the
2148 command will do so if the internal variable
2153 command is used, messages that are in a
2155 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
2158 state when the mailbox is left will be saved in the
2160 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
2162 unless the internal variable
2167 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
2173 can be used to access such messages.
2176 The message has been processed by a
2178 command and it will be retained in its current location.
2181 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
2187 command is used, messages that are in a
2189 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
2192 state when the mailbox is left will be deleted; they will be saved in the
2194 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
2196 when the internal variable
2202 In addition to these message states, flags which otherwise have no
2203 technical meaning in the mail system except allowing special ways of
2204 addressing them when
2205 .Sx "Specifying messages"
2206 can be set on messages.
2207 These flags are saved with messages and are thus persistent, and are
2208 portable between a set of widely used MUAs.
2210 .Bl -hang -width ".It Ic answered"
2212 Mark messages as having been answered.
2214 Mark messages as being a draft.
2216 Mark messages which need special attention.
2220 .\" .Ss "Specifying messages" {{{
2221 .Ss "Specifying messages"
2224 .Sx "Message list arguments" ,
2232 can be given a list of message numbers as arguments to apply to a number
2233 of messages at once.
2236 deletes messages 1 and 2,
2239 will delete the messages 1 through 5.
2240 In sorted or threaded mode (see the
2244 will delete the messages that are located between (and including)
2245 messages 1 through 5 in the sorted/threaded order, as shown in the
2248 The following special message names exist:
2251 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ar BaNg"
2253 The current message, the so-called
2257 The message that was previously the current message.
2260 The parent message of the current message,
2261 that is the message with the Message-ID given in the
2263 field or the last entry of the
2265 field of the current message.
2268 The next previous undeleted message,
2269 or the next previous deleted message for the
2272 In sorted/threaded mode,
2273 the next previous such message in the sorted/threaded order.
2276 The next undeleted message,
2277 or the next deleted message for the
2280 In sorted/threaded mode,
2281 the next such message in the sorted/threaded order.
2284 The first undeleted message,
2285 or the first deleted message for the
2288 In sorted/threaded mode,
2289 the first such message in the sorted/threaded order.
2293 In sorted/threaded mode,
2294 the last message in the sorted/threaded order.
2298 selects the message addressed with
2302 is any other message specification,
2303 and all messages from the thread that begins at it.
2304 Otherwise it is identical to
2309 the thread beginning with the current message is selected.
2314 All messages that were included in the
2315 .Sx "Message list arguments"
2316 of the previous command.
2319 An inclusive range of message numbers.
2320 Selectors that may also be used as endpoints include any of
2325 .Dq any substring matches
2328 header, which will match addresses (too) even if
2330 is set (and POSIX says
2331 .Dq any address as shown in a header summary shall be matchable in this form ) ;
2334 variable is set, only the local part of the address is evaluated
2335 for the comparison, not ignoring case, and the setting of
2337 is completely ignored.
2338 For finer control and match boundaries use the
2342 .It Ar / Ns Ar string
2343 All messages that contain
2345 in the subject field (case ignored according to locale).
2352 the string from the previous specification of that type is used again.
2355 .It Xo Op Ar @ Ns Ar name-list Ns
2358 All messages that contain the given case-insensitive search
2360 ession; If the \*(OPal regular expression support is available
2362 will be interpreted as (an extended) one if any of the
2364 regular expression characters
2369 .Ar @ Ns Ar name-list
2370 part is missing the search is restricted to the subject field body,
2373 specifies a comma-separated list of header fields to search, e.g.,
2376 .Dl '@to,from,cc@Someone i ought to know'
2379 In order to search for a string that includes a
2381 (commercial at) character the
2383 is effectively non-optional, but may be given as the empty string.
2384 Also, specifying an empty search
2386 ession will effectively test for existence of the given header fields.
2387 Some special header fields may be abbreviated:
2401 respectively and case-insensitively.
2402 \*(OPally, and just like
2405 will be interpreted as (an extended) regular expression if any of the
2407 regular expression characters is seen.
2414 can be used to search in (all of) the header(s) of the message, and the
2423 will perform full text searches \(en whereas the former searches only
2424 the body, the latter also searches the message header (\*(ID this mode
2425 yet brute force searches over the entire decoded content of messages,
2426 including administrativa strings).
2429 This specification performs full text comparison, but even with
2430 regular expression support it is almost impossible to write a search
2431 expression that savely matches only a specific address domain.
2432 To request that the body content of the header is treated as a list of
2433 addresses, and to strip those down to the plain email address which the
2434 search expression is to be matched against, prefix the effective
2440 .Dl @~f@@a\e.safe\e.domain\e.match$
2444 All messages of state or with matching condition
2448 is one or multiple of the following colon modifiers:
2450 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar :M"
2453 messages (cf. the variable
2454 .Va markanswered ) .
2466 Messages with receivers that match
2470 Messages with receivers that match
2477 Old messages (any not in state
2485 \*(OP Messages with unsure spam classification (see
2486 .Sx "Handling spam" ) .
2488 \*(OP Messages classified as spam.
2500 \*(OP IMAP-style SEARCH expressions may also be used.
2501 This addressing mode is available with all types of mailbox
2503 s; \*(UA will perform the search locally as necessary.
2504 Strings must be enclosed by double quotes
2506 in their entirety if they contain whitespace or parentheses;
2507 within the quotes, only reverse solidus
2509 is recognized as an escape character.
2510 All string searches are case-insensitive.
2511 When the description indicates that the
2513 representation of an address field is used,
2514 this means that the search string is checked against both a list
2517 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2518 (\*qname\*q \*qsource\*q \*qlocal-part\*q \*qdomain-part\*q)
2523 and the addresses without real names from the respective header field.
2524 These search expressions can be nested using parentheses, see below for
2528 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar _n_u"
2529 .It Ar ( criterion )
2530 All messages that satisfy the given
2532 .It Ar ( criterion1 criterion2 ... criterionN )
2533 All messages that satisfy all of the given criteria.
2535 .It Ar ( or criterion1 criterion2 )
2536 All messages that satisfy either
2541 To connect more than two criteria using
2543 specifications have to be nested using additional parentheses,
2545 .Ql (or a (or b c)) ,
2549 .Ql ((a or b) and c) .
2552 operation of independent criteria on the lowest nesting level,
2553 it is possible to achieve similar effects by using three separate
2557 .It Ar ( not criterion )
2558 All messages that do not satisfy
2560 .It Ar ( bcc \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2561 All messages that contain
2563 in the envelope representation of the
2566 .It Ar ( cc \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2567 All messages that contain
2569 in the envelope representation of the
2572 .It Ar ( from \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2573 All messages that contain
2575 in the envelope representation of the
2578 .It Ar ( subject \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2579 All messages that contain
2584 .It Ar ( to \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2585 All messages that contain
2587 in the envelope representation of the
2590 .It Ar ( header name \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2591 All messages that contain
2596 .It Ar ( body \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2597 All messages that contain
2600 .It Ar ( text \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2601 All messages that contain
2603 in their header or body.
2604 .It Ar ( larger size )
2605 All messages that are larger than
2608 .It Ar ( smaller size )
2609 All messages that are smaller than
2613 .It Ar ( before date )
2614 All messages that were received before
2616 which must be in the form
2620 denotes the day of the month as one or two digits,
2622 is the name of the month \(en one of
2623 .Ql Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec ,
2626 is the year as four digits, e.g.,
2630 All messages that were received on the specified date.
2631 .It Ar ( since date )
2632 All messages that were received since the specified date.
2633 .It Ar ( sentbefore date )
2634 All messages that were sent on the specified date.
2635 .It Ar ( senton date )
2636 All messages that were sent on the specified date.
2637 .It Ar ( sentsince date )
2638 All messages that were sent since the specified date.
2640 The same criterion as for the previous search.
2641 This specification cannot be used as part of another criterion.
2642 If the previous command line contained more than one independent
2643 criterion then the last of those criteria is used.
2647 .\" .Ss "On terminal control and line editor" {{{
2648 .Ss "On terminal control and line editor"
2650 \*(OP Terminal control will be realized through one of the standard
2652 libraries, either the
2654 or, alternatively, the
2656 both of which will be initialized to work with the environment variable
2658 Terminal control will enhance or enable interactive usage aspects, e.g.,
2659 .Sx "Coloured display" ,
2660 and extend behaviour of the Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE), which may learn the
2661 byte-sequences of keys like the cursor and function keys.
2664 The internal variable
2666 can be used to overwrite settings or to learn (correct(ed)) keycodes.
2667 \*(UA may also become a fullscreen application by entering the
2668 so-called ca-mode and switching to an alternative exclusive screen
2669 (content) shall the terminal support it and the internal variable
2671 has been set explicitly.
2672 Actual interaction with the chosen library can be disabled completely by
2673 setting the internal variable
2674 .Va termcap-disable ;
2676 will be queried regardless, which is true even if the \*(OPal library
2677 support has not been enabled at configuration time as long as some other
2678 \*(OP which (may) query terminal control sequences has been enabled.
2681 \*(OP The built-in Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE) should work in all
2682 environments which comply to the ISO C standard
2684 and will support wide glyphs if possible (the necessary functionality
2685 had been removed from ISO C, but was included in
2687 Prevent usage of a line editor in interactive mode by setting the
2689 .Va line-editor-disable .
2690 Especially if the \*(OPal terminal control support is missing setting
2691 entries in the internal variable
2693 will help shall the MLE misbehave, see there for more.
2694 The MLE can support a little bit of
2700 feature is available then input from line editor prompts will be saved
2701 in a history list that can be searched in and be expanded from.
2702 Such saving can be prevented by prefixing input with any amount of
2704 Aspects of history, like allowed content and maximum size, as well as
2705 whether history shall be saved persistently, can be configured with the
2709 .Va history-gabby-persist
2714 The MLE supports a set of editing and control commands.
2715 By default (as) many (as possible) of these will be assigned to a set of
2716 single-letter control codes, which should work on any terminal (and can
2717 be generated by holding the
2719 key while pressing the key of desire, e.g.,
2723 command is available then the MLE commands can also be accessed freely
2724 by assigning the command name, which is shown in parenthesis in the list
2725 below, to any desired key-sequence, and the MLE will instead and also use
2727 to establish its built-in key bindings
2728 (more of them if the \*(OPal terminal control is available),
2729 an action which can then be suppressed completely by setting
2730 .Va line-editor-no-defaults .
2731 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
2732 notation is used in the following;
2733 combinations not mentioned either cause job control signals or do not
2734 generate a (unique) keycode:
2738 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql \eBa"
2740 Go to the start of the line
2742 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-home ) .
2745 Move the cursor backward one character
2747 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-bwd ) .
2750 Forward delete the character under the cursor;
2751 quits \*(UA if used on the empty line unless the internal variable
2755 .Pf ( Cd mle-del-fwd ) .
2758 Go to the end of the line
2760 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-end ) .
2763 Move the cursor forward one character
2765 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-fwd ) .
2768 Cancel current operation, full reset.
2769 If there is an active history search or tabulator expansion then this
2770 command will first reset that, reverting to the former line content;
2771 thus a second reset is needed for a full reset in this case
2773 .Pf ( Cd mle-reset ) .
2776 Backspace: backward delete one character
2778 .Pf ( Cd mle-del-bwd ) .
2782 Horizontal tabulator:
2783 try to expand the word before the cursor, supporting the usual
2784 .Sx "Filename transformations"
2786 .Pf ( Cd mle-complete ) .
2788 .Cd mle-quote-rndtrip .
2792 commit the current line
2794 .Pf ( Cd mle-commit ) .
2797 Cut all characters from the cursor to the end of the line
2799 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-end ) .
2804 .Pf ( Cd mle-repaint ) .
2807 \*(OP Go to the next history entry
2809 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-fwd ) .
2812 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
2816 \*(OP Go to the previous history entry
2818 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-bwd ) .
2821 Toggle roundtrip mode shell quotes, where produced,
2824 .Pf ( Cd mle-quote-rndtrip ) .
2825 This setting is temporary, and will be forgotten once the command line
2826 is committed; also see
2830 \*(OP Complete the current line from (the remaining) older history entries
2832 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-srch-bwd ) .
2835 \*(OP Complete the current line from (the remaining) newer history entries
2837 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-srch-fwd ) .
2840 Paste the snarf buffer
2842 .Pf ( Cd mle-paste ) .
2850 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-line ) .
2853 Prompts for a Unicode character (hexadecimal number without prefix, see
2857 .Pf ( Cd mle-prompt-char ) .
2858 Note this command needs to be assigned to a single-letter control code
2859 in order to become recognized and executed during input of
2860 a key-sequence (only three single-letter control codes can be used for
2861 that shortcut purpose); this control code is special-treated and cannot
2862 be part of any other sequence, because any occurrence will perform the
2864 function immediately.
2867 Cut the characters from the one preceding the cursor to the preceding
2870 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-word-bwd ) .
2873 Move the cursor forward one word boundary
2875 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-word-fwd ) .
2878 Move the cursor backward one word boundary
2880 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-word-bwd ) .
2883 Escape: reset a possibly used multibyte character input state machine
2884 and \*(OPally a lingering, incomplete key binding
2886 .Pf ( Cd mle-cancel ) .
2887 This command needs to be assigned to a single-letter control code in
2888 order to become recognized and executed during input of a key-sequence
2889 (only three single-letter control codes can be used for that shortcut
2891 This control code may also be part of a multi-byte sequence, but if
2892 a sequence is active and the very control code is currently also an
2893 expected input, then it will first be consumed by the active sequence.
2896 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
2900 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
2904 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
2908 Cut the characters from the one after the cursor to the succeeding word
2911 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-word-fwd ) .
2922 this will immediately reset a possibly active search etc.
2927 ring the audible bell.
2931 .\" .Ss "Coloured display" {{{
2932 .Ss "Coloured display"
2934 \*(OP \*(UA can be configured to support a coloured display and font
2935 attributes by emitting ANSI a.k.a. ISO 6429 SGR (select graphic
2936 rendition) escape sequences.
2937 Usage of colours and font attributes solely depends upon the
2938 capability of the detected terminal type that is defined by the
2939 environment variable
2941 and which can be fine-tuned by the user via the internal variable
2945 On top of what \*(UA knows about the terminal the boolean variable
2947 defines whether the actually applicable colour and font attribute
2948 sequences should also be generated when output is going to be paged
2949 through the external program defined by the environment variable
2954 This is not enabled by default because different pager programs need
2955 different command line switches or other configuration in order to
2956 support those sequences.
2957 \*(UA however knows about some widely used pagers and in a clean
2958 environment it is often enough to simply set
2960 please refer to that variable for more on this topic.
2965 is set then any active usage of colour and font attribute sequences
2966 is suppressed, but without affecting possibly established
2971 To define and control colours and font attributes a single multiplexer
2972 command family exists:
2974 shows or defines colour mappings for the given colour type (e.g.,
2977 can be used to remove mappings of a given colour type.
2978 Since colours are only available in interactive mode, it may make
2979 sense to conditionalize the colour setup by encapsulating it with
2982 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2983 if terminal && [ "$features" =% +colour ]
2984 colour iso view-msginfo ft=bold,fg=green
2985 colour iso view-header ft=bold,fg=red from,subject
2986 colour iso view-header fg=red
2988 uncolour iso view-header from,subject
2989 colour iso view-header ft=bold,fg=magenta,bg=cyan
2990 colour 256 view-header ft=bold,fg=208,bg=230 "subject,from"
2991 colour mono view-header ft=bold
2992 colour mono view-header ft=bold,ft=reverse subject,from
2997 .\" .Ss "Handling spam" {{{
3000 \*(OP \*(UA can make use of several spam interfaces for the purpose of
3001 identification of, and, in general, dealing with spam messages.
3002 A precondition of most commands in order to function is that the
3004 variable is set to one of the supported interfaces.
3005 Once messages have been identified as spam their (volatile)
3007 state can be prompted: the
3011 message specifications will address respective messages and their
3013 entries will be used when displaying the
3015 in the header display.
3020 rates the given messages and sets their
3023 If the spam interface offers spam scores those can also be displayed in
3024 the header display by including the
3034 will interact with the Bayesian filter of the chosen interface and learn
3035 the given messages as
3039 respectively; the last command can be used to cause
3041 of messages; it adheres to their current
3043 state and thus reverts previous teachings.
3048 will simply set and clear, respectively, the mentioned volatile
3050 message flag, without any interface interaction.
3059 requires a running instance of the
3061 server in order to function, started with the option
3063 shall Bayesian filter learning be possible.
3065 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3066 $ spamd -i localhost:2142 -i /tmp/.spamsock -d [-L] [-l]
3067 $ spamd --listen=localhost:2142 --listen=/tmp/.spamsock \e
3068 --daemonize [--local] [--allow-tell]
3072 Thereafter \*(UA can make use of these interfaces:
3074 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3075 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=spamc -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
3076 -Sspamc-command=/usr/local/bin/spamc \e
3077 -Sspamc-arguments="-U /tmp/.spamsock" -Sspamc-user=
3079 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=spamc -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
3080 -Sspamc-command=/usr/local/bin/spamc \e
3081 -Sspamc-arguments="-d localhost -p 2142" -Sspamc-user=
3085 Using the generic filter approach allows usage of programs like
3087 Here is an example, requiring it to be accessible via
3090 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3091 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=filter -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
3092 -Sspamfilter-ham="bogofilter -n" \e
3093 -Sspamfilter-noham="bogofilter -N" \e
3094 -Sspamfilter-nospam="bogofilter -S" \e
3095 -Sspamfilter-rate="bogofilter -TTu 2>/dev/null" \e
3096 -Sspamfilter-spam="bogofilter -s" \e
3097 -Sspamfilter-rate-scanscore="1;^(.+)$"
3101 Because messages must exist on local storage in order to be scored (or
3102 used for Bayesian filter training), it is possibly a good idea to
3103 perform the local spam check last.
3104 Spam can be checked automatically when opening specific folders by
3105 setting a specialized form of the internal variable
3108 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3109 define spamdelhook {
3111 spamset (header x-dcc-brand-metrics "bulk")
3112 # Server-side spamassassin(1)
3113 spamset (header x-spam-flag "YES")
3114 del :s # TODO we HAVE to be able to do `spamrate :u ! :sS'
3120 set folder-hook-SOMEFOLDER=spamdelhook
3124 See also the documentation for the variables
3125 .Va spam-interface , spam-maxsize ,
3126 .Va spamc-command , spamc-arguments , spamc-user ,
3127 .Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , spamfilter-nospam , \
3130 .Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore .
3133 .\" }}} (DESCRIPTION)
3136 .\" .Sh COMMANDS {{{
3139 \*(UA reads input in lines.
3140 An unquoted reverse solidus
3142 at the end of a command line
3144 the newline character: it is discarded and the next line of input is
3145 used as a follow-up line, with all leading whitespace removed;
3146 once an entire line is completed, the whitespace characters
3147 .Cm space , tabulator , newline
3148 as well as those defined by the variable
3150 are removed from the beginning and end.
3151 Placing any whitespace characters at the beginning of a line will
3152 prevent a possible addition of the command line to the \*(OPal
3156 The beginning of such input lines is then scanned for the name of
3157 a known command: command names may be abbreviated, in which case the
3158 first command that matches the given prefix will be used.
3159 .Sx "Command modifiers"
3160 may prefix a command in order to modify its behaviour.
3161 A name may also be a
3163 which will become expanded until no more expansion is possible.
3164 Once the command that shall be executed is known, the remains of the
3165 input line will be interpreted according to command-specific rules,
3166 documented in the following.
3169 This behaviour is different to the
3171 ell, which is a programming language with syntactic elements of clearly
3172 defined semantics, and therefore capable to sequentially expand and
3173 evaluate individual elements of a line.
3174 \*(UA will never be able to handle
3175 .Ql ? set one=value two=$one
3176 in a single statement, because the variable assignment is performed by
3184 can be used to show the list of all commands, either alphabetically
3185 sorted or in prefix search order (these do not match, also because the
3186 POSIX standard prescribes a set of abbreviations).
3187 \*(OPally the command
3191 when given an argument, will show a documentation string for the
3192 command matching the expanded argument, as in
3194 which should be a shorthand of
3196 with these documentation strings both commands support a more
3198 listing mode which includes the argument type of the command and other
3199 information which applies; a handy suggestion might thus be:
3201 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3203 # Before v15: need to enable sh(1)ell-style on _entire_ line!
3204 localopts 1;wysh set verbose;ignerr eval "${@}";return ${?}
3206 ? commandalias xv '\ecall __xv'
3210 .\" .Ss "Command modifiers" {{{
3211 .Ss "Command modifiers"
3213 Commands may be prefixed by one or multiple command modifiers.
3214 Some command modifiers can be used with a restricted set of commands
3219 will (\*(OPally) show which modifiers apply.
3223 The modifier reverse solidus
3226 to be placed first, prevents
3228 expansions on the remains of the line, e.g.,
3230 will always evaluate the command
3232 even if an (command)alias of the same name exists.
3234 content may itself contain further command modifiers, including
3235 an initial reverse solidus to prevent further expansions.
3241 indicates that any error generated by the following command should be
3242 ignored by the state machine and not cause a program exit with enabled
3244 or for the standardized exit cases in
3249 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
3250 will be set to the real exit status of the command regardless.
3255 will alter the called command to apply changes only temporarily,
3256 local to block-scope, and can thus only be used inside of a
3261 Specifying it implies the modifier
3263 Block-scope settings will not be inherited by macros deeper in the
3265 chain, and will be garbage collected once the current block is left.
3266 To record and unroll changes in the global scope use the command
3272 does yet not implement any functionality.
3277 does yet not implement any functionality.
3280 Some commands support the
3283 modifier: if used, they expect the name of a variable, which can itself
3284 be a variable, i.e., shell expansion is applied, as their first
3285 argument, and will place their computation result in it instead of the
3286 default location (it is usually written to standard output).
3288 The given name will be tested for being a valid
3290 variable name, and may therefore only consist of upper- and lowercase
3291 characters, digits, and the underscore; the hyphen-minus may be used as
3292 a non-portable extension; digits may not be used as first, hyphen-minus
3293 may not be used as last characters.
3294 In addition the name may either not be one of the known
3295 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
3296 or must otherwise refer to a writable (non-boolean) value variable.
3297 The actual put operation may fail nonetheless, e.g., if the variable
3298 expects a number argument only a number will be accepted.
3299 Any error during these operations causes the command as such to fail,
3300 and the error number
3303 .Va ^ERR Ns -NOTSUP ,
3308 but some commands deviate from the latter, which is documented.
3311 Last, but not least, the modifier
3314 can be used for some old and established commands to choose the new
3315 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
3316 rules over the traditional
3317 .Sx "Old-style argument quoting" .
3321 .\" .Ss "Message list arguments" {{{
3322 .Ss "Message list arguments"
3324 Some commands expect arguments that represent messages (actually
3325 their symbolic message numbers), as has been documented above under
3326 .Sx "Specifying messages"
3328 If no explicit message list has been specified, the next message
3329 forward that satisfies the command's requirements will be used,
3330 and if there are no messages forward of the current message,
3331 the search proceeds backwards;
3332 if there are no good messages at all to be found, an error message is
3333 shown and the command is aborted.
3336 .\" .Ss "Old-style argument quoting" {{{
3337 .Ss "Old-style argument quoting"
3339 \*(ID This section documents the old, traditional style of quoting
3340 non-message-list arguments to commands which expect this type of
3341 arguments: whereas still used by the majority of such commands, the new
3342 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
3343 may be available even for those via
3346 .Sx "Command modifiers" .
3347 Nonetheless care must be taken, because only new commands have been
3348 designed with all the capabilities of the new quoting rules in mind,
3349 which can, e.g., generate control characters.
3352 .Bl -bullet -offset indent
3354 An argument can be enclosed between paired double-quotes
3359 any whitespace, shell word expansion, or reverse solidus characters
3360 (except as described next) within the quotes are treated literally as
3361 part of the argument.
3362 A double-quote will be treated literally within single-quotes and vice
3364 Inside such a quoted string the actually used quote character can be
3365 used nonetheless by escaping it with a reverse solidus
3371 An argument that is not enclosed in quotes, as above, can usually still
3372 contain space characters if those spaces are reverse solidus escaped, as in
3376 A reverse solidus outside of the enclosing quotes is discarded
3377 and the following character is treated literally as part of the argument.
3381 .\" .Ss "Shell-style argument quoting" {{{
3382 .Ss "Shell-style argument quoting"
3384 Commands which don't expect message-list arguments use
3386 ell-style, and therefore POSIX standardized, argument parsing and
3388 \*(ID Most new commands only support these new rules and are flagged
3389 \*(NQ, some elder ones can use them with the command modifier
3391 in the future only this type of argument quoting will remain.
3394 A command line is parsed from left to right and an input token is
3395 completed whenever an unquoted, otherwise ignored, metacharacter is seen.
3396 Metacharacters are vertical bar
3402 as well as all characters from the variable
3405 .Cm space , tabulator , newline .
3406 The additional metacharacters left and right parenthesis
3408 and less-than and greater-than signs
3412 supports are not used, and are treated as ordinary characters: for one
3413 these characters are a vivid part of email addresses, and it seems
3414 highly unlikely that their function will become meaningful to \*(UA.
3416 .Bd -filled -offset indent
3417 .Sy Compatibility note:
3418 \*(ID Please note that even many new-style commands do not yet honour
3420 to parse their arguments: whereas the
3422 ell is a language with syntactic elements of clearly defined semantics,
3423 \*(UA parses entire input lines and decides on a per-command base what
3424 to do with the rest of the line.
3425 This also means that whenever an unknown command is seen all that \*(UA
3426 can do is cancellation of the processing of the remains of the line.
3428 It also often depends on an actual subcommand of a multiplexer command
3429 how the rest of the line should be treated, and until v15 we are not
3430 capable to perform this deep inspection of arguments.
3431 Nonetheless, at least the following commands which work with positional
3432 parameters fully support
3434 for an almost shell-compatible field splitting:
3435 .Ic call , call_if , read , vpospar , xcall .
3439 Any unquoted number sign
3441 at the beginning of a new token starts a comment that extends to the end
3442 of the line, and therefore ends argument processing.
3443 An unquoted dollar sign
3445 will cause variable expansion of the given name, which must be a valid
3447 ell-style variable name (see
3449 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
3452 (shell) variables can be accessed through this mechanism, brace
3453 enclosing the name is supported (i.e., to subdivide a token).
3456 Whereas the metacharacters
3457 .Cm space , tabulator , newline
3458 only complete an input token, vertical bar
3464 also act as control operators and perform control functions.
3465 For now supported is semicolon
3467 which terminates a single command, therefore sequencing the command line
3468 and making the remainder of the line a subject to reevaluation.
3469 With sequencing, multiple command argument types and quoting rules may
3470 therefore apply to a single line, which can become problematic before
3471 v15: e.g., the first of the following will cause surprising results.
3474 .Dl ? echo one; set verbose; echo verbose=$verbose.
3475 .Dl ? echo one; wysh set verbose; echo verbose=$verbose.
3478 Quoting is a mechanism that will remove the special meaning of
3479 metacharacters and reserved words, and will prevent expansion.
3480 There are four quoting mechanisms: the escape character, single-quotes,
3481 double-quotes and dollar-single-quotes:
3484 .Bl -bullet -offset indent
3486 The literal value of any character can be preserved by preceding it
3487 with the escape character reverse solidus
3491 Arguments which are enclosed in
3492 .Ql 'single-\:quotes'
3493 retain their literal value.
3494 A single-quote cannot occur within single-quotes.
3497 The literal value of all characters enclosed in
3498 .Ql \(dqdouble-\:quotes\(dq
3499 is retained, with the exception of dollar sign
3501 which will cause variable expansion, as above, backquote (grave accent)
3503 (which not yet means anything special), reverse solidus
3505 which will escape any of the characters dollar sign
3507 (to prevent variable expansion), backquote (grave accent)
3511 (to prevent ending the quote) and reverse solidus
3513 (to prevent escaping, i.e., to embed a reverse solidus character as-is),
3514 but has no special meaning otherwise.
3517 Arguments enclosed in
3518 .Ql $'dollar-\:single-\:quotes'
3519 extend normal single quotes in that reverse solidus escape sequences are
3520 expanded as follows:
3522 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".Ql \eNNN"
3524 bell control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 BEL).
3526 backspace control characer (ASCII and ISO-10646 BS).
3528 escape control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 ESC).
3532 form feed control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 FF).
3534 line feed control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 LF).
3536 carriage return control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 CR).
3538 horizontal tabulator control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 HT).
3540 vertical tabulator control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 VT).
3542 emits a reverse solidus character.
3546 double quote (escaping is optional).
3548 eight-bit byte with the octal value
3550 (one to three octal digits), optionally prefixed by an additional
3552 A 0 byte will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
3554 eight-bit byte with the hexadecimal value
3556 (one or two hexadecimal characters, no prefix, see
3558 A 0 byte will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
3560 the Unicode / ISO-10646 character with the hexadecimal codepoint value
3562 (one to eight hexadecimal characters) \(em note that Unicode defines the
3563 maximum codepoint ever to be supported as
3568 This escape is only supported in locales that support Unicode (see
3569 .Sx "Character sets" ) ,
3570 in other cases the sequence will remain unexpanded unless the given code
3571 point is ASCII compatible or (if the \*(OPal character set conversion is
3572 available) can be represented in the current locale.
3573 The character NUL will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
3577 except it takes only one to four hexadecimal characters.
3579 Emits the non-printable (ASCII and compatible) C0 control codes
3580 0 (NUL) to 31 (US), and 127 (DEL).
3581 Printable representations of ASCII control codes can be created by
3582 mapping them to a different part of the ASCII character set, which is
3583 possible by adding the number 64 for the codes 0 to 31, e.g., 7 (BEL) is
3584 .Ql 7 + 64 = 71 = G .
3585 The real operation is a bitwise logical XOR with 64 (bit 7 set, see
3587 thus also covering code 127 (DEL), which is mapped to 63 (question mark):
3588 .Ql ? vexpr ^ 127 64 .
3590 Whereas historically circumflex notation has often been used for
3591 visualization purposes of control codes, e.g.,
3593 the reverse solidus notation has been standardized:
3595 Some control codes also have standardized (ISO-10646, ISO C) aliases,
3596 as shown above (e.g.,
3600 whenever such an alias exists it will be used for display purposes.
3601 The control code NUL
3603 a non-standard extension) will suppress further output for the remains
3604 of the token (which may extend beyond the current quote), or, depending
3605 on the context, the remains of all arguments for the current command.
3607 Non-standard extension: expand the given variable name, as above.
3608 Brace enclosing the name is supported.
3610 Not yet supported, just to raise awareness: Non-standard extension.
3617 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3618 ? echo 'Quotes '${HOME}' and 'tokens" differ!"# no comment
3619 ? echo Quotes ${HOME} and tokens differ! # comment
3620 ? echo Don"'"t you worry$'\ex21' The sun shines on us. $'\eu263A'
3624 .\" .Ss "Raw data arguments for codec commands" {{{
3625 .Ss "Raw data arguments for codec commands"
3627 A special set of commands, which all have the string
3629 in their name, e.g.,
3633 take raw string data as input, which means that the content of the
3634 command input line is passed completely unexpanded and otherwise
3635 unchanged: like this the effect of the actual codec is visible without
3636 any noise of possible shell quoting rules etc., i.e., the user can input
3637 one-to-one the desired or questionable data.
3638 To gain a level of expansion, the entire command line can be
3642 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3643 ? vput shcodec res encode /usr/Sch\[:o]nes Wetter/heute.txt
3645 $'/usr/Sch\eu00F6nes Wetter/heute.txt'
3647 $'/usr/Sch\eu00F6nes Wetter/heute.txt'
3648 ? eval shcodec d $res
3649 /usr/Sch\[:o]nes Wetter/heute.txt
3653 .\" .Ss "Filename transformations" {{{
3654 .Ss "Filename transformations"
3656 Filenames, where expected, and unless documented otherwise, are
3657 subsequently subject to the following filename transformations, in
3660 .Bl -bullet -offset indent
3662 If the given name is a registered
3664 it will be replaced with the expanded shortcut.
3667 The filename is matched against the following patterns or strings:
3669 .Bl -hang -compact -width ".Ar %user"
3671 (Number sign) is expanded to the previous file.
3673 (Percent sign) is replaced by the invoking
3674 .Mx -ix "primary system mailbox"
3675 user's primary system mailbox, which either is the (itself expandable)
3677 if that is set, the standardized absolute pathname indicated by
3679 if that is set, or a built-in compile-time default otherwise.
3681 Expands to the primary system mailbox of
3683 (and never the value of
3685 regardless of its actual setting).
3687 (Ampersand) is replaced with the invoking users
3688 .Mx -ix "secondary mailbox"
3689 secondary mailbox, the
3696 directory (if that variable is set).
3698 Expands to the same value as
3700 but has special meaning when used with, e.g., the command
3702 the file will be treated as a primary system mailbox by, e.g., the
3706 commands, meaning that messages that have been read in the current
3707 session will be moved to the
3709 mailbox instead of simply being flagged as read.
3713 Meta expansions may be applied to the resulting filename, as allowed by
3714 the operation and applicable to the resulting access protocol (also see
3715 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) .
3716 For the file-protocol, a leading tilde
3718 character will be replaced by the expansion of
3720 except when followed by a valid user name, in which case the home
3721 directory of the given user is used instead.
3723 A shell expansion as if specified in double-quotes (see
3724 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" )
3725 may be applied, so that any occurrence of
3729 will be replaced by the expansion of the variable, if possible;
3730 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
3733 (shell) variables can be accessed through this mechanism.
3735 Shell pathname wildcard pattern expansions
3737 may be applied as documented.
3738 If the fully expanded filename results in multiple pathnames and the
3739 command is expecting only one file, an error results.
3741 In interactive context, in order to allow simple value acceptance (via
3743 arguments will usually be displayed in a properly quoted form, e.g., a file
3744 .Ql diet\e is \ecurd.txt
3746 .Ql 'diet\e is \ecurd.txt' .
3750 .\" .Ss "Commands" {{{
3753 The following commands are available:
3755 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ic BaNg"
3762 command which follows, replacing unescaped exclamation marks with the
3763 previously executed command if the internal variable
3766 This command supports
3769 .Sx "Command modifiers" ,
3770 and manages the error number
3772 A 0 or positive exit status
3774 reflects the exit status of the command, negative ones that
3775 an error happened before the command was executed, or that the program
3776 did not exit cleanly, but, e.g., due to a signal: the error number is
3777 .Va ^ERR Ns -CHILD ,
3781 In conjunction with the
3783 modifier the following special cases exist:
3784 a negative exit status occurs if the collected data could not be stored
3785 in the given variable, which is a
3787 error that should otherwise not occur.
3788 .Va ^ERR Ns -CANCELED
3789 indicates that no temporary file could be created to collect the command
3790 output at first glance.
3791 In case of catchable out-of-memory situations
3793 will occur and \*(UA will try to store the empty string, just like with
3794 all other detected error conditions.
3799 The comment-command causes the entire line to be ignored.
3801 this really is a normal command which' purpose is to discard its
3804 indicating special character, which means that, e.g., trailing comments
3805 on a line are not possible.
3809 Goes to the next message in sequence and types it
3815 Display the preceding message, or the n'th previous message if given
3816 a numeric argument n.
3820 Show the current message number (the
3825 Show a brief summary of commands.
3826 \*(OP Given an argument a synopsis for the command in question is
3827 shown instead; commands can be abbreviated in general and this command
3828 can be used to see the full expansion of an abbreviation including the
3829 synopsis, try, e.g.,
3834 and see how the output changes.
3835 This mode also supports a more
3837 output, which will provide the informations documented for
3848 .It Ic account , unaccount
3849 (ac, una) Creates, selects or lists (an) account(s).
3850 Accounts are special incarnations of
3852 macros and group commands and variable settings which together usually
3853 arrange the environment for the purpose of creating an email account.
3854 Different to normal macros settings which are covered by
3856 \(en here by default enabled! \(en will not be reverted before the
3861 (case-insensitive) always exists, and all but it can be deleted by the
3862 latter command, and in one operation with the special name
3864 Also for all but it a possibly set
3865 .Va on-account-cleanup
3866 hook is called once they are left.
3868 Without arguments a listing of all defined accounts is shown.
3869 With one argument the given account is activated: the system
3871 of that account will be activated (as via
3873 a possibly installed
3875 will be run, and the internal variable
3878 The two argument form is identical to defining a macro as via
3880 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3882 set folder=~/mail inbox=+syste.mbox record=+sent.mbox
3883 set from='(My Name) myname@myisp.example'
3884 set mta=smtp://mylogin@smtp.myisp.example
3891 Perform email address codec transformations on raw-data argument, rather
3892 according to email standards (RFC 5322; \*(ID will furtherly improve).
3896 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) ,
3897 and manages the error number
3899 The first argument must be either
3900 .Ar [+[+[+]]]e[ncode] ,
3905 and specifies the operation to perform on the rest of the line.
3908 Decoding will show how a standard-compliant MUA will display the given
3909 argument, which should be an email address.
3910 Please be aware that most MUAs have difficulties with the address
3911 standards, and vary wildly when (comments) in parenthesis,
3913 strings, or quoted-pairs, as below, become involved.
3914 \*(ID \*(UA currently does not perform decoding when displaying addresses.
3917 Skinning is identical to decoding but only outputs the plain address,
3918 without any string, comment etc. components.
3919 Another difference is that it may fail with the error number
3923 if decoding fails to find a(n) (valid) email address, in which case the
3924 unmodified input will be output again.
3928 first performs a skin operation, and thereafter checks a valid
3929 address for whether it is a registered mailing-list (see
3933 eventually reporting that state in the error number
3936 .Va ^ERR Ns -EXIST .
3937 (This state could later become overwritten by an I/O error, though.)
3940 Encoding supports four different modes, lesser automatized versions can be
3941 chosen by prefixing one, two or three plus signs: the standard imposes
3942 a special meaning on some characters, which thus have to be transformed
3943 to so-called quoted-pairs by pairing them with a reverse solidus
3945 in order to remove the special meaning; this might change interpretation
3946 of the entire argument from what has been desired, however!
3947 Specify one plus sign to remark that parenthesis shall be left alone,
3948 two for not turning double quotation marks into quoted-pairs, and three
3949 for also leaving any user-specified reverse solidus alone.
3950 The result will always be valid, if a successful exit status is reported.
3951 \*(ID Addresses need to be specified in between angle brackets
3954 if the construct becomes more difficult, otherwise the current parser
3955 will fail; it is not smart enough to guess right.
3957 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3958 ? addrc enc "Hey, you",<diet@exam.ple>\e out\e there
3959 "\e"Hey, you\e", \e\e out\e\e there" <diet@exam.ple>
3960 ? addrc d "\e"Hey, you\e", \e\e out\e\e there" <diet@exam.ple>
3961 "Hey, you", \e out\e there <diet@exam.ple>
3962 ? addrc s "\e"Hey, you\e", \e\e out\e\e there" <diet@exam.ple>
3969 .It Ic alias , unalias
3970 (a, una) Aliases are a method of creating personal distribution lists
3971 that map a single alias name to none to multiple real receivers;
3972 these aliases become expanded after message composing is completed.
3973 The latter command removes the given list of aliases, the special name
3975 will discard all existing aliases.
3977 The former command shows all currently defined aliases when used without
3978 arguments, and with one argument the expansion of the given alias.
3979 With more than one argument, creates or appends to the alias name given
3980 as the first argument the remaining arguments.
3981 Alias names adhere to the Postfix MTA
3983 rules and are thus restricted to alphabetic characters, digits, the
3984 underscore, hyphen-minus, the number sign, colon and commercial at,
3985 the last character can also be the dollar sign; the regular expression:
3986 .Ql [[:alnum:]_#:@-]+$? .
3987 As extensions the exclamation mark
3992 .Dq any character that has the high bit set
3997 .It Ic alternates , unalternates
3998 \*(NQ (alt) Manage a list of alternate addresses or names of the active user,
3999 members of which will be removed from recipient lists.
4000 The latter command removes the given list of alternates, the special name
4002 will discard all existing aliases.
4003 The former command manages the error number
4005 and shows the current set of alternates when used without arguments; in
4006 this mode it supports
4009 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
4010 Otherwise the given arguments (after being checked for validity) are
4011 appended to the list of alternate names; in
4013 mode they replace that list instead.
4014 There is a set of implicit alternates which is formed of the values of
4023 .It Ic answered , unanswered
4024 Take a message lists and mark each message as having been answered,
4025 having not been answered, respectively.
4026 Messages will be marked answered when being
4028 to automatically if the
4032 .Sx "Message states" .
4037 .It Ic bind , unbind
4038 \*(OP\*(NQ The bind command extends the MLE (see
4039 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
4040 with freely configurable key bindings.
4041 The latter command removes from the given context the given key binding,
4042 both of which may be specified as a wildcard
4046 will remove all bindings of all contexts.
4047 Due to initialization order unbinding will not work for built-in key
4048 bindings upon program startup, however: please use
4049 .Va line-editor-no-defaults
4050 for this purpose instead.
4053 With one argument the former command shows all key bindings for the
4054 given context, specifying an asterisk
4056 will show the bindings of all contexts; a more verbose listing will be
4057 produced if either of
4062 With two or more arguments a binding is (re)established:
4063 the first argument is the context to which the binding shall apply,
4064 the second argument is a comma-separated list of the
4066 which form the binding, and any remaining arguments form the expansion.
4067 To indicate that a binding shall not be auto-committed, but that the
4068 expansion shall instead be furtherly editable by the user, a commercial at
4070 (that will be removed) can be placed last in the expansion, from which
4071 leading and trailing whitespace will finally be removed.
4072 Reverse solidus cannot be used as the last character of expansion.
4075 Contexts define when a binding applies, i.e., a binding will not be seen
4076 unless the context for which it is defined for is currently active.
4077 This is not true for the shared binding
4079 which is the foundation for all other bindings and as such always
4080 applies, its bindings, however, only apply secondarily.
4081 The available contexts are the shared
4085 context which is used in all not otherwise documented situations, and
4087 which applies to compose mode only.
4091 which form the binding are specified as a comma-separated list of
4092 byte-sequences, where each list entry corresponds to one key(press).
4093 A list entry may, indicated by a leading colon character
4095 also refer to the name of a terminal capability; several dozen names
4096 will be compiled in and may be specified either by their
4098 or, if existing, by their
4100 name, regardless of the actually used \*(OPal terminal control library.
4101 It is possible to use any capability, as long as the name is resolvable
4102 by the \*(OPal control library or was defined via the internal variable
4104 Input sequences are not case-normalized, so that an exact match is
4105 required to update or remove a binding.
4108 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4109 ? bind base $'\eE',d mle-snarf-word-fwd # Esc(ape)
4110 ? bind base $'\eE',$'\ec?' mle-snarf-word-bwd # Esc, Delete
4111 ? bind default $'\ecA',:khome,w 'echo An editable binding@'
4112 ? bind default a,b,c rm -irf / @ # Another editable binding
4113 ? bind default :kf1 File %
4114 ? bind compose :kf1 ~e
4118 Note that the entire comma-separated list is first parsed (over) as a
4119 shell-token with whitespace as the field separator, before being parsed
4120 and expanded for real with comma as the field separator, therefore
4121 whitespace needs to be properly quoted, see
4122 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" .
4123 Using Unicode reverse solidus escape sequences renders a binding
4124 defunctional if the locale does not support Unicode (see
4125 .Sx "Character sets" ) ,
4126 and using terminal capabilities does so if no (corresponding) terminal
4127 control support is (currently) available.
4130 The following terminal capability names are built-in and can be used in
4132 or (if available) the two-letter
4135 See the respective manual for a list of capabilities.
4138 can be used to show all the capabilities of
4140 or the given terminal type;
4143 flag will also show supported (non-standard) extensions.
4146 .Bl -tag -compact -width kcuuf_or_kcuuf
4147 .It Cd kbs Ns \0or Cd kb
4149 .It Cd kdch1 Ns \0or Cd kD
4151 .It Cd kDC Ns \0or Cd *4
4152 \(em shifted variant.
4153 .It Cd kel Ns \0or Cd kE
4154 Clear to end of line.
4155 .It Cd kext Ns \0or Cd @9
4157 .It Cd kich1 Ns \0or Cd kI
4159 .It Cd kIC Ns \0or Cd #3
4160 \(em shifted variant.
4161 .It Cd khome Ns \0or Cd kh
4163 .It Cd kHOM Ns \0or Cd #2
4164 \(em shifted variant.
4165 .It Cd kend Ns \0or Cd @7
4167 .It Cd knp Ns \0or Cd kN
4169 .It Cd kpp Ns \0or Cd kP
4171 .It Cd kcub1 Ns \0or Cd kl
4172 Left cursor (with more modifiers: see below).
4173 .It Cd kLFT Ns \0or Cd #4
4174 \(em shifted variant.
4175 .It Cd kcuf1 Ns \0or Cd kr
4176 Right cursor (ditto).
4177 .It Cd kRIT Ns \0or Cd %i
4178 \(em shifted variant.
4179 .It Cd kcud1 Ns \0or Cd kd
4180 Down cursor (ditto).
4182 \(em shifted variant (only terminfo).
4183 .It Cd kcuu1 Ns \0or Cd ku
4186 \(em shifted variant (only terminfo).
4187 .It Cd kf0 Ns \0or Cd k0
4189 Add one for each function key up to
4194 .It Cd kf10 Ns \0or Cd k;
4196 .It Cd kf11 Ns \0or Cd F1
4198 Add one for each function key up to
4206 Some terminals support key-modifier combination extensions, e.g.,
4208 For example, the delete key,
4210 in its shifted variant, the name is mutated to
4212 then a number is appended for the states
4224 .Ql Shift+Alt+Control
4226 The same for the left cursor key,
4228 .Cd KLFT , KLFT3 , KLFT4 , KLFT5 , KLFT6 , KLFT7 , KLFT8 .
4231 It is advisable to use an initial escape or other control character (e.g.,
4233 for bindings which describe user key combinations (as opposed to purely
4234 terminal capability based ones), in order to avoid ambiguities whether
4235 input belongs to key sequences or not; it also reduces search time.
4238 may help shall keys and sequences be falsely recognized.
4243 \*(NQ Calls the given macro, which must have been created via
4248 Calling macros recursively will at some time excess the stack size
4249 limit, causing a hard program abortion; if recursively calling a macro
4250 is the last command of the current macro, consider to use the command
4252 which will first release all resources of the current macro before
4253 replacing the current macro with the called one.
4254 Numeric and string operations can be performed via
4258 may be helpful to recreate argument lists.
4265 if the given macro has been created via
4267 but doesn't fail nor warn if the macro doesn't exist.
4271 (ch) Change the working directory to
4273 or the given argument.
4279 \*(OP Only applicable to S/MIME signed messages.
4280 Takes a message list and a filename and saves the certificates
4281 contained within the message signatures to the named file in both
4282 human-readable and PEM format.
4283 The certificates can later be used to send encrypted messages to the
4284 respective message senders by setting
4285 .Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST
4290 .It Ic charsetalias , uncharsetalias
4291 \*(NQ Manage (character set conversion) character set alias mappings,
4292 as documented in the section
4293 .Sx "Character sets" .
4294 Character set aliases are expanded recursively, but no expansion is
4295 performed on values of the user-settable variables, e.g.,
4297 These are effectively no-operations if character set conversion
4298 is not available (i.e., no
4302 Without arguments the list of all currently defined aliases is shown,
4303 with one argument the expansion of the given alias.
4304 Otherwise all given arguments are treated as pairs of character sets and
4305 their desired target alias name, creating new or changing already
4306 existing aliases, as necessary.
4308 The latter deletes all aliases given as arguments, the special argument
4310 will remove all aliases.
4314 (ch) Change the working directory to
4316 or the given argument.
4322 .It Ic collapse , uncollapse
4323 Only applicable to threaded mode.
4324 Takes a message list and makes all replies to these messages invisible
4325 in header summaries, except for
4329 Also when a message with collapsed replies is displayed,
4330 all of these are automatically uncollapsed.
4331 The latter command undoes collapsing.
4336 .It Ic colour , uncolour
4337 \*(OP\*(NQ Manage colour mappings of and for a
4338 .Sx "Coloured display" .
4339 The type of colour is given as the (case-insensitive) first argument,
4340 which must be one of
4342 for 256-colour terminals,
4347 for the standard 8-colour ANSI / ISO 6429 color palette and
4351 for monochrome terminals.
4352 Monochrome terminals cannot deal with colours, but only (some) font
4356 Without further arguments the list of all currently defined mappings
4357 for the given colour type is shown (as a special case giving
4361 will show the mappings of all types).
4362 Otherwise the second argument defines the mappable slot, and the third
4363 argument a (comma-separated list of) colour and font attribute
4364 specification(s), and the optional fourth argument can be used to
4365 specify a precondition: if conditioned mappings exist they are tested in
4366 (creation) order unless a (case-insensitive) match has been found, and
4367 the default mapping (if any has been established) will only be chosen as
4369 The types of precondition available depend on the mappable slot (see
4370 .Sx "Coloured display"
4371 for some examples), the following of which exist:
4374 Mappings prefixed with
4376 are used for the \*(OPal built-in Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE, see
4377 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
4378 and do not support preconditions.
4380 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
4382 This mapping is used for the position indicator that is visible when
4383 a line cannot be fully displayed on the screen.
4390 Mappings prefixed with
4392 are used in header summaries, and they all understand the preconditions
4394 (the current message) and
4396 for elder messages (only honoured in conjunction with
4397 .Va datefield-markout-older ) .
4399 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
4401 This mapping is used for the
4403 that can be created with the
4407 formats of the variable
4410 For the complete header summary line except the
4412 and the thread structure.
4414 For the thread structure which can be created with the
4416 format of the variable
4421 Mappings prefixed with
4423 are used when displaying messages.
4425 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
4427 This mapping is used for so-called
4429 lines, which are MBOX file format specific header lines.
4432 A comma-separated list of headers to which the mapping applies may be
4433 given as a precondition; if the \*(OPal regular expression support is
4434 available then if any of the
4436 (extended) regular expression characters is seen the precondition will
4437 be evaluated as (an extended) one.
4439 For the introductional message info line.
4440 .It Ar view-partinfo
4441 For MIME part info lines.
4445 The following (case-insensitive) colour definitions and font attributes
4446 are understood, multiple of which can be specified in a comma-separated
4456 It is possible (and often applicable) to specify multiple font
4457 attributes for a single mapping.
4460 foreground colour attribute:
4470 To specify a 256-color mode a decimal number colour specification in
4471 the range 0 to 255, inclusive, is supported, and interpreted as follows:
4473 .Bl -tag -compact -width "999 - 999"
4475 the standard ISO 6429 colors, as above.
4477 high intensity variants of the standard colors.
4479 216 colors in tuples of 6.
4481 grayscale from black to white in 24 steps.
4483 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4485 fg() { printf "\e033[38;5;${1}m($1)"; }
4486 bg() { printf "\e033[48;5;${1}m($1)"; }
4488 while [ $i -lt 256 ]; do fg $i; i=$(($i + 1)); done
4489 printf "\e033[0m\en"
4491 while [ $i -lt 256 ]; do bg $i; i=$(($i + 1)); done
4492 printf "\e033[0m\en"
4496 background colour attribute (see
4498 for possible values).
4504 will remove for the given colour type (the special type
4506 selects all) the given mapping; if the optional precondition argument is
4507 given only the exact tuple of mapping and precondition is removed.
4510 will remove all mappings (no precondition allowed), thus
4512 will remove all established mappings.
4517 .It Ic commandalias , uncommandalias
4518 \*(NQ Define or list, and remove, respectively, command aliases.
4519 An (command)alias can be used everywhere a normal command can be used,
4520 but always takes precedence: any arguments that are given to the command
4521 alias are joined onto the alias expansion, and the resulting string
4522 forms the command line that is, in effect, executed.
4523 The latter command removes all given aliases, the special name
4525 will remove all existing aliases.
4526 When used without arguments the former shows a list of all currently
4527 known aliases, with one argument only the expansion of the given one.
4529 With two or more arguments a command alias is defined or updated: the
4530 first argument is the name under which the remaining command line should
4531 be accessible, the content of which can be just about anything.
4532 An alias may itself expand to another alias, but to avoid expansion loops
4533 further expansion will be prevented if an alias refers to itself or if
4534 an expansion depth limit is reached.
4535 Explicit expansion prevention is available via reverse solidus
4538 .Sx "Command modifiers" .
4539 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4541 \*(uA: `commandalias': no such alias: xx
4542 ? commandalias xx echo hello,
4544 commandalias xx 'echo hello,'
4553 (C) Copy messages to files whose names are derived from the author of
4554 the respective message and do not mark them as being saved;
4555 otherwise identical to
4560 (c) Copy messages to the named file and do not mark them as being saved;
4561 otherwise identical to
4566 Show the name of the current working directory, as reported by
4571 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
4572 The return status is tracked via
4577 \*(OP For unencrypted messages this command is identical to
4579 Encrypted messages are first decrypted, if possible, and then copied.
4583 \*(OP For unencrypted messages this command is identical to
4585 Encrypted messages are first decrypted, if possible, and then copied.
4590 .It Ic define , undefine
4591 The latter command deletes the given macro, the special name
4593 will discard all existing macros.
4594 Deletion of (a) macro(s) can be performed from within running macro(s).
4595 Without arguments the former command prints the current list of macros,
4596 including their content, otherwise it it defines a macro, replacing an
4597 existing one of the same name as applicable.
4600 A defined macro can be invoked explicitly by using the
4605 commands, or implicitly if a macro hook is triggered, e.g., a
4607 Execution of a macro body can be stopped from within by calling
4611 Temporary macro block-scope variables can be created or deleted with the
4613 command modifier in conjunction with the commands
4618 To enforce unrolling of changes made to (global)
4619 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
4622 can be used instead; its covered scope depends on how (i.e.,
4624 normal macro, folder hook, hook,
4626 switch) the macro is invoked.
4631 ed macro, the given positional parameters are implicitly local
4632 to the macro's scope, and may be accessed via the variables
4638 as well as any other positive unsigned decimal number (less than
4640 Positional parameters can be
4642 ed, or become completely replaced, removed etc. via
4645 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4655 echo Parameter 1 of ${#} is ${1}, all: ${*} / ${@}
4658 call exmac Hello macro exmac!
4659 echo ${?}/${!}/${^ERRNAME}
4665 .It Ic delete , undelete
4666 (d, u) Marks the given message list as being or not being
4668 respectively; if no argument has been specified then the usual search
4669 for a visible message is performed, as documented for
4670 .Sx "Message list arguments" ,
4671 showing only the next input prompt if the search fails.
4672 Deleted messages will neither be saved in the
4674 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
4676 nor will they be available for most other commands.
4679 variable is set, the new
4681 or the last message restored, respectively, is automatically
4691 Superseded by the multiplexer
4697 Delete the given messages and automatically
4701 if one exists, regardless of the setting of
4708 up or down by one message when given
4712 argument, respectively.
4716 .It Ic draft , undraft
4717 Take message lists and mark each given message as being draft, or not
4718 being draft, respectively, as documented in the section
4719 .Sx "Message states" .
4723 \*(NQ (ec) Echoes arguments to standard output and writes a trailing
4724 newline, whereas the otherwise identical
4727 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
4729 .Sx "Filename transformations"
4730 are applied to the expanded arguments.
4731 This command also supports
4734 .Sx "Command modifiers" ,
4735 and manages the error number
4737 if data is stored in a variable then the return value reflects the
4738 length of the result string in case of success and is
4746 except that is echoes to standard error.
4749 In interactive sessions the \*(OPal message ring queue for
4751 will be used instead, if available and
4759 but does not write or store a trailing newline.
4765 but does not write or store a trailing newline.
4769 (e) Point the text editor (as defined in
4771 at each message from the given list in turn.
4772 Modified contents are discarded unless the
4774 variable is set, and are not used unless the mailbox can be written to
4775 and the editor returns a successful exit status.
4780 .Ic if Ns \0/\: Ic elif Ns \0/\: Ic else Ns \0/\: Ic endif
4781 conditional \(em if the condition of a preceding
4783 was false, check the following condition and execute the following block
4784 if it evaluates true.
4789 .Ic if Ns \0/\: Ic elif Ns \0/\: Ic else Ns \0/\: Ic endif
4790 conditional \(em if none of the conditions of the preceding
4794 commands was true, the
4800 (en) Marks the end of an
4801 .Ic if Ns \0/\: Ic elif Ns \0/\: Ic else Ns \0/\: Ic endif
4802 conditional execution block.
4807 \*(NQ \*(UA has a strict notion about which variables are
4808 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
4809 and which are managed in the program
4811 Since some of the latter are a vivid part of \*(UAs functioning,
4812 however, they are transparently integrated into the normal handling of
4813 internal variables via
4817 To integrate other environment variables of choice into this
4818 transparent handling, and also to export internal variables into the
4819 process environment where they normally are not, a
4821 needs to become established with this command, as in, e.g.,
4824 .Dl environ link PERL5LIB TZ
4827 Afterwards changing such variables with
4829 will cause automatic updates of the program environment, and therefore
4830 be inherited by newly created child processes.
4831 Sufficient system support provided (it was in BSD as early as 1987, and
4832 is standardized since Y2K) removing such variables with
4834 will remove them also from the program environment, but in any way
4835 the knowledge they ever have been
4838 Note that this implies that
4840 may cause loss of such links.
4845 will remove an existing link, but leaves the variables as such intact.
4846 Additionally the subcommands
4850 are provided, which work exactly the same as the documented commands
4854 but (additionally un)link the variable(s) with the program environment
4855 and thus immediately export them to, or remove them from (if possible),
4856 respectively, the program environment.
4861 \*(OP Since \*(UA uses the console as a user interface it can happen
4862 that messages scroll by too fast to become recognized.
4863 An error message ring queue is available which stores duplicates of any
4864 error message and notifies the user in interactive sessions whenever
4865 a new error has occurred.
4866 The queue is finite: if its maximum size is reached any new message
4867 replaces the eldest.
4870 can be used to manage this message queue: if given
4872 or no argument the queue will be displayed and cleared,
4874 will only clear all messages from the queue.
4878 \*(NQ Construct a command by concatenating the arguments, separated with
4879 a single space character, and then evaluate the result.
4880 This command passes through the exit status
4884 of the evaluated command; also see
4886 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4897 call yyy '\ecall xxx' "b\e$'\et'u ' "
4905 (ex or x) Exit from \*(UA without changing the active mailbox and skip
4906 any saving of messages in the
4908 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
4910 as well as a possibly tracked line editor
4912 The optional status number argument will be passed through to
4914 \*(ID For now it can happen that the given status will be overwritten,
4915 later this will only occur if a later error needs to be reported onto an
4916 otherwise success indicating status.
4922 but open the mailbox read-only.
4927 (fi) The file command switches to a new mailbox.
4928 Without arguments it shows status information of the current mailbox.
4929 If an argument is given, it will write out changes (such as deletions)
4930 the user has made, open a new mailbox, update the internal variables
4931 .Va mailbox-resolved
4933 .Va mailbox-display ,
4934 and optionally display a summary of
4941 .Sx "Filename transformations"
4942 will be applied to the
4946 prefixes are, i.e., URL syntax is understood, e.g.,
4947 .Ql maildir:///tmp/mdirbox :
4948 if a protocol prefix is used the mailbox type is fixated and neither
4949 the auto-detection (read on) nor the
4952 \*(OPally URLs can also be used to access network resources, which may
4953 be accessed securely via
4954 .Sx "Encrypted network communication"
4955 if so supported, and it is possible to proxy all network traffic over
4956 a SOCKS5 server given via
4960 .Dl \*(IN protocol://[user[:password]@]host[:port][/path]
4961 .Dl \*(OU protocol://[user@]host[:port][/path]
4964 \*(OPally supported network protocols are
4968 (POP3 with SSL/TLS encrypted transport),
4974 part is valid only for IMAP; there it defaults to
4976 Network URLs require a special encoding as documented in the section
4977 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
4980 If the resulting file protocol (MBOX database)
4982 is located on a local filesystem then the list of all registered
4984 s is traversed in order to see whether a transparent intermediate
4985 conversion step is necessary to handle the given mailbox, in which case
4986 \*(UA will use the found hook to load and save data into and from
4987 a temporary file, respectively.
4988 Changing hooks will not affect already opened mailboxes.
4989 For example, the following creates hooks for the
4991 compression tool and a combined compressed and encrypted format:
4993 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4995 gzip 'gzip -dc' 'gzip -c' \e
4996 zst.pgp 'gpg -d | zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc | gpg -e'
5000 MBOX database files are generally locked during file operations in order
5001 to avoid inconsistencies due to concurrent modifications.
5002 \*(OPal Mailbox files which \*(UA treats as the system
5007 .Sx "primary system mailbox" Ns
5008 es in general will also be protected by so-called dotlock files, the
5009 traditional way of mail spool file locking: for any file
5013 will be created for the duration of the synchronization \(em
5014 as necessary a privilege-separated dotlock child process will be used
5015 to accommodate for necessary privilege adjustments in order to create
5016 the dotlock file in the same directory
5017 and with the same user and group identities as the file of interest.
5020 \*(UA by default uses tolerant POSIX rules when reading MBOX database
5021 files, but it will detect invalid message boundaries in this mode and
5022 complain (even more with
5024 if any is seen: in this case
5026 can be used to create a valid MBOX database from the invalid input.
5029 If no protocol has been fixated, and
5031 refers to a directory with the subdirectories
5036 then it is treated as a folder in
5039 The maildir format stores each message in its own file, and has been
5040 designed so that file locking is not necessary when reading or writing
5044 \*(ID If no protocol has been fixated and no existing file has
5045 been found, the variable
5047 controls the format of mailboxes yet to be created.
5052 .It Ic filetype , unfiletype
5053 \*(NQ Define or list, and remove, respectively, file handler hooks,
5054 which provide (shell) commands that enable \*(UA to load and save MBOX
5055 files from and to files with the registered file extensions;
5056 it will use an intermediate temporary file to store the plain data.
5057 The latter command removes the hooks for all given extensions,
5059 will remove all existing handlers.
5061 When used without arguments the former shows a list of all currently
5062 defined file hooks, with one argument the expansion of the given alias.
5063 Otherwise three arguments are expected, the first specifying the file
5064 extension for which the hook is meant, and the second and third defining
5065 the load- and save commands, respectively, to deal with the file type,
5066 both of which must read from standard input and write to standard
5068 Changing hooks will not affect already opened mailboxes (\*(ID except below).
5069 \*(ID For now too much work is done, and files are oftened read in twice
5070 where once would be sufficient: this can cause problems if a filetype is
5071 changed while such a file is opened; this was already so with the
5072 built-in support of .gz etc. in Heirloom, and will vanish in v15.
5073 \*(ID For now all handler strings are passed to the
5074 .Ev SHELL for evaluation purposes; in the future a
5076 prefix to load and save commands may mean to bypass this shell instance:
5077 placing a leading space will avoid any possible misinterpretations.
5078 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5079 ? filetype bz2 'bzip2 -dc' 'bzip2 -zc' \e
5080 gz 'gzip -dc' 'gzip -c' xz 'xz -dc' 'xz -zc' \e
5081 zst 'zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc' \e
5082 zst.pgp 'gpg -d | zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc | gpg -e'
5083 ? set record=+sent.zst.pgp
5088 .It Ic flag , unflag
5089 Take message lists and mark the messages as being flagged, or not being
5090 flagged, respectively, for urgent/special attention.
5092 .Sx "Message states" .
5101 With no arguments, list the names of the folders in the folder directory.
5102 With an existing folder as an argument,
5103 lists the names of folders below the named folder.
5109 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
5110 recipient's address (instead of in
5117 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
5118 recipient's address (instead of in
5125 but responds to all recipients regardless of the
5130 .It Ic followupsender
5133 but responds to the sender only regardless of the
5141 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the
5142 recipient's address (instead of in
5147 Takes a message and the address of a recipient
5148 and forwards the message to him.
5149 The text of the original message is included in the new one,
5150 with the value of the
5151 .Va forward-inject-head
5152 variable preceding it.
5153 To filter the included header fields to the desired subset use the
5155 slot of the white- and blacklisting command
5157 Only the first part of a multipart message is included unless
5158 .Va forward-as-attachment ,
5159 and recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names
5160 etc. unless the internal variable
5164 This may generate the errors
5165 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
5166 if no receiver has been specified,
5168 if some addressees where rejected by
5171 if no applicable messages have been given,
5173 if multiple messages have been specified,
5175 if an I/O error occurs,
5177 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
5183 (f) Takes a list of message specifications and displays a summary of
5184 their message headers, exactly as via
5186 An alias of this command is
5189 .Sx "Specifying messages" .
5200 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
5204 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
5207 .It Ic ghost , unghost
5210 .Ic uncommandalias .
5214 .It Ic headerpick , unheaderpick
5215 \*(NQ Multiplexer command to manage white- and blacklisting
5216 selections of header fields for a variety of applications.
5217 Without arguments the set of contexts that have settings is displayed.
5218 When given arguments, the first argument is the context to which the
5219 command applies, one of (case-insensitive)
5221 for display purposes (via, e.g.,
5224 for selecting which headers shall be stored persistently when
5230 ing messages (note that MIME related etc. header fields should not be
5231 ignored in order to not destroy usability of the message in this case),
5233 for stripping down messages when
5235 ing message (has no effect if
5236 .Va forward-as-attachment
5239 for defining user-defined set of fields for the command
5242 The current settings of the given context are displayed if it is the
5244 A second argument denotes the type of restriction that is to be chosen,
5245 it may be (a case-insensitive prefix of)
5249 for white- and blacklisting purposes, respectively.
5250 Establishing a whitelist suppresses inspection of the corresponding
5253 If no further argument is given the current settings of the given type
5254 will be displayed, otherwise the remaining arguments specify header
5255 fields, which \*(OPally may be given as regular expressions, to be added
5257 The special wildcard field (asterisk,
5259 will establish a (fast) shorthand setting which covers all fields.
5261 The latter command always takes three or more arguments and can be used
5262 to remove selections, i.e., from the given context, the given type of
5263 list, all the given headers will be removed, the special argument
5265 will remove all headers.
5269 (h) Show the current group of headers, the size of which depends on
5272 and the style of which can be adjusted with the variable
5274 If a message-specification is given the group of headers containing the
5275 first message therein is shown and the message at the top of the screen
5288 (this mode also supports a more
5292 the list of history entries;
5295 argument selects and evaluates the respective history entry,
5296 which will become the new history top; a negative number is used as an
5297 offset to the current command, e.g.,
5299 will select the last command, the history top.
5300 The default mode if no arguments are given is
5303 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor"
5304 for more on this topic.
5310 Takes a message list and marks each message therein to be saved in the
5315 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
5317 Does not override the
5320 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command, because a
5322 command issued after
5324 will display the following message, not the current one.
5329 (i) Part of the nestable
5330 .Ic if Ns \0/\: Ic elif Ns \0/\: Ic else Ns \0/\: Ic endif
5331 conditional execution construct \(em if the given condition is true then
5332 the encapsulated block is executed.
5333 The POSIX standards supports the (case-insensitive) conditions
5338 end, all remaining conditions are non-portable extensions.
5339 \*(ID These commands do not yet use
5340 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
5341 and therefore do not know about input tokens, so that syntax
5342 elements have to be surrounded by whitespace; in v15 \*(UA will inspect
5343 all conditions bracket group wise and consider the tokens, representing
5344 values and operators, therein, which also means that variables will
5345 already have been expanded at that time (just like in the shell).
5347 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5356 The (case-insensitive) condition
5358 erminal will evaluate to true if the standard input is a terminal, i.e.,
5359 in interactive sessions.
5360 Another condition can be any boolean value (see the section
5361 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
5362 for textual boolean representations) to mark an enwrapped block as
5365 .Dq always execute .
5366 (It shall be remarked that a faulty condition skips all branches until
5371 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
5372 will be used, and this command will simply interpret expanded tokens.)
5373 It is possible to check
5374 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
5377 variables for existence or compare their expansion against a user given
5378 value or another variable by using the
5380 .Pf ( Dq variable next )
5381 conditional trigger character;
5382 a variable on the right hand side may be signalled using the same
5384 Variable names may be enclosed in a pair of matching braces.
5385 When this mode has been triggered, several operators are available:
5388 Integer operators treat the arguments on the left and right hand side of
5389 the operator as integral numbers and compare them arithmetically.
5390 It is an error if any of the operands is not a valid integer, an empty
5391 argument (which implies it had been quoted) is treated as if it were 0.
5392 Available operators are
5396 (less than or equal to),
5402 (greater than or equal to), and
5407 String data operators compare the left and right hand side according to
5408 their textual content.
5409 Unset variables are treated as the empty string.
5410 The behaviour of string operators can be adjusted by prefixing the
5411 operator with the modifier trigger commercial at
5413 followed by none to multiple modifiers: for now supported is
5415 which turns the comparison into a case-insensitive one: this is
5416 implied if no modifier follows the trigger.
5419 Available string operators are
5423 (less than or equal to),
5429 (greater than or equal to),
5433 (is substring of) and
5435 (is not substring of).
5436 By default these operators work on bytes and (therefore) do not take
5437 into account character set specifics.
5438 If the case-insensitivity modifier has been used, case is ignored
5439 according to the rules of the US-ASCII encoding, i.e., bytes are
5443 When the \*(OPal regular expression support is available, the additional
5449 They treat the right hand side as an extended regular expression that is
5450 matched according to the active locale (see
5451 .Sx "Character sets" ) ,
5452 i.e., character sets should be honoured correctly.
5455 Conditions can be joined via AND-OR lists (where the AND operator is
5457 and the OR operator is
5459 which have equal precedence and will be evaluated with left
5460 associativity, thus using the same syntax that is known for the
5462 It is also possible to form groups of conditions and lists by enclosing
5463 them in pairs of brackets
5464 .Ql [\ \&.\&.\&.\ ] ,
5465 which may be interlocked within each other, and also be joined via
5469 The results of individual conditions and entire groups may be modified
5470 via unary operators: the unary operator
5472 will reverse the result.
5474 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5475 # (This not in v15, there [ -n "$debug"]!)
5479 if [ "$ttycharset" == UTF-8 ] || [ "$ttycharset" @i== UTF8 ]
5480 echo *ttycharset* is UTF-8, the former case-sensitive!
5483 if [ "${t1}" == "${t2}" ]
5484 echo These two variables are equal
5486 if [ "$features" =% +regex ] && [ "$TERM" @i=~ "^xterm\&.*" ]
5487 echo ..in an X terminal
5489 if [ [ true ] && [ [ "${debug}" != '' ] || \e
5490 [ "$verbose" != '' ] ] ]
5493 if true && [ "$debug" != '' ] || [ "${verbose}" != '' ]
5494 echo Left associativity, as is known from the shell
5503 Superseded by the multiplexer
5508 Shows the names of all available commands, alphabetically sorted.
5509 If given any non-whitespace argument the list will be shown in the order
5510 in which command prefixes are searched.
5511 \*(OP In conjunction with a set variable
5513 additional information will be provided for each command: the argument
5514 type will be indicated, the documentation string will be shown,
5515 and the set of command flags will show up:
5517 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql BaNg"
5518 .It Ql "vput modifier"
5519 command supports the command modifier
5521 .It Ql "errno in *!*"
5522 the error number is tracked in
5525 commands needs an active mailbox, a
5527 .It Ql "ok: batch or interactive"
5528 command may only be used in interactive or
5531 .It Ql "ok: send mode"
5532 command can be used in send mode.
5533 .It Ql "not ok: compose mode"
5534 command is not available when in compose mode.
5535 .It Ql "not ok: during startup"
5536 command cannot be used during program startup, e.g., while loading
5537 .Sx "Resource files" .
5538 .It Ql "ok: in subprocess"
5539 command is allowed to be used when running in a subprocess instance,
5540 e.g., from within a macro that is called via
5541 .Va on-compose-splice .
5547 This command can be used to localize changes to (linked)
5550 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
5551 meaning that their state will be reverted to the former one once the
5554 Just like the command modifier
5556 which provides block-scope localization for some commands (instead),
5557 it can only be used inside of macro definition blocks introduced by
5561 The covered scope of an
5563 is left once a different account is activated, and some macros, notably
5564 .Va folder-hook Ns s ,
5565 use their own specific notion of covered scope, here it will be extended
5566 until the folder is left again.
5569 This setting stacks up: i.e., if
5571 enables change localization and calls
5573 which explicitly resets localization, then any value changes within
5575 will still be reverted when the scope of
5578 (Caveats: if in this example
5580 changes to a different
5582 which sets some variables that are already covered by localizations,
5583 their scope will be extended, and in fact leaving the
5585 will (thus) restore settings in (likely) global scope which actually
5586 were defined in a local, macro private context!)
5589 This command takes one or two arguments, the optional first one
5590 specifies an attribute that may be one of
5592 which refers to the current scope and is thus the default,
5594 which causes any macro that is being
5596 ed to be started with localization enabled by default, as well as
5598 which (if enabled) disallows any called macro to turn off localization:
5599 like this it can be ensured that once the current scope regains control,
5600 any changes made in deeper levels have been reverted.
5601 The latter two are mutually exclusive, and neither affects
5603 The (second) argument is interpreted as a boolean (string, see
5604 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" )
5605 and states whether the given attribute shall be turned on or off.
5607 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5608 define temporary_settings {
5609 set possibly_global_option1
5611 set localized_option1
5612 set localized_option2
5614 set possibly_global_option2
5621 Reply to messages that come in via known
5624 .Pf ( Ic mlsubscribe )
5625 mailing lists, or pretend to do so (see
5626 .Sx "Mailing lists" ) :
5629 functionality this will actively resort and even remove message
5630 recipients in order to generate a message that is supposed to be sent to
5632 For example it will also implicitly generate a
5633 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
5634 header if that seems useful, regardless of the setting of the variable
5636 For more documentation please refer to
5637 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
5639 This may generate the errors
5640 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
5641 if no receiver has been specified,
5643 if some addressees where rejected by
5646 if no applicable messages have been given,
5648 if an I/O error occurs,
5650 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
5653 Any error stops processing of further messages.
5659 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
5660 recipient's address (instead of in
5665 (m) Takes a (list of) recipient address(es) as (an) argument(s),
5666 or asks on standard input if none were given;
5667 then collects the remaining mail content and sends it out.
5668 Unless the internal variable
5670 is set recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names etc.
5671 For more documentation please refer to
5672 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
5674 This may generate the errors
5675 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
5676 if no receiver has been specified,
5678 if some addressees where rejected by
5681 if no applicable messages have been given,
5683 if multiple messages have been specified,
5685 if an I/O error occurs,
5687 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
5693 (mb) The given message list is to be sent to the
5695 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
5697 when \*(UA is quit; this is the default action unless the variable
5700 \*(ID This command can only be used in a
5702 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
5706 .It Ic mimetype , unmimetype
5707 Without arguments the content of the MIME type cache will displayed;
5708 a more verbose listing will be produced if either of
5713 When given arguments they will be joined, interpreted as shown in
5714 .Sx "The mime.types files"
5716 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ) ,
5717 and the resulting entry will be added (prepended) to the cache.
5718 In any event MIME type sources are loaded first as necessary \(en
5719 .Va mimetypes-load-control
5720 can be used to fine-tune which sources are actually loaded.
5722 The latter command deletes all specifications of the given MIME type, thus
5723 .Ql ? unmimetype text/plain
5724 will remove all registered specifications for the MIME type
5728 will discard all existing MIME types, just as will
5730 but which also reenables cache initialization via
5731 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
5735 .It Ic mlist , unmlist
5736 The latter command removes all given mailing-lists, the special name
5738 can be used to remove all registered lists.
5739 The former will list all currently defined mailing lists (and their
5740 attributes, if any) when used without arguments; a more verbose listing
5741 will be produced if either of
5746 Otherwise all given arguments will be added and henceforth be recognized
5748 If the \*(OPal regular expression support is available then any argument
5749 which contains any of the
5751 regular expression characters
5755 will be interpreted as one, which allows matching of many addresses with
5756 a single expression.
5759 pair of commands manages subscription attributes of mailing-lists.
5763 \*(ID Only available in interactive mode, this command allows to display
5764 MIME parts which require external MIME handler programs to run which do
5765 not integrate in \*(UAs normal
5768 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ) .
5769 (\*(ID No syntax to directly address parts, this restriction may vanish.)
5770 The user will be asked for each non-text part of the given message in
5771 turn whether the registered handler shall be used to display the part.
5775 .It Ic mlsubscribe , unmlsubscribe
5776 The latter command removes the subscription attribute from all given
5777 mailing-lists, the special name
5779 can be used to do so for any registered list.
5780 The former will list all currently defined mailing lists which have
5781 a subscription attribute when used without arguments; a more verbose
5782 listing will be produced if either of
5787 Otherwise this attribute will be set for all given mailing lists,
5788 newly creating them as necessary (as via
5797 but moves the messages to a file named after the local part of the
5798 sender address of the first message (instead of in
5805 but marks the messages for deletion if they were transferred
5812 but also displays header fields which would not pass the
5814 selection, and all MIME parts.
5822 on the given messages, even in non-interactive mode and as long as the
5823 standard output is a terminal.
5829 \*(OP When used without arguments or if
5831 has been given the content of the
5833 cache is shown, loading it first as necessary.
5836 then the cache will only be initialized and
5838 will remove its contents.
5839 Note that \*(UA will try to load the file only once, use
5840 .Ql Ic \&\&netrc Ns \:\0\:clear
5841 to unlock further attempts.
5846 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ;
5848 .Sx "The .netrc file"
5849 documents the file format in detail.
5853 Checks for new mail in the current folder without committing any changes
5855 If new mail is present, a message is shown.
5859 the headers of each new message are also shown.
5860 This command is not available for all mailbox types.
5868 Goes to the next message in sequence and types it.
5869 With an argument list, types the next matching message.
5883 If the current folder is accessed via a network connection, a
5885 command is sent, otherwise no operation is performed.
5891 but also displays header fields which would not pass the
5893 selection, and all MIME parts.
5901 on the given messages, even in non-interactive mode and as long as the
5902 standard output is a terminal.
5910 but also pipes header fields which would not pass the
5912 selection, and all parts of MIME
5913 .Ql multipart/alternative
5918 (pi) Takes a message list and a shell command
5919 and pipes the messages through the command.
5920 Without an argument the current message is piped through the command
5927 every message is followed by a formfeed character.
5948 (q) Terminates the session, saving all undeleted, unsaved messages in
5951 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
5953 preserving all messages marked with
5957 or never referenced in the system
5959 and removing all other messages from the
5961 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
5962 If new mail has arrived during the session,
5964 .Dq You have new mail
5966 If given while editing a mailbox file with the command line option
5968 then the edit file is rewritten.
5969 A return to the shell is effected,
5970 unless the rewrite of edit file fails,
5971 in which case the user can escape with the exit command.
5972 The optional status number argument will be passed through to
5974 \*(ID For now it can happen that the given status will be overwritten,
5975 later this will only occur if a later error needs to be reported onto an
5976 otherwise success indicating status.
5980 \*(NQ Read a line from standard input, or the channel set active via
5982 and assign the data, which will be splitted as indicated by
5984 to the given variables.
5985 The variable names are checked by the same rules as documented for
5987 and the same error codes will be seen in
5991 indicates the number of bytes read, it will be
5993 with the error number
5997 in case of I/O errors, or
6000 If there are more fields than variables, assigns successive fields to the
6001 last given variable.
6002 If there are less fields than variables, assigns the empty string to the
6004 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6007 ? echo "<$a> <$b> <$c>"
6009 ? wysh set ifs=:; read a b c;unset ifs
6010 hey2.0,:"'you ",:world!:mars.:
6011 ? echo $?/$^ERRNAME / <$a><$b><$c>
6012 0/NONE / <hey2.0,><"'you ",><world!:mars.:><><>
6017 \*(NQ Read anything from standard input, or the channel set active via
6019 and assign the data to the given variable.
6020 The variable name is checked by the same rules as documented for
6022 and the same error codes will be seen in
6026 indicates the number of bytes read, it will be
6028 with the error number
6032 in case of I/O errors, or
6035 \*(ID The input data length is restricted to 31-bits.
6039 \*(NQ Manages input channels for
6043 to be used to avoid complicated or impracticable code, like calling
6045 from within a macro in non-interactive mode.
6046 Without arguments, or when the first argument is
6048 a listing of all known channels is printed.
6049 Channels can otherwise be
6051 d, and existing channels can be
6055 d by giving the string used for creation.
6057 The channel name is expected to be a file descriptor number, or,
6058 if parsing the numeric fails, an input file name that undergoes
6059 .Sx "Filename transformations" .
6060 E.g. (this example requires a modern shell):
6061 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6062 $ LC_ALL=C printf 'echon "hey, "\enread a\enyou\enecho $a' |\e
6065 $ LC_ALL=C printf 'echon "hey, "\enread a\enecho $a' |\e
6066 LC_ALL=C 6<<< 'you' \*(uA -R#X'readctl create 6'
6080 Removes the named files or directories.
6081 .Sx "Filename transformations"
6082 including shell pathname wildcard pattern expansions
6084 are performed on the arguments.
6085 If a name refer to a mailbox, e.g., a Maildir mailbox, then a mailbox
6086 type specific removal will be performed, deleting the complete mailbox.
6087 The user is asked for confirmation in interactive mode.
6091 Takes the name of an existing folder
6092 and the name for the new folder
6093 and renames the first to the second one.
6094 .Sx "Filename transformations"
6095 including shell pathname wildcard pattern expansions
6097 are performed on both arguments.
6098 Both folders must be of the same type.
6102 (R) Replies to only the sender of each message of the given message
6103 list, by using the first message as the template to quote, for the
6107 will exchange this command with
6109 Unless the internal variable
6111 is set the recipient address will be stripped from comments, names etc.
6113 headers will be inspected if
6117 This may generate the errors
6118 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
6119 if no receiver has been specified,
6121 if some addressees where rejected by
6124 if no applicable messages have been given,
6126 if an I/O error occurs,
6128 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
6134 (r) Take a message and group-responds to it by addressing the sender
6135 and all recipients, subject to
6139 .Va followup-to-honour ,
6142 .Va recipients-in-cc
6143 influence response behaviour.
6144 Unless the internal variable
6146 is set recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names etc.
6156 offers special support for replying to mailing lists.
6157 For more documentation please refer to
6158 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
6160 This may generate the errors
6161 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
6162 if no receiver has been specified,
6164 if some addressees where rejected by
6167 if no applicable messages have been given,
6169 if an I/O error occurs,
6171 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
6174 Any error stops processing of further messages.
6180 but initiates a group-reply regardless of the value of
6187 but responds to the sender only regardless of the value of
6194 but does not add any header lines.
6195 This is not a way to hide the sender's identity,
6196 but useful for sending a message again to the same recipients.
6200 Takes a list of messages and a user name
6201 and sends each message to the named user.
6203 and related header fields are prepended to the new copy of the message.
6206 is only performed if
6210 This may generate the errors
6211 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
6212 if no receiver has been specified,
6214 if some addressees where rejected by
6217 if no applicable messages have been given,
6219 if an I/O error occurs,
6221 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
6224 Any error stops processing of further messages.
6242 .It Ic respondsender
6248 (ret) Superseded by the multiplexer
6253 Only available inside the scope of a
6257 this will stop evaluation of any further macro content, and return
6258 execution control to the caller.
6259 The two optional parameters must be specified as positive decimal
6260 numbers and default to the value 0:
6261 the first argument specifies the signed 32-bit return value (stored in
6263 \*(ID and later extended to signed 64-bit),
6264 the second the signed 32-bit error number (stored in
6268 a non-0 exit status may cause the program to exit.
6274 but saves the messages in a file named after the local part of the
6275 sender of the first message instead of (in
6277 and) taking a filename argument; the variable
6279 is inspected to decide on the actual storage location.
6283 (s) Takes a message list and a filename and appends each message in turn
6284 to the end of the file.
6285 .Sx "Filename transformations"
6286 including shell pathname wildcard pattern expansions
6288 is performed on the filename.
6289 If no filename is given, the
6291 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
6294 The filename in quotes, followed by the generated character count
6295 is echoed on the user's terminal.
6298 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
6299 the messages are marked for deletion.
6300 .Sx "Filename transformations"
6302 To filter the saved header fields to the desired subset use the
6304 slot of the white- and blacklisting command
6308 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6312 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6316 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6321 Takes a message specification (list) and displays a header summary of
6322 all matching messages, as via
6324 This command is an alias of
6327 .Sx "Specifying messages" .
6331 Takes a message list and marks all messages as having been read.
6337 (se, \*(NQ uns) The latter command will delete all given global
6338 variables, or only block-scope local ones if the
6340 command modifier has been used.
6341 The former, when used without arguments, will show all
6342 currently known variables, being more verbose if either of
6347 Remarks: this list mode will not automatically link-in known
6349 variables, but only explicit addressing will, e.g., via
6351 using a variable in an
6353 condition or a string passed to
6357 ting, as well as some program-internal use cases.
6360 Otherwise the given variables (and arguments) are set or adjusted.
6361 Arguments are of the form
6363 (no space before or after
6367 if there is no value, i.e., a boolean variable.
6368 If a name begins with
6372 the effect is the same as invoking the
6374 command with the remaining part of the variable
6375 .Pf ( Ql unset save ) .
6376 \*(ID In conjunction with the
6378 .Pf (or\0 Cm local )
6380 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
6381 can be used to quote arguments as necessary.
6382 \*(ID Otherwise quotation marks may be placed around any part of the
6383 assignment statement to quote blanks or tabs.
6386 When operating in global scope any
6388 that is known to map to an environment variable will automatically cause
6389 updates in the program environment (unsetting a variable in the
6390 environment requires corresponding system support) \(em use the command
6392 for further environmental control.
6393 If the command modifier
6395 has been used to alter the command to work in block-scope all variables
6396 have values (may they be empty), and creation of names which shadow
6397 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
6398 is actively prevented (\*(ID shadowing of linked
6400 variables and free-form versions of variable chains is not yet detected).
6405 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
6409 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6410 ? wysh set indentprefix=' -> '
6411 ? wysh set atab=$'\t' aspace=' ' zero=0
6417 Apply shell quoting rules to the given raw-data arguments.
6421 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
6422 The first argument specifies the operation:
6426 cause shell quoting to be applied to the remains of the line, and
6427 expanded away thereof, respectively.
6428 If the former is prefixed with a plus-sign, the quoted result will not
6429 be roundtrip enabled, and thus can be decoded only in the very same
6430 environment that was used to perform the encode; also see
6431 .Cd mle-quote-rndtrip .
6432 If the coding operation fails the error number
6435 .Va ^ERR Ns -CANCELED ,
6436 and the unmodified input is used as the result; the error number may
6437 change again due to output or result storage errors.
6441 \*(NQ (sh) Invokes an interactive version of the shell,
6442 and returns its exit status.
6446 .It Ic shortcut , unshortcut
6447 Without arguments the list of all currently defined shortcuts is
6448 shown, with one argument the expansion of the given shortcut.
6449 Otherwise all given arguments are treated as pairs of shortcuts and
6450 their expansions, creating new or changing already existing shortcuts,
6452 The latter command will remove all given shortcuts, the special name
6454 will remove all registered shortcuts.
6458 \*(NQ Shift the positional parameter stack (starting at
6460 by the given number (which must be a positive decimal),
6461 or 1 if no argument has been given.
6462 It is an error if the value exceeds the number of positional parameters.
6463 If the given number is 0, no action is performed, successfully.
6464 The stack as such can be managed via
6466 Note this command will fail in
6468 and hook macros unless the positional parameter stack has been
6469 explicitly created in the current context via
6476 but performs neither MIME decoding nor decryption, so that the raw
6477 message text is shown.
6481 (si) Shows the size in characters of each message of the given
6486 \*(NQ Sleep for the specified number of seconds (and optionally
6487 milliseconds), by default interruptably.
6488 If a third argument is given the sleep will be uninterruptible,
6489 otherwise the error number
6493 if the sleep has been interrupted.
6494 The command will fail and the error number will be
6495 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW
6496 if the given duration(s) overflow the time datatype, and
6498 if the given durations are no valid integers.
6503 .It Ic sort , unsort
6504 The latter command disables sorted or threaded mode, returns to normal
6505 message order and, if the
6508 displays a header summary.
6509 The former command shows the current sorting criterion when used without
6510 an argument, but creates a sorted representation of the current folder
6511 otherwise, and changes the
6513 command and the addressing modes such that they refer to messages in
6515 Message numbers are the same as in regular mode.
6519 a header summary in the new order is also displayed.
6520 Automatic folder sorting can be enabled by setting the
6522 variable, as in, e.g.,
6523 .Ql set autosort=thread .
6524 Possible sorting criterions are:
6527 .Bl -tag -compact -width "subject"
6529 Sort the messages by their
6531 field, that is by the time they were sent.
6533 Sort messages by the value of their
6535 field, that is by the address of the sender.
6538 variable is set, the sender's real name (if any) is used.
6540 Sort the messages by their size.
6542 \*(OP Sort the message by their spam score, as has been classified by
6545 Sort the messages by their message status.
6547 Sort the messages by their subject.
6549 Create a threaded display.
6551 Sort messages by the value of their
6553 field, that is by the address of the recipient.
6556 variable is set, the recipient's real name (if any) is used.
6562 \*(NQ (so) The source command reads commands from the given file.
6563 .Sx "Filename transformations"
6565 If the given expanded argument ends with a vertical bar
6567 then the argument will instead be interpreted as a shell command and
6568 \*(UA will read the output generated by it.
6569 Dependent on the settings of
6573 and also dependent on whether the command modifier
6575 had been used, encountering errors will stop sourcing of the given input.
6578 cannot be used from within macros that execute as
6579 .Va folder-hook Ns s
6582 i.e., it can only be called from macros that were
6587 \*(NQ The difference to
6589 (beside not supporting pipe syntax aka shell command input) is that
6590 this command will not generate an error nor warn if the given file
6591 argument cannot be opened successfully.
6595 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and clears their
6601 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and causes the
6603 to forget it has ever used them to train its Bayesian filter.
6604 Unless otherwise noted the
6606 flag of the message is inspected to chose whether a message shall be
6614 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and informs the Bayesian filter of the
6618 This also clears the
6620 flag of the messages in question.
6624 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and rates them using the configured
6625 .Va spam-interface ,
6626 without modifying the messages, but setting their
6628 flag as appropriate; because the spam rating headers are lost the rate
6629 will be forgotten once the mailbox is left.
6630 Refer to the manual section
6632 for the complete picture of spam handling in \*(UA.
6636 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and sets their
6642 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and informs the Bayesian filter of the
6648 flag of the messages in question.
6664 slot for white- and blacklisting header fields.
6668 (to) Takes a message list and types out the first
6670 lines of each message on the users' terminal.
6671 Unless a special selection has been established for the
6675 command, the only header fields that are displayed are
6686 It is possible to apply compression to what is displayed by setting
6688 Messages are decrypted and converted to the terminal character set
6693 (tou) Takes a message list and marks the messages for saving in the
6695 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
6697 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command,
6700 command will display the following message instead of the current one.
6706 but also displays header fields which would not pass the
6708 selection, and all visualizable parts of MIME
6709 .Ql multipart/alternative
6714 (t) Takes a message list and types out each message on the users terminal.
6715 The display of message headers is selectable via
6717 For MIME multipart messages, all parts with a content type of
6719 all parts which have a registered MIME type handler (see
6720 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" )
6721 which produces plain text output, and all
6723 parts are shown, others are hidden except for their headers.
6724 Messages are decrypted and converted to the terminal character set
6728 can be used to display parts which are not displayable as plain text.
6771 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6775 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6780 Superseded by the multiplexer
6791 .It Ic unmlsubscribe
6802 Takes a message list and marks each message as not having been read.
6806 Superseded by the multiplexer
6810 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6814 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6836 Perform URL percent codec operations on the raw-data argument, rather
6837 according to RFC 3986.
6841 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) ,
6842 and manages the error number
6844 This is a character set agnostic and thus locale dependent operation,
6845 and it may decode bytes which are invalid in the current
6847 \*(ID This command does not know about URLs beside that.
6849 The first argument specifies the operation:
6853 perform plain URL percent en- and decoding, respectively.
6857 perform a slightly modified operation which should be better for
6858 pathnames: it does not allow a tilde
6860 and will neither accept hyphen-minus
6864 as an initial character.
6865 The remains of the line form the URL data which is to be converted.
6866 If the coding operation fails the error number
6869 .Va ^ERR Ns -CANCELED ,
6870 and the unmodified input is used as the result; the error number may
6871 change again due to output or result storage errors.
6875 \*(NQ Edit the values of or create the given variable(s) in the
6877 Boolean variables cannot be edited, and variables can also not be
6883 \*(NQ This command produces the same output as the listing mode of
6887 ity adjustments, but only for the given variables.
6891 \*(OP Takes a message list and verifies each message.
6892 If a message is not a S/MIME signed message,
6893 verification will fail for it.
6894 The verification process checks if the message was signed using a valid
6896 if the message sender's email address matches one of those contained
6897 within the certificate,
6898 and if the message content has been altered.
6911 \*(NQ Evaluate arguments according to a given operator.
6912 This is a multiplexer command which can be used to perform signed 64-bit
6913 numeric calculations as well as byte string and string operations.
6914 It uses polish notation, i.e., the operator is the first argument and
6915 defines the number and type, and the meaning of the remaining arguments.
6916 An empty argument is replaced with a 0 if a number is expected.
6920 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
6923 The result that is shown in case of errors is always
6925 for usage errors and numeric operations, and the empty string for byte
6926 string and string operations;
6927 if the latter two fail to provide result data for
6929 errors, e.g., when a search operation failed, they also set the
6932 .Va ^ERR Ns -NODATA .
6933 Except when otherwise noted numeric arguments are parsed as signed 64-bit
6934 numbers, and errors will be reported in the error number
6936 as the numeric error
6937 .Va ^ERR Ns -RANGE .
6940 Numeric operations work on one or two signed 64-bit integers.
6941 Numbers prefixed with
6945 are interpreted as hexadecimal (base 16) numbers, whereas
6947 indicates octal (base 8), and
6951 denote binary (base 2) numbers.
6952 It is possible to use any base in between 2 and 36, inclusive, with the
6956 is a different way of specifying a hexadecimal number.
6959 One integer is expected by assignment (equals sign
6961 which does nothing but parsing the argument, thus detecting validity and
6962 possible overflow conditions, and unary not (tilde
6964 which creates the bitwise complement.
6965 Two integers are used by addition (plus sign
6967 subtraction (hyphen-minus
6969 multiplication (asterisk
6973 and modulo (percent sign
6975 as well as for the bitwise operators logical or (vertical bar
6978 bitwise and (ampersand
6981 bitwise xor (circumflex
6983 the bitwise signed left- and right shifts
6986 as well as for the unsigned right shift
6990 All numeric operators can be suffixed with a commercial at
6994 this will turn the operation into a saturated one, which means that
6995 overflow errors and division and modulo by zero are no longer reported
6996 via the exit status, but the result will linger at the minimum or
6997 maximum possible value, instead of overflowing (or trapping).
6998 This is true also for the argument parse step.
6999 For the bitwise shifts, the saturated maximum is 63.
7000 Any catched overflow will be reported via the error number
7003 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW .
7004 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7005 ? vexpr -@ +1 -9223372036854775808
7006 ? echo $?/$!/$^ERRNAME
7010 Character set agnostic string functions have no notion of locale
7011 settings and character sets.
7013 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm random"
7016 .Sx "Filename transformations"
7019 Generates a random string of the given length, or of
7021 bytes (a constant from
7023 if the value 0 is given; the random string will be base64url encoded
7024 according to RFC 4648, and thus be usable as a (portable) filename.
7028 Byte string operations work on 8-bit bytes and have no notion of locale
7029 settings and character sets, effectively assuming ASCII data.
7032 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm length"
7034 Queries the length of the given argument.
7037 Calculates the Chris Torek hash of the given argument.
7040 Byte-searches in the first for the second argument.
7041 Shows the resulting 0-based offset shall it have been found.
7046 but works case-insensitively according to the rules of the ASCII
7050 Creates a substring of its first argument.
7051 The second argument is the 0-based starting offset, a negative one
7052 counts from the end;
7053 the optional third argument specifies the length of the desired result,
7054 a negative length leaves off the given number of bytes at the end of the
7055 original string, by default the entire string is used;
7056 this operation tries to work around faulty arguments (set
7058 for error logs), but reports them via the error number
7061 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW .
7064 Trim away whitespace characters from both ends of the argument.
7067 Trim away whitespace characters from the begin of the argument.
7070 Trim away whitespace characters from the end of the argument.
7075 String operations work, sufficient support provided, according to the
7076 active user's locale encoding and character set (see
7077 .Sx "Character sets" ) .
7080 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm regex"
7082 (One-way) Converts the argument to something safely printable on the
7086 \*(OP A string operation that will try to match the first argument with
7087 the regular expression given as the second argument.
7088 If the optional third argument has been given then instead of showing
7089 the match offset a replacement operation is performed: the third
7090 argument is treated as if specified via dollar-single-quote (see
7091 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ) ,
7092 and any occurrence of a positional parameter, e.g.,
7094 is replaced by the corresponding match group of the regular expression:
7095 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7096 ? vput vexpr res regex bananarama \e
7097 (.*)NanA(.*) '\e${1}au\e$2'
7098 ? echo $?/$!/$^ERRNAME: $res
7102 On otherwise identical case-insensitive equivalent to
7104 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7105 ? vput vexpr res ire bananarama \e
7106 (.*)NanA(.*) '\e${1}au\e$2'
7107 ? echo $?/$!/$^ERRNAME: $res
7114 \*(NQ Manage the positional parameter stack (see
7118 If the first argument is
7120 then the positional parameter stack of the current context, or the
7121 global one, if there is none, is cleared.
7124 then the remaining arguments will be used to (re)create the stack,
7125 if the parameter stack size limit is excessed an
7126 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW
7130 If the first argument is
7132 a round-trip capable representation of the stack contents is created,
7133 with each quoted parameter separated from each other with the first
7136 and followed by the first character of
7138 if that is not empty and not identical to the first.
7139 If that results in no separation at all a
7145 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
7146 I.e., the subcommands
7150 can be used (in conjunction with
7152 to (re)create an argument stack from and to a single variable losslessly.
7154 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7155 ? vpospar set hey, "'you ", world!
7156 ? echo $#: <${1}><${2}><${3}>
7157 ? vput vpospar x quote
7159 ? echo $#: <${1}><${2}><${3}>
7160 ? eval vpospar set ${x}
7161 ? echo $#: <${1}><${2}><${3}>
7167 (v) Takes a message list and invokes the display editor on each message.
7168 Modified contents are discarded unless the
7170 variable is set, and are not used unless the mailbox can be written to
7171 and the editor returns a successful exit status.
7175 (w) For conventional messages the body without all headers is written.
7176 The original message is never marked for deletion in the originating
7178 The output is decrypted and converted to its native format as necessary.
7179 If the output file exists, the text is appended.
7180 If a message is in MIME multipart format its first part is written to
7181 the specified file as for conventional messages, handling of the remains
7182 depends on the execution mode.
7183 No special handling of compressed files is performed.
7185 In interactive mode the user is consecutively asked for the filenames of
7186 the processed parts.
7187 For convience saving of each part may be skipped by giving an empty
7188 value, the same result as writing it to
7190 Shell piping the part content by specifying a leading vertical bar
7192 character for the filename is supported.
7193 Other user input undergoes the usual
7194 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
7195 including shell pathname wildcard pattern expansions
7197 and shell variable expansion for the message as such, not the individual
7198 parts, and contents of the destination file are overwritten if the file
7201 \*(ID In non-interactive mode any part which does not specify a filename
7202 is ignored, and suspicious parts of filenames of the remaining parts are
7203 URL percent encoded (as via
7205 to prevent injection of malicious character sequences, resulting in
7206 a filename that will be written into the current directory.
7207 Existing files will not be overwritten, instead the part number or
7208 a dot are appended after a number sign
7210 to the name until file creation succeeds (or fails due to other
7215 \*(NQ The sole difference to
7217 is that the new macro is executed in place of the current one, which
7218 will not regain control: all resources of the current macro will be
7220 This implies that any setting covered by
7222 will be forgotten and covered variables will become cleaned up.
7223 If this command is not used from within a
7225 ed macro it will silently be (a more expensive variant of)
7235 \*(NQ \*(UA presents message headers in
7237 fuls as described under the
7240 Without arguments this command scrolls to the next window of messages,
7241 likewise if the argument is
7245 scrolls to the last,
7247 scrolls to the first, and
7252 A number argument prefixed by
7256 indicates that the window is calculated in relation to the current
7257 position, and a number without a prefix specifies an absolute position.
7263 but scrolls to the next or previous window that contains at least one
7274 .\" .Sh COMMAND ESCAPES {{{
7275 .Sh "COMMAND ESCAPES"
7277 Here is a summary of the command escapes available in compose mode,
7278 which are used to perform special functions when composing messages.
7279 Command escapes are only recognized at the beginning of lines, and
7280 consist of a trigger (escape) and a command character.
7281 The actual escape character can be set via the internal variable
7283 it defaults to the tilde
7285 Otherwise ignored whitespace characters following the escape character
7286 will prevent a possible addition of the command line to the \*(OPal
7290 Unless otherwise noted all compose mode command escapes ensure proper
7291 updates of the variables which represent the error number
7297 is set they will, unless stated otherwise, error out message compose
7298 mode and cause a progam exit if an operation fails.
7299 It is however possible to place the character hyphen-minus
7301 after (possible whitespace following) the escape character, which has an
7302 effect equivalent to the command modifier
7304 If the \*(OPal key bindings are available it is possible to create
7306 ings specifically for the compose mode.
7309 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ic BaNg"
7312 Insert the string of text in the message prefaced by a single
7314 (If the escape character has been changed,
7315 that character must be doubled instead.)
7318 .It Ic ~! Ar command
7319 Execute the indicated shell
7321 which follows, replacing unescaped exclamation marks with the previously
7322 executed command if the internal variable
7324 is set, then return to the message.
7328 Same effect as typing the end-of-file character.
7331 .It Ic ~: Ar \*(UA-command Ns \0or Ic ~_ Ar \*(UA-command
7332 Execute the given \*(UA command.
7333 Not all commands, however, are allowed.
7336 .It Ic ~< Ar filename
7341 .It Ic ~<! Ar command
7343 is executed using the shell.
7344 Its standard output is inserted into the message.
7348 Write a summary of command escapes.
7351 .It Ic ~@ Op Ar filename...
7352 Append or edit the list of attachments.
7353 Does not manage the error number
7359 instead if this is a concern).
7362 arguments is expected as shell tokens (see
7363 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ;
7364 token-separating commas are ignored, too), to be
7365 interpreted as documented for the command line option
7367 with the message number exception as below.
7371 arguments the attachment list is edited, entry by entry;
7372 if a filename is left empty, that attachment is deleted from the list;
7373 once the end of the list is reached either new attachments may be
7374 entered or the session can be quit by committing an empty
7378 For all mode, if a given filename solely consists of the number sign
7380 followed by a valid message number of the currently active mailbox, then
7381 the given message is attached as a
7384 As the shell comment character the number sign must be quoted.
7387 .It Ic ~| Ar command
7388 Pipe the message through the specified filter command.
7389 If the command gives no output or terminates abnormally,
7390 retain the original text of the message.
7393 is often used as a rejustifying filter.
7397 .It Ic ~^ Ar cmd Op Ar subcmd Op Ar arg3 Op Ar arg4
7398 Low-level command meant for scripted message access, i.e., for
7399 .Va on-compose-splice
7401 .Va on-compose-splice-shell .
7402 The used protocol is likely subject to changes, and therefore the
7403 mentioned hooks receive the used protocol version as an initial line.
7404 In general the first field of a response line represents a status code
7405 which specifies whether a command was successful or not, whether result
7406 data is to be expected, and if, the format of the result data.
7407 Does not manage the error number
7411 because errors are reported via the protocol
7412 (hard errors like I/O failures cannot be handled).
7413 This command has read-only access to several virtual pseudo headers in
7414 the \*(UA private namespace, which may not exist (except for the first):
7418 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Va BaNg"
7419 .It Ql Mailx-Command:
7420 The name of the command that generates the message, one of
7428 .It Ql Mailx-Raw-To:
7429 .It Ql Mailx-Raw-Cc:
7430 .It Ql Mailx-Raw-Bcc:
7431 Represent the frozen initial state of these headers before any
7432 transformation (e.g.,
7435 .Va recipients-in-cc
7438 .It Ql Mailx-Orig-From:
7439 .It Ql Mailx-Orig-To:
7440 .It Ql Mailx-Orig-Cc:
7441 .It Ql Mailx-Orig-Bcc:
7442 The values of said headers of the original message which has been
7444 .Ic reply , forward , resend .
7448 The status codes are:
7452 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql 210"
7454 Status ok; the remains of the line are the result.
7457 Status ok; the rest of the line is optionally used for more status.
7458 What follows are lines of result addresses, terminated by an empty line.
7459 The address lines consist of two fields, the first of which is the
7460 plain address, e.g.,
7462 separated by a single ASCII SP space from the second which contains the
7463 unstripped address, even if that is identical to the first field, e.g.,
7464 .Ql (Lovely) Bob <bob@exam.ple> .
7465 All the input, including the empty line, must be consumed before further
7466 commands can be issued.
7469 Status ok; the rest of the line is optionally used for more status.
7470 What follows are lines of furtherly unspecified string content,
7471 terminated by an empty line.
7472 All the input, including the empty line, must be consumed before further
7473 commands can be issued.
7476 Syntax error; invalid command.
7479 Syntax error in parameters or arguments.
7482 Error: an argument fails verification.
7483 For example an invalid address has been specified, or an attempt was
7484 made to modify anything in \*(UA's own namespace.
7487 Error: an otherwise valid argument is rendered invalid due to context.
7488 For example, a second address is added to a header which may consist of
7489 a single address only.
7494 If a command indicates failure then the message will have remained
7496 Most commands can fail with
7498 if required arguments are missing (false command usage).
7499 The following (case-insensitive) commands are supported:
7502 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm header"
7504 This command allows listing, inspection, and editing of message headers.
7505 Header name case is not normalized, and case-insensitive comparison
7506 should be used when matching names.
7507 The second argument specifies the subcommand to apply, one of:
7509 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm remove"
7511 Without a third argument a list of all yet existing headers is given via
7513 this command is the default command of
7515 if no second argument has been given.
7516 A third argument restricts output to the given header only, which may
7519 if no such field is defined.
7522 Shows the content of the header given as the third argument.
7523 Dependent on the header type this may respond with
7527 any failure results in
7531 This will remove all instances of the header given as the third
7536 if no such header can be found, and
7538 on \*(UA namespace violations.
7541 This will remove from the header given as the third argument the
7542 instance at the list position (counting from one!) given with the fourth
7547 if the list position argument is not a number or on \*(UA namespace
7550 if no such header instance exists.
7553 Create a new or an additional instance of the header given in the third
7554 argument, with the header body content as given in the fourth argument
7555 (the remains of the line).
7558 if the third argument specifies a free-form header field name that is
7559 invalid, or if body content extraction fails to succeed,
7561 if any extracted address does not pass syntax and/or security checks or
7562 on \*(UA namespace violations, and
7564 to indicate prevention of excessing a single-instance header \(em note that
7566 can be appended to (a space separator will be added automatically first).
7569 is returned upon success, followed by the name of the header and the list
7570 position of the newly inserted instance.
7571 The list position is always 1 for single-instance header fields.
7572 All free-form header fields are managed in a single list.
7577 This command allows listing, removal and addition of message attachments.
7578 The second argument specifies the subcommand to apply, one of:
7580 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm remove"
7582 List all attachments via
7586 if no attachments exist.
7587 This command is the default command of
7589 if no second argument has been given.
7592 This will remove the attachment given as the third argument, and report
7596 if no such attachment can be found.
7597 If there exists any path component in the given argument, then an exact
7598 match of the path which has been used to create the attachment is used
7599 directly, but if only the basename of that path matches then all
7600 attachments are traversed to find an exact match first, and the removal
7601 occurs afterwards; if multiple basenames match, a
7604 Message attachments are treated as absolute pathnames.
7606 If no path component exists in the given argument, then all attachments
7607 will be searched for
7609 parameter matches as well as for matches of the basename of the path
7610 which has been used when the attachment has been created; multiple
7615 This will interpret the third argument as a number and remove the
7616 attachment at that list position (counting from one!), reporting
7620 if the argument is not a number or
7622 if no such attachment exists.
7625 Adds the attachment given as the third argument, specified exactly as
7626 documented for the command line option
7628 and supporting the message number extension as documented for
7632 upon success, with the index of the new attachment following,
7634 if the given file cannot be opened,
7636 if an on-the-fly performed character set conversion fails, otherwise
7638 is reported; this is also reported if character set conversion is
7639 requested but not available.
7642 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
7644 and prints any known attributes of the first found attachment via
7648 if no such attachment can be found.
7649 The attributes are written as lines of keyword and value tuples, the
7650 keyword being separated from the rest of the line with an ASCII SP space
7654 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
7656 and is otherwise identical to
7659 .It Cm attribute-set
7660 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
7662 and will assign the attribute given as the fourth argument, which is
7663 expected to be a value tuple of keyword and other data, separated by
7664 a ASCII SP space or TAB tabulator character.
7665 If the value part is empty, then the given attribute is removed, or
7666 reset to a default value if existence of the attribute is crucial.
7670 upon success, with the index of the found attachment following,
7672 for message attachments or if the given keyword is invalid, and
7674 if no such attachment can be found.
7675 The following keywords may be used (case-insensitively):
7677 .Bl -hang -compact -width ".It Ql filename"
7679 Sets the filename of the MIME part, i.e., the name that is used for
7680 display and when (suggesting a name for) saving (purposes).
7681 .It Ql content-description
7682 Associate some descriptive information to the attachment's content, used
7683 in favour of the plain filename by some MUAs.
7685 May be used for uniquely identifying MIME entities in several contexts;
7686 this expects a special reference address format as defined in RFC 2045
7689 upon address content verification failure.
7691 Defines the media type/subtype of the part, which is managed
7692 automatically, but can be overwritten.
7693 .It Ql content-disposition
7694 Automatically set to the string
7698 .It Cm attribute-set-at
7699 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
7701 and is otherwise identical to
7710 .Ql Ic ~i Ns \| Va Sign .
7715 .Ql Ic ~i Ns \| Va sign .
7718 .It Ic ~b Ar name ...
7719 Add the given names to the list of blind carbon copy recipients.
7722 .It Ic ~c Ar name ...
7723 Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients.
7727 Read the file specified by the
7729 variable into the message.
7733 Invoke the text editor on the message collected so far.
7734 After the editing session is finished,
7735 the user may continue appending text to the message.
7738 .It Ic ~F Ar messages
7739 Read the named messages into the message being sent, including all
7740 message headers and MIME parts.
7741 If no messages are specified, read in the current message, the
7745 .It Ic ~f Ar messages
7746 Read the named messages into the message being sent.
7747 If no messages are specified, read in the current message, the
7749 Strips down the list of header fields according to the
7751 white- and blacklist selection of
7753 For MIME multipart messages,
7754 only the first displayable part is included.
7758 Edit the message header fields
7763 by typing each one in turn and allowing the user to edit the field.
7764 The default values for these fields originate from the
7772 Edit the message header fields
7778 by typing each one in turn and allowing the user to edit the field.
7781 .It Ic ~I Ar variable
7782 Insert the value of the specified variable into the message.
7783 The message remains unaltered if the variable is unset or empty.
7784 Any embedded character sequences
7786 horizontal tabulator and
7788 line feed are expanded in
7790 mode; otherwise the expansion should occur at
7792 time by using the command modifier
7796 .It Ic ~i Ar variable
7797 Insert the value of the specified variable followed by a newline
7798 character into the message.
7799 The message remains unaltered if the variable is unset or empty.
7800 Any embedded character sequences
7802 horizontal tabulator and
7804 line feed are expanded in
7806 mode; otherwise the expansion should occur at
7808 time by using the command modifier
7812 .It Ic ~M Ar messages
7813 Read the named messages into the message being sent,
7816 If no messages are specified, read the current message, the
7820 .It Ic ~m Ar messages
7821 Read the named messages into the message being sent,
7824 If no messages are specified, read the current message, the
7826 Strips down the list of header fields according to the
7828 white- and blacklist selection of
7830 For MIME multipart messages,
7831 only the first displayable part is included.
7835 Display the message collected so far,
7836 prefaced by the message header fields
7837 and followed by the attachment list, if any.
7841 Abort the message being sent,
7842 copying it to the file specified by the
7849 .It Ic ~R Ar filename
7852 but indent each line that has been read by
7856 .It Ic ~r Ar filename Op Ar HERE-delimiter
7857 Read the named file, object to the usual
7858 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
7859 into the message; if (the expanded)
7863 then standard input is used, e.g., for pasting purposes.
7864 Only in this latter mode
7866 may be given: if it is data will be read in until the given
7868 is seen on a line by itself, and encountering EOF is an error; the
7870 is a required argument in non-interactive mode; if it is single-quote
7871 quoted then the pasted content will not be expanded, \*(ID otherwise
7872 a future version of \*(UA may perform shell-style expansion on the content.
7876 Cause the named string to become the current subject field.
7877 Newline (NL) and carriage-return (CR) bytes are invalid and will be
7878 normalized to space (SP) characters.
7881 .It Ic ~t Ar name ...
7882 Add the given name(s) to the direct recipient list.
7885 .It Ic ~U Ar messages
7886 Read in the given / current message(s) excluding all headers, indented by
7890 .It Ic ~u Ar messages
7891 Read in the given / current message(s), excluding all headers.
7895 Invoke an alternate editor (defined by the
7897 environment variable) on the message collected so far.
7898 Usually, the alternate editor will be a screen editor.
7899 After the editor is quit,
7900 the user may resume appending text to the end of the message.
7903 .It Ic ~w Ar filename
7904 Write the message onto the named file, which is object to the usual
7905 .Sx "Filename transformations" .
7907 the message is appended to it.
7913 except that the message is not saved at all.
7919 .\" .Sh INTERNAL VARIABLES {{{
7920 .Sh "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
7922 Internal \*(UA variables are controlled via the
7926 commands; prefixing a variable name with the string
7930 has the same effect as using
7936 Creation or editing of variables can be performed in the
7941 will give more insight on the given variable(s), and
7943 when called without arguments, will show a listing of all variables.
7944 Both commands support a more
7947 Some well-known variables will also become inherited from the
7950 implicitly, others can be imported explicitly with the command
7952 and henceforth share said properties.
7955 Two different kinds of internal variables exist, and both of which can
7957 There are boolean variables, which can only be in one of the two states
7961 and value variables with a(n optional) string value.
7962 For the latter proper quoting is necessary upon assignment time, the
7963 introduction of the section
7965 documents the supported quoting rules.
7967 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7968 ? wysh set one=val\e 1 two="val 2" \e
7969 three='val "3"' four=$'val \e'4\e''; \e
7970 varshow one two three four; \e
7971 unset one two three four
7975 Dependent upon the actual option string values may become interpreted as
7976 colour names, command specifications, normal text, etc.
7977 They may be treated as numbers, in which case decimal values are
7978 expected if so documented, but otherwise any numeric format and
7979 base that is valid and understood by the
7981 command may be used, too.
7984 There also exists a special kind of string value, the
7985 .Dq boolean string ,
7986 which must either be a decimal integer (in which case
7990 and any other value is true) or any of the (case-insensitive) strings
7996 for a false boolean and
8002 for a true boolean; a special kind of boolean string is the
8004 which is a boolean string that can optionally be prefixed with the
8005 (case-insensitive) term
8009 which causes prompting of the user in interactive mode, with the given
8010 boolean as the default value.
8013 Variable chains extend a plain
8018 .Ql variable-USER@HOST
8026 had been specified in the contextual Uniform Resource Locator URL (see
8027 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) .
8028 Even though this mechanism is based on URLs no URL percent encoding may
8029 be applied to neither of
8033 variable chains need to be specified using raw data.
8034 Variables which support chains are explicitly documented as such.
8036 .\" .Ss "Initial settings" {{{
8037 .\" (Keep in SYNC: ./nail.h:okeys, ./nail.rc, ./nail.1:"Initial settings")
8038 .Ss "Initial settings"
8040 The standard POSIX 2008/Cor 2-2016 mandates the following initial
8046 .Pf no Va autoprint ,
8060 .Pf no Va ignoreeof ,
8062 .Pf no Va keepsave ,
8064 .Pf no Va outfolder ,
8072 .Pf no Va sendwait ,
8081 Notes: \*(UA does not support the
8083 variable \(en use command line options or
8085 to pass options through to a
8087 And the default global
8089 file, which is loaded unless the
8091 (with according argument) or
8093 command line options have been used, or the
8094 .Ev MAILX_NO_SYSTEM_RC
8095 environment variable is set (see
8096 .Sx "Resource files" )
8097 bends those initial settings a bit, e.g., it sets the variables
8102 to name a few, establishes a default
8104 selection etc., and should thus be taken into account.
8107 .\" .Ss "Variables" {{{
8110 .Bl -tag -width ".It Va BaNg"
8114 \*(RO The exit status of the last command, or the
8119 This status has a meaning in the state machine: in conjunction with
8121 any non-0 exit status will cause a program exit, and in
8123 mode any error while loading (any of the) resource files will have the
8127 .Sx "Command modifiers" ,
8128 can be used to instruct the state machine to ignore errors.
8132 \*(RO The current error number
8133 .Pf ( Xr errno 3 ) ,
8134 which is set after an error occurred; it is also available via
8136 and the error name and documentation string can be queried via
8140 \*(ID This machinery is new and the error number is only really usable
8141 if a command explicitly states that it manages the variable
8143 for others errno will be used in case of errors, or
8145 if that is 0: it thus may or may not reflect the real error.
8146 The error number may be set with the command
8152 \*(RO This is a multiplexer variable which performs dynamic expansion of
8153 the requested state or condition, of which there are:
8156 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Va BaNg"
8160 .It Va ^ERR , ^ERRDOC , ^ERRNAME
8161 The number, documentation, and name of the current
8163 respectively, which is usually set after an error occurred.
8164 \*(ID This machinery is new and is usually reliable only if a command
8165 explicitly states that it manages the variable
8167 which is effectively identical to
8169 Each of those variables can be suffixed with a hyphen minus followed by
8170 a name or number, in which case the expansion refers to the given error.
8171 Note this is a direct mapping of (a subset of) the system error values:
8172 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8174 eval echo \e$1: \e$^ERR-$1:\e
8175 \e$^ERRNAME-$1: \e$^ERRDOC-$1
8176 vput vexpr i + "$1" 1
8188 \*(RO Expands all positional parameters (see
8190 separated by the first character of the value of
8192 \*(ID The special semantics of the equally named special parameter of the
8194 are not yet supported.
8198 \*(RO Expands all positional parameters (see
8200 separated by a space character.
8201 If placed in double quotation marks, each positional parameter is
8202 properly quoted to expand to a single parameter again.
8206 \*(RO Expands to the number of positional parameters, i.e., the size of
8207 the positional parameter stack in decimal.
8211 \*(RO Inside the scope of a
8215 ed macro this expands to the name of the calling macro, or to the empty
8216 string if the macro is running from top-level.
8217 For the \*(OPal regular expression search and replace operator of
8219 this expands to the entire matching expression.
8220 It represents the program name in global context.
8224 \*(RO Access of the positional parameter stack.
8225 All further parameters can be accessed with this syntax, too, e.g.,
8228 etc.; positional parameters can be shifted off the stack by calling
8230 The parameter stack contains, e.g., the arguments of a
8234 d macro, the matching groups of the \*(OPal regular expression search
8235 and replace expression of
8237 and can be explicitly created or overwritten with the command
8242 \*(RO Is set to the active
8246 .It Va add-file-recipients
8247 \*(BO When file or pipe recipients have been specified,
8248 mention them in the corresponding address fields of the message instead
8249 of silently stripping them from their recipient list.
8250 By default such addressees are not mentioned.
8254 \*(BO Causes only the local part to be evaluated
8255 when comparing addresses.
8259 \*(BO Causes messages saved in the
8261 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
8263 to be appended to the end rather than prepended.
8264 This should always be set.
8268 \*(BO Causes the prompts for
8272 lists to appear after the message has been edited.
8276 \*(BO If set, \*(UA asks for files to attach at the end of each message.
8277 An empty line finalizes the list.
8281 \*(BO Causes the user to be prompted for carbon copy recipients
8282 (at the end of each message if
8290 \*(BO Causes the user to be prompted for blind carbon copy
8291 recipients (at the end of each message if
8299 \*(BO Causes the user to be prompted for confirmation to send the
8300 message or reenter compose mode after having been shown an envelope
8302 This is by default enabled.
8306 \*(BO\*(OP Causes the user to be prompted if the message is to be
8307 signed at the end of each message.
8310 variable is ignored when this variable is set.
8314 .\" The alternative *ask* is not documented on purpose
8315 \*(BO Causes \*(UA to prompt for the subject upon entering compose mode
8316 unless a subject already exists.
8320 A sequence of characters to display in the
8324 as shown in the display of
8326 each for one type of messages (see
8327 .Sx "Message states" ) ,
8328 with the default being
8331 .Ql NU\ \ *HMFAT+\-$~
8334 variable is set, in the following order:
8336 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql _"
8358 start of a collapsed thread.
8360 an uncollapsed thread (TODO ignored for now).
8364 classified as possible spam.
8370 Specifies a list of recipients to which a blind carbon copy of each
8371 outgoing message will be sent automatically.
8375 Specifies a list of recipients to which a carbon copy of each outgoing
8376 message will be sent automatically.
8380 \*(BO Causes threads to be collapsed automatically when threaded mode
8387 \*(BO Enable automatic
8389 ing of a(n existing)
8395 commands, e.g., the message that becomes the new
8397 is shown automatically, as via
8404 Causes sorted mode (see the
8406 command) to be entered automatically with the value of this variable as
8407 sorting method when a folder is opened, e.g.,
8408 .Ql set autosort=thread .
8412 \*(BO Enables the substitution of all not (reverse-solidus) escaped
8415 characters by the contents of the last executed command for the
8417 shell escape command and
8419 one of the compose mode
8420 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
8421 If this variable is not set no reverse solidus stripping is performed.
8425 \*(OP Terminals generate multi-byte sequences for certain forms of
8426 input, for example for function and other special keys.
8427 Some terminals however do not write these multi-byte sequences as
8428 a whole, but byte-by-byte, and the latter is what \*(UA actually reads.
8429 This variable specifies the timeout in milliseconds that the MLE (see
8430 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
8431 waits for more bytes to arrive unless it considers a sequence
8437 \*(BO Sets some cosmetical features to traditional BSD style;
8438 has the same affect as setting
8440 and all other variables prefixed with
8442 it also changes the behaviour of
8444 (which does not exist in BSD).
8448 \*(BO Changes the letters shown in the first column of a header
8449 summary to traditional BSD style.
8453 \*(BO Changes the display of columns in a header summary to traditional
8458 \*(BO Changes some informational messages to traditional BSD style.
8464 field to appear immediately after the
8466 field in message headers and with the
8468 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
8472 .It Va build-os , build-osenv
8473 \*(RO The operating system \*(UA has been build for, usually taken from
8479 respectively, the former being lowercased.
8483 The value that should appear in the
8487 MIME header fields when no character set conversion of the message data
8489 This defaults to US-ASCII, and the chosen character set should be
8490 US-ASCII compatible.
8494 \*(OP The default 8-bit character set that is used as an implicit last
8495 member of the variable
8497 This defaults to UTF-8 if character set conversion capabilities are
8498 available, and to ISO-8859-1 otherwise, in which case the only supported
8501 and this variable is effectively ignored.
8502 Refer to the section
8503 .Sx "Character sets"
8504 for the complete picture of character set conversion in \*(UA.
8507 .It Va charset-unknown-8bit
8508 \*(OP RFC 1428 specifies conditions when internet mail gateways shall
8510 the content of a mail message by using a character set with the name
8512 Because of the unclassified nature of this character set \*(UA will not
8513 be capable to convert this character set to any other character set.
8514 If this variable is set any message part which uses the character set
8516 is assumed to really be in the character set given in the value,
8517 otherwise the (final) value of
8519 is used for this purpose.
8521 This variable will also be taken into account if a MIME type (see
8522 .Sx "The mime.types files" )
8523 of a MIME message part that uses the
8525 character set is forcefully treated as text.
8529 The default value for the
8534 .It Va colour-disable
8535 \*(BO\*(OP Forcefully disable usage of colours.
8536 Also see the section
8537 .Sx "Coloured display" .
8541 \*(BO\*(OP Whether colour shall be used for output that is paged through
8543 Note that pagers may need special command line options, e.g.,
8551 in order to support colours.
8552 Often doing manual adjustments is unnecessary since \*(UA may perform
8553 adjustments dependent on the value of the environment variable
8555 (see there for more).
8559 .It Va contact-mail , contact-web
8560 \*(RO Addresses for contact per email and web, respectively, e.g., for
8561 bug reports, suggestions, or help regarding \*(UA.
8562 The former can be used directly:
8563 .Ql ? Ns \| Ic eval Ns \| Ic mail Ns \| $contact-mail .
8567 In a(n interactive) terminal session, then if this valued variable is
8568 set it will be used as a threshold to determine how many lines the given
8569 output has to span before it will be displayed via the configured
8573 can be forced by setting this to the value
8575 setting it without a value will deduce the current height of the
8576 terminal screen to compute the treshold (see
8581 \*(ID At the moment this uses the count of lines of the message in wire
8582 format, which, dependent on the
8584 of the message, is unrelated to the number of display lines.
8585 (The software is old and historically the relation was a given thing.)
8589 Define a set of custom headers to be injected into newly composed or
8590 forwarded messages; it is also possible to create custom headers in
8593 which can be automatized by setting one of the hooks
8594 .Va on-compose-splice
8596 .Va on-compose-splice-shell .
8597 The value is interpreted as a comma-separated list of custom headers to
8598 be injected, to include commas in the header bodies escape them with
8600 \*(ID Overwriting of automatically managed headers is neither supported
8603 .Dl ? set customhdr='Hdr1: Body1-1\e, Body1-2, Hdr2: Body2'
8607 Controls the appearance of the
8609 date and time format specification of the
8611 variable, that is used, for example, when viewing the summary of
8613 If unset, then the local receiving date is used and displayed
8614 unformatted, otherwise the message sending
8616 It is possible to assign a
8618 format string and control formatting, but embedding newlines via the
8620 format is not supported, and will result in display errors.
8622 .Ql %Y-%m-%d %H:%M ,
8624 .Va datefield-markout-older .
8627 .It Va datefield-markout-older
8628 Only used in conjunction with
8630 Can be used to create a visible distinction of messages dated more than
8631 a day in the future, or older than six months, a concept comparable to the
8633 option of the POSIX utility
8635 If set to the empty string, then the plain month, day and year of the
8637 will be displayed, but a
8639 format string to control formatting can be assigned.
8645 \*(BO Enables debug messages and obsoletion warnings, disables the
8646 actual delivery of messages and also implies
8652 .It Va disposition-notification-send
8654 .Ql Disposition-Notification-To:
8655 header (RFC 3798) with the message.
8659 .\" TODO .It Va disposition-notification-send-HOST
8661 .\".Va disposition-notification-send
8662 .\" for SMTP accounts on a specific host.
8663 .\" TODO .It Va disposition-notification-send-USER@HOST
8665 .\".Va disposition-notification-send
8666 .\"for a specific account.
8670 \*(BO When dot is set, a period
8672 on a line by itself during message input in (interactive or batch
8674 compose mode will be treated as end-of-message (in addition to the
8675 normal end-of-file condition).
8676 This behaviour is implied in
8682 .It Va dotlock-ignore-error
8683 \*(BO\*(OP Synchronization of mailboxes which \*(UA treats as
8685 .Sx "primary system mailbox" Ns
8686 es (see, e.g., the notes on
8687 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
8688 as well as the documentation of
8690 will be protected with so-called dotlock files\(emthe traditional mail
8691 spool file locking method\(emin addition to system file locking.
8692 Because \*(UA ships with a privilege-separated dotlock creation program
8693 that should always be able to create such a dotlock file there is no
8694 good reason to ignore dotlock file creation errors, and thus these are
8695 fatal unless this variable is set.
8699 \*(BO If this variable is set then the editor is started automatically
8700 when a message is composed in interactive mode, as if the
8702 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
8706 variable is implied for this automatically spawned editor session.
8710 \*(BO When a message is edited while being composed,
8711 its header is included in the editable text.
8715 \*(BO When entering interactive mode \*(UA normally writes
8716 .Dq \&No mail for user
8717 and exits immediately if a mailbox is empty or does not exist.
8718 If this variable is set \*(UA starts even with an empty or non-existent
8719 mailbox (the latter behaviour furtherly depends upon
8725 \*(BO Let each command with a non-0 exit status, including every
8729 s a non-0 status, cause a program exit unless prefixed by
8732 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
8734 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ,
8735 but which use a different modifier for ignoring the error.
8736 Please refer to the variable
8738 for more on this topic.
8742 The first character of this value defines the escape character for
8743 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
8745 The default value is the character tilde
8747 If set to the empty string, command escapes are disabled.
8751 If not set then file and command pipeline targets are not allowed,
8752 and any such address will be filtered out, giving a warning message.
8753 If set without a value then all possible recipient address
8754 specifications will be accepted \(en see the section
8755 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode"
8757 To accept them, but only in interactive mode, or when tilde commands
8758 were enabled explicitly by using one of the command line options
8762 set this to the (case-insensitive) value
8764 (it actually acts like
8765 .Ql restrict,-all,+name,+addr ,
8766 so that care for ordering issues must be taken) .
8768 In fact the value is interpreted as a comma-separated list of values.
8771 then the existence of disallowed specifications is treated as a hard
8772 send error instead of only filtering them out.
8773 The remaining values specify whether a specific type of recipient
8774 address specification is allowed (optionally indicated by a plus sign
8776 prefix) or disallowed (prefixed with a hyphen-minus
8780 addresses all possible address specifications,
8784 command pipeline targets,
8786 plain user names and (MTA) aliases and
8789 These kind of values are interpreted in the given order, so that
8790 .Ql restrict,\:fail,\:+file,\:-all,\:+addr
8791 will cause hard errors for any non-network address recipient address
8792 unless \*(UA is in interactive mode or has been started with the
8796 command line option; in the latter case(s) any address may be used, then.
8798 Historically invalid network addressees are silently stripped off.
8799 To change this so that any encountered invalid email address causes
8800 a hard error it must be ensured that
8802 is an entry in the above list.
8803 Setting this automatically enables network addressees
8804 (it actually acts like
8805 .Ql failinvaddr,+addr ,
8806 so that care for ordering issues must be taken) .
8810 Unless this variable is set additional
8812 (Mail-Transfer-Agent)
8813 arguments from the command line, as can be given after a
8815 separator, are ignored due to safety reasons.
8816 However, if set to the special (case-insensitive) value
8818 then the presence of additional MTA arguments is treated as a hard
8819 error that causes \*(UA to exit with failure status.
8820 A lesser strict variant is the otherwise identical
8822 which does accept such arguments in interactive mode, or if tilde
8823 commands were enabled explicitly by using one of the command line options
8830 \*(RO String giving a list of optional features.
8831 Features are preceded with a plus sign
8833 if they are available, with a hyphen-minus
8836 The output of the command
8838 will include this information in a more pleasant output.
8842 \*(BO This setting reverses the meanings of a set of reply commands,
8843 turning the lowercase variants, which by default address all recipients
8844 included in the header of a message
8845 .Pf ( Ic reply , respond , followup )
8846 into the uppercase variants, which by default address the sender only
8847 .Pf ( Ic Reply , Respond , Followup )
8850 .Ic replysender , respondsender , followupsender
8852 .Ic replyall , respondall , followupall
8853 are not affected by the current setting of
8858 The default path under which mailboxes are to be saved:
8859 filenames that begin with the plus sign
8861 will have the plus sign replaced with the value of this variable if set,
8862 otherwise the plus sign will remain unchanged when doing
8863 .Sx "Filename transformations" ;
8866 for more on this topic.
8867 The value supports a subset of transformations itself, and if the
8868 non-empty value does not start with a solidus
8872 will be prefixed automatically.
8873 Once the actual value is evaluated first, the internal variable
8875 will be updated for caching purposes.
8878 .It Va folder-hook-FOLDER , Va folder-hook
8881 macro which will be called whenever a
8884 The macro will also be invoked when new mail arrives,
8885 but message lists for commands executed from the macro
8886 only include newly arrived messages then.
8888 are activated by default in a folder hook, causing the covered settings
8889 to be reverted once the folder is left again.
8891 The specialized form will override the generic one if
8893 matches the file that is opened.
8894 Unlike other folder specifications, the fully expanded name of a folder,
8895 without metacharacters, is used to avoid ambiguities.
8896 However, if the mailbox resides under
8900 specification is tried in addition, e.g., if
8904 (and thus relative to the user's home directory) then
8905 .Pa /home/usr1/mail/sent
8907 .Ql folder-hook-/home/usr1/mail/sent
8908 first, but then followed by
8909 .Ql folder-hook-+sent .
8912 .It Va folder-resolved
8913 \*(RO Set to the fully resolved path of
8915 once that evaluation has occurred; rather internal.
8919 \*(BO Controls whether a
8920 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
8921 header is generated when sending messages to known mailing lists.
8923 .Va followup-to-honour
8925 .Ic mlist , mlsubscribe , reply
8930 .It Va followup-to-honour
8932 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
8933 header is honoured when group-replying to a message via
8937 This is a quadoption; if set without a value it defaults to
8947 .It Va forward-as-attachment
8948 \*(BO Original messages are normally sent as inline text with the
8951 and only the first part of a multipart message is included.
8952 With this setting enabled messages are sent as unmodified MIME
8954 attachments with all of their parts included.
8957 .It Va forward-inject-head
8958 The string to put before the text of a message with the
8960 command instead of the default
8961 .Dq -------- Original Message -------- .
8962 No heading is put if it is set to the empty string.
8963 This variable is ignored if the
8964 .Va forward-as-attachment
8970 The address (or a list of addresses) to put into the
8972 field of the message header, quoting RFC 5322:
8973 the author(s) of the message, that is, the mailbox(es) of the person(s)
8974 or system(s) responsible for the writing of the message.
8975 According to that RFC setting the
8977 variable is required if
8979 contains more than one address.
8982 ing to messages these addresses are handled as if they were in the
8987 If a file-based MTA is used, then
8989 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
8991 can nonetheless be enforced to appear as the envelope sender address at
8992 the MTA protocol level (the RFC 5321 reverse-path), either by using the
8994 command line option (with an empty argument; see there for the complete
8995 picture on this topic), or by setting the internal variable
8996 .Va r-option-implicit .
8999 If the machine's hostname is not valid at the Internet (for example at
9000 a dialup machine) then either this variable or
9004 adds even more fine-tuning capabilities with
9005 .Va smtp-hostname ) ,
9006 have to be set; if so the message and MIME part related unique ID fields
9010 will be created (except when disallowed by
9011 .Va message-id-disable
9018 \*(BO Due to historical reasons comments and name parts of email
9019 addresses are removed by default when sending mail, replying to or
9020 forwarding a message.
9021 If this variable is set such stripping is not performed.
9024 \*(OB Predecessor of
9025 .Va forward-inject-head .
9029 \*(BO Causes the header summary to be written at startup and after
9030 commands that affect the number of messages or the order of messages in
9035 mode a header summary will also be displayed on folder changes.
9036 The command line option
9044 A format string to use for the summary of
9046 similar to the ones used for
9049 Format specifiers in the given string start with a percent sign
9051 and may be followed by an optional decimal number indicating the field
9052 width \(em if that is negative, the field is to be left-aligned.
9053 Valid format specifiers are:
9056 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql _%%_"
9058 A plain percent sign.
9061 a space character but for the current message
9063 for which it expands to
9067 a space character but for the current message
9069 for which it expands to
9072 \*(OP The spam score of the message, as has been classified via the
9075 Shows only a replacement character if there is no spam support.
9077 Message attribute character (status flag); the actual content can be
9081 The date found in the
9083 header of the message when
9085 is set (the default), otherwise the date when the message was received.
9086 Formatting can be controlled by assigning a
9091 The indenting level in threaded mode.
9093 The address of the message sender.
9095 The message thread tree structure.
9096 (Note that this format does not support a field width.)
9098 The number of lines of the message, if available.
9102 The number of octets (bytes) in the message, if available.
9104 Message subject (if any).
9106 Message subject (if any) in double quotes.
9108 Message recipient flags: is the addressee of the message a known or
9109 subscribed mailing list \(en see
9114 The position in threaded/sorted order.
9118 .Ql %>\&%a\&%m\ %-18f\ %16d\ %4l/%\-5o\ %i%-s ,
9120 .Ql %>\&%a\&%m\ %20-f\ \ %16d\ %3l/%\-5o\ %i%-S
9131 .It Va headline-bidi
9132 Bidirectional text requires special treatment when displaying headers,
9133 because numbers (in dates or for file sizes etc.) will not affect the
9134 current text direction, in effect resulting in ugly line layouts when
9135 arabic or other right-to-left text is to be displayed.
9136 On the other hand only a minority of terminals is capable to correctly
9137 handle direction changes, so that user interaction is necessary for
9139 Note that extended host system support is required nonetheless, e.g.,
9140 detection of the terminal character set is one precondition;
9141 and this feature only works in an Unicode (i.e., UTF-8) locale.
9143 In general setting this variable will cause \*(UA to encapsulate text
9144 fields that may occur when displaying
9146 (and some other fields, like dynamic expansions in
9148 with special Unicode control sequences;
9149 it is possible to fine-tune the terminal support level by assigning
9151 no value (or any value other than
9156 will make \*(UA assume that the terminal is capable to properly deal
9157 with Unicode version 6.3, in which case text is embedded in a pair of
9158 U+2068 (FIRST STRONG ISOLATE) and U+2069 (POP DIRECTIONAL ISOLATE)
9160 In addition no space on the line is reserved for these characters.
9162 Weaker support is chosen by using the value
9164 (Unicode 6.3, but reserve the room of two spaces for writing the control
9165 sequences onto the line).
9170 select Unicode 1.1 support (U+200E, LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK); the latter
9171 again reserves room for two spaces in addition.
9175 \*(OP If a line editor is available then this can be set to
9176 name the (expandable) path of the location of a permanent history file.
9181 .It Va history-gabby
9182 \*(BO\*(OP Add more entries to the history as is normally done.
9185 .It Va history-gabby-persist
9186 \*(BO\*(OP \*(UA's own MLE will not save the additional
9188 entries in persistent storage unless this variable is set.
9189 On the other hand it will not loose the knowledge of whether
9190 a persistent entry was gabby or not.
9196 \*(OP Setting this variable imposes a limit on the number of concurrent
9198 If set to the value 0 then no further history entries will be added, and
9199 loading and incorporation of the
9201 upon program startup can also be suppressed by doing this.
9202 Runtime changes will not be reflected, but will affect the number of
9203 entries saved to permanent storage.
9207 \*(BO This setting controls whether messages are held in the system
9209 and it is set by default.
9213 Used instead of the value obtained from
9217 as the hostname when expanding local addresses, e.g., in
9221 or this variable Is set the message and MIME part related unique ID fields
9225 will be created (except when disallowed by
9226 .Va message-id-disable
9229 Setting it to the empty string will cause the normal hostname to be
9230 used, but nonetheless enables creation of said ID fields.
9231 \*(IN in conjunction with the built-in SMTP
9234 also influences the results:
9235 one should produce some test messages with the desired combination of
9244 \*(BO\*(OP Can be used to turn off the automatic conversion of domain
9245 names according to the rules of IDNA (internationalized domain names
9247 Since the IDNA code assumes that domain names are specified with the
9249 character set, an UTF-8 locale charset is required to represent all
9250 possible international domain names (before conversion, that is).
9254 The input field separator that is used (\*(ID by some functions) to
9255 determine where to split input data.
9257 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It MMM"
9259 Unsetting is treated as assigning the default value,
9262 If set to the empty value, no field splitting will be performed.
9264 If set to a non-empty value, all whitespace characters are extracted
9265 and assigned to the variable
9269 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It MMM"
9272 will be ignored at the beginning and end of input.
9273 Diverging from POSIX shells default whitespace is removed in addition,
9274 which is owed to the entirely different line content extraction rules.
9276 Each occurrence of a character of
9278 will cause field-splitting, any adjacent
9280 characters will be skipped.
9285 \*(RO Automatically deduced from the whitespace characters in
9290 \*(BO Ignore interrupt signals from the terminal while entering
9291 messages; instead echo them as
9293 characters and discard the current line.
9297 \*(BO Ignore end-of-file conditions
9298 .Pf ( Ql control-D )
9299 in compose mode on message input and in interactive command input.
9300 If set an interactive command input session can only be left by
9301 explicitly using one of the commands
9305 and message input in compose mode can only be terminated by entering
9308 on a line by itself or by using the
9310 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ;
9311 Setting this implies the behaviour that
9319 If this is set to a non-empty string it will specify the users
9321 .Sx "primary system mailbox" ,
9324 and the system-dependent default, and (thus) be used to replace
9327 .Sx "Filename transformations" ;
9330 for more on this topic.
9331 The value supports a subset of transformations itself.
9339 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
9342 option for indenting messages,
9343 in place of the POSIX mandated default tabulator character
9350 \*(BO If set, an empty
9352 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
9353 file is not removed.
9354 Note that, in conjunction with
9356 mode any empty file will be removed unless this variable is set.
9357 This may improve the interoperability with other mail user agents
9358 when using a common folder directory, and prevents malicious users
9359 from creating fake mailboxes in a world-writable spool directory.
9360 \*(ID Only local regular (MBOX) files are covered, Maildir or other
9361 mailbox types will never be removed, even if empty.
9364 .It Va keep-content-length
9365 \*(BO When (editing messages and) writing MBOX mailbox files \*(UA can
9370 header fields that some MUAs generate by setting this variable.
9371 Since \*(UA does neither use nor update these non-standardized header
9372 fields (which in itself shows one of their conceptual problems),
9373 stripping them should increase interoperability in between MUAs that
9374 work with with same mailbox files.
9375 Note that, if this is not set but
9376 .Va writebackedited ,
9377 as below, is, a possibly performed automatic stripping of these header
9378 fields already marks the message as being modified.
9379 \*(ID At some future time \*(UA will be capable to rewrite and apply an
9381 to modified messages, and then those fields will be stripped silently.
9385 \*(BO When a message is saved it is usually discarded from the
9386 originating folder when \*(UA is quit.
9387 This setting causes all saved message to be retained.
9390 .It Va line-editor-disable
9391 \*(BO Turn off any enhanced line editing capabilities (see
9392 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor"
9396 .It Va line-editor-no-defaults
9397 \*(BO\*(OP Do not establish any default key binding.
9401 Error log message prefix string
9402 .Pf ( Ql "\*(uA: " ) .
9405 .It Va mailbox-display
9406 \*(RO The name of the current mailbox
9408 possibly abbreviated for display purposes.
9411 .It Va mailbox-resolved
9412 \*(RO The fully resolved path of the current mailbox.
9415 .It Va mailx-extra-rc
9416 An additional startup file that is loaded as the last of the
9417 .Sx "Resource files" .
9418 Use this file for commands that are not understood by other POSIX
9420 implementations, i.e., mostly anything which is not covered by
9421 .Sx "Initial settings" .
9425 \*(BO When a message is replied to and this variable is set,
9426 it is marked as having been
9429 .Sx "Message states" .
9433 \*(BO When opening MBOX mailbox databases \*(UA by default uses tolerant
9434 POSIX rules for detecting message boundaries (so-called
9436 lines) due to compatibility reasons, instead of the stricter rules that
9437 have been standardized in RFC 4155.
9438 This behaviour can be switched to the stricter RFC 4155 rules by
9439 setting this variable.
9440 (This is never necessary for any message newly generated by \*(UA,
9441 it only applies to messages generated by buggy or malicious MUAs, or may
9442 occur in old MBOX databases: \*(UA itself will choose a proper
9444 to avoid false interpretation of
9446 content lines in the MBOX database.)
9448 This may temporarily be handy when \*(UA complains about invalid
9450 lines when opening a MBOX: in this case setting this variable and
9451 re-opening the mailbox in question may correct the result.
9452 If so, copying the entire mailbox to some other file, as in
9453 .Ql copy * SOME-FILE ,
9454 will perform proper, all-compatible
9456 quoting for all detected messages, resulting in a valid MBOX mailbox.
9457 Finally the variable can be unset again:
9458 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9460 localopts yes; wysh set mbox-rfc4155;\e
9461 wysh File "${1}"; eval copy * "${2}"
9463 call mboxfix /tmp/bad.mbox /tmp/good.mbox
9468 \*(BO Internal development variable.
9471 .It Va message-id-disable
9472 \*(BO By setting this variable the generation of
9476 message and MIME part headers can be completely suppressed, effectively
9477 leaving this task up to the
9479 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) or the SMTP server.
9480 Note that according to RFC 5321 a SMTP server is not required to add this
9481 field by itself, so it should be ensured that it accepts messages without
9485 .It Va message-inject-head
9486 A string to put at the beginning of each new message, followed by a newline.
9487 \*(OB The escape sequences tabulator
9491 are understood (use the
9495 ting the variable(s) instead).
9498 .It Va message-inject-tail
9499 A string to put at the end of each new message, followed by a newline.
9500 \*(OB The escape sequences tabulator
9504 are understood (use the
9508 ting the variable(s) instead).
9512 \*(BO Usually, when an
9514 expansion contains the sender, the sender is removed from the expansion.
9515 Setting this option suppresses these removals.
9520 option to be passed through to the
9522 (Mail-Transfer-Agent); though most of the modern MTAs no longer document
9523 this flag, no MTA is known which does not support it (for historical
9527 .It Va mime-allow-text-controls
9528 \*(BO When sending messages, each part of the message is MIME-inspected
9529 in order to classify the
9532 .Ql Content-Transfer-Encoding:
9535 that is required to send this part over mail transport, i.e.,
9536 a computation rather similar to what the
9538 command produces when used with the
9542 This classification however treats text files which are encoded in
9543 UTF-16 (seen for HTML files) and similar character sets as binary
9544 octet-streams, forcefully changing any
9549 .Ql application/octet-stream :
9550 If that actually happens a yet unset charset MIME parameter is set to
9552 effectively making it impossible for the receiving MUA to automatically
9553 interpret the contents of the part.
9555 If this variable is set, and the data was unambiguously identified as
9556 text data at first glance (by a
9560 file extension), then the original
9562 will not be overwritten.
9565 .It Va mime-alternative-favour-rich
9566 \*(BO If this variable is set then rich MIME alternative parts (e.g.,
9567 HTML) will be preferred in favour of included plain text versions when
9568 displaying messages, provided that a handler exists which produces
9569 output that can be (re)integrated into \*(UA's normal visual display.
9570 (E.g., at the time of this writing some newsletters ship their full
9571 content only in the rich HTML part, whereas the plain text part only
9572 contains topic subjects.)
9575 .It Va mime-counter-evidence
9578 field is used to decide how to handle MIME parts.
9579 Some MUAs, however, do not use
9580 .Sx "The mime.types files"
9582 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" )
9583 or a similar mechanism to correctly classify content, but specify an
9584 unspecific MIME type
9585 .Pf ( Ql application/octet-stream )
9586 even for plain text attachments.
9587 If this variable is set then \*(UA will try to re-classify such MIME
9588 message parts, if possible, for example via a possibly existing
9589 attachment filename.
9590 A non-empty value may also be given, in which case a number is expected,
9591 actually a carrier of bits, best specified as a binary value, e.g.,
9594 .Bl -bullet -compact
9596 If bit two is set (counting from 1, decimal 2) then the detected
9598 will be carried along with the message and be used for deciding which
9599 MIME handler is to be used, for example;
9600 when displaying such a MIME part the part-info will indicate the
9601 overridden content-type by showing a plus sign
9604 If bit three is set (decimal 4) then the counter-evidence is always
9605 produced and a positive result will be used as the MIME type, even
9606 forcefully overriding the parts given MIME type.
9608 If bit four is set (decimal 8) as a last resort the actual content of
9609 .Ql application/octet-stream
9610 parts will be inspected, so that data which looks like plain text can be
9612 This mode is even more relaxed when data is to be displayed to the user
9613 or used as a message quote (data consumers which mangle data for display
9614 purposes, which includes masking of control characters, for example).
9618 .It Va mime-encoding
9620 .Ql Content-Transfer-Encoding
9621 to use in outgoing text messages and message parts, where applicable.
9622 (7-bit clean text messages are sent as-is, without a transfer encoding.)
9625 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql _%%_"
9628 8-bit transport effectively causes the raw data be passed through
9629 unchanged, but may cause problems when transferring mail messages over
9630 channels that are not ESMTP (RFC 1869) compliant.
9631 Also, several input data constructs are not allowed by the
9632 specifications and may cause a different transfer-encoding to be used.
9633 .It Ql quoted-printable
9635 Quoted-printable encoding is 7-bit clean and has the property that ASCII
9636 characters are passed through unchanged, so that an english message can
9637 be read as-is; it is also acceptible for other single-byte locales that
9638 share many characters with ASCII, like, e.g., ISO-8859-1.
9639 The encoding will cause a large overhead for messages in other character
9640 sets: e.g., it will require up to twelve (12) bytes to encode a single
9641 UTF-8 character of four (4) bytes.
9642 It is the default encoding.
9644 .Pf (Or\0 Ql b64 . )
9645 This encoding is 7-bit clean and will always be used for binary data.
9646 This encoding has a constant input:output ratio of 3:4, regardless of
9647 the character set of the input data it will encode three bytes of input
9648 to four bytes of output.
9649 This transfer-encoding is not human readable without performing
9654 .It Va mimetypes-load-control
9655 Can be used to control which of
9656 .Sx "The mime.types files"
9657 are loaded: if the letter
9659 is part of the option value, then the user's personal
9661 file will be loaded (if it exists); likewise the letter
9663 controls loading of the system wide
9664 .Pa /etc/mime.types ;
9665 directives found in the user file take precedence, letter matching is
9667 If this variable is not set \*(UA will try to load both files.
9668 Incorporation of the \*(UA-built-in MIME types cannot be suppressed,
9669 but they will be matched last (the order can be listed via
9672 More sources can be specified by using a different syntax: if the
9673 value string contains an equals sign
9675 then it is instead parsed as a comma-separated list of the described
9678 pairs; the given filenames will be expanded and loaded, and their
9679 content may use the extended syntax that is described in the section
9680 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
9681 Directives found in such files always take precedence (are prepended to
9682 the MIME type cache).
9687 To choose an alternate Mail-Transfer-Agent, set this option to either
9688 the full pathname of an executable (optionally prefixed with a
9690 protocol indicator), or \*(OPally a SMTP protocol URL, e.g., \*(IN
9692 .Dl smtps?://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
9695 .Ql [smtp://]server[:port] . )
9696 The default has been chosen at compile time.
9697 All supported data transfers are executed in child processes, which
9698 run asynchronously and without supervision unless either the
9703 If such a child receives a TERM signal, it will abort and
9710 For a file-based MTA it may be necessary to set
9712 in in order to choose the right target of a modern
9715 It will be passed command line arguments from several possible sources:
9718 if set, from the command line if given and the variable
9721 Argument processing of the MTA will be terminated with a
9726 The otherwise occurring implicit usage of the following MTA command
9727 line arguments can be disabled by setting the boolean variable
9728 .Va mta-no-default-arguments
9729 (which will also disable passing
9733 (for not treating a line with only a dot
9735 character as the end of input),
9743 variable is set); in conjunction with the
9745 command line option \*(UA will also (not) pass
9751 \*(OPally \*(UA can send mail over SMTP network connections to a single
9752 defined SMTP smart host by specifying a SMTP URL as the value (see
9753 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) .
9754 Encrypted network connections are \*(OPally available, the section
9755 .Sx "Encrypted network communication"
9756 should give an overview and provide links to more information on this.
9757 \*(UA also supports forwarding of all network traffic over a specified
9759 Note that with some mail providers it may be necessary to set the
9761 variable in order to use a specific combination of
9766 The following SMTP variants may be used:
9770 The plain SMTP protocol (RFC 5321) that normally lives on the
9771 server port 25 and requires setting the
9772 .Va smtp-use-starttls
9773 variable to enter a SSL/TLS encrypted session state.
9774 Assign a value like \*(IN
9775 .Ql smtp://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
9777 .Ql smtp://server[:port] )
9778 to choose this protocol.
9780 The so-called SMTPS which is supposed to live on server port 465
9781 and is automatically SSL/TLS secured.
9782 Unfortunately it never became a standardized protocol and may thus not
9783 be supported by your hosts network service database
9784 \(en in fact the port number has already been reassigned to other
9787 SMTPS is nonetheless a commonly offered protocol and thus can be
9788 chosen by assigning a value like \*(IN
9789 .Ql smtps://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
9791 .Ql smtps://server[:port] ) ;
9792 due to the mentioned problems it is usually necessary to explicitly
9797 Finally there is the SUBMISSION protocol (RFC 6409), which usually
9798 lives on server port 587 and is practically identically to the SMTP
9799 protocol from \*(UA's point of view beside that; it requires setting the
9800 .Va smtp-use-starttls
9801 variable to enter a SSL/TLS secured session state.
9802 Assign a value like \*(IN
9803 .Ql submission://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
9805 .Ql submission://server[:port] ) .
9810 .It Va mta-arguments
9811 Arguments to pass through to a file-based
9813 can be given via this variable, which is parsed according to
9814 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
9815 into an array of arguments, and which will be joined onto MTA options
9816 from other sources, and then passed individually to the MTA:
9817 .Ql ? wysh set mta-arguments='-t -X \&"/tmp/my log\&"' .
9820 .It Va mta-no-default-arguments
9821 \*(BO Unless this variable is set \*(UA will pass some well known
9822 standard command line options to a file-based
9824 (Mail-Transfer-Agent), see there for more.
9827 .It Va mta-no-receiver-arguments
9828 \*(BO By default a file-based
9830 will be passed all receiver addresses on the command line.
9831 This variable can be set to suppress any such argument.
9835 Many systems use a so-called
9837 environment to ensure compatibility with
9839 This works by inspecting the name that was used to invoke the mail
9841 If this variable is set then the mailwrapper (the program that is
9842 actually executed when calling the file-based
9844 will treat its contents as that name.
9847 .It Va netrc-lookup-USER@HOST , netrc-lookup-HOST , netrc-lookup
9848 \*(BO\*(IN\*(OP Used to control usage of the users
9850 file for lookup of account credentials, as documented in the section
9851 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
9855 .Sx "The .netrc file"
9856 documents the file format.
9868 then \*(UA will read the output of a shell pipe instead of the users
9870 file if this variable is set (to the desired shell command).
9871 This can be used to, e.g., store
9874 .Ql ? set netrc-pipe='gpg -qd ~/.netrc.pgp' .
9878 If this variable has the value
9880 newly created local folders will be in Maildir instead of MBOX format.
9884 Checks for new mail in the current folder each time the prompt is shown.
9885 A Maildir folder must be re-scanned to determine if new mail has arrived.
9886 If this variable is set to the special value
9888 then a Maildir folder will not be rescanned completely, but only
9889 timestamp changes are detected.
9893 \*(BO Causes the filename given in the
9896 and the sender-based filenames for the
9900 commands to be interpreted relative to the directory given in the
9902 variable rather than to the current directory,
9903 unless it is set to an absolute pathname.
9905 .Mx Va on-account-cleanup
9906 .It Va on-account-cleanup-ACCOUNT , Va on-account-cleanup
9907 Macro hook which will be called once an
9909 is left, as the very last step before unrolling per-account
9911 This hook is run even in case of fatal errors, and it is advisable to
9912 perform only absolutely necessary actions, like cleaning up
9915 The specialized form is used in favour of the generic one if found.
9918 .It Va on-compose-cleanup
9919 Macro hook which will be called after the message has been sent (or not,
9920 in case of failures), as the very last step before unrolling compose mode
9922 This hook is run even in case of fatal errors, and it is advisable to
9923 perform only absolutely necessary actions, like cleaning up
9927 For compose mode hooks that may affect the message content please see
9928 .Va on-compose-enter , on-compose-leave , on-compose-splice .
9929 \*(ID This hook exists because
9930 .Ic alias , alternates , commandalias , shortcut ,
9931 to name a few, are not covered by
9933 changes applied in compose mode will continue to be in effect thereafter.
9938 .It Va on-compose-enter , on-compose-leave
9939 Macro hooks which will be called once compose mode is entered,
9940 and after composing has been finished, but before a set
9941 .Va message-inject-tail
9942 has been injected etc., respectively.
9944 are enabled for these hooks, and changes on variables will be forgotten
9945 after the message has been sent.
9946 .Va on-compose-cleanup
9947 can be used to perform other necessary cleanup steps.
9949 The following (read-only) variables will be set temporarily during
9950 execution of the macros to represent respective message headers, to
9951 the empty string otherwise; most of them correspond to according virtual
9952 message headers that can be accessed via
9955 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
9957 .Va on-compose-splice
9961 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Va mailx_subject"
9962 .It Va mailx-command
9963 The command that generates the message.
9964 .It Va mailx-subject
9970 .It Va mailx-to , mailx-cc , mailx-bcc
9971 The list of receiver addresses as a space-separated list.
9972 .It Va mailx-raw-to , mailx-raw-cc , mailx-raw-bcc
9973 The list of receiver addresses before any mangling (due to, e.g.,
9976 .Va recipients-in-cc )
9977 as a space-separated list.
9978 .It Va mailx-orig-from
9979 When replying, forwarding or resending, this will be set to the
9981 of the given message.
9982 .It Va mailx-orig-to , mailx-orig-cc , mailx-orig-bcc
9983 When replying, forwarding or resending, this will be set to the
9984 receivers of the given message.
9988 Here is am example that injects a signature via
9989 .Va message-inject-tail ;
9991 .Va on-compose-splice
9992 to simply inject the file of desire via
9996 may be a better approach.
9998 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10000 vput ! i cat ~/.mysig
10002 vput vexpr message-inject-tail trim-end $i
10006 readctl create ~/.mysig
10010 vput vexpr message-inject-tail trim-end $i
10012 readctl remove ~/.mysig
10015 set on-compose-leave=t_ocl
10021 .It Va on-compose-splice , on-compose-splice-shell
10022 These hooks run once the normal compose mode is finished, but before the
10023 .Va on-compose-leave
10024 macro hook is called, the
10025 .Va message-inject-tail
10027 Both hooks will be executed in a subprocess, with their input and output
10028 connected to \*(UA such that they can act as if they would be an
10030 The difference in between them is that the latter is a
10032 command, whereas the former is a normal \*(UA macro, but which is
10033 restricted to a small set of commands (the
10037 will indicate said capability).
10039 are enabled for these hooks (in the parent process), causing any setting
10040 to be forgotten after the message has been sent;
10041 .Va on-compose-cleanup
10042 can be used to perform other cleanup as necessary.
10045 During execution of these hooks \*(UA will temporarily forget whether it
10046 has been started in interactive mode, (a restricted set of)
10047 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
10048 will always be available, and for guaranteed reproducibilities sake
10052 will be set to their defaults.
10053 The compose mode command
10055 has been especially designed for scriptability (via these hooks).
10056 The first line the hook will read on its standard input is the protocol
10057 version of said command escape, currently
10059 backward incompatible protocol changes have to be expected.
10062 Care must be taken to avoid deadlocks and other false control flow:
10063 if both involved processes wait for more input to happen at the
10064 same time, or one does not expect more input but the other is stuck
10065 waiting for consumption of its output, etc.
10066 There is no automatic synchronization of the hook: it will not be
10067 stopped automatically just because it, e.g., emits
10069 The hooks will however receive a termination signal if the parent enters
10070 an error condition.
10071 \*(ID Protection against and interaction with signals is not yet given;
10072 it is likely that in the future these scripts will be placed in an
10073 isolated session, which is signalled in its entirety as necessary.
10075 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10076 define ocs_signature {
10078 echo '~< ~/.mysig' # '~<! fortune pathtofortunefile'
10080 set on-compose-splice=ocs_signature
10082 wysh set on-compose-splice-shell=$'\e
10084 printf "hello $version! Headers: ";\e
10085 echo \e'~^header list\e';\e
10086 read status result;\e
10087 echo "status=$status result=$result";\e
10092 echo Splice protocol version is $version
10093 echo '~^h l'; read hl; vput vexpr es substring "${hl}" 0 1
10095 echoerr 'Cannot read header list'; echo '~x'; xit
10097 if [ "$hl" @i!% ' cc' ]
10098 echo '~^h i cc Diet is your <mirr.or>'; read es;\e
10099 vput vexpr es substring "${es}" 0 1
10101 echoerr 'Cannot insert Cc: header'; echo '~x'
10102 # (no xit, macro finishs anyway)
10106 set on-compose-splice=ocsm
10111 .It Va on-resend-cleanup
10113 .Va on-compose-cleanup ,
10114 but is only triggered by
10118 .It Va on-resend-enter
10120 .Va on-compose-enter ,
10121 but is only triggered by
10126 \*(BO If set, each message feed through the command given for
10128 is followed by a formfeed character
10132 .It Va password-USER@HOST , password-HOST , password
10133 \*(IN Variable chain that sets a password, which is used in case none has
10134 been given in the protocol and account-specific URL;
10135 as a last resort \*(UA will ask for a password on the user's terminal if
10136 the authentication method requires a password.
10137 Specifying passwords in a startup file is generally a security risk;
10138 the file should be readable by the invoking user only.
10140 .It Va password-USER@HOST
10141 \*(OU (see the chain above for \*(IN)
10142 Set the password for
10146 If no such variable is defined for a host,
10147 the user will be asked for a password on standard input.
10148 Specifying passwords in a startup file is generally a security risk;
10149 the file should be readable by the invoking user only.
10153 \*(BO Send messages to the
10155 command without performing MIME and character set conversions.
10159 .It Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
10160 When a MIME message part of type
10162 (case-insensitive) is displayed or quoted,
10163 its text is filtered through the value of this variable interpreted as
10165 Note that only parts which can be displayed inline as plain text (see
10166 .Cd copiousoutput )
10167 are displayed unless otherwise noted, other MIME parts will only be
10168 considered by and for the command
10172 The special value commercial at
10174 forces interpretation of the message part as plain text, e.g.,
10175 .Ql set pipe-application/xml=@
10176 will henceforth display XML
10178 (The same could also be achieved by adding a MIME type marker with the
10181 And \*(OPally MIME type handlers may be defined via
10182 .Sx "The Mailcap files"
10183 \(em these directives,
10185 has already been used, should be referred to for further documentation.
10190 can in fact be used as a trigger character to adjust usage and behaviour
10191 of a following shell command specification more thoroughly by appending
10192 more special characters which refer to further mailcap directives, e.g.,
10193 the following hypothetical command specification could be used:
10195 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10196 ? set pipe-X/Y='@!++=@vim ${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}'
10200 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql __"
10202 The command produces plain text to be integrated in \*(UAs output:
10203 .Cd copiousoutput .
10206 If set the handler will not be invoked when a message is to be quoted,
10207 but only when it will be displayed:
10208 .Cd x-mailx-noquote .
10211 Run the command asynchronously, i.e., without blocking \*(UA:
10212 .Cd x-mailx-async .
10215 The command must be run on an interactive terminal, \*(UA will
10216 temporarily release the terminal to it:
10217 .Cd needsterminal .
10220 Request creation of a zero-sized temporary file, the absolute pathname
10221 of which will be made accessible via the environment variable
10222 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY :
10223 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile .
10224 If given twice then the file will be unlinked automatically by \*(UA
10225 when the command loop is entered again at latest:
10226 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink .
10229 Normally the MIME part content is passed to the handler via standard
10230 input; if this flag is set then the data will instead be written into
10231 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY
10232 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill ) ,
10233 the creation of which is implied; note however that in order to cause
10234 deletion of the temporary file you still have to use two plus signs
10239 To avoid ambiguities with normal shell command content you can use
10240 another commercial at to forcefully terminate interpretation of
10241 remaining characters.
10242 (Any character not in this list will have the same effect.)
10246 Some information about the MIME part to be displayed is embedded into
10247 the environment of the shell command:
10250 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ev _AIL__ILENAME__ENERATED"
10252 .It Ev MAILX_CONTENT
10253 The MIME content-type of the part, if known, the empty string otherwise.
10256 .It Ev MAILX_CONTENT_EVIDENCE
10258 .Va mime-counter-evidence
10259 includes the carry-around-bit (2), then this will be set to the detected
10260 MIME content-type; not only then identical to
10261 .Ev \&\&MAILX_CONTENT
10265 .It Ev MAILX_EXTERNAL_BODY_URL
10267 .Ql message/external-body access-type=url
10268 will store the access URL in this variable, it is empty otherwise.
10271 .It Ev MAILX_FILENAME
10272 The filename, if any is set, the empty string otherwise.
10275 .It Ev MAILX_FILENAME_GENERATED
10279 .It Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY
10280 If temporary file creation has been requested through the command prefix
10281 this variable will be set and contain the absolute pathname of the
10287 .It Va pipe-EXTENSION
10288 This is identical to
10289 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
10292 (normalized to lowercase using character mappings of the ASCII charset)
10293 names a file extension, e.g.,
10295 Handlers registered using this method take precedence.
10298 .It Va pop3-auth-USER@HOST , pop3-auth-HOST , pop3-auth
10299 \*(OP\*(IN Variable chain that sets the POP3 authentication method.
10300 The only possible value as of now is
10302 which is thus the default.
10304 .Mx Va pop3-bulk-load
10305 .It Va pop3-bulk-load-USER@HOST , pop3-bulk-load-HOST , pop3-bulk-load
10306 \*(BO\*(OP When accessing a POP3 server \*(UA loads the headers of
10307 the messages, and only requests the message bodies on user request.
10308 For the POP3 protocol this means that the message headers will be
10310 If this variable is set then \*(UA will download only complete messages
10311 from the given POP3 server(s) instead.
10313 .Mx Va pop3-keepalive
10314 .It Va pop3-keepalive-USER@HOST , pop3-keepalive-HOST , pop3-keepalive
10315 \*(OP POP3 servers close the connection after a period of inactivity;
10316 the standard requires this to be at least 10 minutes,
10317 but practical experience may vary.
10318 Setting this variable to a numeric value greater than
10322 command to be sent each value seconds if no other operation is performed.
10324 .Mx Va pop3-no-apop
10325 .It Va pop3-no-apop-USER@HOST , pop3-no-apop-HOST , pop3-no-apop
10326 \*(BO\*(OP Unless this variable is set the
10328 authentication method will be used when connecting to a POP3 server that
10329 advertises support.
10332 is that the password is not sent in clear text over the wire and that
10333 only a single packet is sent for the user/password tuple.
10335 .Va pop3-no-apop-HOST
10338 .Mx Va pop3-use-starttls
10339 .It Va pop3-use-starttls-USER@HOST , pop3-use-starttls-HOST , pop3-use-starttls
10340 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a
10342 command to make an unencrypted POP3 session SSL/TLS encrypted.
10343 This functionality is not supported by all servers,
10344 and is not used if the session is already encrypted by the POP3S method.
10346 .Va pop3-use-starttls-HOST
10352 \*(BO This flag enables POSIX mode, which changes behaviour of \*(UA
10353 where that deviates from standardized behaviour.
10354 It will be set implicitly before the
10355 .Sx "Resource files"
10356 are loaded if the environment variable
10357 .Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT
10358 is set, and adjusting any of those two will be reflected by the other
10360 The following behaviour is covered and enforced by this mechanism:
10363 .Bl -bullet -compact
10365 In non-interactive mode, any error encountered while loading resource
10366 files during program startup will cause a program exit, whereas in
10367 interactive mode such errors will stop loading of the currently loaded
10368 (stack of) file(s, i.e., recursively).
10369 These exits can be circumvented on a per-command base by using
10372 .Sx "Command modifiers" ,
10373 for each command which shall be allowed to fail.
10377 will replace the list of alternate addresses instead of appending to it.
10380 The variable inserting
10381 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
10387 will expand embedded character sequences
10389 horizontal tabulator and
10392 \*(ID For compatibility reasons this step will always be performed.
10395 Upon changing the active
10399 will be displayed even if
10406 implies the behaviour described by
10412 is extended to cover any empty mailbox, not only empty
10414 .Sx "primary system mailbox" Ns
10415 es: they will be removed when they are left in empty state otherwise.
10420 .It Va print-alternatives
10421 \*(BO When a MIME message part of type
10422 .Ql multipart/alternative
10423 is displayed and it contains a subpart of type
10425 other parts are normally discarded.
10426 Setting this variable causes all subparts to be displayed,
10427 just as if the surrounding part was of type
10428 .Ql multipart/mixed .
10432 The string used as a prompt in interactive mode.
10433 Whenever the variable is evaluated the value is expanded as via
10434 dollar-single-quote expansion (see
10435 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ) .
10436 This (post-assignment, i.e., second) expansion can be used to embed
10437 status information, for example
10442 .Va mailbox-display .
10444 In order to embed characters which should not be counted when
10445 calculating the visual width of the resulting string, enclose the
10446 characters of interest in a pair of reverse solidus escaped brackets:
10448 a slot for coloured prompts is also available with the \*(OPal command
10450 Prompting may be prevented by setting this to the null string
10452 .Ql set noprompt ) .
10456 This string is used for secondary prompts, but is otherwise identical to
10463 \*(BO Suppresses the printing of the version when first invoked.
10467 If set, \*(UA starts a replying message with the original message
10468 prefixed by the value of the variable
10470 Normally, a heading consisting of
10471 .Dq Fromheaderfield wrote:
10472 is put before the quotation.
10477 variable, this heading is omitted.
10480 is assigned, only the headers selected by the
10483 selection are put above the message body,
10486 acts like an automatic
10488 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
10492 is assigned, all headers are put above the message body and all MIME
10493 parts are included, making
10495 act like an automatic
10498 .Va quote-as-attachment .
10501 .It Va quote-as-attachment
10502 \*(BO Add the original message in its entirety as a
10504 MIME attachment when replying to a message.
10505 Note this works regardless of the setting of
10510 Can be set to a string consisting of non-whitespace ASCII characters
10511 which shall be treated as quotation leaders, the default being
10516 \*(OP Can be set in addition to
10518 Setting this turns on a more fancy quotation algorithm in that leading
10519 quotation characters
10520 .Pf ( Va quote-chars )
10521 are compressed and overlong lines are folded.
10523 can be set to either one or two (space separated) numeric values,
10524 which are interpreted as the maximum (goal) and the minimum line length,
10525 respectively, in a spirit rather equal to the
10527 program, but line-, not paragraph-based.
10528 If not set explicitly the minimum will reflect the goal algorithmically.
10529 The goal cannot be smaller than the length of
10531 plus some additional pad.
10532 Necessary adjustments take place silently.
10535 .It Va r-option-implicit
10536 \*(BO Setting this option evaluates the contents of
10538 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
10540 and passes the results onto the used (file-based) MTA as described for the
10542 option (empty argument case).
10545 .It Va recipients-in-cc
10552 are by default merged into the new
10554 If this variable is set, only the original
10558 the rest is merged into
10563 Unless this variable is defined, no copies of outgoing mail will be saved.
10564 If defined it gives the pathname, subject to the usual
10565 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
10566 of a folder where all new, replied-to or forwarded messages are saved:
10567 when saving to this folder fails the message is not sent, but instead
10571 The standard defines that relative (fully expanded) paths are to be
10572 interpreted relative to the current directory
10574 to force interpretation relative to
10577 needs to be set in addition.
10580 .It Va record-files
10581 \*(BO If this variable is set the meaning of
10583 will be extended to cover messages which target only file and pipe
10586 These address types will not appear in recipient lists unless
10587 .Va add-file-recipients
10591 .It Va record-resent
10592 \*(BO If this variable is set the meaning of
10594 will be extended to also cover the
10601 .It Va reply-in-same-charset
10602 \*(BO If this variable is set \*(UA first tries to use the same
10603 character set of the original message for replies.
10604 If this fails, the mechanism described in
10605 .Sx "Character sets"
10606 is evaluated as usual.
10609 .It Va reply-strings
10610 Can be set to a comma-separated list of (case-insensitive according to
10611 ASCII rules) strings which shall be recognized in addition to the
10612 built-in strings as
10614 reply message indicators \(en built-in are
10616 which is mandated by RFC 5322, as well as the german
10621 which often has been seen in the wild;
10622 I.e., the separating colon has to be specified explicitly.
10626 A list of addresses to put into the
10628 field of the message header.
10629 Members of this list are handled as if they were in the
10638 .It Va reply-to-honour
10641 header is honoured when replying to a message via
10645 This is a quadoption; if set without a value it defaults to
10649 .It Va rfc822-body-from_
10650 \*(BO This variable can be used to force displaying a so-called
10652 line for messages that are embedded into an envelope mail via the
10654 MIME mechanism, for more visual convenience.
10658 \*(BO Enable saving of (partial) messages in
10660 upon interrupt or delivery error.
10664 The number of lines that represents a
10673 line display and scrolling via
10675 If this variable is not set \*(UA falls back to a calculation based upon
10676 the detected terminal window size and the baud rate: the faster the
10677 terminal, the more will be shown.
10678 Overall screen dimensions and pager usage is influenced by the
10679 environment variables
10687 .It Va searchheaders
10688 \*(BO Expand message-list specifiers in the form
10690 to all messages containing the substring
10692 in the header field
10694 The string search is case insensitive.
10697 .It Va sendcharsets
10698 \*(OP A comma-separated list of character set names that can be used in
10699 outgoing internet mail.
10700 The value of the variable
10702 is automatically appended to this list of character sets.
10703 If no character set conversion capabilities are compiled into \*(UA then
10704 the only supported charset is
10707 .Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
10708 and refer to the section
10709 .Sx "Character sets"
10710 for the complete picture of character set conversion in \*(UA.
10713 .It Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
10714 \*(BO\*(OP If this variable is set, but
10716 is not, then \*(UA acts as if
10718 had been set to the value of the variable
10720 In effect this combination passes through the message data in the
10721 character set of the current locale encoding:
10722 therefore mail message text will be (assumed to be) in ISO-8859-1
10723 encoding when send from within a ISO-8859-1 locale, and in UTF-8
10724 encoding when send from within an UTF-8 locale.
10728 never comes into play as
10730 is implicitly assumed to be 8-bit and capable to represent all files the
10731 user may specify (as is the case when no character set conversion
10732 support is available in \*(UA and the only supported character set is
10734 .Sx "Character sets" ) .
10735 This might be a problem for scripts which use the suggested
10737 setting, since in this case the character set is US-ASCII by definition,
10738 so that it is better to also override
10744 An address that is put into the
10746 field of outgoing messages, quoting RFC 5322: the mailbox of the agent
10747 responsible for the actual transmission of the message.
10748 This field should normally not be used unless the
10750 field contains more than one address, on which case it is required.
10753 address is handled as if it were in the
10757 .Va r-option-implicit .
10760 \*(OB Predecessor of
10763 .It Va sendmail-arguments
10764 \*(OB Predecessor of
10765 .Va mta-arguments .
10767 .It Va sendmail-no-default-arguments
10768 \*(OB\*(BO Predecessor of
10769 .Va mta-no-default-arguments .
10771 .It Va sendmail-progname
10772 \*(OB Predecessor of
10777 \*(BO When sending a message wait until the
10779 (including the built-in SMTP one) exits before accepting further commands.
10781 with this variable set errors reported by the MTA will be recognizable!
10782 If the MTA returns a non-zero exit status,
10783 the exit status of \*(UA will also be non-zero.
10787 \*(BO This setting causes \*(UA to start at the last message
10788 instead of the first one when opening a mail folder.
10792 \*(BO Causes \*(UA to use the sender's real name instead of the plain
10793 address in the header field summary and in message specifications.
10797 \*(BO Causes the recipient of the message to be shown in the header
10798 summary if the message was sent by the user.
10805 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
10807 .Va message-inject-tail ,
10808 .Va on-compose-leave
10810 .Va on-compose-splice .
10817 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
10819 .Va message-inject-tail ,
10820 .Va on-compose-leave
10822 .Va on-compose-splice .
10827 .Va on-compose-splice
10829 .Va on-compose-splice-shell
10831 .Va on-compose-leave
10833 .Va message-inject-tail
10837 .It Va skipemptybody
10838 \*(BO If an outgoing message does not contain any text in its first or
10839 only message part, do not send it but discard it silently (see also the
10840 command line option
10845 .It Va smime-ca-dir , smime-ca-file
10846 \*(OP Specify the location of trusted CA certificates in PEM (Privacy
10847 Enhanced Mail) format as a directory and a file, respectively, for the
10848 purpose of verification of S/MIME signed messages.
10849 It is possible to set both, the file will be loaded immediately, the
10850 directory will be searched whenever no match has yet been found.
10851 The set of CA certificates which are built into the SSL/TLS library can
10852 be explicitly turned off by setting
10853 .Va smime-ca-no-defaults ,
10854 and further fine-tuning is possible via
10855 .Va smime-ca-flags .
10858 .It Va smime-ca-flags
10859 \*(OP Can be used to fine-tune behaviour of the X509 CA certificate
10860 storage, and the certificate verification that is used.
10861 The actual values and their meanings are documented for
10865 .It Va smime-ca-no-defaults
10866 \*(BO\*(OP Do not load the default CA locations that are built into the
10867 used to SSL/TLS library to verify S/MIME signed messages.
10869 .Mx Va smime-cipher
10870 .It Va smime-cipher-USER@HOST , smime-cipher
10871 \*(OP Specifies the cipher to use when generating S/MIME encrypted
10872 messages (for the specified account).
10873 RFC 5751 mandates a default of
10876 Possible values are (case-insensitive and) in decreasing cipher strength:
10884 (DES EDE3 CBC, 168 bits; default if
10886 is not available) and
10888 (DES CBC, 56 bits).
10890 The actually available cipher algorithms depend on the cryptographic
10891 library that \*(UA uses.
10892 \*(OP Support for more cipher algorithms may be available through
10893 dynamic loading via, e.g.,
10894 .Xr EVP_get_cipherbyname 3
10895 (OpenSSL) if \*(UA has been compiled to support this.
10898 .It Va smime-crl-dir
10899 \*(OP Specifies a directory that contains files with CRLs in PEM format
10900 to use when verifying S/MIME messages.
10903 .It Va smime-crl-file
10904 \*(OP Specifies a file that contains a CRL in PEM format to use when
10905 verifying S/MIME messages.
10908 .It Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST
10909 \*(OP If this variable is set, messages send to the given receiver are
10910 encrypted before sending.
10911 The value of the variable must be set to the name of a file that
10912 contains a certificate in PEM format.
10914 If a message is sent to multiple recipients,
10915 each of them for whom a corresponding variable is set will receive an
10916 individually encrypted message;
10917 other recipients will continue to receive the message in plain text
10919 .Va smime-force-encryption
10921 It is recommended to sign encrypted messages, i.e., to also set the
10926 .It Va smime-force-encryption
10927 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to refuse sending unencrypted messages.
10931 \*(BO\*(OP S/MIME sign outgoing messages with the user's private key
10932 and include the user's certificate as a MIME attachment.
10933 Signing a message enables a recipient to verify that the sender used
10934 a valid certificate,
10935 that the email addresses in the certificate match those in the message
10936 header and that the message content has not been altered.
10937 It does not change the message text,
10938 and people will be able to read the message as usual.
10940 .Va smime-sign-cert , smime-sign-include-certs
10942 .Va smime-sign-message-digest .
10944 .Mx Va smime-sign-cert
10945 .It Va smime-sign-cert-USER@HOST , smime-sign-cert
10946 \*(OP Points to a file in PEM format.
10947 For the purpose of signing and decryption this file needs to contain the
10948 user's private key, followed by his certificate.
10950 For message signing
10952 is always derived from the value of
10954 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
10956 For the purpose of encryption the recipient's public encryption key
10957 (certificate) is expected; the command
10959 can be used to save certificates of signed messages (the section
10960 .Sx "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
10961 gives some details).
10962 This mode of operation is usually driven by the specialized form.
10964 When decrypting messages the account is derived from the recipient
10969 of the message, which are searched for addresses for which such
10971 \*(UA always uses the first address that matches,
10972 so if the same message is sent to more than one of the user's addresses
10973 using different encryption keys, decryption might fail.
10975 For signing and decryption purposes it is possible to use encrypted
10976 keys, and the pseudo-host(s)
10977 .Ql USER@HOST.smime-cert-key
10978 for the private key
10980 .Ql USER@HOST.smime-cert-cert
10981 for the certificate stored in the same file)
10982 will be used for performing any necessary password lookup,
10983 therefore the lookup can be automatized via the mechanisms described in
10984 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
10985 For example, the hypothetical address
10987 could be driven with a private key / certificate pair path defined in
10988 .Va \&\&smime-sign-cert-bob@exam.ple ,
10989 and needed passwords would then be looked up via the pseudo hosts
10990 .Ql bob@exam.ple.smime-cert-key
10992 .Ql bob@exam.ple.smime-cert-cert ) .
10993 To include intermediate certificates, use
10994 .Va smime-sign-include-certs .
10996 .Mx Va smime-sign-include-certs
10997 .It Va smime-sign-include-certs-USER@HOST , smime-sign-include-certs
10998 \*(OP If used, this is supposed to a consist of a comma-separated list
10999 of files, each of which containing a single certificate in PEM format to
11000 be included in the S/MIME message in addition to the
11001 .Va smime-sign-cert
11003 This can be used to include intermediate certificates of the certificate
11004 authority, in order to allow the receiver's S/MIME implementation to
11005 perform a verification of the entire certificate chain, starting from
11006 a local root certificate, over the intermediate certificates, down to the
11007 .Va smime-sign-cert .
11008 Even though top level certificates may also be included in the chain,
11009 they won't be used for the verification on the receiver's side.
11011 For the purpose of the mechanisms involved here,
11013 refers to the content of the internal variable
11015 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
11018 .Ql USER@HOST.smime-include-certs
11019 will be used for performing password lookups for these certificates,
11020 shall they have been given one, therefore the lookup can be automatized
11021 via the mechanisms described in
11022 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
11024 .Mx Va smime-sign-message-digest
11025 .It Va smime-sign-message-digest-USER@HOST , smime-sign-message-digest
11026 \*(OP Specifies the message digest to use when signing S/MIME messages.
11027 RFC 5751 mandates a default of
11029 Possible values are (case-insensitive and) in decreasing cipher strength:
11037 The actually available message digest algorithms depend on the
11038 cryptographic library that \*(UA uses.
11039 \*(OP Support for more message digest algorithms may be available
11040 through dynamic loading via, e.g.,
11041 .Xr EVP_get_digestbyname 3
11042 (OpenSSL) if \*(UA has been compiled to support this.
11043 Remember that for this
11045 refers to the variable
11047 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
11051 \*(OB\*(OP To use the built-in SMTP transport, specify a SMTP URL in
11053 \*(ID For compatibility reasons a set
11055 is used in preference of
11059 .It Va smtp-auth-USER@HOST , smtp-auth-HOST , smtp-auth
11060 \*(OP Variable chain that controls the SMTP
11062 authentication method, possible values are
11068 as well as the \*(OPal methods
11074 method does not need any user credentials,
11076 requires a user name and all other methods require a user name and
11084 .Va smtp-auth-password
11086 .Va smtp-auth-user ) .
11091 .Va smtp-auth-USER@HOST :
11092 may override dependent on sender address in the variable
11095 .It Va smtp-auth-password
11096 \*(OP\*(OU Sets the global fallback password for SMTP authentication.
11097 If the authentication method requires a password, but neither
11098 .Va smtp-auth-password
11100 .Va smtp-auth-password-USER@HOST
11102 \*(UA will ask for a password on the user's terminal.
11104 .It Va smtp-auth-password-USER@HOST
11106 .Va smtp-auth-password
11107 for specific values of sender addresses, dependent upon the variable
11110 .It Va smtp-auth-user
11111 \*(OP\*(OU Sets the global fallback user name for SMTP authentication.
11112 If the authentication method requires a user name, but neither
11115 .Va smtp-auth-user-USER@HOST
11117 \*(UA will ask for a user name on the user's terminal.
11119 .It Va smtp-auth-user-USER@HOST
11122 for specific values of sender addresses, dependent upon the variable
11126 .It Va smtp-hostname
11127 \*(OP\*(IN Normally \*(UA uses the variable
11129 to derive the necessary
11131 information in order to issue a
11138 can be used to use the
11140 from the SMTP account
11147 from the content of this variable (or, if that is the empty string,
11149 or the local hostname as a last resort).
11150 This often allows using an address that is itself valid but hosted by
11151 a provider other than which (in
11153 is about to send the message.
11154 Setting this variable also influences generated
11160 .Mx Va smtp-use-starttls
11161 .It Va smtp-use-starttls-USER@HOST , smtp-use-starttls-HOST , smtp-use-starttls
11162 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a
11164 command to make an SMTP
11166 session SSL/TLS encrypted, i.e., to enable transport layer security.
11169 .It Va socks-proxy-USER@HOST , socks-proxy-HOST , socks-proxy
11170 \*(OP If this is set to the hostname (SOCKS URL) of a SOCKS5 server then
11171 \*(UA will proxy all of its network activities through it.
11172 This can be used to proxy SMTP, POP3 etc. network traffic through the
11173 Tor anonymizer, for example.
11174 The following would create a local SOCKS proxy on port 10000 that
11175 forwards to the machine
11177 and from which the network traffic is actually instantiated:
11178 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11179 # Create local proxy server in terminal 1 forwarding to HOST
11180 $ ssh -D 10000 USER@HOST
11181 # Then, start a client that uses it in terminal 2
11182 $ \*(uA -Ssocks-proxy-USER@HOST=localhost:10000
11186 .It Va spam-interface
11187 \*(OP In order to use any of the spam-related commands (like, e.g.,
11189 the desired spam interface must be defined by setting this variable.
11190 Please refer to the manual section
11191 .Sx "Handling spam"
11192 for the complete picture of spam handling in \*(UA.
11193 All or none of the following interfaces may be available:
11195 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ql _ilte_"
11201 .Pf ( Lk http://spamassassin.apache.org SpamAssassin )
11203 Different to the generic filter interface \*(UA will automatically add
11204 the correct arguments for a given command and has the necessary
11205 knowledge to parse the program's output.
11206 A default value for
11208 will have been compiled into the \*(UA binary if
11212 during compilation.
11213 Shall it be necessary to define a specific connection type (rather than
11214 using a configuration file for that), the variable
11215 .Va spamc-arguments
11216 can be used as in, e.g.,
11217 .Ql -d server.example.com -p 783 .
11218 It is also possible to specify a per-user configuration via
11220 Note that this interface does not inspect the
11222 flag of a message for the command
11226 generic spam filter support via freely configurable hooks.
11227 This interface is meant for programs like
11229 and requires according behaviour in respect to the hooks' exit
11230 status for at least the command
11233 meaning a message is spam,
11237 for unsure and any other return value indicating a hard error);
11238 since the hooks can include shell code snippets diverting behaviour
11239 can be intercepted as necessary.
11241 .Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , spamfilter-nospam , \
11244 .Va spamfilter-spam ;
11246 .Sx "Handling spam"
11247 contains examples for some programs.
11248 The process environment of the hooks will have the variable
11249 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_GENERATED
11251 Note that spam score support for
11253 is not supported unless the \*(OPtional regular expression support is
11255 .Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore
11261 .It Va spam-maxsize
11262 \*(OP Messages that exceed this size will not be passed through to the
11264 .Va spam-interface .
11265 If unset or 0, the default of 420000 bytes is used.
11268 .It Va spamc-command
11269 \*(OP The path to the
11273 .Va spam-interface .
11274 Note that the path is not expanded, but used
11276 A fallback path will have been compiled into the \*(UA binary if the
11277 executable had been found during compilation.
11280 .It Va spamc-arguments
11281 \*(OP Even though \*(UA deals with most arguments for the
11284 automatically, it may at least sometimes be desirable to specify
11285 connection-related ones via this variable, e.g.,
11286 .Ql -d server.example.com -p 783 .
11290 \*(OP Specify a username for per-user configuration files for the
11292 .Va spam-interface .
11293 If this is set to the empty string then \*(UA will use the name of the
11302 .It Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , \
11303 spamfilter-nospam , spamfilter-rate , spamfilter-spam
11304 \*(OP Command and argument hooks for the
11306 .Va spam-interface .
11308 .Sx "Handling spam"
11309 contains examples for some programs.
11312 .It Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore
11313 \*(OP Because of the generic nature of the
11316 spam scores are not supported for it by default, but if the \*(OPnal
11317 regular expression support is available then setting this variable can
11318 be used to overcome this restriction.
11319 It is interpreted as follows: first a number (digits) is parsed that
11320 must be followed by a semicolon
11322 and an extended regular expression.
11323 Then the latter is used to parse the first output line of the
11324 .Va spamfilter-rate
11325 hook, and, in case the evaluation is successful, the group that has been
11326 specified via the number is interpreted as a floating point scan score.
11330 .It Va ssl-ca-dir-USER@HOST , ssl-ca-dir-HOST , ssl-ca-dir ,\
11331 ssl-ca-file-USER@HOST , ssl-ca-file-HOST , ssl-ca-file
11332 \*(OP Specify the location of trusted CA certificates in PEM (Privacy
11333 Enhanced Mail) format as a directory and a file, respectively, for the
11334 purpose of verification of SSL/TLS server certificates.
11335 It is possible to set both, the file will be loaded immediately, the
11336 directory will be searched whenever no match has yet been found.
11337 The set of CA certificates which are built into the SSL/TLS library can
11338 be explicitly turned off by setting
11339 .Va ssl-ca-no-defaults ,
11340 and further fine-tuning is possible via
11343 .Xr SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations 3
11344 for more information.
11345 \*(UA will try to use the TLS/SNI (ServerNameIndication) extension when
11346 establishing TLS connections to servers identified with hostnames.
11349 .Mx Va ssl-ca-flags
11350 .It Va ssl-ca-flags-USER@HOST , ssl-ca-flags-HOST , ssl-ca-flags
11351 \*(OP Can be used to fine-tune behaviour of the X509 CA certificate
11352 storage, and the certificate verification that is used (also see
11354 The value is expected to consist of a comma-separated list of
11355 configuration directives, with any intervening whitespace being ignored.
11356 The directives directly map to flags that can be passed to
11357 .Xr X509_STORE_set_flags 3 ,
11358 which are usually defined in a file
11359 .Pa openssl/x509_vfy.h ,
11360 and the availability of which depends on the used SSL/TLS library
11361 version: a directive without mapping is ignored (error log subject to
11363 Directives currently understood (case-insensitively) include:
11366 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Cd BaNg"
11367 .It Cd no-alt-chains
11368 If the initial chain is not trusted, do not attempt to build an
11370 Setting this flag will make OpenSSL certificate verification match that
11371 of older OpenSSL versions, before automatic building and checking of
11372 alternative chains has been implemented; also see
11373 .Cd trusted-first .
11374 .It Cd no-check-time
11375 Do not check certificate/CRL validity against current time.
11376 .It Cd partial-chain
11377 By default partial, incomplete chains which cannot be verified up to the
11378 chain top, a self-signed root certificate, will not verify.
11379 With this flag set, a chain succeeds to verify if at least one signing
11380 certificate of the chain is in any of the configured trusted stores of
11382 The OpenSSL manual page
11383 .Xr SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations 3
11384 gives some advise how to manage your own trusted store of CA certificates.
11386 Disable workarounds for broken certificates.
11387 .It Cd trusted-first
11388 Try building a chain using issuers in the trusted store first to avoid
11389 problems with server-sent legacy intermediate certificates.
11390 Newer versions of OpenSSL support alternative chain checking and enable
11391 it by default, resulting in the same behaviour; also see
11392 .Cd no-alt-chains .
11396 .Mx Va ssl-ca-no-defaults
11397 .It Va ssl-ca-no-defaults-USER@HOST , ssl-ca-no-defaults-HOST ,\
11399 \*(BO\*(OP Do not load the default CA locations that are built into the
11400 used to SSL/TLS library to verify SSL/TLS server certificates.
11403 .It Va ssl-cert-USER@HOST , ssl-cert-HOST , ssl-cert
11404 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
11407 .Va ssl-config-pairs .
11409 .Mx Va ssl-cipher-list
11410 .It Va ssl-cipher-list-USER@HOST , ssl-cipher-list-HOST , ssl-cipher-list
11411 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
11414 .Va ssl-config-pairs .
11417 .It Va ssl-config-file
11418 \*(OP If this variable is set
11419 .Xr CONF_modules_load_file 3
11421 .Ql +modules-load-file
11424 is used to allow resource file based configuration of the SSL/TLS library.
11425 This happens once the library is used first, which may also be early
11426 during startup (logged with
11428 If a non-empty value is given then the given file, after performing
11429 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
11430 will be used instead of the global OpenSSL default, and it is an error
11431 if the file cannot be loaded.
11432 The application name will always be passed as
11434 Some SSL/TLS libraries support application-specific configuration via
11435 resource files loaded like this, please see
11436 .Va ssl-config-module .
11438 .Mx Va ssl-config-module
11439 .It Va ssl-config-module-USER@HOST , ssl-config-module-HOST ,\
11441 \*(OP If file based application-specific configuration via
11442 .Va ssl-config-file
11443 is available, announced as
11447 indicating availability of
11448 .Xr SSL_CTX_config 3 ,
11449 then, it becomes possible to use a central SSL/TLS configuration file
11450 for all programs, including \*(uA, e.g.:
11451 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11452 # Register a configuration section for \*(uA
11453 \*(uA = mailx_master
11454 # The top configuration section creates a relation
11455 # in between dynamic SSL configuration and an actual
11456 # program specific configuration section
11458 ssl_conf = mailx_ssl_config
11459 # Well that actual program specific configuration section
11460 # now can map individual ssl-config-module names to sections,
11461 # e.g., ssl-config-module=account_xy
11463 account_xy = mailx_account_xy
11464 account_yz = mailx_account_yz
11466 MinProtocol = TLSv1.2
11469 CipherString = TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:
11470 MinProtocol = TLSv1.1
11475 .Mx Va ssl-config-pairs
11476 .It Va ssl-config-pairs-USER@HOST , ssl-config-pairs-HOST , ssl-config-pairs
11477 \*(OP The value of this variable chain will be interpreted as
11478 a comma-separated list of directive/value pairs.
11479 Different to when placing these pairs in a
11480 .Va ssl-config-module
11482 .Va ssl-config-file
11485 need to be escaped with a reverse solidus
11487 when included in pairs.
11488 Just likewise directives and values need to be separated by equals signs
11490 any whitespace surrounding pair members is removed.
11491 Keys are (usually) case-insensitive.
11492 Unless proper support is announced by
11494 .Pf ( Ql +conf-ctx )
11495 only the keys below are supported, otherwise the pairs will be used
11496 directly as arguments to the function
11497 .Xr SSL_CONF_cmd 3 .
11500 may be preceded with an asterisk
11503 .Sx "Filename transformations"
11504 shall be performed on the value; it is an error if these fail.
11507 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Cd C_rtificate"
11509 Filename of a SSL/TLS client certificate (chain) required by some servers.
11510 Fallback support via
11511 .Xr SSL_CTX_use_certificate_chain_file 3 .
11512 .Sx "Filename transformations"
11514 .\" v15compat: remove the next sentence
11516 if you use this you need to specify the private key via
11522 A list of ciphers for SSL/TLS connections, see
11524 By default no list of ciphers is set, resulting in a
11525 .Cd Protocol Ns - Ns
11526 specific list of ciphers (the protocol standards define lists of
11527 acceptable ciphers; possibly cramped by the used SSL/TLS library).
11528 Fallback support via
11529 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_cipher_list 3 .
11532 A list of supported elliptic curves, if applicable.
11533 By default no curves are set.
11534 Fallback support via
11535 .Xr SSL_CTX_set1_curves_list 3 ,
11538 .It Cd MaxProtocol , MinProtocol
11539 The maximum and minimum supported SSL/TLS versions, respectively.
11540 Optional fallback support via
11541 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_max_proto_version 3
11543 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_min_proto_version 3
11547 .Ql +ctx-set-maxmin-proto ,
11548 otherwise this directive results in an error.
11549 The fallback uses an internal parser which understands the strings
11554 and the special value
11556 which disables the given limit.
11559 Various flags to set.
11561 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_options 3 ,
11562 in which case any other value but (exactly)
11564 results in an error.
11567 Filename of the private key in PEM format of a SSL/TLS client certificate.
11568 If unset, the name of the certificate file is used.
11569 .Sx "Filename transformations"
11572 .Xr SSL_CTX_use_PrivateKey_file 3 .
11573 .\" v15compat: remove the next sentence
11575 if you use this you need to specify the certificate (chain) via
11581 The used SSL/TLS protocol.
11587 .Ql ctx-set-maxmin-proto
11594 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_options 3 ,
11595 driven via an internal parser which understands the strings
11600 and the special value
11602 Multiple protocols may be given as a comma-separated list, any
11603 whitespace is ignored, an optional plus sign
11605 prefix enables, a hyphen-minus
11607 prefix disables a protocol, so that
11609 enables only the TLSv1.2 protocol.
11615 .It Va ssl-crl-dir , ssl-crl-file
11616 \*(OP Specify a directory / a file, respectively that contains a CRL in
11617 PEM format to use when verifying SSL/TLS server certificates.
11620 .It Va ssl-curves-USER@HOST , ssl-curves-HOST , ssl-curves
11621 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
11624 .Va ssl-config-pairs .
11627 .It Va ssl-features
11628 \*(OP\*(RO This expands to a comma separated list of the TLS/SSL library
11629 identity and optional TLS/SSL library features.
11630 Currently supported identities are
11634 (OpenSSL v1.1.x series)
11637 (elder OpenSSL series, other clones).
11638 Optional features are preceded with a plus sign
11640 when available, and with a hyphen-minus
11643 .Ql modules-load-file
11644 .Pf ( Va ssl-config-file ) ,
11646 .Pf ( Va ssl-config-pairs ) ,
11648 .Pf ( Va ssl-config-module ) ,
11649 .Ql ctx-set-maxmin-proto
11650 .Pf ( Va ssl-config-pairs )
11653 .Pf ( Va ssl-rand-egd ) .
11656 .It Va ssl-key-USER@HOST , ssl-key-HOST , ssl-key
11657 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
11660 .Va ssl-config-pairs .
11662 .It Va ssl-method-USER@HOST , ssl-method-HOST , ssl-method
11663 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
11666 .Va ssl-config-pairs .
11668 .Mx Va ssl-protocol
11669 .It Va ssl-protocol-USER@HOST , ssl-protocol-HOST , ssl-protocol
11670 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
11673 .Va ssl-config-pairs .
11676 .It Va ssl-rand-egd
11677 \*(OP Gives the pathname to an entropy daemon socket, see
11679 Not all SSL/TLS libraries support this,
11681 announces availability with
11685 .It Va ssl-rand-file
11686 \*(OP Gives the filename to a file with random entropy data, see
11687 .Xr RAND_load_file 3 .
11688 If this variable is not set, or set to the empty string, or if the
11689 .Sx "Filename transformations"
11691 .Xr RAND_file_name 3
11692 will be used to create the filename.
11693 If the SSL PRNG was seeded successfully
11694 The file will be updated
11695 .Pf ( Xr RAND_write_file 3 )
11696 if and only if seeding and buffer stirring succeeds.
11697 This variable is only used if
11699 is not set (or not supported by the SSL/TLS library).
11702 .It Va ssl-verify-USER@HOST , ssl-verify-HOST , ssl-verify
11703 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the action to be performed if an error
11704 occurs during SSL/TLS server certificate validation against the
11705 specified or default trust stores
11708 or the SSL/TLS library built-in defaults (unless usage disallowed via
11709 .Va ssl-ca-no-defaults ) ,
11710 and as fine-tuned via
11712 Valid (case-insensitive) values are
11714 (fail and close connection immediately),
11716 (ask whether to continue on standard input),
11718 (show a warning and continue),
11720 (do not perform validation).
11726 If only set without an assigned value, then this setting inhibits the
11732 header fields that include obvious references to \*(UA.
11733 There are two pitfalls associated with this:
11734 First, the message id of outgoing messages is not known anymore.
11735 Second, an expert may still use the remaining information in the header
11736 to track down the originating mail user agent.
11737 If set to the value
11743 suppression does not occur.
11748 (\*(OP) This specifies a comma-separated list of
11753 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" ,
11754 escape commas with reverse solidus) to be used to overwrite or define
11757 this variable will only be queried once at program startup and can
11758 thus only be specified in resource files or on the command line.
11761 String capabilities form
11763 pairs and are expected unless noted otherwise.
11764 Numerics have to be notated as
11766 where the number is expected in normal decimal notation.
11767 Finally, booleans do not have any value but indicate a true or false
11768 state simply by being defined or not; this indeed means that \*(UA
11769 does not support undefining an existing boolean.
11770 String capability values will undergo some expansions before use:
11771 for one notations like
11774 .Ql control-LETTER ,
11775 and for clarification purposes
11777 can be used to specify
11779 (the control notation
11781 could lead to misreadings when a left bracket follows, which it does for
11782 the standard CSI sequence);
11783 finally three letter octal sequences, as in
11786 To specify that a terminal supports 256-colours, and to define sequences
11787 that home the cursor and produce an audible bell, one might write:
11789 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11790 ? set termcap='Co#256,home=\eE[H,bel=^G'
11794 The following terminal capabilities are or may be meaningful for the
11795 operation of the built-in line editor or \*(UA in general:
11798 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Cd yay"
11800 .It Cd colors Ns \0or Cd Co
11802 numeric capability specifying the maximum number of colours.
11803 Note that \*(UA does not actually care about the terminal beside that,
11804 but always emits ANSI / ISO 6429 escape sequences.
11807 .It Cd rmcup Ns \0or Cd te Ns \0/ Cd smcup Ns \0or Cd ti
11810 .Cd enter_ca_mode ,
11811 respectively: exit and enter the alternative screen ca-mode,
11812 effectively turning \*(UA into a fullscreen application.
11813 This must be enabled explicitly by setting
11814 .Va termcap-ca-mode .
11816 .It Cd smkx Ns \0or Cd ks Ns \0/ Cd rmkx Ns \0or Cd ke
11820 respectively: enable and disable the keypad.
11821 This is always enabled if available, because it seems even keyboards
11822 without keypads generate other key codes for, e.g., cursor keys in that
11823 case, and only if enabled we see the codes that we are interested in.
11825 .It Cd ed Ns \0or Cd cd
11829 .It Cd clear Ns \0or Cd cl
11831 clear the screen and home cursor.
11832 (Will be simulated via
11837 .It Cd home Ns \0or Cd ho
11842 .It Cd el Ns \0or Cd ce
11844 clear to the end of line.
11845 (Will be simulated via
11847 plus repetitions of space characters.)
11849 .It Cd hpa Ns \0or Cd ch
11850 .Cd column_address :
11851 move the cursor (to the given column parameter) in the current row.
11852 (Will be simulated via
11858 .Cd carriage_return :
11859 move to the first column in the current row.
11860 The default built-in fallback is
11863 .It Cd cub1 Ns \0or Cd le
11865 move the cursor left one space (non-destructively).
11866 The default built-in fallback is
11869 .It Cd cuf1 Ns \0or Cd nd
11871 move the cursor right one space (non-destructively).
11872 The default built-in fallback is
11874 which is used by most terminals.
11882 Many more capabilities which describe key-sequences are documented for
11887 .It Va termcap-ca-mode
11888 \*(OP Allow usage of the
11892 terminal capabilities, effectively turning \*(UA into a fullscreen
11893 application, as documented for
11896 this variable will only be queried once at program startup and can
11897 thus only be specified in resource files or on the command line.
11900 .It Va termcap-disable
11901 \*(OP Disable any interaction with a terminal control library.
11902 If set only some generic fallback built-ins and possibly the content of
11904 describe the terminal to \*(UA.
11906 this variable will only be queried once at program startup and can
11907 thus only be specified in resource files or on the command line.
11911 If defined, gives the number of lines of a message to be displayed
11914 if unset, the first five lines are printed, if set to 0 the variable
11917 If the value is negative then its absolute value will be used for
11918 unsigned right shifting (see
11926 \*(BO If set then the
11928 command series will strip adjacent empty lines and quotations.
11932 The character set of the terminal \*(UA operates on,
11933 and the one and only supported character set that \*(UA can use if no
11934 character set conversion capabilities have been compiled into it,
11935 in which case it defaults to ISO-8859-1 unless it can deduce a value
11936 from the locale specified in the
11938 environment variable (if supported, see there for more).
11939 It defaults to UTF-8 if conversion is available.
11940 Refer to the section
11941 .Sx "Character sets"
11942 for the complete picture about character sets.
11945 .It Va typescript-mode
11946 \*(BO A special multiplex variable that disables all variables and
11947 settings which result in behaviour that interferes with running \*(UA in
11950 .Va colour-disable ,
11951 .Va line-editor-disable
11952 and (before startup completed only)
11953 .Va termcap-disable .
11954 Unsetting it does not restore the former state of the covered settings.
11958 For a safety-by-default policy \*(UA sets its process
11962 but this variable can be used to override that:
11963 set it to an empty value to do not change the (current) setting (on
11964 startup), otherwise the process file mode creation mask is updated to
11966 Child processes inherit the process file mode creation mask.
11969 .It Va user-HOST , user
11970 \*(IN Variable chain that sets a global fallback user name, which is
11971 used in case none has been given in the protocol and account-specific
11973 This variable defaults to the name of the user who runs \*(UA.
11977 \*(BO Setting this enables upward compatibility with \*(UA
11978 version 15.0 in respect to which configuration options are available and
11979 how they are handled.
11980 This manual uses \*(IN and \*(OU to refer to the new and the old way of
11981 doing things, respectively.
11985 \*(BO This setting, also controllable via the command line option
11987 causes \*(UA to be more verbose, e.g., it will display obsoletion
11988 warnings and SSL/TLS certificate chains.
11989 Even though marked \*(BO this option may be set twice in order to
11990 increase the level of verbosity even more, in which case even details of
11991 the actual message delivery and protocol conversations are shown.
11994 is sufficient to disable verbosity as such.
12001 .It Va version , version-date , \
12002 version-hexnum , version-major , version-minor , version-update
12003 \*(RO \*(UA version information: the first variable is a string with
12004 the complete version identification, the second the release date in ISO
12005 8601 notation without time.
12006 The third is a 32-bit hexadecimal number with the upper 8 bits storing
12007 the major, followed by the minor and update version numbers which occupy
12009 The latter three variables contain only decimal digits: the major, minor
12010 and update version numbers.
12011 The output of the command
12013 will include this information.
12016 .It Va writebackedited
12017 If this variable is set messages modified using the
12021 commands are written back to the current folder when it is quit;
12022 it is only honoured for writable folders in MBOX format, though.
12023 Note that the editor will be pointed to the raw message content in that
12024 case, i.e., neither MIME decoding nor decryption will have been
12025 performed, and proper RFC 4155
12027 quoting of newly added or edited content is also left as an excercise to
12030 .\" }}} (Variables)
12032 .\" }}} (INTERNAL VARIABLES)
12035 .\" .Sh ENVIRONMENT {{{
12039 .Dq environment variable
12040 should be considered an indication that these variables are either
12041 standardized as vivid parts of process environments, or that they are
12042 commonly found in there.
12043 The process environment is inherited from the
12045 once \*(UA is started, and unless otherwise explicitly noted handling of
12046 the following variables transparently integrates into that of the
12047 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
12048 from \*(UA's point of view.
12049 This means that, e.g., they can be managed via
12053 causing automatic program environment updates (to be inherited by
12054 newly created child processes).
12057 In order to transparently integrate other environment variables equally
12058 they need to be imported (linked) with the command
12060 This command can also be used to set and unset non-integrated
12061 environment variables from scratch, sufficient system support provided.
12062 The following example, applicable to a POSIX shell, sets the
12064 environment variable for \*(UA only, and beforehand exports the
12066 in order to affect any further processing in the running shell:
12068 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12069 $ EDITOR="vim -u ${HOME}/.vimrc"
12071 $ COLUMNS=80 \*(uA -R
12074 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ev BaNg"
12077 The user's preferred width in column positions for the terminal screen
12079 Queried and used once on program startup, actively managed for child
12080 processes and the MLE (see
12081 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
12082 in interactive mode thereafter.
12083 Ignored in non-interactive mode, which always uses 80 columns, unless in
12089 The name of the (mailbox)
12091 to use for saving aborted messages if
12093 is set; this defaults to
12100 is set no output will be generated, otherwise the contents of the file
12105 Pathname of the text editor to use in the
12109 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
12110 A default editor is used if this value is not defined.
12114 The user's home directory.
12115 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
12116 The calling user's home directory will be used instead if this directory
12117 does not exist, is not accessible or cannot be read;
12118 it will always be used for the root user.
12119 (No test for being writable is performed to allow usage by
12120 non-privileged users within read-only jails, but dependent on the
12121 variable settings this directory is a default write target, e.g. for
12129 .It Ev LC_ALL , LC_CTYPE , LANG
12130 \*(OP The (names in lookup order of the)
12134 which indicates the used
12135 .Sx "Character sets" .
12136 Runtime changes trigger automatic updates of the entire locale system,
12137 which includes updating
12139 (except during startup if the variable has been frozen via
12144 The user's preferred number of lines on a page or the vertical screen
12145 or window size in lines.
12146 Queried and used once on program startup, actively managed for child
12147 processes in interactive mode thereafter.
12148 Ignored in non-interactive mode, which always uses 24 lines, unless in
12154 Pathname of the directory lister to use in the
12156 command when operating on local mailboxes.
12159 (path search through
12164 Upon startup \*(UA will actively ensure that this variable refers to the
12165 name of the user who runs \*(UA, in order to be able to pass a verified
12166 name to any newly created child process.
12170 Is used as the users
12172 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
12176 This is assumed to be an absolute pathname.
12180 \*(OP Overrides the default path search for
12181 .Sx "The Mailcap files" ,
12182 which is defined in the standard RFC 1524 as
12183 .Ql ~/.mailcap:\:/etc/mailcap:\:/usr/etc/mailcap:\:/usr/local/etc/mailcap .
12184 .\" TODO we should have a mailcaps-default virtual RDONLY option!
12185 (\*(UA makes it a configuration option, however.)
12186 Note this is not a search path, but a path search.
12190 Is used as a startup file instead of
12193 In order to avoid side-effects from configuration files scripts should
12194 either set this variable to
12198 command line option should be used.
12201 .It Ev MAILX_NO_SYSTEM_RC
12202 If this variable is set then reading of
12204 at startup is inhibited, i.e., the same effect is achieved as if \*(UA
12205 had been started up with the option
12207 (and according argument) or
12209 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
12213 The name of the users
12215 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
12217 A logical subset of the special
12218 .Sx "Filename transformations"
12224 Traditionally this MBOX is used as the file to save messages from the
12226 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
12227 that have been read.
12229 .Sx "Message states" .
12233 \*(IN\*(OP This variable overrides the default location of the user's
12239 Pathname of the program to use for backing the command
12243 variable enforces usage of a pager for output.
12244 The default paginator is
12246 (path search through
12249 \*(UA inspects the contents of this variable: if its contains the string
12251 then a non-existing environment variable
12258 will optionally be set to
12265 A colon-separated list of directories that is searched by the shell when
12266 looking for commands, e.g.,
12267 .Ql /bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin .
12270 .It Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT
12271 This variable is automatically looked for upon startup, see
12277 The shell to use for the commands
12282 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
12283 and when starting subprocesses.
12284 A default shell is used if this environment variable is not defined.
12287 .It Ev SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
12288 Specifies a time in seconds since the Unix epoch (1970-01-01) to be
12289 used in place of the current time.
12290 This variable is looked up upon program startup, and its existence will
12291 switch \*(UA to a reproducable mode
12292 .Pf ( Lk https://reproducible-builds.org )
12293 which uses deterministic random numbers, a special fixated pseudo
12296 This operation mode is used for development and by software packagers.
12297 \*(ID Currently an invalid setting is only ignored, rather than causing
12298 a program abortion.
12300 .Dl $ SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH=`date +%s` \*(uA
12304 \*(OP The terminal type for which output is to be prepared.
12305 For extended colour and font control please refer to
12306 .Sx "Coloured display" ,
12307 and for terminal management in general to
12308 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" .
12312 Except for the root user this variable defines the directory for
12313 temporary files to be used instead of
12315 (or the given compile-time constant) if set, existent, accessible as
12316 well as read- and writable.
12317 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment,
12318 but \*(UA will ensure at startup that this environment variable is
12319 updated to contain a usable temporary directory.
12325 (see there), but this variable is not standardized, should therefore not
12326 be used, and is only corrected if already set.
12330 Pathname of the text editor to use in the
12334 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
12344 .Bl -tag -width ".It Pa BaNg"
12346 File giving initial commands, one of the
12347 .Sx "Resource files" .
12350 System wide initialization file, one of the
12351 .Sx "Resource files" .
12355 \*(OP Personal MIME type handler definition file, see
12356 .Sx "The Mailcap files" .
12357 This location is part of the RFC 1524 standard search path, which is
12358 a configuration option and can be overridden via
12362 .It Pa /etc/mailcap
12363 \*(OP System wide MIME type handler definition file, see
12364 .Sx "The Mailcap files" .
12365 This location is part of the RFC 1524 standard search path, which is
12366 a configuration option and can be overridden via
12370 The default value for
12372 The actually used path is a configuration option.
12375 .It Pa ~/.mime.types
12376 Personal MIME types, see
12377 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
12378 The actually used path is a configuration option.
12381 .It Pa /etc/mime.types
12382 System wide MIME types, see
12383 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
12384 The actually used path is a configuration option.
12388 \*(IN\*(OP The default location of the users
12390 file \(en the section
12391 .Sx "The .netrc file"
12392 documents the file format.
12393 The actually used path is a configuration option and can be overridden via
12400 The actually used path is a compile-time constant.
12404 .\" .Ss "Resource files" {{{
12405 .Ss "Resource files"
12407 Upon startup \*(UA reads in several resource files:
12409 .Bl -tag -width ".It Pa BaNg"
12412 System wide initialization file.
12413 Reading of this file can be suppressed, either by using the
12415 (and according argument) or
12417 command line options, or by setting the
12420 .Ev MAILX_NO_SYSTEM_RC .
12424 File giving initial commands.
12425 A different file can be chosen by setting the
12429 Reading of this file can be suppressed with the
12431 command line option.
12433 .It Va mailx-extra-rc
12434 Defines a startup file to be read after all other resource files.
12435 It can be used to specify settings that are not understood by other
12437 implementations, for example.
12438 This variable is only honoured when defined in a resource file, e.g.,
12440 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" .
12444 The content of these files is interpreted as follows:
12447 .Bl -bullet -compact
12449 The whitespace characters space, tabulator and newline,
12450 as well as those defined by the variable
12452 are removed from the beginning and end of input lines.
12454 Empty lines are ignored.
12456 Any other line is interpreted as a command.
12457 It may be spread over multiple input lines if the newline character is
12459 by placing a reverse solidus character
12461 as the last character of the line; whereas any leading whitespace of
12462 follow lines is ignored, trailing whitespace before a escaped newline
12463 remains in the input.
12465 If the line (content) starts with the number sign
12467 then it is a comment-command and also ignored.
12468 (The comment-command is a real command, which does nothing, and
12469 therefore the usual follow lines mechanism applies!)
12473 Unless \*(UA is about to enter interactive mode syntax errors that occur
12474 while loading these files are treated as errors and cause program exit.
12475 More files with syntactically equal content can be
12477 The following, saved in a file, would be an examplary content:
12479 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12480 # This line is a comment command. And y\e
12481 es, it is really continued here.
12488 .\" .Ss "The mime.types files" {{{
12489 .Ss "The mime.types files"
12492 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments"
12493 \*(UA needs to learn about MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions)
12494 media types in order to classify message and attachment content.
12495 One source for them are
12497 files, the loading of which can be controlled by setting the variable
12498 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
12499 Another is the command
12501 which also offers access to \*(UAs MIME type cache.
12503 files have the following syntax:
12505 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12506 type/subtype extension [extension ...]
12507 # E.g., text/html html htm
12513 define the MIME media type, as standardized in RFC 2046:
12515 is used to declare the general type of data, while the
12517 specifies a specific format for that type of data.
12518 One or multiple filename
12520 s, separated by whitespace, can be bound to the media type format.
12521 Comments may be introduced anywhere on a line with a number sign
12523 causing the remaining line to be discarded.
12525 \*(UA also supports an extended, non-portable syntax in especially
12526 crafted files, which can be loaded via the alternative value syntax of
12527 .Va mimetypes-load-control ,
12528 and prepends an optional
12532 .Dl [type-marker ]type/subtype extension [extension ...]
12535 The following type markers are supported:
12538 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar _n_u"
12540 Treat message parts with this content as plain text.
12545 Treat message parts with this content as HTML tagsoup.
12546 If the \*(OPal HTML-tagsoup-to-text converter is not available treat
12547 the content as plain text instead.
12551 but instead of falling back to plain text require an explicit content
12552 handler to be defined.
12554 If no handler can be found a text message is displayed which says so.
12555 This can be annoying, for example signatures serve a contextual purpose,
12556 their content is of no use by itself.
12557 This marker will avoid displaying the text message.
12562 for sending messages:
12564 .Va mime-allow-text-controls ,
12565 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
12566 For reading etc. messages:
12567 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ,
12568 .Sx "The Mailcap files" ,
12570 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
12571 .Va mimetypes-load-control ,
12572 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE ,
12573 .Va pipe-EXTENSION .
12576 .\" .Ss "The Mailcap files" {{{
12577 .Ss "The Mailcap files"
12579 .\" TODO MAILCAP DISABLED
12580 .Sy This feature is not available in v14.9.0, sorry!
12582 .Dq User Agent Configuration Mechanism
12583 which \*(UA \*(OPally supports (see
12584 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ) .
12585 It defines a file format to be used to inform mail user agent programs
12586 about the locally-installed facilities for handling various data
12587 formats, i.e., about commands and how they can be used to display, edit
12588 et cetera MIME part contents, as well as a default path search that
12589 includes multiple possible locations of
12593 environment variable that can be used to overwrite that (repeating here
12594 that it is not a search path, but instead a path search specification).
12595 Any existing files will be loaded in sequence, appending any content to
12596 the list of MIME type handler directives.
12600 files consist of a set of newline separated entries.
12601 Comment lines start with a number sign
12603 (in the first column!) and are ignored.
12604 Empty lines are also ignored.
12605 All other lines form individual entries that must adhere to the syntax
12607 To extend a single entry (not comment) its line can be continued on
12608 follow lines if newline characters are
12610 by preceding them with the reverse solidus character
12612 The standard does not specify how leading whitespace of follow lines
12613 is to be treated, therefore \*(UA retains it.
12617 entries consist of a number of semicolon
12619 separated fields, and the reverse solidus
12621 character can be used to escape any following character including
12622 semicolon and itself.
12623 The first two fields are mandatory and must occur in the specified
12624 order, the remaining fields are optional and may appear in any order.
12625 Leading and trailing whitespace of content is ignored (removed).
12628 The first field defines the MIME
12630 the entry is about to handle (case-insensitively, and no reverse solidus
12631 escaping is possible in this field).
12632 If the subtype is specified as an asterisk
12634 the entry is meant to match all subtypes of the named type, e.g.,
12636 would match any audio type.
12637 The second field defines the shell command which shall be used to
12639 MIME parts of the given type; it is implicitly called the
12646 shell commands message (MIME part) data is passed via standard input
12647 unless the given shell command includes one or more instances of the
12650 in which case these instances will be replaced with a temporary filename
12651 and the data will have been stored in the file that is being pointed to.
12654 shell commands data is assumed to be generated on standard output unless
12655 the given command includes (one ore multiple)
12657 In any case any given
12659 format is replaced with a(n already) properly quoted filename.
12660 Note that when a command makes use of a temporary file via
12662 then \*(UA will remove it again, as if the
12663 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile ,
12664 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill
12666 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
12667 flags had been set; see below for more.
12670 The optional fields either define a shell command or an attribute (flag)
12671 value, the latter being a single word and the former being a keyword
12672 naming the field followed by an equals sign
12674 succeeded by a shell command, and as usual for any
12676 content any whitespace surrounding the equals sign will be removed, too.
12677 Optional fields include the following:
12680 .Bl -tag -width ".It Cd BaNg"
12682 A program that can be used to compose a new body or body part in the
12684 (Currently unused.)
12686 .It Cd composetyped
12689 field, but is to be used when the composing program needs to specify the
12691 header field to be applied to the composed data.
12692 (Currently unused.)
12695 A program that can be used to edit a body or body part in the given
12697 (Currently unused.)
12700 A program that can be used to print a message or body part in the given
12702 (Currently unused.)
12705 Specifies a program to be run to test some condition, e.g., the machine
12706 architecture, or the window system in use, to determine whether or not
12707 this mailcap entry applies.
12708 If the test fails, a subsequent mailcap entry should be sought; also see
12709 .Cd x-mailx-test-once .
12712 .It Cd needsterminal
12713 This flag field indicates that the given shell command must be run on
12714 an interactive terminal.
12715 \*(UA will temporarily release the terminal to the given command in
12716 interactive mode, in non-interactive mode this entry will be entirely
12717 ignored; this flag implies
12718 .Cd x-mailx-noquote .
12721 .It Cd copiousoutput
12722 A flag field which indicates that the output of the
12724 command will be an extended stream of textual output that can be
12725 (re)integrated into \*(UA's normal visual display.
12726 It is mutually exclusive with
12727 .Cd needsterminal .
12729 .It Cd textualnewlines
12730 A flag field which indicates that this type of data is line-oriented and
12731 that, if encoded in
12733 all newlines should be converted to canonical form (CRLF) before
12734 encoding, and will be in that form after decoding.
12735 (Currently unused.)
12737 .It Cd nametemplate
12738 This field gives a filename format, in which
12740 will be replaced by a random string, the joined combination of which
12741 will be used as the filename denoted by
12742 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY .
12743 One could specify that a GIF file being passed to an image viewer should
12744 have a name ending in
12747 .Ql nametemplate=%s.gif .
12748 Note that \*(UA ignores the name template unless that solely specifies
12749 a filename suffix that consists of (ASCII) alphabetic and numeric
12750 characters, the underscore and dot only.
12753 Names a file, in X11 bitmap (xbm) format, which points to an appropriate
12754 icon to be used to visually denote the presence of this kind of data.
12755 This field is not used by \*(UA.
12758 A textual description that describes this type of data.
12761 .It Cd x-mailx-even-if-not-interactive
12762 An extension flag test field \(em by default handlers without
12764 are entirely ignored in non-interactive mode, but if this flag is set
12765 then their use will be considered.
12766 It is an error if this flag is set for commands that use the flag
12767 .Cd needsterminal .
12770 .It Cd x-mailx-noquote
12771 An extension flag field that indicates that even a
12774 command shall not be used to generate message quotes
12775 (as it would be by default).
12778 .It Cd x-mailx-async
12779 Extension flag field that denotes that the given
12781 command shall be executed asynchronously, without blocking \*(UA.
12782 Cannot be used in conjunction with
12783 .Cd needsterminal .
12786 .It Cd x-mailx-test-once
12787 Extension flag which denotes whether the given
12789 command shall be evaluated once only and the (boolean) result be cached.
12790 This is handy if some global unchanging condition is to be queried, like
12791 .Dq running under the X Window System .
12794 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile
12795 Extension flag field that requests creation of a zero-sized temporary
12796 file, the name of which is to be placed in the environment variable
12797 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY .
12798 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
12803 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill
12804 Normally the MIME part content is passed to the handler via standard
12805 input; if this flag is set then the data will instead be written into
12807 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile .
12808 In order to cause deletion of the temporary file you will have to set
12809 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
12811 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
12816 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
12817 Extension flag field that requests that the temporary file shall be
12818 deleted automatically when the command loop is entered again at latest.
12819 (Do not use this for asynchronous handlers.)
12820 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
12822 format, or in conjunction with
12823 .Cd x-mailx-async ,
12824 or without also setting
12825 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile
12827 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill .
12830 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-keep
12833 implies the three tmpfile related flags above, but if you want, e.g.,
12835 and deal with the temporary file yourself, you can add in this flag to
12837 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink .
12842 The standard includes the possibility to define any number of additional
12843 entry fields, prefixed by
12845 Flag fields apply to the entire
12847 entry \(em in some unusual cases, this may not be desirable, but
12848 differentiation can be accomplished via separate entries, taking
12849 advantage of the fact that subsequent entries are searched if an earlier
12850 one does not provide enough information.
12853 command needs to specify the
12857 command shall not, the following will help out the latter (with enabled
12861 level \*(UA will show information about handler evaluation):
12863 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12864 application/postscript; ps-to-terminal %s; needsterminal
12865 application/postscript; ps-to-terminal %s; compose=idraw %s
12869 In fields any occurrence of the format string
12871 will be replaced by the
12874 Named parameters from the
12876 field may be placed in the command execution line using
12878 followed by the parameter name and a closing
12881 The entire parameter should appear as a single command line argument,
12882 regardless of embedded spaces; thus:
12884 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12886 Content-type: multipart/mixed; boundary=42
12889 multipart/*; /usr/local/bin/showmulti \e
12890 %t %{boundary} ; composetyped = /usr/local/bin/makemulti
12892 # Executed shell command
12893 /usr/local/bin/showmulti multipart/mixed 42
12897 .\" TODO v15: Mailcap: %n,%F
12898 Note that \*(UA does not support handlers for multipart MIME parts as
12899 shown in this example (as of today).
12900 \*(UA does not support the additional formats
12904 An example file, also showing how to properly deal with the expansion of
12906 which includes any quotes that are necessary to make it a valid shell
12907 argument by itself and thus will cause undesired behaviour when placed
12908 in additional user-provided quotes:
12910 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12912 text/richtext; richtext %s; copiousoutput
12914 text/x-perl; perl -cWT %s
12916 application/pdf; \e
12918 trap "rm -f ${infile}" EXIT\e; \e
12919 trap "exit 75" INT QUIT TERM\e; \e
12921 x-mailx-async; x-mailx-tmpfile-keep
12923 application/*; echo "This is \e"%t\e" but \e
12924 is 50 \e% Greek to me" \e; < %s head -c 1024 | cat -vET; \e
12925 copiousoutput; x-mailx-noquote
12930 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ,
12931 .Sx "The mime.types files" ,
12934 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
12935 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE ,
12936 .Va pipe-EXTENSION .
12939 .\" .Ss "The .netrc file" {{{
12940 .Ss "The .netrc file"
12944 file contains user credentials for machine accounts.
12945 The default location in the user's
12947 directory may be overridden by the
12949 environment variable.
12950 The file consists of space, tabulator or newline separated tokens.
12951 \*(UA implements a parser that supports a superset of the original BSD
12952 syntax, but users should nonetheless be aware of portability glitches
12953 of that file format, shall their
12955 be usable across multiple programs and platforms:
12958 .Bl -bullet -compact
12960 BSD does not support single, but only double quotation marks, e.g.,
12961 .Ql password="pass with spaces" .
12963 BSD (only?) supports escaping of single characters via a reverse solidus
12964 (e.g., a space can be escaped via
12966 in- as well as outside of a quoted string.
12968 BSD does not require a final quotation mark of the last user input token.
12970 The original BSD (Berknet) parser also supported a format which allowed
12971 tokens to be separated with commas \(en whereas at least Hewlett-Packard
12972 still seems to support this syntax, \*(UA does not!
12974 As a non-portable extension some widely-used programs support
12975 shell-style comments: if an input line starts, after any amount of
12976 whitespace, with a number sign
12978 then the rest of the line is ignored.
12980 Whereas other programs may require that the
12982 file is accessible by only the user if it contains a
12984 token for any other
12988 \*(UA will always require these strict permissions.
12992 Of the following list of supported tokens \*(UA only uses (and caches)
12997 At runtime the command
12999 can be used to control \*(UA's
13003 .Bl -tag -width ".It Cd BaNg"
13004 .It Cd machine Ar name
13005 The hostname of the entries' machine, lowercase-normalized by \*(UA
13007 Any further file content, until either end-of-file or the occurrence
13012 first-class token is bound (only related) to the machine
13015 As an extension that should not be the cause of any worries
13016 \*(UA supports a single wildcard prefix for
13018 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13019 machine *.example.com login USER password PASS
13020 machine pop3.example.com login USER password PASS
13021 machine smtp.example.com login USER password PASS
13027 .Ql pop3.example.com ,
13031 .Ql local.smtp.example.com .
13032 Note that in the example neither
13033 .Ql pop3.example.com
13035 .Ql smtp.example.com
13036 will be matched by the wildcard, since the exact matches take
13037 precedence (it is however faster to specify it the other way around).
13040 This is the same as
13042 except that it is a fallback entry that is used shall none of the
13043 specified machines match; only one default token may be specified,
13044 and it must be the last first-class token.
13046 .It Cd login Ar name
13047 The user name on the remote machine.
13049 .It Cd password Ar string
13050 The user's password on the remote machine.
13052 .It Cd account Ar string
13053 Supply an additional account password.
13054 This is merely for FTP purposes.
13056 .It Cd macdef Ar name
13058 A macro is defined with the specified
13060 it is formed from all lines beginning with the next line and continuing
13061 until a blank line is (consecutive newline characters are) encountered.
13064 entries cannot be utilized by multiple machines, too, but must be
13065 defined following the
13067 they are intended to be used with.)
13070 exists, it is automatically run as the last step of the login process.
13071 This is merely for FTP purposes.
13078 .\" .Sh EXAMPLES {{{
13081 .\" .Ss "An example configuration" {{{
13082 .Ss "An example configuration"
13084 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13085 # This example assumes v15.0 compatibility mode
13088 # Request strict SSL/TLS transport security checks
13089 set ssl-verify=strict
13091 # Where are the up-to-date SSL/TLS certificates?
13092 # (Since we manage up-to-date ones explicitly, do not use any,
13093 # possibly outdated, default certificates shipped with OpenSSL)
13094 #set ssl-ca-dir=/etc/ssl/certs
13095 set ssl-ca-file=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
13096 set ssl-ca-no-defaults
13097 #set ssl-ca-flags=partial-chain
13098 wysh set smime-ca-file="${ssl-ca-file}" \e
13099 smime-ca-no-defaults #smime-ca-flags="${ssl-ca-flags}"
13101 # This could be outsourced to a central configuration file via
13102 # ssl-config-file plus ssl-config-module if the used library allows.
13103 # CipherList: explicitly define the list of ciphers, which may
13104 # improve security, especially with protocols older than TLS v1.2.
13105 # See ciphers(1). Possibly best to only use ssl-cipher-list-HOST
13106 # (or -USER@HOST), as necessary, again..
13107 # Curves: especially with TLSv1.3 curves selection may be desired.
13108 # MinProtocol,MaxProtocol: do not use protocols older than TLS v1.2.
13109 # Change this only when the remote server does not support it:
13110 # maybe use chain support via ssl-config-pairs-HOST / -USER@HOST
13111 # to define such explicit exceptions, then, e.g.
13112 # MinProtocol=TLSv1.1
13113 if [ "$ssl-features" =% +ctx-set-maxmin-proto ]
13114 wysh set ssl-config-pairs='\e
13115 CipherList=TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:@STRENGTH,\e
13116 Curves=P-521:P-384:P-256,\e
13117 MinProtocol=TLSv1.1'
13119 wysh set ssl-config-pairs='\e
13120 CipherList=TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:@STRENGTH,\e
13121 Curves=P-521:P-384:P-256,\e
13122 Protocol=-ALL\e,+TLSv1.1 \e, +TLSv1.2'
13125 # Essential setting: select allowed character sets
13126 set sendcharsets=utf-8,iso-8859-1
13128 # A very kind option: when replying to a message, first try to
13129 # use the same encoding that the original poster used herself!
13130 set reply-in-same-charset
13132 # When replying, do not merge From: and To: of the original message
13133 # into To:. Instead old From: -> new To:, old To: -> merge Cc:.
13134 set recipients-in-cc
13136 # When sending messages, wait until the Mail-Transfer-Agent finishs.
13137 # Only like this you will be able to see errors reported through the
13138 # exit status of the MTA (including the built-in SMTP one)!
13141 # Only use built-in MIME types, no mime.types(5) files
13142 set mimetypes-load-control
13144 # Default directory where we act in (relative to $HOME)
13146 # A leading "+" (often) means: under *folder*
13147 # *record* is used to save copies of sent messages
13148 set MBOX=+mbox.mbox DEAD=+dead.txt \e
13149 record=+sent.mbox record-files record-resent
13151 # Make "file mymbox" and "file myrec" go to..
13152 shortcut mymbox %:+mbox.mbox myrec +sent.mbox
13154 # Not really optional, e.g., for S/MIME
13155 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
13157 # It may be necessary to set hostname and/or smtp-hostname
13158 # if the "SERVER" of mta and "domain" of from do not match.
13159 # The `urlencode' command can be used to encode USER and PASS
13160 set mta=(smtps?|submission)://[USER[:PASS]@]SERVER[:PORT] \e
13161 smtp-auth=login/plain... \e
13164 # Never refuse to start into interactive mode, and more
13166 colour-pager crt= \e
13167 followup-to followup-to-honour=ask-yes fullnames \e
13168 history-file=+.\*(uAhist history-size=-1 history-gabby \e
13169 mime-counter-evidence=0b1111 \e
13170 prompt='?\e$?!\e$!/\e$^ERRNAME[\e$account#\e$mailbox-display]? ' \e
13171 reply-to-honour=ask-yes \e
13174 # Only include the selected header fields when typing messages
13175 headerpick type retain from_ date from to cc subject \e
13176 message-id mail-followup-to reply-to
13177 # ...when forwarding messages
13178 headerpick forward retain subject date from to cc
13179 # ...when saving message, etc.
13180 #headerpick save ignore ^Original-.*$ ^X-.*$
13182 # Some mailing lists
13183 mlist '@xyz-editor\e.xyz$' '@xyzf\e.xyz$'
13184 mlsubscribe '^xfans@xfans\e.xyz$'
13186 # Handle a few file extensions (to store MBOX databases)
13187 filetype bz2 'bzip2 -dc' 'bzip2 -zc' \e
13188 gz 'gzip -dc' 'gzip -c' xz 'xz -dc' 'xz -zc' \e
13189 zst 'zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc' \e
13190 zst.pgp 'gpg -d | zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc | gpg -e'
13192 # A real life example of a very huge free mail provider
13193 # Instead of directly placing content inside `account',
13194 # we `define' a macro: like that we can switch "accounts"
13195 # from within *on-compose-splice*, for example!
13197 set folder=~/spool/XooglX inbox=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
13198 set from='Your Name <address@examp.ple>'
13200 set pop3-no-apop-pop.gmXil.com
13201 shortcut pop %:pop3s://pop.gmXil.com
13202 shortcut imap %:imaps://imap.gmXil.com
13203 #set record="+[Gmail]/Sent Mail"
13204 # Select: File imaps://imap.gmXil.com/[Gmail]/Sent\e Mail
13206 set mta=smtp://USER:PASS@smtp.gmXil.com smtp-use-starttls
13208 set mta=smtps://USER:PASS@smtp.gmail.com:465
13214 # Here is a pretty large one which does not allow sending mails
13215 # if there is a domain name mismatch on the SMTP protocol level,
13216 # which would bite us if the value of from does not match, e.g.,
13217 # for people who have a sXXXXeforge project and want to speak
13218 # with the mailing list under their project account (in from),
13219 # still sending the message through their normal mail provider
13221 set folder=~/spool/XandeX inbox=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
13222 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
13224 shortcut pop %:pop3s://pop.yaXXex.com
13225 shortcut imap %:imaps://imap.yaXXex.com
13227 set mta=smtps://USER:PASS@smtp.yaXXex.com:465 \e
13228 hostname=yaXXex.com smtp-hostname=
13234 # Create some new commands so that, e.g., `ls /tmp' will..
13235 commandalias lls '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFlrS'
13236 commandalias llS '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFlS'
13238 wysh set pipe-message/external-body='@* echo $MAILX_EXTERNAL_BODY_URL'
13240 # We do not support gpg(1) directly yet. But simple --clearsign'd
13241 # message parts can be dealt with as follows:
13244 wysh set pipe-text/plain=$'@*#++=@\e
13245 < "${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}" awk \e
13246 -v TMPFILE="${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}" \e'\e
13248 /^-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----/,/^$/ {\e
13251 print "--- GPG --verify ---";\e
13252 system("gpg --verify " TMPFILE " 2>&1");\e
13253 print "--- GPG --verify ---";\e
13257 /^-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----/,\e
13258 /^-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----/{\e
13265 commandalias V '\e'call V
13269 When storing passwords in
13271 appropriate permissions should be set on this file with
13272 .Ql $ chmod 0600 \*(ur .
13275 is available user credentials can be stored in the central
13277 file instead; e.g., here is a different version of the example account
13278 that sets up SMTP and POP3:
13280 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13282 set folder=~/spool/XandeX inbox=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
13283 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
13285 # Load an encrypted ~/.netrc by uncommenting the next line
13286 #set netrc-pipe='gpg -qd ~/.netrc.pgp'
13288 set mta=smtps://smtp.yXXXXx.ru:465 \e
13289 smtp-hostname= hostname=yXXXXx.com
13290 set pop3-keepalive=240 pop3-no-apop-pop.yXXXXx.ru
13291 commandalias xp fi pop3s://pop.yXXXXx.ru
13303 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13304 machine *.yXXXXx.ru login USER password PASS
13308 This configuration should now work just fine:
13311 .Dl $ echo text | \*(uA -dvv -AXandeX -s Subject user@exam.ple
13314 .\" .Ss "S/MIME step by step" {{{
13315 .Ss "S/MIME step by step"
13317 \*(OP The first thing you need for participating in S/MIME message
13318 exchange is your personal certificate, including a private key.
13319 The certificate contains public information, in particular your name and
13320 your email address(es), and the public key that is used by others to
13321 encrypt messages for you,
13322 and to verify signed messages they supposedly received from you.
13323 The certificate is included in each signed message you send.
13324 The private key must be kept secret.
13325 It is used to decrypt messages that were previously encrypted with your
13326 public key, and to sign messages.
13329 For personal use it is recommended that you get a S/MIME certificate
13330 from one of the major CAs on the Internet using your WWW browser.
13331 Many CAs offer such certificates for free.
13333 .Lk https://www.CAcert.org
13334 which issues client and server certificates to members of their
13335 community for free; their root certificate
13336 .Pf ( Lk https://\:www.cacert.org/\:certs/\:root.crt )
13337 is often not in the default set of trusted CA root certificates, though,
13338 which means you will have to download their root certificate separately
13339 and ensure it is part of our S/MIME certificate validation chain by
13342 or as a vivid member of the
13343 .Va smime-ca-file .
13344 But let us take a step-by-step tour on how to setup S/MIME with
13345 a certificate from CAcert.org despite this situation!
13348 First of all you will have to become a member of the CAcert.org
13349 community, simply by registrating yourself via the web interface.
13350 Once you are, create and verify all email addresses you want to be able
13351 to create signed and encrypted messages for/with using the corresponding
13352 entries of the web interface.
13353 Now ready to create S/MIME certificates, so let us create a new
13354 .Dq client certificate ,
13355 ensure to include all email addresses that should be covered by the
13356 certificate in the following web form, and also to use your name as the
13360 Create a private key and a certificate request on your local computer
13361 (please see the manual pages of the used commands for more in-depth
13362 knowledge on what the used arguments etc. do):
13365 .Dl $ openssl req -nodes -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout key.pem -out creq.pem
13368 Afterwards copy-and-paste the content of
13370 into the certificate-request (CSR) field of the web form on the
13371 CAcert.org website (you may need to unfold some
13372 .Dq advanced options
13373 to see the corresponding text field).
13374 This last step will ensure that your private key (which never left your
13375 box) and the certificate belong together (through the public key that
13376 will find its way into the certificate via the certificate-request).
13377 You are now ready and can create your CAcert certified certificate.
13378 Download and store or copy-and-paste it as
13383 In order to use your new S/MIME setup a combined private key/public key
13384 (certificate) file has to be created:
13387 .Dl $ cat key.pem pub.crt > ME@HERE.com.paired
13390 This is the file \*(UA will work with.
13391 If you have created your private key with a passphrase then \*(UA will
13392 ask you for it whenever a message is signed or decrypted.
13393 Set the following variables to henceforth use S/MIME (setting
13395 is of interest for verification only):
13397 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13398 ? set smime-ca-file=ALL-TRUSTED-ROOT-CERTS-HERE \e
13399 smime-sign-cert=ME@HERE.com.paired \e
13400 smime-sign-message-digest=SHA256 \e
13406 .\" .Ss "Using CRLs with S/MIME or SSL/TLS" {{{
13407 .Ss "Using CRLs with S/MIME or SSL/TLS"
13409 \*(OP Certification authorities (CAs) issue certificate revocation
13410 lists (CRLs) on a regular basis.
13411 These lists contain the serial numbers of certificates that have been
13412 declared invalid after they have been issued.
13413 Such usually happens because the private key for the certificate has
13415 because the owner of the certificate has left the organization that is
13416 mentioned in the certificate, etc.
13417 To seriously use S/MIME or SSL/TLS verification,
13418 an up-to-date CRL is required for each trusted CA.
13419 There is otherwise no method to distinguish between valid and
13420 invalidated certificates.
13421 \*(UA currently offers no mechanism to fetch CRLs, nor to access them on
13422 the Internet, so they have to be retrieved by some external mechanism.
13425 \*(UA accepts CRLs in PEM format only;
13426 CRLs in DER format must be converted, like, e.\|g.:
13429 .Dl $ openssl crl \-inform DER \-in crl.der \-out crl.pem
13432 To tell \*(UA about the CRLs, a directory that contains all CRL files
13433 (and no other files) must be created.
13438 variables, respectively, must then be set to point to that directory.
13439 After that, \*(UA requires a CRL to be present for each CA that is used
13440 to verify a certificate.
13449 In general it is a good idea to turn on
13455 twice) if something does not work well.
13456 Very often a diagnostic message can be produced that leads to the
13457 problems' solution.
13459 .\" .Ss "\*(UA shortly hangs on startup" {{{
13460 .Ss "\*(UA shortly hangs on startup"
13462 This can have two reasons, one is the necessity to wait for a file lock
13463 and cannot be helped, the other being that \*(UA calls the function
13465 in order to query the nodename of the box (sometimes the real one is
13466 needed instead of the one represented by the internal variable
13468 One may have varying success by ensuring that the real hostname and
13472 or, more generally, that the name service is properly setup \(en
13475 return the expected value?
13476 Does this local hostname have a domain suffix?
13477 RFC 6762 standardized the link-local top-level domain
13479 try again after adding an (additional) entry with this extension.
13482 .\" .Ss "I cannot login to Google mail aka GMail" {{{
13483 .Ss "I cannot login to Google mail aka GMail"
13485 Since 2014 some free service providers classify programs as
13487 unless they use a special authentification method (OAuth 2.0) which
13488 was not standardized for non-HTTP protocol authentication token query
13489 until August 2015 (RFC 7628).
13492 Different to Kerberos / GSSAPI, which is developed since the mid of the
13493 1980s, where a user can easily create a local authentication ticket for
13494 her- and himself with the locally installed
13496 program, that protocol has no such local part but instead requires
13497 a world-wide-web query to create or fetch a token; since there is no
13498 local cache this query would have to be performed whenever \*(UA is
13499 invoked (in interactive sessions situation may differ).
13502 \*(UA does not support OAuth.
13503 Because of this it is necessary to declare \*(UA a
13504 .Dq less secure app
13505 (on the providers account web page) in order to read and send mail.
13506 However, it also seems possible to take the following steps instead:
13511 give the provider the number of a mobile phone,
13514 .Dq 2-Step Verification ,
13516 create an application specific password (16 characters), and
13518 use that special password instead of the real Google account password in
13519 \*(UA (for more on that see the section
13520 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) .
13524 .\" .Ss "Not \(dqdefunctional\(dq, but the editor key does not work" {{{
13525 .Ss "Not \(dqdefunctional\(dq, but the editor key does not work"
13527 It can happen that the terminal library (see
13528 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor",
13531 reports different codes than the terminal really sends, in which case
13532 \*(UA will tell that a key binding is functional, but will not be able to
13533 recognize it because the received data does not match anything expected.
13534 Especially without the \*(OPal terminal capability library support one
13535 reason for this may be that the (possibly even non-existing) keypad
13536 is not turned on and the resulting layout reports the keypad control
13537 codes for the normal keyboard keys.
13542 ings will show the byte sequences that are expected.
13545 To overcome the situation, use, e.g., the program
13547 in conjunction with the command line option
13549 if available, to see the byte sequences which are actually produced
13550 by keypresses, and use the variable
13552 to make \*(UA aware of them.
13553 E.g., the terminal this is typed on produces some false sequences, here
13554 an example showing the shifted home key:
13556 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13559 # 1B 5B=[ 31=1 3B=; 32=2 48=H
13564 ? \*(uA -v -Stermcap='kHOM=\eE[H'
13571 .\" .Ss "Can \*(UA git-send-email?" {{{
13572 .Ss "Can \*(UA git-send-email?"
13575 Put (at least parts of) the following in your
13578 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13580 smtpserver = /usr/bin/s-mailx
13581 smtpserveroption = -t
13582 #smtpserveroption = -Sexpandaddr
13583 smtpserveroption = -Athe-account-you-need
13586 suppressfrom = false
13587 assume8bitEncoding = UTF-8
13590 chainreplyto = true
13601 .\" .Sh "IMAP CLIENT" {{{
13604 \*(OPally there is IMAP client support available.
13605 This part of the program is obsolete and will vanish in v15 with the
13606 large MIME and I/O layer rewrite, because it uses old-style blocking I/O
13607 and makes excessive use of signal based long code jumps.
13608 Support can hopefully be readded later based on a new-style I/O, with
13609 SysV signal handling.
13610 In fact the IMAP support had already been removed from the codebase, but
13611 was reinstantiated on user demand: in effect the IMAP code is at the
13612 level of \*(UA v14.8.16 (with
13614 being the sole exception), and should be treated with some care.
13621 protocol prefixes, and an IMAP-based
13624 IMAP URLs (paths) undergo inspections and possible transformations
13625 before use (and the command
13627 can be used to manually apply them to any given argument).
13628 Hierarchy delimiters are normalized, a step which is configurable via the
13630 variable chain, but defaults to the first seen delimiter otherwise.
13631 \*(UA supports internationalised IMAP names, and en- and decodes the
13632 names from and to the
13634 as necessary and possible.
13635 If a mailbox name is expanded (see
13636 .Sx "Filename transformations" )
13637 to an IMAP mailbox, all names that begin with `+' then refer to IMAP
13638 mailboxes below the
13640 target box, while folder names prefixed by `@' refer to folders below
13641 the hierarchy base, e.g., the following lists all folders below the
13642 current one when in an IMAP mailbox:
13646 Note: some IMAP servers do not accept the creation of mailboxes in
13647 the hierarchy base, but require that they are created as subfolders of
13648 `INBOX' \(en with such servers a folder name of the form
13650 .Dl imaps://mylogin@imap.myisp.example/INBOX.
13652 should be used (the last character is the server's hierarchy
13654 The following IMAP-specific commands exist:
13657 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ic BaNg"
13660 Only applicable to cached IMAP mailboxes;
13661 takes a message list and reads the specified messages into the IMAP
13666 If operating in disconnected mode on an IMAP mailbox,
13667 switch to online mode and connect to the mail server while retaining
13668 the mailbox status.
13669 See the description of the
13671 variable for more information.
13675 If operating in online mode on an IMAP mailbox,
13676 switch to disconnected mode while retaining the mailbox status.
13677 See the description of the
13680 A list of messages may optionally be given as argument;
13681 the respective messages are then read into the cache before the
13682 connection is closed, thus
13684 makes the entire mailbox available for disconnected use.
13688 Sends command strings directly to the current IMAP server.
13689 \*(UA operates always in IMAP `selected state' on the current mailbox;
13690 commands that change this will produce undesirable results and should be
13692 Useful IMAP commands are:
13693 .Bl -tag -offset indent -width ".Ic getquotearoot"
13695 Takes the name of an IMAP mailbox as an argument and creates it.
13697 (RFC 2087) Takes the name of an IMAP mailbox as an argument
13698 and prints the quotas that apply to the mailbox.
13699 Not all IMAP servers support this command.
13701 (RFC 2342) Takes no arguments and prints the Personal Namespaces,
13702 the Other User's Namespaces and the Shared Namespaces.
13703 Each namespace type is printed in parentheses;
13704 if there are multiple namespaces of the same type,
13705 inner parentheses separate them.
13706 For each namespace a prefix and a hierarchy separator is listed.
13707 Not all IMAP servers support this command.
13712 Perform IMAP path transformations.
13716 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) ,
13717 and manages the error number
13719 The first argument specifies the operation:
13721 normalizes hierarchy delimiters (see
13723 and converts the strings from the locale
13725 to the internationalized variant used by IMAP,
13727 performs the reverse operation.
13732 The following IMAP-specific internal variables exist:
13735 .Bl -tag -width ".It Va BaNg"
13737 .It Va disconnected
13738 \*(BO When an IMAP mailbox is selected and this variable is set,
13739 no connection to the server is initiated.
13740 Instead, data is obtained from the local cache (see
13743 Mailboxes that are not present in the cache
13744 and messages that have not yet entirely been fetched from the server
13746 to fetch all messages in a mailbox at once,
13748 .No ` Ns Li copy * /dev/null Ns '
13749 can be used while still in connected mode.
13750 Changes that are made to IMAP mailboxes in disconnected mode are queued
13751 and committed later when a connection to that server is made.
13752 This procedure is not completely reliable since it cannot be guaranteed
13753 that the IMAP unique identifiers (UIDs) on the server still match the
13754 ones in the cache at that time.
13757 when this problem occurs.
13759 .It Va disconnected-USER@HOST
13760 The specified account is handled as described for the
13763 but other accounts are not affected.
13766 .It Va imap-auth-USER@HOST , imap-auth
13767 Sets the IMAP authentication method.
13768 Valid values are `login' for the usual password-based authentication
13770 `cram-md5', which is a password-based authentication that does not send
13771 the password over the network in clear text,
13772 and `gssapi' for GSS-API based authentication.
13776 Enables caching of IMAP mailboxes.
13777 The value of this variable must point to a directory that is either
13778 existent or can be created by \*(UA.
13779 All contents of the cache can be deleted by \*(UA at any time;
13780 it is not safe to make assumptions about them.
13783 .It Va imap-delim-USER@HOST , imap-delim-HOST , imap-delim
13784 The hierarchy separator used by the IMAP server.
13785 Whenever an IMAP path is specified it will undergo normalization.
13786 One of the normalization steps is the squeezing and adjustment of
13787 hierarchy separators.
13788 If this variable is set, any occurrence of any character of the given
13789 value that exists in the path will be replaced by the first member of
13790 the value; an empty value will cause the default to be used, it is
13792 If not set, we will reuse the first hierarchy separator character that
13793 is discovered in a user-given mailbox name.
13795 .Mx Va imap-keepalive
13796 .It Va imap-keepalive-USER@HOST , imap-keepalive-HOST , imap-keepalive
13797 IMAP servers may close the connection after a period of
13798 inactivity; the standard requires this to be at least 30 minutes,
13799 but practical experience may vary.
13800 Setting this variable to a numeric `value' greater than 0 causes
13801 a `NOOP' command to be sent each `value' seconds if no other operation
13805 .It Va imap-list-depth
13806 When retrieving the list of folders on an IMAP server, the
13808 command stops after it has reached a certain depth to avoid possible
13810 The value of this variable sets the maximum depth allowed.
13812 If the folder separator on the current IMAP server is a slash `/',
13813 this variable has no effect and the
13815 command does not descend to subfolders.
13817 .Mx Va imap-use-starttls
13818 .It Va imap-use-starttls-USER@HOST , imap-use-starttls-HOST , imap-use-starttls
13819 Causes \*(UA to issue a `STARTTLS' command to make an unencrypted
13820 IMAP session SSL/TLS encrypted.
13821 This functionality is not supported by all servers,
13822 and is not used if the session is already encrypted by the IMAPS method.
13828 .\" .Sh "SEE ALSO" {{{
13838 .Xr spamassassin 1 ,
13847 .Xr mailwrapper 8 ,
13853 .\" .Sh HISTORY {{{
13856 M. Douglas McIlroy writes in his article
13857 .Dq A Research UNIX Reader: Annotated Excerpts \
13858 from the Programmer's Manual, 1971-1986
13861 command already appeared in First Edition
13865 .Bd -ragged -offset indent
13866 Electronic mail was there from the start.
13867 Never satisfied with its exact behavior, everybody touched it at one
13868 time or another: to assure the safety of simultaneous access, to improve
13869 privacy, to survive crashes, to exploit uucp, to screen out foreign
13870 freeloaders, or whatever.
13871 Not until v7 did the interface change (Thompson).
13872 Later, as mail became global in its reach, Dave Presotto took charge and
13873 brought order to communications with a grab-bag of external networks
13879 Mail was written in 1978 by Kurt Shoens and developed as part of the
13882 distribution until 1995.
13883 Mail has then seen further development in open source
13885 variants, noticeably by Christos Zoulas in
13887 Based upon this Nail, later Heirloom Mailx, was developed by Gunnar
13888 Ritter in the years 2000 until 2008.
13889 Since 2012 S-nail is maintained by Steffen (Daode) Nurpmeso.
13890 This man page is derived from
13891 .Dq The Mail Reference Manual
13892 that was originally written by Kurt Shoens.
13900 .An "Kurt Shoens" ,
13901 .An "Edward Wang" ,
13902 .An "Keith Bostic" ,
13903 .An "Christos Zoulas" ,
13904 .An "Gunnar Ritter" .
13905 \*(UA is developed by
13906 .An "Steffen Nurpmeso" Aq steffen@sdaoden.eu .
13909 .\" .Sh CAVEATS {{{
13912 \*(ID Interrupting an operation via
13916 from anywhere else but a command prompt is very problematic and likely
13917 to leave the program in an undefined state: many library functions
13918 cannot deal with the
13920 that this software (still) performs; even though efforts have been taken
13921 to address this, no sooner but in v15 it will have been worked out:
13922 interruptions have not been disabled in order to allow forceful breakage
13923 of hanging network connections, for example (all this is unrelated to
13927 The SMTP and POP3 protocol support of \*(UA is very basic.
13928 Also, if it fails to contact its upstream SMTP server, it will not make
13929 further attempts to transfer the message at a later time (setting
13934 If this is a concern, it might be better to set up a local SMTP server
13935 that is capable of message queuing.
13942 After deleting some message of a POP3 mailbox the header summary falsely
13943 claims that there are no messages to display, one needs to perform
13944 a scroll or dot movement to restore proper state.
13946 In threaded display a power user may encounter crashes very
13947 occasionally (this is may and very).
13951 in the source repository lists future directions.
13954 Please report bugs to the
13956 address, e.g., from within \*(uA:
13957 .\" v15-compat: drop eval as `mail' will expand variable?
13958 .Ql ? Ns \| Ic eval Ns \| Ic mail Ns \| $contact-mail .
13959 More information is available on the web:
13960 .Ql $ \*(uA -X 'echo Ns \| $ Ns Va contact-web Ns ' -Xx .